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Mittens Samba Member
Joined: May 19, 2011 Posts: 44 Location: Mid Michigan
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Posted: Thu Jul 29, 2021 10:41 pm Post subject: EuroVan camper aux battery (full camper, not realta) |
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good morning -
I searched here on the Samba and Google but I'm coming up with two different answers in regards to Aux Battery / House Battery / whatever it's officially labeled
one thing says its under the driver's seat, one says its under bed on the right side. so where is it? and IF it's under the bed, how big can I go physically? I know under the seat it's essentially another cranking battery.
secondly, what would I need to do to replace the inverter / charger / etc to run the Eurovan solely from the battery (sometimes with the help of Solar if I cant plug it in) since there's a few places I want to camp that MAY not have a pedestal close enough or ""rustic""
to answer the questions, ideally its gonna be my laptop, iPhone and a hotspot and when my kids are with me, their iPads. there might a small TV so I can catch local channels / stream stuff for them but camping is supposed to be 'lets go do shit, guys' and sometimes there's gonna be a night where its like ' F it, Im tired' |
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Abscate Samba Member
Joined: October 05, 2014 Posts: 22668 Location: NYC/Upstate/ROW
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Posted: Fri Jul 30, 2021 1:00 am Post subject: Re: EuroVan camper aux battery (full camper, not realta) |
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Weekender under driver seat
Camper under bed
You can get an LED TV which will draw 30 watts so about 10 hours of viewing time will be fine, computer about the same _________________ .ssS! |
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Mittens Samba Member
Joined: May 19, 2011 Posts: 44 Location: Mid Michigan
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Posted: Fri Jul 30, 2021 9:05 am Post subject: Re: EuroVan camper aux battery (full camper, not realta) |
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Abscate wrote: |
Weekender under driver seat
Camper under bed
You can get an LED TV which will draw 30 watts so about 10 hours of viewing time will be fine, computer about the same |
I appreciate the response, dude / dudette
I think my MacBook pulls that? I'd have to look. LED TV is gonna have to be a thing regardless for space. |
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Abscate Samba Member
Joined: October 05, 2014 Posts: 22668 Location: NYC/Upstate/ROW
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Posted: Fri Jul 30, 2021 11:17 am Post subject: Re: EuroVan camper aux battery (full camper, not realta) |
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Honorary dudette. Up until Covid I was a Captain in eight seas of estrogen ranging from age 22-90. Now my ship is estrogen free but still laden with the aftermath. _________________ .ssS! |
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steve2sloth Samba Member
Joined: August 25, 2019 Posts: 84 Location: Berkeley, CA
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Posted: Fri Jul 30, 2021 12:05 pm Post subject: Re: EuroVan camper aux battery (full camper, not realta) |
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I've also got the Eurovan Camper and I like to use lots of battery when I'm off the grid, so I upgraded the house battery by following this blog (https://1705.net/6-volt-battery-setup/) though I did mine a little differently because I put in one big 200ah 12v battery instead of two smaller 6v batteries. Here's my post about it: https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=735243 . There's lots of ways to do solar so do as you please but the two best things that I did was to put in the big house battery and paired it with a battery monitor. With the monitor I know EXACTLY how much battery I have left, how much I'm charging, and how fast I'm draining. The solar chargers and voltage meters are only a guess and you'll see wildly different numbers while your solar is plugged in and filling up. Good luck! |
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Mittens Samba Member
Joined: May 19, 2011 Posts: 44 Location: Mid Michigan
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Posted: Fri Jul 30, 2021 12:21 pm Post subject: Re: EuroVan camper aux battery (full camper, not realta) |
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Abscate wrote: |
Honorary dudette. Up until Covid I was a Captain in eight seas of estrogen ranging from age 22-90. Now my ship is estrogen free but still laden with the aftermath. |
goooooootcha! - I offer a virtual, over the intertubes, a hug |
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MrPulldown Samba Member
Joined: September 08, 2020 Posts: 649 Location: Truckee
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Posted: Fri Jul 30, 2021 12:21 pm Post subject: Re: EuroVan camper aux battery (full camper, not realta) |
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A group 31 is the largest battery you can fit in the battery box. I bought this one. Thought about a fancy Li unit but for the price this can't be beat.
https://www.oreillyauto.com/detail/c/marine/batter...sbb/31dcmj
for my 110v devices I typically run a small inverter like this.
https://www.amazon.com/Power-Inverter-Converter-Ch...&psc=1
I have seen some people wire in an inverter so that the 110 plugs in the camper will auto switch from inverter when on battery to shore power when plugged in. Look kind of complicated.
