Up next in 10
Dometic RTX 2000 Pre-install Q&A Watch BEFORE you buy!
0 views
May 2, 2025
Most Dometic RTX 2000 Online Offers DO NOT INCLUDE the following: 1. Power Cable Kit for Dometic RTX 12V 2. Mounting Hardware Kit for Dometic RTX 3. Foam Gasket for Dometic RTX *double check the online description before you buy!* Watch the full livestream above for Pro Install Tips For Dometic RTX 2000, BEFORE you buy! Thomas's Van Tour Marine One: https://youtu.be/OXBGIVWLtvc Whenever you’re ready, there are 2 ways we can help you: 1. If you need a vetted parts list, download our → FREE DIY Van Build Cheatsheet to help you save time and money on Van Parts and Gear. CLICK HERE: https://van-builder-hq.ck.page/846c83ab54 2. If you want to get Done-For-You Van Build help, book a → FREE Consultation with my Calendly Link. CLICK HERE: https://calendly.com/odysseycustomvan... Odyssey Custom Vans: https://www.odysseycustomvans.com/
View Video Transcript
0:00
[Music]
0:11
thank you [Music]
0:40
foreign [Music]
1:33
thank you hey everyone welcome back to this week's live stream today going to be talking
1:38
about the Dometic RTX 2000 pre-install questions
1:43
so over here on the computer I've got a little agenda for the day's live stream
1:49
it's very detailed but what I want to do is make this live stream and have
1:55
feedback from you guys that are watching it so what we'll do is we're going to go over some specs and some questions that
2:03
I'm anticipating you guys may have just some research that I've done with the unit behind me
2:09
this will help you if you're thinking about purchasing it and you wanted to know a little bit more about the
2:14
specifications you know if it's going to work with your system or setup but after
2:20
we do this live stream I want to make sure that if you guys have a question before I actually put it in the van
2:27
uh put those in the comments below and then that way I can answer those before
2:33
we set up the actual install of the unit in the van So today we're not going to be
2:38
installing it during the live stream we're just going to be going over uh what the unit is if you're interested in
2:43
it the additional parts that you're going to need to buy with it
2:48
for some reason Dometic doesn't sell everything with the unit you have to buy
2:54
the install kit and then you have to buy the power kit
3:01
so that can kind of be confusing if you haven't you know been looking online and
3:07
uh been watching YouTube videos uh took me a couple of YouTube videos to figure out what was all needed for this install
3:14
um it's not as simple just buy it and then it has everything with it so I'll give you a heads up about that
3:22
um and then what we'll do is we'll talk about this system integrating with your power
3:28
system what is the minimum amount of power required to run this
3:33
and then we'll go into these final questions so up here in the top left
3:39
uh we're going to talk about referencing the manual for the specifications so that is in this big box over here on my
3:47
right we'll talk about some install location options so if you guys want to do it in
3:53
the front of the van the middle or the back of the van power requirements
3:59
if you're wanting to add this to an existing system I guess I should have worded that or if
4:05
you're wanting to take an old system out and put this in you know what does that footprint look like
4:12
and then two really interesting companies here so one is diyvan.com so
4:21
we'll talk about them they make adapters for the roof so that you have a nice
4:26
clean flat install if you've never installed a rooftop AC before
4:34
um they pretty much give you the unit just like this and they give you a bunch of
4:40
foam and you just kind of stick this down squirt a bunch of sealant and hope you
4:46
get a nice seal which with the corrugations on you know promasters
4:51
Transit sprinters um this seal may not be as good as uh
4:58
you want it to be so DIY van is a company that cnc's custom adapters for the roofs
5:07
so we'll go through that website and show you these items right here so these three items I just ordered yesterday
5:15
um so they'll be coming in pretty soon we've got a adapter a gasket and a
5:24
internal trim ring because the trim ring that comes with the Dometic
5:29
it's pretty hideous so I'm really happy that somebody actually took the initiative to make something that's very
5:35
clean and low profile and then finally we'll talk about this
5:41
company pneumaticcooling.com that's actually where I purchased the unit from
5:46
and then they have two YouTube videos and so in these YouTube videos what they did that was very nice is they actually
5:52
did a battery consumption test with 100 amp hour battery which is kind of a good
5:57
place to start and then they did an inside test and then they followed it up with a part two
6:03
video and they did a outside test so one was internal temperature of the room was
6:10
75 degrees and the other one was outside in 100 degree temperature
6:16
um uh they're out west so pretty hot out there so that was a very good uh test they also
6:23
did a different state of charges so that's what sfc means I'll get into that as well
6:29
and then um yeah hopefully during this live stream uh we'll bring in a bunch of
6:34
questions and I want to hear from you guys uh you know have you had any
6:39
trouble installing this unit what are some challenges that you had um
6:45
is there things that you want to know because you're thinking about buying this unit that's really what this video
6:51
is for so I know a lot of my videos are very long form it's kind of just my format
6:56
I'm going through my thoughts but we'll try to keep this pretty succinct so that it'll be a good video just to reference
7:03
and you'll get all the information and uh yeah so let's check this out
7:11
so the Dometic RTX 2000 what is it it is a rooftop AC unit and
7:18
it's a 12 volt rooftop AC unit so most AC units you see on RVs are you
7:25
know 110 120 they need Shore power and able to run
7:30
so essentially they need household power to turn on if you're trying to make a off-grid van
7:37
and you have an off-grid power system you're going to go want to go with a 12 volt air conditioning unit uh because
7:45
you're hap it's essentially a one-to-one you know you have 12 volt power it runs off a 12 volt there's nothing no
7:52
immediary to convert the power technically if you had an RV and you had
7:58
a rooftop AC you could use your inverter to invert the 12 volts to household
8:04
power and run it but you're going to have an efficiency loss converting from
8:10
the 12 volts up to the 110. so it's a more efficient way to do it 12 volts
8:17
um uh I guess this is a downside for me because it kind of comes with a
8:22
territory of a 12 volt AC but the BTUs
8:27
are quite a bit less than a traditional unit so you can just imagine you don't
8:33
have that juice to kind of Kick It in however uh pneumatic cooling has some new units and
8:41
uh now again just a heads up this video is not
8:46
sponsored uh by doivan.com or pneumaticcooling.com this is just good
8:52
information for you guys to easily reference so there's no collaboration or anything like that I'm just
8:58
pulling stuff off and uh organizing it so it's really easy for you guys to understand
9:05
