Preparing the van part 2

Our motorhome has quite a large garage and that's led to us being pretty lazy when it comes to packing it. In the past we've tended to just chuck stuff in there but given we'll now be carrying a motorbike, and also will be going away for longer, I thought it'd be better to get a bit more organised.

As a start I've fitted some cheapo shelving from Ikea to replace the various bags and boxes that used to lie on the floor. I've also fitted a cargo net to hold some light stuff - toilet rolls and the like. For the back wall (to the left in the picture below) I've got a couple of the Fiamma cargo strap systems coming and those will be used to secure the our outdoor chairs against that wall.

I've got a nice spot behind the bike to carry our 2Kw Honda generator although I'm not 100% sure yet whether I'll take it with us or not. I expect I probably will because even though I've not had to use it much it is nice to have as a bit of a comfort blanket.

I've spoken to the guy who operates a motorhome & caravan service place where we store the motorhome. I think I'm going to get him to do the solar panel installation and also the LPG system. He's quite happy for me to buy the stuff and have him fit it, so I might go down that route. I've seen one good offer from Sunshine Solar for a 160W system (2 x 80W panels) plus all the fittings and an 20A MPPT controller for £299 so might go with something like that. On the gas systems he's quite a fan of Gaslow but less so on Gas-It. I'll also need to do some measuring to see what the maximum battery capacity is that I can fit under the passenger seat. At the moment it contains a single 75AH Varta (our battery packed in when we were in France last year and that was all I could get in a hurry) plus the 12v charger but I'm hoping to get a couple of 95AH's in there as there is a fair bit of room - although it might mean turning the batteries the other way round.