Post by kentronix on Jun 6, 2009 15:21:08 GMT
Hi guys and gals.
Just thought I would give you an update on my mods in case its of use to anyone.
For those who dont remember I drive a merc 300td estate car which I am kitting out to be a kind of mini camper for my trips around europe on free veggie oil. I have a trip to croatia planned in 3 weeks so the mods are starting to get done.
Here is my super simple 2 battery setup. The idea is that I can switch from one to the other or both (or none when I leave the vehicle) using the earth isolators. I can pull up a campsite and use all the electrics for the radio, fridge, lights etc knowing in the morning I can switch battery, start the car, switch back and drive off and recharge it. Getting the second to fit took a lot of work with a dremel ;D The +ves are wired together with fat cable and the earths go via a cutoff switch to the body of the car.
I am wiring up a split charge relay for a third battery in the back for the fridge on those sections where we stay put for a few days. Generally we will do at least 4-8 hours driving a day though.
I have replaced all the interior festoon bulbs with LED types, reducing the load from a total of 50 (5x10w) watts down to 10 watts. Plus as you can see in this terrible mobile phone pic its much brighter. Left is 2w led, right is 10w standard. Middle is 130 litres of used veg ready for filtering
And finally a pic of the 2nd tank, just before I plumbed it all in. I havent made it a permanent connection to the fuel system. That way its just a storage for veg and I dont have to worry about the ferry companies t&c's about fuel systems. Basically when my main tank is empty I flick a switch and it pumps from the aux tank into the main tank to fill it up.
As you can see it fits down neatly into the cubby hole left after I removed the 6/7the rear facing seats which I dont need. The big screw lid makes it much easier to pour veg into this than the filler nozzle of the normal tank. Getting used veg oil on route when you dont speak the lingo can be harder than you would expect so we are taking about 300 litres. Hopefully we can get enough out there to filter and get us home without having to visit a petrol station (or supermarket)
Sorry if the long posts bores you just thought others may benefit from the research I have done for these mods.
Just thought I would give you an update on my mods in case its of use to anyone.
For those who dont remember I drive a merc 300td estate car which I am kitting out to be a kind of mini camper for my trips around europe on free veggie oil. I have a trip to croatia planned in 3 weeks so the mods are starting to get done.
Here is my super simple 2 battery setup. The idea is that I can switch from one to the other or both (or none when I leave the vehicle) using the earth isolators. I can pull up a campsite and use all the electrics for the radio, fridge, lights etc knowing in the morning I can switch battery, start the car, switch back and drive off and recharge it. Getting the second to fit took a lot of work with a dremel ;D The +ves are wired together with fat cable and the earths go via a cutoff switch to the body of the car.
I am wiring up a split charge relay for a third battery in the back for the fridge on those sections where we stay put for a few days. Generally we will do at least 4-8 hours driving a day though.
I have replaced all the interior festoon bulbs with LED types, reducing the load from a total of 50 (5x10w) watts down to 10 watts. Plus as you can see in this terrible mobile phone pic its much brighter. Left is 2w led, right is 10w standard. Middle is 130 litres of used veg ready for filtering
And finally a pic of the 2nd tank, just before I plumbed it all in. I havent made it a permanent connection to the fuel system. That way its just a storage for veg and I dont have to worry about the ferry companies t&c's about fuel systems. Basically when my main tank is empty I flick a switch and it pumps from the aux tank into the main tank to fill it up.
As you can see it fits down neatly into the cubby hole left after I removed the 6/7the rear facing seats which I dont need. The big screw lid makes it much easier to pour veg into this than the filler nozzle of the normal tank. Getting used veg oil on route when you dont speak the lingo can be harder than you would expect so we are taking about 300 litres. Hopefully we can get enough out there to filter and get us home without having to visit a petrol station (or supermarket)
Sorry if the long posts bores you
just thought others may benefit from the research I have done for these mods.