all right so let's get into some other questions uh let me see what I was
9:11
talking about yeah so this does not need Shore power
9:17
um however if you have an inverter charger and you plug the inverted charger in
9:24
it will top off your 12 volt system while you run this so if anybody's more familiar with like
9:30
an RV style setup when you're using Shore power essentially kind of works
9:36
the same way except you're not having you have the capability to run it off straight off of
9:42
12 volts and that's what we're doing we'll also be talking about why I have
9:48
so much batteries or how many so many batteries I've got six 100 amp hour batteries
9:54
um typically you know an adventure ban you're going to be running you know LED lights uh uh parking heater uh stuff
10:04
like that and it really doesn't consume that much power but if you want to run this unit
10:11
uh I would like I would say like a normal person you want to go to sleep at night and have it run through the night
10:16
and not just be one night you're going to need a substantial battery Bank to do
10:22
it and that's just for livability this can technically run
10:28
um so Dometic recommends 180 amp hours or greater
10:33
so you'll see with this pneumatic cooling test down here that
10:39
you know a 100 amp hour battery is on and I believe this is an eco mode
10:44
is 2 hours and 40 minutes so if you are in the desert Arizona you
10:52
know maybe in Florida and if your system only had 100 amp hours
10:58
then that is all the runtime you're going to get now remember that's all the runtime
11:04
you're going to get for the AC but if you extinguish that 100 amp hours and that's your whole power system
11:11
then nothing else is going to run so consider when you're getting an AC unit that
11:18
a portion of the battery bank is dedicated to running your van as if you didn't have an AC unit and the other
11:24
portion of your batteries you can kind of think of being reserved for running
11:29
the air conditioner unit so if you wanted to run it you know
11:35
six hours at night time you're going to need at least three of these batteries to do that
11:45
the other three are going to help you to do the stuff you needed the next day and depending on the solar that you have
11:53
that would be filling up the other three to get ready for the next night of air
11:58
conditioning and the reason I say solar is typically if you're wanting to do the
12:03
true off grid you're not going to be driving the vehicle and the vehicle is going to be parked
12:09
so you're not going to be using alternator power to charge this you're not going to be using Shore power
12:15
through the inverter charger to top off the batteries they'll be strictly solar so that's why
12:21
doing a 12 volt and the efficiency of a 12 volt the one to one is really attractive right now for building an
12:27
off-grid van all right so let's uh go through the
12:33
specs here and if you guys have any questions just hop on in the chat and we can
12:40
answer those or I'll answer them the best I can
12:45
all right so we're going to reference the manual for specs so over here on the right
12:52
the RTX 2000 is 72.6 pounds
12:57
and I'm trying to figure out where they get this number from because I am able
13:04
to lift this box by myself up on the table if I had a scale I would weigh it but I
13:11
don't have a big enough scale but by myself this unit I can pick up from the floor
13:17
and pick it up onto this table so I don't know if that
13:22
help you guys at all but uh the real trick is getting it on the roof
13:28
so from the floor to a table is not a big deal getting it to the roof
13:33
okay that might be a little challenging but according to the manual it's 72.6 pounds
13:39
uh the recommended battery capacity is 180 amp hours or greater
13:45
and there's not they're not specifying that this runs in eco mode
13:51
so just to be clear there's an eco mode that the system runs
13:56
in so it's a low amp draw and then there's this regular mode where it runs uh you know pulls as
14:05
much juice as you want to cool as much as you can so typically
14:10
these numbers are probably from the 100 are from the Eco Mode it doesn't specify
14:16
that so I wish they kind of put a little asterisk instead you know 180 amp hours
14:22
um if you're in an eco mode so that's the minimum capacity
14:29
uh stuff that's also factored into this is that's the minimum capacity for
14:35
Batteries but they're probably anticipating that you have some type of continual charging
14:41
going on while the system is running um down here so we skip these two other
14:48
specifications you can see how I lined them out it's discussing roof thickness
14:53
so the reason that I lined it out is it kind of goes out the window because we're not going to be using this stuff
14:59
from Dometic we're going to be using DIY van setup
15:05
so now would be a good time to just segue over to uh their website
15:12
so we're going to go to diyvan.com and you guys may be familiar with this website uh I've talked about them in the
15:19
past I use their templates for the max fan uh the max fan in the shop
15:27
they also have another product
15:33
that a lot of people like and that is these roof supports so if you are
15:39
not doing a rear mount fan and you're doing more of a middle of
15:47
the van or forward most mount you're going to want to purchase this uh
15:55
reinforcement kit that they have and I'm coming over back to the camera to talk to you about
16:01
it so all right Jamie thanks for the uh
16:08
what I call that a donation or a tip
16:19
so here's this uh this piece and let's go to here
16:26
so this uh the CNC these pieces
16:32
all right donations I appreciate it guys uh that's
16:39
awesome so what this does is this will go in the
16:45
van like this and then you'll have these wide pieces
16:52
that go here so for example if you had
16:58
um if you had a Max fan you can see this these pieces go they reinforce the roof
17:05
if you're cutting in an area where the span of your cross members is is too
17:11
wide and the roof gets a little floppy this is what reinforces the roof so they
17:17
sell products like this foreign and then the product that I buy
17:23
from them so you're going to go to
17:30
um go to shop by
17:35
van Transit products and they've got a ton of products so they have
17:41
3M thinsulate they have the high mid roof
17:47
vent adapter opening and this is the one I buy
17:52
so just ignore like the blue of the photo that their white balance was a little
17:58
off and they took this photo but you can see the corrugations it's custom
18:03
machined so that when it slips over that it's a perfect fit
18:09
what's nice is you can drill a hole right in the cross member and then use
18:16
this to locate it and trace your cutout on the top of the roof we don't have to
18:22
do any guesswork they also make a version for the forward most fan so this is a tricky area right
18:29
here because you have this little dip uh where the seam is from the manufacturing and it just fills in the
18:36
dip really nice and you can put the fan very far forward
18:44
they also have different locations in where you can get it and they also if
18:50
you want to get butyl tape instead of using um like a silicone adhesive
18:57
you can buy it with or without the butyl tape so what I purchased oh here's a good
