Maximizing Off-Grid Power for Family Adventures in a 2014 Coromal Caravan

Luke, Stacey and the kid’s 2014 Coromal caravan had a basic power system that only included a100Ah Deep cycle battery and a 240V 15A charger, with no solar or car charging.

With a three-way AES (auto switching) fridge which was not using the van’s battery power, the family wanted to run a 40ltr Engel fridge, a 12V CPAP (continuous positive airway pressure) machine, four Sirocco fans and the usual accessories such as lights, water pump, tv, phone’s tablets etc.

To meet their needs, we removed the original battery and charger and installed a Victron 200Ah 12.8V lithium NG battery and Victron Smart Bluetooth Small BMS (Battery Management System) NG (Next Generation), which has convenient built in battery monitoring.

Victron’s new NG Series lithium batteries can be linked together with more batteries than you could ever need in a caravan and have BMS linking cables that facilitate the batteries being daisy chained together where they finally connect to the Small BMS NG. In this instance we only needed one battery. The Small BMS receives internal data from the battery (or batteries), which can be viewed on your phone using the Victron Connect App.

The Small BMS also connects to the chargers to control charging if needed, and the Smart Battery Protect 65 controls the van power loads if the battery gets too low.

In compliance with Australian Standard AS/NZS 3001.2.2022, we custom made a sealed battery enclosure, with battery stud posts and Deutsch Plug for BMS Charge / Discharge control and vented the enclosure through the floor with an air filter to prevent dust intake.

The set up includes one of our custom Victron power boards featuring:

• A Victron Smart Bluetooth Phoenix Smart IP43 12v 50A 240V battery charger

• A Victron Smart Bluetooth 50A MPPT solar Controller

• A Victron Smart Bluetooth 50A Orion XS DC/DC vehicle charger

…installed with main fusing, tucked away under the bed.

For solar, we installed two 250W solar panels on the roof and ran all new wiring and appropriate fusing to bring the van’s wiring in line with Australian Standard AS/NZS 3001.2.2022 and installed an 8” tablet display on an overhead cupboard for easy viewing of the full Victron System.

We programmed the system and set it up for Victron synchronised charging, which means the Victron products communicate wirelessly and allow each device to understand what the other is doing, so they work in harmony as a whole.

The van came in with one cig socket and two USB sockets, but the 12V CPAP machine required the installation of 12V accessory socket, which we situated on the side of the bed for ease of use.

To keep the drinks cool, in went an external fridge socket on the side of the van under the awning for the Engel, and to keep the family cool, we added in another Sirocco fan on the opposite side of the master bed and a fan for each of the kids bunk beds.

Having wired in vehicle charger & Anderson plug wiring from the drawbar for DC charging, we also got the Prado tow ready.

The Prado only had a 7 pin trailer plug with no additional power feeds, the existing Anderson plug was wired with inadequately small 6mm cable and was not switched on / off by the ignition, so we installed a 50A Anderson plug charge circuit, switched on and off by the ignition to power the Victron Smart Bluetooth 50A Orion XS DC/DC Vehicle charger.  This guarantees the Prado’s start battery can’t be flattened once pulled up and the DC charger can be programmed for optimum performance.

The  7 pin was replaced with a 12 pin socket which included a power feed for the three way AES fridge, switched on and off by the ignition, a hotwire to power the caravan breakaway battery and a fridge ignition trigger wire.

All’s left now is to pack and get going!  Happy and safe travels!

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