G series camper van forums

[Craig Nedrow]

Got all the doors done, yep, all 6 of em. Started the bed frame today, have it done tomorrow. Also got the floor down, and Jan painted it. Jan and I put up the paneling, ugh. Jan wanted to insulate the panels, no problem, but she is stubborn. So anyway she put 1/2 inch Dynamat extreme over the whole panel, told her it wouldn't work as I screwed the panels into sheet metal body braces. You can see it in the first picture, the passenger side of the truck. So now we get to take it off and cutout wherever there are braces, or interference. Then the wall will lay flat, and the brace will fit flush with it, all good. God is gracious, we're still married. I hate doing things twice, but there is more piece if I let Jan do it her way. We have had to fix so many things twice, now she just says, "You can do anything you want." Whew.

 

[idahovette]

^^^^^^^^^^^^^You have learned well, grasshoppah^^^^^^^^^^^^

 

[Craig Nedrow]

^^^^^^^^^^^^^You have learned well, grasshoppah^^^^^^^^^^^^

You codger, Perry, yeah old married guys.....

 

[Craig Nedrow]

Jan and I are still married, and now we have a bed platform in the van, and actually it is pretty nice. A few pics from Bonneville, yes it was great. Toyota went about 100 mph, Burb was driven from Tennessee pulling a camaro and the guy said nothing fell off, second year I have seen that burb. Our van ran like a top, needs more power, and only 8 mpg, uugh.

 

[HotRodPC]

Jan and I are still married, and now we have a bed platform in the van, and actually it is pretty nice. A few pics from Bonneville, yes it was great. Toyota went about 100 mph, Burb was driven from Tennessee pulling a camaro and the guy said nothing fell off, second year I have seen that burb. Our van ran like a top, needs more power, and only 8 mpg, uugh.

Well, gotta remember, sometimes it's about the smiles per gallon, not the miles.

 

[Craig Nedrow]

Jan and I are still busy on the van, though haven't posted in a while. I bought a new remanufactured steering gear as the old one leaked and was loose. That should take 90% of the slop out. Also bought drip rail brackets, from K Suspension out of Idaho. These are just what I was looking for. Here is a link:

Roof Rack Gutter Mounts

Your source for premium offroad products and service

www.ksuspensionfab.com

Son in law has his own electrical business, and I will source my uni-strut through him as he gets it wholesale. Merry christmas Everyone!

 

[HotRodPC]

Jan and I are still busy on the van, though haven't posted in a while. I bought a new remanufactured steering gear as the old one leaked and was loose. That should take 90% of the slop out. Also bought drip rail brackets, from K Suspension out of Idaho. These are just what I was looking for. Here is a link:

Roof Rack Gutter Mounts

Your source for premium offroad products and service

www.ksuspensionfab.com

Son in law has his own electrical business, and I will source my uni-strut through him as he gets it wholesale. Merry christmas Everyone!

Thanks for the update. I may have forgotten about this one. So are you doing a 4x4 conversion on this van???

Merry Christmas to you and Jan !!!

 

[Craig Nedrow]

Thant you Hodrod, we are keeping it 2 wd, but have bought a AC/ heater, (roof mount), and a refer/freezer,(gotta have Icream!), and will install 1200 watts of solar panels which will charge the batteries on our solar generator.

 

[HotRodPC]

Thant you Hodrod, we are keeping it 2 wd, but have bought a AC/ heater, (roof mount), and a refer/freezer,(gotta have Icream!), and will install 1200 watts of solar panels which will charge the batteries on our solar generator.

Cool cool. Literally, COOOOL !!! So I assume you mean, since there's 100 different names for them, by solar generator you mean power station? I'm assuming it must be a big one if it'll accept 1200 watts of solar. 1200 watts is alot of solar for a van. Must be some biggo panels. Like maybe 3 400 watt panels? Are they going to fit on the roof? I what I think to be a small to medium power station, and it limits me to 800 watts PV input @ 100 volts.

Here's what I ended up doing to increase my wattage. I finally figured it out, but I am also using 100 watt panels. Had I known then where I know now, I wouldn't have done that. My dad has the same power station as I do, and I have him set up with 2 380 Watt MonoPerc panels and he's doing just fine and bringing in great PV charging wattage. It's a piss poor video, but the info is good. Many people weren't aware of this. You can probably skip to the 16 minute mark and get all the info I was putting out here.

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[Craig Nedrow]

Renology makes 400 watt panels,(and others) and preemptively look like they will fit with the ac. Presently I have an Ienergy power station, it has worked good in the shop for a year now, but is only 1500 watt. I would like 3000-3500 watt system, and there are many and bigger out there, Bluetti jackery etc. they need to fit under the bed platform is the only requirement. Our good son in law electrician will help with the design and installation. Starter battery will be isolated from the rest of the system, cause you don’t want a dead battery out in the middle of nowhere. May use 48V battery’s and inverter, but we will see. The cost of everything is….costly, but Nick has some money saving ideas. Jans given us a March 15th deadline, wish I could do that…women….

