Thought I’d share this aerial view of Piccaninny Gorge. I trekked up this Purnululu NP gorge in 2022 which was a tough but wonderfully satisfying journey.
#rockwallaby
#purnululu
#sprinter4x4
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| On the ground |
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| From the air |
A few of my favourite images along the way:
Hi guys, this engineer never stops!
One of the annoying issues with campervan/RVs is the parasitic drain modern electrical systems place on the vehicle battery. Mercedes Sprinters are notorious for this and to date I have been juggling a small 10W solar panel connected directly to the vehicle battery.
Necessarily, the only connection between the house batteries (LiFePO) and the vehicle battery (AGM) is one direction so that the vehicle alternator can charge the house batteries but power cannot go the other way.
This is not a big problem if the vehicle is being run every few days on a trip. I actually carry a small regulated solar blanket for trips where I am likely to stay in one position for a week or so.
The real problem occurs when the vehicle is parked up in my yard. The little solar panel is not enough over an extended period so I open the door to a loud warning ‘bing’ and “start the engine” message on the dash.
Enter the engineer… why can’t I use the solar panel on the roof somehow?
The solar panel feeds the house batteries via a DCDC converter and they are perpetually full as nothing is being used while parked up. All I need is another smaller DCDC converter between the house batteries and the vehicle battery.
So I did some online research and found a reasonably priced smaller sized unit at itechworld where I bought my house batteries and ACDC charger. Went to have a chat and totally confused the salesperson as I was attempting to use the product for a novel purpose. In the end the critical number was how many volts it required to initialise. House batteries are at 13.4v when full and the trigger point was 13.1v.
After some discussion on being able to return it jic I bit the bullet and bought one. I already had anderson connectors for both the vehicle and house batteries beside the passenger seat so it took 2 minutes to connect for a trial run.
Well… it works perfectly. No more ‘BING’🙂
Follow me for more useful advice with your Mercedes campervan/RV (this one applies to most makes)
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| Comes with 50A Anderson connectors plus a lighter plug as an option |
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| Trial connection to existing access points ‘H’ for house |
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| Up and running |
Hello followers and visitors. Please bear with me as it will take some time to populate previous adventure stories from FB to here. There’s a LOT of work to do.
In the meantime I will continue to post new contemporary stuff here and link them back to my FB page. All the old stuff will be categorised, tagged and listed under the ‘Adventure Albums’ list on the right side of the web based view (link near bottom of mobile view). Unfortunately I haven’t successfully found a way to include them on the mobile view.
This removes the risk of FB changing their platform again to scupper my blog (again). Image handling is a bit long winded (no nesting as yet) . Maybe I can find a relatively simple html work around . In the meantime enjoy, like, and follow.
One consequence of getting the second spare out of the boot was how to lift the wheel on/off the frame. I’m neither tall nor strong and generally travel solo. I used to use a ramp to roll it out of the boot.
My engineering brain kicked in and came up with a ‘drop in davit’ concept. The Weldbeat frames have a hollow upright as the primary member so I reckoned a steel tube would drop inside. All I needed to do was run some numbers on diameter and wall thickness to find a suitable tube.
Anyway it turns out 38mm OD exhaust pipe met the criteria with a safe working load of 40kg. The wheel weighs 25kg. I engaged an exhaust specialist to bend a section of pipe. I then fitted back to back exhaust clamps to provide the depth stopper and two eye bolts to hang a four part tackle arrangement. No welding required.
It works well and only weighs 5kg all up. I’m chuffed as it helps with the fuel can on the other side.
PS: I proof load tested it by hanging off it myself (78kg)
PPS: I centred the wheel lift by adding a soft sling threaded through the rim holes rather than hooking the carabiner to them.
#sprinter4x4 #rockwallaby
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| Full rig |
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| Rig in place on cargo side |
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| Wheel lift |
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| Fuel can lift |
Yo there dear followers. As most of you know summer is my ‘other passion time’ 🏍️
That doesn’t stop me continuing to rearrange, improve or reinforce stuff in La Bestia. In fact having such a vehicle is a continuous improvement program. Always thinking of making it better for next time…
Indeed that has been happening in the background since my return in November.
