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My (hopefully) quick and (hopefully) cheap conversion.

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Re: My (hopefully) quick and (hopefully) cheap conversion.

Postby Van Winkle » Thu Apr 30, 2015 9:48 pm

Brains_transit wrote:All the carpeting looks really good and those black plastic washers with the caps attached could be an idea for the screws


Like the black number plate screws ? :?
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Re: My (hopefully) quick and (hopefully) cheap conversion.

Postby Van Winkle » Thu Apr 30, 2015 9:53 pm

I like it ........a lot 8)
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Re: My (hopefully) quick and (hopefully) cheap conversion.

Postby Ventura » Mon May 04, 2015 11:08 am

Great posts and pictures! :)
The conversion looks really well so far.

Please keep them coming as its very interesting seeing how you progress




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Re: My (hopefully) quick and (hopefully) cheap conversion.

Postby d.e.hill » Mon May 04, 2015 12:19 pm

Thanks guys!

Been a bit busy over the past few days, and will continue to be for the next few, but hope to have another update mid week.
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Re: My (hopefully) quick and (hopefully) cheap conversion.

Postby bezzabsa » Mon May 04, 2015 8:31 pm

Liking this a lot....... :mrgreen:
Driving a Transit estate...Mondeo 130 Tdci 2002 ;)
Yam Yam from yamyam land ayit ??
Bostin' ay it?
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Re: My (hopefully) quick and (hopefully) cheap conversion.

Postby d.e.hill » Thu May 07, 2015 10:55 am

So life's got in the way over the past few days, so I've only had one day working on the van. Busy, but doesn't look that productive on the face of it as I've been wiring all day!

Day 8

So the first job was to swap the driver seat. The original one was knackered from thousands of fat posties jumping in and out, so I bought replacement on ebay and bolted it in. Easy enough, and was fitted in about 20 mins. In the rain!

Next job was to bolt in all the furniture, which had previously only been set in place. The only important thing here was to make sure I selected screws of the correct length for each task, so I didn't go through the floor of the van, or even worse, the side! I've now got quite a selection from screwfix... While I was at it, I placed the 12V fuse panel where I thought I wanted it.

Anyway, here's what it looked like:

Image

Next job was to tackle the wiring. Now on closer inspection, the bottom of the 12V fuse panel was touching the fridge, and I wasn't happy with this (it has bare connectors on the bottom, and the fridge is metal), so I rotated it 90 degrees and cut a little section of panelling to fill the remaining gap. Doh!

Anyway, I terminated the negatives of all the 12V connections (light, water etc.) in a common earth block (silver at top of next photo), along with the negative from the leisure battery. Then I used a terminal block to connect the positive from the battery to the main positive on the fuse panel. The final job was the connect all the appliance positives to the switch positives through a long strip on terminal blocks (white in the photo below).

The switches are connected to (in order):

1) front 2 spotlights
2) rear 2 spotlights
3) 12V sockets (x2, connected in parallel)
4) water pump (yet to be fitted - other end terminated in a choc block)
5) Fridge
6) blank

Here's the ( albeit messy) rear of the panel:

Image

The panel is a 12V switch panel, with circuit breakers, usually used in the marine industry. Here's what the front looks like (with my embarassing cut-out. I plan to carpet it to disguise it):

Image

Next job was to connect the split charge relay. I used a 12V Durite Voltage Sensing Relay, as these get a great reputation, and only require battery-to-battery wiring (no need to wire from the alternator). Now in some ways the transit made this easy, as the start battery is below the driver's seat, meaning there was no wiring through the main firewall. On the the other hand, cutting the 16mm^2 cable and soldering all the terminations required made it a right pain in the a**e. It's got to be wired in this sequence:

Start battery - Fuse (80A) - Relay - Fuse (80A) - Aux Battery

I chose to terminate the connections in large ring connections that first had to be crimped, then flooded with solder (using a mini blow torch), then heatshrinked. 10 times. Seems like a lot of work, but should give me a safe and efficient split charge system. The system (and aux battery) is stowed below the seat, adjacent to the fridge to keep cable runs short. Here's what it looks like.

Image

And all wired with a temporary battery (note the brown and blue wires supply the fuse panel and are yet to be colour coded):

Image

Finally then, I was able to switch on the spotlights and get a look at the 12V system in all it's majesty!

Image

Image

That's all I got managed on day 8, the next job will be wiring in the 240V side.

I won't get the chance now to do anything for a few days, as I'm out of country, but should have another update in the middle of next week.

As always, comments welcome!
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Re: My (hopefully) quick and (hopefully) cheap conversion.

Postby mrrcarney » Mon May 11, 2015 2:47 am

looking awesome

but why not fit the aux battery under the drivers seat ? its designed to have a second battery under there

I am looking to do this in my t330 after I do my engine conversion
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Re: My (hopefully) quick and (hopefully) cheap conversion.

Postby d.e.hill » Tue May 12, 2015 12:20 am

I didn't think of it, top idea though!

In any event, it's done now and the cable runs are fairly short (2m), so I'm happy.
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Re: My (hopefully) quick and (hopefully) cheap conversion.

Postby knighty1981 » Tue May 12, 2015 11:41 am

you could do with some thicker wires to your fuse panel...

they'll probably be ok with all the led lights and pump on, but if you plug something into the 12v sockets (tyre pump? laptop charger etc..) then there's a good chance they could melt :-o


guessing you're going to wire the 240v inverter direct to the battery with nice big cables ?
(and a fuse)

you could wire it direct to the split charge relay side of your 2nd battery fuse... just means it would be fused at 160amps when the engine is running
(for the 2x80fuses)
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Re: My (hopefully) quick and (hopefully) cheap conversion.

