- 2 hours ago
A master electrician’s custom Sprinter build pairs polished maple cabinetry with an electrical system designed for safe, reliable off-grid travel. Join Patrick Botticelli and builder Jesse Graver for a full tour of the 2024 AWD van, including its clever hidden storage, removable bed, diesel heater, and hot water warmed by the engine while driving.
The standout is the Victron-powered system, with solar, lithium batteries, alternator charging, and marine-grade wiring. Jesse explains why proper wire selection and accessible components matter—and describes common mistakes that can make DIY van electrical systems unsafe. Explore camper van conversions, RV electrical systems, off-grid power, and practical van life design in this detailed build tour.
The standout is the Victron-powered system, with solar, lithium batteries, alternator charging, and marine-grade wiring. Jesse explains why proper wire selection and accessible components matter—and describes common mistakes that can make DIY van electrical systems unsafe. Explore camper van conversions, RV electrical systems, off-grid power, and practical van life design in this detailed build tour.
Category
🏖
TravelTranscript
00:00This is Patrick with New Jersey's Outdoor Adventures YouTube channel. On today's episode,
00:04I meet up with Jesse. Jesse has a pro-level van build here, and the inside is spectacular.
00:10He's also a master electrician, so the electrical system is top-notch. He's going to give us a tour
00:16inside and out, so join us. What's up, guys? My name is Jesse Graver. I'm a master electrician
00:22and professional van builder, and today we're going to be checking out a 2024 Mercedes Sprinter.
00:28It's a 144 wheelbase, all-wheel drive, diesel, and yeah, let's check it out.
00:35So let's start up here. This is just when you walk in. We have some storage out here. This is
00:41where
00:41we keep our water fill and an extension cord. Up here is a 12-volt USB and 120-volt combination
00:49outlet.
00:49This is our water fill. We have a 24-gallon freshwater tank inside and a 16-gallon tank
00:58underneath. Let's go inside. Here we have our oversized faucet and oversized stainless steel
01:05stink. We have on-demand hot water. What's really nice about our hot water system is an isotherm water
01:12heater. It ties into the engine bay, takes the hot water from the coolant, runs it through a heat
01:18exchanger, tempers the hot water, so every time we drive, we get hot water. We don't ever usually have
01:25to use power. If we do, we just turn on a simple switch, and it'll turn on the water heater.
01:30It's
01:30not plugged in now. We don't usually use it, which is fun. And so let's talk about this cabinetry here.
01:37Down here, we have a little bit of storage. That's where we keep our trash can. Plenty of room for
01:42other stuff here. Access to our water. This is a really cool trapless trap. Saves tons of space
01:50inside. You can see that all that goes over to this side. Close that up. Inside here, we have access
01:57to
01:57all of our water components. This is our freshwater fill and all of the other components here. This is
02:05where our hydronic water heat comes through. This is just a really nice area to keep. Some little
02:10stuff, sponges, you know, you can fill it up with anything. It's really cool is we have a little
02:15hidden drawer right here. We can keep all our valuables in there, and you really don't know
02:21it's there unless you do. So we'll head over to, well, we'll talk about the countertop. This is like
02:28a Formica. Super durable. And this is all a nice hardwood maple type of finish on the outside.
02:35Locally sourced. Rough cut. Milled it all myself. We can go over to this area. We have our two swivel
02:43seats. This is a really nice use of, you know, two seats that are super comfortable that are always
02:50there. In such a small area, you know, it's really hard to, you know, put a seating arrangement elsewhere.
02:58So we use these two swivel seats in combination with our lagoon table here. And this becomes a place
03:04that we can eat. We can play games. We can also do all of our laptop work here too. Stores
03:12nicely over
03:13this cabinet. Just lock this in place. And we can talk about this section here. What's really nice is
03:21we have these locking cabinet pulls here. It's just a simple spring mechanism, but when you close it,
03:29it locks in place and won't come out. So we have ascending drawers here in various sizes. Plenty of
03:36room for storage. Down here is our induction cooktop. We would just simply take this out. We could either
03:42put it on our countertop, put it out on a picnic table. And yeah, that's a really nice way to
03:48handle cooking in this van. We found that when you have a cooktop inside the van, it gets so hot.
