Ha! Yeah; definitely don't want people to feel bad, but also have to get across that some things seen are actually pretty dangerous. I just wish I could catch some of these people earlier in their builds. It's so much easier to fix these problems in the pre-planning phase so I can point people to our shop.explorist.life kits and tutorials here on this channel for installation help.
Well done you’re very patient haha, that last girl asking why she lost 50% battery in 7 days when her fridge, inverter, starlink is running 😂 must’ve just been throwing new batteries at it to fix the problem cause 900ah is crazy!
Looks like the biggest problem is that people don’t pay pay attention or learn more about their system. Over the years one thing I’ve done is keep educating myself to improve and understand how everything works. At times I get a surprise I wasn’t prepared for. 🖖
I would agree with that. In our shop.explorist.life tech support inbox, we REGUALRLY have customers who email in with a system problem and I ask for 'a picture of the system installation to see if I can see anything obviously incorrect'. You'd be amazed at the amount of people who magically figure out the problem when they go to take a picture. "Go take a picture of your system and share it with me" is my secret and more tactful way of saying: "Have you even looked at your system to see if something is wrong?" 🤣
All of the systems/kits we have at shop.explorist.life show/include proper grounding / bonding. Would love to have you as a customer on your next project to help clear up those confusions.
@@EXPLORISTlife I actually did buy one of your diagrams last year to help me with my install. I do have the 4/0 cable from Lynx distributor to my chassis. So as I’m taking a closer look at the diagram, the AC load center has hot/neutral/ground to the inverter and inverter is bonded to Lynx which is then chassis bonded. So effectively the AC load center ( sub panel) is bonded to the chassis so the sub panel has a route back to earth ground via shore power. I think :)
I would’ve just stopped and said this whole thing needs to be redone. The safety of your vehicle is in jeopardy of being burned up. Stop baby footing around and tell him he needs to have this whole system redone.😮😢
That's pretty much what I did, just with a bit more tact. I can't be pissing people off. Doing these, I have to hope that when they go to re-do their system that they will come back to us at shop.explorist.life for the purchase. This channel is focused around teaching people WHY things are incorrect and HOW to fix them instead of just telling people to re-do it, and then hopefully being able to help by selling them the correct parts to make it all happen.
So excellent what you do at these events and sharing on YT, Nate! Even if I absorb a couple tidbits from these, it is well worth it. Got a long way to go on our Promaster 3500 build before installation of electrical components but am still feeling very intimidated on my grasp of exactly what's needed to make it come together correctly/safely.
We are trying to do live Q&A's on the first Friday of every month given no scheduling conflicts. Note: If your question is revolving around something you have purchased/are purchasing from our store (shop.explorist.life) reach out for some more personalized help: shop.explorist.life/support
Yes! The team will be there with our trailer and van, yes. Ira (our lead installer) will be doing the system checks, I believe, as I (Nate) will not personally be there.
Even in the land based stationary PV mega watt power generation industry the largest loss of revenue and down time is due to faulty connections. A quality connection has three characteristics 1) Mechanical 2) Electrical 3) Safety ❤
I wish I didn't have to do this here, but I getting no response, nor contact information regarding my inability to log into the Explorist Life Academy. If there is a way to get support please let me know. Anybody here with info on this, assistance would be appreciated!
Is putting a lock washer on every connection sufficient to keep things from loosening up from vibration, or would you recommend some kind of thread locking compound?
We don't recommend thread locking compound and that is a debated topic. Our shop.explorist.life system designs use a mix of lock washers and/or nylock nuts depending on the application. If you have purchased/are purchasing from our store (shop.explorist.life) and need a bit more guidance on your specific system reach out for some more personalized help: shop.explorist.life/support
27:20 - me wondering if he remembered to turn back on the MMPT 11:00 - Anything over 1.5kw, should just be a 24V system by default. You can easily have a 12v Battery system for the small 12v loads and charge that battery, plus having redundancy is very handy, 12v loads are crucial usually where 120v load could be sacrified for a bit.
