House Battery, Yandina, Xantrex & Atwood Install

[madspaniard]

[nod7]

XANTREX
Rationale
The Xantrex Freedom HF1000 iss everything I want in one unit. Inverter, battery charger and battery alarm all in one. I also like that it has a remote control feature. You can mount the Xantrex in a hidden location and mount its control panel some place visible. It comes with wire that has RJ-45 connections for this purpose. I didn’t take advantage of it at this time but, if I get the opportunity to redesign the galley, I likely will.

The name "HF1000" reflects the devices ability to output a 1000 Watts. This equates to around 8 Amps at 120v. This was less then I want but, at the time I was concerned about the size of the unit and only having 88 Amp Hrs worth of battery array, I wasn’t going to be able to sustain a push of 1800 watts. The only thing I am likely to run on regular bases that would want more power than the HF1000 could handle was a microwave. The HF1000 tells you right in the manual that it only can handle a 600 watt microwave. It’s very hard to find a microwave these days that runs on anything less than 700 watts. Some models of the older Half Pint microwave run under 600 watt. I found one of those on the local craigslist but, recently a Samba member found the Proctor Silex PS-P60B17L-D5 .6 cu. ft. microwave that is rated at right at 600 watts. It’s perfect, no digital display to suck power when it’s not running and simple knob controls yet, it has a modern look. I bought one and tested it. I love it. Even though I found a microwave my inverter can run fine, if I had to do it over again, I would have bought the HF1800. This is because, I have my eye on adding a second battery array where the starting battery is and moving the starting battery to the engine compartment.

When the HF1000 is not in inverter mode and is running off shore power, it is capable of outputting a total of 30 Amps to its connected power outlets. My understanding is that most shore power outlets are rated at 30 Amps as well. If you wish to take advantage of this however, it does require you to upgrade the wire installed by the factory for the power outlets as the installed wire is only rated for 15 Amps. I weighed it out and, the tradeoff of added labor for a gain I didn’t see myself using made me decide to stick with keeping things at 15 Amps. I’m still on the fence about the decision I’ve made. Only time will tell. For now, I’m happy with it.

Shopping List
1) Order your Xantrex Freedom HF1000. The cheapest place I found was here; http://www.sailsmarine.com/Home.aspx but, they only show the HF1800 now. If you choose to go with the 1800, keep in mind it takes 2/0 (pronounced “Two-Ought) Gauge cable not just the 2 Gauge I use in this post.
2) Buy a 15 Amp for 110v or 120v thermal circuit breaker. Or, buy a 30 Amp one if you’re going to upgrade your house wire to handle the higher amperage. I bought this one at the local electronics shop I’ve mentioned called Vetco Electronics. They can also be bought online. I should mention here that there’s already one installed from the factory on all Westfalias. It’s that breaker in the box under the power in front of the passenger’s seat. I thought I’d put a new one in since my van is 24 years old. I have no reason to think that the old one doesn’t work just fine. But, for my design, I needed the button to be a bit more shallow. You’ll see what I mean as you read.

3) You’ll need a roll of 14 Gauge Indoor wire as you’re going to add on to the exiting indoor wire. Again, if you’re upgrading to the 30 Amp circuit, you’ll have to upgrade the wire too. You’ll be looking for 10 Gauge wire. Check the packaging for the rating but, as a general rule, 15 Amp wire is white, 20 Amp is Yellow and 30 Amp is orange.

4) You’ll need a package of the splice cap crimp connectors. The ones pictured here are copper in color but, the ones I used look more brass in color. These can be found in the electrical department of any hardware store.

5) According to the Xantrex manual, not all GFCI power outlets work with the HF1000. You’ll want to buy the ones they’ve tested and approved. The Leviton model they listed in the manual (8598) is no longer made. I found some on http://Amazon.com though and ordered two of them. While I was waiting for them to arrive, I called Xantrex customer support and they do have an updated list. The model Leviton replaced the 8598 with (7599) was not on it. But, there are others on the list so, if you can’t find the 8598 give them a call.
Ground Fault Circuit Interrupters (GFCI’s) outlets are highly recommended if not required for RV applications. In simplest terms, what a GFCI does is accounting. It makes sure that the amount of electricity going out one plug is equal to what’s being returned on the other. They aren’t a replacement for a circuit breaker. Here’s a great site if you want to learn more about them: http://www.noshockzone.org/rv-electrical-safety-part-viii-gfci/.

6) I also bought a Leviton 7599 because; I planned to wire one outlet direct to shore power. They are available at The Home Depot.

7) You’ll need some faceplates for your GFCI Power outlets. These can be picked up at The Home Depot as well.

8) For cable, you’ll need the below list. If you’re mounting your Xantrex someplace else then the cable lengths will of course be different. Keep in mind though that the Xantrex Freedom HF1000 installation manual recommends you not use cable lengths longer then (5) feet. The only place I know to buy this is at a marine shop. I bought mine at West Marine.

Buy 28 inches of GREEN 8 Gauge stranded cable
Buy 20 inches of BLACK 2 Gauge stranded cable.
Buy 2 feet of RED 2 Gauge stranded cable.
Buy 5 inches of RED 2 Gauge stranded cable. – (I list this little segment separately so that you’ll have the shop cut it for you. Trying to cut this cable without the large scale tools they have is unpleasant.)

9) Buy a package of at least 4 Solderless Terminals for 2 Gauge wire with a 3/8inch stud size. This size is a little hard to find. I bought mine at our local shop called Vetco Electronics. You can buy them at most marine shops or order them online. Be sure you get at least one terminal of this type because I bend it backwards to get a special fit of the short cable coming from the 150 Amp circuit breaker. Make sure the thickness of the steel is pretty heavy duty. You shouldn’t be able to bend it with your hand.

10) Buy 2 terminals for 8 Gauge wire with 5/16 screw size. I bought mine at West Marine.

11) Buy 2 Lug terminals for 2 Gauge cable with ¼ inch stud holes. I bought mine at West Marine. They can be purchased online as well.

12) Buy a package of these 12-10 Gauge disconnects that have heat shrink tubing already on them. They’ll be used to perform some special engineering of the thermal circuit breaker. I found these at O’Reilly Auto Parts.

13) You’ll need some large heat shrink tubing to fit the gauge of cables listed above. I found mine again at the local Vetco Electronics. You can buy it at marine shops or online though.