03:56So
03:56it's just a nice option to be able to take it outside. Over here, we have, of course, safety first,
04:03we have our fire extinguisher, fire alarm, carbon monoxide. Of course, we have another 12 volt USB outlet.
04:10This is our controller for our Villette diesel heater, which is installed underneath the passenger
04:17seat. What's really nice about this is it taps directly into our diesel gas tank. So we basically
04:24have unlimited heat in the winter. Up here is our insulated window covers. Stores really nicely on the
04:34shelf. It's a full set. And then we have a custom window cover here too, that will cover this custom
04:43window enclosure here. Let's move on to our upper cabinetry. This is basically where we store all of
04:51our food, our dishes, and our clothing. These are all super nice. We decided not to put any handles on
05:00it. So we didn't catch it. But we made these really nice details for finger pulls. And of course, the
05:06hydraulics to have them close and stay close when we're driving. Okay, we also have under cabinet lighting,
05:14which is really nice, super bright, just nice for you know, taking care of business here when you're prepping
05:20food, all that. Of course, we have well, this is a brand new product. It's a Le Mans fan. So
05:28on the roof, we have
05:30450 watts of solar. And the only reason we could really fit that is because of this particular fan. And
05:37it installs
05:38underneath the solar panel. It's non-operable, not like a max air fan. So it just stays put. And if
05:45we
05:45turn on this switch here, this louver will open, and then we can turn on the fan. And it sucks
05:50air out
05:51whenever we need to. So really nice replacement for max air fan. Really like that. Here is our
05:57centerpiece here. This is our Victron Energy Serbo GX touchscreen. It kind of shows us basically everything
06:03we need to know for our electrical system. You can see right now, we're actually in the shade,
06:08and we're getting some solar. So we're getting about 250 watts right now. We might be getting more
06:13if it wasn't 100% charged. Right now, our inverter charger is off. We have a 3000 watt multi plus.
06:20It's really simple to turn on, just like that. You'll hear it just clicked on. And you can see
06:28that our AC loads are here. That's another view. DC loads, battery, and of course, we have an
06:34alternator charger too. This is a really nice touchscreen, really nice interface. It also
06:40tells us other things like our water level. Like right now, we have 59% in our freshwater tank,
06:46nothing in our gray water tank. And it also tells us the temperature inside and out,
06:50and relative humidity, which is really nice. Plenty of other things too. Lots of different views.
06:55It kind of tells you when you're charging, when you're not charging. We have this panel here,
07:00which will come out and leaves all the wiring accessible. As an electrician, it's really
07:06important for me to just make sure that everything is accessible. Everything can be replaced.
07:12Everything can be accessed. Let's say that, you know, we wanted to put another light in here one day.
07:17Well, I have wire pass all throughout this whole van that I can get to my power system and get
07:23back
07:23anywhere. In fact, this whole ceiling will come down. This is a removable ceiling because there's,
07:30you know, connections safer. Our air conditioner, our fan, these are all things that need to be
07:35accessed. So it was important for me to leave this whole ceiling panel comes down. It's pretty large.
07:42You would need two people to bring it down, but it is possible just in case you needed to.
07:46Here we can talk about the DC fridge. This is really important in an off-grid camper van.
07:52A DC fridge is going to be about the most efficient fridge you can put in. It's always going to
07:59be on.
07:59So you really want to make sure that you get an efficient one that is running directly off of your
08:05battery power. This is the factory floor. We chose to go with the factory floor because of its durability.
08:12You know, this van is, we want it to be a multi-use van, not only camping, but what's really
08:21nice is
08:21this whole bed platform, it actually comes out. So it's in a three section piece and each section
08:28will come out. It's not, you know, when you remove it, you know, you'd have to remove the bed too,
08:35which is no problem. We just store it sometimes.
