I’ve installed a 90Ah leisure battery which should hopefully be more than enough for our minimal power requirements when we’re off-grid. This will power the USB LED lighting, ventilation fan and the Propex propane gas heater (watch this space).

The leisure battery fits snugly in the bottom of the racking under the bed, which is where I’ve fed in all the various wires. I drilled a couple of holes in the floor to feed through the live wire from the engine battery and an earth lead which connects to the metal rails. I ordered a split charging kit from Simply Split Charge which will keep the battery charged off the alternator when the engine is running.

I didn’t realist it when I ordered it but the split charge relay is bi-directional, which is a good thing because this makes it possible to have a mains trickle charger permanently connected to the leisure battery to keep both the leisure and engine battery topped up while we are hooked up. Isn’t that fantastic?

To keep the mains hookup simple, I bought a mains power unit which will also be hidden away next to the leisure battery. Here it is all rigged up: