Use this page for decisions that will matter later: layout choices, system architecture, component choices, compromises, and reasons for rejecting alternatives. Keep daily progress in Build Log.
| ID | Date | Decision | Status | Related Pages |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| VAN-ADR-0001 | 2026-05-17 | Use top-level wiki area /van as the canonical documentation home for the Transit build. |
accepted | Ford Transit Camper Van |
| VAN-ADR-0002 | 2026-05-17 | Use passenger-side sink/galley, foot-of-bed Tetravan shower, and Rixen's hydronic floor/air/hot-water system. | accepted | Interior Layout, Water and Plumbing, Climate and Insulation |
| VAN-ADR-0003 | 2026-05-17 | Use a 24V house electrical architecture with a 12V subpanel and Victron power electronics. | accepted | Electrical, Systems Overview, Inventory and Purchases |
| VAN-ADR-0004 | 2026-05-17 | Use an 8020/TNUTZ aluminum internal structure anchored with rivnuts into the van body and selected tie-ins to the Rixen floor in approved zones. | accepted | Interior Layout, Build Plan, Climate and Insulation |
| VAN-ADR-0005 | 2026-05-17 | Group exterior utility connections on the driver side and keep the sliding-door side cleaner. | superseded | Water and Plumbing, Electrical, Interior Layout |
| VAN-ADR-0006 | 2026-05-17 | Use a simple city-water-only body inlet and let the fresh-water entry location follow tank geometry rather than forcing a gravity-fill hatch. | accepted | Water and Plumbing, Purchase Tracker |
| VAN-ADR-0007 | 2026-05-17 | Use a three-tank architecture with spare-tire fresh water, passenger-side gray water, and driver-side urine storage. | accepted | Water and Plumbing, Interior Layout, Inventory and Purchases |
| VAN-ADR-0008 | 2026-05-17 | Keep the fresh-tank vent entirely under the van with a protected high loop and exterior outlet. | accepted | Water and Plumbing, Build Plan |
| VAN-ADR-0009 | 2026-05-17 | Keep the same external sender family across all three tanks and use ES3 only where tank height requires it. |
accepted | Water and Plumbing, Electrical, Purchase Tracker, Inventory and Purchases |
| VAN-ADR-0010 | 2026-05-18 | Use full-bore 1-1/2 in dump paths for both gray and urine tanks. |
accepted | Water and Plumbing, Inventory and Purchases, Purchase Tracker |
| VAN-ADR-0011 | 2026-05-18 | Group Rixen service components in the passenger-side plumbing bay where possible. | accepted | Rixen Design and Installation Plan, Water and Plumbing |
| VAN-ADR-0012 | 2026-05-18 | Keep Ford coolant tap runs short and route longer Rixen glycol lines to the engine heat exchanger. | accepted | Rixen Design and Installation Plan, Rixen Hydronic Heat and Floor |
| VAN-ADR-0013 | 2026-05-18 | Prefer a passenger-side Rixen cluster with a protected pressure-side fuel line from the driver-side fuel pump. | accepted | Rixen Design and Installation Plan, Rixen Hydronic Heat and Floor |
| VAN-ADR-0014 | 2026-05-20 | Use the current Victron electrical package baseline recorded on the Electrical page. | accepted | Electrical, Purchase Tracker, Gaps and Questions |
| VAN-ADR-0015 | 2026-05-20 | Use the confirmed electrical/interior placement plan from the May 20 design session. | accepted | Electrical, Interior Layout, Gaps and Questions |
| VAN-ADR-0016 | 2026-05-21 | Resume electrical design with rear driver-side cabinet/protection first, Victron Lynx modular backbone, minimal day-one tech cabinet, and portable plug-in induction. | accepted | Electrical, Gaps and Questions, Purchase Tracker |
| VAN-ADR-0017 | 2026-05-21 | Split 12V distribution into passenger-side service and roof/center zones, with a separate protected front/cabin 24V premium-charging node. | accepted | Electrical, Gaps and Questions, Purchase Tracker |
| VAN-ADR-0018 | 2026-05-21 | Mount Orion chargers near CCP2 if physically viable and use the house-side Orion output node for premium laptop charging. | accepted | Electrical, Gaps and Questions, Purchase Tracker |
| VAN-ADR-0019 | 2026-05-21 | Use the simpler non-ELCI shore stack 301EL-B -> 8077 -> MultiPlus -> 8027. |
accepted | Electrical |
| VAN-ADR-0020 | 2026-05-21 | Reserve future onboard air as a house-side high-current utility branch. | accepted | Electrical, Gaps and Questions |
| VAN-ADR-0021 | 2026-05-21 | Reserve layout and electrical capacity for both a galley fridge and a driver-side forward-bench chest freezer. | accepted | Electrical, Interior Layout, Purchase Tracker |
| VAN-ADR-0022 | 2026-05-21 | Use the FVC passenger rear platform for the mini-split / RotopaX water package concept and the FVC tire-only driver rear carrier for the spare-tire direction, with fabrication still gated by weight, airflow, and manufacturer checks. | accepted | Climate and Insulation, Interior Layout, Electrical, Purchase Tracker |
| VAN-ADR-0023 | 2026-05-23 | Use one serviceable roof-entry cluster with a roof-mounted junction box over a single larger penetration. | accepted | Electrical, Gaps and Questions |
| VAN-ADR-0024 | 2026-05-24 | Use MagSafe phone charging in the living area while keeping separate ordinary USB-C stations at kitchen, dinette, and front. | accepted | Electrical, Purchase Tracker, Interior Layout |
| VAN-ADR-0025 | 2026-05-24 | Keep the sidewall bridge-drawer stacks aligned to the bed-box top height, with the passenger-side rear bridge drawers matching the driver-side dimension and butting to the garage band. | accepted | Interior Layout |
| VAN-ADR-0026 | 2026-06-07 | No required external 2104 busbars in the current Lynx backbone. |
accepted | Electrical, Electrical Landing Map, Electrical MVP Installation Instructions, Inventory and Purchases |
| VAN-ADR-0027 | 2026-06-08 | Replace the Blue Sea rear charge-combiner package with a second Lynx Distributor. | accepted | Electrical, Electrical Landing Map, Electrical MVP Installation Instructions, Inventory and Purchases, Purchase Tracker |
Copy this block for new decisions:
### VAN-ADR-000X - Short Decision Title
- Date: YYYY-MM-DD
- Status: proposed | accepted | superseded | rejected
- Related pages: [Inventory and Purchases](/van/inventory), [Electrical](/van/electrical)
#### Context
What problem is being solved and what constraints matter?
