KMG

A picture is worth a thousand words. Hope this helps.

I installed railroad crossing units that have 9 year old batteries. Thats about the life expectancy I'd expect from an AGM battery. I don't have a battery source. In the past I'd purchase them from a company in TX. My installation rig would stop and pick the pallet up, saving a lot on shipping. My advise, buy local save freight. Parallel connections (positive to positive and negative to negative) increase capacity without changing voltage. Serial connections or Daisy linked (positive from first battery to negative of second battery, continue till last battery. It's positive and the first battery's negative are your connection points) increases voltage without increasing capacity.

Welcome. I only have around 8,000 miles on my van and so far it has performed great. No issues.

I don't know the answer to that. I have another one in my shop and you can hear the fan but it's quite. On the only trip I've taken with my van I never used it. I'll pick a quite setting and plug it in and let you know.

Wollip you are right. The Panasonic UB121000 battery I use is about $175 ea. I recently sold a business that purchased around 200 annually and the 6 I have somehow were left off the inventory list. I mistakenly listed what I had in them. Sorry for the confusion.

Sorry Great White I'm not sure what you mean by powering it from the inverter. My inverter takes the house battery bank's 12VDC and inverts into 120VAC so I can supply power to AC accessories. I've attached a diagram of my setup except I'm using a different C-TEC charger, and my 12VDC to 120VAC 800W inverter is connected at location E. When I plug into land power it supplies power to the battery charger which charges the house batteries and the van if need be. Also, if the van sits for a few month, heaven forbid, I can plug in and charge both battery systems prior to departing. Downside to my setup is while plugged into land power, I'm still powering all AC accessories through my house battery via the inverter. Not the most efficient but simple. While traveling, I don't plug into land power very often. attachment.tiff I hope this helps. KMG

My rough numbers are: C-TEC D250s and Smartpass $550 C-TEC Multi US 25000 Battery charger $300 Kyocera 135W Solar Panel $275 ea. FYI: 80W $175 100Ah AGM Battery $100 ea. Material for solar panel rack and battery hold down frame $150 Wiring, Terminals, Fuses, Plugs, Receptacles, Misc. $150 If I was going to build a portable single source system, I'd buy the Kyocera 80W and a Morningstar Prostar-15 Solar Controller. They are designed to charge and maintain a battery bank from a solar panel. Very reliable and affordable. All one would need supply is wiring between the panel and Prostar and from the Prostar to the battery bank. Plus a simple panel rack. My system gets a little more expensive because I want to charge the batteries from 3 sources. The van's alternator, a solar panel, and with land power via a C-TEC Multi US 25000 battery charger.

Wollip, No thank you's are necessary but you're welcome. The Dual and smartpass combination fit my requirements and budget. I'll post images of my roof rack when complete. May be a few weeks. Radin2son, My system has room for up to 6 100Ah batteries. My goal is to keep my lighting and accessory items's power consumption to a minimum to allow for electric heat at night. Heating with electric requires a larger battery bank and the ability to replace the consumed power before the next night. I think if I insulate the walls and ceiling well and add insulated curtains to my windows and windshield I will be warm enough. When I camp in cold weather I'll install 6 batteries and when it's warm weather I'll probably install only 2. Remember my van is odd in that everything I add for RVing has to be easily removed to return to a cargo van. So my plans/ideas might not work well for others.

Sorry it took me a while to reply with information about my secondary power system. I ran short of time prior to departing for a recent trip and didn't get the solar panels installed. I did temporarily installed the CTEC D250S and 3 100 Ah batteries. I supplied power to the CTEC through my dash accessory receptacle. I powered 3 accessory plugs, 2 LED lights, an 800W inverter, and a vent fan. I chose to purchase a 95 quart Pelican cooler and not power a refrigerator. My logic was the cooler is more versatile, a fourth the cost (not including the additional expense to increase the power system to accommodate the draw), and I'm never away from an ice source for more than the 7-10 days the cooler holds ice plus I like ice in my drink at night. My plan was to use the van without the upper wall and roof panels uninstalled so I could learn where best to install accessory plugs and lighting. Now I am going to install the electrical system, accessory plugs, lighting, the wall and ceiling panels, as well as the roof top solar panels. I'm building a solar panel rack that will locate the two 135W panels toward the rear and create two "rub rails" from front to rear mounted to our factory mounts. Hopefully this will to aid in keeping branches off the panels. Like rock crawling sliders for my roof. I have a CTEC slideshow that does a better job of describing how the system works. I tried but wasn't allowed to download the file. PM me your email and and I'll mail it to you. Thanks and I really enjoy having other NV owners to share with and learn from.

That kind of sums up my whole van. Purely function. Nothing fancy.

I'm not sure but I don't think my 4x4 and the shifting are interconnected. While stopped, I engage my transfer case by lifting a lever in front of my seat next to the transmission tunnel. A LED indicator on my dash next to our traction control switch illuminates.

Try Eurocampers.com I don't have any experience with them just knew they offer seat covers for our NVs. Good luck and report back.

Whom ever goes and "Dope Slaps" Wollip, stop by my place and let me have it! I just drove 6,460 miles forgetting I had the tow mode. I guess because I wasn't towing I didn't think to use it. Idiot! Thanks radin2son.

I'm with both of you guys. Any location is fine by me and I haven't been to a meet up. Maybe we should try to determine a rough number and origin of participants, counting vehicles and people, to help us select the geographic location and venue size required.

If I press my vehicle information display button 3 times my transmission fluid temp is displayed.

Just a thought. Does the computer keep the transmission from down shifting if doing so will cause the engine to over rev? When I was driving down the Going to the Sun road, once the manual downshift didn't work for me. I thought it was a safety feature.

Do you have to remove the center console to use a seat swivel? Thanks

"Would we need to bring a shovel"? Sorry, I'm thinking slow today

Quick Question. Am I the only Quigley NV on this forum? If so, the 4x4 conversion heading should be consolidated into "Conversions"

I have 5 acres near Springfield, Missouri on a bluff overlooking the James river and would host a gathering.

Sounds like the beginning of our first air ride suspension project!

Congrats! Please keep us posted on your conversions and trips.

I'm out on a job site. I'll go into details on my system soon. Try www.smartcharger.com for information on the C-TEC 250S Dual and Smartpass combination. I'm not very knowledgeable, so other input would be great.

I have the C-TEC 250S Dual with the C-TEC Smartpass system. I like how it takes the charge from the vehicle plus the solar panel charge and combines them to max the charge input. Only used it for about 3 months but I use a C_TEC battery charger with my business and it has worked great for 6 plus years charging batteries every week. www.ctek.com

Nice job! I like the color choice. Is it attached in the middle or only at the ends under the trim strips?