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No 84A$7.50 Incl GST

NZ $7.99 Incl GST

March 2006EXPRESSPUBLICATIONS

RVADVENTUREOur fantastic trek from Brisbane to the Top

9 HOTREVIEWS

Check out the new Trakka SandpiperMAKING TRACKS

RVADVENTURE

9 VISIT

MUST READ!MUST READ!Insurance and rego uncovered

VISITDerby, WA

Book Trail, NSWProm Country, VIC

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Roothy installs a littleblue box by the nameof Victron Phoenix intoVicki. Well, this issuehe talks about it – nextissue he’ll get aroundto it!

1 The first step was to shape a wood-en block to fit the curved floor underthe front seat. A couple of theseblocks form the mount for theVictron, keeping it out of the dustand allowing air to circulate

2 How brave am I then? Not thatbrave. I’d already drilled a couple ofpilot holes from the inside beforeopening them up with the hole saw!The Victron comes with 1.4m ofheavy-duty welding-style cable, soI’m working around using that with-out cutting or adding to it

3 Wow, how complicated is that?About as high-tech as a shovel, eh?Slowly all Vicki’s electrics have con-verged into this one compartmentunder the front seat, which certainlymakes access easy

4 I’ve used a couple of short lengths ofsplit tube (taped up to make it solid)poked through the holes as ‘sleeves’for the cables, with silicone to holdthem in place. The cables will be fedthrough later Words and photography by John Rooth

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Victron–

Part 1Guts!

TheDuck’sL

ast month I finally took thesolar plunge with Vicki andgot that Two Faced 90/60panel wired up to the Prostarregulator. That’d been planned

since the inception of the project, but likefamily planning in the Rooth household, ittook a while to get around to it!

Right now is probably a good time toexplain my philosophy with Project Vickiapart from it being a great excuse to getout of the house without getting awayfrom a fridge.

As you’ve probably noticed – certainlymy little Handbrake has – there havebeen several times when I’ve let loosewith an almost ‘spare no expense’regime, which might seem right out ofkeeping considering the original price forour van was only $500!

However, we all have our priorities inlife, and it’s been a dream of mine eversince those six years plugging camplights into a truck battery and shakingthe bejesus out of a kero fridge everymonth to get serious with 12V mobile

power. It has been a dream to build acaravan capable of doing all the things Iwant, and doing them well.

So, that’s why I spent almost $5K sort-ing out the chassis and suspension – 10times the original price. It is also why Iwasn’t frightened to fit those Camecwind-out windows, the Smev stovetop,Camec sink, get Golf to do the uphol-stery and Boroma to do the flooring andall the other good stuff, too.

Similarly, the Vitrifrigo remote com-pressor fridge – possibly the world’s besttravelling fridge – cost almost four timesas much as Vicki did originally, but whatprice do you put on a lifetime of coldbeer? Even the 90/60 Two Faced solarpanel fitted last month cost nearly twiceas much as the original van.

But when you add it all up and com-pare it to the price of a new caravan withsimilar equipment, we’d have been luckyto spend a third as much as most peopleare paying. That doesn’t include labour,of course, but then my Handbrake wouldargue that my labour’s worthless unless

I’m helping her with the windows.So I guess I’m happy to plough along,

putting good money into the van know-ing full well it’s a bargain.

I also know that by choosing the rightgear in the first place that if anythinghappens to the van itself – bar totalimmolation, of course! – that I’ve still gota stack of good gear I can pluck and putinto something else. There are someproducts out there you wouldn’t evenbother rescuing…

More and more that’s the case thesedays as the market is flooded with cheaprubbish that looks and makes claims thatseem spot-on – until they cook them-selves a few months later and you can’tget parts!

There’s the occasional bargain outthere for sure, but mostly the oldest rulein the book still holds – you get what youpay for. But with so much to choosefrom, it’s no wonder some people getdizzy and blow their money on rubbish.

Yep, it’s all about research, so when itcame to getting Vicki powered up, I’ve

keep them in peak condition and giveyou the potential to run a 12V van offthe CTEK in its ‘power’ mode andplugged into shore power.

But what I really wanted in the sys-tem was an inverter – a device to trans-form the batteries’ 12V output into240V. No, not just so the Handbrakecould plug in her hairdryer, butbecause we – like most people these

days – have a plethora of 240V equip-ment we’d like to take bush.

