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Summary: Need a campervan wiring kit? Get a tailored wiring kit for your vehicle layout. Rayne Automotive is a UK-based, family-run business specialising in custom electrical systems for campervan conversion. We sat down with James Withams, one of the Directors, to chat about all things van wiring to the best van batteries to how to make your expensive leisure van battery last. Rayne Automotive provide high-quality tailored wiring solutions for van conversions with a lot of experience, choose from,
1) Custom Full Wiring Kits
2) Campervan Electrics Starter Packs
3) Components & Accessories.
Focus: Campervan wiring kits with focus on the right van battery and top battery care instructions.
Interviewed by: Simon from Van Bandits
Interviewee: James Withams, Director at Rayne Automotive
Read time: 7 -10mins
Simon – Van Bandits
What’s been the biggest change in the services offered over the last 16 years?
James – Rayne Automotive
Seeing a big movement towards gas-less campervans, with people not wanting to carry on board gas for cooking or heating, and then moving to all electric. All electric for the cooking, and then Diesel for the air, heating the electric water, heating, electric cooking and stuff.
Simon – Van Bandits
And with the development of better batteries, I suppose that’s brought that on, hasn’t it?
James – Rayne Automotive
Yeah, exactly. For most people, you know, gas was way cheaper than electric several years ago, but now it’s not so different. It is still a little bit more expensive going electric, but it allows you to use things that gas doesn’t, like an air fryer and other sorts of other things other than a gas ring or gas hob, because you then you have to buy a motor home-specific oven. Whereas now you can grab your air fryer from home and take it with you.
When people run through the list of things they’d like to take, you know, you’ve got really low current stuff, fridges, lights, charging phones and oh, and my hair dryer! And all of a sudden, you’ve gone from 40 watts to 1,800 Watts. Wow! The whole system changes, in the way that it’s designed from the ground up, this changes.
Simon – Van Bandits
What do you ask when speaking to a customer about their campervan electrics?
James – Rayne Automotive
Actually, you know, my opening gambit with most phone calls with the customer, is what do you want the van to do for you? What do you want to run electrically when you’re on a trip? And then that helps us work backwards. We don’t go what size battery do you want? Because people often go – I don’t know.
Simon – Van Bandits
I might have a limited budget, because I’m working on a bit of the van build at the moment. So, I might not be able to afford an entire van electric system. My question then is, is it possible to start small and then add in a modular way over time?
James – Rayne Automotive
You can. I would say you need to design the end system first, though. Now, it may not end up looking exactly like that, but what I don’t want people doing is just slapping in a hundred-watt solar panel and a small battery in, because that might be fine. But if you then go, as the build progresses, I want to run my hair dryer, my induction hob, or actually, I want to go off grid for like 3 weeks, then you need to have a plan to start with.
What I don’t want to end up with is people having bought stuff in 6 months, 9 months down the line, having to get rid of that stuff because it’s not compatible with the rest of the system.
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Simon – Van Bandits
So we should have a final vision of what the van wants to look like, but also have an approach where you phase the installation.
James – Rayne Automotive
Have a plan. You can do that in 2 ways. The build is gonna take me 3 months, so then you can leave things like battery, big expensive inverters, you can leave them till the end, because they literally pop in a gap.
That saves a huge part of the budget, or you can do it in a slightly more complicated way – I’m gonna use it as I develop it right. I’m gonna leave the inverter out and I’m gonna spend my money now on the battery and just one charging source.
Simon – Van Bandits
So it would be possible to say, start with a solar panel and an inverter charging the battery, and then kind of go from there.
James – Rayne Automotive
Yeah, you could go solar system to the panel. Then, through the controller and down onto the battery, you might end up spending a bit more money on your final battery because you don’t wanna buy a battery, use it for 3 months and sell it because you’re gonna lose a lot of money. But then, if you leave out the DCDC charger and say, the main system, that’s gonna save you quite a bit of money upfront.
Simon – Van Bandits
How easy are these to install?
James – Rayne Automotive
It depends on how you are with these things, you know. Plenty of people get on absolutely fine. They receive the delivery of the kit, they put it in, and it all works. They’re happy. Others need a little bit of aftercare, after-delivery support. That’s never a problem, either. Always happy with that. But as always, electricity can be dangerous and should only be undertaken by those with the relevant experience.
Batteries & Battery life – how to look after your battery top tips
James – Rayne Automotive
AGM battery – should go for 3 to 7 years of good use. However, you can destroy an AGM battery in a month if you don’t look after it.
