Hi! I have a 2002 Ford E150 High-Top conversion van. Currently it’s being used as a part-time tour van for my band, so it’s not set up for vanlife at all, so at this point I’m just doing some research into what is and is not possible.
The van has front and rear air conditioning/heat, and if I ever do a conversion for van living, it would be ideal to keep that system in place. I was wondering if there are ways to run it with the engine off using an accessory battery. Are there splitters/isolators, etc. (whatever you call them) to make something like this possible?
Technically, yes… but its typically so prohibitively expensive and takes up so much space that you probably wouldn’t choose to.
Some of the major installers suggest a rule of thumb of around 200ah of lithium battery for every hour you would want to run a small A/C unit (and that’s not factoring in any other electrical devices… just A/C). Ouch!