19:04
example of what I just talked about earlier this is the frame for reinforcing that uh longer span of the
19:11
roof and then there's another photo in here where is it
19:18
so you can see how this crosses the Gap and reinforces the roof
19:26
they have things like swivels some roof
19:32
roof rack rails they also have this uh built in Little Boxes for the walls I
19:39
think that's pretty cool and uh yeah a couple other things
19:45
but we want to look at this Dometic RTX 2000 air conditioner adapter so when you
19:51
click on it you can see we've got a see if I can zoom in there we go
19:58
so you can see this adapter is perfectly cut out for the RTX 2000
20:11
and they've got a couple other products here on the right and I just spoke with them on the phone
20:16
today uh here you guys can see this is a
20:22
on the right so this may be kind of confusing so I'm going to try to simplify it for you
20:28
so when you go to this page let me back up when you go to this link and you click on it
20:34
there's going to be a bunch of options over here on the right so if you just keep it on the first photo if you go on the right and then
20:41
you just click on your options it's going to show you a photo of what
20:47
they're talking about and then I'm going to go through this one by one and I'll show you
20:53
what each of these are and what I bought for this van
21:00
so the first item that you want to purchase is the outside adapter for cargo area
21:06
so this is going to be at the rear most of a 148 inch Transit not extended just
21:14
the regular 148. this is where a traditional Max fan
21:20
would go it's that opening where the rail has about a 14 inch
21:25
um Gap and most Max fans are installed
21:31
we already have one in the for most part of the van and Venture wagon already had that
21:37
pre-cut out in our template on the inside of the van so we need to make a new one in the rear
21:43
and we're going to use this as our template so we ordered the outside most cargo adapter
21:49
then we came down if you want to have a spacer you can
21:55
what this spacer does is controls the height of the vents on the interior so
22:01
if you got more spacers the AC would be higher which would mean
22:06
it goes further in the roof and then less spacers the vent uh the
22:13
where the air blows out is going to be more in the van and this just has to do with Aesthetics really uh you know how
22:20
much you want of that unit being shown so this is not necessary what is
22:27
necessary is the foam seal so this foam seal as you can see is completely
22:33
different than this pile of rubber okay so this
22:39
you have to make your own seal but if you go with DIY van this thing is
22:46
cut CNC cut it's a very precise looks amazing
22:52
the last thing you want to get is the interior bezel so I'm going to
22:57
get this black interior bezel and this thing really cleans up the van
23:03
I'm going to go and show you how ridiculous the one from Dometic is
23:10
um and I'm only hating on the medic because it's it's it's comical
23:18
what the trim piece looks like for this air conditioner
23:24
so this big box right here in the back is
23:29
part three of what you need to buy so you got to buy this which is the unit itself you can buy this which is the
23:37
power and seal kit that comes with this piece of cardboard which is the roof
23:45
window template and you need this third box which I haven't opened yet
23:52
this is going to give you your installation bars hardware and
24:01
um
24:06
trim Pete trim pretty much any trim uh let's see here
24:14
easier way to do this okay I'm gonna move this if you guys have already seen the seal
24:20
just shove this in the back I do give you this uh plastic
24:27
let's go [Applause] protect your wires
24:32
this is a four gauge wire that you're supplied with it is really nice uh it's four gauge and
24:41
it has an integrated 12 volt signal wire so you're gonna you do want to buy this
24:49
that kit also comes with your 80 amp fuse we'll talk about that in a second
24:56
get your manual and then more paperwork
25:01
all right let's so this is called the Dometic cool air
25:07
accessory also
25:14
a tip I kept seeing RTX 2000 the medic RTX 2000 and then I saw Dometic cool air RTX
25:22
2000 they're synonymous they're the same thing it
25:27
it sounded like they were two different units one was made made different that's not true they're the same thing
25:35
that's according to pneumatic cooling so hopefully they are
25:40
not wrong about that all right so this is comical piece here
25:52
so I showed you this this is the clean trim ring it's almost like the same trim
25:58
ring as uh like a Max fan but this
26:05
is what you can buy that's nice and clean this is the trim ring from Dometic
26:13
so they want you to put this up in your van [Laughter]
26:19
so this is where the air comes out but this area over here um
26:25
this this is guys this thing is humongous so I mean just imagine putting this up
26:32
in your van very tacky but if if you like something like that
26:39
you know go for it but this second box is going to come with uh
26:46
a couple other items that you need um you get another pair of cables
26:55
and again it's weird that this is segmented into three purchases
27:00
so another set of wires in a separate box another set of gaskets in a separate box
27:07
and then this is going to be your Hardware
27:12
um each one of these brass inserts you have to actually screw into the plastic
27:18
of the underside of the Dometic and uh
27:24
use that to bolt it down and then last but not least they give you
27:30
um they give you the bars right here and this is actually what clamps it into
27:36
your roof of your vehicle
27:46
um yeah so yeah it's just yeah strange to me that
27:52
it's these things are in different boxes not different boxes separate orders so
28:00
you have to add each one individually to your cart uh yeah go and do this thing is this
28:07
thing's humongous I mean here this is how big I am this this is uh
28:12
and this is just unused space another thing to mention
28:18
is if you get the DIY van you have a little bit more control on
28:23
how much of your roof you're cutting out because
28:31
I'll show you why I'm really big about not removing more
28:38
material than is necessary so as you can see this right here is all that's necessary
28:43
to be removed for the unit to come in there's one side right here and you guys
28:49
will notice if I go back to DIY van you'll notice that they have a little
28:55
cutout right here so let's go to the foam seal you see the cutout right there so that cutout is where the power cable
29:02
comes in so this only needs to be enough room to access your bolts to
29:09
clamp it in and then pull in your uh your cable
29:16
so you can minimize the amount of material removed from the from your van roof
29:24
so just be careful when they give you this template you can you can see how much more
29:31
material you're removing from the ceiling of your van
29:38
um and then how much the more material you move the more you're going to have to to seal uh now
29:47
this is not a deal breaker many many people have successfully installed this with the kit
29:54
in pan there's many videos online I've using these three box of the three
30:03
