12v fans
The Canadian based Caframo fans were originally made for the marine market and are fantastic high quality, power efficient fans which moves large volumes of air
Caframo Sirocco model fan has rapidly becoming a standard factory fitted accessory. The Sirroco is a 360 deg gimbal fan around 30cm, consumes 0.35amps on high and moves 140cfm of air volume. Caframo fans come in hard wired and cigarette plug varieties.
A clever fan installation location can cool the bed at night and then be spun around to cool the saloon or kitchen area during the day. If you are considering any type of 12v fans have them installed at the factory, or at least have the wiring run during the van build.
We opted for the minimalist Caframo 747 Ultimate fans in our van which consumes 0.4amps and moves up to 200 cfm of air volume. Our bed end fan swings around from the bed to the saloon/kitchen area. The bunk fan at the other end of the van has been mounted to a block which slides into our TV wall bracket mounts. The fan then can easily slides into either bunk TV mounts, or purposed positioned TV mount on the kitchen wall
The Ultimate has 2 speeds. Low is great over the bed at night and high moves far too much volume for us at night regardless of the temperature. The fan can develop a vibration on high which I put down to the distortion of the rubber blade. The vibration is tolerable as a trade off for the 200cfm the fan moves when we spin around during the day to cool the saloon area.
Having experienced both the Sirocco and Ultimate, we prefer the Ultimate’s large air volume, minimalist appearance and ability to easily remove a fix mounted fan, something which is not possible with the Sirocco
We have slide-in TV mount wall plates attached to the walls of the 2 bunk beds, and another which we’ve mounted in the kitchen on the reverse side of the bunk wall. Our TV has corresponding plates attached to the back of theTV which slide down into the wall mounts making the TV placement and removal incredibly simple and secure.
We’ve cut a plywood plate which fits into the TV wall mount and attached it to our second Ultimate fan. The fan can then easily be moved between the bunk and kitchen wall plates, and stored in the winter.
