Tam and Toby ~~ Hunting Zorba .....Take two.

Northernraider said:
Its down to personal choice...some just cover with sawdust and do that till its full. Others including myself will be bagging and binning each time.
Click to expand...
Re toilets
A lot of the ones 1 a. seeing on American vanlife programmes have a locking (sealing not padlock and key) lid.
Prompt bagging and binning strikes me as a better solution than composting and the use of sawdust/ kitty litter for folk on the move. The latter will surely give you a lot more bulk to dispose of.
There is an item available from Amazon usa (other stores are available) which used in conjunction with a plastic 5 gallon bucket and disposable plastic bags provides one with a comfortable hinged loo seat abd lid.
I believe this item is known as a luggable loo.
Less pretty is an ordinary bucket or waste bin with a pipe insulation rim and appropriately sized poly bags.
Either of these could sit on a slider in the base of a cupboard or be built into a box seat with hinged and padded lid.
Many of today's waste bin liners come ready scented.
A
Either would be more space saving thaan bulding a separating toilet.👍😊
 
Val 3 dogs said:
Re toilets
A lot of the ones 1 a. seeing on American vanlife programmes have a locking (sealing not padlock and key) lid.
Prompt bagging and binning strikes me as a better solution than composting and the use of sawdust/ kitty litter for folk on the move. The latter will surely give you a lot more bulk to dispose of.
There is an item available from Amazon usa (other stores are available) which used in conjunction with a plastic 5 gallon bucket and disposable plastic bags provides one with a comfortable hinged loo seat abd lid.
I believe this item is known as a luggable loo.
Less pretty is an ordinary bucket or waste bin with a pipe insulation rim and appropriately sized poly bags.
Either of these could sit on a slider in the base of a cupboard or be built into a box seat with hinged and padded lid.
Many of today's waste bin liners come ready scented.
A
Either would be more space saving thaan bulding a separating toilet.👍😊
Click to expand...
Yeah but ill be fitting a shower cubicle in anyway and the toilet will be in there. Don't plan to fit a sink though ...vans arent that big and the kitchen sink is close enough
 
Northernraider said:
Yeah but ill be fitting a shower cubicle in anyway and the toilet will be in there. Don't plan to fit a sink though ...vans arent that big and the kitchen sink is close enough
Click to expand...
i agree fitting a fold up basin was a real faff and much easier to use the kitchen sink
 
Northernraider said:
Yeah but ill be fitting a shower cubicle in anyway and the toilet will be in there. Don't plan to fit a sink though ...vans arent that big and the kitchen sink is close enough
Click to expand...
I know you are young , supple and healthy (or so you would have us believe) but a box seat with a padded lid would be very handy for putting your clean clothes on ready for when you leave the sbower, or sitting on while you dry between your toes.🙄

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Somebody watch that then explain it to me lol...
Thats what £5k buys you in van electrics
 
Just smiffy said:
What are the advantages of going 24v..?
Most stuff for camping, motorhomes are 12v aren’t they..?
Click to expand...
Yeah im not entirely sure on that ...they did explain a few bits about thinner wires and less voltage drop or something but i think it adds a lot of extra parts to the kit
I planned to just run the hab on 12v as normal ..... unless someone who knows better reckons its better to use the 24.

Still ive plenty of time to worry about that yet
 
Northernraider said:


Somebody watch that then explain it to me lol...
Thats what £5k buys you in van electrics
Click to expand...