kits this one the electrical and the kit to put this in so if you just bought this and you didn't go to DIY van you
30:09
still can successfully put this in your van so um not saying you can't I just I like to do
30:16
things a little bit more neat and professional so
30:26
that's what I'm showing you guys today I'm showing you options so that you can have a you can do it DIY but have a
30:33
professional finish so again the outside adapter so it's the
30:42
main part that's 205 59 the
30:47
foam seal which is 57.75 and then the interior bezel
30:54
9009 so you need those three things
30:59
and you will be set uh it's gonna it's gonna really help speed up your your install
31:07
so that is these items over here
31:12
so that's why I blacked out these lines because the uh the roof thickness
31:19
is going to be different because you're going to be using a different
31:24
uh company DIY van to seal it to the roof
31:33
yeah going to it is that's it is crazy huge um the gundu says it might look good to
31:39
use that black trim ring for the air conditioner and matching one for the max air fan
31:47
yeah so I'll show you when it arrives I'll show you
31:52
the difference because technically it's not exactly
31:58
14 by 14. I think it's just a little I think it's four it's a little bit bigger on one side
32:04
um which uh I don't know why I didn't put that
32:10
on this slide so I'm gonna go let me Google the uh Dometic manual
32:24
yeah if you have if anybody that's watching has questions that pertain to a pre-installed question
32:30
so some questions you have that you only address when I actually do the install I'd like to get your feedback or have
32:38
those questions in the chat
32:52
okay so if we go to
32:58
dometic's website scroll down to specifications manuals and documentation and then you
33:04
want to go right here and download the one thousand two thousand install operating manual
33:13
so once you get it I'm going to zoom in
33:19
we're gonna see what is a
33:25
trying to they they have a measurement we'll have to convert it I'm pretty sure
33:37
so while we're here let's talk about the external dimensions so the height is
33:43
6.6 inches the length 25.4 inches
33:49
and then the width is 33.9 inches the reason this is important to uh if
33:56
you are thinking about this is remember that this is going on the roof and
34:05
I would advise that you if you are going to do an AC unit do it first before you
34:11
purchase your solar panels for your roof that way you can make sure that you are
34:17
not purchasing something as in solar panels that are not going to fit
34:23
uh once you get this on that's what I'm doing I've already
34:29
mapped up the whole roof I know exactly what solar panels I'm getting but before I click that buy button I'm going to
34:35
install this unit and try to see if I have some more options so I can fit as much solar as possible on the roof
34:41
currently using only 50 watt panels I can put 400
34:47
worth 400 watts worth of solar on there with the current roof rack that I have
34:54
but depending on when I get up there
35:00
you know maybe I can actually squeeze uh some other panels when you're buying solar panels
35:07
you know there are kind of go-to sizes typically you know the width of a roof
35:13
rack is around 58 inches to 60. it's very rare to find a 60 inch roof
35:19
rack width for a Ford Transit van for some reason I think AVC rig is the only one that I
35:26
know of that it's very close to 60. so
35:32
we'll talk about that in another video but this is the dimensions for the exterior the internal Dimensions that we
35:39
were looking for right here so we have five inches in height so it's that's
35:47
coming five inches into the van so this height number this can be
35:52
adjusted by going over here to DIY van and buying different spacers
36:00
so that's how those are related the length so this will be two
36:08
so front to back is the link length and it's 15 inches
36:15
so what I need to do is that 14 by 14 inch Max fan hole
36:21
that's typically cut out what you're going to do is uh your width is going to be about the
36:30
same obviously 14 inches but that 15 inches you're going to have to
36:36
make a note that you're taking about a half inch from the supports on one side of the van and then a half
36:42
inch out of the supports on the other side of the van and I think you'll be okay because there's already a quarter inch lip
36:49
so really you're only taking out about a quarter of an inch of the structural member
36:56
once again other people have done this there's tons of YouTube videos but for me I kind of like to get in the details
37:04
um when I'm here and just kind of give you guys a heads up but what I'm going to do is split
37:12
that inch over the two cross members of the roof so
37:17
cutting a half inch a little bit more on one side and a half inch more out of the other side
37:26
there's a tilt allowance and that has to do with the degree of Van tilt for me 28
37:33
degrees sounds pretty aggressive so I think that's a bonus um
37:39
so if you want it on while you're off-roading I guess that is what you would need to reference
37:45
I don't think you would park your vehicle at a 20 degree angle but
37:51
I guess it's possible down here we have some other
37:56
specifications so if we reference what we worked on here um
38:02
we'll come back to the voltage here in a second uh
38:10
well I'll just say it while I'm here input voltage is 10 to 15. uh and mirrors it's DC
38:18
the 12 volt DC overall height when installed not to exceed 13.1 feet
38:25
that's interesting that they made a note of that uh
38:32
because I definitely know some RVs that are pretty high
38:37
clearance requirements so this is where we're at right now so the clearance requirements for the
38:43
surround surrounding of the AC unit they're wanting it to be
38:49
12 and 12 to 20 inches so 12 inches I guess would be the minimum
38:55
left to right front to back so that it can pull in the air to cool itself
39:01
from the sides
39:07
and then uh so next we will talk about we'll get into the electronic electrical
39:13
here so let me see what else is in this manual I pretty much put everything out
39:19
I wanted to show you but let me scroll down here here's a wiring diagram
39:24
that you guys can reference
39:29
and this is the schematics for the unit itself this is not uh besides this
39:35
little battery part right here and the fuse
39:40
so this small section right here let me zoom in this small section the
39:46
battery two amp fuse and the 80 amp fuse this is really what you're just going to reference to do the install
39:53
as it relates to your power system the rest of this is the internal workings of
39:58
the the AC unit let's see here
40:07
over here on the left you can see this is where those brass inserts go into the bottom of the unit
40:19
you got your bars to secure it in the van
40:29
and then these fuses and uh blade fuses we're going to talk about that right now
40:37
so if we come over here the wire gauge that is being used for
40:44
the to supply power to it is four gauge so that is the first
40:50
cable that we looked at this is chunky
40:57
guy right here so this right here is the four gauge
41:02
uh and then it also it comes with a connector on one end and then it's bare
41:07
