Rear seat USB & electrics

[mhill]

When I got the van carpeted I had some carpet boards made up to don on the rear of the front seat bases rather than the plastic things (scratch really easily!)

I have the factory fit second battery under the passenger seat and need to make more use of it, primarily for the little fridge/ cool box we put on the middle seat. Whats the best way of having a couple of USB sockets, standard 12v socket and a Volt meter fitted there?

Any suggestions or phones gratefully received.

 

[Pauly]

Hi @mhill , it depends on the finish you are after, I have retro fitted a second battery under passenger seat with a small fusebox adjacent to it which powers all my addon bits, lights/usb/240v invertor etc
I personally bought the berker range of sockets with trim surround plates these surrounds, with a bit of plastic scraping/removal, fit into the recess in the plastic trim you are talking about under the seat but if you have replaced them with panels will fit no bother, I prefer these as all the accessories go into one plate and look like they belong a bit more.



You can also get the standalone sockets that fit into a circular hole you drill in the panel and hold in via a lock ring threaded on from the rear, readily available from plenty of different places.
Only thing to note on the USB sockets is that lots of them are only rated at 1A which is fine for powering mobiles/smart phones but not enough juice for tablets/ipads - these require the USB sockets with a 2.1A output as pictured below

There are lots of combo panels you can get on ebay etc than are available in different configurations to suit your needs
Heres a random one I just found - 12V 5V Dual USB Car Boat Motorcycle Voltage Cigarette Lighter Power Plug Socket

 

[Mattsvan]

That's a neat way to do it @Pauly. Who did all your scene lighting Miles? Can he do this for you?

 

[mhill]

Hi @mhill , it depends on the finish you are after, I have retro fitted a second battery under passenger seat with a small fusebox adjacent to it which powers all my addon bits, lights/usb/240v invertor etc
I personally bought the berker range of sockets with trim surround plates these surrounds, with a bit of plastic scraping/removal, fit into the recess in the plastic trim you are talking about under the seat but if you have replaced them with panels will fit no bother, I prefer these as all the accessories go into one plate and look like they belong a bit more.

View attachment 316 View attachment 317 View attachment 318 View attachment 319

You can also get the standalone sockets that fit into a circular hole you drill in the panel and hold in via a lock ring threaded on from the rear, readily available from plenty of different places.
Only thing to note on the USB sockets is that lots of them are only rated at 1A which is fine for powering mobiles/smart phones but not enough juice for tablets/ipads - these require the USB sockets with a 2.1A output as pictured below

There are lots of combo panels you can get on ebay etc than are available in different configurations to suit your needs
Heres a random one I just found - 12V 5V Dual USB Car Boat Motorcycle Voltage Cigarette Lighter Power Plug Socket

View attachment 320

Like them I'll have a look around to see what I can find from them as they look smart. I suppose I could try and put a inverter under there too and that a 230v socket while I'm doing it. That eBay cheepey isn't a bad idea but it's not tidy to look at really.

That's a neat way to do it @Pauly. Who did all your scene lighting Miles? Can he do this for you?

They guys who put our trackers in, they arnt the cheepist and didn't leave under the seat that neat last time.

I've got a Waco seat belt restrained fridge that fits a few bottles in, it's plugged into the starter battery which is perminant live. The fridge has a safety cut out to prevent it flattening the battery , but it cuts out after 5 minutes of the engine turning off even after a long run yesterday which is a tad irritating.

 

[Mattsvan]

Talking of underseat neatness, this is the underside of T6 bench seat that we've recently done

 

[mhill]

Nice & tidy!

What's that for?

 

[Mattsvan]

Twin Amber light bars, recessed front and rear bumper ambers, multi function keypad, 2 camera DVR, delay timer, load shedder, reverse alarm with side light inhibit. Custom made mounting boards.

 

[Mattsvan]

Oh and left right and rear scene lighting

 

[mhill]

Why does it need a CAN interface? Load shedder & side light inhibit, what are they then?

What did you use for the scene lighting?

Think we need pictures though..........

 

[Mattsvan]

Ah, the CAN power box is just the load shedder that switches everything off if batt voltage drops below 12.1v. I've put a circuit in that prevents reverse alarm from sounding if lights are on so no nuisance noise at night as per customer request.

 

[Mattsvan]

I'm struggling again to upload photos, have some of the outside but after selecting photo for upload I just get turning icon in top right of iPad screen ?

 

[Pauly]

This photo issue is a real PITA I'm on it but there's no fix until I move site to new server which I need help with, pencilled in to happen later part of next week as I'm going away for a few days but will be resolved as soon as I can get it done

 

[Mattsvan]

@Pauly, no worries, appreciate what you are doing here. I'll try posting them once I'm back from hols as well!