DIY Campervan Conversion Part 5: Installing a simple 12v electric system
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- čas přidán 25. 08. 2022
- Welcome to our latest video in our DIY campervan conversion build video series.
In todays video Robert shows how we've installed simple 12v electrics into the van. We don't have a charging system in place yet, so it still needs to be charged by a normal car battery charger. However, we should be able to incorporate split charge/solar charging into our system very easily.
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We look forward to seeing you again in our next video.
Thanks
Laura & Robert - Jak na to + styl
I like your project. Good times are ahead for you!
I built a few 12 volt systems myself. We have a 1988 GMC camper van that we bought new 35 years ago with the 5.7 liter engine. I installed a new engine and reworked everything, brakes, driveline, new tires, etc. The van has so much fun family history and gets used regularly for short camping trips in Northern California. I recently added 400 watts of solar panels to the roof, a 300 amp hour lithium battery, 2000 watt inverter, 40 amp solar charge controller. We bring a refrigerator/freezer, all kinds of lighting like an antique floor lamp, a chandelier, table lamps (one is a ship looking like the Titanic), electric toaster, electric coffee maker, small microwave oven, vacuum cleaner, small electric heater. I welded up a clamp and hanger to hang the 6 bulb chandelier over any picnic table and actually powered the wire feed welder using the van's battery/inverter system. I installed an exterior weatherproof electrical outlet, and the van has come in so handy as a mobile power source. Even with heavy usage, the battery rarely goes below 80% overnight. All of the extra lighting has dimmer switches so we don't bother other campers at night. People stop in to chuckle at the chandelier and ask me to try full brightness. 240 watts equivalent in LED bulbs puts out a lot of light!
czcams.com/video/cXQO80MghOU/video.html
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Loving this, Laura is a star! Van looking good.😀
Thank you
Thank you for the help, simplest hookup yet and very helpful for people like me to understand. How do you recharge the batteries?
Hi @ChrisS532, when I 1st set it up, I simply used a car battery charger to recharge. Now I have upgraded to solar panels & a split charge relay to charge them. I’ve had zero issues at all with the system though. Really simple & works great. Just remember to add fuses (I didn’t initially, but I have them now).
Good vlog you will get full use of both batteries if you use the positive of one batterie and negative of the other so they both drain together and charge together my friend. This is not a criticism of your work but I just like to pass on my knowledge to all the best pal
Hi Lennie. Thanks for the reply. I didn’t know that about the battery drain but I’ll swap the terminals around later as it’s only a 2 minute job to do it
Like your input, one thing... don't forget fuses between batteries and output etc !!!! good luck with your build
Yes fuses are 1 thing I admit to not previously knowing much about. But I now know they’re extremely important to prevent short circuits, cables overheating & potentially setting the van on fire. Extremely important things.
@@ourvan.ourway well done that man. good luck with the build.
GREAT VIDEO AS YOU MADE THE HOOK-UP REALLY SIMPLE. THANKS FOR SHARING WE LIKED AND SUBBED YOUR CHANNEL...
Hi there & thanks for the comment as well as the like & sub 😀
One important thing to be aware of (which I wasn’t at the time) is fuses. Always add correctly rated fuses to everything. Otherwise you risk a fire & injury or worse ☠️😢
THANKS FOR THE UPDATE, MY FRIEND! HAPPY 😊😊CAMPING...@@ourvan.ourway
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Should you not be drawing power equally across both batters by attaching cig lighter positive to battery 1 and cig lighter negative to battery 2. Think you could shorten the lengths of your positive and negative cables (make sure same length). Probably worth getting a fuse block and getting it fused properly.
Yes drawing the current from each battery equally was something I didn’t know about at the time until another viewer (Lennie) mentioned it. It’s been swapped over now.
Since this video, I’ve also hooked up a split charge relay system & this is fused
I’ll be modifying the output as we get further on with the van & install lights etc.., my plan is to use the fused blocks I assume you’re referring to. But for now with things like usb phone chargers & low wattage cigarette lighter plug items, hopefully it’ll be fine
I have concerns that you've chosen a battery with calcium-calcium technology. Calcium batteries generally require more charging voltage (14.4 to 14.8 V) and deteriorate rapidly in vehicles which do not provide the required voltage range. Alternators which never reach required voltage range will cause rapid sulfation due to battery never being charged fully and the life of the battery will be severely reduced. It's a year later now,....how are they holding up?
Hi Chris. The batteries are doing great. Initially they were charged with a mains powered battery charger & more recently, we have a split charge relay to top them up while driving.
Hopefully by this weekend I’ll have the solar panel & MPPT charge controller wired up to charge them via sunlight too.
While the lead acid batteries aren’t the best now, they were what was affordable at the time & for the price we paid, they do the job perfectly
nice cool what kinda battery are those is it deep cycle battery how much Amp battery have
@andyjack2368 they’re Lion brand leisure batteries from EuroCarParts here in the U.K. (I’m not sure where you’re from in the world). They’re lead acid 105ah each, so only have about 50% of the rated amps as usable power. But for what we use in the van, this is more than enough for us. It’s literally used for charging our phones, 12v lights & powering our 12v compressor coolbox type fridge.
@@ourvan.ourway am in Toronto Canada i have inverter but battery i need hard to get i have deep cycle battery 12 volt 75A real deep cycle baby
@@andyjack2368 if we had the money, we would get lithium batteries. But unfortunately they’re so expensive. We just can’t afford them right now. Though I did read that lithium batteries aren’t good in the extreme cold so maybe they’d be no good for you in the winter in Canada
Something we were told by one of our viewers is when you take a power feed from the batteries (to our 12v sockets or to your inverter for example) is to hook the positive connection to battery 1 & the negative connection to battery 2. That way it draws the power equally from both batteries