08:38So we can talk about, this is a really cool, uh, maple light fixture, uh, that I custom built for
08:44this on a dimmer naturally. Uh, just create some really nice indirect light for the van. Um, when
08:51we're parked kind of off grading, it's a nice light, um, just for kind of being inconspicuous
08:59here we have our, um, this is a really cool window. This is a bug screen and then a nice
09:07slider. So
09:09this is just going to make some really nice airflow through here. And, uh, in combination with all of
09:15our other windows, we have a slider here, a slider here. And with our fan, we get some really good
09:20airflow coming through here. Uh, speaking about airflow, we have a Velette DC powered air conditioner.
09:26This is going to run directly off of our battery bank. Um, we were really impressed with the
09:32functionality of this air conditioner. We used it nearly every single night. And, um, once it's cool
09:37in here, it's kind of stops using power and just keeps the air tempered. So we would wake up, uh,
09:43many
09:43times with, you know, more than, you know, 50, 60, sometimes 70% battery, even after all night of using
09:50the air conditioner was really nice. Here we have our Trellino composting toilet. You can see that
09:57it's, uh, it's a very simple toilet. That's what we liked about it. It was easy to use, easy to
10:02maintain.
10:02We also have some nice storage here, lots of toilet paper, composting bags, you know, whatever you need
10:08there, kind of just your toiletries and such. And, uh, yeah, let's, um, talk about this. This is kind
10:15of like an auxiliary seat. A lot of times we would just hang out here. If we ever wanted another
10:19guest
10:20in here, they could just hang out there. Our dog would sometimes sleep in there and it was easy for
10:24my wife to get up onto the bed since it sits higher because you want a lot of storage underneath
10:28the
10:28bed. Um, yeah. Uh, let's talk about the flares. Uh, these are, um, capsules. They, uh, I think they're
10:36really slick. We'll check them out when we go outside. It, this is a full bed. So we get a
10:4054 by 78
10:42inch bed in here. Uh, I'm six foot and I slept really comfortably in here. Um, so yeah, we really
10:49like
10:50that. Uh, the window covers in the back, um, are all van essential. They're insulated blackout covers.
10:57Um, and then of course, all your custom little pieces of maple, um, paneling, you know, all the
11:05doors are insulated. All the walls are insulated with, um, you know, thinsulate have black wool and a
11:13really cool EPDM, uh, installation called, uh, armor flex a little hard to get ahold of, but, um,
11:20it's a nice product up top. We have 450 Watts of solar. Uh, again, we were only able to fit
11:25that
11:25because of that really cool Le Mans fan. So a great product there. We have a stealth roof rack,
11:30which actually makes it hard to see the solar panels. It's kind of the point. And, uh, that's
11:34from white top adventures. We really liked that one easy to install. And here are our flares. We did a
11:43custom Rhino lining on it. This is super durable surface, really nice. And, um, yeah, it's just
11:50a really great product. Uh, we, these were pretty easy to install back here. We have our, uh, bike hitch
11:56here. It's a really nice swing hitch, super easy to operate, but super stable. Yeah. Thank you. Uh,
12:05this can hold 250 pounds. So you can put multiple bikes on here, maybe even e-bikes. Okay. Obviously
12:13we have this step back here and this is where it gets really good. So in here we have our
12:20electrical
12:20system. This is the powerhouse of our entire van and what allows us to off grid camp. So I'll go
12:27over
12:28each component. Uh, the big blue box here is our 3000 watt inverter charger. This is what allows us to
12:33use high power, 120 volt appliances, um, such as our induction cooktop or our water kettle to boil
12:41water for coffee in the morning. We try to limit its use almost always, uh, because it takes so much
12:46power. And that's a big reason why we use appliances like the Velette DC and the DC fridge. Um, because
12:52you're using a lot of power with either one of those, you want to keep it efficient as possible.
