How to Wire your Camper Van to be Off-Grid

45 thoughts on “How to Wire your Camper Van to be Off-Grid”

• YOUR QUESTIONS ANSWERED HERE – Please read this first.
  This video is always going to bring up a lot of questions so to avoid having to answer the same question lots of times I’ll post the most common answers here for you.
  1. Why have you not got a split charge relay? A. AGM batteries do not like the voltages given out by your alternator and if you want to charge the leisure battery while driving you really need to fit a battery to battery charger.
  2. Why have you connect the red and black cable on your solar panels. A. These are wired in series so it is correct to have them connected this way. Please watch my solar panel installation video for more detailed information.
  3. You have not connected a load to your MPPT charge controller. A. This connection is for small load use only say just to power some lights. You could not connect 50A of appliances to these terminals.
  4. You have not connect this system to your van body. A. The van body is not an earth it is used by your auto electrics as a neutral. I personally do not advise using the van body as a neutral for your leisure system. My mains earth is connected back to my hook up socket and I always check with a plug tester when connecting to shore power.
  5. How can I size my cable and fuses. A. To work out the amps required use this calculation Watts / Volts = Amps. For fuses take your max amps figure and add 25% for safety. That is your fuse size. Then add at least another 25% and choose a cable bigger than that rating.
  6. The interconnecting cables between batteries need to be rated for the sum of all your connected loads assuming that there may be running all at the same time.

  I will update this pinned comment if I get lots of other questions if you can find your answers below please do leave me a message. I do love reading all your comments whatever they may be. Thank you 😊

• Hi Greg thank you so much! Your wiring diagram has been such a great help. May I ask how I’d go about adding a second blade fuse holder? Regards Jack

• Hi Greg,

  Hope you all doing well I really want get in contact with you even for just couple minutes as I do have couple questions to ask man really appreciate it many thanks for your time in advance

• Greg thank you soo much for making an electronic dummie understand so well I get it !!!! It’s not as hard as it looks Great job of explaining Thank you👍👍👍

• I'm considering buying the 50amp breakers that are used in your design however Amazon and eBay sell them cheaply but the reviews are very poor. Some retailers of 12v products also sell them but quite a lot more but they could still be the cheap and poorly made items as well. Is there particular makes that are of higher quality or are they all made in the same factory in China?

• Hi tha is but if I run a 6mm cable ie solar cable too a 20 amp controller and run a 15amp fuse that should be ok do you think kind regards

• Hi Greg your van build series has been my bible throughout my own conversion which will be complete within the next week or two. Just a quick question regarding the earth cables on the mains/shore RCD consumer unit. Do I just connect the earth cables from the RCD and MCBs to the common earth bar in the unit or do I also need to run a jumper earth cable from the common earth bar within the unit to one of the screws that fix the metal consumer unit to the wall. Hope that makes sense.
  Thanks for putting it out there👍🙏🍀

• Hi there I thought that the fuse size should be lower than the amp rating of the appliance so the fuse would pop before the cable burnt ,so iam confused

• Great clear explanation.
  Tnx 🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼

• Thank you. I’ve been struggling with this. This explains everything perfectly. Best video on YouTube about this topic.

• What size controller would I need for my 375 watt solar panel thanks

• How do I find out the information about my solar panel I have bought a truck with one fitted but dont know much about it hope you can help

• Great video.
  What size controller would be required for 700w solar panels. ie:- 4 @175w each?

• 16mm is what gauge ?

• a question? if I was to add wind power as an alteria source of power would I just conext the rotor to the charge controller and would the rest be the same?

• Brilliant video. So nicely explained. Thank you. 😊

• Thanks Greg, this is really useful. You've just gained a subscriber!

• I recommend a higher spec cable to USB outlets. If modern USB outlets with power delivery are installed they can potentially draw as much power as the fridge. Power delivery is useful to charge any USB-C laptop or phone. The trend is that more chargeable stuff will use power delivery in the future. My Satechi 72W cigarette lighter -> USB-C power delivery charger is very useful when traveling.

• Hello Greg, thanks for your video.i am setting-up a portable 24v, 8000w ac in my m1078 stewart and stevenson truck.i intend to use solar power. Hope you can help.

• Hi Greg hope you well. Can you recommend a 12v charger for hook up

• Great video! Can we use a bar to collect all positives on it including 3000 watt inverter? Is there any problem to do it so? Thanks

• Did you fit a DC to DC charger? If not, what reason do you have?

• Many thanks Greg, great info!

• Thanks for all your fantastic videos Greg! Wondered if I could ask you a quick question;
  We have a 35 amp solar charge controller for a 495 watt panel, would 16mm cable be sufficient to connect the charge controller to the battery or do we need a thicker cable? Van electrics are very new to us so thanks in advance! 😎😊

• Very straightforward video, thumbs up. Just one note: All laptops and many new monitors and TVs have separate power source (transformer) which typically supplies something like 12V or 16V DC to the appliance. It's not smart to run an invertor to get 220V and then power a transformer to get back 12V. Even if you need 16V, you can get for like €8 a DC converter (remember to size based on required amps) which will do the job without all the conversion loses. Unless you want to use the generated heat to warm up a bit your cabin or RV 🙂

• Greg, I saved your video 3 months ago and is rewatching it again…its so good. Question is whether you have any upgrade to the equipment and sizing since then? Thanks

• This video is just perfect! Thank you Greg.

• Fantastic simple explanation. Thank you so much.

• Thanks Greg for a brilliantly informative and easy to follow video along with all the others in your van build series. I'm probably never going to embark on my own conversion as I really don't have the skills to make a good job of it. But at least I know where to come to if I ever do decide to bite the bullet. Thanks 🙂

• Hi Greg, I have been reading about some people having problems with the max air fans due to the charging currents often getting into the high 13,s and low 14’s. Since your battery charger and solar panels will reach this have you thought about regulating the voltage or do you not see a problem? I am just about to start my wiring and the max air issue popped up which has made me wait a little. Thought if there was a problem you would have probably solved it hence why I ask you 😀 cheers, ggparry

• Hello Greg,
  Thank you very much for this video! This is by far the best video (and explanation) I've found on the internet. I didn't understand anything of how electricity works , but now I understand completely how it works and how I have to install it! Thanks for that!!

• Brilliant, thanks!

• Subscribed purely because of this video, kudos 👍

• Cheers more money blew on the wirring lol

• Thanks mate. Really good video.

• Thx GREG!!!! Very nice discruption

• Extremely informative and very east to understand! Thank you!

• Hi Greg, watched your vids, and am well informed, thank you very much, just one thing I am missing, you dont show your altenater, supplying charge, whilst driving. Interested in your reply to me. Regards John , Subscriber.

• Excellent description thx

• Fantastic Greg clear and very easy to follow. Think I can manage to wire my own van after watching this video 👍🏻

• I have a feeling I have been very fortunate in finding your channel so early into my interest in building a camper… what a channel this looks to be, exactly what I need

• Very, very, very instructional. I learned a lot of things I didn't know before. Thanks.

• Another great, informative video Greg! I just have one question.. I plan on using a solar charging station (eco river pro 700w with additional battery and eco delta 1800w, 3200 surge). Where do I start? I understand everything except how the station (or 2) would be hooked up. Do you have a video on this topic? Thanks for any help you can provide 😊

• Great video, thatnks for the explination it all makes sense now! I notice you've not included an earth bar/point, is this not necessary for this system?

• Hi Greg, great video….how about if you want the batteries to be charged by the car alternator?

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