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Lithium Battery Install with 80/20 | Building A Strong Extruded Aluminum Frame
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May 3, 2025
Build Strong & Safe! Today's livestream will review one of our current build Marine One. I will show you how I fit this 400 Amp/hr. lithium iron phosphate power system into a very small area using 80/20 and RIGA HEKSA Plywood, creating a clean professional appearance. Visit the blog at https://www.vanbuilderhq.com to learn more. Interested in Nick building your van? Check out https://www.odysseycustomvans.com
View Video Transcript
0:01
[Music]
0:19
thank you [Music]
0:27
foreign welcome to the live stream today so we're going to be talking about building
0:33
the power system the initial part so the structure of the power system for marine one which is
0:39
Thomas's van and uh yeah let's go ahead and get right into it so let me clean this up a little
0:46
bit and we'll show you what we're working with we've got we've got a lot of pictures
0:53
we're going to go through just a couple pictures give you an idea of what it looks like in the end and then we're
0:59
going to go back into the video section which is the time lapse of me actually building
1:05
um the system and that way you guys can see the 80 20 that I used we have some
1:11
other components so we have Riga hexa which is a really cool material we'll
1:17
talk about how to strap down the batteries and some more stuff like that so let's
1:23
go ahead and show you what we're talking about so let me get and we'll go through these
1:30
a bunch um don't worry like you're going to miss out we'll do this stream for quite some
1:35
time essentially this is what you're looking at so
1:40
the requirements that we kind of put down on paper for Thomas's van
1:46
started with the paragrapher if you haven't watched our live stream streams
1:51
um the van that we built for Thomas is built around his paragrapher
1:57
and uh we'll we'll show that in something a little bit later but we'll get back to the batteries anyway that's
2:02
that uh it's essentially a golf cart a battery-powered golf cart that goes into
2:08
the back of the van and we needed a system to not only run everything in the
2:14
van but also charge the pair golfer batteries so essentially it's a golf
2:21
cart battery charging systems have you ever had the batteries in the golf cart
2:26
um this system has about two of those so it's probably we calculated about
2:34
200 amp hours so we wanted to have at least a system
2:39
that could charge it one time but still have enough remaining power to
2:45
uh operate the rest of the stuff in the van and then just a little bit of Gap to
2:52
have time to recharge the system so we went with a cotec SP 3000 inverter
3:01
and this inverter is able to couple with the red Arc system
3:06
which is this box right here and then that box
3:13
this is the charging system itself this is a 30 amp charger
3:21
so this will connect to it's called the manager 30 and then this will connect to the uh Main
3:29
battery for the engine it'll also accept the power from the
3:34
solar panels and so this is pretty much the controller that charges the batteries
3:42
and then this is a little bit of what the final system looked like now we obviously covered this up cleaned it up
3:48
put a little bit of acrylic glass in there it'll look really nice
3:54
all right so let's go ahead and get into some of the videos now one video that we started off with
4:01
is uh on our last live stream we talked about the Murphy bed system
4:08
so the Murphy bed and this power system go hand in hand because the power system
4:14
is going to be the structure that the Murphy bed actually uh settles down on
4:19
and rests on so once we found out the height and we
4:25
got our measurement for that we can really just move forward and get the Murphy bed out of the way and we can
4:31
start working on putting together where all these batteries are going to rest so
4:36
we got the Murphy bed we moved it out of the way and then I'm going to pause it right uh
4:43
wait let me go back there we go so I'll pause right here so this is a sheet of Riga hexa
4:50
and so what I'll do is I'm going to quickly show you what this is
4:55
so it's essentially birch plywood that's laminated
5:00