Modification #1
Install a turnbuckle arrangement to support the microwave which decided to sag during the Big Loop (after a barrage of hyper corrugated roads).
Modification #2
Add tyre and cargo racks to the rear end. I bought these on line while in Katherine after seeing another Sprinter with them fitted at Pentecost River xing. A little bit nerve wracking having to drill through the door panels but turned out well in the end.
The tyre rack gets the second spare out of the boot and is more accessible in times of need. The cargo rack is a base unit to which I have fitted a truck lock box and a fuel carrier. The truck box carries the bits and pieces required to perform a wheel change without having to dig around inside the boot.
I have both single and twin fuel can carriers that can be installed. This gets fuel out of the boot space. In addition I can fit a carrier for a spare 4kg lpg bottle above the fuel can for really remote longer duration trips. Mind you I only use lpg for hot water as I am up to speed with induction cooking powered by the sun/batteries.
I’m quite pleased at how it has turned out. The extra space in the boot is welcome. First test will be a short trip around the Murchison/Gascoyne with my daughter in April/May.
PS: I have also developed a bike rack to get it out of the boot as well.
#sprinter4x4
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| Turnbuckle supporting the microwave |
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| Weldbeat frames in place, wheel mounted |
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| Truck lockbox in place |
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| Single fuel can carrier in place |
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| Dirty bag & spare lpg fitted |
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| Wheel change gear in the lockbox |
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| Bike rack fitted |
Let’s talk electricals for remote off grid travel.
The two most influential questions are:
1 Do I need / want the functionality?
2 What power source?
I had decided on lpg for hot water and cooking although I’ve ended up using the induction cooktop supplemented by butane cookers as they are more versatile for outdoor cooking and the spin off is that the lpg is saved for hot water duties. This is important as the gas bottle is limited to 3.7kg. The induction cooktop is fantastic in the wind.
12v, 18v or inverter driven 240v?
12v
All lighting,
Fridge,
Diesel heater fan,
Cooking area exhaust fan,
Ensuite exhaust fan/light & toilet,
House cooling fan,
Water pump,
Bar fridge,
HEPA filter,
Vacuum sealer,
Electric blanket,
Fuel transfer pump,
Water transfer pump,
Back up compressor,
TV (rarely carried).
18v Ozito
Chainsaw,
Hammer drill,
Impact wrench,
Reciprocating saw,
Blower,
Side grinder,
Vacuum,
Spotlight.
240v via 1600/1800W inverter (twin 120Ah LiFePo batteries each capable of 150A continuous discharge)
Air compressor, 550W
Ozito battery charger, 70W
Microwave, 1000W
Pizza oven, 2*650W switchable elements
Induction cooktop, 1100-1350W
Kettle, 1000W
Toaster 750W
Mini air fryer 900W
Heat gun, 1600W (electrical repairs)
Stick mixer, 200W
Soldering iron, 40W
My DCDC charger can take up to 600W of solar input with 200W fixed panel on the roof plus two direct input points on the outside of the van. This means I can bypass the panel controller and feed raw power into my central DCDC charger.
I carry:
2x100W Voltech fixed panels the same as the roof panel to which I added fold out legs. These run high voltage and are very efficient,
120W Kings fold up mat c/w regulator to charge the vehicle battery on long stays
NB I have tried quite a few portable fold out units but most run max voltage of 18.6V whereas the Voltech run at 23.4v and the Kings mats 19.2v. It’s best to match voltages for efficiency therefore my Voltech gets used the most. It’s also the lightest and easiest to set up.
As always, questions welcome.
#vanlife #rockwallaby #sprinter4x4
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| 12v HEPA filter |
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| 12v Brass monkey 15L bar fridge |
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| 18v Ozito tools |
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| 240v compressor |
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| 240v pizza oven |
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| 240v Ozito charger |
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| 240v microwave |
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| 240v induction hot plate |
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| 240v kettle |
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| 240v soldering iron |
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| 240v stick mixer |
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| 240v heat gun |
One issue common with RV fridges in Australia is the heat build up. I had a look at various commercially available kits and decided to DIY.
