Category Archives: Upgrades

Switching between 230V Hook-Up and Inverter

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So, this doesn’t look much. I’ve rewired the electrics to switch between 230V hook-up and the inverter 230V, with all mains outlets being connected common. The wiring will be made neat when I pull out the batteries and the ugly temporary wiring to the Victron solar controller will be replaced too.

Next, I am going to add a second solar panel on the roof and then I will finally start rewiring the battery electrics to the new battery bank and remove the original single leisure battery.

I am working in parallel on some upgrades on our Ducato and starting to convert a Caddy Maxi for our son. You can view the Caddy conversion here if you are interested.

New Batteries Upgrade

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I haven’t posted for a while so thought I’d add a photo of the new batteries mounted and secured with straps in the new battery box, under the fridge. I’ve also mounted the new Victron SmartSolar 30A MPPT controller. This is temporarily connected to the original leisure battery for now.

Next step is to add the new wiring to the two new batteries and remove the original leisure battery from under the bed.

Some other news, the original leisure battery and solar panel controller will be installed in our new project – a Volkswagen Caddy Maxi. We will be converting this with our son for touring France together in July 2022. You can follow this here if you are interested. Wish us luck!

Compressor Fridge Upgrade

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This video captures the installation of a Dometic / Waeco CRX65 compressor fridge, replacing the Thetford N3112 three-way fridge. The Thetford fridge was just too sensitive to levelness and a little tempramental.

We installed the CRX65 with the Dometic controller. This supplies 24V dc to the fridge when 230V ac is present and detects when mains isn’t present supplying 12V from the leisure battery. I did think about wiring in some switches to manage this, but I think it is worth the extra £90 for the controller. It works well and is convenient.

The parts are available on Amazon at this affiliate link. We will earn us a small commission at no additional cost to you.

Ready To Go…

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So, we’ve spent the last couple of days installing a few upgrades and getting prepared for a week in the Lake District.

I forgot to take photos, but we’ve installed three USB sockets, fitted all LED lights including replacing two fluorescent tubes with LED strip lights. We’ve replaced the four wheel trims and replaced the circular vent in the wing as it was discoloured.

It sounds silly, but we’ve also covered the steps in astro turf as our Labrador doesn’t like standing on the metal steps.

We’ve washed Hylda and packed everything in so we are ready to go in the morning.

Getting ready for the Lake District

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So we are getting ready for a trip to the Lake District.

Our Labrador doesn’t like the vinyl flooring so Wendy has made carpets and we’ve fitted studs to secure these to the floor, and allow them to be removed.

This is the first of several jobs. We’ve fitted some LED lights and ordered some more from Aten Lighting.

We’ll be fitting some USB sockets and replacing broken and missing wheel trims.

Ready for Hymerchill…

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Following on from last week’s post, it’s been quite a productive weekend. DRW Electronics turned around the exchange display very quickly and the rear view camera system is now complete and fully operational.

I don’t know how to remove Sikaflex easily and I reckoned I’d end up damaging the rear panel so I installed the camera bracket above the old bracket.

The exchanged display looks the part on the dashboard and it’s wired to be powered whenever the ignition is on.

The new radio is also installed now, so it’s good to have our iPhones connected via Bluetooth.

The last job for the weekend was to install our new 12V TV.

After switching on the TV, it reports some apps are incompatible with the TV operating system, so Wendy has been updating the apps to current revisions. Everything isn’t working yet, but most are.

So, I think that’s us now ready for Hymerchill. This is our first one, so we are looking forward to meeting everyone.

Some small upgrades

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We started some small upgrades on Hylda this weekend. We want to upgrade the radio so we can connect our iPhones via bluetooth and we want to fit a rear view camera.

This weekend, we removed the old radio, installed the new one and fitted the DAB aerial. We’ve also run the camera cable the length of the motorhome to the dashboard. We bought the same system from DRW Electronics that we had previously purchased and installed in our Sprinter campervan conversion, but unfortunately the A class mirror is too large to mount the display.

After a quick call to DRW Electronics, we agreed to return the display and exchange it for a 7″ dashboard mounted display. So if the new display arrives in time, we plan to complete the camera installation next weekend. This will be in time for our trip to Hymerchill the weekend after – fingers crossed…