and on one side it has this kind of grippy texture and it's plastic
5:06
and then on the back side it's smooth you can kind of actually see a little bit of wood grain
5:12
but it's a really cool product I saw I saw a van use uh so Adventure wagon
5:21
that we during the interior conversion on this fan behind me Adventure wagon was using this product and I wanted to
5:28
get more of it so I could uh tie it in the base of the van actually has that
5:34
product and I wanted to tie in my battery system with this and so when
5:40
Thomas's van came along we paused on this and we started working on his and I wanted to use this because the kind of
5:48
theme that he was going for was kind of a you know a little bit of uh like 80 20 kind of tactical type stuff and this
5:55
looks perfect so we started with um
6:01
this sheet and they do make it in a four by eight sheet
6:08
so if we go over here let me just back this up
6:13
um if we go here and let's go here
6:18
so we've got um this Riga hexa birch plywood
6:24
now this is West Wind Hardwood Incorporated again no affiliation
6:29
uh this is just me giving you guys some examples I purchase it from pin elcom
6:37
and again no association with them but apparently I checked over today and I don't think they actually carry that
6:44
anymore so this company is pretty cool because they make um flight case Hardware so if you guys
6:50
don't know what flight cases are you know musicians and stuff like that uh bands they use this to house their
6:56
equipment you know DJ production companies and that rig a hexa is that board that they use so it's really
7:01
durable and it's kind of get that texture on this side of it but for some reason
7:08
uh I don't maybe it's right here yeah I look I looked through here
7:13
earlier before the stream and I can't see that they sell it anymore
7:20
so this is a company they're actually out of Vancouver
7:27
and this is the product it's a little bit better detailed photo you guys can see how many Plies it is
7:34
and it does come in that big sheet however I had to get mine cut into pieces because uh panelcom they actually
7:41
could not ship it via UPS to me in this size uh which got a stuck but hey this
7:49
is I might be getting it from this company now um but there's the texture that you see kind of like this
7:54
um you know pattern on top
8:00
I really like it if we go back to let's see here if we go
8:05
to
8:11
our video
8:20
what I did is I got the Contour of
8:27
um here let's go to our let's go to our drawing pad so I guess I can show you
8:33
what we're doing here
8:54
yep we'll come back to that so in the video what I did is I took the
9:00
Contour of the wheel well and I really wanted to use this insulated wheel well
9:05
cover so you see right there I've got this cover and Thomas had put that in
9:10
his van I really wanted to reuse that but it just it was not possible to
9:15
fit the batteries in here this van we were working with extremely
9:21
tight tolerances with everything everything from the fridge the sink moving the AC unit the water tank he has
9:27
this aluminum ramp that's folded up in the back I mean everything in the van is like just like a quarter of an inch or an
9:33
eighth of an inch away from each other I mean everything really really had to be Ultra precise
9:40
so I wanted to use this over here but I wasn't able to
9:46
and let me see if I can find that PIN
10:10
my drawing pad pin trying to see where that here I think it's right here
10:15
there we go
10:21
so we'll go over here to the pad and I want to do this there's our stuff from yesterday
10:27
so I'm going to draw this just to show you uh what we're going to talk about today make it a little bit more
10:32
organized of a conversation so this is the back panel of the van
10:38
okay and then we have our wheel well that extends out
10:43
just like that let's take a little make this a little
10:48
bit neater there we go
10:56
okay so we got our wheel well and what we're going to do is we're going to walk step by step we're going
11:03
to work by making our rear panel first then we're going to come in with our 80
11:09
20. frame and we're going to come out from that and start to build that frame that's
11:15
going to be able to hold our batteries we're going to measure the distance that
11:22
we need continue to build our 80 20.