on the other end so you can strip and crimp to your battery uh so with it being four gauge they are
41:16
supplying youth at 80 amp fuse however we're going to be using our
41:23
victron Lynx distributor as the fuse point
41:29
they do Supply you with a fuse holder and a fuse if you want to use that
41:34
um but we're going to directly connect it to the the power system
41:40
with the 80 amp Mega fuse so we actually won't use their fuse
41:46
and then let me get my face on the other side here
41:55
uh the fuse requirement 80 amps then down here we have connect the red
42:00
positive lead for the voltage signal with a 2 Amp Fuse so you will need to get a 2 Amp blade
42:08
fuse for this little small wire here
42:15
and my suggestion uh if you have a blade fuse
42:21
like a terminal you know something that has like six or ten blade fuses you can use that
42:29
what I'm going to do which is just a very simple way of adding the blade fuse into a circuit
42:37
is I'm going to heat shrink in this thing right here
42:46
so you can just buy this at you know Advanced Auto Parts or AutoZone
42:52
and it's just a kind of weather resistant blade fuse holder
43:00
because it's probably very extremely rare that that would ever that that would ever trip
43:07
and then uh yeah that's a 2 Amp so that's pretty
43:14
much the core of the details if you guys were wondering what
43:20
is kind of required so now let's talk about battery size
43:26
and the current so a previous live stream uh go and do
43:34
and I were actually talking about her situation with the RTX 2000 in which the
43:43
um the power from the ecoflow system was not sufficient enough to supply
43:50
power to the Dometic RTX 2000 so
43:55
and so this is just what's in my head from doing the research but the ecoflow
44:00
system which I definitely want to use in my next build uh Max it out at about 70 amps
44:07
so technically that should work however I just think I think the gauge wire
44:14
going to from the battery Bank of the uh power kit
44:22
to the panel it's just not sufficient to you know run
44:28
everything because I think the wires are I think they're only six gauge wires uh
44:35
they may be even eight gauge wires so in order to solve that problem uh
44:43
what goendu did is purchase so is the indel B system
44:51
and I was talking to DIY van today and uh just letting you know that I was
44:56
looking forward to getting that unit because they're they're actually a supplier now which is pretty
45:02
cool so you can see these are the two dometics and then over here on the right
45:07
is the indel B uh plin aircon unit
45:13
and this unit um
45:18
uh it's much more expensive well not really because technically once
45:23
you buy the power kits and I mean not the power kit once you buy the power the
45:29
cable install and the bracket install and seal kit you're getting close to this number anyway
45:36
um but here's the game changer uh and go do I'm going to grab your
45:41
question in just a second but the game changer about this is uh I don't like to buy
45:47
at the air conditioning unit until DIY van makes an adapter for it so guess
45:56
what since they carry the NLB system which is a lower
46:03
current system so it pulls less the power consumption
46:09
is less than the RTX 2000 um as far as I know
46:16
because go do is saying that that is working for their system so I'm excited
46:22
to hear that but see DIY van has if you go to shop
46:28
um let's see here we're just gonna do indel B
46:34
let's see how we need to search for this
46:39
uh here we go so we got the AC and then over here we get the Endo B adapter for
46:45
a ProMaster a Ford Transit and a sprinter
46:50
so they actually have the this special adapter and it's very intricate and
46:55
again they make excellent stuff so this is pretty cool so good news is they have the adapter
47:01
for it so that makes me happy um and there's also a video here they have
47:07
a video on this and the RTX that you guys can watch so uh let me back up
47:14
so go and do asked is there a difference between a blade fuse and a circuit breaker that is
47:22
resettable if both are the same required amperage if so which is superior
47:28
so your circuit breaker is going to be superior if you can think of a blade fuse think
47:35
of a blade fuse is what is you know pretty much been in every automotive car that's been produced in
47:42
the last you know 30 years and uh it's just it's literally
47:49
like a you know do I have an example
47:56
yep I got one hold on a second
48:03
uh the the the downside of a blaze but blade fuse is you're going to be
48:09
restricted by the amount of current that you can put in them
48:14
um you can get them that are you know 30 amps but
48:20
you'll see here why that would not make sense to go further
48:28
all right so we got a couple examples here so let's click out answer that question real quick
48:33
so this is a blade fuse so see it's got like a little blade so you know blade
48:40
they're kind of little tiny so they're really made for like you know
48:46
LED circuits um I mean anything you know up until maybe
48:51
30 I think you can get ones in 40 amps but these are for low current
48:58
applications air conditioners are high current
49:05
so you need something that looks like this so go and do you were saying um you
49:10
were looking for a resettable uh circuit breaker so this one
49:17
is resettable so you could use this one you can see it clicks and then you can
49:22
just take it right here and reset it and then when you have higher current
49:27
situations you're going to want to do something like this is overkill this cover you don't have to
49:33
have this I just like it because it looks it looks cool when I mount it
49:39
also it's just a safer option because it's weather sealed and it the cover
49:45
Clicks in place so if you have stuff that falls in here it's not going to Arc but these are like midi and mega fuses
49:54
and this uses a chunkier fuse
50:00
and then a step up from this is the Mega fuse which is used in
50:06
the lynx distributor and I'm gonna take this off and I'm
50:11
gonna show you how big that one is
50:18
but I think a midi fuse is what Dometic supplies you with and I'll show
50:24
you that here too so let me just undo this
50:31
uh I try to do everything with mega fuses it's Overkill but
50:37
I like to simplify things so if you're in a van and you maybe keep a spare of like three Mega fuses with you you're
50:43
not having to do you know one ATC I mean one blade fuse you know one midi one
50:48
Mega so here's a mega fuse so this thing is you can see the difference
50:54
okay see how big of a difference so high current
50:59
low current
51:05
um let's see what was I going to show you
51:10
oh yeah let me show you what the medic provides you in the bag
51:20
so with the wiring kit that you buy for the RTX 2000 this is what you get this kit
51:27
and so um actually I didn't know they did this they give you
51:32
they already give you one of these so you don't have to buy it so see they gave you exactly what I was
51:39
going to use um so they give you this they also give you
51:47
terminals or uh lugs
51:53
so you can connect it to your system um I'm not going to use these
51:59
I'm going to use these really nice UL listed copper lugs
52:09
they do provide you with an additional fuse for that
52:15