14) Buy a 150 Amp 12v Circuit breaker. This one is rated for up to 42v. I bought this one at West Marine but, then I saw a cheaper brand at O’Reilly’s Auto Parts. I kept the Blue Sea. You can’t beat their quality. But, either will work.

15) Buy some stud insulator caps for 4 Gauge Wire. I bought these at West Marine.

16) Buy 1 FiberglassBox 1-Gang Old Work Electrical Box. I believe that “Old Work” signifies the two sets of screw holes at the top and bottom. What’s important here is this is like the ones that came from factory in our Westfalias but, this particular one is deeper. And that’s important because we are going mount the 15 Amp circuit breaker back there. I found this particular model at Home Depot. Other places sell them. If you buy it someplace else make sure it’s “Old Work” that it’s deep enough to mount the circuit breaker along the back and you can run two sets of wires into it through the bottom.

Project Steps
1) First, Sit down and read the Xantrex Install Guide and Owners Guide. Take your time and make and work to understand these two books. Don’t be intimidated; while it’s a complex device, the assembly turns out to be pretty easy. Here’s a basic diagram of how it gets hooked up.

2) You need to get an idea of the mounting point of the Xantrex so, that you can ascertain the proper length the indoor wire should be so that it can attach to the Xantrex. Therefore, you’re going to mount the Xantrex first and attach the battery cables. Once that’s done, you’ll remove the galley and install the indoor wire. You’ll want to mount the Xantrex high enough on the sidewall of the galley that the Black negative battery cable and green ground cable have room to spiral underneath it and route down into the auxiliary battery compartment. You’ll also want to leave enough room underneath the Xantrex to allow the driver’s side swivel to rotate and not knock the Xantrex. The Xantrex has 4 mounting screw locations and you’ll need to supply your own screws as the Xantrex doesn’t come with any. Use some Stainless Steel screws and make sure they are long enough to sink well into the wood. Not too far, they don’t need to pass all the way through the wood creating a hazard on the other end. Here, you can see the two rolls of tape I used to prop the Xantrex up while I marked the screw locations with pencil.

3) Here are some additional pictures to help you get a better idea of its mounting location. You’ll notice the pictures to follow; I’ve already run the indoor wiring for the 120v outlets and attached it to the Xantrex. The order in which I did things was the hard way. I’ll save you that pain and walk you through the easy way so you don’t end up redoing wiring twice like I did.

4) Cable this thick doesn’t like to rotate easily. Thus it is important to figure out what angle the terminals should be attached to their respective cables to insure they easily attach to their respective posts. Now that the Xantrex is mounting point is figured out, you’ll be able to figure out the angles need for these terminals. I’ve listed what terminals go to what cables below;

(Don’t forget to slide a couple of pieces of heat shrink tubing on the wire before installing the terminals)

The GREEN 8 Gauge wire gets the 8 Gauge terminals one both ends. Once end will connect to the Xantrex Ground and the other end will connect to the grounding bolt that screws into the van in the auxiliary battery compartment.

The BLACK 2 Gauge wire gets the Solderless Terminals on each end. It connects the Negative post of the Xantrex and the Negative post of the battery house battery array.

The Long RED cable gets a Solderless Terminal on one end and a Lug Terminal on the other. The Lug Terminal connects to the 150 Amp circuit breaker and the Solderless Terminal connects to the positive battery post.

5) You’re going to do the three longer segments of cables first. To start, you’re going to put terminals on only 1 end of each cable. To do this, strip some shielding off one end of the cables and crimp (1) Solderless Terminal of the appropriate size (not the Lug Terminals) on the end of each cable.

6) You’ll need to un-mount the Xantrex while you bolt the RED & BLACK cables to their appropriate battery posts and the green cable to the grounding bolt on the frame of the van. After the mount the Xantrex back in place, route the other ends of the cables to their appropriate destinations. Once there, mark the cable with a sharpie in a way that will show where the top of the terminal should line up with the cable. The 150 Amp circuit breaker isn’t mounted yet but, you can still get an idea of the angle you’ll need by aligning it flush with the galley wall. Here’s a picture to give you a general idea of where the circuit breaker is mounted and how the cables are routed. Notice the green and black cables spiral up then, connect to the Xantrex.

7) Do this same step for the short RED cable by mounting a Solderless terminal on one end then, bend it backwards bolt it on to the Xantrex as pictured below. Now, align the other end of the cable with the galley wall and marking it with a Sharpie indicating where the top of the Lug Terminal should be. This will also tell you where your 150 Amp circuit breaker should be mounted. Hold the Circuit breaker against galley wall and mark the bolt hole locations with pencil. Remove the circuit breaker and use the center punch on the marked locations. This will allow you to easily start the screws. Use some stainless steel screws and mount the circuit breaker.

6) Now attach terminators to the remaining ends of the cables aligning the top of the terminator with the mark you’ve made on the cables. (Be sure to draw the mark longer if you have to cut off the portion of insulation the mark resides on.) Once your cables are complete, un-mount the Xantrex in preparation for the next steps.

7) In the next steps, you’re going to remove the galley so that we can route the wires for the GFCI outlet. It is possible to route these wires without removing the galley however, removing the galley is necessary for other steps in this thread so, we may as well do it now and make our life easier.

8) This procedure is covered in Bentley. Take the time to read them over. To start with, SHUT OFF your propane. Then, do a burn down. Light your burners on the stove and burn out the remaining propane in the pipes. I run a flame from a long stemmed lighter around the burner even after it goes until I’m sure I’ve burnt all the leftover propane in the pipe that I can.

9) Once the propane is off, remove the flue vent cover from the outside of the van. There are three screws holding cover plate on. Under it, there are two more metal plates. The middle one is free floating. Make note of the alignment of before removing it. The flu vent cover and the middle metal plate go together in a specific way and will need aligned the same way when you reinstall them. If you have a phone that can take pictures, this is a good place to use it. Once those are removed, there is a final metal plate that rests inside the rubber gasket. It has two screws holding it and the rubber gasket it rests on to the frame. It has two more screws holding it to the that hold it to the fridge intake/exhaust pipes. Undo those screws and remove the metal plate. The rubber gasket may come off at this point too. Later when you reinstall the fridge, use “The Right Stuff” to adhere the gasket to the body of the van. Put all the bolts and misc. things in a Ziploc bags and label them as you disassemble the Fridge and Galley. You will thank yourself later.