11:29
and since we were doing the Murphy bed this distance right here
11:35
we already know what that distance is so that's a fixed distance
11:41
so our orientation of our batteries inside here has to make it to where
11:46
this is not changed okay
11:52
so we got that going on and then we'll show you how I actually went in
11:58
arrange the batteries then we strapped them down we added our
12:03
inverter and then we have our manager 30 uh well actually we have our uh
12:10
our manager 30 over here and then over here we have our victron
12:15
um links distributor
12:21
so that is kind of the plan so let's go ahead and start working walking through this
12:29
so we've got our wheel will cover that we can't use
12:34
and the next step is uh we gotta start stuffing this thing with
12:41
some insulation because there's a lot of glass in this van so everywhere that we can put uh have like a wool we're going
12:48
to and the reason you want to do this first is once you build your battery system it's going to be impossible to get back
12:54
into these areas so this is now the time to insulate now the Havelock we used is was Havelock
13:02
right here so this is wool and you guys if you are on YouTube you
13:10
watch people building their Vans have like a wool is great um
13:15
it is fire retardant it is uh
13:21
it doesn't allow the growth of you know mold and stuff like that it's kind of antimicrobial properties and it
13:30
um does a really great job and it's a it's a natural product as well
13:36
a little bit more technical of a product it's more expensive is the 3M thinsulate
13:42
and so this is what's in that van back there
13:51
this is really nice because it's hydrophobic so it doesn't like to attract water
13:58
um and then there's a different couple different kinds this has a black back
14:03
and a black face some will just have a black back and then the face right here
14:08
will just be the the white um so there's different types that you can get
14:14
so we use I use this in the van back there we use the hablock in
14:20
Marine One and so right here we have
14:26
um we're putting in the insulation
14:35
now we can't put it in on the left side and the reason that we can't put it in over here is because Thomas has an
14:42
automatic sliding door and uh if we ever needed to repair that
14:48
door in the future um that panel can come out you'd have to remove the batteries and then move the
14:55
80 20 pull out the Riga hexa to access it but during the meantime we don't want
15:01
that line and that there's a line inside like a cable and we don't get that
15:07
getting wrapped up on on the Havelock so we left that left side open
15:13
but I figured out a plan on how to insulated anyway
15:19
so this next video will show you what I did so what we're doing is we are putting in
15:25
the 80 20 bar and if you guys watch the video live stream yesterday we talked about the uh
15:34
this plus nut a REV nut right here so we got the riv nuts drilled into
15:40
the van right there in the back and then what we've done is we go and we Mark so what I'm doing is I'm
15:47
marking where each of those drill points need to be so that I can take the 80 20 out
15:54
through-hole drill and then when I come back I can slide in my
16:01
second head cap screws in the channel of the 80 20. so this is pretty cool so
16:07
here check this out let me get a screw
16:21
see if I can find a longer screw for an example
16:27
so and so what you're going to do is you're going to drill through your 80
16:32
20. and then you're going to take your bolt you're going to slide it in the channel
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so this bolt is a 5 16-18 socket head cap screw
16:45
and it fits in this 15 series 80 20 perfectly so you're going to slide it in here
16:52
and then the hole that you drilled on the opposite side here that's what you're going to put your allen wrench in
16:58
and then that way you're able to tighten this against the van it's a really cool
17:04
trick that way you don't have to uh do it from the outside
17:09
you know waste a longer bolt Plus have this protruding from this outside just a
17:15
little hack you can put on the inside and drill a hole through to access
17:21
the head so that's what I did here
17:36
all right fast forward a little bit see I've got the holes drilled and can I zoom I can't zoom in
17:46
all right so if you look now I've got the Havelock cut out to the shape of the
17:53
Riga hexa board and I'm just double checking everything got the Riga hexa
17:59
again I'm still trying to use that that fender cover I end up actually
18:04
I'm not being able to use it you'll see it here there we go and so I decided to just use Havelock on
18:10
top of it because the whole point is just to keep it insulated both for road noise and for thermal
18:18
example thermal stuff all right so and then what I'm doing is I'm just enclosing that rig
18:24
a hexa board on the left if you guys can see that and so that's the coolest thing about
18:30
the uh oh I didn't I'll go back over that here let me show you
18:35
we'll go back over that video I didn't realize I didn't change it so what you're going to do is uh you're
18:41
going to take the 80 20. like that and so make your frame and then this channel in here
18:49
the Riga hexa actually as you guys can see it actually fits
18:54
down in here and look at that it's a super very very clean
19:01
