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Vanagon Solar DCDC setup

vanwagon

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Feb 2, 2023
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I'm moving forward with a small solar & DCDC setup for my 1987 Vanagon. Due to the limited capacity of the stock alternator (90amps) I purchased the smaller Renogy MPPT/DCDC charger (30 amps) and single SOK 100ah battery, but plan to size everything else up to the recommendations of Will Prowse (https://www.mobile-solarpower.com/simplified-400-watt-fewer-wires-and-alternator-charging.html). Hopefully this will allow me to upsize the MTTP/DCDC charger later if desired, and also allow me to add another 100ah in parallel. I also purchased the Renogy shunt with display. I plan to place/install these parts and add solar later. I have not purchased any connecting wires, fuses, or breakers yet. I also do not plan to use any sort of inverter.

Q1) From my understanding, breakers/fuses are to protect the wires, so this would mean if I followed his guide, I should continue to use the same wires and breakers even though I am downsizing my mppt/b2b charger from the 50 to 30amp version, correct?

Q2) If I wanted to top off the house battery prior to a trip, what would be an efficient way to do this? The van has an outside AC hookup. Would I just wire up a simple battery charger to the vehicle battery and switch it on when plugged into shore power? To the house battery?
 
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Q1) From my understanding, breakers/fuses are to protect the wires, so this would mean if I followed his guide, I should continue to use the same wires and breakers even though I am downsizing my mppt/b2b charger from the 50 to 30amp version, correct?
That would give you upgrade headroom but I like to fuse for the load not the wire(s) when going oversize. Change the fuses later if you increase loads.
Q2) If I wanted to top off the house battery prior to a trip, what would be an efficient way to do this? The van has an outside AC hookup. Would I just wire up a simple battery charger to the vehicle battery and switch it on when plugged into shore power? To the house battery?
That’s what I would do. But you need to not overcharge the lithium battery so I’d pick something like this to be settable to 13.2V or 13.8V as required. I bought one mid-covid at $90ish but now they’re more in an expected range at $60
 
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