10) Remove the under-sink cabinet (Pantry) door to give us some room to work. Then remove the middle shelf in there. There are little peg-like tabs that hold it in. Grab these with pliers and pull them out, they are nothing more than nails with a plastic covering so you don’t need to squeeze them too hard or they’ll break. Now, remove the silverware drawer, it pulls out then catches on two plastic tabs. Reach under and press them down allowing the drawer to slide the rest of the way out.

11) Now disconnect the propane from the fridge. You can access it through the space under the sink you just cleared out in the step above. The below pictures for removing the fridge are from Ben’s website. He has a full page about removing and performing maintenance on the fridge. Here’s the link: http://www.benplace.com/fridge.htm. There’s a lot of other information and pictures on his site too. It’s inspired me in the past. I highly recommend you visit it.

Here’s a view from the other side. The red arrow is the connection you need to undo.

12) Now unplug the fridge from the power outlet (Red Arrow) and disconnect the wires (Yellow Arrows). The orange arrows mark 2 of the 4 screws that hold the fridge in place. We’ll get to those in a few.

13) Remove the refrigerator door. Simply open it, and then lift up, it will come off the hinges. Now remove the screw caps and the 5 screws they cover (RED Arrows) from the front fascia of the fridge. Then, remove the front fascia.

14) Once the front fascia is removed you’ll need to remove the screws that actually hold the fridge in place. The fridge is already out in the below picture to show you where the screws enter the fridge at (RED Arrows). Two are accessible from the pantry space and two from the storage compartment to the left of the fridge. Once you’ve got these screws removed, the fridge is now ready to come out. Pull the fridge out, bottom end first. Removing it this way helps keep the exhaust/intake hose getting caught up so much. Pull it out a bit and then go outside and look at how the intake/exhaust pipes are progressing. They often get hang up on the body or on the fiberboard panel inside the van. Make sure they don't. You will have to work them a bit throughout the removal process.

15) Take this opportunity to clean out the space that was under the fridge. Who knows what you’ll find? http://coins.about.com/od/uscoins/tp/errorvarieties.htm

16) Time to start on removing the galley. Go outside the van and disconnect the fridge and stove propane pipes from the propane tank.

17) Then, go inside and disconnect the propane pipe from the stove as it is in the below picture and disconnect the galley LED panel as is being done in the picture.

18) Disconnect the sink drain.

19) Disconnect the hoses and wires connect to the faucet.

20) Detach the power outlet from inside the pantry wall.

21) Unscrew the elbow bracket on the wall in the pantry.

22) Remove the bolt holding the pantry to the floorboard.

23) Over on the other side of the galley down in the storage bins, remove the bolt passing through the table leg bracket.

24) Remove the bolt passing through the lower table leg brace bracket as well. (This picture was taken during a test fit of the Atwood. I’ll describe that install in a later post in this thread)

25) The final bolt holding the galley in place is in the back of the storage bin. Remove this bolt.

26) Now, undo the screws and remove the forward table leg bracket (lower right of the picture) then, tilt the galley towards you. If you don’t want to remove the forward table bracket you can simply remove it’s knob so that it doesn’t break and lift the galley over the top and out.

27) To lift the galley, gently but firmly grab it under the front face with one hand and the spot where the power outlet was mounted in the other.

28) Now we have workspace for routing wires and later projects where we will need to be able to view the area that the back of the Atwood Furnace meets the wall of the van. Ho ahead and remove the panel on the wall you see pictured below. The first thing I noticed was that the board under the galley area the right was made of a different type of material. The guys at The Home Depot called it “Sound board”. It’s like a particle board made of fibers. Anyhow, this one was still soaked with coolant from the rear heater core leak that the van had when I first purchased it. You’ll notice in later photo’s I’ve replaced this board. Does anyone know why they used this material here or was this the work of a previous owner who just used whatever they had to replace the board once before?

29) Now we’re going to start working on the indoor wiring for the GFCI Power outlets. It’s important to understand how the wiring of a GFCI works. This will help us decide if we want to wire our outlets in tandem or synchronous mode. On the back of the connector, there’s too sets of connecting points, LINE side and LOAD side. Line side is where the power comes in. Load side is where power goes out after going through the GFCI. So if this GFCI trips, it will cut power to anything hooked to the load side. It works kind of like Christmas tree lights. If one light goes out, then all the rest in the chain after him go out. This is synchronous mode. Now, to wire it up in tandem mode, we simply connect our leads for the next GFCI to the Line side as well. You’ll notice that there are two sets of holes in for doing just this.

30) You’ll notice that the GFCI comes with a yellow sticker over the Load side. This is because if you wire the incoming power to this location, the GFCI won’t work properly. They want to make sure you don’t do that.

31) Remove the bottom box in the cabin area that contains the circuit breaker. Remove the wires from it and keep the wires connected to the circuit breaker. We’ll re-use one of those. Disconnect the green grown wire leading from that box to the frame of the van. The Xantrex will handle our grounding and we don’t want to run the risk of creating a loop between the 12v and the 120v.

32) Disassemble the original two power outlet boxes and remove the wires from them as well. You can discard the faceplates and the actual outlets.

33) I’m going to take a minute to outline the indoor wiring path here. First, we are going to keep the original wiring that comes from the electrical utility hook-up of the van. It will route to the same place it always has which, is where the circuit breaker box you removed is. But, this time it will connect to the new circuit breaker in the back of the “Old Work Electrical Box” and then, within that same box, it will go into the GFCI outlet. Then, using a length of new Indoor wire that you purchased, it will exit that box and go towards the front of the van to the Xantrex. There it will connect to the “AC Source” power connector of the Xantrex. Another length of new Indoor wire will then go from the “AC Load” power connector of the Xantrex to the GFCI power outlet in the pantry. The line will then exit that GFCI power outlet in the pantry using original wire and connect to the GFCI power outlet in the top position under the storage bins.

34) Bend the tabs off of the outlets as shown in the picture below so that they fit the “Old Work” style electrical boxes we’ll be using.

35) Fit the Old Work electrical box to the hole where the old circuit breaker box was mounted. You’ll have to do some filing. You’ll also want to file an additional gap in the hole to allow the circuit breaker button to pass through. If you’re installing the Atwood furnace, You’ll be cutting a great deal of this wall anyhow. You may want to skip ahead to my post about installing the Atwood Furnace to see how this is done.

