Over the past couple months, we’ve upgraded our van’s electrical system to get more off-grid capacity. The stock house battery powers the refrigerator, LED lights, and (if you have a pop-top) the pop-top motor and lights. We added two 100Ah batteries to the existing system (now 300Ah total) by removing the stove drawer and using that space. Three fit pretty cleanly without taking over the whole compartment.
In the storage space above where the stove used to be, we mounted a 2000W pure sine wave inverter (Redodo) and cut an opening in the back panel so the outlets are accessible from inside the van. We used a table cable grommet to clean up the opening and keep things looking finished. Power can be turned on either at the inverter itself or via a wired remote.
The two additional batteries are wired in parallel (positive to positive, negative to negative). From the last battery, we ran cables to the inverter through a hole cut in the shelf. We left the rest of the wiring (solar, fridge, etc.) as-is, and the new batteries are charging via solar without any issues.
The biggest challenge was space. There’s very little clearance to work with, so everything is tight. I’m not sure how Escape originally set this up, but there’s almost no vertical clearance and the back panel is incredibly difficult to remove. The 3rd and 4th photos show how small the space is.
One downside is that the batteries we have don’t have data cables or Bluetooth, so we can’t easily monitor state of charge beyond the built-in indicators. If I were doing it again, I’d probably go with batteries that have better monitoring features.
So far, everything has been working as expected. The 300Ah battery bank provides a solid amount of usable power, and the inverter gives us access to standard AC outlets inside the van. Being able to quickly heat water with an electric kettle or use electric blankets has been a really nice. Overall, it’s made the setup much more functional for everyday use.