So great that you just don't dump the gray water on the surface. I was Wally docking and I could not believe that a Scout pickup camper, which is not cheap, was just running his hose from his sink straight onto the parking lot.

@goldenadventurers

Ай бұрын

Thank you. Dumping on the ground at a campground is probably not the best idea one might have. However I can understand someone who might feel it is okay since they may see it as just like washing their hand or brushing teeth with a small amount of water and just tossing in the ground. When you have 5 or 10 gallons of water, that makes an impact on the area.

Quite a project, just starting my van insulating floor this weekend, congrats on your project..

@goldenadventurers

Ай бұрын

It has been the most challenging and rewarding project I’ve ever done. Thank you and good luck with your project. Just know you will probably make a mistake here or there and understand we all lose sleep thinking about the build. In the end it will be yours and worth all the work.

Howdy. I've been watching your build. You seem to have the water tank and heating system wired good but what concerns me is the power being drawn from your alternator. A lot of power is drawn from the alternator to run the hot water heater. I forget if you have a lithium battery or not but they charge fast. This means you have to make a lot of power very quickly. Alternators dont just turn and produce power. Any big current draw regardless if it is lithium or not can cause an alternator to overheat easily to the point that it glows red or catches fire. You can limit this by only using it to warm the water when needed but you dont want it to run for 6 hours like you mentioned. Maybe use a generator or shore power when you get there. I would not want to prematurely wear out my alternator in the desert, wilderness, Canada, etc and not be able to get back home. Do you know where the consumer connection port is? After I look into it a little more I will probably wire a switch operated solenoid between my battery bank and my starter battery to give myself a jump if I need it. My whole house system runs off my three 100 amp/hour Renogy batteries and they are completely seperate from anything Ford put in my van. This way I wont void any Ford warranty and I am assured my van will start without blowing up my alternator or draining my starter battery. I currently have just a 200 watt solar panel but will likely upgrade in the future. IUt powers my lights, tv, seperate house stereo, micrtowave, and electric skillet. So far it does a good job. I do have a 300 watt inverter connected to the CCP (consumer connection port) in the unlikely event that I cannot charge my batteries with my combination of my shore power or generator powering my fully automatic NOCO 20 amp charger and my solar panel. So far, just the one 200 watt panel has been enough with normal sunlight. I may add a second panel just in case. My van is set up to run either a large cooler or my small dorm fridge. I have not yet run the fridge on a long trip but I have recently purchased an MPPT controller that will help a lot. You mentioned the engine could heat your water. That requires no work from your alternator. I suggest you look into that option or a shorepower/generator type source and maybe the inverter/solar system, rather than the alternator being used so hard. They are expensive and hidden in a not so neat location, not to mention a jump or tow to get you moving again. FYI, I appear to have been around a little longer and have worked as a mechanic and being a gearhead is my hobby, so I have some knowledge of this stuff. Give it a try. I dont want to see anybody stuck miles from nowhere with a huge bill. Good luck.

@goldenadventurers

Ай бұрын

Thank you for the large comment. I’ll see if I can address all of it here. 1st I may have not been clear on the water heater discussion. We only had the water heater on for about 30 minutes. Then with the insulation and the design of the water heater it was still warm after 6 hours. We have a 60 amp DC-DC charger connected to the 175 amp CCP. It also has a ford installed relay and only kicks on when the van is running. We are using a 400ah Renogy Battery for our power. I do have some solar panels on my camper but, at this point I don’t think the way we plan to use our van we will need anything other than the DC-DC for charging. We don’t really think we will be sitting with the van parked for days.

@rongreen7308

29 күн бұрын

@@goldenadventurers Ahh! Very good. I didnt recall a mention the 175 amp CCP previously, so I figured you only had the one alternator. Pretty sure the 175 has the two alternator system, right? Anyway, good job on the van. Looking forward to seeing it completed. They take time. Mine is a 2021 Transit 250 that we got in Nov of 2021 due to the chip problem. Its mostly complete now but I still have some things I want to do. No 80/20 in ours. No 175 amp CCP either. Budget build that looks good. People stop us all the time and inquire about it. I reconnected with a friend at a KOA last weekend and he said he was jealous of my van. That really made me feel proud since he sold his conversion van to buy his new 21 foot Hideout camping trailer. Everybody likes it but I never had somebody tell me they were jealous, and he mentioned it twice also. Happy travels. Looking forward to more of your videos.

@goldenadventurers

29 күн бұрын

Your build sounds great. We are very happy so far. And as we use it we are figuring out our storage needs. Thank you for watching and sharing your experience.

Did you test de van on the road with a full water tank?

@goldenadventurers

Ай бұрын

Not yet. We’ve had about half a tank. We will be taking it out tomorrow with a full tank. We will fill it up tonight just to make sure there is still not any leaks with the addition pressure of the full tank.

@charlevoix418

Ай бұрын

@@goldenadventurers Let us know about driving with the tank vent being inside the van.

@goldenadventurers

Ай бұрын

Will do.

@goldenadventurers

29 күн бұрын

@@charlevoix418 so I did get a little splash from the vent line. I’m going to move it to the water heater overflow line so if water comes up, it will go down to the grey tank. Good call on the question! Thank you.

@charlevoix418

27 күн бұрын

@@goldenadventurers Great! I am happy to read that it helped you.