36) Drill a hole in the side of the Old Work electrical box that will allow the button to poke out through. Test fit it to make sure you can get it in and out.

37) Cut a length of wire long enough to run from the storage bin area where the outlets are, back behind the storage bins and along the wall up to the Xantrex. Make sure there enough room plus some slack to connect it to the Xantrex at its mounting point. Go back to the end at the storage bin. Insert that end into the bottom of the Old Work electrical box. Do the same with the wire from the utility hook-up box up through the bottom of the Old Work electrical box. Strip the wires ends. Wrap one of the ground wires around the other and put a crimp connector over it and crimp it down. Take the black wire from the utility hook-up box and put one of the disconnects you purchased that already have heat shrink tubing on them. Shrink it down and then bend the connector about 85 degrees. Slide some more heat shrink tubing over it and connect it to the 15 Amp circuit breaker. Now use the heat gun to the additional heat shrink. The picture below shows this complete however; the 15 Amp circuit breaker wasn’t currently connected.

38) Take a one of the pieces of wire that you kept from the old circuit breaker and perform the same steps to place a disconnect t on it. Strip the other end of the wire making it ready to connect to the Leviton 7599 GFCI power outlet.

39) Here’s the assembly wired into the GFCI.

40) Here’s a picture of it installed and one of how the circuit breaker sits.

41) Next we’ll need to install the Leviton 8598 GFCI power outlets into the stock outlet boxes. In the picture below you can see how much shallower they are compared to the new one. This makes fitting the GFCI a little tight but, they will fit.

42) Here, I have both 8598 GFCI’s wired up for a preparing for a test run. Notice I ran all my wires through the bottom of the electrical boxes and, if there was a hole in the top, taped it up. Should liquid get spilled on the counters and run down, I don’t want it to get into my electrical boxes.

43) Here’s the setup completely wired up for a test. You’ll notice that my battery cables are longer and recall that I told you I wired the setup twice. This is what it looked like before.

44) After the test run, It’s time to install the electrical boxes.

45) Before installing the wire brackets that hold down the indoor wire, make sure you leave yourself enough slack in the cable to slide the utility boxes in and out. They go through the holes horizontally so, if you don’t leave yourself slack, the wire will restrict you from doing this. This is especially important if you plan on installing the Atwood Propane Furnace I outline in a later post in this thread. The reason why is, the furnace sticks out further then the face of the cabinet. Therefore, you’ll be adding a layer of wood for the furnace to mount as pictured below.

46) In the following two pictures, you can see how much extra sack I left in the cable length.

47) Here you can see the pantry power outlet waiting for us to re-install it. Notice how I’ve dressed the wires with zip ties (yellow and purple) and replaced the board that went under the galley since, as I stated previously, mine was still soaked with antifreeze. The additional red and black wiring you see is for the auxiliary 12v power outlet. I’ll cover the install of this in a later post in this thread.

48) We won’t be re-installing the galley until after the safety features and furnace are installed. In case you aren’t doing those projects, here’s a picture of what the pantry power outlet should look like.

In the next major post of this thread, will cover the Safety features and Axiliary 12v Power outlet install.
_________________
My Projects
Propane Rework & Rust Prevention
Pop Top & Tent Restoration
House Battery, Yandina, Xantrex & Atwood Install

[noganav]

Fantastic post nod7. Reminds me of the Mightyart/Dogpilot days. Thank you!

I was a full-timer in Seattle for 6 years. If I can ever offer you any help at all please don't hesitate.

[nod7]

Thank you noganav. That is a very flattering compliment. Those guys's work has inspired me to no end.

Thanks also for the offer. I may hit you up with a question some time. It's not like you can ask just anyone about the challenges that arise being a full-timer. They'll look at you weird in most cases and say, "You're living where? WHY?"
_________________
My Projects
Propane Rework & Rust Prevention
Pop Top & Tent Restoration
House Battery, Yandina, Xantrex & Atwood Install

[nod7]

SAFETY – CO & LPG Alarm and Smoke & Fire Alarm
Rationale
We should probably all install these alarms but, living in the van full time added to the importance of having these. I’m sure many of you have already heard stories that are pretty grisly.

Shopping List
1) Buy a battery operated Smoke AND Fire alarm. I found this one at Fry’s Electronics.

2) Buy a CO AND LPG alarm. I bought this mode (35-742) from http://JCWhitney.com.

3) Buy some fully insulated male and female Disconnects for 16-14 (BLUE) Gauge (BLUE) and 22-18 Gauge (RED). I bought these at The Home Depot.

4) Buy some 16-14 Fully Insulated Female Flag Disconnects. I liked using 16-14 for the 12 Gauge wire as it had a snug fith. These can be bought at ACE Hardware

5) Buy a (1) roll each of RED and BLACK 18 Gauge wire. You’ll want to have 30 feet of RED and 10 feet of BLACK. I bought mine at O’Reilly’s Auto Parts.
6) Buy some heat shrink tubing for 18 Gauge wire if you haven’t already done so. It can be picked up at Radio Shack.

7) Buy a role of Strong Adhesive double sided sticky tape. This can be bought at The Home Depot

8) Buy some cable clamps of both 1/4 inch and 3/8 inch. Also buy some Stainless Steel Screws; #8 x3/8 inch and #6x3/8 inch. Use the #6 screws with the 1/4 inch cable clamps and the #8 screws with the 3/8 inch cable clamps. I bought these at The Home Depot.

9) Buy a package each of 1/2 inch, 3/8 inch and 3/4 inch Kwik Klips if you haven’t already purchased them from the Battery Install project portion of this thread. They can be bought at The Home Depot.

10) Buy yourself one of these trusty 6 Amp Reciprocating Saw with Rotating Handle. I got this one from Harbor Freight. The rotating handle was the key to being able to make the cut not only for this project but for the Atwood Furnace install. I’ll cover the furnace install in a later post in this thread.

Project Steps
1) Take the mounting plate for the Smoke & Fire detector and line the back with double sided sticky tape. Then apply the base and apply pressure all around the plate. This stuff holds surprisingly well on the flock. I first mounted it over the stove and realized that wasn’t going to go well unless I liked high pitch chirping while I’m cooking…. I don’t. I had to pry at it awhile to get it off. Thankfully it didn’t pull a noticeable amount of flock off.

