Hodakaguy's Overland Tacoma Builds - on to new adventures.

For now the light bar (Main and Amber), Air Compressor, Diff Locker. I'm sure I'll add more in the future though

Hodakaguy

 

Time to install the ARB Air compressor and fabricate a folding aluminum step for the camper.

With the Dual Batts and the SwitchPro already mounted under the hood space is becoming harder to find. I looked around a bit and decided the only area that I liked for the Compressor is directly behind the passenger side headlight. The space here is tight but the compressor will fit.

Here's the open area behind the passenger side headlight.






Time to start fabricating the mount. I will utilize the two factory bolts that hold the power steering reservoir to the fender as well as an open hole up high next to the radiator that I will install a bolt through, no drilling on the truck will be needed

Laying out the design and cutting parts.




The upper left hole will be a through bolt that will mount to the body, the remaining three holes will have studs welded into them. All 4 holes will secure the compressor to the bracket.










Fabricating the lower mounts. I love MagSwitches!








The extra brace is bolted onto the unit for easier install.




Setting up the compressor. Installed the Solenoid for the front locker, pressure switch and riser for the air hose fitting. I went with the Single cyl unit for the size, this compressor will air up tires and the air bags as well as running the locker. I'll get a rubber cover for the air fitting.




Mount finished and painted.






And installed in the truck, fits like a glove! Shown here with the washer tank removed for easier install.






And washer tank re-installed. Now to hook up the wiring and locker tubing.






Next up....Fabricating the hitch step for the camper. Since the camper sticks out past the rear of the truck the step needs to be quite a ways out to be useful, because of this I wanted the assembly to be fold-able so it can be tucked out of the way when traveling.

We will be using a Weathertech BumpStop Step (easy on the shins if you run into it) and 6061-T6 Aluminum for the extension/folding mechanism.




My father at work drilling the holes for the hitch pin.




Using a Jig saw and a steady hand to cut out the pivot plates from a sheet of Aluminum.




Notching the Tubing.








Welding on the pivot plates








Assembled and on the truck. The pivot bolt and pivot lock pin are temporary in these pics as I didn't have the right size on hand, I'll snag some tomorrow. The whole assembly is super light, strong and folds in just a few seconds.










And extended. The step works great with no deflection....seems to be rock solid.








Hodakaguy.

 

Solar Install.

Originally I was planning on utilizing two 120W flexible solar panels on a custom aluminum mount that I would fabricate to fit the FWC, I utilized a similar setup (with 3 panels) on our old Syncro and it worked out really well. After doing some more research I found a 175W single Mono panel with almost the perfect dimensions for the Swift so decided to switch to this panel. This switch will save a lot of time and hassle over using the flex panels, and should be more durable in the long run.

The NewPowa 175 W Mono Panel - Available here: CLICK HERE




Back side of the panel.




The factory solar plug installed on the roof of the camper is an SAE connector, I will shorten the wiring on the panel and install the SAE connector in the proper location. I'm using high quality crimps and two layers of marine grade heat shrink on the splices. The connections will be covered by the panel. The insulation on the panel wiring is quite a bit thicker than the wire on the SAE connector, the actual conductor size is very close to the same size.






You can see the factory installed solar plug on the roof of the camper in this shot. The panel will mount on the Yakima roof tracks and fit between the two vents.




Fabricating 4 mounts from 1.5" aluminum angle. These mounts will bolt to the Yakima tracks then onto the aluminum frame of the solar panel.






Connecting the panel to the camper.




Panel mounted up. The size of the panel is perfect, almost like it was made for this application.










It was raining and nasty this morning, after the sun popped out I was able to check out the panel operation. I ran the heater and roof fan for a couple hrs to pull some juice out of the batteries so the panel had something to make up. The sun eventually started popping in and out but I seen as high as 8.5 amps going back into the batts, not bad. I programmed the 3000i charge controller for a bulk charge voltage of 14.8v for the AGM batts, and a Float rate of 13.8V.

Hodakaguy

 

With 5K miles on my truck it's time to pull it in the garage and change the engines vital fluids, I know they aren't due yet by the book but having fresh fluids in the engine every 5K miles makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside Installed fresh oil and filter, greased the upper control arms, greased the front drive shaft and will rotate tires soon.




Someone was asking for a picture of the amber back lighting on the S8 bar, not the best shot but you can see what they look like.




Our running errands this weekend and parked next to a fellow Snork




Installed my fathers RAM phone holder on his TPAM mount today, I love this setup!




Also installed my fathers Snorkel this weekend.

I typed up a detailed How-To article on the installation with lots of pics and info. The install article is located here: CLICK HERE

Snorkel on my fathers truck




More to come.....

Hodakaguy

 

I’m looking at doing a similar system with dual battery and switch pro or bussman RTMR, I’m curious what the blue seas fuse block does in your setup as I was looking at just doing a circuit breaker

 

A breaker will work great as well, the fuse was just compact and fit my build.

Hodakaguy

 

So the FWC is wired straight to the fuse block so not switched power via a relay?

Also I like your dual battery system with the passenger battery being the starter battery and accessories running off the factory location. I’m looking the the OGE setup but I believe it is wired the opposite so as not to require cutting the factory wiring. Decisions decisions.

 

The FWC is connected at the fuse block but has it's own ACR on board that takes care of tying itself to the truck battery when the truck is running. I may swap it out to a dual voltage sensing relay so the solar charge controller can back charge the truck battery as well.

Splicing into the factory battery cable really isn't a big deal, use a quality crimp and high quality marine heat shrink and it will be every bit as good as stock...probably better since it will have a higher quality connector on it.