12:57And they're going to draw their power directly from these lithium batteries. These are battle born
13:01100 amp hours. We chose these batteries because we think they're the highest quality battery
13:06on the market. Uh, they're all American made and, uh, they stand by their warranties
13:11like to a tee. So we deal with them a lot. We really like the batteries, super high quality.
13:17This is our distribution, a links distributor. This is going to be where a number of fuses are.
13:22This is our alternator charger or DC to DC charger. This is going to produce 50 amps from the
13:28alternator to the battery bank whenever it's on. And this is like an equivalent of a 700 watt solar
13:34array. Uh, so it's really a big advantage if, uh, you compare it to that. And it's very reliable as
13:41well. We also have our Victron MPPT solar controller back here. Um, that's just going to take our solar,
13:49our unregulated solar voltage and create a proper charging profile for the lithium batteries. Of course,
13:55we have our overcurrent protection here. These serve as disconnect switches and breakers. Um,
14:00we have a really nice distributions here. Uh, we do sell these units here too. Um, but it's just a
14:06really simple way to distribute all the brain circuits throughout the entire van. Um, we also
14:12have a Serbo GX unit in there, which is a really nice feature that connects all the components together,
14:19allows them to communicate. And a really nice feature is that you can connect it to the internet
14:24and, um, I can monitor these systems from anywhere in the world. Really cool stuff.
14:29Uh, up top here, we have our, this is a battery monitor auxiliary. So it's just going to show things
14:35like percentage state of charge. Um, you know, how many hours we have left temperature voltage,
14:41all the good stuff, our light switch, and then the USB, and of course another 120 volt outlet.
14:48Um, we do have passive venting here. Uh, on many of our systems, we install 12 volt fans, but in
14:55this
14:55system, uh, we use so little of the inverter, which causes most of the heat in the system. Um,
15:00we don't use it much, so it doesn't run that often. It doesn't get that hot. So, uh, we'll talk
15:05about
15:06the inverter charger a little more that also handles our shore power. And a lot of people tend to put
15:12in 30
15:12amp shore power plugs. Um, but we didn't need that in ours because we don't really use a whole lot
15:17of,
15:18uh, 120 volt power. So here's the other side of that capsule. This is the larger side. Again,
15:25we put that nice durable surface on there, never going to scratch, never going to get damaged.
15:30And, uh, we also do the same for all these running boards here too. Um, just a really nice way
15:35to,
15:35I think finish the van looks really good matches the running boards, gives a little bit of an
15:41aggressive lick. And, uh, I really think it's a nice, uh, finish just for durability as well.
15:48All right. So, um, let's talk about this side. This is our water system. This houses a 24 gallon
15:56fresh water. Um, inside here, um, you can see we have access to all of our valves and pumps on
16:06this
16:06side, a little bit harder to see. We have our isotherm water heater. Um, this whole cover
16:11is completely removable. We have, uh, two screws and a couple, um, toggle clamps here that it comes,
16:19we take those off and this whole cover comes off and allows us accessibility to not even
16:26I mean everything, the water tank, all the valves, all the components, if anything ever goes bad,
16:32I mean, they're replaceable, you know, these things are all under warranty. Uh, so you need
16:36the option to get in there. And a lot of people tend to bury these things. So, uh, as a
16:42technician,
16:42as an installer, it's really just super important to, to get ahold of this. This is our outdoor
16:49shower connection. And this is just kind of where we put that here. This would just simply connect
16:55into here like that just acts as like a nice, uh, you know, for washing our bikes off. We also
17:02do
17:02carry like a little, uh, suction cup here and a little shower surround if we ever wanted to take
17:07shower outside. This is a valve just to drain the fresh water tank. Um, that's that. Jesse, I appreciate
17:17you taking the time today to give us a tour of your awesome creation. Thanks. Appreciate that.
17:23You had another camper van prior and you traveled for a year on the road. That's correct. Me and my
17:28wife sold our first house, moved into our first van, traveled for a year, completely off grid,
17:33never plugged into shore power, never ran a generator completely off of solar and alternator charging.