2) Here’s where I mounted mine:

3) Crimp some disconnects on your CO & LPG dectector wires. I like to go with Male for Positive and Female for Negative. No hidden meaning in that, I swear. It just helps keep me from plugging things into the wrong connection.

4) The manual tells you to install the detector at least 4 inches from the floor and not in a drafty area. I figured that even if there is a draft in a 5’x5’ area, the CO or LPG is going to pull up there and the alarm will sound before it gets to me up on the bed while I sleep. But, I did try to do some scenarios in my head to figure out the best spot for this. Below is the best location I could come up with. So, measure 4 inches up in two different locations and draw a line. Then trace the outline of the CO detector. Finally, drill a hole for you to fit your reciprocating saw blade into and cut along those lines.

5) You may have to do some filing to get the alarm to fit properly. Then hold the detector in place while you center punch the location for the screws. Finally, Mount the alarm with the screws.

6) Drill a hole into the storage ben area and make a run of 18 Gauge BLACK wire that will go from the alarm into the storage bin area and connect to the grounding block you removed the green wire from in the previous Xantrex Install post in this thread. Make another run of 18 Gauge RED wire that will go from the alarm through the storage bin area, back along the seam of the wall towards the driver’s seat. 12v wires will go up on the ledge of the sidewall spine, 120v wires will go along the floorboard. We need to keep these wires separate to prevent current bleed through. There’s a picture of the sidewall with the galley removed toward the end of this thread that displays how the wires are routed. Run the wire up to the approximate location of the fuse block we installed in the previous House battery install post in this thread. Place some heat shrink tubing on both wires and attach the corresponding 18 Gauge male and female disconnects then, connect the wires to the alarm. If you’re confidant you have the right length of cable to connect to the fuse block, go ahead and install a 18 Gauge Female Flag disconnect on the end of the cable. Zip tie your wires and install your cable clamps. (I realize the picture below looks like the zip tie is too big to fit through the cable clamp but, does.)

7) Here’s a picture of the wire routing inside the storage bin. It’s not pictured but I use an existing hole to route the wire up into the sidewall area. The extra wires you see belong to the Atwood Furnace and lead to the battery and thermostat. I’ll cover the Atwood Furnace install in a later post in this thread.

8) Now, here’s an important step that will save you time when you’re doing your next project and have to disassemble any of the wiring in this entire thread. I built all the projects in this thread with quick disassembly in mind. I made the storage bin area the central point for wiring. This means that if I go to disassemble any component in the van, I simply disconnect the wires in that area using the disconnects and thread the wires back through the cable clamps into the storage bin. In order for that to work, you’ve got to make sure you use cable clamps large enough to allow you to thread the disconnects and zip ties through. So, make sure that you are using the larger cable clamps in any areas that you will need to pull cable through them should you need to disassemble. If you have to remove the storage bin to gain access to the water holding tank, simply disconnect all the wires and thread them into the storage bin. Leave them connected to the storage bin and remove it with wires still anchored to it. Here I’ve got two small cable clamps around the wires directly attached to the alarm then, though it doesn’t look like it, I have larger cable clamps down the chain that allow the zip ties and disconnects to slide through it.

10) Here’s the finished product:

AUXILIARY 12v POWER OUTLET
Rationale
This project could be done easily by mounting the Auxiliary outlet below the table but, I wanted it mounted above the table so I could have things easily plugged in there while the table was parked along the wall. To get a drill in there though, you’ll need to remove the stove and sink assembly. But, since the galley was out already anyhow, taking out the stove and sink so I could put the hole where I wanted would only take a few minutes.

Shopping List
1) Buy and Auxiliary lighter outlet. I got this one from GoWesty. I liked the look and the fact that it was ready to handle 20Amps.

2) Buy 10 feet of RED 12 Gauge wire if you haven’t already purchased the 30 feet from the previous House Battery post. It needs to be 12 Gauge so it can handle the 20 Amp max the outlet is capable of.
3) Buy 10 feet of BLACK 12 Gauge wire. I bought mine at O'Reilly Auto Parts store.

Project Steps
1) Remove the Stove face plate. Start out by removing the 3 screws under the front panel face plate. The pictures I had of this turned out really poor. I did a search and found these pictures on another thread of the samba about re-powder coating your face plate. Great Thread! Here’s a link: http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=334649.

2) They’ll be up under the ledge like this one:

3) Remove the side screw cap.

4) Remove the screw.

5) Same for the other side.

6) Remove your stove knobs

7) Use a 17mm socket to remove the nuts of the stove burner switches.

8) Unscrew the LED Panel

9) Push the stainless steel stove top straight UP to loosen it from the face. Mine was so rusted I had to use the rubber mallet for some gentle convincing. Liquid wrench was suggested here to help it move it.

10) Carefully pull the bottom of the face away from the cabinet

11) Stove Face is pulled away so that it will slide DOWN and clear plywood. Keep an eye on the Valve Stems as the sheet metal face may catch on the threaded part of the valve stem

12) Carefully pull the stove face DOWN and away from the cabinet

13) Now you’re going to remove the sink and burner assembly. Start with removing the burner stand by gently pulling the legs in opposite directions. My stove gets used often so, please pardon the mess.

14) To remove the back vent plate, start by removing this screw:

15) Then the other side:

16) No need to remove the center rivet. Now that you have the screws removed, just angle the vent the right way and it will slide right off.

17) Now slide out your sink and stove assembly.

18) We’ll need the top to open all the way so that we have room to work. So, undo the two screws that hold locking hinge in place. (I hope your using zip locks to put all these screws in and labeling all these bags?)

19) This is about where we want to make the hole for the Auxiliary Lighter outlet.

20) Mark it with the center punch.

21) Drill the hole.

22) The hole saw bit I used was a bit small so, I had to file some for a good fit.

23) She fits!

24) Houston, we have a problem. How am I going to get the nut on there if the thread of the bezel is sunk into the wood?

25) No worries, I thought of this in advance. Here’s the bigger hole saw bit. We’ll just counter sink it.

26) The hole is too big to act as a guide, the hole saw bit will just dance around. We need a guide. Use the larger bit on another board and then clamp it to the one you intend to drill. Mark your hole saw bit with Sharepie to tell you the depth to go. Be sure you don’t drill too deep or all the way through. If you do, wood putty will help you fix it.