#### Options Considered
| Option | Pros | Cons | Cost / Effort |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Option A | | | |
| Option B | | | |
#### Decision
What was chosen?
#### Rationale
Why is this the right choice for this build?
#### Consequences And Owner-Page Closure
- Historical closure: fact already recorded on the owning page if the closure is complete.
- Remaining owner-page closure: current unresolved state lives on the owning page and [Gaps and Questions](/van/gaps-and-questions), not as a second live checklist here.
2026-05-17acceptedThe Ford Transit conversion is expected to be a long-running project with many components, open decisions, measurements, build notes, receipts, and eventual full documentation. It needs a durable home that is easier to browse than a single runbook page.
Use /van as a top-level Smithflix wiki area with dedicated subpages for the project hub, inventory, decisions, build log, measurements, systems, electrical, water/plumbing, climate/insulation, interior layout, maintenance, and documents/photos.
A top-level area keeps the project visible from the wiki coverage map, allows system-specific pages to grow independently, and avoids mixing the Transit project with the older Ford E-250 runbook.
2026-05-19; continue updating the vehicle page as new admin or inspection facts are verified.2026-05-17acceptedThe build needs a compact shower, passenger-side galley plumbing, hot water, air heat, and floor heat without dedicating permanent floor space to a wet bath.
Use a passenger-side sink/galley, a Tetravan fold-down shower mounted at the foot of the bed and deploying into the center of the van, and a Rixen's hydronic system for radiant floor heat, air heat, and domestic hot water.
This keeps the shower out of the main aisle when not in use, places shower use near the highest interior headroom, lets the sink and shower share hot-water infrastructure, and consolidates heat/hot-water generation into one hydronic system.
25 gal fresh, passenger 20 gal gray, driver 22 gal urine.2026-05-17acceptedThe build needs to support substantial DC loads, including a 24V air conditioner, while keeping cable sizes and current manageable. At the same time, many van accessories still expect 12V. The user wants to avoid running an inverter continuously and prefers a common vendor ecosystem for charging and power control.
Use a 24V house battery system, create a dedicated 12V subpanel for 12V loads, and design the system so most loads run on DC. Keep the inverter off by default and only enable it when an AC load requires it. Use Victron as the preferred ecosystem for charge controllers and related power electronics.
Carry the 24V mini-split / air conditioner as a dedicated high-current 24V branch from main DC distribution, not as a secondary 12V zone load and not as an inverter load. The current owner-page direction already carries a surrogate-backed dedicated 60A branch, 6 AWG minimum upstream cable with 4 AWG still open, dedicated negative return, and a local Blue Sea 7184 60A service breaker / disconnect. The remaining closure is now narrower than branch-package definition: direct delivered-unit identity/current proof plus the real in-van branch-route capture before final conductor and runtime signoff.
A 24V house system reduces current for the same power level, which helps with cable size, voltage drop, and high-load distribution. A dedicated 12V subpanel preserves compatibility with common van equipment without forcing the whole system to remain 12V. Treating the inverter as an occasional-use device avoids idle losses and fits a DC-first operating model. Standardizing on Victron for charging and power electronics should simplify solar, alternator charging, and inverter/charger integration, while still allowing the van's monitoring and automation stack to be custom.
150/45, portable-solar 100/30 reserve class, 2x Orion XS 1400 alternator path, combined inverter/shore-charger MultiPlus path, and the current 24V / 12V / 120V AC load split.12V zones, plus the custom mini-PC / always-on tech-cabinet architecture, now also live on Electrical.GP29-31 bond landing, front premium-node package position, MultiPlus DC cable path, 301EL-B -> 8077 -> MultiPlus AC geometry, first-device GFCI/outlet layout, freezer route/service-loop/connector capture, and mini-split delivered-unit proof plus route capture. In current owner-page terms, those captures now retire three kinds of remaining field: landing point for the rear bond, package position for the front node and GFCI/outlet package, and wire gauge for the MultiPlus, freezer, and mini-split rows.24V mini-split label or manual details, delivered current evidence, supplied lead/conductor-marking evidence, and real in-van branch route on Electrical, Inventory and Purchases, Mini-Split Air Conditioner, and Measurements before finalizing main DC distribution and runtime assumptions.2026-05-17acceptedThe build needs a flexible structural system for the bed, galley, overhead storage, component mounting, and other interior architecture. Current owner-page direction consistently selects TNUTZ / 8020-style extrusion as the planned modular framing family, with interior structure anchored partly to rivnut-mounted rails on the van body and partly to approved tie-in points coordinated with the Rixen heated floor.