For the most part, that includes charg-ers for cameras and laptops and the like,but given the increasingly cheap natureof appliances and their compactnessthese days, to have portable 240V poweris a genuine asset.

Inverters can be cheap, but the cheapones don’t make computer-friendly

been doing my homework for years. I’velooked at everything on the market whiletesting vans and visiting manufacturers,but I kept coming back to the Victronenergy units.

Sure, I know that ParadiseMotorhomes’s Colin McLean has been fit-ting Victrons into his top-of-the-line prod-ucts for over 18 months, and Col nevercompromises on product choice.

That alone should have been enough,but I asked around the serious chaps inthe trade, including the people at BatteryWorld and Solar Panel Xpress, who areboth leaders in their respective fieldswith big ranges to choose from, andguess what? Victrons are the Rolls-Royceof multiple-function power-control units.

Beauty you say, but what the hell doesthat mean? Okay, it’s going to take a cou-

ple of issues to get this blue box fittedproperly, so I’ll try and describe in lay-man’s terms (mostly because I don’tunderstand the ‘techno’ speak…) whatthis unit does.

For the last year, Vicki’s ‘power sup-ply’ has been a CTEK battery charger.These units – the best available smartchargers on the market – are incrediblein that they massage the batteries to

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5 Wiring the Victron was dead easy. The two super-heavy cablesgo to the batteries, there’s a 240V ‘in’ plug – which I’m wiring toVicki’s external power flap here – and a 240V ‘out’ plug that pow-ers the van’s sockets. Oh, and there’s an earth and a battery heatsensor, but that’s about it

6 And this is why it’s easy. This is one of the unit’s power plugs, andwith marked screw fittings, it’s hard to get it wrong! Plus one plugis male and the other female – even I’d have trouble getting themmixed up. But even though it’s self-policing, I’ll get the job checkedover by a licensed electrician before hitting the road

7 The best possible mounting for the Victron is vertically to allow cool-ing air circulation, but they can be mounted horizontally too, especiallyif you pay a bit more attention to airflow. I’ve screwed down the sliderplate, so all that’s left is to pop a couple of screws in the other end

8 Having fed the two leads through – along with the heat sensor’swires – it’s just a question of plugging in the 240 leads and fittingan earth. At least I thought that’s all I had to do. Looks like finish-ing up might take longer than I figured

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Vitrifrigo remote compressor fridge –possibly the world’s best travellingfridge – cost almost four times asmuch as Vicki did originally, butwhat price do you put on a lifetimeof cold beer?

power (true sine-wave output), have ahabit of overheating and don’t handlevibration. So I went straight to the topof the class and invested a tad over$1700 in a Victron Phoenix MultiCompact unit.

It’s the bottom-of-the-range 800/35unit, which means it’s capable of pump-ing around 700W, but that should bemore than enough given our needs, andwhen you consider everything else,they’re excellent value.

Victron earned its stripes in themarine world, where its products arerecognised as the most reliable andlong-lasting available. Apart from pro-ducing true sine-wave 240V power from12V batteries, this unit takes over fromthe CTEK by providing the ultimate inbattery charging when plugged intoshore power.

It’s actually better described as anintelligent ‘adaptive’ battery manage-ment system, because the chargingcycle is controlled by a microprocessorthat takes battery condition and tem-perature into account.

This is invaluable for caravans andmotorhomes, because our type oflifestyle often means long periods withlittle use followed by plenty of hecticholidaying demands!

The Victron’s brain works all this out,charging flat batteries as quickly aspossible – while not over-cooking them– or maintaining them with a storagemode that minimises gassing and corro-sion by floating the voltage at 13.2V.

It does this while giving the batter-ies a weekly ‘hit’ at absorption level toprevent stratification of the electrolyteand sulphation.

In other words, it’s virtually a ‘fit andforget’ battery maintenance and 240Vinverter all in one. Plugged in line

between the 240V inlet and the van’s240V outlets, it means looking after thebatteries is as simple as leaving the vanhooked up to shore power when you’renot travelling.

On the road, you’ve got the conven-ience of 240V whenever it’s needed.The Victron’s automatic activation (inless than 20 milliseconds) means thatshould you be plugged into shorepower, any appliance running off 240Vwon’t shut down in the event of apower disruption.

