New camper build on F550

[gregmchugh]

Made small doors that allow for access to electrical areas simple and secure. Latches to get changed out with ones that lock to keep it safe.

Safe from what?

 

[HAF]

Doors freely hinge down for access to 120 volt and 12 volt circuits. The rear of the Blue Sea AC breaker panel has live 120 volts power going to each breaker.

 

[gregmchugh]

Doors freely hinge down for access to 120 volt and 12 volt circuits. The rear of the Blue Sea AC breaker panel has live 120 volts power going to each breaker.

Okay...

Are you going with an AGM or Lithium battery bank? How much solar?

 

[HAF]

I have two 200 AH AGM batteries and 800 watts of solar. The Mastervolt system I have installed works with lithium. I made the battery box large enough to install large Lithium batteries. I want to try the AGM batteries first to see if they can keep up. I have a 6 gallon 120 volt water heater that has a heat exchanger for the Espar hydronic being installed. I also have a 120 volt induction cook top. So shower in the morning and cook eggs for breakfast. Will see.

 

[gregmchugh]

I have two 200 AH AGM batteries and 800 watts of solar. The Mastervolt system I have installed works with lithium. I made the battery box large enough to install large Lithium batteries. I want to try the AGM batteries first to see if they can keep up. I have a 6 gallon 120 volt water heater that has a heat exchanger for the Espar hydronic being installed. I also have a 120 volt induction cook top. So shower in the morning and cook eggs for breakfast. Will see.

Any other charge source? Engine alternator, generator?

 

[HAF]

Any other charge source? Engine alternator, generator?

I have a 2000 watt Honda genny that feeds into a 30 amp shore power circuit. Will be installing a Blue Sea solenoid to allow charging with truck engine.

 

[gregmchugh]

I have a 2000 watt Honda genny that feeds into a 30 amp shore power circuit. Will be installing a Blue Sea solenoid to allow charging with truck engine.

Looks good.

The main disadvantage of AGM (besides weight penalty) is the long absorption charge phase to get the batteries to full charge which is needed to be done regularly. 800 Watts solar should typically get you 200-280 AH of charging per day. Don’t worry too much about the rule about only discharging AGM to 50%, this is not really the whole story. There is no significant penalty to discharges to 20% as long as you get them back to full charge regularly. The AGM batteries have a lifetime limit of AH discharge and there is not much penalty to go past 50% discharge in getting this lifetime AH. If you are not going to get to full charge when camped with solar then run the generator in the morning to handle the bulk charge phase and then let the solar do the absorption charge the rest of the day.

We have 1000 watts solar and 720 AH of lithium and induction cooktop and electric oven and typically only need to run our generator in very cloudy conditions or when we run our air conditioning. We do have diesel heat and hot water (Webasto Dual Top) so we do not use battery power to heat water.

 

[HAF]

Looks good.

The main disadvantage of AGM (besides weight penalty) is the long absorption charge phase to get the batteries to full charge which is needed to be done regularly. 800 Watts solar should typically get you 200-280 AH of charging per day. Don’t worry too much about the rule about only discharging AGM to 50%, this is not really the whole story. There is no significant penalty to discharges to 20% as long as you get them back to full charge regularly. The AGM batteries have a lifetime limit of AH discharge and there is not much penalty to go past 50% discharge in getting this lifetime AH. If you are not going to get to full charge when camped with solar then run the generator in the morning to handle the bulk charge phase and then let the solar do the absorption charge the rest of the day.

We have 1000 watts solar and 720 AH of lithium and induction cooktop and electric oven and typically only need to run our generator in very cloudy conditions or when we run our air conditioning. We do have diesel heat and hot water (Webasto Dual Top) so we do not use battery power to heat water.

Thanks for chiming in. I am looking for a good balance of AH and recharging. The weight however is an issue. The batteries I have are very heavy.

 

[gregmchugh]

Thanks for chiming in. I am looking for a good balance of AH and recharging. The weight however is an issue. The batteries I have are very heavy.

We have a complete Mastervolt system including our lithium batteries but the batteries are expensive...

 

[HAF]

Mastervolt is high quality electrical. Getting the Easy View set up.

 

[gregmchugh]

Mastervolt is high quality electrical. Getting the Easy View set up.

Yes, our Mastervolt is set up as a complete system with the Lithium batteries communicating with the rest of the system to control charging. System also controls starting and stopping our Onan generator when needed. Pretty nice set up...

 

[HAF]

More details.

 

[RAM5500 CAMPERTHING]

More details.

Love you attention to detail! Great work!

 

[ITTOG]

Automated the cab over roof with a pair of synchronized actuators.

More details.

Great work. It looks really nice.

Can you speed up the actuators? It seems painfully slow.

What are the dimensions of the cabover. it looks really long.

 

[HAF]

The actuators are single speed-slow but less than a minute to full open. There are options for faster actuators, however they tend to draw more amps. Inside of cab over is 80" long. Its the camera setting that make it look long.