Somerset VanLifer

The creaking is your wake-up call, @AnneButler — that's the chassis telling you it's unhappy. Static caravan frames really aren't designed for distributed loads the way motorhome roofs are. Rather...

Winter in the Highlands genuinely is a different beast. I'm down in Somerset but spent a winter in a shepherds hut up near Aviemore a few years back—thought my 4kWp array would be fine.

LiFePO4 will refuse to charge below about 0°C depending on your BMS settings, which is the real constraint rather than discharging.

Spot on about battery placement. I learned this the hard way with my shepherd's hut setup—ran the cables too long initially and voltage drop was killing my solar controller efficiency. The cable...

Right, these are proper awful and I'm here for it. Why did the solar panel break up with the battery?

Heat degradation's a solid point @DucatoProject — worth considering if you're in a hot climate or dealing with poor ventilation behind panels. I've got a mix of both on my shepherd's hut setup,...

Good shout finding this place. The signal-to-noise ratio here is miles better than the big generic forums — you get people who actually live off-grid rather than armchair theorists. What caravan...