So you've done it. The kids are grown, the mortgage is manageable, and the open road is calling. Whether you're planning a lap of Australia or just spending a few months exploring at your own pace, going full-time on the road is one of life's great adventures – and Australia is one of the best places on earth to do it.
But before you unhitch from the grid for good, there's one thing that'll make or break your experience: power.
Full-time travellers have very different power needs to the weekend camper. You're not just keeping a fridge cold for two nights – you're running a complete home on wheels, day after day, in all kinds of conditions. Get your power setup right and you'll barely notice you're off-grid. Get it wrong and you'll spend your trip chasing powered sites, nursing a flat battery, or rationing your appliances like it's wartime.
This guide covers everything you need to know.
How Full-Time Power Needs Differ from Weekend Camping
Weekend campers can get away with a modest setup. A single 100Ah battery, a small solar panel, and a bit of careful management will keep most people comfortable for a couple of nights.
Full-timers don't have that luxury. When the van or caravan is your permanent home, you need a system that can:
- Run continuously, not just occasionally
- Recover overnight and on overcast days – not just in perfect sunshine
- Handle a wider range of appliances (laptops, CPAP machines, hair dryers, medical equipment)
- Last for years, not just a season or two
- Give you real visibility over your power usage so you're never caught short
The good news? Building a robust full-time system isn't as complicated – or as expensive – as it used to be. Modern lithium batteries, smart chargers, and quality solar gear have made reliable off-grid power more accessible than ever.
Step One: Work Out What You're Actually Running
Before you spec a single component, you need to know your daily power consumption. This is the step most people skip – and it's the reason so many setups are undersized.
Grab a pen and list every electrical device you run in a typical day, how many watts it draws, and how many hours per day you use it. Multiply watts by hours to get watt-hours (Wh), then add them all up.
Common full-timer appliances and approximate daily draws:
- 12V compressor fridge (60–80L): 30–50Wh per hour running time (compressor cycles, so roughly 40–60% duty cycle) – typically 200–350Wh per day
- LED lighting: 5–15W per light, a few hours per night – 20–60Wh
- Laptop: 45–65W while charging – 90–130Wh per day
- Phone and device charging: 20–40Wh per day
- 12V fan: 10–30W depending on speed – 50–150Wh per day
- Coffee maker / kettle (via inverter): High draw but short duration – 100–200Wh per use
- TV or projector: 50–150Wh depending on the unit and viewing time
Add it all up and you'll have a rough daily Wh figure. For most full-timers, this lands somewhere between 600Wh and 1,500Wh per day – though it varies enormously depending on lifestyle and climate.
Once you have your daily consumption figure, you can size your battery and solar correctly. Don't skip this step.
Choosing Your Battery: Why Lithium Is the Right Call for Full-Timers
For weekend use, AGM batteries are a perfectly reasonable and cost-effective option. For full-time living, lithium is the clear choice – and here's why.
- Usable capacity. AGM batteries should only be discharged to around 50% of their rated capacity to preserve battery life. A 100Ah AGM gives you roughly 50Ah of usable power. A 100Ah lithium battery, by contrast, can be safely discharged to 80–90%, giving you 80–90Ah of usable power from the same rated size.
- Cycle life. A quality AGM battery might deliver 400–600 charge cycles before its capacity degrades significantly. A lithium battery – particularly a LiFePO4 (lithium iron phosphate) chemistry like those in the KickAss range – will typically deliver 2,000–4,000+ cycles. For a full-timer cycling their battery daily, that's the difference between replacing batteries every couple of years versus a decade or more of reliable service.
- Weight. Lithium batteries are significantly lighter than equivalent AGM units – important when you're already managing payload and tow ball weight carefully.
- Charge acceptance. Lithium batteries charge faster and more efficiently than AGM. They'll accept a higher charge current and reach full charge more quickly – crucial when you're relying on solar or a DCDC charger to top up while driving.
How much capacity do you need?
A practical starting point for full-timers is 200–300Ah of lithium capacity. If you're running power-hungry appliances, using a CPAP, or spending extended time in overcast conditions, 400Ah or more gives you genuine comfort and buffer. The KickAss Ultra-X range goes up to 460Ah in a single battery – ideal for serious full-time setups.