I wish I had more room here let's see there you go that's what I was trying to do see it's a very clean
19:08
look very Pro looking thing now you say Nick this is going to Rattle
19:14
well you're exactly right it will rattle so there's a fix for that
19:21
and I put this everywhere in Thomas's van Thomas loves to listen to music
19:28
uh loves car audio he's really into listen to the musical very loud
19:34
so I knew that ahead of time so I I found this uh on Amazon this is felt this is
19:41
felt tape and what's really cool is I took this felt tape and on any panel it doesn't
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matter if it was a Riga hexa or a wood panel I taped on this felt
19:55
and not only did it hold the Riga hexa into this channel better
20:02
um it just quite it made everything in the van super quiet so you could knock on any panel there wasn't a rattle
20:09
it sounded it just sounded really really good and so right here I'll show you what I
20:16
did we stopped using that we put Havelock cut to the size of the rig a hexa and
20:24
then we put it in replace the
20:30
wheel well cover with Havelock and then eventually in here you'll see
20:37
that that uh I'll put the felt right here over here where my hand
20:44
is we're actually putting a 12 inch jail audio sub so I know we have to cover all this up
20:51
and then also do some Dynamat and really keep this thing
20:59
just rattle free
21:04
all right so we did that made our way we started to figure out
21:10
you know I went to the drawing board and I
21:15
actually um here I'm gonna go pull up
21:20
one of our pictures so this picture right here this is how I
21:27
originally let's see if I can rotate this there you go this is how I originally
21:33
wanted to install the power system in Thomas's van I wanted to
21:40
put the inverter like this and this is more for Aesthetics
21:45
um the inverter up here was nice because it would be the depth of the batteries
21:50
we'd have one battery two three four so this actually worked inverter here the
21:55
red Arc here and then where the wheel well was that minimal distance we were to put our Lynx distributor which I'll
22:02
talk about in a minute uh and then really just wire everything together
22:07
the problem was and I'll go over here to our drawing pad the problem was that
22:16
this had already been established the uh Murphy bed
22:21
and this distance right here we couldn't change so
22:30
that orientation just had to we had to go we had to do away with that
22:37
so instead of doing this we went with what you guys saw which was this
22:43
so instead of the batteries going width wise they went lengthwise
22:49
so that length kicked out the inverter it put it on the bottom and then we still had a room over here
22:56
for uh like the lynx distributor over here in the bottom
23:03
so let's get these videos back out all right
23:09
so we're making our way we've already cut out our ends right here because we
23:14
know how far that we can go um now to be honest I needed to take
23:21
another inch and a half off of here but I was trying to push it because I was thinking that I could have the
23:28
Murphy bed come in three inches instead of an inch and a half and we would be okay but that ended up looking weird and
23:36
the this inverter actually ended up being lifted up an inch and a half and going back inch and a half which was
23:43
pretty much up against this panel um and that's what I actually had to do
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so if you notice right here you see how this part has extended into the Murphy bed
23:59
so what we did is eventually you'll see me cut off an inch and a half so that
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it's it's just flush it just it worked out better
24:11
Okay so we've got our back panel finished it is insulated now let's see if I okay
24:18
I think I missed apart of the video for you guys there we go okay so check this out
24:25
I got an idea of how big this Havelock needed to be
24:31
and so I learned a technique from the adventure wagon install they had double-sided uh very wide double-sided
24:37
tape so I used wide double-sided tape and I put it on the back here so that the Havelock would not settle down over
24:45
time it keeps it up and it doesn't allow it to fall
24:52
I put the 80 20 back in covered up the wheel well and we're starting to move
24:57
from the back and make our way towards the in the inner part of the van
25:04
next again we did the inverter we made sure that it was fitting eventually you
25:10
guys will see that the inverter itself gets moved but in the meantime I want to go ahead
25:16
and map out this right here so this is where the batteries are actually going to sit they're going to sit on this
25:21
panel so I'm just kind of contemplating there's a lot of thinking when you're
25:27
building vans
25:33
all right and then the next thing we do is we start to get a little bit deeper in making the frame and building that
25:41
out trying to figure out the best way to mount this uh inverter
25:53
so now we just as you notice we're having to take this apart and put it back together take it apart put it back together that just kind of goes with the
25:58
territory when you're doing custom work um you can do as much as you want to on
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the computer you can do engineering drawings you can do all that stuff but every now and then something is going to not fit right regardless of how much you