Use 8020-style aluminum extrusion as the primary internal structural system for the bed, galley, overhead cabinet storage, and general component mounting. Use rivnuts to attach selected rails or attachment points to the van body, and tie interior structure into the Rixen floor only in zones that are proven safe relative to the routed floor system and any approved anchors.
This gives the build flexibility in component placement and framing geometry, which is especially useful because floor penetrations and underbody hardware may constrain where some systems can pass through the van. A modular extrusion structure also reduces the need to lock every cabinet and mounting dimension before the full penetration problem is solved. The downside is that anchoring strategy has to be deliberate so the floor tubing, underbody routing, and body fastener plan stay coordinated.
2026-05-17supersededThe build needs at least a fresh-water fill point and a shore-power inlet. The passenger side is already the main living/entry side because of the sliding door and planned galley use, so spreading utility connections across both sides would make campsite setup and exterior packaging less coherent.
Treat the driver side as the main exterior utility side. Keep the fresh-water hose connection on the driver side and plan the shore-power inlet on the driver side as well. Keep the passenger/sliding-door side cleaner and more focused on entry, living use, and awning-side occupancy.
This matches common RV utility-side logic, reduces clutter on the sliding-door side, keeps service hookups grouped together, and fit the then-selected driver-side fresh-tank direction. It also helps preserve the passenger side as the primary camp-facing side of the van rather than mixing it with hose and shore-power management.
This was later narrowed by the move away from a gravity-fill hatch. Once the water entry changed to a simple city-water-only inlet, the original utility-side grouping remained useful historical rationale, but it no longer controlled the final fresh-water inlet location by itself.
2026-05-17acceptedThe fresh-water architecture started with a combo city water + gravity fill + vent hatch. As the tank-layout work progressed, the gravity-fill hose path became the hardest routing constraint, especially once the spare-tire fresh-tank option and the driver-side electrical bay both became live considerations.
Use a simple city-water-only body inlet and drop the dedicated gravity-fill hatch from the active design. Handle city water -> tank fill and city water -> coach entirely with the downstream electric valve architecture. Keep the fresh tank as a vented, non-pressurized reservoir with a separate dedicated vent line.
This removes the largest and most awkward hose from the packaging problem, makes the exterior body interface smaller and simpler, and lets the final water-entry location follow the actual tank geometry instead of forcing the tank layout to serve a gravity-fill hatch. It also keeps the smart-valve architecture useful without requiring a larger RV-style combo hatch.
JR Products 37262145.S&B 10-3017 spare-tire fresh tank on Water and Plumbing, keep related buy-state on Purchase Tracker, and keep any still-open blockers on Gaps and Questions.2026-05-17acceptedThe original two-tank plan used the driver-side 22 gal S&B tank for fresh water and the passenger-side 20 gal S&B tank for gray water. As the build matured, three constraints became more important:
E-250At the same time, the toilet is planned to live in a sliding bench module, so the urine stream needs to stay isolated and intentionally managed rather than dumped into normal sink/shower gray water.
Use this working tank architecture:
S&B 10-3017 spare-tire tank = fresh waterS&B 10-3015 passenger-side tank = gray waterS&B 10-3016 driver-side tank = dedicated urine tankTreat the toilet as a dry / bagged-solids / urine-diverting system with no black tank. Keep urine segregated from normal gray water rather than combining it with sink/shower waste.
This gives the build the largest available fresh tank, keeps sink and shower drainage on the passenger side where the galley and Tetravan drain logic already want to live, and isolates the highest-odor waste stream into its own tank instead of turning the whole gray system into a urine tank. It also makes the fresh-tank low-point pickup much easier because the spare-tire tank exposes usable passenger-side low ports that can rise directly into the plumbing concentration area.
The tradeoff is that the fresh-tank fill / vent routing and the urine-tank vent / dump routing become more specialized. That is acceptable because those are packaging problems that can be solved deliberately, while a bad gray/urine mix would make the whole waste system worse in daily use.
2026-05-17acceptedAfter the shift to a simple city-water-only inlet and the spare-tire fresh tank, the fresh vent no longer needed to share a combo hatch or come into the van just to find a high point. The user explicitly does not want an extra penetration into the van solely for the fresh vent if the vent can stay underbody and still breathe correctly.
Keep the fresh-tank vent entirely under the van:
Do not add a separate body-panel vent fitting or route the line into the van solely to terminate the fresh vent.
This keeps the body interface simpler, avoids an unnecessary extra penetration, and is easier to reconcile with the current spare-tire fresh-tank layout. Because the active design no longer depends on gravity fill, the vent only needs to support tank breathing, pressure-fill behavior, and overflow management. That can be done with a protected underbody high loop as long as the route stays above the effective tank full level and away from exhaust heat and direct spray.
2026-05-17acceptedThe move to the S&B 10-3017 spare-tire tank as the preferred fresh tank reopened the sender question. The spare-tire tank has direct manufacturer guidance for a threaded in-tank sender, but the user wants to keep the same external electrical sensor type across fresh, gray, and urine rather than mixing sender styles.