Solar: Your Primary Charging Source
For most full-timers, solar is the backbone of the charging system. It's silent, free to run, and – in Australia's climate – remarkably reliable for most of the year.
How much solar do you need?
A rough rule of thumb is to have 1–1.5 times your daily Wh consumption in solar panel wattage. So if you're consuming 800Wh per day, aim for 800–1,200W of solar. This accounts for charging inefficiencies, partial shading, and the inevitable overcast days.
For a caravan or motorhome roof, a combination of fixed panels works well – they're always generating while you're parked, with no setup required. If you're doing a lot of bush camping or parking under trees, a folding or portable panel you can position for optimal sun can supplement your roof-mounted setup.
MPPT vs PWM controllers
For a full-time setup with multiple panels or a lithium battery system, an MPPT solar charge controller is the right choice. It extracts more energy from your panels – particularly in low-light conditions – and handles lithium charging profiles correctly. PWM controllers are fine for simpler, smaller setups but aren't the best match for a serious full-timer rig.
DCDC Charging: Making the Most of Drive Time
Every kilometre you drive is an opportunity to charge your batteries – but only if your system is set up correctly.
Older vehicles used a simple voltage-sensitive relay (VSR) to connect the auxiliary battery to the alternator when the engine was running. In modern vehicles with smart alternators, this approach doesn't work reliably – the alternator voltage fluctuates in ways that confuse a VSR and result in poor or inconsistent charging.
A DCDC charger solves this. It regulates the voltage from your alternator and delivers a proper multi-stage charge to your auxiliary battery – regardless of whether your vehicle has a smart alternator or a conventional one. For full-timers, a DCDC charger is not optional – it's essential.
Size your DCDC charger to your battery capacity and typical driving time. A 40A DCDC charger can deliver around 480Wh of charge per hour of driving – useful, but not a replacement for solar on stationary days.
ACDC Charging: For Powered Sites and Generators
Even committed off-gridders end up on powered sites occasionally – whether it's a hot spell, an extended stay in a caravan park, or a deliberate battery top-up. A quality ACDC charger lets you take full advantage of mains power when it's available, and ensures your batteries are charged correctly rather than just trickle-charged through a cheap converter.
If you carry a generator as a backup, your ACDC charger is what converts that generator output into a proper charge for your batteries.
Monitoring Your System: Don't Fly Blind
One of the most important – and most overlooked – components in a full-time setup is a good battery monitor.
A basic voltage reading tells you very little about the true state of your battery, particularly with lithium. A proper battery monitor – like the KickAss 600A Smart Shunt – tracks actual current flowing in and out of your battery, calculates your state of charge as a percentage, and gives you a time-to-empty reading based on your current consumption. It takes the guesswork out of power management completely.
Knowing you have 63% charge and 14 hours of runtime left is infinitely more useful than squinting at a voltage gauge and hoping for the best.
A Few Practical Tips for Full-Timers
Build in redundancy. When you're living on the road, a component failure is more than an inconvenience – it can disrupt your whole way of life. Where possible, have a backup charging path. If solar is your primary, make sure your DCDC charger is set up and working. If your inverter fails, know what you can run directly from 12V.
Know your fuses. Every circuit in your 12V system should be fused appropriately and close to the battery. Label everything. If something goes wrong at a remote campsite, you want to be able to diagnose and fix it quickly.
Think about heat. Australian summers are brutal, and heat is the enemy of battery longevity. Lithium batteries handle heat better than AGM, but ideally your battery bank should be in a ventilated, shaded location – not sitting in the sun in an exposed tray.
Keep a record. Note your average daily consumption across different seasons and locations. You'll quickly identify patterns – the days when the fridge works harder, the weeks when solar underperforms – and you can manage proactively rather than reactively.
Getting Your Setup Right Before You Leave
The best time to build and test your full-time power system is before you hit the road – not after you've parked up somewhere remote with flat batteries and no phone signal.
If you're not confident designing or installing your own system, our team of 12V experts is here to help. You can drop into any KickAss store for a chat, book a free phone consultation, or find a KickAss-approved installer near you.
Get the power right, and the rest of the adventure takes care of itself.