The Amp hour (Ah) and Kilo Watt hour (KWh) measurements are much more accurate “fuel gages” than voltage measurements which depend on many other factors. Kilo Watt Hours are better than Amp hours because the effects of voltage change are included in calculating the actual energy delivered to the load. Ah and KWh are much more accurate than the voltage based RV or marine “Battery Indicator” measurements.

Peak Amps and minimum volts measurements show you even short duration load events and help you troubleshoot hard to find electrical problems. Statistics are reset when power is removed.

Our electrical system including solar and dual batteries is now complete and should give use enough power to stay independently when we are on the road.

Ultimately a system with an air tank would be the best, but our tires are not overly huge as well as time for airing them up is not an issue on a long road-trip. Also using air-tools is not necessary either.

In the end I went with an ARB CKMA12 high output air compressor due it’s very compact size and power. If I decide to add differential lockers in the future, this compressor makes it easier as well as all the necessary wiring is included.

As for the installation location I chose the area right behind the fresh water system with a hose and a quick connect coming out below the water faucet in the back. To round up the equipment I also bought the ARB Air Compressor Pump-up Kit. It contains the right length of a quality hose with the right connectors as well as everything you need to fill up your tires and other stuff.

Tank:
Most of the more advanced systems had custom made tanks which I didn’t like much. First, they are harder to clean, way more expensive and sometimes tricky to fill. In our previous camper we were quite happy with a couple of military water cans. They are light-weight, easy to store and clean as well as they can be filled up almost everywhere without moving your car to the nearest tap.
This time though I wanted to hock them up to a proper pressurized water system with a pump, filters and a faucet. To do so I modified the lid of the water cans and attached a pickup-hose with a quick-connect to it. Under our sleeping platform is enough space for two 20l water canister which slide in very easy from the back. When one can is empty, I just swap it with the full can from behind.

Pump/Filter:
As a pump I got a ShurFlo Aqua King Junior 2.0, which draws not much power, has enough flow-rate and can dry run without getting damaged.
One main goal of our fresh water system was to produce pure drinking water. We wanted to be able to fill up our canisters at any questionable tab or fountain and not getting sick from it.
For this reason, I use a four stage treatment. First, the pump picks up the water from the canister and sucks it through a strainer with a stainless mesh to keep debris and other bigger particles out. After that it goes through the pump into an accumulator tank, which extends pressure switch-controlled pump life by reducing pump on-off pulsation. From there it goes into standard marine water filter housing with a 5 Micron filter cartridge. Constructed of a carbon impregnated cellulose media, these dual-purpose cartridge filters out fine sediment particles and reduce unwanted taste, odor and chlorine taste from the water. Also this pretty cheap filter element extents the lifespan of the main filter.
From here it goes into the main water filter which is a Seagull IV X-2KB. This filter is the best of the best and it is used extensively in the high-end expedition- and marine-industry. It is not cheap, but our health is us worth every penny.

All Seagull IV purification systems are independently certified to meet EPA guide standard protocol for microbiological purifiers against bacteria, cysts and viruses. Plus, Seagull IV systems excel at removing chemical and aesthetic contaminants including herbicides, pesticides, chlorine and foul tastes, odors and colors, for great tasting water on demand.

The smaller Seagull IV X-1F would have been enough for our task as well, but I got a good deal on the larger system so I went with that instead.
If we are really in doubt about the water quality we also add a little bit of Microdyn (or bleach) to be really on the safe side.

Faucet:
Finding the right faucet with an hot/cold outlet took ages as most of them are just the standard low pressure faucet you see in RV next to a sink or are simply way to big. I wanted something small with a quick connect, so I can also plugin a shower hose. After more research I found a company in the Stats with an interesting product called “Hot & Cold Spray-Port™”. Exactly what I was looking for beside the white plastic box, which was easy to remove. I hocked it up to the hot-water tank as well as the cold water line and it was ready to go.
For the actual outlet I also chose a great product from the creators of the faucet. A flexible, durable food-grade plastic spout. It plugs in right to the quick connector of the faucet and can be bent in any direction. As for our shower, I used the same quick connector on a long hose as well as the smallest RV shower head I could find.

For a better understanding how everything is connected together, here is a diagram of DinoEvo’s fresh water system:

All in all it turned out to work great. It is just such a luxury thing to have instant warm water for a quick shower or even to wash greasy dishes. In the future I probably going to add a thermostat-valve before the hot-water-outlet, because the water coming from the Elgena is boiling and I don’t want to burn myself if I’m not careful. A small downside of this system is obviously you do everything with pure drinking water, but with such a long lasting filter and limited space it is a compromise I can live with.

