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Interesting Camper Bob.

Every experienced full timer I have ever met has always said to never put any holes in your roof.  After fighting my roof vents in previous vans I have to agree.  I got my bed drenched once when the rain sensor failed, and again when the wind ripped off my closed roof vent lid.  My floor was soggy for months when a front vent decided to start leaking, only 2 weeks after it was professionally installed.  Took until summer to get it dried out.

As a way of balancing up the gloomy voice in this forum, a survey of 13 full time van life builders I conducted, showed that after two years, none at any leaks in their van at all. 100% leak free!

Of those 13, 2 had leaks after initial install, but before insulation. After adding more sealant, no worries.

100% of the 13 most notable YouTube published video bloggers have no leaks in their roof vents.

What were their top tips?
- Prepare the surface with a rubbing alcohol
- Use lot's of sealant tape
- Use a bit more silicon to cover all screw heads, mounts etc.
- Test the seal a couple of days after install with a hose. Try to make it leak.
- If there are any leaks, identify them then, add more sealant.

These are the vanlife builders I surveyed. All have a specific video dealing with their van build, and most have a specific video about roof van installation.

David Sandel
The Restoration Couple
Van Derlust
Brett Currie
The Restoration Couple
Will Burston
Kenetube
Aves Sin Rumbo
Tyler Finlay
Leftcoast
KiteVanMan
Vince Amendola
The  Bradfords

Enjoy your new roof fan vent!




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Explosive risk? Jumping at shadows a bit I think. It's like saying I won't fly in an airplane because not everyone has landed safely. 99.9% of the time they land without incident. 5 iphones i've had, never had one explode in my pocket in over 10 years.

I agree on the new battery thing. Did you have to recondition your junkyard deep-cycle agm?


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My guess is, if you have calculated your system at 12V, I'm guessing you'll need to divide the Ah/3.2V to get a relative value.

e.g.
160Ah/3.2V ~= 50Ah or
160Ah @ 3.2V x 4 ~= 12.8V

So there's that downside of choosing 3.2V for a 12V system.

If any of this calc is incorrect, apologies, just learning.

Has anyone used Winston Lithium batteries in A van? Are they any good? Why wouldn't they be suitable for solar setups?

I came across them here while looking for used hybrid car batteries.

They come in a great range of Ah sizes, are LiFePO4 type cells (Lithium Iron Phosphate) and are really quite small and light. Most of all the are only 15% of the cost of premium lithium batteries. I must be missing something?

http://www.evworks.com.au/battery-systems/

Prices in AUD:

3.2V
1000Ah = $1800
700Ah = $1260
400Ah = $720
300Ah = $540
200Ah = $360
160Ah = $288
90Ah = $162
60Ah = $108
40Ah = $72

12V
90Ah = $672
60Ah = $448
40Ah = $448

In the 3.2V range, I was wondering if connecting 4 together to make 12V would work? Do I need a special solar charge controller?

I wanted to share and hear the pro's and con's from those who know more about this than I do, or if you've installed them, how well have they worked for you?




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Oooh, interesting Hannah. Thanks for the post. I can't see a price on your website?


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Lithium, while super pricey, will easily get you your 600Ah in a small, lightweight form. The added bonus of the lithium form factor is, for the weight and volume, you can use almost all the stored power. AGM's while cheap, only give you 50% usable of the label Ah.

It's going to take me 6 months to save up for my 600Ah lithiums, but when it's all done, i'll be able to run 200Ah per day for 3 days in case of poor weather. (Including a couple of hours of aircon if needs be).

Good tip Dan, as always, on the 12V for typically AC loads.


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Shawbags - just not that many people in this closed environment. Insta/YT have a larger audience, better engagement functionality - like their recommendation engines.

"You watched this about insulation, not watch these othef videos about insulation"

Makes it easier to learn more, faster.


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So I was chatted to about 8 exhaust/muffler fabricators today, and got great amounts of good feedback, and enthusiasm. which made a nice change from just thinking ideas on paper.

An idea I've had for a while is a way to put an idea on the table for critique before it's built - rather than - here's the third thing that worked (and filmed), and whammo! Illusion of no mistakes.

Lot of effort spent looking like everything worked the first time.


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Great idea.

I bought a couple of outdated and incomplete 3D models from TurboSquid for design thinking, layout mix-and-match.

They were so inaccurate, I sort of just stopped using them. Now that I'm getting really close to installing components, I have been using an digital laser tape measure.

Having a precise model of every nook and not straight wall of a Sprinter 140/MWB would be awesome.

Seems like keeping all of those models up to date would be a full time job. e.g. I'm in Aus, so RHD version, and 4x4 3.0 L are just so rare.


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Interesting @Camper_Dan - after almost 9 months of research, your comment around there being TWO strategies was the first time I've heard that.

Just to clarify your comment:

"get adequate ventilation to outside[ skin [good strategy] OR you're wicking moisture into the interior [also good]"

Are they two different approaches?



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I've designed a custom stainless steel sink. Like all good van features it has at least three uses.

1200mm x 900mm x 120mm

Has anyone had any experience with welding and finishing a sink?

I want to make it non-slip, so was thinking some sort of rubberised paint like PlastiDip, but not sure how well that might go with cleaning mould etc.

Just a post to start some thoughts.


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I have plans for magnet attached roof and side windows with think insulation, and blackout purposes.

I got in touch with Webasto in Sydney - each Hollandia 100 is about $700ea installed with a warranty.


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I'm looking at squeezing 4 Hollandia 100's on my Sprinter MWB HR. Can't find a price of the part or installed. Anyone in the world bought these, got a ballpark figure?

Pop-up Hollandia 100


Plan


The other items are two Maxxfan Deluxe and two Gowe 200W flex solar panels.


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Hi Camper Dan, what are you building?


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