One thing to note is that most laptops will take 110 AC and convert it to 5-10 volts DC. That is what the black box along the charging cable that gets warm does. It is horribly inefficient to take DC invert to AC just to convert back to DC. Instead you should get a DC charging cable.
https://www.amazon.com/USB-C-Laptop-Charger-Power-...amp;sr=8-3 _________________ 2002 EVC |
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Mittens Samba Member
Joined: May 19, 2011 Posts: 44 Location: Mid Michigan
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Posted: Fri Jul 30, 2021 12:25 pm Post subject: Re: EuroVan camper aux battery (full camper, not realta) |
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steve2sloth wrote: |
I've also got the Eurovan Camper and I like to use lots of battery when I'm off the grid, so I upgraded the house battery by following this blog (https://1705.net/6-volt-battery-setup/) though I did mine a little differently because I put in one big 200ah 12v battery instead of two smaller 6v batteries. Here's my post about it: https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=735243 . There's lots of ways to do solar so do as you please but the two best things that I did was to put in the big house battery and paired it with a battery monitor. With the monitor I know EXACTLY how much battery I have left, how much I'm charging, and how fast I'm draining. The solar chargers and voltage meters are only a guess and you'll see wildly different numbers while your solar is plugged in and filling up. Good luck! |
your write up and set up is awesome, and I love how clean it looks. thank you for passing that.
if you dont mind, whats your run time on battery alone?
thanks for the luck, Im definitely gonna need alot of it. |
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Mittens Samba Member
Joined: May 19, 2011 Posts: 44 Location: Mid Michigan
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Posted: Fri Jul 30, 2021 12:27 pm Post subject: Re: EuroVan camper aux battery (full camper, not realta) |
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actually, that little inverter is perfect!!
as for the charger? that's perfect but my MacBook's just a tad old for USB-C.. something to consider anyway. |
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steve2sloth Samba Member
Joined: August 25, 2019 Posts: 84 Location: Berkeley, CA
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Posted: Fri Jul 30, 2021 1:44 pm Post subject: Re: EuroVan camper aux battery (full camper, not realta) |
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Mittens wrote: |
your write up and set up is awesome, and I love how clean it looks. thank you for passing that.
if you dont mind, whats your run time on battery alone?
thanks for the luck, Im definitely gonna need alot of it. |
Tbh the run time is complicated because it depends on what devices I'm using. I replaces pretty much all of the interior lights with LEDs so they use very little energy (I only swapped bulbs, no new wiring) and most of the rest of my energy goes to the electrig fridge which averages 1-2amps per hour (it's an Engel, very efficient and expensive. Installed: https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=724253 ). Between the lights and the fridge I'm using around 10ah or less overnight so by the time the sun is shinning on my panels I'm still more than 90% full. One time I brought a 27" flatscreen computer monitor and nintendo switch out to do some gaming. That was using like 3amps per hour. The panels are 300w total so honestly I've NEVER seen my battery go under 90%. Like, ever.
Of course your mileage will vary based on what devices you use and how much power you're drawing. My thought is that if you have a big house battery you'll be in good shape even if you're not using solar and only chare off the alternator on the way to camp. That said, a lot of folks have cheaper electric fridges that will use a lot of power and run down the battery faster than I do.
One last consideration is about the solar panel(s) that you're charging with and if they'll actually fill you up while off the grid. I've got 3 panels wired in series (36v) so they will actually produce usable charge on a stormy and dark day. A single panel running at 12v needs optimal conditions to get anything at all, so if you do get solar aim for a 24v panel or a couple of em wired in series not in parallel. Note that converting 24v/36v down to 12v needs a slightly more expensive/larger type of solar charge controller, called a MPPT. |
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