Keep the same external Garnet sender family across all three tanks, but size the boards to the tank:
fresh / spare-tire tank = Garnet 710-ES3gray / passenger tank = Garnet 710-AR2urine / driver tank = Garnet 710-AR2Keep KUS S5U-10 only as the researched fallback if the spare-tire tank does not give a good external sender mounting area.
Uniform external sensors simplify the build even though one tank needs the taller sender board:
The risk is that the spare-tire tank is still the least certain physical fit for the external sender. That is acceptable as long as the project keeps KUS S5U-10 available as a fallback rather than pretending there is no backup option.
KUS S5U-10 documented as the fallback if the spare-tire tank fit ever proves bad in practice. That fallback is now recorded on Water and Plumbing, Electrical, and Purchase Tracker.2026-05-18acceptedThe earlier compact waste-dump concept necked the gray and urine dump paths down to a reduced outlet and a small hose. That would have made both waste tanks slower and less pleasant to empty, especially the dedicated urine tank.
Use a real full-bore 1-1/2 in dump path for both the gray tank and the urine tank:
S&B 1-1/2 in FPT tank portCharlotte ABS001090800HDValterra T1001DHYDROMAXX Alum-A-150HYDROMAXX Alum-C-150EZ-FLO 98636This keeps the waste path at the tank-port size, avoids reducing the system to a compact 3/4 in dump concept, and lets both waste tanks share one removable lay-flat discharge hose.
2026-05-18acceptedThe Rixen hydronic system has multiple service components that are easier to reason about when they are clustered near the passenger-side plumbing concentration area.
Group Rixen service components in the passenger-side plumbing bay where practical, instead of scattering them across both sides of the van.
This shortens glycol and domestic-water support runs, simplifies service access, and keeps the hydronic support hardware close to the other plumbing-heavy systems.
2026-05-18acceptedThe Ford engine coolant loop is higher consequence than the house hydronic loop. Longer engine-side coolant modifications add avoidable risk to drivetrain cooling reliability.
Keep the Ford coolant tap runs short and route longer Rixen glycol lines to the engine heat exchanger instead of extending the Ford-side coolant path more than necessary.
Shorter engine-side hose additions reduce the number of high-consequence joints and keep the more flexible routing burden on the house hydronic side instead.
2026-05-18acceptedThe factory auxiliary fuel extension line is on the driver side, but clustering the furnace and hydronic support hardware passenger side reduces glycol and service complexity.
Prefer a passenger-side Rixen cluster with the fuel pump mounted driver side near the factory auxiliary fuel extension line, then route a protected pressure-side fuel line across to the passenger-side furnace cluster.
This keeps the suction side short where it matters most while still preserving the cleaner passenger-side hydronic cluster and shorter glycol-side service runs.
2026-05-20acceptedThe build has enough source-backed information to stop treating the main electrical architecture as open-ended. The house bank is 24V, the user wants sparse 120V use, 30A shore service, DC-first charging, distributed USB-C PD, roof solar, future portable solar, and alternator charging through Ford-approved upfitter points.
Use this current exact package baseline unless a later source-backed load changes the requirement:
24/3000/70-50 120V as the inverter/charger class.150/45 as the roof-array controller class.100/30 as the portable-solar rough-in controller class.4S for four Rich Solar 12V / 250W panels feeding the 24V bank through the Victron 150V MPPT class if the roof panels share similar sun/shade exposure; 2S2P is the fallback if layout/shading makes two independent strings materially better.This matches the selected 24V house bank, avoids keeping an inverter running for routine daily loads, supports 30A shore service, supports a normal 120V induction cooktop with the inverter enabled only during cook time, and keeps roof and portable solar electrically independent. The 3000VA inverter/charger class is justified by cooking headroom, not by the extra shore-charge current. The 150V roof MPPT class supports the preferred 4S array while still allowing 2S2P if shading demands it. Two Orion XS 1400 chargers give a meaningful alternator charge rate for a large 24V bank while keeping each charger independently current-limited and serviceable.
GP29-31 bond landing, front premium-node package position, MultiPlus DC cable path, shore AC path geometry, first-device GFCI/outlet layout, freezer branch route/service-loop/connector capture, and mini-split proof plus route capture. Read those as field-specific holds rather than generic layout delay: rear bond still waits on landing point, front node and AC package still wait on package position, and MultiPlus / freezer / mini-split still wait on wire gauge retirement.Marinco 301EL-B -> Blue Sea 8077 -> MultiPlus -> Blue Sea 8027, and keep only the real remaining AC blockers on Gaps and Questions: the dedicated shore-path 301EL-B -> 8077 -> MultiPlus capture, the dedicated first-device GFCI / outlet layout capture, and final grounding/bond-hardware closeout.24V -> 12V converter outcome on Electrical aligned to the accepted Victron Orion 24/12-70A class direction. The remaining closure is now narrower than architecture or fuse-family selection: the exact upper-cabinet service-face capture, local jumper cut lengths, ventilation, and the exact field captures on Measurements under Electrical Closeout Captures.2026-05-20acceptedSeveral remaining design gaps were preference and usage decisions rather than source research questions: shore inlet location, AC outlet placement, USB-C outlet placement, networking/mini-PC location, bed-height driver, fridge/galley order, dinette arrangement, and e-bike storage assumptions.