There are few things I would done different, but not bad, their choice is ok, or as good. I definitely would of kept 24v everything possible, eliminating the need of dc dc converters to minimum, they have idle draw and very inefficient. Anything that comes in 12v, can be found in 24v, pump, lights fridge, heater etc. Maybe few gizmos that need 5v usb and very specific needs for 12v. Power on board is precious, so it needs consideration to max optimisation. Instead of 5 x175w panels and two 20a mppt’s , a better choice is 3 x330 Panasonic all parallel into a 50a mppt. Batteries, those agm’s cost a arm and a leg, add few toes and get LFP, result 100kg spare for water, no balancers, no batt protect, and far better efficiency and reserve. Inverter is to small, 2 or even 3kva would make the use of the rest of the investment, making use of excess power for heating water, cooking and even small bursts of heating. With 600w solar, electric cooking is definitely doable I do it, with 900w is luxury. Putting Pb in a van at this time is bonkers, LFP is cheaper per cycle life to end of life, and fuel to lump it around. Location, bad choice, that’s a rear wheel drive, I would have static weight distributed to drive axle, a water tank is not static, it varies with use, batteries stay put. Also, about the location, lots of heat from the cab windows, will see those bits of equipment in 40+ deg heat, even 50 in the summer; not wise for electrics and batteries to be baked, it will massive diminish the life span. At the back in a vented locker keep the A’s cool as possible. The cerbo GX I do like, it’s nice if you have data, you can set geofence and track it. I have spent about the same or less, with superior results and better balanced system.
 
Are there any build video's of that posh wooden composting toilet?

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What happened to the woman on here a month or two ago, that was mad keen on a composting toilet, she was going to build a whole van around one?
 
I got caught up in watching one of those Van Life Vario conversion blogs last night...
Two things I noted, apart from the flippin' hard work it all was;
1) The difficulty they had removing the flooring & seating track.
2) The novel idea of a sliding compost toilet - which IMO was great. Have a full size shower space, or a full size toilet. Others might disagree that the space needed to slide away was wasted.

Have you seen this particular one Tam?
https://www.youtube.com/c/WanderingHome/videos
 
Onemanandhisdog said:
Are there any build video's of that posh wooden composting toilet?
Click to expand...
Its a german company that makes them for the crazy price of around €650
Ill make my own ...the fibreglass seperator is €85 thats the only part i need to buy that i cant make myself. The 2 containers are easily substituted.
 
Langtoftlad said:
I got caught up in watching one of those Van Life Vario conversion blogs last night...
Two things I noted, apart from the flippin' hard work it all was;
1) The difficulty they had removing the flooring & seating track.
2) The novel idea of a sliding compost toilet - which IMO was great. Have a full size shower space, or a full size toilet. Others might disagree that the space needed to slide away was wasted.

Have you seen this particular one Tam?
https://www.youtube.com/c/WanderingHome/videos
Click to expand...
Yes ive been following them for a few months now ....the bus they bought had a ridiculously over engineered floor in it ....im hoping mine is not the same .
It seems there are various converters with the busses and some are harder than others to strip out. .... I'll not know till i see mine in the flesh which one it is .

I like a few of the ideas theyve done on their build .

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Northernraider said:
Its a german company that makes them for the crazy price of around €650
Ill make my own ...the fibreglass seperator is €85 thats the only part i need to buy that i cant make myself. The 2 containers are easily substituted.
Click to expand...

I'd rather pay €650 for one of them than €1000+ for a Natures Head plastic thing that a lot of vanlifers seem to aspire to!! But like you say, DIY is the most sensible option.
 
Onemanandhisdog said:
I'd rather pay €650 for one of them than €1000+ for a Natures Head plastic thing that a lot of vanlifers seem to aspire to!! But like you say, DIY is the most sensible option.
Click to expand...
Yes theres some of them crazy prices but its not hard to build ....ill be using a normal everyday wooden toilet seat with the fibreglass seperator built underneath. Bench type square loo over one of the rear wheel arches . A lot of the dreadlock happy hippy brigade are happy to pay crazy prices for whats essentially a plastic bottle , plastic bin and a toilet seat.
I'll buy the bottle and bucket from these guys .

www.simploo.co.uk

Products Archive - Simploo composting toilets

Waterless, composting toilets for just about anywhere, delivered to you in around 4 weeks for the Simploo Original and 5 weeks for the Mini and Nano. The Simploo composting toilet is a type of waterless toilet that separates urine from solid waste. Urine can either be collected in an internal...
www.simploo.co.uk

And the seperator from ebay.
 
Last edited:
Northernraider said:
Yes theres some of them crazy prices but its not hard to build ....ill be using a normal everyday wooden toilet seat with the fibreglass seperator built underneath. Bench type square loo over one of the rear wheel arches . A lot of the dreadlock happy hippy brigade are happy to pay crazy prices for whats essentially a plastic bottle , plastic bin and a toilet seat.
I'll buy the bottle and bucket from these guys .

www.simploo.co.uk

Products Archive - Simploo composting toilets

Waterless, composting toilets for just about anywhere, delivered to you in around 4 weeks for the Simploo Original and 5 weeks for the Mini and Nano. The Simploo composting toilet is a type of waterless toilet that separates urine from solid waste. Urine can either be collected in an internal...
www.simploo.co.uk

And the seperator from ebay.
Click to expand...

Yeah, they make nice stuff, it's not huge and much more reasonably priced than some.
 
Raul said:
There are few things I would done different, but not bad, their choice is ok, or as good. I definitely would of kept 24v everything possible, eliminating the need of dc dc converters to minimum, they have idle draw and very inefficient. Anything that comes in 12v, can be found in 24v, pump, lights fridge, heater etc. Maybe few gizmos that need 5v usb and very specific needs for 12v. Power on board is precious, so it needs consideration to max optimisation. Instead of 5 x175w panels and two 20a mppt’s , a better choice is 3 x330 Panasonic all parallel into a 50a mppt. Batteries, those agm’s cost a arm and a leg, add few toes and get LFP, result 100kg spare for water, no balancers, no batt protect, and far better efficiency and reserve. Inverter is to small, 2 or even 3kva would make the use of the rest of the investment, making use of excess power for heating water, cooking and even small bursts of heating. With 600w solar, electric cooking is definitely doable I do it, with 900w is luxury. Putting Pb in a van at this time is bonkers, LFP is cheaper per cycle life to end of life, and fuel to lump it around. Location, bad choice, that’s a rear wheel drive, I would have static weight distributed to drive axle, a water tank is not static, it varies with use, batteries stay put. Also, about the location, lots of heat from the cab windows, will see those bits of equipment in 40+ deg heat, even 50 in the summer; not wise for electrics and batteries to be baked, it will massive diminish the life span. At the back in a vented locker keep the A’s cool as possible. The cerbo GX I do like, it’s nice if you have data, you can set geofence and track it. I have spent about the same or less, with superior results and better balanced system.
Click to expand...
Tam sent me the link last night and I said to him a lot of what you have just said. I too don't agree with their battery & solar choice.
The only bit I'm not convinced about is going 24v I'm aware of the advantages but with the amount of travelling Tam does keeping the hab at 12v makes life a lot easier if spares are required on route.
 
Lenny HB said:
Tam sent me the link last night and I said to him a lot of what you have just said. I too don't agree with their battery & solar choice.
The only bit I'm not convinced about is going 24v I'm aware of the advantages but with the amount of travelling Tam does keeping the hab at 12v makes life a lot easier if spares are required on route.
Click to expand...

I assume that a 24v system is fed by 2x12v in series or are 24v batteries available?

If it is 2x 12v then if one battery goes kerput one has no power, whereas with 2x12v in parallel one can disconnect the duff one and carry on till a replacement is found.

Of course, it would be possible to have two banks of 2x12v, but 4 batteries is expensive and takes a lot of space.

Geoff

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So today after a bit of food shopping i headed further west on the route from Messini to pylos and stopped here at the waterfalls of polylimnio ....i missed these when i followed the coast on my way east back in late November
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20210222_141353.jpg
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nicholsong said:
I assume that a 24v system is fed by 2x12v in series or are 24v batteries available?

If it is 2x 12v then if one battery goes kerput one has no power, whereas with 2x12v in parallel one can disconnect the duff one and carry on till a replacement is found.

Of course, it would be possible to have two banks of 2x12v, but 4 batteries is expensive and takes a lot of space.