That’s not such a worry, unlessyou’re on a respirator or you’re ajourno with 2500 words of a 3000-wordyarn tapped into his computer…

They’ve got a lot more features –most of which I’m yet to understand –so I wasn’t surprised to find that theseunits can be programmed with a laptopto suit an individual fitment.

This is the sort of thing Colin doeswith the Victron units he fits, computercustomising them to suit whatever gen-erator/battery storage system his cus-tomers have in mind so that battery andinverter performance is maximised.

But that’s all a bit too technical forme. I just wanted the best I could find,and it had to be simple enough to fitmyself – though, like anything to dowith 240V power, I got my installation

checked out by a licensed electricianwhen I’d finished. No, that’s not himyou can hear laughing.

Which won’t be until next monthnow, because we’ve run out of space.Whoops, talking space, I’d bettermention one of the other features ofthe Victron units – they’re light-weight and space efficient, especiallywhen compared to anything withsimilar outputs.

Yet while space and weight arealways priorities with us vanners, I’vegot a more immediate concern.

Yep, explaining a little $1700glitch on the credit card to ‘She whoChecks Everything’. Constant coldbeer won’t wash. I’d better try thehairdryer angle…

CONTACTS

Victron Phoenix units are distributed byBainbridge Technologies Pty LtdTel: (07) 3821 3333.Web: www.baintech.com.au

Stockists include: Battery World outlets Tel: 131 760 Australia-wideSolar Panel Xpress Tel: 1800 800 846 Web: www.solarpanelxpress.com.au

And many other marine and solar outlets

9 With the Victron’s cables, the heat sensor(top) and the connecting leads to the otherbattery, this terminal is starting to get a bitcrowded! I’ll swap it for a bolt-type terminallater, but for now it’s a case of cinching every-thing tight and keeping the terminals free ofcorrosion with some Lanotec lanolin oil

10 There’s nothing too complicated aboutthese controls, is there? Switched ‘on’, it’sa charger/inverter with full functions, orthere’s an option for charger only – or off.The lights tell the story – and I’ll have therest of this story ready by next month onceI’ve had a little nap…

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AD

Victron–

Part 2Guts!

TheDuck’s After last month’sdeliberation, Vicki nowhas a bright blue boxcalled Victron Phoenixtucked away in hertummy

Words and photography by John Rooth

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Having spent most of lastmonth’s column justify-ing fitting the Victroninverter/charger multi-function unit into Vicki –

and most of the month since justifyingthe cost to the Handbrake – I figuredwe’d better take a look at the fitting ofthe unit itself.

It was one of those jobs that I’vebeen putting off, mostly because thetechnology involved had me thinkingthat it’d demand some incredible feat ofthe do-it-yourself kind.

In fact, I’d set aside a couple of daysto get that blue box in and wired, and

even had the telephone number of anelectrician mate handy at all times incase he was required.

He wasn’t – not until it was time tocheck out my work anyway. The thing isthat while the Victron Phoenix MultiCompact – to give its full title – is anincredibly high-tech device, the actualfitting rates up there with wiring up thesolar. Dead easy, as long as you’ve got afew basic techniques sussed anyway.

I’ve found this more than once dur-ing Project Vicki. I dread starting some-thing because it looks complex, only tobowl it over easily once the first stephas been taken.

Wiring up the solar regulator andfitting the panel was one example. Inthe end, it was accomplished in a cou-ple of hours!

Similarly, fitting the Vitrifrigoremote compressor fridge – with itsplethora of gas and electrical fittingsand the certain knowledge that I knewabsolutely nothing about refrigerationother than that it makes beer cold –was almost daunting.

Yet once mounted, it only required acouple of tubes to be connected so theycould self-gas and a wire connected tothe power. The Atkinson hot-water unitlooked like the big-time too, especially

regulator was placed – was prettyeasily made.

After all, this compartment is on theroute of the main power leads from thebatteries to the power board, is physical-ly close to the batteries themselves andalready carries the 240V inlet wiring.Everything it needs is already there!

The only problem is that in the fit-ting instructions – which are excel-

lent, by the way – the preferred optionfor mounting is vertically to allow aneasier passage for the cooling airrequired when big coils are doingtheir thing.

But that wasn’t possible, and giventhat Vicki’s demands won’t be that hugeand there are buckets of capacity virtual-ly unused, I mounted it the only way it’dfit – flat on the floor.

with its remote start and the need toplumb to suit hot water. In the end, itwas a doddle!