17:40We found out, uh, you know, it was a proof of concept. We did it and, uh, we proved it.
17:45We
17:45shared it with other people. Now we basically built a business on it. Now we install off-grid
17:50electrical systems for other people. That's my full-time career now. Um, so, but my side
17:56career is building vans and a passion of mine as well. So this is our second van. My wife and
18:02I were also
18:04fortunate enough to, um, travel for four weeks up to Nova Scotia. We started in New York, went to the
18:11very tip, uh, the very north port of Nova Scotia, came all the way back again, never plugged in,
18:18never ran a generator. Uh, just, just worked even better than our first. We learned a lot of things,
18:23um, from our first van that we wouldn't have known, but, uh, we incorporated them into this van and
18:29you're really just getting to see the product of that. Um, here's just another view of the,
18:33the bed here. It's, it's in there pretty good because, um, if it's not in there, it rattles
18:39anything inside a van that's not super secure is going to give you a lot of noise, but you can
18:43tell
18:44that doesn't make any noise. Uh, when the bed's off, it's really quite simple. It's just a tenon
18:48type of, uh, connection here. She's nice meaty. This is all hardwood maple. Um, you know,
18:56it's just like maple beams here. So each one is made of inch and a half by three inch maple.
19:02Um,
19:02I mean, it's solid. You can really feel like it's not going anywhere. Plus you have plenty of room to
19:09sit up in bed too. Absolutely. This is all spaced accordingly and it saves, it's the least amount
19:15of waste of space you could possibly get. Yep. My take on this van, it's elegant. It's simple. It's
19:22easy to wipe down and clean. Uh, this is all maple wood, but it's finished, right?
19:27Absolutely. Yeah. We put multiple layers of polyurethane on every surface. You know,
19:31if you don't, what ends up happening is that, you know, your skin oil and just, you know,
19:36anything that you spill on it is going to absorb straight into this, but this is all finished maple.
19:41Um, you know, we have, of course we have a lot of, uh, holes through here just for breathability.
19:47You know, these are all really important factors, uh, that, you know, you just have to think
19:51of all the little things, all the little nuances that come with it. Uh, otherwise you're going
19:55to have trouble down the road, especially moisture, um, and, and the finishes really protect against
20:00that too. So, and as a master electrician in the van trade, uh, maybe someone's building their own van
20:09and they get to the point where the electrical's out of the realm. That's what you're doing. You're
20:14building these modules for them. Sure. Built to their needs. Yeah, absolutely. We deal with, um, RVs of any
20:20size. So, uh, this is about one of the smaller camper vans you can have. Uh, and then we go
20:25up
20:25to massive class days with thousands of Watts of solar, um, you know, dozens of solar controllers,
20:31multiple inverters, massive systems. Um, so yeah, we deal with a lot. Uh, we also deal with a lot of
20:37camper vans that are DIY and they try it. And I always say that a system can work, but it
20:44might not be
20:44safe. So a lot of times we get camper fans that come straight to our door and you know, they
20:49got melted
20:50fuses, uh, damaged inverters. And these are expensive products and, and lithium batteries
20:55are super energy dense. They're quite frankly dangerous. And people think that, you know,
21:00it's a 12 volt system. It's going to be easy to work on. You know, this inverter itself can pull
21:04250 amps. That's more than your, most people's electrical service in their house is very dangerous.
21:10So, uh, you know, people very quickly realize that they can get in over their heads. You know,
21:15if you're not comfortable changing a main breaker in your, uh, in your electrical panel, your house,
21:19you're probably not qualified to install inverters either. But, um, you know, with enough research,
21:24we get a lot of people that, that try to, and like I said, most of them work, but most
21:29of them
21:29aren't safe either. And we talked a little bit off camera, some of these vans that come in,
21:35it's almost a complete gut job because they use the wrong type of wire. Absolutely. Yeah. Can you tell us
21:40a
21:41little bit about sure? Yeah. A lot of times we see, um, it's almost like a gimmick, you know,
21:46they'll sell, you know, uh, wire is rated by amperage. Okay. So a particular wire can handle
21:51a certain amount of current. Uh, so people look for a size that they think is appropriate,
21:55but then they buy a wire that's, uh, aluminum with a copper clad on it. Okay. And so aluminum is
22:02a poor
22:02conductor, at least, you know, not as good as pure copper. And so they think they're getting the right
22:06wire and they install everything to spec and their wires are still melting and fuses are still,
22:12you know, blowing because they're, they're not getting the right current through the wire.
