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Couldn't you just thin the vegetable oil down? (Or heat it up) I'm sure some kind of solvent would work fine. (But that'd probably add to the cost I guess)

I'll add it to my crazy list . How do you like my electrical systems, do they look possible?

Your electrical system is certainly possible. I would recommend not connecting the electrical system of the bus to your electrical system directly. If you did that and the batteries died, you would really be stuck. Also, you want to avoid overloading your alternator. You could probably add a second alternator if you wanted to be able to charge your other system using it although some kind of charge controller would probably be required. The batteries will act like a load on the alternator and you don't want to overload it. Someone else might have some thoughts on this. I am not an expert.

I'm going to research it but I'll probably only do it when my alternator produces more power than my 'automotive' system needs. I hate to see power getting wasted, so maybe even a second generator could be a viable option. You're not an expert but are helping quite a lot!

Can you explain this a bit more?

sjvsworldtour wrote:I would recommend not connecting the electrical system of the bus to your electrical system directly.

And since I thought you have a little bit of programming skills, do you think all that automation is even possible? I'm just naming things I think are possible, but have absolutely no knowledge about it all.

He's saying that if you have the electrical systems connected, and you somehow drain your batteries (playing too many video games), you wouldn't be able to start your bus until you can charge the batteries back up.

Yea, having them separate gives you are redundancy. If the bus battery is dead, you could in effect jump yourself off with the other electrical system. Additionally, you would have to worry about load on the alternator of the bus if your other batteries were low. I don't know how many batteries and alternator will charge, but I doubt they are designed to charge half a dozen.

When I posted my last I might not have made a lot of sense, I didn't mean using the battery that you use to start the vehicle I meant that when your vehicle becomes static you could use the leisure batteries from the vehicle once you've got a building set up. When you wouldn't really need to power the inside of the van, assuming you'd mainly be living in your building and not the vehicle. There are millions of ways to power something, well, maybe not millions but you know what I mean, there's solutions to this kinda thing just needs people like us to dig em up!

This is awesome. I'm looking at doing something similar in the next few months, but I'm starting on a smaller scale.

I just want a van that can get me around and hold all my stuff. I could upgrade to a bus later on, but the good thing about a van is that I can have it NOW, and it's small enough to drive and park anywhere.

kNuX_V1 wrote:When I posted my last I might not have made a lot of sense, I didn't mean using the battery that you use to start the vehicle I meant that when your vehicle becomes static you could use the leisure batteries from the vehicle once you've got a building set up. When you wouldn't really need to power the inside of the van, assuming you'd mainly be living in your building and not the vehicle.

I'll definitely do it like that in the beginning, but eventually, I will have a seperate system for the building.

corrado33 wrote:He's saying that if you have the electrical systems connected, and you somehow drain your batteries (playing too many video games), you wouldn't be able to start your bus until you can charge the batteries back up.

I will have one main battery bank (for the inverter and the 12V system) and one automotive battery bank (for the automotive system). The main battery bank can only give power to the automotive one, it can't take power from it. So I don't see the problem. I have a basic sketch that I will scan, because all that text probably confuses a little bit.

folypers wrote:I will have one main battery bank (for the inverter and the 12V system) and one automotive battery bank (for the automotive system). The main battery bank can only give power to the automotive one, it can't take power from it. So I don't see the problem. I have a basic sketch that I will scan, because all that text probably confuses a little bit.

I see. I think that'd be useful if somehow your automotive batteries died. But other than that...? What's the plan?