General questions

[TallGuy]

Thanks so much for all of your posts! We plan to have a 24' Sprinter dually converted in two or three years which will be our retirement traveler for 15+ years. Spending that kind of money and that kind of time in it afterwards I want to make sure I make as few mistakes as possible! Most of our camping will be in organized campgrounds without electric, your answers told me I shouldn't go all electric. From what I understand, with a second alternator, battery replenishment shouldn't be an issue especially since we are always on the move. We are rarely in one spot more than one night; in retirement I can see that going up to two. Currently we camp in the back of my GMC HD2500 long bed extended cab 4X4. I made a very simple camper under an aftermarket topper which has worked well since 2004 but I'm getting tired of getting dressed while laying down as well as messing with coolers and ice and wondering where in the heck did I put ______ (fill in the blank). We are looking forward to our next upgrade!

You guys have been great! Any other suggestions of stuff you love that you did or wish you had done will be welcomed with open arms and a great deal of appreciation!

Thanks again and may all your travels be safe!

[boywonder]

Originally Posted by TallGuy

From what I understand, with a second alternator, battery replenishment shouldn't be an issue especially since we are always on the move.

I would consider additional house batteries before additional alternators. Let's say you have 400ah of batteries (a sufficient setup for lots of folks here). Discharging them 50% while camping is 200ah. A typical alternator outputs 125A or so..... while running the engine, the batteries above will be fully charged in less than 2 hours of driving with a single alternator.

A single solar panel helps alot, even though the output current is an order of magnitude less than an alternator, like around 4-5 amps average on a sunny day. It adds up, and adds up even faster with a couple of panels.

[REF]

Solar is a must in my opinion for our rigs with sometimes complicated electrical systems, a solar system with 1 panel and a simpler charge controller will keep things topped off for general use.

[daveb]

Originally Posted by boywonder

I would consider additional house batteries before additional alternators. Let's say you have 400ah of batteries (a sufficient setup for lots of folks here). Discharging them 50% while camping is 200ah. A typical alternator outputs 125A or so..... while running the engine, the batteries above will be fully charged in less than 2 hours of driving with a single alternator.

A single solar panel helps alot, even though the output current is an order of magnitude less than an alternator, like around 4-5 amps average on a sunny day. It adds up, and adds up even faster with a couple of panels.

I would say it also depends on the load pulled by the vans equipment. My starcool pulls so much that when on the road and running at night I found that I was lucky to get 3 or 4 amps of charge with the stock alternator. I even went into the negative at times. Now that was with the single larger Ford alternator, not sure what other manufactures have. Adding a big aftermarket model made a huge difference. But I agree solar is well worth the money. I have a friend who lived in Washington and he wasn't so impressed with solar being he was in cloud cover so often. For him he needed a generator at times. A bigger alternator would have helped him.
There are times when a variety of power sources help. I've yet to haul a generator though. I can see where it would be handy at times. And yes I really like 400+ amp hours of batteries and my two solar panels. YMMV

[seasmith]

Hi gents,

Been gone a while, but back on the road now and have question about:
Location of water tank and fill/isolation valve.

Have 2007 Ford E350 V-10, that (spartan) Transformer model, looks just like the one at top this page and like daveb's.
Don't see a water tank underneath? Is it piggy-back with the fuel tank (i hope) ?

There's a sink and a shower out the back, and i can see what is probably a water heater, but no separate Tank.
The 2007 Sportsmobile schematic for water system shows a tank fill-valve, but don't see that either ??

Thanks in advance ,
seasmith

[yvrr]

We have a 2001 SMB with a water heater and shower. The water heater has a 6-gallon tank...you should have a removable grill on one side of the van...the water heater is behind that grill. (Note that there is an anode in the water tank and that the anode should be replaced every 7-8 years. They are inexpensive and can be purchased online from Camper World.)

The water tank in our van is inside under the sofa. There should be a "garden hose" connection on the outside of the van labeled "City Water Connection" or something similar. Ours is at the rear behind the driver's side rear tire. Later, SMB started using a single door to access the propane and water connections.

[llamadave]

We have the Norcold DE-0061 7 cu ft electric fridge. The two group 27 AGM batteries supplied by SMB lasted only about 12 hours (to half charge at 12 V) so I installed another two so now we have four of these batteries. If we stay a long time without city power, we need to run our generator about 1 hour every day. We also use the microwave a few minutes per day and maybe the TV and laptop a few hours. We really liked the large separate freezer compartment on our 3-month trip to Alaska.

Lots more info on our 23-foot Sprinter in my signature website.

David