Simon – Van Bandits
What should we then know to try to extend the battery life, to give it the best chance possible?
James – Rayne Automotive
Okay, so my top tips are
1) Identify your battery chemistry. By that I mean, is it a traditional wet lead acid, not ideal, AGM, Gel or Lithium. The care is different. What you do to maximise their lifespan is different, and if you treat one like the other, you’re just not going to give it the best chance.
2) AGM batteries
So they basically want to spend the majority of their life pretty much full. You can drain them down safely to 50%, so only use half the capacity of the battery and then recharge it. Every time you take it down to 40%, the further you drain it, the more wear. So, basically keep it charged up for the majority of the time. Don’t keep it charged up forever, but just use it and keep it charged. That’s the main thing.
3) Charges are set to correct parameters
And then, obviously, things that go across both kinds of batteries – make sure your charges are set to the correct parameters and correct charge voltages. Usually, that’s done in the pre-sets for most of the charges. Most of the Victron stuff you can do using Bluetooth. So, it’s really easy to make sure you’ve got the right charges.
The other thing with an AGM battery, you’re not gonna have a percentage figure unless you’ve got a monitoring system. So, really, the rule of thumb is about 12.0. There’s a lot more nuance to that, but that’s not a bad rule of thumb to work with.
4) Lithium Battery
James – Rayne Automotive
Lithium is, I guess, more important because they’ve got a longer lifespan, and they’re more of a financial investment to buy, so they are more important to make sure you take care of them. They’re good, you can discharge them. They can go all the way down. You’ll get fewer cycles, (using 100% vs using 80$) a cycle is a discharge-recharge. So, one loop of the battery. And that’s kind of how they measure expected life. Obviously, that translates into years based on how often you use it. So, you can fully recharge one of these batteries 5,000 times. It does depend on the battery. But they’re the kind of numbers you see. And again, it will be based on test data.
So, the top tip of lithium is, don’t store it full. If you store it full, you will lose 4 or 5% of your capacity in the battery per year. If you store it roughly 50%, then you will lose about 1% per year, just as a baseline figure. That is, I mean, I’m hoping that’s still current information. I spoke to a manufacturer a couple of years ago, and I’ve heard this. That’s still the advice we’re giving to people.
5) Turning your Solar off when leaving the Van (Lithium only)
That’s basically gonna mean, if you are leaving the van, you need to turn your solar off. That’s the biggest one.
Leave the battery connected to a solar array. It will just gradually charge up, and it will sit there full, which you know you get. You’re gonna get in next time and use it and it’s gonna be fine. But gradually, over the years, you’re gonna go, hmm, okay, I don’t have as much power as I used to, and by that point, it’s too late to undo, basically, you just end up with smaller battery capacity.
Don’t leave it for weeks and months in that state; a couple of days is probably not going to matter, given the enormous lifespan you’re expecting from it.
Simon – Van Bandits
Say I want a new electrical setup for my van. How much time should I allow before you can get it ready for me for dispatch?
James – Rayne Automotive
Yeah, I mean, typically if this was a phone call, we were having, saying, James -I’ve got a medium wheel-based crafter, and I want to put XY and Z into it. I’m gonna get you a quote today for what you need, and then, if you say yes, go ahead, you would probably have it end of next week, or the start of the week after.
Simon – Van Bandits
What’s next for Rayne Automotive? What’s new to the market? What’s coming up?
James – Rayne Automotive
We’re kind of working on basically making it quicker easier. I wanna make the install smoother. So, a lot like this year, we’ve brought out the 1st generation of our pre-wired power boards. There is a modular system, where you’ve got one for the mains, one for the 12 volt, one for the solar, and they basically plug together.
So, you can install the main bulk of the electrics, you will be running cables back and plug in 6 or 7 plugs in and then obviously connecting to the end appliance, the fridge, etc. So, it’s just developments like this and just smaller, more reliable, quicker to fit.
We have been prototyping an electrics cupboard. It will get a cooler name. It’s effectively going to occupy the under-bed spaces on bigger vans, where you can basically lift completely this pre-wired thing in and just bolt it in as part of like a bed system.
Simon – Van Bandits
Thank you very much for your time and your expert information.
Rayne Automotive offers Full Van Wiring Conversion Kits and expert advice, find out more about them and shop at Rayne Automotive, remember to use your VanBandits code to receive £10 off orders over £100.
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