Contemplations...

When this project first started I played around with SketchUp and did some rough 3D modeling of a few layout ideas. It drastically changed from those first ones, but I never did stick with the design and drawing side of things. With my old drafting background, I really should have. Instead, the whole project design has been in my head, aside from a few sketches to work out details, or remember solutions. This has been great in allowing flexibility as I go, but has also managed to impede progress when I really have no idea what's coming next. Or what happens more often, when I get overwhelmed with all the different things that need to happen next, and then figuring out what order it all needs to happen. Argh!

So sometimes you just have to sit back, relax, and absorb the ideas that emanate from the project itself. This was the end of September, a bit over three months of BoB time. We had settled on the overall layout, so no problems there aside from some fine tuning. The blue tape you see on the plywood is the planned layout for the 80/20 aluminum structure for the floor construction. I modeled my flooring build almost directly from Dave Orton (Graphite Dave) on the Sprinter and Transit forums. Actually, much of the overall build and the plan to make extensive use of 80/20 came from Dave, and from Geek's adventure van build over at ADVRider. Great inspirations, both of them.


The other thing that had been consuming my contemplation time was what to do about batteries.

I had basically settled on using the 'standard' of AGM batteries, and knew that we wanted a decent amount of capacity since we would be getting a large fridge and experimenting with a 12v a/c unit. I wanted at least 100ah of usable capacity, for an AGM this meant at least 200ah rated capacity. And this means a lot of lead. Looking at either two 6V batteries or one BIG 12V battery, anywhere from 130 to 160 pounds. And with the size required I didn't really have a good place to put them inside, so I was looking at mounting under the chassis. Not a problem, I thought, as folks have been doing that for years in the land of Sprinter conversions. So, mock up things up with cardboard again and see what I can come up with.

 

Holding the box in place with tape measures while getting the ground clearance at the same time. Worked quite well.

It really would tuck up there quite well, not too worried about the ground clearance as I don't intend to be flying around offroad.

Hangs down just below the hanger for the rear leaf springs. This could work.


But it didn't.


It cost a good chunk more, but we ended up going with a lithium battery instead. Acquired again from AM Solar. They had a battery kit including the battery cells, wiring, and BMS (battery monitoring system).  About a month after this mockup I drove down to AM Solar again and picked up 200ah of lithium batteries. It was less than half the size the large AGM would have been, and only weighed in about 60 pounds total, while giving over 160ah usable capacity since you can take them down to 20% or less, compared to the standard 50% draw for lead batteries. More to come on this as we enter the wiring stage in a little bit.