120V outlets go in four zones: garage near the electrical bay, front/cab area, kitchen counter, and near the sliding door.140W laptop-capable stations go at the front near the driver seat and at the dinette table. Lower-power ordinary charging uses six DC locations: two bedroom/bedside positions, one kitchen position beside the planned AC outlet, two additional dinette positions, and one driver/front position beside the premium station. Current default hardware direction is quality fused 12V accessory sockets with replaceable USB-C charger inserts, with hardwired DC USB-C panels kept as fallback options where a fixed wall-plate finish matters.12V subpanel with networking gear and Starlink equipment.sink -> fridge -> drawers.120V induction cooktop. The inverter should normally stay off and be enabled for cook time.These choices lock the major user-facing zones without forcing premature fabrication dimensions. They also close enough electrical load-placement context to size the roof / center tech-cabinet 24V -> 12V converter and begin the AC branch layout.
120V branch map on Electrical aligned to the accepted MVP direction: Blue Sea 8027 branch 1 as the single current 15A GFCI-protected ordinary-outlet chain, branch 2 as dedicated 20A induction, branch 3 intentionally spare, and Rixen on MultiPlus AC-out-2. The remaining open work is the dedicated first-device GFCI / ordinary-outlet package-layout capture on Measurements, including whether the garage/service outlet later moves off branch 1.2026-05-21acceptedAfter the first-pass Victron architecture was recorded, the remaining electrical work needed a practical next target and a few user-preference choices before purchase-ready design could continue.
9003e e-Series or equivalent 350A+ continuous DC switch. Emergency operation can require opening the rear door, but should not require unloading the garage or removing electrical covers.2026-05-21 direction treated the day-one roof / center tech cabinet as a minimal rough-in. User later clarified the same day that Starlink is full-time and critical for work, so the accepted direction is now an always-on tech cabinet for mini-PC/networking/Starlink loads, while still keeping optional PoE/NVR/camera growth provisional.120V cooktop rather than a built-in drop-in unit.The cabinet/protection layout controls the expensive and hard-to-change parts: battery mounting, disconnects, main fuse, shunt, bus bars, inverter/charger placement, DC-DC charger placement, service clearances, and cable exits. Keeping the batteries and main power electronics together in the rear driver-side bay minimizes high-current run length and matches the existing utility-side plan. A Lynx backbone keeps the high-current cabinet serviceable and consistent with the Victron charging stack. The owner page now carries the current exact main branch map and most device/fuse directions already; the remaining open work is the smaller field-held set tied to actual physical capture: landing point at the rear bond, package position at the front premium node and first-device GFCI / outlet package, and wire gauge on the MultiPlus, freezer, and mini-split rows. The Lynx Shunt keeps the main cabinet mechanically clean and supports Lynx Distributor status, with the tradeoff that the custom mini-PC monitoring stack now needs a CAN / NMEA 2000 / VE.Can integration path rather than a VE.Direct shunt path. The rear-door-accessible disconnect avoids placing the emergency/service switch next to water hardware while still giving a reachable shutoff point from outside the van. The user later clarified that Starlink is full-time and critical for work, so the roof/center cabinet must be sized and ventilated as a real always-on electronics zone for mini-PC/networking/Starlink loads even though optional PoE/NVR/camera growth can remain provisional. A portable induction unit keeps the AC branch simple and avoids committing to a counter cutout, ventilation path, and appliance-specific retention before the galley is fabricated.
GP29-31 bond landing, front premium-node package position, MultiPlus DC cable path, 301EL-B -> 8077 -> MultiPlus AC geometry, first-device GFCI/outlet layout, freezer route/service-loop/connector capture, and mini-split delivered-unit proof plus route capture.2026-05-21acceptedThe first electrical architecture used a 24V house bank with localized 12V conversion. As the load list matured, the 12V loads split naturally into two physical clusters: passenger-side service loads near plumbing, hydronics, and tanks; and roof/center loads near ceiling devices, sensors, and the future tech cabinet. Driver/dinette premium laptop charging is a third routing problem because the Ford CCP2 / Orion charger corridor also creates a viable house-side 24V path toward the front of the van.
Use split 12V distribution zones:
24V -> 12V converter and subpanel for Rixen control power, tank heat pads, water pump, valves, the kitchen wall phone/device charging points, and nearby utility loads24V -> 12V converter and subpanel for fan, lighting, sensors, networking, future tech cabinet loads, and the non-kitchen living-area phone/device charging points24V front/cabin charging node for the driver/front and dinette premium laptop USB-C stations, fed from the Orion output side and treated as house distribution rather than a Ford-side accessory tapThis keeps high-current distribution mostly at 24V, avoids long 12V runs across the van, and prevents plumbing/heating utility loads from being routed through the roof/center tech panel. It also aligns the second 12V panel with the passenger-side Rixen/plumbing concentration area and lets the kitchen wall phone/device charging points share the nearby service panel. Premium laptop charging can stay on direct 24V branches from the front node, while the lower-power living-area phone/device charging points stay on 12V branch circuits. CCP2 remains a Ford chassis-side input/source for alternator charging, not a house-load bus.
12V load worksheet from Rixen, tank heat pads, pump, valves, kitchen wall phone/device charging, and utility circuits.12V load worksheet from fan, lighting, sensors, networking, and tech-cabinet rough-in.12V panel on 2026-05-21, and VAN-ADR-0024 later refined those locations to MagSafe at the bed and dinette plus separate ordinary USB-C at dinette and front.Electrical Closeout Captures. Keep related buy-state on Purchase Tracker, and keep any still-open blockers on Gaps and Questions.2026-05-21acceptedThe alternator charging path starts at Ford CCP2 in the driver-seat pedestal area. The planned house bank is 24V, and the selected alternator path uses two Victron Orion XS 1400 chargers in a 12V -> 24V Transit use case. The two premium 140W laptop charging modules should use protected 24V branches. The lower-power living-area phone/device charging points should stay on the 12V subpanels rather than adding a local 24V -> 12V converter at the front node.