they do provide the little tiny connectors for the signal wire
52:22
and then last but not least they have a see if I can open this up
52:34
so last but not least they have a midi fuse right there
52:42
so you can kind of see a midi is like a baby Mega
52:50
but we're still going to use a mega because the reason I'm using links
52:55
distributor is it's very neat and organized and everything's in one spot because if you use this and then you use
53:03
this and then you use this and then you have one of these it you can do that it's just
53:10
I don't think it's neat
53:16
so all that is what comes in this bag which is nice if they do give you everything that you need
53:23
um the only thing that's missing that I would suggest that you get
53:29
is located is located on our DIY van build cheat
53:36
sheet so head on over to vanbitterhq.com check out our DIY van build cheat sheet
53:42
this is essentially an Excel sheet of all the items that I've bought of Amazon
53:47
last three years and guess what the only thing that Dometic is missing is the tools to crimp your connections
53:55
so in here I have uh all the cripping tools that I use to
54:02
uh cramp all of my connections so for example let's go down through
54:08
here just really quick we've got a Ferro crimping tool so that's how I
54:14
put ferrules on there and you just go over to the right hover above it and boom you're going to have well if I can
54:20
move my face out of the way so you just come over here
54:26
hover over it and it's going to give you a picture of the kit on Amazon
54:32
same thing let's just go down here you're going to need to crimp the big
54:37
connections the hydraulic crimp tool check this out hover over it boom you got your hydraulic crimp tool
54:45
this is all the stuff I have in the shop you know you're going to need to cut the wire that big heavy gauge wire so this
54:53
is perfect for it you know all of this is on this list it's all Amazon links anything that you
54:59
purchase off of here it does help support the channel and I really appreciate it so this list guess what you can get it
55:05
100 free just put your name and email address it'll come straight to your inbox it's over 250 curated items and
55:14
guys I have been purchasing at least 40 more things that I will be adding to
55:19
this list very soon and we'll probably be getting up close to 300 curated items that's going to
55:26
help you save time and money when building your DIY van you're going to save time because you can just reference
55:32
one sheet with all the stuff that I have here in the shop and then I use electrical
55:37
cargo Fasteners HVAC solar panels inverters they're on here
55:44
you're going to save money because instead of buying a couple things and
55:49
then having to return them or wasting it on something that doesn't work for example a tool
55:56
this is stuff that I've vetted stuff I use in this shop I really think it's going to help you guys out so if you
56:01
want to have that list access to that list you can get it 100 free just put your name and email address
56:07
in here click download now it'll be sent right to your inbox and I really think
56:12
it's going to help you out all right we got another one from John
56:20
all right
56:30
thanks John
56:36
all right so yeah that is located on that list so I hope you guys uh check that out
56:41
so back over here where did we where are we finishing up
56:47
uh we were talking about all the circuit breakers and stuff like that so let's finish uh talking
56:56
about this final thing over here which is nomadic cooling's test
57:02
and I'm going to click on the link and then hopefully let me put this over
57:08
here
57:18
and I'm going to fast forward it
57:50
all right guys if you've never check out this uh company Matic cooling um Jonathan does their YouTube and uh he
57:57
is known as the van genius um really funny guy however he did the
58:03
only good uh walkthrough of actually how how long the uh the unit runs for
58:11
so in this example um and I'm gonna go ahead let me put the
58:17
link here I'll share the link so this is the first video
58:22
uh here let me put the fan build cheat sheet
58:33
so he does a two-part video
59:04
you want to stay with me guys I'm just copying some links
59:15
all right the link I just pasted this is for the DIY van build cheat sheet click
59:22
on that link um you can also go to van builderhq.com and click on that link uh or go to that
59:30
website and you'll be able to access this sheet as well but let me copy this this is uh
59:43
battery I'm gonna call this battery part one
59:48
test so that's the link to that
59:54
and then they have a part two
1:00:00
let me go here
1:00:17
and this is battery test part two again there's no affiliation with this
1:00:23
company um I've just been watching their stuff and I think it's good content to help you guys out
1:00:30
so they do part one and then do part two it's an inside test and uh oh go and do
1:00:35
thank you so much awesome very very nice thank you I
1:00:42
really appreciate it so they do an inside test and they do an outside test so if we go over here I've
1:00:50
already put this together for you guys um let me get this a little bit bigger
1:00:56
so on the right here are the left here the first video you watch is with a 100 amp hour battery
1:01:02
the important thing right here is the stated charge so the state of charge is
1:01:07
13.3 volts so in a perfect world you're going to
1:01:12
get more of like a 14 volt on a lithium iron phosphate battery at a full charge
1:01:18
so what's nice is he did this uh test at
1:01:23
a slightly lower state of charge which means that this number is more real
1:01:28
world I mean it's real world because he did it in the real world but what I'm saying is
1:01:33
it's at a state of charge that you will probably start to time yourself because you may not be at a perfect 100 percent
1:01:40
if you are running this uh the second video is part two and this
1:01:47
is when he did it outside the batteries were fully charged at 14.15 volts state of charge at a and
1:01:54
then the outdoor temperature was 100 degrees and it ran for two hours so this is what I based my numbers off
1:02:02
of trees for Nova oh no but you got to get you got to get
1:02:07
on camera now you just got you got bought treats
1:02:22
she's coming guys she's gonna come say thank you thank you for the treats
1:02:30
there you go all right nobody says thanks
1:02:40
all right so let's go to uh so this last one was outside test and
1:02:46
that's why I based mine off of which was the two hours two hours uh so let's talk about what
1:02:53
that looks like so let me back up here
1:02:58
so this system back here we've got 600 amp hours of batteries
1:03:04
uh before I go into the batteries we're going to end the stream in just a little bit so not too soon I'm still
1:03:10
wanting to hear all your guys's questions so if you have any questions start asking them I'm gonna go over the
1:03:16
power system and then at the end we'll do a little wrap up so if you look over here we've got 600
1:03:22
amp hour batteries so if we're just doing Simple Math
1:03:27
600 amp hour batteries should give us um
1:03:33
you know a substantial run time but uh that's what I want to tell you guys
1:03:40
you want to think of this system even though there's six batteries connected parallel think of this as almost having