22:17We see that a lot too, which is unfortunate. Um, you know, it's more just, uh, them being sold on
22:24a
22:24product that's kind of misleading, but there's so many nuances to these systems, you know, even the
22:29type of fuses you use, um, you know, just, it's really, uh, it's a dangerous game you can play
22:36sometimes. I know all this is marine grade wiring in here. Correct. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah. So yeah,
22:41we all, we use only Ancor tinned marine grade wires, you know, all this equipment that we install,
22:48um, it's all marine grade. It's where it originated from. They're meant for boats.
22:52And, uh, quite frankly, you wouldn't think like you, you would need that in here,
22:55but you have to mitigate moisture in any camper van or any RV. There's so much moisture,
23:01especially in campers being basically in a tin can. Um, so yeah, you have to manage that really
23:06quite well. Uh, some people we find use just like typical house wire, like Romex in the walls,
23:12another really poor choice. You know, you really need that flexibility from the stranded wire.
23:17Um, over time, I say it's like an earthquake inside and a hurricane outside, you know, over time,
23:23a solid wire just keeps working and working and working and eventually just breaks. And,
23:28you know, you hope that it just breaks and nothing happens, but really what can happen is it breaks
23:32and hits ground or hits your chassis and it becomes, uh, dangerous quite frankly. So yeah. Um,
23:38there's just so many, uh, little details that you have to watch out for in electrical. Well,
23:44I think the build is amazing. The electrical work is beautiful to even look at. Thank you. Uh,
23:48how do our viewers get in touch with you to, if they need help with their electrical system
23:53on an RV? Yeah, of course we have a website powerofadventure.us and we have a bunch of
23:58social media sites that you can check out from there to check out our work. Uh, take a lot of
24:03pride. I'm a union electrician, went for my master's electrical license. I've been a commercial
24:08industrial electrician for a long time, uh, and just really got to know all the products and you know,
24:13the best things to use the best practice from a really good group of people, a lot of good foremen
24:18that
24:19I stand on the shoulders of and, uh, I bring that to, uh, all my work now. So I know
24:24we also talked
24:25off camera. I said, you know, I'm going to showcase this van to showcase your work, but then my, my
24:30viewers are going to want to buy the thing, right? That always happens. They're like, Hey, would you
24:33sell it? So if you get to the point where you want to decide you want to sell it, I
24:38guess you'll have
24:39the link on your website or yeah, absolutely for sure. Yeah. I mean, um, we love the van. We'd hate
24:44to see
24:44it go. Uh, but, uh, you know, we sold our first van and it turned into this project, which the
24:52thing
24:52is I love traveling in these vans as much as I love building them. So, uh, yeah, I guess it's
24:57not out of
24:58the question, but that's good that you like both because I, I feature a lot of people that do DIY
25:02builds and they just loved building it when it's done. Yeah. They get bored. Really? Uh, no, my wife
25:08wouldn't have that. Nope. We got to travel in it. So we had to shake this thing down. We had
25:12to make sure it
25:13worked, it exceeded our expectations and, uh, yeah, we're, we're ready for the, the winter trips.
25:19Now we're going to do some snowboarding up in Vermont, I think this year and yeah, we'll put
25:23it through its paces this winter. Um, put that diesel heater to the test too. Well, awesome.
25:29Thanks again for stopping by New Jersey for a tour while you're on your way on a business trip.
25:34This is Patrick in New Jersey's outdoor adventures, YouTube channel. I'll put those links
25:38in the description and I'll see you next time.