Why is this? I guess it’s the nature ofgood product these days. The manufac-turers – at the top end at least – seem toconsider that making the fitting opera-tion as simple as possible is very muchto their advantage in the marketplace.

Most caravans and motorhomes aren’t

built by tradesmen; they’re put togetherby ‘jack of all trades’-type people whosework is then checked by experts. Makefitting simple and you’re taking less ofthat expensive time on the assembly lineand running far less risk that the productwill malfunction because somebodystuffed up!

The first step in fitting the Victron wasto physically mount the blue box – some-

thing that’s not that hard given that forits performance, it’s one of the smallestand lightest units available.

Being space conscious really helps,especially given that when Vicki wasborn in 1962, man was yet to land onthe moon, let alone build technologylike this!

So the decision to place the Victronunder the front seat – where the solar

1 I fitted another vent to the under-seat area so it’s cross-vented.To encourage airflow, this vent’s higher than the other. Electricalunits develop heat – you need to be aware of that, especially uphere in Queensland! Victorians take note and locate yours underthe bed…

2 Mmm, tidy. The whole trick to efficient low-voltage power is tokeep the cables thick and short, and they don‘t come much thick-er than the Victron’s welding cables. They were supplied at 1.3m,which was perfect for this application.

3 The Victron Multi Compact is the Rolls Royce of powersupply/delivery systems

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The first step in fitting the Victronwas to physically mount the bluebox – something that’s not that hardgiven that for its performance, it’sone of the smallest and lightestunits available

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Vicki’s case, back to the power points.If you’ve got an RCD unit, the Victrongoes in line before that.

Now here’s where clever design reallytakes over. The Victron is now wired in linewith the 240V power, sitting in the circuitafter the AC inlet but before any AC devices.

In the incredibly unlikely event of theunit failing – I’ve been told only swap-ping the battery leads can cause that

Not quite flat, of course. I used acouple of blocks to lift it an inch or soup. Two reasons – to keep any dust ata distance and to allow air to circulatearound the box. Thanks to the sup-plied mounting plate, this job was adoddle, too!

As was fitting another air vent to theunder-seat compartment. I still had oneleft from a past buy-up at Camec RV, so Ifitted this extra one under the seat,directly across from the exterior vent.

If you remember, I’d already fitted a ventto the outside, so with the two vents facingeach other there’s plenty of cross-flow ven-tilation around the unit – exactly what anyheat-producing electrical apparatus likes!

By now you’re all aware of the impor-tance of thick leads and short distanceswhenever 12V current has to be con-veyed. In keeping with this, the Victroncame with two welding-type leads withthick multi-strand copper wire that meas-ured about a metre and a bit.

The most direct route for these leads,given the position of the chassis rails

under the van, was to go straight outthrough the front and direct to the bat-teries. I could have lengthened the leadsand taken another route, but simple is assimple does – and the wife’s always say-ing I’m simple.

Hooking up leads to a battery isn’t rock-et science, especially when they’re colour-coded red and black! The only thing thatconfused me was another lead made up oftwo smaller red and black wires thatseemed to converge to one terminal point.

The instructions mentioned a tempera-ture sensor, and sure enough, after a callto my expert, that’s exactly what thiswas. I tucked it alongside the positivelead and bolted it to the terminal, too.

The Victron unit uses this sensor tomonitor battery temperature, which helpsmake decisions about charging rates andvoltage inversion accordingly. Phew, pret-ty clever stuff but simply installed – evenif not fully understood!

With the 12V leads and sensorhooked up, it was time to tackle the240V side of things, but once again the

Victron’s advanced design made thispart simple, too.

The unit’s ‘AC in’ input plug is wireddirectly to the van’s 240V inlet plug andhas directions for placement of the wires.If you can fit a plug to an appliance lead,you can wire it.

Similarly, the ‘AC out’ plug is wiredback to wherever the power went fromyour van’s 240V inlet originally – in

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4 Last but not least – the earth cable from the Victron to the van’schassis gets bolted down. The unit is earthed for safety reasons, but I’m still not sure how the earth goes to ground when you’ve gotrubber tyres. I’ll look into it some more.