Geoff
Click to expand...
Very good point.
 
Lenny HB said:
Tam sent me the link last night and I said to him a lot of what you have just said. I too don't agree with their battery & solar choice.
The only bit I'm not convinced about is going 24v I'm aware of the advantages but with the amount of travelling Tam does keeping the hab at 12v makes life a lot easier if spares are required on route.
Click to expand...
I would definitely go 24v all in, especially the chassis being native 24v. Double the efficiency of 12v and truckers have all we have in the vans on 24v. The 24v stuff is much durable as well. I was gonna switch on 24v when I did my inverter upgrade, and I would of had to change the water pump, B2B, and a dc to dc for 12v tv, toilet pump, lighting etc. If I would start from scratch, then even with a 12v alternator, I would go 24v for sure. You can get victron Orion 12-24 converter and set it as a B2B charger. That’s what I use now as a B2B; a dc-dc isolated converter. Set it from the potentiometer, and wire a remote switch or engine detection. In terms of PV panels, the higher the voltage the better, so 30 or 96cell panel to avoid series. Even half cut 120cell panels are a very good choice on a wide roof. Battery panels (36 cell) is old school and long deprecated, good for lighting and PWM controllers. For serious reliable power, for for 30 cell up.
 
nicholsong said:
I assume that a 24v system is fed by 2x12v in series or are 24v batteries available?

If it is 2x 12v then if one battery goes kerput one has no power, whereas with 2x12v in parallel one can disconnect the duff one and carry on till a replacement is found.

Of course, it would be possible to have two banks of 2x12v, but 4 batteries is expensive and takes a lot of space.

Geoff
Click to expand...
Batteries never go kaput. They get murdered by misuse. Only 1% die a natural death.
And that’s not how you design or calculate battery capacity needs. You get 24v lfp or 4 of 6v lead. Never ever 4 of 12’s to make 2 24’s in parallel.
 
Raul said:
I would definitely go 24v all in, especially the chassis being native 24v. Double the efficiency of 12v and truckers have all we have in the vans on 24v. The 24v stuff is much durable as well. I was gonna switch on 24v when I did my inverter upgrade, and I would of had to change the water pump, B2B, and a dc to dc for 12v tv, toilet pump, lighting etc. If I would start from scratch, then even with a 12v alternator, I would go 24v for sure. You can get victron Orion 12-24 converter and set it as a B2B charger. That’s what I use now as a B2B; a dc-dc isolated converter. Set it from the potentiometer, and wire a remote switch or engine detection. In terms of PV panels, the higher the voltage the better, so 30 or 96cell panel to avoid series. Even half cut 120cell panels are a very good choice on a wide roof. Battery panels (36 cell) is old school and long deprecated, good for lighting and PWM controllers. For serious reliable power, for for 30 cell up.
Click to expand...
I unfortunately never understood most of that ...you need to type it in idiot text for me

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Langtoftlad said:
Maybe he'll surprise us all & go Lithium
Click to expand...
Onemanandhisdog said:
It won't be surprise, he's already said it!
Click to expand...
Yes i said before that lithium was my first choice ....but Lenny HB has been giving me the pros and cons.

Victron lithium is very expensive ....other brands are available but are they as good and reliable that is the question.


I doubt i will fit victron panels as my prefered choice is just 2 panels at 250watt each ... something like this

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/1/710-...0001&campid=5338547443&icep_item=203237451969
which i can then fit side by side on the front of my roofrack and make them tiltable like this

Screenshot_20210126-142912_Instagram.jpg


But the rest of the system i plan to fit victron blue with Bluetooth technology.
Undecided on batteries yet but my initial thought was 2 x 100ah lithium.

My power useage will be

A compressor fridge
A shurflo pump
Tv
Power for diesel heater
Ignitor for oven and hob

Various led lights Inside and outside.

Usb charging sockets
Inverter occasionally

And possibly a second small pump for hot water system.


And thats about it


Fridge and heating being the biggest drains.


Ill have a b2b charger as well as the solar
 
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