1:03:47
two battery Banks because you're not going to want to use your whole power system just to run the AC
1:03:54
you can but this power system remember you have an inverter you maybe have a microwave
1:04:00
you got a refrigerator you've got a hot water heater you've got a parking heater
1:04:06
you've got lights in your van so you got all of that stuff that needs to be powered by this uh
1:04:14
system so in your mind kind of segment it so let's take the three or the six
1:04:20
batteries we'll just chop it in half and say we have three 100 amp hour batteries
1:04:26
so three 100 amp hour batteries will safely give us according to this two
1:04:32
hours of run time which is I think perfect so that gives you
1:04:38
three batteries to just crank it up run it keep you nice and cool at night time
1:04:44
when you're summer camping 300 that's going to help you
1:04:50
operate your van during the day but then during that day you're going to be able to top off
1:04:56
depending on your solar input these three
1:05:01
and if you you know wanted to run your engine or something like that uh some
1:05:07
people that actually do the 12 volt this may sound kind of counterintuitive but they may bring a like a Honda EU 2000
1:05:16
let me just show you what that is
1:05:24
so if you go over here this may sound silly but just just stay with me for example second
1:05:32
so during the day really what you want to do is use this
1:05:37
system at night time everything's nice and quiet but during the day some people that want to do total off
1:05:44
grid you know they can't plug into Shore power they bring just a small generator and they'll run it for an hour or so and
1:05:53
they'll just top off the portion of the batteries that was used by the AC unit
1:06:00
um and that way they can kind of top off their system now uh what's interesting is
1:06:07
going to I'm not I'm sure you know about this but Eco flow actually makes
1:06:16
a portable uh generator
1:06:22
that they can that let's see if I can find it
1:06:29
that you can um where is it it's not solar
1:06:39
I think it's a gas there it is
1:06:44
so ecoflow actually makes a dual fuel
1:06:49
generator which is pretty cool so if you wanted to stay with the brand
1:06:55
they actually have a port on the panel so see you can run this off of propane
1:07:01
uh or gas oline
1:07:08
and top off your system and this uh if you go to
1:07:17
ecoflow we're going to go to the
1:07:23
power kits and we're going to go here
1:07:32
so if you look on here uh if you zoom in well I can't zoom in
1:07:38
because I gotta get that app so I can zoom in on some of the stuff that
1:07:43
doesn't zoom in for you guys but right here there's a port
1:07:49
uh this says generator so battery three so Port one could be like your 5kw
1:07:57
battery it's Port two would be the other five KW so I think go and do you have a 10
1:08:02
kilowatt system so both of these plugs are filled up this third plug you could use
1:08:08
to run your uh to have an input from this gas generator
1:08:16
that's outside your van so you can kind of get somewhat of a uh
1:08:21
like a Shore power thing out in the complete wilderness
1:08:28
and you may ask the question you know Nick why don't you just get a bigger battery Bank well you can do that you can you can buy as many batteries as you
1:08:35
want but I mean they get expensive and space is limited inside your van so you
1:08:40
know there's kind of kind of diminishing returns as you get going on uh what I
1:08:46
really like about ecoflow so much is the five kilowatt battery is equal to four of these batteries
1:08:55
so five kilowatt battery is about 400 amp hours so go and Do's system is about 800 amp
1:09:04
hours so I have six batteries capacity they have about eight batteries worth of
1:09:11
capacity comparably and going to do you have that indel so I
1:09:17
mean I think you should be you should be doing uh
1:09:23
you should be doing really well power consumption wise with that much power
1:09:28
if you're kind of doing that in Dell system from what I've seen
1:09:37
all right let me see if I have anything else for you guys on this list
1:09:46
before we go tonight
1:09:53
um hop up here we talked about the reference manual for specs uh install locations and options
1:10:00
the kit from DIY van that is really what's going to allow you to put this unit where you
1:10:06
want it you could put this in a Ford motor's position so for example they have
1:10:13
options the first one is the rear cargo area the second option is the forward most so
1:10:19
if you guys can see right here this Ford most option would be the
1:10:26
furthest forward you could go and actually Mount this unit and they do have an adapter for that
1:10:33
power requirements we talked about that need at least 180 amp hours and 80 amp fuse 4 gauge wire
1:10:43
hahaha that's awesome
1:10:55
yeah you have to let me know how the generator Works uh I don't know maybe I'll get maybe I'll I'll get one before
1:11:01
you if I'm if I get this van uh going here
1:11:07
the other van uh the question about adding into
1:11:12
existing system so as long as if you have uh like a 14 by 14 vent fan
1:11:20
you know this is something that you want to look for because of the uh opening
1:11:26
it's a 14 by 15 inch so you would have you know minimal uh uh cutting needed to actually get
1:11:34
this to go into your uh your van you just have to make sure you cut out that portion over here
1:11:42
where the the cable needs to come through
1:11:48
um and what's so nice about DIY van again not sponsored but
1:11:56
when you buy this it's the template it's the pre-cut holes everything is cnsteed very
1:12:02
accurate and it just saves so much time
1:12:09
um so add an existing system you can find an old Max Air Max fan or like fantastic
1:12:15
fan vent hole and repurpose that for an air conditioning so say if you have two
1:12:20
in your van just use one for the the air conditioning it's typically what people that are
1:12:27
uh doing this would would do um then last is uh you know what
1:12:33
questions do you guys have for me if you weren't able to see this live stream
1:12:38
live today still put your questions and comments in the comments section below
1:12:45
if you guys are new here I'd love for you guys to become a subscriber to this
1:12:50
channel we've got all kinds of videos here on DIY real technical in-depth videos just like
1:12:57
this and a pretty cool format here in the shop so it's kind of like a
1:13:03
build and learn environment because I will be taking this and actually installing in the van and then you guys
1:13:10
are going to see that on a lot of future live stream so any questions between now and then uh yeah definitely get
1:13:16
subscribed you know like this video If it helped you if there's somebody else that you think it may help share that to
1:13:22
them give them the link and uh yeah I think this is uh pretty good for
1:13:27
everybody but uh thanks so much for uh watching this stream I'm gonna stand here for
1:13:32
about one minute to see if there's any more questions that comes through any last minute questions uh we do have
1:13:40
a couple people watching the stream tonight so if you guys have a question um I'll be on here for
1:13:47