Postby d.e.hill » Tue May 12, 2015 3:15 pm

Hey knighty, thanks for your comments.

I had exactly the same concerns wrt the wiring. If you look at the picture of the back of the fuse panel, however, you'll see the (+) marked flylead from the fuse panel connected through a single taped connector block onto the brown supply from the battery. The flylead is 1.5mm^2, as is the supply lead I've used. I agree this seems light, but there doesn't seem much point in beefing up the supply cable, if the back of the fuse panel is hardwired with lighter cable?

12V planet recommends 1.5mm^2 wiring to carry currents of up to 21A (which, again seems quite high to me). My max load is:

lights - 0.6A
Pump - 2.4A
Fridge - 8A :shock:
Sockets - ?A

This means I have 10A spare (21A-11A) for the sockets before the wires should melt. I guess in practice, this means I'll use the socket in the cab for air compressors etc, and limit the ones in the back of the van to simpler tasks like mobile phone charging. Worth pointing out though that I'm not an electrician, so if anyone thinks my sums smell a bit fishy, please say!

As far as the inverter goes, I don't plan to fit one! The system will be simply 12V on the road and light camping, with 240V when I can find a plug. The jury is still out on fitting an intelligent charger so that every time I plug into 240V supply the battery automatically charges. After all, the split charge replay **should** keep it topped up...
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Re: My (hopefully) quick and (hopefully) cheap conversion.

Postby stevo » Tue May 12, 2015 3:44 pm

Mate that all looks great. The only thing you really should have done is lift the flooring up and check the condition of your floor. The floors rust very badly in these and if you can lift it it would save you a lot of hassle in the future. I caught mine just in time and am slowly working my way around the van treating any rust that I can see.
I also see your side loading door sill is starting to bubble. Its worth sanding it back and treating the metal before the water that gets trapped between the paint rots it into a hole.
Formely ibanez2005

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Re: My (hopefully) quick and (hopefully) cheap conversion.

Postby transitandy » Thu May 14, 2015 9:33 am

Very good work m8y :)
TRANSIT M8, SAY NO MORE YOUR IN...... FORD THROUGH TO THE BONE......
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Re: My (hopefully) quick and (hopefully) cheap conversion.

Postby Shitlaptop » Thu May 14, 2015 10:49 am

mrrcarney wrote:looking awesome

but why not fit the aux battery under the drivers seat ? its designed to have a second battery under there

I am looking to do this in my t330 after I do my engine conversion


:shock: Really....any idea what kind of size fits...as the current battery I have is massive.?
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Re: My (hopefully) quick and (hopefully) cheap conversion.

Postby mrrcarney » Thu May 14, 2015 5:19 pm

Your current battery for starting is the size you need
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Re: My (hopefully) quick and (hopefully) cheap conversion.

Postby d.e.hill » Sun May 17, 2015 12:01 am

I've been out of the country for a few days, so haven't got to spend much time on the bus until today. Got loads done today though, so I feel like that makes up for it a bit! Therefore...

Day 9

I started out by replacing my tatty and worn steering wheel (a thousand posties, on a thousand journeys....) with one I got given yesterday by blue estate - thanks again!

Replacing was easy enough, just following the guide on the forum, and once I'd bent a disposable screwdriver into 90 degrees to get at the spring clips on the rear, the airbag just popped off. Then just replace the wheel and Bob's your uncle. Of course I (predictably) disconnected to battery to reduce the risk of activating the airbag and now I (predictably) don't have the code for the radio. Grr! There's another job then...

Anyway, after that I fitted some roof racks I bought on eBay. The plan is to use the van as a kayaking wagon, so I need to be able to fit boats on the roof. I fitted the bars close behind each other on the rear of the roof, which is the optimum position for kayak carrying. The racks are t-racks, which seem well made and are in great nick. Here's what she looked like:

Image
Image

While I was at it, I stuck on my new disklock. These seem to be about the most useful way of stopping the van getting nicked - the small size seemed to fit well.

Image

Anyway, after all that buggering about, it was time to do some real converting!

First was to finish off the wiring fit above the fridge. This was a simple 16A socket -- Consumer Unit -- Plugs setup. Then I stuck a bit of carpet around the whole unit to tidy it up, and here's what it looked like:

Image
Image

The wiring in the consumer unit was the most interesting bit, below is a closer look. Each of the sockets is wired as a simple radial. There's a 30mA RCD, and 2 MCBs. The sockets are wired into a 16A MCB, and the fridge into a 6A (also fused at 3A).

Image

Once the whole lot was wired in, I put the covers on and the final product is below. As you can see, all the 240v system is behind the driver seat, which is neat, and still allows enough room for the seat to go back. Notably, the 16A socket is facing downward, so the plug (which comes through the driver's window) must have a loop in it, meaning that if any rain drips down the cable, it will fall off at the lowest point of the loop instead of running into the socket. Important!

Image
(the keen amongst you will note I lost the screws for the consumer unit, so have had to tape it on temporarily...)

Image

Last job of the day then was to fit a top to the little cabinet. Luckily I found some nice dark-wood-effect countertop in a local skip (no joke!), and once that was cut down to size it finishes the job nicely! Finishing touches will be to hinge it (so I can still access the wiring to address the inevitable gremlins) and add a couple of edging strips. I'll also need to cut it down a little more as it overhangs the front of the fridge a little too much. Anyway, as darkness fell, I finished for the day and here's what she looked like with all the wiring now working!

Image
Image
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