Hodakaguy

 

Very clean and well thought out, like the rest of your build. Inspired

 

Thanks, I'm really liking how it all turned out.

Hodakaguy

 

Re-visiting the storage box area. Decided to make some rub rails out of 1/4" ABS Plastic to protect the wood next to the storage area.

Piece of scrap ABS that I picked up a few days ago.




Cut a 1" Strip on the table saw.




Beveling the ends that are open to the camper.




I'm using 3M tape to adhere the rails to the camper. It can be removed if needed by carefully sawing through the tape with some fishing line.






And installed in the camper. I will install matching ones in the rear and back corner. Should do a good job at protecting the camper from the wooden storage box. I left a gap on the front edge since I thought it looked better than the plastic going all the way across....if I change my mind down the road I'll install some new pieces








Hodakaguy

 

Wow this build thread is just B.E.A.U.T.I.F.U.L !

 

sub'd. such a solid build. WOW!

 

Solar issues and wiring the Air Compressor....

The morning after I wired the controller I noticed that although the controller was showing amps in/out it wasn't actually going into charge mode and connecting to the batteries. After some troubleshooting with a meter I found that the factory red power wire going to the solar roof plug was shorted to ground......Ugggg. If I was running an older PWM style charge controller it wouldn't be that big of a deal since I could swap the ground wire over to be power and let the red wire stay shorted/grounded, with a PWM controller the PV and Batt ground can be common. But...I'm running a newer style MPPT controller that is more efficient and requires a separate PV and Battery ground to function correctly.

Factory power wire shorted to ground. Time to get searching for the culprit, at this point I'm suspecting a screw in a wire somewhere or a stray frogs hair.




I connected the meter to the wire and started chasing the wire up to the front lift panel where it goes into the roof looking for a short. I was really hoping the short wasn't up in the roof itself. After a bit I found the short right at the end of the bed, there is a loop in the wire that is tucked back into the campers side where the wire transitions and goes vertical. A staple had been shot directly into the wire at this point during construction. Soon the wire was fixed and panels were back in place.






Almost back together in this pic, just need to apply a new strip of Velcro to secure the Arctic liner back in place.




Yesterday evening I pulled the truck out of the shop to test the panel. Everything is working great! This shot shows the advantage of a MPPT controller, it will take the higher voltage of the solar panel and convert it into extra amperage going into the batteries. The older PWM controllers basically draw down the PV voltage to batt voltage and you only get what is coming into the controller from the PV.

6.1 amps coming into the controller from the 175W panel (with late afternoon light) and the controller is outputting 8.1 amps out to the battery....nice!






Time to wire up the air compressor and hook up the front locker.

The Supplied ARB wiring harness. The quality looks really good, will have to extend the pressure switch and control/trigger wires.




Draining the washer fluid out to remove the bottle, makes access a lot easier.




Pressure switch wires extended, will install loom on the wiring once it's in the truck.




Running the switch wiring and air tubing for the front locker.





Wiring and tubing tucked away in loom and ran across the firewall.




Electrical and air tubing connected to the compressor. I installed the relay close by on an existing stud. I have a plastic cap installed over the air fitting for now to keep nasties out until my purchased cap shows up.




The compressor is a tight fit in this area but works out really well with the limited under hood space.




Connections made to the SwitchPro.






All tested and the Air Compressor and Locker are working great

More to come....

Hodakaguy

 

Solar and ACR’s. I’m running a total of 4 batteries on our truck/camper. Two AGM deep cycle batts in the camper and two AGM batts in the truck. I have an ACR (Automatic Combining Relay) under the hood that ties the truck battery and Aux battery together when the alternator is charging and the FWC has its own ACR that connects the camper batteries to the truck AUX batt when the alternator/truck is charging.

Both of the ACR’s are dual voltage sensing so when the solar charge controller starts bringing the voltage up in the camper batteries the camper ACR pulls in and starts charging the trucks AUX battery. When the trucks AUX batt starts charging the trucks ACR pulls in and starts charging the trucks starting batt. Now all 4 batts are charging off the solar controller.

With AGM batteries requiring a higher bulk charge voltage than standard lead acid batteries this setup allows the solar controller to bring all 4 batts up to proper charge of 14.7 volts, important for a full charge and longer battery life on AGM Batteries..

I’m going to add a switch on the campers ACR to give me the ability to turn off the ACR for times when I want the solar to just charge the camper batts ( days with limited sun when your not driving, this ensures the best charge of the camper batteries since everything the solar panel produces will go only to the camper batteries).

Charge controller in action.




The trucks drivers side Aux battery, the camper's ACR is pulled in and the Aux battery is charging. You can see the trucks ACR (located on top of the battery) pulled in as well and providing power to the trucks passenger side starting battery.




Passenger side starting battery charging.




Hodakaguy

 

What's your thinking for running two batteries for the camper? I noticed that FWC does single battery standard on their packages.

 

Having two batteries gives you more capacity for the fridge and heater for days when there is low light for the solar and your not moving the vehicle. Just insurance that you'll have enough juice to keep everything up and running

Hodakaguy

 

Subbed

Buying this truck when your son is off to college.

 

Great thread. Detailed pictures, with breakdowns of what we're seeing as well as information on why you're doing things a certain way. Just wanted to say thanks for sharing and keep up the awesome work!

 

Likely one cranking battery, one AGM deep cycle. Not all 12v batteries are the same. Your starting battery is going to make massive current for short periods of time to start your engine. A deep cycle battery isn't as good at pushing high current loads, but will last a lot longer with smaller loads. Set up both, use the starting battery for starting, and the deep cycle battery to run extra stuff.