Continued from Part 1 – Read Part 1
Van electrical Part 2
Once the wiring was done to get a basic van electrical system running from the van battery to the new house battery it was time to hook up the accessories to run the van’s electrical appliances. I was doing this work to power the fridge and the Espar heater now and for some lights and a fan later on.
Read more about the White Turtle III
Parts
- Epsar D4
- Dometic CRX 65
Why do people not ask???
When I had the Espar installed I asked the installer to hook it up to some power connections on the side of the drivers seat. Well they did not do that! So I had to trace the route that they used. Fortunately it was not too hard but I wish they would have let me know when they did that. Oh well, in the end it was not a big deal but would have been nice.
Clean up, Hook up
Honestly the hooking up for the power was easy. A couple holes drilled in the wall of the cabinet to route wires. Find a couple blade fuses and power! BUT like most things that was the easy part. I realized that I still needed to run the thermostat for the Espar to the wall by the bed. I wanted it close enough to the bed so I could turn the heat up without getting out of bed. That involved a lot of drilling, disassembly and reassembly. But it is done and I am happy!
Houston we have power
After running the wires, checking and rechecking it was time to power up the van’s electrical system. No smoke, no loud noises so we were good! Turned on the heater and it started up – turned it right off as it was 28C so did not want or need more heat! Turned on the fridge and let it run while I cleaned up.
After about an hour of cleaning I took my son for a drive in the van and when we got back an hour later the fridge was up to temp, or should I say down to temp. VERY happy it cools so well. I LOVE my cold water, cold ice tea and in the morning cold orange juice! I can stand a lot of things as long as I have my cold drinks!!!
So now with the van electrical hooked up as well as the fridge and heater it is time to get some lights in the van. I have to order these as the ones that are available locally are either crazy expensive or they are not LED, will take a few days to get here but have other projects to do as well.
Extras
I feel good now that I have the van electrical running but I had a few little extras to work on. In the Ford Transit the cargo lights stay on for a long time when the doors are open. This is great when you want it but like the other night I was shooting in the dark and wanted to sit in the van with the lights off and the side door open – NO GO! So a quick stop at Canadian Tire for a couple round switches that would pop into already drilled holes in the van. Put the switches in line and I can now turn off the rear lights completely or have one on or both on.
The cupboard!!!!
I built the cupboard frame last year as I needed it for the layout and measurements. BUT it has bothered me that it was not finished all this time and things could fall out so the next project was to finish the cupboard. Got the first door built earlier this week and was happy with how it turned out.
So last night with the cool rainy weather I set out to get the second door built. Got the door built and with the help of my youngest boy the staining done as well. I am happy that that part is done!
Next the lights are suppose to be here in a few days!
#vanlife #camping #Fordtransit #tinyhouse #naturephotography