Continuing on from the previous blog on my 3 week in progress on the van build.
Next thing I did was line the back of the ply on the side and rear doors with 7mm closed cell foam and some light grey 4 way stretch carpet. This gives me a bit of insulation and soundproofing and makes the interior feel a bit softer.
This is the carpet I used and it comes with enough high temperature contact adhesive for all 10m x 2m, I bought it from Kiravans.
Then I installed a Flettner slimline vent into the roof, this was a tight fit into the gap in-between the bars on the roof rack. however it fits nice and does not sit above the bars and is well protected by the rack. It spins easily in the wind and will really help control heat and humidity in the van. It should be great for keeping condensation down. As it’s a lease van I can’t cut a massive hole in the roof but one of these vents is allowed fine.
Then I set about running the solar panel wiring through one of the grommets in the roof and under a waterproof cable entry box. With waterproof MC4 solar connectors ready for putting on the panels later.
Buying the right cable, connectors and crimpers made this job easy.
Next was putting a ply sheet on the wall section below the bed where all the electric will be attached. This was 5.5mm hardwood ply. Cut to fit the shape and screwed to the van with self drilling sheet metal screws and some brackets to fix the ply to the bed support as there is no van support behind it at the top.
Then I started on the electrics, It’s a big job which involved routing the wiring through to all the areas it needs to reach. This job was made much easier by buying a custom built loom from Rayne Automotive who provided all the looms and most of the electrical system including 2 x 95AH AGM low profile batteries that fit nicely on the wheel arch box.
This took quite a bit of time to sort, mounting all the equipment to the wall and wiring it all in and testing. The cables look a bit untidy in places but its all correctly fused and I tried to keep all the cable runs as short as possible. Especially the heavier duty cable such a direct connections for batteries, inverter and DC to DC charger which are all capable of handling large amperage. I have these all individually fused or on breakers so I can isolate everything to work on them or safety if there is a short or failure.
I will do a full blog on the electrics once everything is in place.
I then wired up the Victron DC to DC charger, luckily the new Transits have a direct connection point to the battery on the seat base. No need to connect to the battery direct and all with it’s own 60A fuse, though I did put an inline fuse anyway as it was supplied.
I then built and fitted a carpeted control panel from some 9mm hardwood ply and stretch carpet. I then fitted and wired in all the stuff I want displayed and controlled from this panel.
- Light switch for main ceiling lights
- Light switch for above worktop lights
- Control switch panel
- Remote Inverter controller
- Remote solar controller display
- 230v socket
- Heater control panel (not in photo).
I then built and wired up the panel on the opposite side which only has a USB socket and switch for the main lights that will be reachable from the bed.
Finally I fitted the 3 x 120w solar panels to the roof bars using M6 bolts and flat plates. It was fiddly but easy enough and they are bolted on tight and wont move in any wind.
All wired up and connected to the Solar controller inside and charging the batteries.
The remote display on the control panel working perfectly, easy to monitor how much is going to the batteries and what state of charge the batteries are in.
This is as far as I have got in three weeks, I will update on my progress over the next week or so rather than leaving it 3 weeks as it makes the posts too long.
Safe to say I am happy how things are progressing and it’s slowly starting to come together. It’s satisfying building something from scratch and have to learn lots along the way.
Feel free to comment and ask questions.
Awesome van for travel journey, that solar thing is cool!