 

[Frankenchevy]

You asked way back in the beginning about a forum for conversions. This site has some helpful information and some vehicles to get ideas from:

Expedition Portal

The global resource for overland and adventure travel.

expeditionportal.com

 

[HotRodPC]

Renology makes 400 watt panels,(and others) and preemptively look like they will fit with the ac. Presently I have an Ienergy power station, it has worked good in the shop for a year now, but is only 1500 watt. I would like 3000-3500 watt system, and there are many and bigger out there, Bluetti jackery etc. they need to fit under the bed platform is the only requirement. Our good son in law electrician will help with the design and installation. Starter battery will be isolated from the rest of the system, cause you don’t want a dead battery out in the middle of nowhere. May use 48V battery’s and inverter, but we will see. The cost of everything is….costly, but Nick has some money saving ideas. Jans given us a March 15th deadline, wish I could do that…women….

3000-3500 watt is pretty big for a van. I do a lot with a 2500 watt inverter. Run microwaves, toaster over air fryer combo convection oven. I try not to do things that take over 10 minutes and I try to do it while the sun is up so I'm not using much of the battery bank power. I'm also running a 3.5cu ft deep freeze and small fridge while doing that and watching a 32in LED TV. Bigger is not always better sicne inverters have a parasitic wattage loss. Meaning just to operatre them you lose wattage so going bigger than needed just means more unnecessary loss. A 3000 watt inverter would likely keep you in great shape for a van, and even still run a 5000-6000 BTU AC Unit that'll pull about 550watts.

 

[Craig Nedrow]

Cool cool. Literally, COOOOL !!! So I assume you mean, since there's 100 different names for them, by solar generator you mean power station? I'm assuming it must be a big one if it'll accept 1200 watts of solar. 1200 watts is alot of solar for a van. Must be some biggo panels. Like maybe 3 400 watt panels? Are they going to fit on the roof? I what I think to be a small to medium power station, and it limits me to 800 watts PV input @ 100 volts.

Here's what I ended up doing to increase my wattage. I finally figured it out, but I am also using 100 watt panels. Had I known then where I know now, I wouldn't have done that. My dad has the same power station as I do, and I have him set up with 2 380 Watt MonoPerc panels and he's doing just fine and bringing in great PV charging wattage. It's a piss poor video, but the info is good. Many people weren't aware of this. You can probably skip to the 16 minute mark and get all the info I was putting out here.

xc_hide_links_from_guests_guests_error_hide_media

Hey Hotrod, my son has steered me in a slightly different direction. All my electrical (ac/heater, fridge, lights) wil be 12-24V. I will have 48v li 105 amp hour battery, with room for expansion, new from a golf cart. Control will be a MPPT 60v controller. Three way battery charg controller,( 12v, solar, shore) dc to dc converter, fuse panel, fuses, shutoffs etc. You get the drift. It will all reside under the back half of our bed, which I can tip up easily to get at the components. The controller monitor, hopefully, will be installed on the back of the frame, as it creates heat. Solar panels will be 108 half cell, as the dim.(68x45), will allow three plus the ac unit. Roof mounts here yesterday, will mount a self made unistrut rack system to secure the panels. So three panels and the ac takes up almost all the available roof space which is 68x160 inches. Yes I will post photos, wiring and etc so anyone can do what we have done. This is a big Watt system, as Jan insists on ac,(for the puppies…) which can take 6000w a day, depending on many factors. Photos to come.

 

[HotRodPC]

Hey Hotrod, my son has steered me in a slightly different direction. All my electrical (ac/heater, fridge, lights) wil be 12-24V. I will have 48v li 105 amp hour battery, with room for expansion, new from a golf cart. Control will be a MPPT 60v controller. Three way battery charg controller,( 12v, solar, shore) dc to dc converter, fuse panel, fuses, shutoffs etc. You get the drift. It will all reside under the back half of our bed, which I can tip up easily to get at the components. The controller monitor, hopefully, will be installed on the back of the frame, as it creates heat. Solar panels will be 108 half cell, as the dim.(68x45), will allow three plus the ac unit. Roof mounts here yesterday, will mount a self made unistrut rack system to secure the panels. So three panels and the ac takes up almost all the available roof space which is 68x160 inches. Yes I will post photos, wiring and etc so anyone can do what we have done. This is a big Watt system, as Jan insists on ac,(for the puppies…) which can take 6000w a day, depending on many factors. Photos to come.

NIce, so you're saying you're going with a 48 volt system and obviously using a step down converter for your 12-24 volt DC appliances? That battery if putting what it's rated at should be giving you 5376 watt hours or battery bank. Sounds like a great system for a van.

 

[Craig Nedrow]

NIce, so you're saying you're going with a 48 volt system and obviously using a step down converter for your 12-24 volt DC appliances? That battery if putting what it's rated at should be giving you 5376 watt hours or battery bank. Sounds like a great system for a van.

Yes HotRod. We’re just going to use one battery and see how that works. We can purchase another one down the road, but they’re very expensive. We will use a DC DC converter to lower. The voltage. Will probably put a small inverter in there as we need that for a shore power when we want to charge the battery.