Van refurb

[trout1105]

We have been refurbishing an old pop up van over the last few weeks and I had one look at the annex with all the poles, barwork, ropes canvas and the other stuff and decided stuff that for a joke and fitted an elcheapo Kings 2.5 x 2.5 awning.
A few minutes to set up instead of hours of hard yakka screwing about with the original annex[thumbsupbig]

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[Saitch]

Our van annex has lived in a cupboard since we got the van. I still have the roll out awning attached. An annex is probably OK for permanents or something more than a month's stay.

A waste of space and time otherwise, I reckon.

Have you attached the awning to the van wall and not the roof? Easier to reach, ay.

[trout1105]

Our van annex has lived in a cupboard since we got the van. I still have the roll out awning attached. An annex is probably OK for permanents or something more than a month's stay.

A waste of space and time otherwise, I reckon.

Have you attached the awning to the van wall and not the roof? Easier to reach, ay.

Yep attached to the wall, It would be too high hooked up to the pop up roof .
It is at the same height as the original annex[thumbsupbig]

[BradC]

Horses for courses I suppose. We use my grandfathers van with his original full annexe. Once the van is chocked and leveled, it takes us about 20 minutes to put the full annexe up. Getting it down doesn't take much longer except if it's wet, then a bit of extra wiping required.

It's whatever you're used to I suppose.

Nice job with the awning. Got a pic of it out?

[trout1105]

Horses for courses I suppose. We use my grandfathers van with his original full annexe. Once the van is chocked and leveled, it takes us about 20 minutes to put the full annexe up. Getting it down doesn't take much longer except if it's wet, then a bit of extra wiping required.

It's whatever you're used to I suppose.

Nice job with the awning. Got a pic of it out?

Our first van an antiquated Jaco dove had a full awning and it was an absolute nightmare to errect, The one with this van is verry simmilar.
I had a full annex on the last van and Never used it in the 6 years that we had it, We did however always use the roll out awning.
I have had awnings on the last 4x 4WD's and they usually take 3-5 min to errect and peg down, The one on the van will be no different
I also still have a couple of awning extensions if I feel the need to close in or extend the awning which are fast and easy to add as well[thumbsupbig]

When I fitted the awning to the van I screwed and glued (Sikoflex 252) a backing plate of 10mm PVC to the van and then screwed the awning to that and as I only did it this morning I want to let the sikoflex cure properly before deploying the awning, I will post images in a couple of days of it set up[biggrin]

By using this type of awning I have shaved off better than 50kg in poles and tarps and emptied out the front hatch which is quite a bit of a saving on a piddly little 14f van.

[loanrangie]

Our recently acquired van has a roll out awning and full annex, leaps ahead of the old style sail track annex of my parents van.
I set it up in the front yard and it takes hardly any time.https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20220531/19eff981452172168c20a20669ea5aa3.jpg

[trout1105]

The awning on our Jaco expanda was electric Push a switch and it depolyed, I Do miss it as it was effortless to use.[bigsad]

The solar panels have finally arrived and I will install and wire them up this afternoon or tomorrow and I will be able to do a real time test running the 140l 240v fridge via the inverter.
I ran it for a couple of days with a charger hooked up to the batteries set at 6A and it maintained the batteries at 100% SOC So hopefully the 2x 250w panels will add enough power during the day to run this 24/7 without depleating the batteries too much overnight.

I finished sanding back the floor of the van, painted it and used those vinyl woodgrain tiles to replace the crappy lino flooring.

Still a fair bit of work to do yet as it is a 1978 vintage van and it is showing its age a bit But it is coming along nicely so far[thumbsupbig]

[Pedro_The_Swift]

Our 23' van came with 6 separate bags of canvas/annex.. we've tried to put it up once.. ( as did the original owners by the look of the canvas) but it was all too hard.. I'd probably save 100kgs by selling it and recoup 75% of the front tunnel bin...

[StewG]

Our 18' van only has a roll out awning and no annexe. We've never felt the need for anything more. Even the awning is rarely deployed.

[trout1105]

Images of the awning deployed [thumbsupbig]

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[trout1105]

Solar panels are fitted to the roof and wired up.
The batteries drop to 13.5v when the fridge is running and bounces back to 14.2v in less than a minute when the fridge stops cranking [bigrolf]
I will leave the fridge running overnight and see how much it depletes the batteries.

