Archive for the 'DIY' Category

Replacing Ford Transit’s headlight bulb

Published
by
Tommi
on June 24, 2009
in Carado T 135 diary, DIY and Technology
. 0 Comments

Changing a light bulb for the Ford Transit’s headlight can first sound frightening. The van’s manuals instructs to remove the whole light element, which includes all the front facing lights. However, Ford’s engineers have made a good job on the mechanics and it is actually pretty easy to remove the element.

Ford headlight

Ford headlight

A Phillips screwdriver is needed to open up the two screws on top of the element. These are the only screws that fix the element to the chassis. They are quite loose and thus easy to turn. There is one plug at the back of the element in the bottom corner. This plug feeds the electricity for all the lights inside the element. The plug goes into the small green connector shown in the figure. The connector needs to be unplugged.

Ford headlight

Ford headlight

The element is now ready to be removed by pulling straight forward. Be careful not to drop it! The clear plastic front and the shape make it a bit slippery. It is very easy to replace the light bulb, since there’s nothing preventing the access to it. The bulb type is H4 in my Carado, but other types are also possible if you have a different van version.

New bulbs

I replaced the originals with Philips bulbs that promise 25% more visibility with the same rated watts. The new bulbs atleast look more bright when driving through a tunnel. I do not know if they really light up the road any better, since it is mid-summer and there’s no dark even during the night. This is a nice phenomenom in the Finnish summer. Mid-summer nights are almost bright like a day.

I will see if the Philips’ promise holds in the Autumn. The old light bulbs had seen over 29000 km / 18000 miles of road and the light output was probably decreased somewhat. So in that perspective the new bulbs should be clearly better.

Carpets for Carado T 135

Published
by
Tommi
on November 28, 2008
in Carado T 135 diary and DIY
. 2 Comments


I purchased some material and hand crafted carpets for my Carado. You can download the measurement templates in pdf format.

Carado T135 carpet templates

This video shows the end results. There are two carpets to cover the main living area.

YouTube Preview Image

Using the inverter

Published
by
Tommi
on August 9, 2008
in Accessories, Carado T 135 diary and DIY
. 0 Comments

I have several weeks experience using the Nordic Power 300 W inverter now. It has proved to be a useful accessory and I have used it a lot.

Nordic Power inverter

Light usage

The inverter keeps a short beep when it is turned on, which means that the low input voltage warning is working. After the beep the device is completely silent. I have Tivoli Audio Model One connected to the inverter all the time. It is a light load only 25 W. Listening the Tivoli does not trigger the fan on when the temperature is around 22 Celcius (71.6 Fahrenheit).

TV-signal amplifier is another device that is always connected to the inverter. I have installed four wall sockets, so I can use several devices with the inverter at the same time. The amplifier is a very easy load taking only couple of watts.

The fan starts to operate when I plug in my laptop charger rated at 45 watts. This gives a total load of approximately 70 Watts. When the temperature is 22 Celcius the fan operates one minute per eight minutes or so. The fan starts once, operates one minute and then stops. The sound is low humming and it is just recognizable, but not disturbing at all.

Heavy usage

The extreme test for the inverter has been a 300 W blow dryer. The maximum rating for the inverter is 300 W in continuous usage. The maximum rating 350 W is for 15 minutes usage only. The problem with electric motors is that they might take up five to eight time more power during the start up. It is only a short moment, but the inverter must be able to provide the power or the motor does not start up.

The blow drier has worked perfectly with the inverter. I have used it only some minutes, so I have not exceeded the 15 minutes period. I have no idea how heavily the inverter’s fan operates. The blow drier makes so much noise that the inverter seems to be silent.

Related

Inverter to convert 12 V to 230 V
Nordic Power 300 W inverter
Inverter installation

Inverter installation

Published
by
Tommi
on July 11, 2008
in Accessories, Carado T 135 diary and DIY
. 1 Comment


Carado uses Ford Transit base, so the van battery is installed under the drivers seat. Also the leisure battery is located in the same place. The battery in front is the leisure one. Before I started the installation process I disconnected the leisure battery from the 12 V wiring. This can be done via the rocker switch found from the Electroblock unit. It is located under the passenger’s seat.

Leisure and van battery

The driver’s seat was easy to remove with the rotating base. There were 4 torx screws and one regular bolt. The front right corner of the rotating base had the bolt. Other corners had torx screws. I did not find any reason why there was the bolt in one corner.

Removing the driver\'s seat

Place for the inverter

I need the inverter produced electricity near the table and also inside the wardrobe where I will install an antenna amplifier. I decided that the perfect place for the inverter is under the table. I attached the unit on the narrow and thick wall that is against the cockpit. This location ensures that the inverter is well ventilated and the 12 V supply leads are short.

Nordic Power inverter

Careful cabling

The length of the 12 V supply leads is important due to high currents although the unit is rated only at 300 W. The longer the cable the thicker it must be. I had 8 mm2 cable available from the previous installations that was suitable for this project.

