House battery in the engine

[highdesertranger]

I say go for it. put the battery in the engine compartment. use a good quality solenoid and wire all your accessories to it. I guess you know a car audio shop, well if you know them and trust them I guess it would be ok. I personally wouldn't use a car stereo shop for anything. btw I have a house battery in the engine compartment. highdesertranger

 

[Theadyn]

I was wrong, no 12v plugs at the back (my brain, before coffee, was remembering the stupid useless headphone jacks back there). The one near the TV doesn't work without the engine running.

So back to the drawing board. I'm leaning towards Bobs recommendation, house battery with continuous duty solenoid. There is a pick-a-part place here in town I want to visit to see if they have the mounting tray for this model, it's hard for me to locate it on the net.

And, as for the laptop, and reading the reply's, I may just leave it home and take my iPad for internet off free Wifi places when needed. I have a small portable dvd player, whopping 7" (don't be jealous! lol) that I can charge up for a movie if needed. The iPad has Kindle and I have Kindle Unlimited to download a lot of books. The iPad's battery lasts surprisingly a long time. Might take a few real books with me, as well.

For lighting, so far have 4 LED puck lights that are battery powered. Gonna test them out to see if they will suffice before I get into trying to change out lighting in there. If they work well enough I may look into one of those small solar charges I can put on the dash and battery charger to keep them going without going through a ton of batteries.

Thank you all for the info, you guys are great!!!

 

[SternWake]

So you need to acquire a battery tray for that extra space in the engine compartment?.


Did you say there are already battery cables leading to this location?

Is there anything that looks like this nearby?

http://www.amazon.com/Bussmann-BP-1...m_auto_17?ie=UTF8&refRID=0V7B0Z2HHH1TP7MTF7N7

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...d_t=201&pf_rd_p=1944687642&pf_rd_i=B0050I94XG

Common bases for interior lights are the 1156, and the T10

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias=automotive&field-keywords=t10 LED

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_n...ld-keywords=1156+led&rh=n:15684181,k:1156+led

For the price, they are certainly worth using.  I personally don't like the Puck route when there is already lighting wired up.

LED's can be dimmed as well:

http://www.amazon.com/LEDwholesaler...m+dimmer&pebp=1422460708821&peasin=B003L4KKF2

I pulled the guts out of the above device and installed them inside my reading light for when in bed.  I feel reading light just bright enough to read by helps me fall asleep faster.  The above dimmer can handle 8 amps of LED's, So in theory I could use it as a master controller for dimming all my interior lights.

While less expensive Ciggy receptacles exist, this is about the best quality you can hope for.  Wire this to house battery , or fuse block over 10AWG
http://www.amazon.com/Blue-Sea-Systems-Volt-Socket/dp/B001U4ZZPK

10 AWG might be a little overkill, but voltage drop is annoying, and the price difference between 14 and 10 awg is not enough to worry about pinching pennies here.

 

[Theadyn]

I will have to check on that in a bit and read all this awesome info!! Take picture even. About to take her off 30 minutes from here to a place with cheapy used furniture hoping to find something to go in her. Will definitely look, add picture, and read all this info, thanks!!!

 

[Theadyn]

Here is a pic of the space in the engine bay that is empty and the plug that is nearby already wired in, it's near the bottom of this post.  (sorry for the blog link..  already uploaded pics there and didn't want to have to again on photobucket)  So that is what I have to work with.  Now to read all that info! 

 

[Theadyn]

So much of that is way over my knowledge, I'm sad to say. Quick connect fuse box.. *zooms hand right over head and makes whoosh sound* haha I am trying to learn though. Thank you for the links!

 

[akrvbob]

If you mounting it under the hood is going to be a hassle of dining parts, it might be easier to mount it somewhere. You're in a van now right, you sold the Class C? If so it would e very good to save the space somewhere else by putting it under the hood.

Here are the pics from her blog:

 

[ccbreder]

Not enough room for a decent battery. I was going to recommend visiting a rv conversion for your make/model to see how they did it. But your photo shows not enough room. That connector is not a battery connection.