One more auxiliary battery installation – ’85 Westy

[ProspectiveOwnergon]

Yeah...I bought 8 AWG for the run from starter to Renogy so I have to likely follow this existing wire from the battery box across. Because they don't make 45amp breakers I had to go with 50 in, 40 out....don't think that's too risky for the bisky as I'm going 8awg. Only other option is to drop to 40amp in AND out.

Side question...should the fuse be closest to the ending of the wire or the beginning?

[Vanuber]

[Vanuber]

[ProspectiveOwnergon]

[Alaskaberrys]

Great write up, thank you! Our westy is stripped currently for repaint and being an electrical novice your detailed and informative post helps a lot.

Beautiful workmanship also, perfect mix of stock look with modern upgrades.

Note - I found this thread via your “house power wiring” thread (also very informative) and noticed that the wiring diagram at the beginning of this post is now different, correct?
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'91 Westfalia, Bordeaux Red Pearl 2.1L 2wd Auto
'91 T3 Syncro Doka, Escorial Green 1.9L TD AAZ “Gremian” (to provoke, irritate, exasperate, vex...)

[Vanuber]

[kevinm]

Vanuber, thanks for all this detail, and for your help with the dimensions on that panel.

I'm trying to do something similar but less ambitious and am wondering about how you calculated the amperage of the MRBF fuse at the battery terminal. Your diagram shows a 250 Ah fuse, and it looks as if you have a 100 Ah battery Even so, I think that batteries can surge above their normal rating for a bit. Did you base the fuse Ah on the battery's max surge amperage and then increase it a bit?

- Kevin

[Vanuber]

[fxr]

[pnwkayaker]

Hello Vanuber,

I'm re-designing my aux battery system, and I plan to borrow several of the ideas from your aux battery system thread (I will reuse my Redarc unit so it won't be an exact clone). I have 2 questions if you don't mind:

1 - I liked the way you used the SafetyHub to route all the charging elements (DC-DC charger, AC-DC charger, MPPT) to the battery through the SafetyHub (way more cleaner than tying them all to the battery terminal post). Do you have any updates/changes on how you connected them?

2 - I truly liked for documentation and planning purposes how you draw the whole circuit (including pics of the components), what program did you use?
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87 Syncro Westy EJ25 ("Tardis")

Seattle Meetup at Marymoor (link)
A collection of Simple Useful Mods (SUM) (link)

[Vanuber]

[pnwkayaker]

Thanks for the info! One more question, I see that you put the cutoff switch on the negative terminal of the battery, but I've seen folks putting a circuit breaker on the positive terminal instead:

1 - is there a pro/con of disconnecting positive vs negative terminal?
2 - does the choice of the disconnection mechanism (manual switch vs circuit breaker) dictate which cable to add the cutoff?
_________________
87 Syncro Westy EJ25 ("Tardis")

Seattle Meetup at Marymoor (link)
A collection of Simple Useful Mods (SUM) (link)

[Vanuber]

[pnwkayaker]

Perfect, thanks!

[ethyl_on_the_road]

Hey Vanuber, super nice setup. Thanks for the in detail descriptions and documentation. I am wondering: can you still access the space behind the drivers seat with this setup or is the control panel blocking it permanently while in place? Thank you!

[Vanuber]

[ethyl_on_the_road]

Thank you. I was talking about the battery compartment.

[openroad65]

Vanuber - great work as many have said. It's an impressive setup and an illustration of thoughtful and detailed craftsmanship in getting it put together.

I've been looking your desgn too long thinking about the safetyhub. If I'm right the only reason for using it is to keep less wires going to the positive of your battery. The solar, dc/dc and ac/dc units can all go to your aux battery postive terminal directly - no?. The problem is if you did, you'd simply have too much going to that terminal and the safetyhub keeps it clean and organized. Is that the idea? And I guess the other benefit is that you'd have each power source fused properly within that hub making it cleaner on that point as well.

If yes, then looking at the other side (from the saftetyhub to power consumers in the van), in theory you could simply buy a 12v fuse block. You'd not have the switches to turn off the fridge etc as you have, but otherwise it would function the same way. Correct? All the devices would trickle draw so you couldn't turn them off while the van was in use but otherwise could turn the whole van aux system ''off' at the aux battery shut off. Is that right too?

I've already bought most of the components but am just trying to understand how i could simplify the use of the safetyhub and a fuse block. I don't think I'll be adding a trickle charger to the setup nor porpex. But otherwise my system should be very similar.

My last thought is why did you opt for the CO2 detector you did vs a traditional house detector. Simply to not worry about replacing batteries every year?

Thanks in advance for your time. And again, very impressive.

[Vanuber]

[openroad65]

Thanks for the feedback. I'll probably come back to you with a few more questions as I get closer to assembly. Much appreciated.