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I read somewhere a comment like “never, never put batteries under your bed. They’ll give off fumes in the night and you’ll all die.” What batteries, if any, need venting? Do people use battery boxes and vents?

I’d more or less settled on using Victron stuff but had a last minute thought. when parked up between trips I was thinking to leave the solar on to keep the batteries charged but realised the Victron only has one battery output and there’s no way I could keep the vehicle battery topped up as...

I’m looking to buy a circular saw (not owned one before) and browsing round my local power tool shop (my, what a place... could be expensive) I noticed some saws have the blade on the right and some on the left. Is this just personal preference? Can’t believe they make saws specially for left...

I’m having a brain fade moment. Can anyone help? Apart from cost and space, what are the pros and cons of having multiple batteries versus a single battery? Apart from, I think, a benefit in having multiple batteries if you’re into high current draw, For example: 1 220Ah or 2 110Ah or 3 70Ah...

I’ve been staring at the attached drawing for about 30 minutes and wondering about it. (The drawing is a crop from a schematic on the Victron site, but the principle applies to other makes). My schematic was subtly different: I had one logical negative busbar (actually two physical components...

Try as I can, I just can't get my head around all the VE.xxx stuff: VE.Bus, VE.Direct, VE.Can - and what the hell is nmea2000 ? I can't find a simple description of how these bits are supposed to work together - or not - despite trawling the Victron stuff. Anybody know a link to a 'Noddy goes...

I’ve been thinking about a build for several months now, but I’m wondering how physically demanding it might be. I’m 64 and pretty agile and mobile, with reasonable practical skills, but I have a condition that means I get tired quickly: any build is going to take a long time.... I have a chum...

Just mulling over the choice between bonded glass and double glazed acrylic windows. The glass ones are attractive and potentially cheaper, but I’ve read they are colder to the touch, not surprisingly. Do people find condensation a potential problem with them, like it is on the windscreen?

Hi If you want a single box to do mains, solar and B2B charging, and trickle charge the vehicle battery, I can’t find much to beat this fella: https://www.12voltplanet.co.uk/votronic-vbcs-12v-triple-charger-45a-dc-to-dc-30a-mains-350w-solar.html Quite expensive and all eggs in one basket, I...

I hope I've got this right... I've been sizing the battery bank for my hopeful build and reluctantly gone away from all-electric (winter heating...) so it's a more conventional load calculation. Before I started I thought it was mostly about straight Ah capacity, but I now realise it can also...

I’ve been looking at space heaters. Am I right in thinking there’s a tie up between Whale and Propex? The underfloor heaters look almost identical (even to sharing model numbers) and the internal ones are amazingly similar, just slightly different physical size. Are they one and the same...

I'm thinking hard about our self-build: I've the makings of a design and a budget. Like most budgets, it's more than I thought at the start - so be it. But I was wondering about re-sale value. This could be our last van, seeing us well into our 70s when realistically something might happen to...

I’m trying to find out exactly what the differences are between Fiat/Peugeot van vs maxi van. I know the maxi chassis is for the heavier duty vans, but the 3.5t L3H2 seems to be available in both varieties. Are there any subtle differences? Payload on the maxi 3.5t is marginally worse, so does...

https://www.parkers.co.uk/vans-pickups/best/2019/most-reliable-vans/ Oops. Fiat at number 9. And Ducato not in the top 10 at all.

I've been sizing battery/solar etc for our possible all-electric van and I've been thinking about water heating. It's the biggest consumer of power. We need a 10l heater if we have showers and one heat cycle will do both of us, plus probably the breakfast washing up. But we might also need hot...

The layout I'm working up seems almost inevitably to place the electrical gear under the bench seat which I'm putting behind the driver's seat. This turns into a bed at night and I'm wondering whether the gear will make enough noise to annoy us - I just take my hearing aids out but my wife seems...

Hi Wonder if anyone knows where I can get dimensioned drawings for a L3H2 Ducato loadspace? I'm interested in where the structural ribs are... I know you can remove the non-structural ones, but I presume it's not a smart idea to cut through the structural ones for a window? Thanks Mark

Especially around the 2 minute mark.... Simplifies the job to its essentials. If you’ve never seen Andrew Camarata in action before I can tell you he’s a bit different to many of us.

Are Eberspachers noisy? I’ve a friend who has a Webasto and he said it was too noisy to have on at night. I’m planning a build, so I could probably find a home for it underneath if need be, but just wondered whether people had been bothered by the noise. Thanks

I've been doing a preliminary trawl for base vehicles. We currently have a Ducato with the Comfortmatic box and while not the world's greatest auto (see numerous threads....) we do want to stick with auto. But the only used auto vans I can find are Transits, which I'm not overly keen on. Is it...