Van of enormous power Mk 4

[resybaby]

Can you not make a quick clamp out of a piece of flat ali JB, similar to mine. Pop a piece of thin gasket/rubber around the 'circle' end and clamp it down onto your rails.
Mines been up there a few years and many miles now, although i keep the speed down to reduce upwards lift and have kept panels as close to the roof as is possible.

[Joeboy]

Can you not make a quick clamp out of a piece of flat ali JB, similar to mine. Pop a piece of thin gasket/rubber around the 'circle' end and clamp it down onto your rails.
Mines been up there a few years and many miles now, although i keep the speed down to reduce upwards lift and have kept panels as close to the roof as is possible.

That's is a neat solution . I'm still playing with ideas and have to have a deep rummage this weekend. Speed and lift will not be an issue as 60mph would be the very top end!

Although the paracord JC lanyards are there on the off chance of a panel trying for freedom.

This morning we are upcycling the £50 LB from dormant in a garage to active in our van and dropping off a repaired and waxed oak chest of drawers at the same time. All in the EV.

Those two 2nd hand trades put us £220 up and a nice couple get an antique to become a heirloom piece for very little .
(rrp on oak chest of drawers is £400 - £600).

I REALLY like the secondhand market. It's where I'm most comfortable

[Joeboy]

Thank you Fintray & resybaby. Both of you directly influenced the outcome for the second panel install.. The clamps are new old stock at a market and were thrown in along with a couple of pieces of furniture we bought.



2nd hand Battery is sitting at 12.75V

[resybaby]

No worries JB, im happy to be able to add a morsel back for a change.
Looked at the exact same clips myself (ss ones looked better on my ss rails) but struggled with the sizes due to my rails being non standard.
Clip was either too small and wouldnt form the 90' angle to run to the opposite rail, or were too big and wouldnt tighten down.
Was also a little concerned with the single thinkness bolt hole area/leg maybe being just too short a single bolting up point. But all relative to style of driving and speed vs strength durability i decided.
My motor is, shall we say, rather souped up and goes round the Cornish corners at same speed as on the long straights, surprise lots of bmw/audi drivers so i needed to eleminate all flex to match the motors modifications.
So in the end i went with ali ones, to overspec.

[Joeboy]

No worries JB, im happy to be able to add a morsel back for a change.
Looked at the exact same clips myself (ss ones looked better on my ss rails) but struggled with the sizes due to my rails being non standard.
Clip was either too small and wouldnt form the 90' angle to run to the opposite rail, or were too big and wouldnt tighten down.
Was also a little concerned with the single thinkness bolt hole area/leg maybe being just too short a single bolting up point. But all relative to style of driving and speed vs strength durability i decided.
My motor is, shall we say, rather souped up and goes round the Cornish corners at same speed as on the long straights, surprise lots of bmw/audi drivers so i needed to eleminate all flex to match the motors modifications.
So in the end i went with ali ones, to overspec.

Horses for courses, yours is a much faster one than mine! I'm on a hippo!
It may be a while before I fit the second panel. If at all from Ecoworthy. A long boring story that I'll hold back the noo.

The single panel up there did well today even with maxing out the 80Ah LB early.



The 100Ah 2nd hand battery is in and ran up a 500W resistive heater with no alarms and recovered well. So I know I'm at least 1/2 kW good off grid.

It's all going very well. If the ecoworthy bull continues much longer I'll cut my losses and search the 2nd hand market for a used PV unit. It's part age I think but I just can't be arsed with bad actors anymore and Ecoworthy are looking like that now...

Colin Deng has been excellent to us in all dealings. This Ecoworthy mob make Colin look like a god amongst men.

To end on a further high note, it looks as if this single bifacial can generate about 1/3kWh in February if the battery isn't full. That's pretty good, if I can get a pair like that I think that will be offgrid tv, lights and water pumping covered. Gas can do the heavy lifting at the fridge and water heater. I've been so focused on the merde panel I'd lost sight that we're fully functional remote location if need be. I'll play about tomorrow and see what the tv and an hdmi pocket player pull from the off grid set up. The off grid set up...

[Joeboy]

SWMBO has commenced circling to sort the van properly. An uncanny knack of knowing when a stage is finishing!

