Category: DIY campervan

From Lead Acid to Lithium: 15 Years of Battery Tech on the Road

Posted on April 30, 2025May 9, 2025 by Rick Hurst

Fifteen years ago, I sat under an awning at a Devon campsite, juggling cables, adapters, a 20Ah Halfords-branded lead acid power pack, and an ageing MacBook that would wheeze its way through two hours of work – on a good day. Back then, trying to work remotely from a campsite felt more like a mad experiment than a lifestyle. Every percentage of battery charge was a precious resource. Every cloudy day a threat to productivity. Yet, somehow, I made it work.

Fast forward to 2025, and it’s genuinely hard to believe how far portable power tech has come. These days, I’m running a MacBook Air with the M3 chip, which casually sips power through a full day of development, writing, and Zoom calls. The machine itself has a battery life I would have barely dared to dream of in 2010. But what’s really game-changing is how easy it is now to keep everything else powered alongside it.

Power That Keeps Up With the Lifestyle

My current mobile setup includes a Bluetti EB55 power station paired with a 200W AllPowers solar panel. On a sunny day (and even on a not-so-sunny one), this combo allows my wife and I to:

Charge two MacBook Airs.
Keep two smartphones topped up.
Boil water for several cups of coffee throughout the morning using my compact travel kettle.
Run a 12 volt compressor fridge (most of the time).

The travel kettle pulls about 650 watts and takes roughly five minutes to boil. While that’s a decent draw, it’s well within the EB55’s capability. And thanks to the solar panel – providing between 0 and 120+ watts depending on cloud cover – I can keep the energy flowing steadily throughout the day.

And all of this, more or less indefinitely. No more rationing screen time or hoarding battery percentages. No more panicked trips to the campsite loo block to find a working plug socket.

That said, I have found the limits of the EB55. When I’m using it to power the campervan fridge alongside everything else, it can get depleted within 24 hours on a cloudy day. I knew that would be the case going in, and in a way it’s helpful – it’s given me a clearer picture of what I’ll need to spec out a more capable, permanent solution for the VW T6 campervan setup.

Why the EB55?

One important advantage of incorporating a portable powerbank like the EB55 into my campervan setup is the flexibility to hunt out a sunny patch away from the van to get the best possible solar input. I do have some long leads which allow me to locate the solar panels away from the van, but using them reduces charging efficiency, so having a portable powerbank that can be easily relocated is a huge plus.

The Bluetti EB55 hit a sweet spot for me, mainly because of its price point. I wanted something portable and capable, but without dropping a grand or more on a bigger system. For the cost, the EB55 packs in an impressive set of features: multiple DC outputs, a 700W inverter (with a 1400W surge), and a compact form factor that fits easily in my van or under a table when I’m set up outside.

It’s also pulled double duty as part of my live music gear, powering both a guitar amp and a bass amp for mobile gigs with my surf-rock band, Los Savages. Not something I had originally planned for, but a very welcome bonus!

That said, if I were building a van power system entirely from scratch and didn’t want to wire in a full DIY lithium setup, one of the larger Bluetti models (like the AC200P or AC180) could easily be the central power hub for a campervan. These units can:

Power a 12V fridge.
Run interior lighting.
Keep a water pump going.
Provide USB and 12V outputs for devices.
And even power appliances like air fryers, induction hobs, or a hair dryer via the built-in pure sine wave inverter.

For a lot of people, these newer generation power stations are becoming viable alternatives to traditional campervan leisure battery systems, especially when paired with solar or shore power.

USB-C: The Quiet Revolution

One of the most underrated advances in recent years has been the standardisation around USB-C charging. Where I once needed a mishmash of proprietary cables, inefficient DC-DC converters, and power inverters to keep everything topped up, now I can charge almost all my key devices – laptops, phones, small powerbanks, even some bike lights. It’s streamlined my power setup massively and eliminated a lot of energy waste from voltage conversion. This might seem like a small change, but in practice, it’s made remote working and living on the road much more seamless.