In terms of location, the entire system fits nicely in the opening over the driver side rear wheel well and can be accessed through a removable hatch.

My special thanks goes to Jay who is a great mentor and the biggest helping hand on this project. Mr. Electric showed off all his skills and his profession in the boating industry made DinoEvo almost an amphibious vehicle :)

Thank you Rich for your wood working skills, ideas and the time I could use your shop. The cabinet turned out fantastic.

Thanks to Butch the owner of CVI for his help, knowledge and the time I could use his shop.

Thanks to my friend David for his hospitality, tools and all his great help to pull off our road trip as well as being the supporting trip member back home :)

Thank you Jesse for sharing your knowledge and ideas on this project.

There are many other people out there I had contact with to bounce off ideas and ask questions via email. Thanks for your effort and replies. Also thank you to all the members of the different forums around the globe who took their time to reply to my questions.

THANK YOU

• Lightweight, but durable
• Accommodate a 10l Scepter fuel can for our Diesel coolant heater.
• Space for at least 40-60l of fresh water
• Cutting area and a storage for all our kitchen supplies
• Accommodate a multifuel stove (like a MSR DragonFly)
• Storage for our Engel fridge
• Space for a proper fresh water system (pump, filters) as well as an air compressor
• Cabinet design need to be free standing and not screwed to the vehicle body
• Accommodate a 200cm / 78inch long bed, but leave enough space to sit on the engine hump
• Area for two to four large plastic containers

After that we approached the design from many different angles made one drawing after another one and bounced several ideas around. All of them had pros and cons but in the end we settled on one design with the most advantages and most economical space usage.

Front:
The idea was to raise the platform as high as possible, but still be able to sleep comfortable. On the other hand there need to be enough space between the cabinet and the front driver/passenger seat to have some kind of area you can sit and live inside when the weather is not good. To do that the cabinet had to have an extendable bed, otherwise the bed would be not long enough. The solution was two large storage drawers with strong sliders in the front.

Rear:
Another large part of the cabinet is the area with our fridge. Having a proper fridge (and I’m not talking about a cheap 12v cool box) makes all the difference on a long trip like that. So we knew we are going to use it several times a day, which means it has to be very accessible. Solution: a heavy duty, full-extension slider in the back. Underneath that another small sliding table.
Right next to the fridge there is one 24″ and two 42″ long storage drawers. The bottom drawer is our cooking area. In the front is a MSR Dragonfly multi-fuel stove including a 1l fuel can. The stove burns pretty much every fuel and is very reliable. It also can be removed when we want to go camping with a tent. The lid of the bottom drawer is out of a butcher block material and works great as a cutting area.
Beside the large drawers there is a long space for one 10l Diesel can as well as two 20l military Scepter water cans.

After our first packing session we were really amazed how much stuff you can fit in the cabinet.

Mattress:
We bought two different coloured Sunbrella fabrics from outdoorfabrics.com and gave it to a foam shop which made the covers as well as provided the (puuuhhh expensive) high-density foam pieces. With the main foam piece set in place as well the two separate pieces we are pretty flexible in setting up our bed. Either the entire bed is open or just one side. So one person can still sleep when another person sits on the engine hump using the area as a table.

Details:
All slides are heavy-duty and rated for 200lbs (90kg) each set. One of the heaviest parts on the cabinet, but we didn’t want to compromise in durability.

We used regular climbing rope as a handles for the rear drawers which works really well, is lightweight as well as a good bump stop against the rear hatch door.

All drawers are secured with stainless sliding pins from a marine shop. I also made metal inserts to prevent any worn out pin holes.

On the passenger side we built another box over the wheel arch to store bigger items as well as attached an axe and saw with a couple Quick Fist rubber clamps. On the opposite side is a compartment for portable water filters, water pump and an ARB air-compressor (more about that in a separate post)

As you see in the photos below, all edges are protected with Marple hardwood, wile the rest of the cabinet is half inch birch plywood. The drawer front face is made out of clear coated solid Marple hardwood as well to give it extra protection and a nice touch to the cabinet overall.

It took quite a long time to finish the cabinet, but in the end everything worked out well and we are very happy with the outcome. Thanks to my friend for all the time and effort he put into this project. Without him this cabinet wouldn’t be as nice as it is.