27) After you’ve drilled it about half the way through, use a flat head screwdriver or chisel to remove the leftover excess.

28) Here’s our hole counter sunk and it’s now ready for our Auxiliary Lighter bezel and nut.

29) Here’s the bezel installed:

30) Test fit of the nut threaded on to the bezel:

31) Remove the nut and pop the lighter assembly in there.

32) Re-thread the nut:

33) Gently tighten it up with some needle nose pliers:

34) Here it is with the stove and sink assembly back in place:

35) It sits just a tad over the table so we can freely plug stuff in:

36) Here’s the finished product:

38) Now take your 12 Gauge RED wire putting a 16-14 Gauge fully shielded female disconnect on one end. This end will connect to the gold connector of the Auxiliary Lighter outlet. Run the other end of this wire over to where the fuse block will be. Put a 16 – 14 Guage Flag disconnect on that end. Take your 12 Gauge BLACK wire and put a female 16-14 Gauge fully shielded female disconnect on the end of it. This end will connect to the silver connector of the Auxiliary Lighter outlet. Run the other end down and connect it to the grounding block you removed the green wire from in the House Battery install section of this thread. Here’s a picture of the final wire assembly before putting the galley back in place. Notice that the 12v and 120v wires are separate. 12v running up on the sidewall spine and the 120v down below. DO NOT run these wires together. If they have to cross paths, make them cross at 90 degree angles of each other. You’ll also notice in the picture that the Kwik Klips come in handy here to dress the wire along with, of course, zip ties.

In the next major post of this thread, will cover the Atwood Propane Furnace install.
_________________
My Projects
Propane Rework & Rust Prevention
Pop Top & Tent Restoration
House Battery, Yandina, Xantrex & Atwood Install

[madspaniard]

great detail in your post!
_________________
1991 Westy auto w/ Peloquin TBD

"The only difference between me and a madman is that I'm not mad” - Salvador Dali

[markz2004]

post of the year ! with some good execution!
_________________
87 Westy, 250k GW 2.4 - 2.0 , 16" wheels

[gl98115]

W00t!

Timely post. I need to remove the stove face for a project. Now I know how!
_________________
'87 faux-Syncro Westy w/ 2.3l GoWesty WBX

[nod7]

ATWOOD FURNACE
Rationale
A couple things appealed to me about the Atwood. First of all was of course the price compared to the Propex. However, this turned out to be a wash because, to do the install and make it look professional, I spent just under $800 including tools and meterails. I'm referring to just the Atwood Furnace portion of this project thread. Granted, I would probably have had to buy some stuff for the Propex but, estimate not as much as it only needs some round holes. And I wouldn’t have had to do the major surgery for a cosmetic fascia. There was close to $200 in that alone.

I also liked the idea that with the Atwood, the exhaust came out the side. I didn’t like the idea of CO building up under the car should I be sleeping in there during a snow storm some place. But, you could also route the Propex intake and exhaust out the side of the van.

Finally, I saw another post here: http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=313093 about the furnace install. Looking at the picture it doesn’t look like you have to reposition your power outlets and he said that you could get the face within 1/4 of an inch from current wall. Which made me think I could just put a layer of plastic there from Tap Plastics and be done with it. This turned out to not be the case at all.

First to make it only be 1/4 of an inch from the face of the cabinet, he mounted his higher then you should and that allowed him to recess it more into the wall because the outer wall of the van is curved. But, as a tradeoff, when the bed is folded out, the heat will be blowing very close to the underside of it. The vent had a warning about stuff being too close to it, so I felt like this was a bad idea. I’m still concerned about blankets falling over the edge of bed as I sleep. But, it doesn’t appear to be an issue as the heat coming out doesn’t seem hot enough to light something on fire.

Next, he chopped off the side of the fin that has the holes for the mounting screws on the side of the power outlets so it didn’t overlap them. So, it’s only bolted in on one side. Not a big issue, but, it didn’t seem like the right way to do things. Even though he did this he still has to move the vent face over to make sure he has room for the power outlets. He was able to do this on his model as the older models appeared to have magnets allowing you to not have the vent sit center. Mind has a plastic tab. Thus I would not only have to move my power outlets over but, I’d have to shave the sides of my vent face plate too.

These issues are what greatly multiplied the amount of work and cost to install the Atwood Furnace. $742 to be exact. Again, that is the cost of just the Atwood Furnace install portion of this thread. By the time I had learned what I was facing, I had already cut into the cabinet of the van, and the Atwood had been sitting in my storage unit for almost 6 months so, there was no returning it for a refund. I had also bought most of the other materials to do the job. I felt like I wasn't getting what I bargained for and that I should have taken another path. This took the joy out of the project for me. Honestly, I felt defeated and somewhat angry. I didn’t want to do the project. But, it was either forge forward or eat a huge hit to my bank account and try to patch up the hole in my cabinet. I chose to forge forward. The bottom line? If I had it to do over again, I would have bought a Propex or, maybe even stepped up to an Espar that has stepped heating output. This makes it so, as it gets closer to the set temp it backs off the heat. This way I wouldn’t go through the hot & cold cycles that you can expect of furnaces that don’t have this ability such as Atwood and Propex.

There are still some that the Atwood is a good fit for. If cost is your main priority and you already have the tools and materials or if, you’re not worried about a professional look, and are just going to hack the thing in there, by all means, save some money and go Atwood. Otherwise, save yourself the headache and go Propex.

That being said, I won’t be going into great detail in this post However; there are over 100 images in this post so, in that regard, it will still be quite detailed.

Shopping List
1) Buy an Atwood 8012 furnace. This model has the 1.5 amp motor not the 3.0 amp motor. I bought mine from Panther RV Products LLC http://panther-rvproducts.com/

2) I bought this Atwood direction vent to aim the heat out toward the center of the cabin. Not sure it was needed. The only place I found to buy it was at: http://www.americanrvcompany.com/Atwood-36959-Dire..._3894.html

3) Buy Tire Tube for the exhaust gasket you’ll need to make. I bought mine from Les Schwab Tire.

4) Buy a sheet of formaca. I found a color match called Platinum at The Home Depot.

5) Buy yourself one of these trusty 6 Amp Reciprocating Saw with Rotating Handle. I got this one from Harbor Freight.

6) Buy a Jig saw. I used rotary tool, but, don’t do that. Buy a Jig saw and use it where you see me using the rotary tool.