Use this current exact package direction:
12V input path short24V output rearward through protected trunk wiring to the rear house distribution / charger combiner24V distribution node at or near the Orion output side for the driver/front and dinette premium laptop USB-C modules only12V panel; current later refinement is bedside MagSafe pair, a dinette charging cluster with MagSafe plus ordinary USB-C, and one driver/front ordinary outlet12V converter against the completed load table, using a normal-use assumption of about three concurrent small-device charging sessions and minimal day-one tech rough-in unless the scope changesPutting the Orions near CCP2 reduces the long high-current 12V run that would otherwise cross the van. The Orion output side is part of the house 24V system because it is tied to the house bank through the protected output trunk; that is what lets the Orions charge the house bank and what lets the house bank feed front premium laptop loads. Using that area as a local 24V distribution node is acceptable if it is built like distribution: protected trunk wiring, a proper bus/fuse/distribution point, local branch fusing, and clear separation from Ford CCP2. Because the rear house bank can energize that node when the engine is off, do not stack load conductors directly on the charger output terminals.
Assigning the non-kitchen living-area phone/device charging points to the roof/center panel keeps those 12V devices on a real 12V subpanel. The user expects normal simultaneous use to be about three small-device charging sessions at once, especially because the laptop-capable ports are separate. The exact mix is now five MagSafe points in the living area plus separate ordinary USB-C stations at dinette and front, so the roof/center converter must still be sized against the final load table and the documented simultaneity assumption rather than against a fake every-port-full-at-once scenario.
Grouping the lower-power charging points by location keeps troubleshooting and fuse labeling simple without spending one fuse position per device. Addressable RGBW smart lighting fits the user's smart-van direction: the lighting should have power available, while grouping and scenes happen in software/data control. Branch count should be driven by current, voltage drop, protection, and serviceability rather than by hardwired scene zones. Centralizing control near the roof/center tech cabinet keeps service access and controller wiring coherent. A local physical scene button gives a basic path-light control surface without adding a separate non-smart lighting circuit, but it still depends on the lighting controller being alive.
package position, while the upper-cabinet service-face, cooling/spacing, and jumper-cut-list items are execution-only closure for converter packages that are already exact on the requirement itself.2026-05-21.12V converter size and load-table closure on Electrical and keep related buy-state on Purchase Tracker.2026-05-21.2026-05-21.2026-05-21 that lights should have constant power available, with actual control handled by smart control/data.2026-05-21, not a separate simple path-light circuit.2026-05-21acceptedThe shore-power location is already set to the driver-side rear opposite the electrical bay, and the AC scope is intentionally sparse: a small outlet branch plus a shore-power-only Rixen ComfortHot branch through the MultiPlus-II transfer/output path. The remaining choice was whether to make the default AC package the simpler standard panel path or the more safety-forward ELCI-integrated panel path.
Use the simpler non-ELCI AC baseline as the current exact MVP direction:
301EL-B 30A / 125V shore-power inlet8077 upstream 30A double-pole non-ELCI shore main24/3000/70-50 120V8027 downstream AC load panelKeep Blue Sea 8101 documented as an ELCI alternative, but not as the default path.
The user prefers the simpler path, and that fits the actual design intent. This van is 24V-first, with most meaningful loads staying on DC and only a small AC branch count. The simpler non-ELCI stack remains cheaper and easier to package than the ELCI alternative while still preserving a proper upstream shore-main device ahead of the inverter/charger and a separate downstream panel for the actual branch map. The ELCI option remains valid, but the added cost and complexity are not the current priority for this build.
8027 branch 1 as the 15A ordinary/GFCI chain, branch 2 as the dedicated 20A induction branch, branch 3 intentionally spare, and the Rixen ComfortHot element held off-panel on MultiPlus AC-out-2 through Blue Sea 7542.301EL-B -> 8077 -> MultiPlus capture on Measurements, including exact 301EL-B -> 8077 path, exact 8077 -> MultiPlus path, and exact 8077 mounting / upstream-main package-position signoff, and keep any still-open blockers on Gaps and Questions.2026-05-21acceptedThe user wants to preserve room for a future onboard air system that may also support air-bag suspension and must still be useful for inflating the van tires. Official compressor comparables show that this is a real high-current 12V class load, not a tiny accessory branch. The likely mounting location is rearward in the van, not near the front chassis electrical source points.
Use a future house-side air-system branch as the working direction:
12V branch-panel mathThe likely compressor location is in the rear of the van, so a chassis-fed high-current path would be physically awkward and add unnecessary heavy cable routing from the front of the vehicle. A house-side branch is cleaner, better aligned with the actual install geometry, and easier to isolate locally if the eventual compressor has standby draw or control electronics that should not remain energized all the time.
12V feed or a dedicated high-current converter path on Electrical and keep any still-open blockers on Gaps and Questions.2026-05-21acceptedThe earlier layout notes only carried a generic galley fridge assumption. The user clarified that the build should actually reserve for two refrigeration appliances: a normal countertop-height fridge in the passenger-side galley and a separate chest-style freezer inside one of the dinette bench seats on a slide-out.