Fluid Film is formulated from specially processed wool-wax, highly refined petroleum oils and selected agents to provide corrosion control, penetration, metal wetting and water displacement. These long lasting products contain no solvents, will not dry out and will penetrate to the base of all metals, providing corrosion protection from both natural and industrial atmospheres.

It was easy to apply with a air gun, even inside the subframe and tight areas. It probably will last for a couple years till you need to apply another coat. Another side effect of the product: DinoEvo smells pretty good now :)

Also, every time when we cross a border to another country we are going to add their national flag. A practice seen by “Sprinter Life” we really like.

The GS100 is the cream of the crop when it comes to solar panels. It boasts 18.3% module efficiency and is composed of 32 back contact solar cells. Compare that to standard crystalline modules with 14% to 16% efficiency. This panel has a very small footprint and fits into places other panels can only dream about. As for weight, this baby comes in at a mere 14.5 pounds! Another distinct advantage of the GS100 is its width of only 20.7 inches. The mono-crystalline, back contact cells on the GS100 means there are no grid lines blocking the sun’s rays. It also means you can expect outstanding performance in both high heat and low light conditions.

To regulate the power coming from the panel to our battery-setup I installed a Morningstar SunKeeper SK-12, which is one of the smallest and most reliable battery-chargers I could find and fits perfect in the small battery compartment of a Delica. Also it constantly measures the temperature of the battery and adjust the charge accordingly.
To run the heavy-duty wire form the panel to the battery I used a waterproof plug from the marine industry. That makes it easy to remove the roof rack when we need to load DinoEvo in a shipping container. Also the plug has still a few more connections available in case we want additional lights up on the roof rack.

Update July 2011:
After meeting with Pablo & Anna from viajeros4x4x4 I revised my initial plan of finishing the entry step a bit. They cut off both sided of the round corners to gain more space. While I found the rear piece quite useful I agree the front part is not. So I took a grinder and cut it off, finished the corner with some left over maple hardwood and bolted a thick piece of angle aluminum on it. Project done.

There are many different ways of heating air/water in an RV. For us a Diesel powered coolant heater from Espar (Hydronic D 4 W SC) made the most sense for a few reasons. First its very compact as space is limited, second you only have to have one single source of fuel on board and third you can preheat your Diesel engine on very cold days. The reason for an Espar vs. Webasto is the better availability of spare parts worldwide as well as the possibility to run the heater over a longer period of time in high elevation (over 1500m above sea level – with special fuel pump sensor) which we are going to have a lot during our time in the Andes.

Finding the hot fresh water tank was a challenge as most of the RV or marine tanks in North America are way to big for the limited space we have available. I was close to get a custom tank made, but we finally found the perfect size at the Overland Expo in Germany. Elgena – an established company from Munich – offers all kinds of stainless steel water heaters in smaller sizes. We bought the Nautic-Junior M with 10 litre capacity.

After getting all the parts together, we had to find a space to mount them. Most sense made for us to take the rear air-condition and heater core out (front AC is still working) and build a box for everything. After months looking through ads on Craigslist I found an old toolbox with almost the exact measurements we need. I sandblasted the box and gave it a few coats of paint and mounted all the brackets. The big opening on the side of the tool box matches up with one of the openings of the old rear heater. So all the cables and hoses are going up to the cab this way.

Next step was to mount a new heater core inside the van. I found a small auxiliary heater core at Princess Auto. The quality (and noise) of the 120mm computer fan mounted on the back of the core was not the best, so I upgraded it with an ultra-silent fan and installed RPM dial switch to make it even more quite. Right above the Diesel heater was a big enough spot behind the side panels to mount the heater core.

The fuel pickup of the Diesel heater is connected to a Scepter military fuel can inside the van for two reasons. First, I still want to be able to mix WVO on warm summer days into the engine fuel tank and second on really cold days – when you actually need the heater most – the Diesel won’t gel up in the warm cab.

The plumbing inside the box was very tricky and time consuming. I wish there was more space as there are a tons of hoses going back and forth. The system is set-up in way that the fresh water tank gets even heated with just the engine coolant alone. So basically when we drive around and come to a campsite, the water is already hot. The same is with the rear heater core. It also works without the Diesel heater. Only if we are camping for several days at the same spot or for cold nights we need to use the Espar.

