The 1960 Series 2 Land Rover, which had spent 20 years in the Australian Army, 15 years on a farm, and then 15+ years broken in a field and a backyard, is now a campervan!!!

To be able to travel the country, I need a 12v (and 240v) system that will allow us to live as comfortably as possible and be able to survive a couple of days driving in the middle of nowhere. Key requirements were:

• Must be able to make ice cubes
• Must be able to have an ice cold beer (or Pepsi Max) at the end of the day's driving
• Must have a tap you can turn on and get hot and cold water
• Must be able to be charged by 240v
• Must be able to be charged by a solar panel and the dynamo of the engine (I don't have an alternator)
• Must not catch fire, or explode

Simple and pretty basic requirements, so whilst sitting in the Executive Board Room (Local McDonald's), the following diagram came together, and with the requirement that "must not catch fire or explode," the number of fuses in the system increased.

Probably more luck than judgement, the fridge and hot water system could also be plugged into 240v, and it would automatically cut over from 12v to the 240v supply. A socket was installed that went into a simple powerboard. I also installed a 15amp trip switch before the powerboard. Simply plug in the fridge, hot water, and AD/DC charger, and the 240v system is complete.

The solar panel is a simple 200W (I may add one more), which plugs into the DC/DC converter (together with the engine dynamo plugging into it as well) and that charges the battery with whichever source has the highest power.

Electrical Components