Looking Back: A Timeline of My Mobile Power Evolution

Here’s a rough timeline of the gear that’s powered my digital nomad experiments over the years:

2010 – Camping with a 20Ah lead-acid jump starter and a power inverter. Preparation & charging
2010 – One week running on battery and solar power. A week on battery and solar power and Day 2
2010 – Reflections after 6 weeks on the road. Lessons learned
2013 – T25 mobile office experiments. T25 mobile office
2013 – Early solar dreaming with the Solar Gorilla. Solar Gorilla, Nexus 4 and solar daydreams
2018 – Got back into van life with a VW T4 that included a large lead-acid leisure battery, charged via a simple split-charge relay or 100W portable solar panel. We have a van again
2018 – Running a home office using solar power. Part 1
2021-2025 – Bluetti, EcoFlow and Jackery power stations become mainstream in these kind of set-ups.
2025-2026 – Planning and building out a full VW T6 campervan lithium battery and solar setup

What’s Next?

Although I’m a weekend warrior who works mostly from my garden shed, I’m building this system with the future in mind. I want to be ready for longer-term vanlife digital nomad adventures when the opportunity arises.

With the VW T6 campervan conversion underway, I’m pushing into more permanent off-grid territory. Here’s a teaser of what I’m planning:

A LiFePO4 battery permanently installed under the driver’s seat – chosen for both size and price-point.
A DC-DC charger compatible with the van’s smart alternator, making alternator charging the primary source of power (especially important in UK winters).
Wired to drive the lights, fridge, water pump (for the tap, not the one under the bonnet!), and multiple USB-C charging points.

I’m not planning to add a mains inverter to this setup- at least for now. For 240V needs I’ll continue to use the Bluetti (and may upgrade to a larger model to handle higher loads needed for e.g. an air fryer or induction hob).

I may also add a solar charge controller and roof-mounted solar later, but given the limited winter sun in the UK, alternator charging will remain the most viable option for year-round reliability.

I’ll be documenting that process in detail soon, so stay tuned. that process in detail soon, so stay tuned.

Fitting a swivel seat base to a vw t4

Posted on July 19, 2018 by Rick Hurst

One of the first jobs on the list when we bought Hercules was a swivel base for the passenger seat. T4 vans come with either a double passenger seat, so you can fit three people up front (would be handy actually, as we only have four seat-belted seats), or a single passenger captain seat. Hercules came with the latter.

There are two main different types of seat swivel – a swivel plate, which fits between the seat and the standard seat base, and a swivel base, which replaces the standard seat base. After a bit of research I chose the latter, on the basis that this would leave the seat at the same height as it would be on the standard base, whereas a plate will usually raise it slightly. I actually used a swivel plate on Rocky, our last T25 camper.

I ordered one from SVB Accessories , on the basis that it was crash-tested and a good price. They also do a version with a built-in safe which I was tempted by, but i’m kind of reluctant to put a (visible) safe in the van, as to me it kind of advertises to a potential thief where you keep your valuables. Or maybe you could double-bluff and have a visible safe as a distraction, but keep your valuables somewhere else!

Having had much older vehicles, I wasn’t sure how long this job would take, but luckily it went entirely to plan. Firstly, I slid the seat all the way back, and undid the allen bolts which hold the seat rails to the base.

Then I slid the seat all the way forwards and undid the allen bolts at the rear of the rails.

Then you can remove the seat, with rails still attached.

Using a socket wrench, you then undo the four nuts on the bolts which attach the seat base to the cab floor.

Then you bolt the swivel seat base in, and attach the rails to it. The base came provided with bolts, but I used the original allen bolts (as they sit flush inside the rails) with the nuts from the provided bolts.

All in all probably 25 minutes, which is a miracle for me, as I have been known to make a 25 minute job last all weekend!

Using a cheap Quechua tarp fresh as a campervan awning

Posted on May 30, 2018October 5, 2023 by Rick Hurst

Using Quechua Tarp Fresh as campervan awning

We are using a Quechua tarp fresh as an awning/canopy. We already had the tarp, which we used for tent camping to provide some outdoor rain cover or shade. We bought a couple of spare poles to give us more height and options to set it up as standalone canopy.

Our T4 had an awning “C” rail fitted in the roof gutter, and a quick bit of research showed that you can attach a “kador” strip to these. I ordered a length of kador strip off ebay and wondered if I should sew it to the tarp, but in the end I decided to put some brass eyelets in the strip then attach to the awning using toggles and some elastic shock cord.

C channel in the roof gutter of a VW t4, fitted with kador strip

The advantage of this over sewing is that if we need to move the van, the toggles can be removed and the kador strip pulled out, without needing to unpeg the awning. Plus I can’t sew!