A schematic overview of our system:

Coolant is coming from the engine to a temperature sensitive valve (1). It goes than to the Espar (2) and gets heated up. Hot coolant is going to the Elgena hot water tank (3) and heats up the water. After that it goes to the auxiliary heater core (4) inside the cab. Than coolant is going back. Now the valve (1) comes into play again. Initially, up to a cooling water temperature of approx 67 °C, the heat from the Espar is only fed to the heat exchanger and hot water tank – inside of the vehicle and water heats up fast. From a cooling water temperature of around 67 °C, part of the heater’s heat is also fed to the Delica’s engine. This slowly heats the engine circuit, without causing the “small cooling water circuit” to rapidly cool down.

So far everything is running how it should, but we still need to extensive test the entire system as well as hook up the fresh water tank.

After about 6 liters of glue, 1.5 rolls of carpet and about 30 hours in total, the panels were all covered.

Check out his website: superexceeded.com

• New rear brake shoes
• Replaced all remaining old coolant lines
• Rebuilt alternator including new housing
• New brake master cylinder
• New fuel filter
• Replaced steering boots and tie rod ends
• New upper and lower ball joints
• Replaced all CV boots
• New sway bar stabilizer bushings
• New clutch slave cylinder
• New clutch kit

That should be it with preventive maintenance. I’m really happy how the van performs. Most of the components that wear out over time should be good now for a long time.

P.S.: The bubble wrap is also perfect to use behind your back when you sit near a campfire at night.

Due the size of the new wheels, the spare tire does not fit anymore in the stock location which left a nice, large area for either a storage compartment or a tank. After I changed the stock exhaust to one with an side exit, the idea was to have a tank there. The problem was, that we couldn’t figure out a proper way to fill the tank. Also the size of the tank couldn’t be exceeded beyond around 40-50 Litre, which was not big enough for the additional effort and cost of a second tank.

Design:
In the end we gave up the storage compartment idea and went ahead with a large tank in the back. Many people who run WVO have their second tank in the same spot. What I don’t like on all of them is that they take away the great departure angle, therefore our design had to be different.

In the initial design I tried to push a squared tank as far up between the crossmembers as possible. Later on the tank grew and reached far more forward including two big angles. One along the leaf springs and another above the rear axle. After taking rough measurements I created a few cardboard prototypes to make sure everything fits. Andrew – our welder – did then a fantastic job fabricating a 1/8″ aluminum tank from my drawings. He also came up with the basket system to securely hold the tank up.

Connections:
I wanted to keep it as simple as possible. No pump or electric valve to fail, no pickup and return line. Just a simple feed to the stock fuel tank including a manual valve to disconnect the two tanks. The only thing I had to add was a steel fitting in the stock tank. The Broadway Welding Shop took care of that.
The breather hose was a little bit more work as it has to be as high up as possible which means I had to drill through the subframe. Not to weaken the frame and also to make my life easier with the hose I cold-welded a stainless steel pipe through the frame and connected the breather hose to it.
For the filler hose I got a good deal on a 1.5″ I.D. fuel hose without a wire in it, which makes it way more forgiving to work with in smaller voids, but on the other hand you get pretty quick some kinks in it. I thought about using just the stock filler for both tanks, but found it would make it more complicated. Instead we installed a Perko Marine filler neck with an extra lock on the side of the van right next to the tail lights.

Painting:
Even though all fittings are stainless steel and the tank is out of aluminum, I wanted to give the system extra protection against corrosion. Therefore I primed and painted everything with Tremclad. Also while the stock fuel tank was out, I gave him a good coat of paint and all new hoses as well.

In combination with the stock fuel tank (60 Litre) we should get now a rang from around 1300km per fill up.

Another small “security-feature” is now the tamper proof bolts for the front- and rear licence plate.

There is still a lock on the trunk door missing as the hasp system doesn’t work there. Also another project will be the protection for each window. I have already something in my mind, so stay tuned…

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One step to a better electrical management for the auxiliary stuff was to get a proper fuse block. The marine industry has some nice options like the Blue Sea ST Blade Block which we installed in one of the side panels where the rear AC/heater controls used to live. It’s connected to the IBS dual battery system in the engine compartment.

You can never have enough 12v outlets. Unfortunately there was only one on the dashboard. So we installed a second one with heavier gauge cables next to it. The outlet goes straight to the fuse block and therefore is connected to the second battery. It’s great to charge up stuff and not to worry about your starter battery.

Oh by the way. This little 12v rechargeable torch you see in the picture is from Spotlight. Very handy and pretty bright for the size.