Use a two-appliance refrigeration planning model:
Treat the chest freezer as both an electrical load and a layout constraint. Do not let the earlier generic fridge note stand in for both appliances.
This changes both the electrical plan and the furniture geometry. The galley fridge affects the galley load/cabinet plan in a conventional way. The chest freezer is more constraining because it consumes bench volume, needs a slide-out service path, needs ventilation and cord/connector management through travel, and may want a dedicated branch instead of being casually grouped with other ordinary 12V loads.
3.3 cu ft upright fridge and Alpicool C30 single-zone chest freezer, with the freezer explicitly assigned to the driver-side forward dinette bench.2026-05-21acceptedThe 24V mini-split is one of the critical systems to make the van usable in hot weather. The canonical inventory row already records the kit at received - metadata incomplete, supported by Amazon order/listing research and user-sent AC Info photos, but the project still lacks the actual unit label/manual capture. The user wants to mount the condenser somewhere at the back door if practical, preferably using the passenger-side rear-door frame. That passenger-side rear frame may also become a mounting platform for fuel and water carriers, while the driver-side rear door is the current preferred spare-tire rack location. The inside unit may be hidden in a cabinet.
On 2026-05-21, the user identified Flatline Van Co's Transit Van Rear Door Platform as the kind of passenger-side platform they had in mind. The source-backed fit/installation facts that matter to the decision are that the platform is listed for 2015+ Transit High Roof / Mid Roof vans across all wheelbases, works with both hinge types, provides a passenger-side mounting surface sized for a condenser packaging test, carries a 200 lb suggested weight limit, and installs with hinge brackets, door drilling, and a door backer rather than as a no-drill clamp-on carrier. Current SKU and pricing state live on Purchase Tracker.
The user then selected FVC's tire-only driver-side Transit Rear Tire Carrier instead of the ladder/tire combo because the van already has a ladder. The source-backed fit fact that matters here is that FVC maps the van's AWD wheel baseline to the long wheel-mount family; current SKU and pricing state live on Purchase Tracker.
For passenger-side external water storage, the user selected RotopaX as the carrier family. Current container and mount-family buy-state live on Purchase Tracker.
Use the Flatline Van Co passenger rear-door platform family as the active passenger-side mini-split / exterior-water platform direction, with possible fuel-carrier integration still open. Use the Flatline Van Co tire-only driver rear tire carrier family as the spare-tire direction. This accepts the product direction, but fabrication and drilling still depend on the final weight, airflow, and manufacturer checks. Current SKU and pricing state live on Purchase Tracker.
Working direction:
The rear of the van is attractive because it keeps the condenser off the roof, can preserve roof space for solar/fan/Starlink, and keeps the high-current 24V branch near the rear electrical bay. Splitting the rear into passenger-side utility carrier and driver-side spare-tire rack gives the layout a clean left/right assumption to test. The risk is that rear-door packages add hinge load, vibration fatigue, latch/alignment changes, fuel/water mass, flexing refrigerant/electrical paths, and conflicts with rear shower and garage access. A reinforced utility frame is more likely to keep the condenser structurally stable and serviceable than door-skin mounting alone.
A hidden indoor unit can make the interior cleaner, but only if the cabinet behaves like an HVAC plenum rather than storage furniture. The evaporator needs real return air, a clean discharge path into the living space, a drain path, and filter/panel access.
wire gauge caveat instead of only repeating surrogate-backed design assumptions.2026-05-23acceptedThe roof package needs a durable cable-entry strategy that supports day-one solar while leaving a clean path for later roof electronics such as Starlink, lighting, or cameras. The project already had purchased roof junction-box and cable-gland hardware recorded, but the repo had not yet closed how those pieces should be used on the van. The user clarified the intended service philosophy directly: one deliberate roof-entry cluster, not scattered individual penetrations.
Use one serviceable roof-entry cluster built around a single larger roof penetration and an exterior plastic junction box sealed to the roof:
2-3 in diameter classThis keeps the roof-entry strategy deliberate and serviceable. A single cluster limits the number of permanent roof penetrations, makes future upgrades easier, and matches the existing electrical architecture that already assumes a roof / center solar-entry / tech-cabinet zone. It also separates the durable roof-hole decision from the still-open future cable list: solar can use the cluster now, while Starlink or other exterior circuits can be added later without creating a second random roof hole.
2026-05-24acceptedThe earlier lower-power charging direction treated all six living-space device-charging points as generic replaceable USB-C outlet stations. The user clarified a narrower, more intentional phone-charging decision for the living area: magnetic phone charging at the bed, kitchen, and dinette matters more than keeping those spots as generic socket/insert outlets. The project already had an accepted separate premium-laptop charging plan, so this decision only needed to close the everyday phone-charging method and location count.
Use dedicated MagSafe phone charging for the main living-area phone locations:
Use Apple MagSafe Charger 2 m pucks as the charging heads, feed each from a local 30W Type-C 8V-32V step-down module, and use user-printed PETG brackets as the mounting family.
This gives the living area a cleaner phone-first charging experience and matches how the user actually wants to place and grab a phone in bed, at the galley, and at the dinette. It also avoids pretending every charging point needs to stay a generic socket forever. Keeping separate ordinary replaceable USB-C outlets at the kitchen, dinette, and driver/front stations preserves flexible non-MagSafe charging points without giving up the MagSafe-first living-space layout.
