Due to the popularity of this Van Conversion series, I am relocating it to a dedicated Van Conversion Channel! youtube.com/@mattsvan The Matt Estlea 2 Channel was originally for shitposting and used as a proving ground for ideas we have, without the risk of damaging the main channels (Matt Estlea) ranking in RU-vids search algorythms. Ideally we'd like to continue using it for this purpose, but are concious of clogging up the feeds of people who only signed up for van related content. Hence the dedicated channel. It also means I can use the dedicated channel for travel vlogs and other van related content once the conversion is complete which sounds fun. Go subscribe!
Those thingies you use for measurements are bolting points for a roof rack. Which would have been another great way of installing solar panels on our roof 😊
Great to see you uploading again, Matt. As a side note, you could easily get a nice metal worker to create a metal frame which bolts to the existing rivnuts. This means that a new solar panel could be bolted to it, but it’ll just need to be designed to have areas for the new brackets to bolt to. Does that make sense? Either way, you could can definitely use what you’ve already got. Anyway, it’s coming along nicely. Keep up the good work and I’ll see you in the next one.
I would have spun your cable gland entry 180 degrees, it will keep the DC cables clean so you don’t have to loop them back over. Otherwise great job, I’m liking the progress 👍🔥
Really enjoying following this build! Great work! A tip for anyone looking to do this also is to look out for the closed end type of rivet nuts - one less area to worry about sealing.
hey those Circles you talked about are for mounting roofracks, on top of the roof the white circle is often painted plastic, and those are prone ot leaking water over time.
I feel like you should've had a roof rack and maybe something so you can tilt your panels up instead of drilling directly thru the roof of the van. I'm trying to figure out how much I can fit on my project. I want 800w on the roof but I'm coming to realize it's only possibly to fit about 600w with a fan and possible ac on top also.
Yeah, that’s a risky way of doing it. The issue will be if you go over a road bump or pot hole and the vibration works things loose. It happens over time and then the water will find its way in. For my van I used racks on the roof and mounted the panels on there. Not a single hole in the roof. Good luck
Nice! I also used the rivet nuts! Can i ask you whtehr you wired them in parallel or series and what solar panel cable size did you use? for the cable that goes to the mppt. Thank you from Alice in Surbiton on a ford transit conversion :)
Would you consider some type of temporary cover for the roof (solar panels) to protect them and the entire top of the van when needed? Like a waterproof and perhaps padded cover that can be stowed away.
Good. But I can't believe you would think about putting any wires / cables in a metal hole you just cut without putting ANY rubber around the metal !!! It's a moving van and the van and cables will rub. And rub and rub against the sharp metal. And then guess what.........
Yea defo could have benefitted from that. Although I did soften the edge of the metal to an incredibly fine finish with both files and sandpaper with this in mind
