Posts tagged with “electrical”

Electrical 2: Routing One Wire, Plus Bonus Bed Building

This past weekend was a little rainy, and some electrical bits that I was hoping would arrive by the weekend ended up delayed, so Agent May underwent just a couple of small projects. The first was running a wire from the engine compartment, where it will be connected to the van's main battery, back to our electrical cabinet.

This involved adventures in wiggling around under the van to secure the wire along the chassis:

The underside of a van, showing the chassis frame with a wire, inside a protective tube, fastened along the frame.

And then up through a hole in the floor of the van.

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Electrical 1: Building a Bay for Blue Boxes

By far the most expensive, involved, and lengthy part of this project is the electrical system. It will be able to take in power from the solar panels, from being plugged in to a campground hookup, and from the alternator while the engine is running. That power will then be stored in two large batteries before being used for a variety of devices on both AC and DC circuits. This involves a lot of design and planning, and also a lot of pricey equipment. I'm learning a lot, though!

So... work on the electrical system began with the construction of a cabinet-box-thing to hold most of the equipment on the side of the van. The first step was creating a cardboard template of the curve on the inside of the van, then transferring that onto some 1x12 boards and cutting them out. Then: the first of many test fits!

A board being held perpendicular and vertical against the inside of a cargo van. The board has been cut to follow the contours of the van wall.

Looks good so far.

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