7) Buy some Por15 to patch to prevent rust from infecting your van from the hole you’re going to make in the side. I bought mine at a car paint shop called WestCo. You can buy it online too.

8) Buy some wood filler to patch the plywood for the front facia. I bought this at The Home Depot.

9) Buy some Butyl Caulking to line the furnace intake/exhaust and also protect against rust. I bought this at Ace Hardware.

10) Buy some Goo Gone to remove the Butyl that will get everywhere and make you cry if you don’t have a way to remove it. I bought this at The Home Depot.

11) Buy some Hi Temp paint to paint the furnace intake/exhaust with to protect them from rust and paint the vent cover because it only comes in brown and black. I bought this at Lowes.

12) Buy some silicone to seal up the intake dam area (you’ll see what I mean) and prevent water from coming in. I bought this at O’Reilly’s Auto Parts store.

13) Buy some silver tape to keep the metal from scratching sealant off the inner surface of your van and exposing it to rust. I bought this at The Home Depot.

14) Buys some screw caps for the screws that go into the front fascia. I bought these at The Bus Depot.

15) Buy some copper hose for the propeane as well as ends and a tool to bend it with. I bought the tool at Harbor Freight and the hose and ends at The Home Depot.

16) Buy some wood to mount the rear of the Atwood on. I bought this at The Home Depot.

17) Buy a 14 inch by 14 inch plywood board for the front fascia you’ll be making. I bought this at The Home Depot.

18) You will need (1) roll each of WHITE, RED and BLACK 18 Gauge wire. You’ll want to have 10 feet of WHITE, 15 feet of RED and 5 feet of BLACK. I bought mine at O’Reilly’s Auto Parts.

19) You will need some heat shrink tubing for 18 Gauge wire if you haven’t already done so. It can be picked up at Radio Shack.

20) You will need fully insulated male and female Disconnects for 16-14 (BLUE) Gauge (BLUE) and 22-18 Gauge (RED). I bought these at The Home Depot.

21) You will need 16-14 Fully Insulated Female Flag Disconnects. I liked using 16-14 for the 12 Gauge wire as it had a snug fith. These can be bought at ACE Hardware

22) You will need cable clamps of both 1/4 inch and 3/8 inch. Also buy some Stainless Steel Screws; #8 x3/8 inch and #6x3/8 inch. Use the #6 screws with the 1/4 inch cable clamps and the #8 screws with the 3/8 inch cable clamps. I bought these at The Home Depot.

23) You will need a package each of 1/2 inch, 3/8 inch and 3/4 inch Kwik Klips if you haven’t already purchased them from the Battery Install project portion of this thread. They can be bought at The Home Depot.

24) Some screen patches to close up the furnace intake/exhaust. I bought this at Ace Hardware.

Project Steps
1) Shape the cabinet under the storage bin area.

2) Cut the back wall of the cabinet area for furnace to pass through.

3) Cut the back of the furnace to make it fit against the wall of the van.

4) Measure how far over you can have to move the power outlet holes to by holding the bracket against the wall. Then cut the holes wider.

5) Place the plywood face up against the holes. You can’t tell from this picture but, you’ll need to file the top left side a bit to get it to fit flush against the bench seat wall.

6) Trace the inside of the board so you know where to cut it.

7) Remove the water hose from the tank and the outside utility hook up box.

8) Here’s the screws you’ll need to mount the front plywood board to the wall and and the block stand to the floorboard. The zinc screw are to hold two blocks together.

9) The bottom of the furnace isn’t flush. File a gap in the blocks to allow for the seam on the bottom of the furnace.

10) Cut out the holes out of the plywood. A jig saw would be better used here then the way I did it.

11) Test fit.

12) This part was the hardest of anything I did. You have to figure out where to drill the holes so you can cut an opening for the intake/exhaust vent. I taped a length of staples into the back of the furnace and marked where it hit the wall with a pencil. I did both sides of the intake/exhaust vent this way.

13) Make sure the front of the furnace is flush when you do the above or your marks will be in the wrong spot.

14) Here’s how I taped it up inside.

15) You can just make out the two pencil marks I made.

16) There’s the holes drilled.

17) Now trace the intake exhaust and that will tell you where to cut. This is where I screwed up and got my lines slightly crooked.

18) Cut the hole.

19) Someone didn’t follow step 7 above…..

10) Cut the intake/exhaust to the correct length. Notice the lip that is bent up here? This is to prevent water from getting inside through this area. We’ll want to duplicate this effort when we cut this shorter.

11) You’ll notice an extra set of lines. Measure twice and cut once is a good saying.

12) Now, we’re going to cut the blue on and not the red on this side of the duct. This is so we can bend it back and make that lip to prevent water from getting in through here.

Dab the corners with a spot of silicone to seal them up.

13) Test fit.

14) Wait a min? Are those words upside down? Let’s fix that.

15) Paint the inside of the intake/exhaust to add a layer of rust protection. I looked at a lot of pictures of Atwood on the net and most were rusted out.

16) Put a layer of metal tape on the back wall and on the furnace where it’s going to ride this area. This will act a bearing to prevent the steel from rubbing of the sealant that prevents the inside wall from rusting out.

17) Time to make a gasket.

18) Don’t put your Por15 container away with Por15 wet around the edges. It was almost welded shut.

Still not open…..

Pipe Pliers...

19) Give the new cut a coating or two. This stuff takes 6 hours to dry. Make sure you give yourself time.

20) Shape your Propane pipe. Yours should look just like this one except it will go down on the right hand side unless you’ve built yourself a manifold. Directions for doing this can be found in one of my other posts. There should be link in my signature.

21) Drill the holes and run the wire for your thermostat.

This view is from inside the closet.

Pardon the dirty soxs….

22) Make this splitter so you don’t have to make two long runs of ware up to the fuse block. This way you’ll have one wire coming from the fuse block to the furnace where it will split and the other run will go into the closet where the thermostat is.

23) Cut the board that runs along the lower storage bin area. Here you can see I cut after measuring the furnace outside of its mounting location. When it’s in it’s mounting location it sits and inch here. So, I had to recut. The measurements you see on the board in the picture below are the correct ones.

24) You’re ready to put the galley back finally after cutting a little gap in the wall panel for our new propane pipe.

25) Install the directional vent in the face of the furnace. It had two holes for screws on the side but, I had to drill the top one.

