Ducato Help loving ma new ome from ome! But need some help

[moonrising]

Hello beautiful souls just bought a 1.9L fiat ducato suntor swift 500 1998.... I am in LOVE and want to know how best to look after her, would love to be off grid as much as possible so please any info on leisure battery's, sine wave inverters and solar, how can I recharge batteries keep them on a trickle charge? living in Scotland most of time but will be travelling further!!
looking to purchase a new fridge/freezer? I have no manual for this van does anyone know where I can download one? cant find any! and if you guys have any tips PLEASE DO SHARE X Namaste x love, peace and many many hugs x

 

[Eklipze3k]

Welcome to the forum


I'm no expert on the vans by any stretch, and it looks like the manuals for the older ones are missing from our Downloads section sadly.

 

[rallycinq]

Welcome,

Your unit is 2 in one.

Fiat did the bit at the front, and that's basically a Ducato van.

Swift did the bit at the back, but most of the equipment comes from outside manufacturers. You will have had a Dometic or Thetford fridge, the water heater will be Truma etc etc.

Manuals for these are downloadable from their respective manufacturers websites.

Solar is the way to go nowadays for off grid camping. A good 110 amp leisure battery will last a long weekend (depending on use), so with a bit of driving and a decent solar panel set up you can be off grid almost permanently. Your fridge/heating/water heating/cooker will work from bottled gas (propane is best for year round use). So it will only be the lights and water pump that are using the battery.

If you must have a telly, look at those that come with a transformer in the mains lead. These are already 12V, so you just need a suitable lead rather than any sort of invertor.

D

 

[Sundance kid]

Hello beautiful souls just bought a 1.9L fiat ducato suntor swift 500 1998.... I am in LOVE and want to know how best to look after her, would love to be off grid as much as possible so please any info on leisure battery's, sine wave inverters and solar, how can I recharge batteries keep them on a trickle charge? living in Scotland most of time but will be travelling further!!

Hi and welcome (I'm a newbie too)
I have done just the same as you, bought a 2006 ducato Swift Sundance (hence name tag)
Purchased a 150 watt solar panel kit of eBay with fitting instructions and fitted it in a day, located the regulator in the wardrobe where all the other fuse boxes etc seem to be located. Have also bought an Inverter
My leisure battery is 110 and We have just travelled around Germany for 2 weeks without being on line once.
Fridge, heating etc will have to be run of gas though.
hope this helps.