The lithium battery for your VW Crafter.
The Crafter is VW's big van - the base for serious large conversions and the VW Grand California factory camper. Big builds want real capacity. A drop-in TITAN DIN lithium gives you power that matches the van's scale, built to last the life of the conversion.
VW's big van - and its badge twin the MAN TGE
The current VW Crafter launched in 2017 and is VW's own design, built at its factory in Wrzesnia, Poland. The same van is sold as the MAN TGE - they are badge twins in every meaningful sense, so everything on this page applies equally to both. The VW Grand California, VW's factory Crafter-based camper, shares the same platform and electricals.
The Crafter is a big van, and that changes what a leisure battery installation looks like. There is real space for a serious bank, and the builds that use it - full-time conversions, large-layout campers, off-grid setups with inverter cooking - reward not undersizing. A TITAN DIN lithium gives you close to its full rated capacity every cycle, charges far faster than lead-acid, and is built to outlast the conversion.
If your Crafter is a 2006-2017 model, it is a different story. That generation was a rebadged Mercedes Sprinter - same platform, very similar electrics. The Sprinter guide will serve you better than this page. The 2017 redesign was a clean break: VW started again with their own architecture.
Building from scratch? The van conversion guide walks through designing around the battery. Already running a Grand California? Jump to the sizing table below.
Sizing a Crafter conversion
A starting point by build. The Crafter is a big van, so size to how you actually use it - it is easy to undersize a large layout.
| Build | How it gets used | Good fit |
|---|---|---|
| Compact Crafter camperHeating, fridge, water, devices, days off-grid | Typical vanlife | 150Ah to 230Ah |
| Full-time conversionLiving aboard, big fridge, devices, longer off-grid | Heavy, sustained | 230Ah to 460Ah |
| Off-grid or inverter cookingInduction hob, coffee machine, big inverter | High draw, sustained | 330Ah to 460Ah or twin packs |
| Grand CaliforniaDrop-in upgrade from the factory leisure battery | Touring, occasional off-grid | 150Ah to 230Ah |
These are starting points, not fixed rules. The honest figure comes from your loads, not the size of the van, so total them in the battery size calculator. For larger banks you can run matched packs in parallel or step up to a single bigger battery where the space allows.
Where the battery fits in a Crafter
The Crafter is different from a Transporter. Its starter battery already sits under the cab floor - in front of the double or passenger seat - and the factory optional second battery lives in the engine bay. That means the under-seat location used in many Transporter conversions is not available for the leisure bank.
Instead, converters fit the leisure battery in the rear habitation area, which gives you plenty of options:
- Under a rear bench or bed base. The most common home for a Crafter leisure bank. There is usually generous height, and the flat DIN case fits cleanly alongside the charger and fusing. This is the easiest location for a 230Ah or larger battery.
- In the garage. On a high-roof Crafter with a rear garage, the underfloor space is a natural home for the battery and inverter, keeping it out of the living area entirely.
- In a dedicated electrics locker near the habitation fuse board. Purpose-built electrics lockers give clean access to terminals and connections and keep all 12V equipment together in one place.
On the VW Grand California, the factory house battery is fitted under the bonnet. A TITAN drop-in goes into that same space and gives considerably more usable power than the factory unit.
The TITAN case is sealed to IP67, so it handles damp environments well. One caveat: the RJ45 comms ports drop to IP32 while a cable is plugged in, so keep any connected ports clear of standing water. Wherever the battery lives, keep it in the heated habitation space where practical, and measure your chosen spot - including height for the terminals - before you order.
Charging a Crafter
A Crafter camper charges from three sources: the engine alternator, roof solar through an MPPT, and mains hook-up. Lithium takes all three happily and charges far faster than lead-acid, so a decent drive or a sunny afternoon puts real capacity back.
The alternator is the part to get right. All 2017-onward Crafter and MAN TGE (Euro 6) run a variable-voltage smart alternator, which means it will not reliably fill a lithium battery on its own. The fix is a DC-DC (battery-to-battery) charger, and we would fit a Victron Orion every time. It gives the lithium a clean, controlled charge and protects the starter battery. A standard split-charge relay is less reliable for lithium and some relays cause a backfeed that quietly skims around 15% off your usable capacity. Feeding straight off the alternator with no relay and no DC-DC is not something we recommend.
Plan the roof with the solar guide, check your charger against the compatibility list, and size the battery around the gap your charging cannot cover. Every TITAN carries a custom BMS, charges safely down to -30C, and comes with a lifetime, fully transferable warranty.