5 After looking around the house for something to wrap those cables upwith, I finally found a length of heavy-duty plastic hose, err, somewherebehind the wife’s washing machine and split it to suit. No worries – atleast there won’t be if I’m down at the pub when the laundry floods…

6 The old style diamond pattern aluminium is thicker and stronger than its mod-ern equivalent but it’s also getting hard t find.

7 Yep, you can tell that as far as sheet-metal work goes, I’m a great car-penter! The diamond-pattern alloy is easy to cut and bend, yet strongenough to take a good belting from flying rocks. I’ve riveted it in placeand used silicone to fill the rivets and seal everything.

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sort of drama – all you have to do ispull the two AC plugs out of the unit.

Because one’s male and the other’sfemale, they can be plugged together,and it’s back to life as usual without theinverter/charger! That’s brilliant!

Gee, that was about it. It’s a goodthing I had to make up, drill and boltdown an earth wire for safety (from thepack to the van’s chassis), or I’d havebeen sitting in the pub well before lunch!

In which case I might not havenoticed how vulnerable the batteryleads were looking as they popped outof Vicki’s front panel.

Making a protector plate and insulat-ing the leads with some heavy tube tooklonger than wiring it up, but it was timewell spent – and as usual with small fabri-cation jobs, was damned enjoyable, too.

The final step was to take Vicki alongto another mate, Rob from Rob’sBayside Electronics. Being a whiz at allthings electrical, I got him to check mywork, because we are talking 240V here.

Sure, I have this primitive urge to fitthings myself, and certainly it’s helpedbuild a better, more practical under-standing of all things caravan duringthe Vicki build-up. However, I’d suggestmost people would be better off gettingsomeone like the experts at Solar PanelXpress to do the fitting for them.

So now the Victron’s in. How is it inpractice? Bloody awesome, that’s how.

We took Vicki away for a four-dayweekend last month. The first two daysand nights were spent ‘free camping’, yetnot once did we miss out on 240V power.Whether it was charging the camera bat-teries, thawing dinner in the smallmicrowave or the wife drying her hair, lifewas as simple as plugging into the wall.

With only one Two Faced solar panel,I wasn’t surprised that when we

plugged in to shore power on nightthree, the Victron went to chargingcycle and topped our two Century deep-cycle batteries up even though we wereusing 240 inside the van at the time!

Then, just for the sake of trying outVictron’s ‘rapid switch’ claims, on thefourth morning I hooked up my laptopto Vicki’s 240 outlet and asked theHandbrake to switch off the shorepower at the pole.

My laptop is an older one and its ownbattery won’t sustain life unless it’splugged to the wall. It was a perfect test.

I didn’t even get a flicker from thescreen – just seamless power transition asthe Victron computed the sudden lack of240V input and switched to inverter mode,going from charging the batteries to usingtheir power to make 240V in the instant!

Amazing technology, eh? I did nothingexcept switch the Victron off when wegot home, and even that’s not necessary.

Once plugged to shore power (andswitched on again!) the batteries arekept in peak condition and massaged toensure longest possible life. On theroad you’ve got 700W or more of 240Vwhenever it’s required with the onlylimitation being battery capacity.

I guess in the long run this is whatclever technology is all about – makinglife as simple as possible without the

need for constant human attention. Time on the road should be about max-

imising enjoyment, not fiddling with set-tings or plugging and unplugging thingsaccordingly. The Victron units are built tobe operated by people with absolutely noknowledge of the technology itself.

Yep, there’s only one little hassle onthe horizon.

Having realised that she can pluganything into the wall and it’ll work, nomatter where we are, my littleHandbrake is making all sorts of Vickitravel plans that don’t include ChookaMorris, Fat Kevvy, fishing by the seaand a pallet of XXXX. Maybe I shouldhave stuck with the swag…

CONTACTS

Victron Phoenix units are distributed byBainbridge Technologies Pty LtdTel: (07) 3821 3333Web: www.baintech.com.au

Battery World Tel: 131 760

Solar Panel Xpress Tel: 1800 800 846 Web: www.solarpanelxpress.com.au

Camec RV EquipmentBuilding 3, Archerfield Industrial Park Corner Kerry and Beaudesert RoadsArcherfield QLDTel: (07) 3710 9000

8 Any job involving 240V should be han-dled by a licensed electrician or at leastchecked out thoroughly by one. Rob’s‘the man’ when it comes to anythingtricky – in-car computers and DVD play-ers, rear-view screens, antennas andcommunications – so this was a doddlefor him.

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