Awning attached to kador strip using toggles and eyelets

Our T4 is the short wheelbase version – the awning is slightly wider than the rail so I tie either end down across the windscreen and tailgate.

Awning attached to kador strip using toggles and eyelets

We have a van again!

Posted on April 16, 2018October 4, 2023 by Rick Hurst

Far longer in the planning than i’d like, but we now have a campervan again! This one is a 2001 VW T4 2.5 tdi short wheelbase which is mostly converted to a camper already – rock n roll bed, side windows, sink with running tap, leisure battery, insulation etc.

We were considering getting a bare van and doing the conversion ourselves, but with the summer getting closer by the minute I thought i’d see what was around already ready to camp in and this one had just been advertised – we all decided it would be perfect.

So far we’ve added a cooker and table, the cooker is a Vango Combi IR Grill Cooker, which is now screwed to the worktop.

Vango combi IR Grill cooker in campervan

The table is DIY, and attaches to the side unit using a Reimo sliding table rail.

Table attached via Reimo sliding table rail

Future ambitions include a pop-top, swivel passenger seat (or both seats, but leisure battery would need to be moved), and to create, or buy, a full length side unit for extra storage.

The van came with a cab bunk, but our teenager is too tall for that now, so during an experimental overnight camping trip we worked out that they could actually sleep on a self-inflating mattress on the floor, mostly under the bed but with head and shoulders in the space at the foot of the bed. Not ideal, and they’ll more likely be in their own tent until we get the pop top, but it’s good to know we can all sleep in the van as it is if we need to e.g. at an Aire du camping or other stopover where a tent can’t be pitched.

Minimal campervan conversion – what actually constitutes a campervan?

Posted on July 1, 2017 by Rick Hurst

Minimal campervan

A year on from saying goodbye to our last campervan, we are really missing vanlife, so making plans for the next one. Our last van came to us fully converted as a 4-berth camper with pop-top roof, cooker, fridge, rock and roll bed, table wardrobe, cupboards etc., but this time we are planning a full DIY conversion ourselves, on a more modern van.

Being the master of unfinished projects, I don’t want to spend months and months converting it before we get to use it, so the idea is a phased approach, starting from the bare minimum, then adding to it over time.

So what actually constitutes a campervan? It will be a van, a short wheelbase panel van of some kind – we need to be able to park it on our crowded streets and drive it as a family car. Obviously, we want to be able to camp in it – sleep, cook and have somewhere to sit comfortably inside.

In theory, all you need then is to use it like a “tin tent” – chuck some camping gear and airbeds in the back and you have a campervan, but the basic DVLA criteria to be able to officially reclassify a panel van as a motorhome in the UK include:-

A fixed bed
Cooker
Side Window
Fixed table
Sink and tap

My first campervan didn’t meet these criteria, it was a very minimal conversion – a fold-down single bed made from an ikea futon frame, a freestanding gas cooker from a caravan bungeed to the rear of the passenger seat, and some rugs and stuff. At a push you could sleep 3 people – one on the bed, one on the floor and one across the engine bay diagonally, but only one of these options was remotely comfortable. That van was more of a hippy ex-student road-trip bus, not a family campervan.

I’ve also read that some campsites and festivals won’t accept a van unless it appears to be a camper van – nominally for safety regulations, but probably also to stop people just turning up in hired vans or builder’s vans with an airbed in the back and binbags taped over the windows.

So there’s some “official” criteria we need to meet eventually, if we want to reclassify it as a motorhome but there are also some minumum requirements of our own, to enjoy it as a family campervan. We want to be able to sleep three people comfortably – two adults and a taller-by-the-day teenager. This will be the biggest challenge until such a time we fit a pop-top to gain an extra double bed. I have some ideas, which may or may-not work, but there’s always awnings/ pop-up tents if we can’t all sleep comfortably inside straight away.

We need to cook, so I plan to build a unit to house our existing camping gas cooker, to keep it secure and to be able to store the gas bottle securely underneath. We can survive without a sink initally – even with the sink and tap in our last camper, we tended to wash up on a table using a washing up bowl.

We also need to be able to sit comfortably inside – many of our UK trips have been rainy and cold, so whatever bed arrangement I build needs to be able to be reconfigured during the day to allow us to sit around in a mobile living-room.

I’ll certainly want a leisure battery to keep interior lights, music and phones/ laptops running away from electric hook-up for a weekend. I have a plan for that, which i’ll cover in another blog post.