Having done a van and hardsided camper build we know what we like as far as appliances and such.
Sink setup will be a nice big sink, tall faucet, and simple and easy to winterize jerry can system. We love the jerry can system as almost anyone will let you fill your cans. Two 6 gallon jugs will fit under the sink. One for fresh water and one for grey water. Will use a simple Sure-Flo 12v on-demand pump that works with the faucet to detect pressure and turns on when you open the faucet. The jerry can system allows you to easily dump grey water farther away in the woods, in an RV dump station, or just at home. I typically use a simple RV drain trap to eliminate any smells coming up the drain. With the fresh water it's easy to remove and fill and you can always bring more cans to swap out if we're going somewhere without refills. To maximize space, we went with a flush mount sink and integrated cutting board for a flat surface when not in use.
We'll go with a propane stove as I don't want to waste power on an induction or something like that. I like a plumbed in propane stove as I see the grenade style propane or smaller butane canisters as wasteful and a disposal issue. A larger dual burner stove with fold down top and electronic ignition again maximizes counter space and keeps things clean and simple.
Underneath the stove I can fit a propane furnace. I've had really good luck and 0 issues with Propex furnaces in the past, so we decided to go this route again. It's a full furnace with fully vented combustion, which means it helps dry out the inside, rather than contributing moisture and it's safe to run when we're fully closed up. This unit is pretty quiet for a furnace and comes with a digital thermostat that goes down to 32*.
I've used an ARB cooler style fridge in the past and loved it, but due to the space, we decided to go with at standard front-opening fridge. Decided to gamble on a Bodega cheap chinese fridge. For the price I can buy three to one dometic fridge. We'll see how it does, but so far so good. At this point I don't think there's any reason to go with a 3-way fridge. We'll stick with a 12v, as I like to build electrical systems without an inverter.
For the electrical system, I decided to go with the LiFeBlue 150 AH self-heated lithium. I really like the life blue batteries because of the battery management system. These are safe to charge directly from alternator, whereas most will require a DC-DC converter for proper chargin. Being self-heated we won't have to worry about not being able to charge at low temps, and the batteries have a bluetooth based charge status. The phone app allows you to see actual amperage charge and discharge, % state of charge, voltage, and actual amps. In the past I've had to wire in a shunt and pretty expensive battery monitor.
For charging, I've always liked a simple 12v system with no inverter, since it's more efficient and I can find 12v power supplies for almost anything including our laptops. I've also recently started adding a simple 120v charger and DC converter. This setup makes it super easy to plug in at the house to maintain batteries, plug in at a campground, etc and is worth the $150 or so to have the charger, and pass-through 120v option. I like the Boondocker or PowerMax converters and can get by with a 30 amp charger. I'll use a 120v RV receptacle on the outside, which I wire into two 120v boxes. One outlet stays on the inside of the battery compartment and I plug the DC converter into that (or can be hardwired in). A second outlet will face outside the cabinet and allow us to plug in 120v appliances when we're hooked up to shore power. The cool thing about the converter is that it will charge the batteries but also power all of the 12v needs while on shore power as well.
Solar will be a 200 watt flexible panel and MPPT charge controller from Renogy. I like the flexible panels and I will just use adhesive to stick it to the roof. Less wind drag, no need for a rack and brackets, and snow and ice will not build up under it like a traditional raised hard panel. Theoretically a flat panel will be a bit less efficient as it cannot dissipate heat as well, but I haven't notice much of a practical difference.
Finally, I'll rip out the 7-pin trailer-hitch wiring charging and put in an actual dedicated circuit for alternator charging. My truck has a heavy duty alternator and I have not had any issues with over-working or burning out an alternator in the past. Based on the distance, expected charge amperage, and allowable voltage loss, I'll go with 4AWG and try to keep the wire run as short as possible. Anderson makes some plugs that are rated up to 150 amps and will allow disconnecting the circuit when removing the camper. I used a simple 150 amp solenoid wired into a circuit that is hot when the ignition is on. This automatically disconnects the house battery from the truck when turned off, but allows charging when on. Just for fun, I'll wire the solenoid circuit to one of the upfitter switches in the truck. This will also allow me to manually turn off the alternator charging if I want for some reason.
I'll post some pictures shortly with all of the components of this system and a general wiring diagram I drew up when planning.
