Austin's Supercharged Mid Travel Build

Lots and lots of understeer. Even during mild town driving the tires would just lose grip through a corner which put me in a few close call situations. Also, the rear tires often would break loose during moderate acceleration from a stop. I had been putting up with it for awhile until a recent road-trip I went on where the tires let loose through a highway corner going 75 mph. This happened 3 times that same day. I was downright scared of the tires after that trip and got the new tires on order when I got back home.

I have only been able to find a handful of reviews on these tires of people with a similar experience. It seems that 99% of people that have these tires absolutely love them, including a friend that talked me into getting them. For this reason, I feel that I may have got a bad set of tires, but I'm really not sure if that's even a thing. My experience with the tire has been pretty terrible, I just think that maybe my experience should be taken with a grain of salt considering the fact that so few people have had a similar experience.

With that said, as soon as I switched back to the Coopers, all my problems were gone. In fact, I can drive much more aggressively with the Coopers and they never break loose. This is all with the same alignment and tire pressure.

 

hmm sounds like a really stiff compound was in use. Maybe it was too stiff and a bad batch..

 

Seems like the most likely reason. Idk man, something was off about them.

 

Yeah weird. Oh well!

 

Thank you kind sir.

 

After some time using the columbia overland dual battery system, it wasn't cutting it anymore and I decided to do some upgrades to my electrical system.

First off, I installed a cs144 alternator and wiring adapter. I machined a little spacer to go between the alt and mountain bracket to take up the 1/4'' gap.



The next step of the project was to get a battery that would suite my needs for many years to come. Because I killed my odyssey battery from draining it past 50% many times, it seemed to me that it would be a good idea to go with a lithium battery this time (they can be drained to 10% without issue), as well as a larger amp hour rating. While it's likely overkill, I ended up going for a 200ah lithium battery. It has a self heating function so it can be charged off of the alternator when temps are below freezing. This is something that the battery management system of a non-heated battery will prevent you from being able to do.

After getting the battery all sorted out, I began building the case it would be contained in so it could safely be strapped down in my truck bed.









Mounted the battery box to this skid with my fridge, and built a tray that the battery box is strapped down into.







I had to run some cable from my alternator to my bed and decided to retain it by cutting up some tubing rounds and welding them to my frame. I think it came out really clean and it works great.



Having this amount of power on hand opened up the ability to use some higher power consumption items. I picked up a Chinese diesel heater and man are they awesome. They put out a ton of heat, way too much for just one tent. If I just heat my tent I have to leave heater on the lowest setting and have my door wide open even in below freezing temperatures. I was able to heat 3 tents on the high setting without issue.



While I'm extremely happy with the battery system, for some reason I'm not getting a charge from the renogy DC-DC charger. There are a bunch of charging settings you have to set for your battery type and needs. I think I may have set these incorrectly. I'll get it figured out eventually. As of now, I'm just charging the battery at home from a wall outlet charger, and the battery is holding plenty of charge to get me through a camping trip without needing to be charged on the road.

 

With a 200ah Lithium you have like 180 usable ah, right?
12 volt electric blankets are pretty sweet.

 

Yes, if I don't go below 10% charge, that would be 180 ah of usable power.

I remember seeing a comment of yours elsewhere saying you sometimes use an electric blanket. Might have to get one myself. The RTT's hold heat in so well that I bet an electric blanket would heat up the tent a bit as well.

 

fuckin hell thats a giant battery haha looks heavy.

heater thing is cool.

 

Not as much as you might think. No Lead.

According the CHINS, their LifePO4 batteries weigh about half of what a comparable lead-acid would weigh. I think this one is less than 50 lbs. Compare that to my Northstar 24F at 61 lbs.

 

It's 49 lbs + the weight of the box it's in.

The heater is awesome, I highly recommend them if you go winter camping. Only cost $150 too.

 

Just got these replacement arms from Solo, free of charge. Had the same LBJ issue as @Blackdawg. Hopefully these will be issue free

 

Before you install them could you measure bushing ID, OD, diameter, length in the non-shoulder area and shoulder length please?

 

I meant the battery heater not sure I'd ever use a diesel heater. Maybe if i ever get a GFC or something like it then I'd be more tempted to do winter camping.

Nice!

Me too. Mine seem good so far. Soon as Im done working on the DD Im pulling Igor in the garage to pull the CO to adjust them and I'm going to check the LCAs then. Hoping they are still good and tight.

 

Does the LBJ seat look any different on these ones? Would be curious on a comparison between the two when you pull the old ones off.

 

Yeah did you get to keep your originals @austinmtb ? I had to send mine in and of course were pretty fucked anyways so measurements wouldn't have done much.

 

That’s soo light!
My golf cart batteries are 120 pounds...230ah, can’t go below 50%.

Make sure you get a blanket with different heat settings. Mine doesn’t have any so unless it’s like 20 degrees it’s too hot.

My camper doesn’t have a tent yet so I’m basically sleeping outside.

 

Sure can.

 

I still have the old ones on my truck at the moment, I'll check to see if there's any difference when I swap them out. Nothing looks any different though. The guy I talked to at solo seems to think the issue is with differences in the manufacturing of the lbj's. He told me that a lot of the new toyota lbj's you buy at the dealership are actually rebuilt and the lbj studs have wear as well as varied cotter pin hole location. I'm not sure how much I believe this. I think I'll just continue to run a washer under the castle nut on each arm and I shouldn't have any more issues.

 

The battery I got has a built in heater and self regulates its temperature, so no need for a battery blanket.