Thanks Kerri and Paul, you are right we really want to get out there.
There is still a couple of weeks worth of work to do with the solar, and power system. Then a few short trips, hopefully Greens at Easter, then a longer trip in the winter.
David you must be very pleased with the van. The build quality apparent in the pics shows you chose a quality company to build it. All the best with the final fit out.
Alan
I was just thinking to myself I must contact you to ask if you had the van and noticed this post. It looks great David. I am sure you are looking forward to lots of wonderful times in it. I love the layout.
Thanks Mike, we love it, and when I saw teh photos of your van a couple of weeks ago, just became more excited to ours. It is every bit as nice as we imagined.
On the electrical front we deleted the roof top air con, and the standard solar panel. The factory fitted a more efficient split system air con on the back bumper, and we will fill the roof with 12 new light weight 100W solar panels.
The 12V system in the van remains standard, the solar will be connected to a 200ah 24 volt battery system, that in turn feeds back into the van through a 1,600W inverter charger (works like a UPS).
Our inverter may not be big enough, but otherwise I believe we will have too much power, if I had known back at the beginning what I know now, I would have built a simpler system half the size. But it is better to have too much rather than too little, especially with an all electric fridge.
Thanks Mike, we love it, and when I saw teh photos of your van a couple of weeks ago, just became more excited to ours. It is every bit as nice as we imagined.
On the electrical front we deleted the roof top air con, and the standard solar panel. The factory fitted a more efficient split system air con on the back bumper, and we will fill the roof with 12 new light weight 100W solar panels. Sounds good we would do the same with aircon if we ahd the chance.
The 12V system in the van remains standard, the solar will be connected to a 200ah 24 volt battery system, that in turn feeds back into the van through a 1,600W inverter charger (works like a UPS).
Our inverter may not be big enough, but otherwise I believe we will have too much power, Never too much I can tell you if I had known back at the beginning what I know now, I would have built a simpler system half the size. But it is better to have too much rather than too little, especially with an all electric fridge. We have 480w of panels @ 12v and 400Ah of batteries and we have used it well over 7 years (only replaced 1 battery so far) but this capacity saves running the genny, manty many times.
Enjoy
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Why is it so? Professor Julius Sumner Miller, a profound influence on my life, who explained science to us on TV in the 60's.
That sounds like a great power setup, David. You will have no problems freedom camping with that. I wondered why the spare wheel was on the front... Now I know.
I like the red trimming too. We chose the same cupboard finish as you and a black backboard. Both look wonderful. Retreat really know how to do it well. While it is still in the yard get them to check the drawer fittings. We found that 4 of ours had the screws pulled out and I had to glue and fill them and re-screw the press latches.
I hope we can catch up on the road someday... I am considering a few days at Greens soon. As I indicated I'm my pm our long trip was dependent on my wife's health... Well it is now certain the long trip is off so we plan to do short trips to fit her into her treatments.
-- Edited by revemike on Sunday 16th of March 2014 10:29:46 PM