27: Yes, I did indeed turn the charge controller back on. 11: I would not agree with that no. Our guidelines on that is: Anything 3kW or less should be 12V IF there are 12V loads AND solar capacity is less than 1500W. 24V otherwise UP TO 6kW of inverting capacity OR more than 3kW of solar; WHERE 48V would then be most appropriate. If you need help deciding on the best voltage for your next project AND you have purchased/are purchasing from our store (shop.explorist.life) reach out for some more personalized help: shop.explorist.life/support
Hi I have a small off grid system to set up 8 100 amp 12v eg4 batteries ( 2 sets of 4 for 48v in series/parallel ) 1 x EG4 3kW Off-Grid Inverter | 3000EHV-48 | 3000W Output | 5000W 10 x 305w hyundai solar panels - I dont know a lot about fusing and if I need a shunt - can you draw me a diagram, and if so what would be the cost, thank you .
A diagram comes BEFORE purchasing parts. Would love to have you as a shop.explorist.life customer on your next project so we can clear up those issues ahead of time. If you decide to return what you’ve purchased and go with a plan we’ve designed, reach out at shop.explorist.life/support for more personalized guidance
For sure. This is why we always push power audits so heavily. Most people don't want to take the time to do them, but then wonder why their batteries are draining when ""nothing"" is on except for their phone charger, starlink, lights, water heater, air conditioner, tesla coil, etc etc... 🤷🏻🤯😂
Can’t wait to finish my build so I can meet you guys at a van expo! I bought your wiring kits and I have more in the cart to buy as soon as I am certain what else I need. 😄
I could watch these troubleshooting videos all day long... Thanks.
Feel your pain bro. You were pretty diplomatic lol. Good work with a tough gig.🍺
Ha! Yeah; definitely don't want people to feel bad, but also have to get across that some things seen are actually pretty dangerous. I just wish I could catch some of these people earlier in their builds. It's so much easier to fix these problems in the pre-planning phase so I can point people to our shop.explorist.life kits and tutorials here on this channel for installation help.
Well done you’re very patient haha, that last girl asking why she lost 50% battery in 7 days when her fridge, inverter, starlink is running 😂 must’ve just been throwing new batteries at it to fix the problem cause 900ah is crazy!
Y'all are awesome
Looks like the biggest problem is that people don’t pay pay attention or learn more about their system.
Over the years one thing I’ve done is keep educating myself to improve and understand how everything works. At times I get a surprise I wasn’t prepared for. 🖖
I would agree with that. In our shop.explorist.life tech support inbox, we REGUALRLY have customers who email in with a system problem and I ask for 'a picture of the system installation to see if I can see anything obviously incorrect'. You'd be amazed at the amount of people who magically figure out the problem when they go to take a picture.
"Go take a picture of your system and share it with me" is my secret and more tactful way of saying: "Have you even looked at your system to see if something is wrong?" 🤣
@@EXPLORISTlife
The biggest problem I had was with grounding, but I hear it takes two years for an electrician to learn, so I don’t feel so bad! 🫨
@@simon359concerning grounding, should you ground or bond your van/rv AC sub panel to the vehicle chassis?
All of the systems/kits we have at shop.explorist.life show/include proper grounding / bonding. Would love to have you as a customer on your next project to help clear up those confusions.
@@EXPLORISTlife I actually did buy one of your diagrams last year to help me with my install. I do have the 4/0 cable from Lynx distributor to my chassis. So as I’m taking a closer look at the diagram, the AC load center has hot/neutral/ground to the inverter and inverter is bonded to Lynx which is then chassis bonded.
So effectively the AC load center ( sub panel) is bonded to the chassis so the sub panel has a route back to earth ground via shore power. I think :)
I would’ve just stopped and said this whole thing needs to be redone. The safety of your vehicle is in jeopardy of being burned up.
Stop baby footing around and tell him he needs to have this whole system redone.😮😢
That's pretty much what I did, just with a bit more tact. I can't be pissing people off. Doing these, I have to hope that when they go to re-do their system that they will come back to us at shop.explorist.life for the purchase. This channel is focused around teaching people WHY things are incorrect and HOW to fix them instead of just telling people to re-do it, and then hopefully being able to help by selling them the correct parts to make it all happen.
So excellent what you do at these events and sharing on YT, Nate! Even if I absorb a couple tidbits from these, it is well worth it. Got a long way to go on our Promaster 3500 build before installation of electrical components but am still feeling very intimidated on my grasp of exactly what's needed to make it come together correctly/safely.
