Putting lipstick on a Pig

 So the Lady that had our Roadtrek before us kept the interior in immaculate condition but the exterior was in rough shape the fibreglass roof was covered in lichen and the paint is chalky. The worst though was the rust due to her time on the Californian coast. I had one really bad section that I had repaired professionally but I did the rest of the restoration myself. And now for the before and afters.

Unfortunately, the weather did not want to cooperate and I had to tarp the van to work on it.

Bottom of the doors and step after some grinding of the rust I found holes that needed patching.

All patched and painted.

The windows also needed some help.

Some filler and paint make a difference.

Now for some fun, Karin and I need to pack up as we are heading out for our first trip along the south shore of Canada from the St. Clair rive back home, just exploring along the way.

Tecno Electric Stuff

 So the Galavan 3.1 is old and technology has changed. The converter that came with the Galavan would be on any time there was 120v supplied to the system this could cause a problem with the Inverter supplying 120v it would try to charge the battery with battery power, not the best situation. 

So I removed the converter and replaced it with a NOCO smart battery charger rated for the high amp hours and AGM of the new battery. The is directly wired to the shore power side of the transfer switch with a fused connection so it will only charge the battery when plugged into the shore power.

I also installed a 12v to 12v battery charger from Renogy so that I can charge the AGM battery without frying it which would have happened with the higher voltage from the alternator in the Van itself. Now when we drive the house battery will be charged at 14.7v until it's charged and then it will automatically switch to a float charge of 3.5 to maintain the battery.

I will monitor the systems as I may need to provide some additional ventilation for the new electroics.

Here's how it looks now.

Needs some tidying up of the wires but everything seems to work as it should.