we'll give you about five minutes and then we'll uh we'll close it up so I'm gonna pull up this chart here so
1:13:55
you guys can see it and I'm going to walk over to this battery bank just to make sure that
1:14:01
there isn't anything that I missed that I did want to talk to you guys about
1:14:07
so let's get this there we go
1:14:14
again feel free to screenshot that if you guys want to get that info
1:14:23
the next video coming up we're going to be moving into this uh power system so
1:14:29
the off-grid power system over here I've been working on that system behind me
1:14:35
and we're getting pretty close we got a couple more things that have come into the shop
1:14:41
I can't turn this around but we have
1:14:47
some stuff here that I'm going to show you this is the new renegi one so if you
1:14:57
guys have questions about that as well you know you can drop it in this video it's okay we will be talking about the energy one
1:15:04
system and showing you guys how to install it and what the features are of it because
1:15:10
I think it is a it's a pretty interesting
1:15:15
piece of kit I typically like the red Arc system
1:15:21
because of its Wireless connectivity especially in Thomas's man it was just perfect and then we use the Garmin power
1:15:28
switch as a supplemental wireless system so we had uh
1:15:35
16 Wireless circuits that can be all controlled from his phone with the renegie one
1:15:43
you have three buttons here and
1:15:50
so these are like almost like a light switch in your house so off and on so three circuits I think it's good because
1:15:57
it's very simple you can add additional circuits but there's like a home kit you
1:16:02
need to buy to integrate into this this system is designed mainly for like
1:16:08
an off-grid solution as like a cabin or something like that however that stuff is so similar to what's in a van that
1:16:17
that inverter charger over there uh the Rigo system which is kind of an off-grid
1:16:22
uh we can use that in the van because it's essentially the same thing so this uh it has a app you can connect
1:16:30
to this is a display screen so we'll get to installing this I'm turning this on
1:16:35
but you got to display everything is Bluetooth connected so there's a hub that connects to this
1:16:42
and then you have rs45 connections to these batteries
1:16:47
and those are essentially an Ethernet cable so each one of these batteries will be linked with an ethernet cable
1:16:54
both of the 50 amp DC to DC mppt charge controllers
1:17:02
as you can see they got an ethernet port so all of these will be connected into the Hub The Hub has a Bluetooth dongle
1:17:10
that connects into it and that connects into the renergy one so once you get all that connected this interface is going
1:17:17
to allow you to find out your stated charger your batteries the in and out of
1:17:22
the DC DC and PPT your inverter you know current wattage
1:17:28
that sort of thing and then on the back is how you're going to connect these three buttons so in the
1:17:34
back here you've got uh you've got your in them in channel one
1:17:40
out in channel two out in channel 3 out 12 volt power to power
1:17:47
um bring power to this it'll also run off of USB C cable and then you've got your
1:17:53
rs45 plug right here that comes from the Hub and that will allow you to communicate
1:18:00
with all your devices so in a sense it's kind of like an Eco flow system
1:18:06
however I'm excited to move from this to ecoflow on the next build
1:18:13
I'm not sure there's anything that would change my mind at the moment I'm not set
1:18:18
on anything it's just uh I think the the efficiency of the time of the install
1:18:23
the ecoflow makes a lot of sense and the upgrade ability
1:18:28
of the system so for example you can just start off with a five kilowatt battery and then over time increase your
1:18:37
battery size of course this is kind of the standard go-to for a van build the setup with the
1:18:44
inverter and the batteries and then you kind of manually doing the wires and stuff like that this has its place too
1:18:51
because just like I said earlier in this live stream this Dometic will not work with the Eco flow due to the current
1:18:57
draw um even on paper technically it says it works I've actually called tech support
1:19:04
both on ecoflow and Dometic and they said it would work according to the
1:19:09
documents but um I know going to kind of helped me out let me know that
1:19:15
uh they tried that and it didn't work out so the Intel B system came on my radar
1:19:22
and that was very efficient so even better
1:19:28
plus it's a van you know it's not a house you don't you don't you don't need a full AC
1:19:33
system uh in your van the bigger motorhomes yes the BTUs make
1:19:41
a difference but in a van it's a small space so you know BTUs are not that
1:19:46
critical they now if you want it to cool down quickly yes that comes into play but if
1:19:52
you pre-chill the van like with the engine running in the main air conditioner then kick this on I think
1:19:58
it's a very efficient way to run it um yeah but we're going to try out the renji one on this system uh so all of
1:20:06
this stuff these are the smart lithium iron phosphate batteries from Renegy three of these batteries have an
1:20:12
internal heater so in case everything gets below freezing the power will still run we'll
1:20:19
still have 300 amps of power until the other batteries heat up so three of these are heated three these are not
1:20:25
get the 3000 watt inverter charger and then two of the DC to DC mppt charge controllers so this
1:20:32
is what it'll charge from the alternator and it'll also charge from the solar panels
1:20:39
so that'll all work together and with this and I think this is just going to
1:20:44
be a very clean setup we'll have this we'll have a robasto
1:20:49
Bluetooth pork and heater control system so you can control it from your phone that way when you want to turn the
1:20:55
heater on you don't have to get out of bed you can do it with your foam and then on the right side of that we'll
1:21:01
have a Bluetooth smart shunt from victron and that is uh that's not a necessary
1:21:09
component because the renergy one system is going to tell you your battery um
1:21:14
state of charge but since I'm using this system I want to have another
1:21:20
thing to reference and you know why not have some more victron components in a van
1:21:25
all right this is going to do it for our stream tonight I don't see any more questions coming through
1:21:31
um once again if you made it this far and you are not subscribed I'd love for you guys to get subscribed check out the
1:21:37
live streams check out the other videos we have uh our Bend Oregon Adventure van expo from last year is doing excellent
1:21:45
um a lot of people really enjoyed that video uh we're going to be doing some more Adventure van Expos this year so
1:21:51
we'll see those videos coming in the future and then we have some other videos of just uh you know shop updates
1:21:58
the van that we're working on currently but get subscribed like this video If
1:22:03
you enjoyed it share it with your friends if you think it'll help them out if they're building their DIY van other
1:22:09
than that hope you guys have a great night and we will see you in the next live stream
1:22:16
[Music]
#Construction & Power Tools
#Other