When will you guys be doing another Q&A? Got a quick question :)
We are trying to do live Q&A's on the first Friday of every month given no scheduling conflicts. Note: If your question is revolving around something you have purchased/are purchasing from our store (shop.explorist.life) reach out for some more personalized help: shop.explorist.life/support
You’re telling the first couple a checklist of what to do but it’s beyond their skill set.
They claimed they were avid followers of our channel, all advice of which can be found on tutorials on our channel.
Will you be at the Ventura Adventure Van Expo?
Yes! The team will be there with our trailer and van, yes. Ira (our lead installer) will be doing the system checks, I believe, as I (Nate) will not personally be there.
This was a great video that emphasized the requirement for inspecting connections on a regular basis. Thank you.
Even in the land based stationary PV mega watt power generation industry the largest loss of revenue and down time is due to faulty connections. A quality connection has three characteristics 1) Mechanical 2) Electrical 3) Safety ❤
I wish I didn't have to do this here, but I getting no response, nor contact information regarding my inability to log into the Explorist Life Academy. If there is a way to get support please let me know. Anybody here with info on this, assistance would be appreciated!
I responded to your initial email this morning at 8:30am mst. Please check your spam folder.
Following up here…. Did you get my response this morning?
Like your methodology and knowledge base. I could get more out of it if you could give a five second overview of the system.
Is putting a lock washer on every connection sufficient to keep things from loosening up from vibration, or would you recommend some kind of thread locking compound?
We don't recommend thread locking compound and that is a debated topic. Our shop.explorist.life system designs use a mix of lock washers and/or nylock nuts depending on the application. If you have purchased/are purchasing from our store (shop.explorist.life) and need a bit more guidance on your specific system reach out for some more personalized help: shop.explorist.life/support
Thanks for all the great info.
27:20 - me wondering if he remembered to turn back on the MMPT
11:00 - Anything over 1.5kw, should just be a 24V system by default. You can easily have a 12v Battery system for the small 12v loads and charge that battery, plus having redundancy is very handy, 12v loads are crucial usually where 120v load could be sacrified for a bit.
27: Yes, I did indeed turn the charge controller back on.
11: I would not agree with that no. Our guidelines on that is: Anything 3kW or less should be 12V IF there are 12V loads AND solar capacity is less than 1500W. 24V otherwise UP TO 6kW of inverting capacity OR more than 3kW of solar; WHERE 48V would then be most appropriate. If you need help deciding on the best voltage for your next project AND you have purchased/are purchasing from our store (shop.explorist.life) reach out for some more personalized help: shop.explorist.life/support
First van... YIKES!
awesome stuff, I noticed at 11:15, the positive wire going to the inverter has a kinked just as it enters the lug.. not good.
Kinked + grossly undersized wire. I'm pretty surprised nothing was melted yet with that one.
Hi I have a small off grid system to set up 8 100 amp 12v eg4 batteries ( 2 sets of 4 for 48v in series/parallel ) 1 x EG4 3kW Off-Grid Inverter | 3000EHV-48 | 3000W Output | 5000W
10 x 305w hyundai solar panels - I dont know a lot about fusing and if I need a shunt
- can you draw me a diagram, and if so what would be the cost, thank you .
A diagram comes BEFORE purchasing parts. Would love to have you as a shop.explorist.life customer on your next project so we can clear up those issues ahead of time. If you decide to return what you’ve purchased and go with a plan we’ve designed, reach out at shop.explorist.life/support for more personalized guidance
@@EXPLORISTlife ok great thank you !
Phantom draws add up fast. My fifth wheel is so power hungry. I try to turn off everything..
Star link aspecially
For sure. This is why we always push power audits so heavily. Most people don't want to take the time to do them, but then wonder why their batteries are draining when ""nothing"" is on except for their phone charger, starlink, lights, water heater, air conditioner, tesla coil, etc etc... 🤷🏻🤯😂
Great video
Good luck
Can’t wait to finish my build so I can meet you guys at a van expo! I bought your wiring kits and I have more in the cart to buy as soon as I am certain what else I need. 😄
Explorist life is life changing
Been watching them for years. Just got my sprinter which I ordered from Mercedes in Feb.!
I also ordered 3 200 watt Rich solar panels from you guys but forgot to order the brackets which are also in my cart. 🤣