Electrical

The heart of every camper van is the electrical system. With the latest battery technology you can have all the comforts of home off grid. As long as you can keep gas in the tank, you can keep electrons in the battery bank. Every van is different, so every electrical system we build is designed to meet the specific use cases of each customer. We publish our full build wire diagrams on our site and we have parts lists for each system on our Amazon Storefront. As always, if you need help from a pro, send an email to john@coadventurevans to get the conversation started. There are a ton of useful resources these days to make sure you never run out of juice on the road. Here are some of the things we’ve found helpful in our off-grid electrical journey:

The battery is the base of your system. Use a load calculator (link) to find out how much power you need (better to overbuld than underbuild). Here are some of the batteries we use the most.

Victron 24v 200Ah Battery (link) - explanation
Epoch 12v 460Ah (link) - explanation
Renogy option (link) - explanation
LiTime option (link) - explanation
Plan for CAV Off-grid trailer (link) - explanation

The inverter converts your 12v,24v, or 48v power into 120v power for your traditional style outlets. 120v power can also be used for water heaters, air conditioners, and blah. We usually install inverter chargers that charge the batteries from shore power and pass grid power directly to the 120v loads. Here are some of the inverter/chargers we have used in the past and some places you can buy them:

Victron 2000 and 3000W - amazon link, inverters R US, Trek Systems

Xantrex -link

Abso - link

Renogy 2000 and 3000W - amazon link, renogy site link

Solar blah blah

Panels: