Preparing Your Campervan Electrical System for Extended European Touring
Many of our customers are Scottish-based owners who tour far beyond Scotland — weeks across Scandinavia, months through southern Europe, extended trips into Morocco and North Africa. These trips put entirely different demands on an electrical system compared to a weekend on the NC500 or a week at a campsite in France.
If you are planning extended touring in your campervan or motorhome, your electrical system is the single most important thing to get right before you leave. Here is what to consider.
Why Extended Touring Changes Everything
On a short trip, you can manage around an undersized electrical system. You drive every day (charging the batteries), you might plug into hookup every few nights, and you are never far from help if something fails.
Extended touring removes all of those safety nets. You might wild camp for days without driving. You might be in a country where finding a specialist is impossible. Your system has to work reliably in 40°C Saharan heat and -20°C Norwegian winters, powering everything from your fridge and heating to your laptop and phone.
The difference between a system that copes and one that does not is usually planning, not money. A well-designed 300Ah lithium system with proper charging will outperform a 600Ah system with inadequate solar and no DC-DC charger.
Battery Capacity for Long Trips
Start with your daily energy budget — everything you run in a typical 24-hour period when you are not driving or plugged in. For most tourers running a compressor fridge, LED lighting, phone and laptop charging, a diesel heater (in winter), and occasional inverter use for a coffee machine or hair dryer, that is typically 80–150Ah per day from a 12V system.
You want enough battery capacity to cover at least two full days without any charging input. That gives you a buffer for bad weather (no solar), rest days (no driving), and unexpected stops. For most serious tourers, 300–560Ah of lithium capacity is the practical range.
The critical thing is not the headline number but whether your charging sources can actually replenish what you use. A 560Ah battery that only gets 20A of solar charging and no DC-DC input will still run flat in remote Scandinavia in autumn.
Charging Strategy for Different Climates
Extended touring means your system needs to charge effectively in radically different conditions throughout the same trip.
Solar
Solar is your best friend in southern Europe, Morocco, and summer Scandinavia — long days and strong sun can keep a well-sized system fully charged with no other input. But solar yield collapses in winter, especially at northern latitudes. In December in northern Norway you might get an hour of useful solar per day. Your system cannot depend on solar alone unless you only tour in summer.
We typically recommend 300–535W of solar for serious touring, paired with a properly sized Victron SmartSolar MPPT controller. The controller matters as much as the panels — an undersized MPPT will cap your output regardless of how much panel you have on the roof.
DC-DC Charging
The Victron Orion XS 50A DC-DC charger is the workhorse for driving days. In a few hours of driving it can put significant energy back into lithium batteries, which is particularly valuable in winter when solar is weak. For extended touring, DC-DC charging is not optional — it is essential.
Modern Euro 6 vehicles with smart alternators require a proper DC-DC charger. A traditional split-charge relay will not work correctly and can damage both the alternator and the leisure batteries.
Shore Power
A Victron MultiPlus inverter/charger gives you the third charging source — when you do plug into hookup, it charges the batteries fast while simultaneously running your 240V appliances. It also works as your inverter when off-grid, running 240V equipment from the battery. Having all three charging sources — solar, DC-DC, and shore power — means your system can recover in any situation.
Heating in Cold Climates
If you tour in winter — whether that is Scotland, Scandinavia, or the mountains of Spain and Morocco — your heating system needs to be reliable and your electrical system needs to support it.
A diesel heater running from the vehicle’s fuel tank is the most practical solution for extended touring. There is no gas bottle to refill or find the right adaptor for in each country. The heater draws modest power from the leisure battery (typically 1–4A depending on output level), but over a long cold night that adds up. Your battery and charging system need to account for this.
For gasless vehicles, electric heating via the inverter is possible with sufficient battery capacity, but it places much higher demands on the system. We size every system around the actual heating load for your touring pattern.
Refrigeration Across Climates
A compressor fridge running from 12V is essential for extended touring. Absorption fridges — the three-way type fitted in many motorhomes — struggle badly in hot weather and when the vehicle is not perfectly level. In 35°C heat in Spain or Morocco, an absorption fridge may not keep food safe.
A compressor fridge draws more consistently from the electrical system but works reliably regardless of temperature and angle. The power draw needs to be factored into your daily energy budget — typically 3–6A continuous, more in very hot conditions.
Remote Monitoring
When you are touring thousands of miles from home, knowing exactly what your system is doing is not a luxury — it is essential. A Victron Cerbo GX with VRM remote monitoring lets you see every aspect of your system from your phone: battery state of charge, solar input, power consumption, charging status, and system alerts.
VRM also lets someone back home or your installer monitor the system remotely if you have a problem. We can often diagnose issues remotely through VRM before you need to find a workshop in a foreign country.
What to Check Before a Big Trip
Before departing on any extended tour, it is worth having your electrical system checked — especially if it has been a while since the last service or if you have added any new loads.
Key things to verify: battery health and capacity (lithium batteries degrade slowly but it is worth checking after a few years), all charging sources working correctly, connection integrity (vibration from driving loosens terminals over time), fuse ratings correct for current loads, and firmware up to date on Victron components.
A pre-trip electrical check at our Callander workshop typically takes half a day and gives you complete confidence that everything is working before you leave.
Talk to Us About Your Touring Plans
If you are planning extended touring and want an electrical system built for it — or want your existing system checked and upgraded before a big trip — get in touch. We design systems specifically for the kind of touring you do, not for a generic spec sheet.
Call us on 01877 381210 or email info@fiadh.scot