Free Camper Van Electrical Diagrams

Please scroll down to see our example power systems and other resources. But first, we have some advice on how to get started…

What kind of solar/electrical system do you need in your camper van? Some tips below!

 

If you get stuck or have questions, our team is here to help! Email us a service@vanlifeoutfitters.com or call us at 754-444-8704 extension 2.

Step 1: Figure out your needs with a load calculation. We have a detailed blog post including sample load calculations you can use for this step. This exercise will really help you with the next two steps!

Step 2: Make a foundational decision on the type of system you'll be building. We've narrowed this down to three basic approaches/architectures - all of which use lithium-type batteries, and each one has a detailed blog post, free example wiring diagram, and, for the Victron-based systems, a corresponding kit/bundle of products that you can configure to your specific needs. You'll save a bundle with our bundles! You can think of this as the primary components and the products in the bundle are specific to the architecture/system design you've chosen.

Step 3: Add on the "accessories" that you need for your particular system with our best price accessories bundle that includes everything from shore power inlets to circuit protection and wiring, and our solar components bundle that includes everything from mounting brackets to solar extension cables and charge controllers. These are the products that will tie everything together into a fully functional power system but are not specific to a particular example wiring diagram/architecture.

Example: in this blog post, where we compare a "traditional" Victron-based system to an EcoFlow Power Kit, we have some video screen captures from our store product pages showing how we configured our internal BMS bundle and our accessory bundle to get a close comparison. These screen capture videos are helpful to see how versatile our bundles are and how you might configure them.

Finally, we have tons of other resources on our blog about power systems.

Option 1: Internal BMS Battery System (Bring Your Own Batteries)

The most affordable and easiest to install for a basic camper van electrical system that charges with solar, when driving through DC-DC chargers and also through an inverter/charger when you have shore power. You can use any standard, internal BMS battery with this system but we recommend high-quality lithium batteries with internal BMS systems like Victron SuperPak or a great value like SOK. Other examples include Epoch, Battleborn, Dakota and others.

Option 2: External BMS Battery System (Victron Batteries)

If you need a fairly large power system, and therefore large batteries with high amp hour capacity, you start to benefit from Victron Smart batteries that use an external BMS which allows you to fit more battery storage in the same footprint. Starting with this system and using a Lynx Smart BMS makes for a simple upgrade to a dedicated secondary alternator in the future.

Option 3: Dedicated Secondary Alternator

If you need the best off-grid capability with large “loads” like air conditioners, this is the most reliable and powerful way to keep your battery bank charged up. This system is based on our “external BMS” system but adds the dedicated charging alternator. We have multiple blog posts about this approach including a deep dive on a Victron-based, 12-volt secondary alternator system, another deep dive on a 48-volt secondary alternator system, and a deep dive into the Wakespeed WS500 alternator regulator.

Wanna dive deeper? Check out the various systems listed on this page or check out the detailed blog post on sizing a electrical system for a camper van.