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know so we get the back brace and so that's going to allow the briga hexa to slide
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into and actually support the batteries
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and then now I'm just figuring out how much I can get away with coming into the van
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um then I go ahead and pick up one of the batteries so we're using sok 100 amp hour lifting our lithium iron phosphate
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batteries I like the sok because uh
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price wise they're very good um for the value of what you get they're
26:53
actually fully serviceable you can take them out you can replace the cells if you need to
26:59
so right here I'm just figuring out how to get these batteries
27:05
supported and again Aesthetics matter because as I'm building this out I'm always wanting
27:12
to see what think about what the final look of this is going to be
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um and I kind of have like a Steve Jobs mentality when I build things that if
27:26
you took this apart the inside would be just as nice as the outside
27:31
so if you look all these little um going to give you guys an example
27:38
let's see here I'll give an example when we go to the photos
27:48
all right so we got our frame and so now I'm trying to find out how to fit one more piece of the Riga hexa right there
27:54
in front to clean up this and finally as you can see we've got a
28:00
perfect fit with the batteries on this resting on the 80 20 on the back and the
28:05
front now this front part is actually going to get a piece of aluminum a two inch piece
28:12
of aluminum and it's going to be a lip and that lip is going to allow the batteries to not slide forward
28:18
so we go ahead and again take everything apart put it back together take it apart put it back together
28:26
all right we're starting to understand how this is going to work for our inverter again I keep trying to add this
28:33
this inch and a half and make it work because I really don't want the inverter sitting so far back it's okay but I'd
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like to have a little bit more space um but we just didn't have the space
28:47
because I really wanted to make sure that that inch and a half did not affect the paragofer when it was loaded into
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the van
28:58
so we're just working away um as you can see what I'm doing right now I'm putting the
29:03
felt tape on the batteries themselves so now the batteries on the edge here
29:08
they're not going to scuff themselves so you see right there it slides in that way they won't rattle they won't
29:14
scuff against each other they won't make noise and that's kind of all behind the scenes
29:20
and then there's a final piece of 80 20 on the very left and that is going to hold the batteries going from forwards
29:27
to backwards so in a minute we'll have an aluminum lip that'll keep it from going to towards
29:33
the inside of the van that 80 20 on the left keeps it from if Thomas has a slam of the brakes the
29:39
batteries aren't going to go all over the place the back is already structured because we're going to add
29:46
another uh column right there on the right and now again we're really just kind of
29:52
scratching our heads because we're really trying to make everything fit so I'm just going back and forth back
29:57
and forth you can see I'm taking the Murphy bed and I'm trying to figure out
30:04
how I want to make this operate
30:10
and then first I thought you know what I need to have a 80 20
30:16
metal bar tying everything down I eventually changed that and use straps that you guys will see
30:22
here in just a minute this is where I originally had the manager 30 and the red Arc and
30:28
everything um but as long as far as the process went along we have so many cables in
30:34
this build that they just kept taking up all the space and everything had to
30:40
kind of get redone into a different setup this is the first time that the Murphy
30:46
bed actually has a section to rest on
30:57
and then we're coming through here and then now I'm trying to figure out how do I want to have this uh the red Arc
31:05
power system as well as the lynx distributor mounted in this van
31:11
again it really could go anywhere but this is more visual but at the same time since
31:17
Aesthetics are really driving where everything is going to go
31:22
we need to find our location because uh I'll pause this and talk to you guys about that you need to make sure that
31:29
you have all those components in a in their home or a place that's really close to being
31:36
their permanent home because if you don't when you start to run the wires you're
31:42
going to run a wireless say eight or ten feet but then if you change your mind and you need to move that component two
31:48
more feet you've taken a very expensive cable because it's likely a two watt or a four
31:53
watt power cable coming directly from the battery to the lynx distributor or your bus bar wherever you're
31:58
Distributing the power 12 volt power and you've already cut it and now it's further away
32:05
and it is very dicey to crimp do a terminal connection and then
