Hello again everyone.
It has been quite the roller coaster ride of research, etc. over the past few week, but I finally decided what I was going to do about my auxiliary power needs for the van. And, to be honest, I am still wondering if I did the right thing, but it finally came down to making a decision and moving forward. So, with all that in mind, here is what I have done.
I still felt like I wanted a portable solar system for now. I like that it is basically plug and play and that you have the flexibility of putting it where you can get the best benefit of the sun rays. That being said, I went with the Renogy 100 Watt Eclipse folding solar system.
https://www.renogy.com/100-watt-eclipse-monocrystalline-solar-suitcase/. And since they were offering these up on ebay as a "Make An Offer" post I was able to knock some off of the price. The other deciding factor was that I am unsure of what I want to do with the roof of the van in the future such as putting in a fantastic fan, etc. I also do not have access to help installing a permanent setup right now and cannot physically do it.
Because of the minimal needs I went with the Cobra 400 Watt Inverter based upon several people's opinions including Bobs. I was also fortunate enough to find a deal on these as well online.
I have not ordered my batteries yet, but am close. This has actually been the hardest decision in all this between the cost of them and also the very limited space that I have in my built-out Chevy Astro (I did my own buildout last summer). I am going to go with an agm battery, but because of the very limited space that I have in the van I am going with a smaller size agm and then paralleling 2 or 3 of them to get more amp hours.
As we speak, I am also getting some cables custom made. I wanted to have ring terminals on both ends of the cables so that I could do a permanent mount and the cables that are coming with the standard package have alligator clips on them.
I do have to admit that using and charging a battery inside the van does make me nervous still. While it is stated that using agm batteries inside is safe, I have done enough research to know that they do have the risk of gassing if overcharged, although they say that the odds of this happening are small. If anyone wants to share anything here to put my mind at ease please feel free.
Ironically, I got a call last night from a couple that I worked with as camp hosts at the Mt. Whitney Portal a few summers ago and they offered to give me their Honda 2200i generator. It has very few hours on it and is in very good shape. Still, I am not sure where I would put it if I did take it. The only place left in my van now to put it would be on the floorboard of the passenger seat. Stil...I would LOVE to have it!
I am considering that I might need to install a battery monitor in the van to make sure that the agm battery array doesn't overcharge. And possibly purchasing a multimeter instead.
So, that is where things are. I hope that everyone is doing well out there!