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[Pedro_The_Swift]

I cant comprehend running a 240v fridge off an inverter off batts powered by solar..
but that could just be the old fart in me not willing to accept change... [tonguewink]

[trout1105]

I cant comprehend running a 240v fridge off an inverter off batts powered by solar..
but that could just be the old fart in me not willing to accept change... [tonguewink]

The fridge is only 140l and it draws about 5A when running, My 40l and 80l 12v friges draw abot 8A for the both of them.
The inverter wastes a bit of power But it is minimal So the 140l 240v fridge is actuality more frugal on power than 120l combined with the two 12v fridges running at the same time [thumbsupbig]

Lots of people run an inverter for their 240v cook tops and coffee machines So why not a 240v fridge[biggrin]

The 3 way fridges I have had before were bloody useless on 12v But ran well on 240v and gas, This way I can run a fridge using 12v and it performs perfectly. by converting tbe 12v input to 240v.

[trout1105]

The solar setup is 500w of panels feeding 2x 120AH AGM batteries, The panels can put out 14A to 16A if needed.

[trout1105]

3 way fridges draw a fair bit of power when running on 240v But IF you had plenty of solar input and enough battery storage maybe it could be possible to run a 3 way on 240v via an inverter instead of pulling up at the end of tbe day to find your salad stuff all limp and more importantly your beer tepid from running tbe 3 way on 12v [thumbsupbig]

[trout1105]

Just an update on the 240v 140l fridge running off the solar/inverter setup in the van.

I ran the fridge 24/7 on solar for 10 days and it worked well enough however after 3 days of overcast/rainy weather the batteries did drop to 12.2v overnight so I shut it down.[bigsad]
In normal sunny weather the batteries held up well with them only dropping to 12.5v to 12.7v overnight[thumbsupbig]

As we don't usually go anywhere in in rainy overcast weather this setup will most likely suit our needs for running the fridge, lights, fan, USB charging and the TV in the van and if the weather does turn to mud I can always fire up the genset to run everything and charge up the batteries at the same time[biggrin]

I would have loved to have reported that the 500w of solar would run everything in ALL weather conditions But it doesn't and it has its limitations, It is what it is unfortunately.
However in sunny conditions the setup seems to work well enough, Maybe I just expected too much from it.

[josh.huber]

12.2v isn't that low for an AGM, I let mine go to 12v without worry or 11.5v if desperate. Might have gotten you to some sun or at least the next drive

[trout1105]

12.2v isn't that low for an AGM, I let mine go to 12v without worry or 11.5v if desperate. Might have gotten you to some sun or at least the next drive

It is my understanding that at 12v an AGM battery is at less than 40% SOC and running them down to this low level will severly shorten the lifespan of the battery.
Even at 12.2v the battery is at less than 50% SOC which is also less than ideal as well, At 12.5v-12.7v the battery still has about 75% of its charge left.[thumbsupbig]

I suppose I could increase the battery storage AND the solar imput to resolve this issue But the simplest solution is to just run the fridge during the day on solar at low light conditions or when driving and charging the system from the tow vehicle.
I always carry a 3KVA genstet with me and would much rather use that when the batteries start to get too low than kill my AGM's[thumbsupbig]

[josh.huber]

Yeah cool..I see your point..I see my batteries as consumable items and am ok to push a bit more out of them. I find even when I look after them better they seem to die due to age rather then use. I only use then recreationally, but my second battery in the disco gets a full time floggin and still puts out 2 years.

[trout1105]

I have a couple of 115AH AGM batteries housed in ARC battery boxes that are now about 7 years old that are still in perfect working order[thumbsupbig]
I also have 3x 100AH AGM's fitted in my 79 Series that are over 5 years old that are also in great condition still.
The cranking batteries in the various breeds of 4WD's I have owned average about 2-3 years before I have to replace them unfortunately[bigsad]

[Tombie]

I have a couple of 115AH AGM batteries housed in ARC battery boxes that are now about 7 years old that are still in perfect working order[thumbsupbig]
I also have 3x 100AH AGM's fitted in my 79 Series that are over 5 years old that are also in great condition still.
The cranking batteries in the various breeds of 4WD's I have owned average about 2-3 years before I have to replace them unfortunately[bigsad]

Why aren’t you drawing off the 3 in the 79 to assist the van on bad weather days?

[trout1105]

Why aren’t you drawing off the 3 in the 79 to assist the van on bad weather days?

I run 3x 12v fridges in the 79 and its usual parking spot is at the boat ramp during the day.[biggrin]
I will be taking the 2x ARC boxes and I have a couple of 160w fold out panels I can deploy to help the van out[thumbsupbig]

IF I need to the 3kva Honda is bullet proof.