Just bought a used Ford Transit to convert
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vangotransit
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I am by trade an RF engineer...
I have a 2016 Transit with DC to DC charging from the alternator, solar charging from 200 watts of panel and 6kw of lithium storage. I use a DC fridge, I have an inverter for electric stove, microwave, and air conditioning. You can assemble a lithium pack from stuff you buy online. Or find an electrical upfitter, I specialize in Ford Transits and am based out of Maryland if interested
I have a 2016 Transit with DC to DC charging from the alternator, solar charging from 200 watts of panel and 6kw of lithium storage. I use a DC fridge, I have an inverter for electric stove, microwave, and air conditioning. You can assemble a lithium pack from stuff you buy online. Or find an electrical upfitter, I specialize in Ford Transits and am based out of Maryland if interested
So tomorrow, I'm going to get either a refurbished yeti or a lithium battery and power port from an auto shop. Which lithium battery do I buy? What fuse do I need and where do I get one? I guess I need a piece of plywood to attach stuff to. The 100w Renogy panel has a charge controller attached to it. The fridge has both a cigarette lighter plug and 3 pronged plug.
B and C
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Since you claim to know nothing about electricity and no one to help, get a yeti. Yeti's are made for people that know nothing about electricity. Plug it into you vehicle cigarette lighter when you drive to charge it. I don't normally recommend the all in one boxes but your case seems to fit the bill.
Or people who know too much about electricity and know that by the time you buy a true sine inverter, fuses, lithium battery, bms, charge controller, you have spent more than the YETI and still have something that looks homemade and isn't very portable. 
B and C
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Both types of systems have their pros and cons.
We have actually had the YETI 1000 for a couple of years (still going strong!) and recently bought a YETI 3000 during the 25% off sale. We have not attached solar yet because I wanted to see how the roof rack looked and figure out placement. We installed the roof rack ourselves which took about 5 hours. I did add a piece of 1-1/2 aluminum angle to the front edge of the roof rack which cut the noise down to zero. There was some wind whistle across the bars before that addition.
I don't think a roof rack like we have is required for most, but we have a lot of boats we like to carry around.
I don't think a roof rack like we have is required for most, but we have a lot of boats we like to carry around.
highdesertranger
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on the Yeti's
don't they take a long time to recharge?
aren't they limited to how much solar you can use?
isn't the plug for solar one of a kind so you must but their over priced smallish panel?
are the separate components replaceable or if one dies does the whole thing pretty much must be turned in for warranty work?
highdesertranger
don't they take a long time to recharge?
aren't they limited to how much solar you can use?
isn't the plug for solar one of a kind so you must but their over priced smallish panel?
are the separate components replaceable or if one dies does the whole thing pretty much must be turned in for warranty work?
highdesertranger
The AC charger they come with is really small (60 watts or so) so takes about 18 hours to recharge a YETI 1000 off of a wall outlet. The YETI 3000 comes with two of them (120 watts) but since it is 3000 watt hour, it takes 25 hours to recharge off a wall outlet.
But during the 25% off sale we bought the 25 amp AC charger for a bit over $100 which charges either YETI at 300 watts, bringing the recharge time of the YETI 1000 to a more reasonable 3.5 hours. You can also use the wall chargers at the same time, so you can have 360 to 420 watts going in.
The solar can actually be any panel that has a open circuit voltage less than 22 volts. Something like two or three of the Renogy 100 watt mono panels would work well and those ship free. The YETI has a Anderson powerpole connector which is fairly common. I plan to make my own adapter to go from the standard MC4 to Anderson but it probably already exists on Amazon (as everything does).
The YETI 1000 comes with a PWM controller and the 3000 comes with a MPPT controller (a little more efficient).
As far as service, yeah I think you have to ship back the whole unit but Goal Zero does send you a prepaid shipping box. I haven't had any problems with either of mine, knock on wood. I figure it is probably easier to send the YETI back for service than to send some loose LiFePO4 cells back to China for replacement
Battleborn of course could be a good option if you want to build your own. Their battery is $950 for about 1200 watt-hr, so a bit larger than the YETI 1000 on capacity. A PWM charger is cheap, a true sine inverter of 1500 watt rating is probably about $250. Fuses and wiring maybe $50. You could build something nice for under $1500, it just would not be quite as portable.
Like they said, each has pros and cons.
But during the 25% off sale we bought the 25 amp AC charger for a bit over $100 which charges either YETI at 300 watts, bringing the recharge time of the YETI 1000 to a more reasonable 3.5 hours. You can also use the wall chargers at the same time, so you can have 360 to 420 watts going in.
The solar can actually be any panel that has a open circuit voltage less than 22 volts. Something like two or three of the Renogy 100 watt mono panels would work well and those ship free. The YETI has a Anderson powerpole connector which is fairly common. I plan to make my own adapter to go from the standard MC4 to Anderson but it probably already exists on Amazon (as everything does).
The YETI 1000 comes with a PWM controller and the 3000 comes with a MPPT controller (a little more efficient).
As far as service, yeah I think you have to ship back the whole unit but Goal Zero does send you a prepaid shipping box. I haven't had any problems with either of mine, knock on wood. I figure it is probably easier to send the YETI back for service than to send some loose LiFePO4 cells back to China for replacement
Battleborn of course could be a good option if you want to build your own. Their battery is $950 for about 1200 watt-hr, so a bit larger than the YETI 1000 on capacity. A PWM charger is cheap, a true sine inverter of 1500 watt rating is probably about $250. Fuses and wiring maybe $50. You could build something nice for under $1500, it just would not be quite as portable.
Like they said, each has pros and cons.
Just camped two nights in the uninsulated Transit van (but on a 8 inch thick memory foam mattress) in temperatures that got down to 22 degrees (brrr). We tried out the electric blanket (queen size) after noticing that with both controls on the high setting it was only drawing 130 watts from the YETI 3000. SO NICE! I had to turn mine way down during the night as I got too hot. We used about 11% of the capacity of the YETI 3000 running the blanket overnight. After two nights of using it to make coffee, toast, run laptops, the 3000 was down to 58% capacity. I am quite pleased with it and still loving the Ford Transit van.
If the YETI 3000 goes on sale again I would probably get another!
If the YETI 3000 goes on sale again I would probably get another!
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