Inverter and battery upgrade

As per the title above really, one of the things I'd enjoy about a van is the option to be off grid , has anyone upgraded the factory inverter and battery setup to give a more reliable and powerful setup, presumably adding some.poeer outlets too

I bought the Ecoflow delta 2 on sale. Should give me an extra few days. Also have a solar panel which would keep the batteries topped up most of the time from April to October.

As mentioned above, get a power unit to extend your power needs and/or solar. Our solar, in summer, gives us 5+ days.

I would offer the opinion if you want to upgrade the inverter to plug stuff in, you are not really “off grid”. Changing the way we think about/need electrical devices works for us if we are not using EHU.

Would also be very wary of fiddling with the factory setup, for safety and warranty reasons.

The beauty of power banks such as the EcoFlow mentioned above and Jackery / Bluetti etc, is that they have their own lithium battery and inverters - no need to modify the esisting setup.

I adore our Bluetti AC 200 Max that allows hair dryer, microwave, kettle, toaster and even a 1600w electric BBQ grill to be used!

We charge it via the 12V socket when driving (around 100w per hour input) and a 200w solar panel when stationary.

As others have said - keep the van OEM and just bolt on an EcoFlow or equivalent. With a solar setup, you'll get the same benefits (unless you're trying to really max out on efficiency etc - there's an example somewhere of a member doing that with the Grand California and rewiring the whole lot to avoid that).

All very valid points might have a more in depth look at these and the added use of having them at home in the event of a power cut

Wannabecamperman said:

The beauty of power banks such as the EcoFlow mentioned above and Jackery / Bluetti etc, is that they have their own lithium battery and inverters - no need to modify the esisting setup.

I adore our Bluetti AC 200 Max that allows hair dryer, microwave, kettle, toaster and even a 1600w electric BBQ grill to be used!

We charge it via the 12V socket when driving (around 100w per hour input) and a 200w solar panel when stationary.

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Do you get any noise / vibration from the solar panels (in any circulstances)?

myvanrodney said:

Do you get any noise / vibration from the solar panels (in any circulstances)?

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We've got some panels from Rich + solarcampersolutions and we pretty much forget they're even up there. The only thing that reminds us we have solar is that we dont have to plug it in ever. They dont really add anything material in terms of height, and no wind noise or concern when cleaning either.

The only other downside I guess is a damned blinky blue light in the wardrobe cupboard.

bengi said:

All very valid points might have a more in depth look at these and the added use of having them at home in the event of a power cut

Click to expand...

That's precisely what we do! The pass-through charging means we can charge all our phones, laptops, i-pads, earphones and even the rechargeable toothbrushes and hoover battery, etc all for free from the power of the sun (though admittedly less usage in winter).

Interestingly, we are with British Gas and you may have seen Tom Daley doing the 'half price electricity on Sundays'' adverts, where from 11am - 4pm every Sunday we get half price electricity, so I've even been using the 3 pin 230V to charge the Bluetti meaning we can use 2Kwh of half price electricity ALL WEEK!

Sincerely, once you go down this route, you'll be barbecuing on electric grills in the summer and van life takes on a different meaning when you're doing it from the power of the sun and can have grass pitches with the best views due to not needing EHU! Cheaper too!

...as the units are portable, we use it for power tools and garden equipment like strimmers and lawnmower power too. I even ran a 2Kwh leaf blower from it in the autumn, simply moving the Bluetti to the front and back gardens as required, so it's not just vanlife that benefits from a mobile power supply unit, once you've made the investment. As you can tell, I'm sold!

CamperFam said:

We've got some panels from Rich + solarcampersolutions and we pretty much forget they're even up there. The only thing that reminds us we have solar is that we dont have to plug it in ever. They dont really add anything material in terms of height, and no wind noise or concern when cleaning either.

The only other downside I guess is a damned blinky blue light in the wardrobe cupboard.

Click to expand...

If it is a victron mppt controller you should be able to disable the led blinking in app .Or it could be a jumper lead.

...and finally (sorry - can't edit posts, the multiple posts)

Below you can see a 200w lawn hard frame panel, which we wire to the Bluetti through the cat flap in series with the to the 200w semi flexi panel that we also take on camping trips.

They were around £179 each from Renogy and have (much) more than paid for themselves in just 18 months.

All very well, except a portable power station takes up additional space, portable solar blankets more so. I can guarantee that whatever the new California turns out to be it will have lithium leisure batteries. There is no excuse for AGM batteries in a campervan, camper trailers or caravans anymore.