I purchased two computer box maglev fans from Jaycar and wired them into the existing 12v fridge circuit complete with their own 3A fuse. Cable tied them to the inside of the existing passive vent grill.
Works a treat. Warmer air is now being extracted from the ‘space’.
#vanlife #rockwallaby #sprinter4x4
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| 2 maglev fans on back of fridge vent |
And there she is folks. Now upgraded to 2*120Ah LiFePo house batteries.
Everything works as expected.
Some fine tuning to the DCDC charging algorithm to match the battery specs and find a location for the smoke detector.
2*100Ah AGM batteries (build date June 2020) and a Dometic 25A ACDC charger going cheap…
#vanlife #rockwallaby
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| System completed |
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| Battery covers on |
Old batteries out. Yikes they were heavy.
Clean up of locker done.
Some more foam to seal gaps.
DC/DC charger cleaned out.
New Batteries in.
Fit up of new AC/DC charger done.
Positive wiring routed and connected.
Tomorrow:
Re-Fit AC/DC charger.
Re-Fit DC/DC charger.
Connect negative wiring.
Fit battery covers.
Reset DC/DC charger for LiFePo
Test and confirm all relevant functions.
Fit extra smoke detector nearby.
Beer n pizza
#vanlife #rockwallaby #sprinter4x4
The time has come my friends to change over from lead-acid technology to LiFePo. The original 2x 100Ah agm batteries are now 2.5years old and pricing for lithium replacements has become rather attractive in terms of life cycles. 4000 full depth cycles is a lot( >daily for 10 years!).
I have opted for itech 120Ah batteries which drop into the same battery boxes as the old ones. I save around 30kg of payload as well. They can be drawn down to 100% of capacity compared to 50% for lead-acid. This is ideal for me as I am mostly off grid.
Another advantage is that they can discharge at high amps (150A@12.8v = 1800W each) to easily drive my inverter. The old ones needed to be fully charged to run my pizza oven and even then i had to top up with the engine running to ensure sufficient power remained for the fridge overnight. Moving to induction hob cooking will also be easier.
I did need to invest in a more suitable AC/DC LiFePo charger but that was expected.
Here are the new bits. Next step fitment.
#vanlife #rockwallaby #sprinter4x4
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| Two 120Ah LiFePO batteries and a 240v charger |
I’ve been a bit quiet of late since returning from Italy and I thought folks might be interested in the gear that I carry as mechanical consumables, spares, tools and repairs.
I have a spreadsheet inventory for everything in the van. Two 62L tuff crates in the boot act as primary storage augmented by a dedicated tool hatch inside under the slide out table. Most electrical gear is kept under the passenger seat.
My power tools of choice are good old Bunnings 18v Ozito. A battery charger is mounted permanently in the boot and plugs into the inverter circuit when mains isn’t available (mostly where I go).
*chainsaw
*impact drill
*125mm grinder
*reciprocating saw
*blower
My onboard compressor is 240v 750W with a small tank which is much more efficient and quieter than 12v units.
I’ve been a bit quiet of late since returning from Italy and I thought folks might be interested in the gear that I carry as mechanical consumables, spares, tools and repairs.
I have a spreadsheet inventory for everything in the van. Two 62L tuff crates in the boot act as primary storage augmented by a dedicated tool hatch inside under the slide out table. Most electrical gear is kept under the passenger seat.
My power tools of choice are good old Bunnings 18v Ozito. A battery charger is mounted permanently in the boot and plugs into the inverter circuit when mains isn’t available (mostly where I go).
*chainsaw
*impact drill
*125mm grinder
*reciprocating saw
*blower
My onboard compressor is 240v 750W with a small tank which is much more efficient and quieter than 12v units.
#vanlife
#sprinter4x4
Thought I’d share this aerial view of Piccaninny Gorge. I trekked up this Purnululu NP gorge in 2022 which was a tough but wonderfully sati...