The inverter was supplied with cables of 60 cm in length (approx 24 inches) and they had small clamps. Their thickness was #10 AWG, which equals to 5.3 mm2. The inverter chassis needs a ground cable, which was not included with the unit. The recommended thickness for it is #8 AWG (8.35 mm2).

Making the connections

The leisure battery provided good posts to attach the 12 V supply leads. I used proper ring terminals to get permanent connection. The provided clamps should not be used, since they are not reliable. The inverter chassis needs to be grounded to the Ford’s chassis. The ground cable from the van battery goes under a big torx screw next to the driver’s seat. The leisure battery’s minus terminal is grounded to the van battery’s minus terminal. So the inverter can be grounded under the torx screw or the van battery’s minus terminal as I did.

There is a hole in the side of the battery space with approx. 3 cm diameter (1.5 inches). I used the hole to route the leads out of the battery space. I used cable ties to fix the leads in place under the driver’s seat to get a clean installation and to prevent the leads to rub against any object.

Leads through a hole

Fuse

Although the leads are short it is a good idea to protect the installation with a fuse. 350 W with 12 V voltage and 85 % efficiency gives approximately 34 A current. A suitable fuse is then for example 40 A or 50 A. The inverter has an internal fuse, so this additional fuse protects against malfunction in the inverter itself and damaged 12 V supply leads. A good place for the fuse box is right next to the driver’s seat where the leads are visible. Thus it allows easy fuse change without removing the seat. It is always advisable to place the fuse as close to the battery as possible.

When I connected the supply leads to the inverter first time I saw some sparks. This is normal and is caused by internal capacitors that take in a current surge.

Related

Inverter to convert 12 V to 230 V
Nordic Power 300 W inverter
Using the inverter

Warning! It is always good to leave the electrical installations for the professionals if you are not really sure what you are doing. CaravaPress.com does not take any responsibility of the installations performed using this article as a guide.

Nordic Power 300 W inverter

Published
by
Tommi
on June 30, 2008
in Accessories, Carado T 135 diary and DIY
. 0 Comments

Nordic Power inverter

I purchased a Nordic Power 300 Watts inverter, which is manufactured in Strömstad Sweden. The exact model number is WT-30SN-12, which means 300 W pure sine wave power as a maximum output. 350 W is available for 15 minutes. Maximum peak power for current surges is 500 W. The inverter looks and feels like a solid quality product.

The inverter draws 0.7 A current without the load. DC input voltage is 10.5 - 15.0 V. AC output voltage range is 230 V +/-3 %. Total Harmonic Distortion is less than 3 %. Efficiency is 85 %.

The inverter has a low battery alarm at 10.5 V level. Low battery shut-off happens at 10.0 V. There is also protection against input over voltage, over temperature, overload and short circuit. The function LED is green when power is on and it turns to orange if over temperature, over voltage or low voltage is detected.

Related

Inverter to convert 12 V to 230 V
Inverter installation
Using the inverter

Inverter to convert 12 V to 230 V

Published
by
Tommi
on June 25, 2008
in Accessories, Carado T 135 diary, DIY and Technology
. 0 Comments

I have been planning to install an inverter to power up electrical equipments when mains voltage is not available. There are basically two types of inverters: modified sine wave and true sine wave. These are easy to distinguish when browsing the catalogs. True sine wave types are approximately 5 times more expensive than modified ones when the power ratings are the same.

Modified sine wave inverter gives out square wave voltage that resembles sine wave. This is good enough for most electrical equipments. However, all devices cannot operate with this type of low quality electricity. Modified sine wave also generates more interference than true sine wave, so it is not good for sensitive equipments like for example TV signal amplifiers.

True sine wave inverters give out clean sine waveform voltage and can thus power just about any electrical device. I decided to go with the true sine wave inverter to maximize the quality of the electricity

Power ratings and consumption

True sine wave inverters can be purchased with a reasonable price up to 600 Watt power rating. After that the price seems to increase rapidly. I decided that 300 Watts is enough for my needs. I can power up TV, laptop, TV signal amp, and charge mobile phone and camera batteries.

Inverters consume always power when they are turned on even if there is no load. The higher the power rating the higher the idle current consumption. 300 W inverters seem to consume around 0.7 - 1.0 Amps and 600 W inverters approx. 1.4 - 2.0 Amps when idle. Thus it is always good to turn off the inverter when not in use.

The efficiency of true sine wave inverters is around 85%. This means that if the inverter gives out 300 W it draws 352 W from the battery. This equals to 29 A current with 12 V voltage. One leisure battery cannot give out that kind of power for a long period time.

I will give out more details about the inverter that I have selected in my next post. Then I will describe the installation.

Related

Nordic Power 300 W inverter
Inverter installation
Using the inverter