32:11
try to extend that again you can do it but it's it's just not a good practice
32:17
um so get all your stuff where they're all your components in their home where you
32:23
really really think they're going to be before you ever pull wire strip or cut wire
32:36
all right moving right along so now I'm trying to find out where I'm
32:42
going to put this manager 30. and I'm just contemplating as you guys can see right
32:48
there and there's really no place to put it it's
32:54
just there's just not enough room
33:00
so I keep working keep thinking
33:10
and uh so this is actually where we um
33:16
let's see here I actually may not have that part on video let's check this out
33:25
all right so I think that's all I had for this video run showing you how I put it in there
33:33
um yep that was the last video Let's just double check
33:40
yep okay so if we back up
33:47
so just to give you a good idea this is the structure okay this is the uh this is how I built the battery system
33:55
now we're going to go to some of the photos and that way they'll give it a little bit better detail about
34:01
how this thing ended up looking
34:20
so this was a picture of you know what we didn't actually go with but I want to reference this because it's really good
34:25
to put everything out on a table use tape and kind of play around with how it's
34:31
going to be laid out that way you just uh you know measure twice cut once type
34:36
of mentality this was our pretty much Final Phase we
34:43
only had two posts that you could probably see in one of those videos that
34:48
allowed us to use it for structure later in the video
35:01
and then right here we have uh let's see here so we actually ended
35:08
up mounting the red Arc to uh the rear of the power system
35:16
and that Steve Jobs quote I was I mean uh mentality you can see very neat on all
35:22
the brackets all the things in the corner just very very nice and neat
35:30
and this is closer to what we had so we have our main disconnect here this plate
35:35
down here was supposed to be for some temperature control fans but we're going to put that in a separate relay and
35:42
we're going to redo this panel but this is where our battery disconnect was so that we can disconnect this from outside
35:48
the van easily or inside the van
36:05
so again there's that rig of hexa that we were using worked out really well this one let's see if we can spin it
36:11
around there we go so we use these uh tie down straps
36:18
and they worked out excellent to hold the batteries down again they're not like an 80 20 bar that's aluminum and
36:24
can conduct electricity so they were a safer option plus their I think they did
36:30
a great job they're easy to undo we have our disconnects with our lugs
36:35
and again we're just planing everything out for our next steps this is eventually where the subwoofer
36:41
is going to go and then we have our connections to our
36:47
inverter but you can kind of see how just step by step 80 20 is really awesome to use I mean it's pretty much like Legos I mean
36:54
you're just you're cutting it bolting stuff in and you can get a very safe strong
37:01
system to hold your your power system and here we're just test fitting our
37:08
our connections to all the batteries you can get the 80 20 and the smooth finish so that anything that's going to
37:15
be showing on the outside it's nice and clear
37:20
this just shows you a little detail of uh how the
37:27
Murphy bed is interacting with this system so there's a there's a post that goes straight up and down here
37:34
and then this was a the final spot where these two units were put together
37:42
and there's another photo let me see if I can find I'm gonna try to find this photo here
37:49
there's a photo of
37:54
Larry build
38:12
that one
38:21
okay I saw that one where is the other battery
38:30
there you go so Night Eyes is what we used so you can actually find these at
38:35
Lowe's and what's nice is they have a rubber backing right here to the Buckle so when you pull it down the metal
38:41
doesn't scrape against the uh this battery system itself
38:46
you guys can see here this is where the Murphy bed laid down onto that flush mounted 80 20 piece and so this really
38:54
ended uh put together the box for us and that was pretty much it
39:09
so I'll kind of leave with this photo showing um the whole entire system so you have
39:16
your system on the left that's holding the water tank it's pretty much the same structure as the battery system and
39:22
shows you how you can have the water system the Murphy bed and the battery system all come together as one unit
39:33
all right guys that was a pretty short live stream today if you guys have any question put those in the comments below
39:39
questions on batteries to use the size um orientation uh different components
39:47
we will be doing a deep dive into 12 volt Power Systems and a future stream talking about how to set up a basic
39:55
system uh different types of fuses disconnect switches that you might need we already
40:01
went over a couple of things on the cables and tools to actually get the system started but as far as power
40:07
layout haven't done that yet so again if you have any question put those in the comments below happy to do that in a
40:14
future live stream and we'll see you guys in the next video
40:20
[Music]
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