Having worked up a design and installed the battery, isolator and circuit breakers I managed to get the last few bits finished off over the last few weeks.
Inside, the plan was:
• 12V to power our fridge
• 3 x 5V USB outlets
• Mains power via a 300W inverter
• A meter to monitor the battery’s voltage
All this will be powered by an Optima YTS4.2L deep cycle battery capable of delivering 55Ah. Theoretically, this should mean a couple of days of refrigeration without having to worry about charging the battery.
The big head-scratcher with this little job was deciding where to put all the bits and pieces: fuse box, switch panel, usb sockets, meter and inverter. I think the ideal would have been to have the switch panel somewhere in and around the dashboard and the fuse box somewhere else, but that would have drastically increased the amount of wiring required. My aim was to keep things as simple and accessible as possible so instead I opted to build a small shelf and tuck it up underneath the sleeping platform on the passenger side.
The USB outlets came from eBay (http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/391213577375), as did the voltage meter (http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/252243291810).
On the inverter-front, first of all I purchased a 300W 12V->240V pure sine inverter from a Chinese seller on eBay. The second I hit the ‘pay now’ button I regretted my idiotic cost saving attempt – a device that deals with high current electricity is no place to be skimping! Luckily, 3 or 4 weeks passed and there was no sign of the inverter so I got a refund from eBay and ordered a decent quality model – the Cotek 300W 12V->100V pure sine. I can’t speak for long term robustness as yet, but the Cotek feels like a quality item.
With all the bits and pieces in hand, I set about making a shelf and control panel. The final result has a kind of rustic charm about it, but should do the job.
My original plan was to mount the inverter on the platform with the fuse box, but once I had it in hand I quickly realised it was much too heavy. Instead I mounted it to the bed platform just behind the passenger seat. A infinitely better location – the weight stays low and in the event that it does shake loose it only has a few centimetres to fall.