I may have to tidy soon and hand it over.

The beauty of van life. Mechanical fun, electrical shenanigans, a bit of a marine vibe and up & move whenever.

[richbee]

Defo LA this time around. Just scored a 100Ah 3mth old battery for £50. Guy has upgraded to lifepo4 as he's a more serious offgrid regular vanner.

Better upgrade my bulbs to led inside!

Running total
£165 Bifacial 195W panels 2 of
£34 DC isolator, cable entry & Y's
£130 1kW inverter
£67 MPPT Charge controller
£64 25mm sq cable (12 mtrs, other project covered)
£14 busbar x 2
£12 battery isolation switch
£10 pack of 100 cable ties
£50 100Ah LB (3 months old)
£546

Does that seem OK for price? £550 to add solar offgrid capability... I could have knocked £100 off it with a big CPS panel but would have covered at least one of the two skylights... I'm not sure I quite expected it to rack up that high... Damn good phone charging system though!

Definitely worth it - we love having the off grid solar on ours, knowing you can run everything you want (up to a point!) for several days is like magic.

The other thing I really like is the trickle charge facility for the engine starter battery once the leisure battery is full (built into the dc-dc charger).
Transit (2017) batteries aren't known for lasting long, but mine is now 8 years old

[Joeboy]

Defo LA this time around. Just scored a 100Ah 3mth old battery for £50. Guy has upgraded to lifepo4 as he's a more serious offgrid regular vanner.

Better upgrade my bulbs to led inside!

Running total
£165 Bifacial 195W panels 2 of
£34 DC isolator, cable entry & Y's
£130 1kW inverter
£67 MPPT Charge controller
£64 25mm sq cable (12 mtrs, other project covered)
£14 busbar x 2
£12 battery isolation switch
£10 pack of 100 cable ties
£50 100Ah LB (3 months old)
£546

Does that seem OK for price? £550 to add solar offgrid capability... I could have knocked £100 off it with a big CPS panel but would have covered at least one of the two skylights... I'm not sure I quite expected it to rack up that high... Damn good phone charging system though!

Definitely worth it - we love having the off grid solar on ours, knowing you can run everything you want (up to a point!) for several days is like magic.

The other thing I really like is the trickle charge facility for the engine starter battery once the leisure battery is full (built into the dc-dc charger).
Transit (2017) batteries aren't known for lasting long, but mine is now 8 years old

I don't think I have that function (starter battery trickle). I had small panels mounted on windscreen in the Bongo. They worked well to keep starter battery topped up, might go that route later.

The remote starter for the inverter is in place.


First test of offgrid home entertainment is Charlie Chaplin, Modern times.


12.45V starter on the LB, we'll see what an hour of Charlie does on these mighty 4W incoming days.


Load switched off


A little recovery time


We've used this insulated roman blind for a few years at the rear side door of home over Winter. Won't need it with the 3g going in so swmbo said it was perfect for delineating the cab from the habitation. She was right too!

That blind was secondhand when we got it and it has now been relifed one more time.



Excellent privacy too if we don't wish to run out the cab curtains.

[Joeboy]

Oooh, tracking number in from Ecoworthy for a replacement panel. Let's hope it tests .

[Joeboy]

Replacement panel arrived at 17.00hts and tested OK!



No1 & I have prepped a timber Xbrace for the second panel this afternoon. Just about the very last of the Storm Arwen felled timber from bootroom build. It has absorbed about 1/2 ltr of wood preserver across the afternoon! Been running the radio playing classic fm all day off the offgrid set up. That has been very satisfying. The single panel has done well, tomorrow it's twin is going up.



While I've been cleaning the roof of the van hopefully for bifacial reflection i found about eight breaches in the outer Fibreglass surface. Biggest was about 25mm and smallest a pencil point but they'll all leak.

I had also found one patch in the interior where there was moisture. Resealing the rear window and Fibreglass sealing of rear small outer breaches on roof last week seems to have cured it. Will leave open for a few days and monitor.

If you've got a van with a Fibreglass monocoque this is worth checking. It's mot a big deal here but if enough water gets into FG matting and freezes there could be uncontrolled longterm damage.