26) Lets prevent our new intake/exhaust from becoming a home for all manner of bugs. Just remove the front layer of the face plate, put the screen in there and put the front later over it bending its tabs back into place and holding the screen tight against the pipe.

27) Patch up all the parts of the plywood that came apart, sand it down and re-drill the holes you just plugged up.

28) The intake/exhaust had a layer of foam over it to seal it up. I couldn’t find what amounts as one sided sticky tape to duplicate that for the life of me. I did find this one sided sticky foam at the arts and crafts store. I tested my heat gun on it as you can see from the lower right hand corner. It’s probably already incinerated in there. That ducting gets pretty hot. Maybe you can find something better to use.

29) The previous owner of the van gave me some of the edging when I bought the van. I don’t know where you go to get this stuff but, they have iron on stuff that works well. It just wasn’t the right coloer. If I had it to do over, I’d probably used the white iron on stuff and then just spray painted it. As you can see from the pictures below, we cut the top layer of plywood pretty thin to try and use this stuff.

30) Here’s how your formica arrives.

And here it is unraveled. You can only buy this stuff in 8 foot by 3 foot segments.

31) Don’t cut this the way I did below. It’s hard not to butcher it. Instead, clamp it down and use a very fine blade on a jigsaw.

32) Glue it on with contact cement.

33) Locate where the holes are and drill out them out of the formica. I used my hand actuated, spring loaded center punch for this.

34) After you get your face plate back from having the sides cut off and being sand blasted. Paint it up.

35) Final assembly.

Put a layer of Butyle between the gasket and the face and between the van and the gasket.

I got a little messy with this stuff and spent the better part of an hour cleaning it up even with Goo Gone.

36) The final product

That concludes the last major build post for this project thread.

-nod7
_________________
My Projects
Propane Rework & Rust Prevention
Pop Top & Tent Restoration
House Battery, Yandina, Xantrex & Atwood Install

[McVanagon]

Probably the most detail in a writeup I have ever seen. Nice work.

_________________
'69 Mike
'85 GL
'87 Wolfsburg Hardtop

[nod7]

I finally got the manual switch installed for the Yandina. I'm going to order a replacement one that's just like because this one is SPDT (Single Pole, Double Throw) and what i needed was a DPDT (Double Pole Double Throw) that has the indicator lights within the switch on a separate circuit from what the Yandina Sensing wire is on. As it was I had to get inside this switch and chop the wires to the lights. It's too complicated to explain but, needless to say, what you need if you want an illuminated switch is an "illuminated 6 Terminal, Double Pole, Double throw rocker switch". This way, if the Yandina is in "Manual Combine" or "Manual Separate" mode, I'll know because an indicator light will light up letting me know. This is especially good in case it gets bumped or something.

I also need to do some rework on the bracket I made out of angled aluminum (and panted black). It sinks into the carpet too far and needs to be out a bit more. Well it really doesn't "need" to but, it doesn't look right and offends my sense of quality work and aesthetics. It still has plenty of room between it and the e-brake though it doesn't look like it in this picture so this won't be an issue. I'll probably put a layer of flat aluminum between it and its mounting point. That should bring it out far enough.

If anyone has questions about how it should be wired let me know, it's pretty simple, I just complicate it by wanting to have indicator lights.

-nod7
_________________
My Projects
Propane Rework & Rust Prevention
Pop Top & Tent Restoration
House Battery, Yandina, Xantrex & Atwood Install

[nod7]

Wow, a replacement switch with the desired specs, (Illuminated, 12v, 6 Term, DPDT, On-Off-On Rocker Switch), turned out to be increadably hard to find. The one I did find; SeaDog Illuminating Rocker Switch Marine 420253-1 turned out to not have the LED's run on one set of the switches leads. This led back to the same problem of the previous switch. I ended up taking a DPDT Rockers switch and attaching LED's to one set of the leads.

-nod7
_________________
My Projects
Propane Rework & Rust Prevention
Pop Top & Tent Restoration
House Battery, Yandina, Xantrex & Atwood Install

[benrusso]

I barely even read this post. Just skimming over the photos was enough for now. It's great to see these projects in detail as I'm preparing to do the exact same thing. Thank you!
_________________
-Ben
Olivia - 1976 Pop-Top

[MarkWard]

My Xantrex 1000 died after a year and only used it a couple times during the year. It still inverts, but the battery charge feature has failed. I removed the 110 wiring for the transfer switch and put it back to stock. Turns out the Xantrex even on shore power needs the 12 volt battery to power the unit.

I talked to a battery charger company at the Ft Lauderdale boat show and they said I was not the first to mention the charging feature of the Xantrex dying. It really is a great concept, but needs either a better warranty or design. mark
_________________
☮️

[ysquared]

Amazing what can be found in these archives. Thanks for the details and great photos. Makes taking this on considerably less daunting. I have a question if you're still up for answering this older post.

After 2 years with the UB1220 batteries how did they hold up?

I undertook the UB1220 install around 2010 and had problem with them holding a charge within a year. I'm just now replacing with 2 Werker's WKA12-44C/FR from Batteries Plus. One under the drivers seat and the other in the cabinet under the sink. The batteries will be hooked into a ProMariner charger, and a Coleman Inverter.

I'll be adding the Yandina this time around utilizing your great instructions. Thanks again.
_________________
1985 Westy - 1.9 - 4 sp. - white/ tan
My Space Shuttle on wheels

[nod7]

They are holding up great. I'm still using them and have had no issues. I think it has to do with the Xantrex doing the charging. I believe relying on the alternator may be causing people issues.

-nod7
_________________
My Projects
Propane Rework & Rust Prevention
Pop Top & Tent Restoration
House Battery, Yandina, Xantrex & Atwood Install

[westylife]

This is amazing. Thanks for doing this!
_________________
1983.5 Westfalia Bostig RG1

[madspaniard]

[designer]

Excellent post-I might add one tiny change on Step 31/32 - glue the formica to the wood prior to cutting it out, then use a router with a square bit to drop down in the area your gonna cut out. It may not matter if your grill and plugs have enough area to cover a not-so-perfect cut. You can also use a roto-zip which is a pretty inexpensive tool.

I've learned a lot on your posts - I had a Xantrex 1800w sine wave inverter and had no problems with it btw. Sold it with my last Syncro like a dummass.

thanks!

-cc-