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Old 08-28-2020, 08:31 PM   #21
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No worries, I will be keeping an eye on your thread. I am wondering will your travel style change due to the extended length? The room would be nice but I don't have anywhere to park that beast and I'm worried about turning radius since we do a lot of forest and logging roads.

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Old 08-28-2020, 08:47 PM   #22
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I expect it will somewhat. My previous van was only 2WD anyway, so I never did anything too tough anyway. The intent of this build is to be equally at home in a campground as it is boon docking. Basically it will be for two people and dogs.

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Old 10-10-2020, 03:12 PM   #23
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Been awhile, but I have been busy with other things. I did add the Aluminess spare tire carry and box racks. Everything was pretty straight forward with the install, just followed their instructions. It would have been nice if they included a couple of lug nuts to hold the tire on. All in all no complaints



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Old 10-10-2020, 04:45 PM   #24
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Garage
Nice looking!
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Old 10-11-2020, 08:08 AM   #25
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Excellent work Greg! With all that stuff on the roof you'll still need room for solar..I'm sure you have a plan.


...and I imagine Lithium is in the cards too....
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Old 10-11-2020, 09:10 AM   #26
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Excellent work Greg! With all that stuff on the roof you'll still need room for solar..I'm sure you have a plan.


...and I imagine Lithium is in the cards too....
IMO, dual alternators nearly makes solar obsolete. The factory dual alt option give you 250 amps at the Consumer Connection Point. Greg is doing a stand-alone 2nd alt, so he might get even more?

Once you add some vents to the roof, squeezing more than 250 watt-hours of solar would be tricky. And you’d only make peak watts a few hours a day without tilting, so you might end up with 1,200 watt-hours at the end of a perfect day.

You can push 1-amp hour into a good lithium battery bank in 15 seconds using dual alts, or 1,200 watts or 100 amps in about 20 minutes. And the extra drag of the panels might cause more fuel burn than the relatively trivial load of the alternators.
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Old 10-11-2020, 10:38 AM   #27
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IMO, dual alternators nearly makes solar obsolete. The factory dual alt option give you 250 amps at the Consumer Connection Point. Greg is doing a stand-alone 2nd alt, so he might get even more?

Once you add some vents to the roof, squeezing more than 250 watt-hours of solar would be tricky. And you’d only make peak watts a few hours a day without tilting, so you might end up with 1,200 watt-hours at the end of a perfect day.

You can push 1,200 watt-hours / 1-amp hour into a good lithium battery bank in 15 seconds using dual alts. And the extra drag of the panels might cause more fuel burn than the relatively trivial load of the alternators.
I love the nerdy engineering talk you get here on the forum.
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Old 10-11-2020, 10:46 AM   #28
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I won't jump to far ahead, but I will say I have panels and the second alternator kit in my garage, and yes the lithium battery. There was some concerns in finding panels that were well matched but fit different areas of the van. And as carringB said, I will continue, to monitor the gad mileage from the stuff I have put on the top. I have not seen a decrease yet, but the reality is the van is just moving to it's forth tank of gas.

The alternator setup will be my primary on the road charging device, my RV camping style is much like my backpacking style, I like to get up and move everyday, I don't generally drive somewhere and stay a week.

That said I am into technology and always liked having solar on my old van. So I will see, I have about 290 watts of panels top go up on top, I expect even in good sun there to be cases when one of the three panels is somewhat challenged by shading, I will obviously be able to monitor that if needed and disconnect. I will also provide an auxiliary port for some sort of a portable suitcase setup. When I installed the KISAE DMT-1250 in my old van, I pulled out my Morningstar Corp Tristar MPPT controller, it has be waiting to get put back into service. The goal of the design of this van, is options.

And then of course a lithium battery, but then I'm getting ahead of myself

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Old 10-16-2020, 09:55 AM   #29
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I don't know if dual alternators makes solar obsolete or redundant. It'll depend on how you use your van. I'm envisioning my van sitting in a hot ski resort parking lot while I'm out riding a bike park. Some solar panels should be able to off-set some of the battery drain while the A/C attempts to keep the interior at tolerable temps/humidity until the sun goes down. Especially since in many instances the plan will be to park on Friday and not start the engine again until I leave Sunday evening. While I suppose I would do it if I have to, starting up a diesel in the lot and letting it run for a couple of hours to charge the house batteries would not make me many friends.
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Old 10-21-2020, 04:57 PM   #30
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Dometic 9500 Power Awning

I decided to go with Dometic for my awning, and went the full power version to boot. One of the big reasons for the 9500, no legs. The awning does not need the corner legs like the Fiamma and others. Also, because it is power it can automatically retract when the wind picks up.

One of the other things I liked about the Dometic, is that mounting bracket was one full length piece. The Fiamma mounting brackets for the Transit are two pieces.



Before I decided to install the mounting plate I put protective VViViD 3M Scotchgard Clear Paint Protection Vinyl Film over the expected install area. The next thing I did was coat the back side of the mounting bracket with Flex Seal.



I was able to use some string to hold up the bracket on the side of the van.


This allowed me to position the awning, before committing to drilling holes. Also because the van has some curves, I needed to shim the awning on the back end and front end. Luckily for me I had DIYVan adapter for another air conditioner, that I didn't use when I changed brands. So I made some shims out of that material instead of shimming with washers. I also made some backing plates for the bolt on the inside of the van. With help I was able to get the awning mounted on the bracket, and secured with the mounting screws. After that it was drill a hole for wire access, and then wire it up. At this time don't have a house battery installed so i hooked up temporary power from the CCP1 power connection. I decided to not cover the entire entry way of the side door, only because that would make the awning stick out even more on the front end.





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