This is usually the most daunting task for many on van conversions. Mostly because it requires the highest level of technical knowledge and also the higher risk of catastrophic failure if done incorrectly. You should definitely sit down and research your system before starting and I recommend creating a full wiring schematic to use in the installation to prevent any mishaps.

The Electrical / Solar Plan

Step 1: Research

One of the most time-consuming parts of the electrical system is researching the system demands, components, and determining how to build the complete electrical system. There are a number of other great tools and resources online that are worth your time if you really wanted to know the ins and outs of how electrical systems work so I won’t attempt to replicate them here. Below are a few sources to get you started though.

Blue Sea Circuit Wizard – Has a good tool to calculate the wire size needed for the DC system.

Electrical System Design (FarOutRide) – These guys did a great job of researching and documenting electrical information. Worth a read.

Ford Transit USA Forum – Has lots of van conversions, electrical diagrams and knowledgeable people who have also been down this path already.

I should note that I wasn’t coming into this project blind as I’ve had plenty of experience doing electrical work in residential and commercial applications as well as numerous automotive projects.

Step 2: Planning & Goal Setting

It’s important to document what equipment you will have permanently and temporarily in the vehicle and how much power they will draw on a 24-hour basis. This gives you an idea of how much total power storage is needed without and power generation available (i.e. no solar, shore power, engine running, etc.) 

I would advise always going with the highest yield numbers that you calculate to add in some buffer. Once you know this then you can begin looking into battery types and sizes that fit the bill.

Step 3: Creating our Wiring/System Diagram

It’s worth the time to layout the entire wiring diagram before buying or installing any of your system. This gives you the opportunity to correctly get a parts list and double check all of your assumptions. There are plenty of tools that you can use to create a wiring diagram but what you use is not as important as the content.

After deciding what main components were needed (inverter, solar controller, solar panels, fuse panel, etc.) we could then begin laying out the system. At this stage, we began to fill in the gaps for fuses, switches, and breakers where it made the most sense to separate power and ensure safety.

There is definitely a wrong way to do electrical and the consequences are high if severely botched so be sure to do your own research and understand how fuses, breakers, and your primary system components work. It’s also very important that you calculate the correct minimum wire sizes needed for the length of the wire run and the amount of power that it needs to support. Check out the Blue Sea Circuit Wizard for assistance on this calculation.

Disclaimer: This is how we chose to build our electrical system but we are not licensed electricians and take no responsibility for others who choose to replicate anything that we have done. This is not a installation guide.

Step 4: Ordering Components

Once our research was done and our wiring plans complete we could start the expensive endeavor of ordering all of the parts we would need. Below are a lot of the primary components that we ordered.

Step 5: Installation

Details coming soon…

Our Experience

Performance

The system works better than we hoped. We’ve had the system in for a full year now and have never dropped our battery below 70%, never blew a fuse or breaker and never received any alarms from any of our equipment. It simply just works and we are super pleased about that.

We can easily go for days with no shore power or driving to charge our system as long as we get good sun coverage for the solar. Our typical travel style though usually has us driving every day or two though so the batteries get topped off constantly from the alternator.

In Retrospect

This was a daunting process of reading and reading and reading… You get the point. There are lots of options and components that you can go with so it’s easy to get sucked into the abyss of decision paralysis. Currently, the performance and simplicity of the systems operations are meeting our needs.

After a few really cold nights in the van at campgrounds where shore power was accessible we decided to add an extra 110v outlet inside the van that ran directly to the shore power inlet breaker panel. This allows us to plug in a small electric space heater and bypass the inverter and DC system to reduce strain when access to shore power is available. It was a simple addition and we will likely use it several times in the winter months when staying in campgrounds that have electric access or until we decide to install something like a webasto heater.

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