PETG is the correct bracket material direction for the van interior because the mounts may sit in a hot sun-loaded cabin where PLA would be more likely to deform. The 2 m Apple cable length also makes concealed routing through wall cavities more realistic than a short puck lead.
2026-05-24acceptedThe sidewall layout artifacts already carry rear bed-box and garage bands with intermediate drawer-storage bridge zones on both sides. The user first clarified that the driver-side drawers between the dinette and the rear bed-box band should not step down below the bed-box line, then extended the same rule to the passenger-side drawers between the fridge and the rear garage band. That top alignment affects the side-elevation packaging summary and the visual/coexistence model for both furniture runs.
Keep the sidewall bridge-drawer stacks at the same top height as the bed box:
Additional passenger-side geometry rule:
This preserves a cleaner continuous furniture line on both sides and removes ambiguity from the current sketches, which had those bridge-drawer zones visually lower than the bed-box top and left the passenger-side rear bridge drawers as a looser, narrower block. The alignment and matching-dimension rules are user-directed layout preferences and should be treated as the current canonical packaging direction unless a later measurement-backed interference forces a deliberate change.
2104 Busbars In The Current Lynx Backbone2026-06-07acceptedThe rear-electrical owner pages had drifted into two overlapping architectures:
2104 busbarsAfter reconciling the current Victron Lynx documentation and the Blue Sea 7748 SafetyHub 150 documentation, the remaining current-system question was whether the purchased external busbars were still required for the active backbone or whether the Lynx stack plus the SafetyHub's built-in negative bus already closed the needed landing count.
For the current backbone, do not require the external Blue Sea 2104 busbars.
Use this direction instead:
7748 charger combiner uses one shared positive trunk and one shared negative trunk back to the system side of the Lynx stack7721 remains the landing-end fuse holder on the shared positive charging trunk2104 busbars and 2718 covers stay as optional spare / later-expansion hardware unless a future packaging pass deliberately reopens the landing-count problemThis decision does not close the final direct-coupled-versus-short-protected-loop geometry around the Blue Sea 9003e disconnect. The switch remains in the protected positive path downstream of the Class-T stage, but the final jumper geometry around that switch is still an execution capture.
Victron's current Lynx Distributor documentation gives one module four fused positive branch outputs, four negative return connections, and one dedicated ground connection. Victron's Lynx Shunt system-design guidance also treats the system side of the Lynx stack as the place for loads and chargers, which matches using the exposed right-side interconnections for the charger-combiner positive and negative trunks. Blue Sea's current 7748 documentation explicitly provides a common negative bus, so the current charger package no longer needs a separate external negative busbar just to combine source returns. Taken together, those facts remove the main technical reason the two 2104 busbars had drifted into the required backbone.
2104 landing buses.2104 busbars as purchased spare / later-expansion hardware rather than required current architecture.9003e on Electrical and Measurements until the real rear-bay package confirms whether that switch stays in a fully direct-coupled Lynx row or needs a short protected loop.2026-05-17.2026-05-22 with decision-page ownership rules so ADR follow-up checkboxes do not become a second current task tracker.2026-05-22 to remove rear-carrier SKU, pricing, and mount-buy detail from the ADR where those facts now live more cleanly on Purchase Tracker, while keeping the accepted direction and rationale here.2026-05-22 to trim live Orion/lighting execution detail from ADR follow-up items and point current resolution back to Electrical, Purchase Tracker, and Gaps and Questions.2026-05-22 to trim live refrigeration-selection and dinette-freezer packaging work from the ADR follow-up section and point current resolution back to Purchase Tracker, Electrical, Interior Layout, and Gaps and Questions.2026-05-22 to remove literal live checkbox state from ADR follow-up sections, convert those bullets into historical-closure and remaining-owner-page-closure prose, and tighten the rear mini-split carrier ADR so its remaining closure points back to the proper owner pages and the gaps tracker.2026-05-24 to reconcile ADR 0017, 0019, and 0021 with the current exact electrical owner-page state so the decisions layer no longer lags the accepted front-node, shore-stack, and freezer-location directions.2026-06-07 to add ADR 0026, which retires the external 2104 busbars as required current-backbone hardware and keeps them only as optional spare / later-expansion hardware.2026-06-08acceptedAfter the no-external-busbar revision, the rear charging side still depended on a separate Blue Sea package:
7748 SafetyHub 1507721 landing-end fuse holderThat worked, but it kept one non-Lynx sub-architecture alive solely to create charge-source landings. The user then confirmed two new practical facts on 2026-06-08:
7748, 7721, 2104, and 2718 itemsRetire the Blue Sea rear charge-combiner package from the active architecture and use a second Lynx Distributor instead.
Use this direction instead:
#1 for the four major discharge branches#2 on the system side of the Lynx stack#2 at 60A#2 at 60A#2 position for the future portable MPPT at 40A#2 position spare#2 negative-return positions for those charging circuits#1Victron's current Lynx Distributor documentation already gives each Distributor four fused positive branch outputs, four negative return connections, and one ground connection. Victron's Lynx Shunt system-design guidance also treats the system side of the stack as the place for loads and chargers. With the user now willing and able to add a second Distributor, the extra Blue Sea charge-combiner package no longer earns its keep: the second Distributor gives the needed charge-source landings natively inside the Lynx stack, removes the shared rear charging trunk, and keeps the electrical-bay heavy cable families simpler.
7748 -> 7721 -> shared trunk.