Date:         Fri, 26 May 2000 09:44:48 -0500
Reply-To:     Chris Smith <chris.smith@AQUILA.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Chris Smith <chris.smith@AQUILA.COM>
Subject:      >Longish< (F) Power for the Masses - or - how to wire a vanagon
              to survive farm camping
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed

OK List,  There have been a few questions and comments about the right way
to wire a vanagon for camping, coffee, aux batts and the like.  I read all
the posts, studied my "DC Electronics 101" textbooks, asked the crazy gut
down the block, and have even experimented with a few set-ups, but decided
to do something totally different.

Conventional wisdom implies that camping is a primitive sojourn to a quiet
contemplative place to commune with nature.  This brings up mental images
of healthy, ruddy faced 20-somethings wearing backpacks and looking like
they just stepped out of an REI catalog.  However if this was the case,
most of us wouldn't be driving vanagon westies.  Old splitties maybe
(please hold off on the flames, I'm a fan of them too) but not our beloved
2 1/2 ton high tech vanagons.  So to me the idea of having to "rough-it"
while camping away from electricity was not appealing.

The goal was to find a way to make some really decent coffee while I slept,
keep the van warm without installing yet another heater, and being able to
run my 120v party lights all night.  I have the gas heater, and have even
tried the thermostat trick for better temp regulation (works great!).  I
have the full westy interior with pop-up, stove, etc, and have found a pair
of 100 amp/hour gel cells.  The solution came to me after a few tall ones
and a nickle of some really killer.. ah, umm.. stuff.

Here is the final project:

The 25 amp/hour camp battery was removed and the original fridge relay was
scrapped.  A Bosch 70amp relay was installed in it's place.  The 100
amp/hour gel cells were installed under the back seat with a 4 gauge wire
run to the old camp battery box.  a 10 amp regulated power supply was
installed in the cabinet and plugged into the fridge 120v outlet, with the
power lines run to the box.  I then installed a dune buggy type fuse block,
the kind where one side is all bussed together and there are 8 fused
outputs.  The batteries, power supply and relay are all connected to the
buss.  that way whenever the van is running, or is plugged into shore-power
the batteries will see charging voltage.  off the fused outputs i ran a new
power supply to the main power for the gas heater, a line to the stereo, a
line to a 3 gang 12v outlet box, a line to the water pump, a line to the
fridge, and a line to the 12v lights and fan.  Since the heater is now
running off the big batts, I can run it all night without a worry and
without popping for a plat-cat and second LP tank.

This is all well and good for running 12v stuff, but I still like my coffee
ready when I wake.  To solve that problem i picked-up a 600w 120v inverter
from Norther Tool http://www.northern-online.com on sale for $130.  To
power it I installed a 70 amp relay (600w with 90% efficiency equals 56
amps @ 12v give or take an amp) switched from a standard household
outlet/switch combo installed in a single gang box mounted under the rear
seat.  To power the under-counter style coffee maker and a few lights I
installed a power bar under the upper shelf running above the stove.  The
power for the strip runs through a DPDT 12v relay rated to 10amps @
240v.  The strip is on the commons of the relay.  The inverter power runs
into the relay and is sent to the strip when the inverter is powered
up.  When the inverter is off, the power comes from the regular shore-power
connections.  This way my 350w coffee maker with timer can run off the
inverter when camped away from a plug-in and can run from shore power when
available.

Once I get it all cleaned-up I'll post pictures to my web site for
clarification.  The system seems to work fine in testing, I'll let anyone
interested know how it works after "Camp Crusty" June 3-4.

Off to see the lizard..

Chris Smith
'82 Westy
'74 Thing
some cars that even run