trekker's taco and Melly's 4R

yup, my cute little rats nest under the brake reservoir

 

I'll pick up the camper in just a few days, but today the heart of my solar setup showed up. Can't wait to get everything built out and ready to hit it hard in 2023.

 

Nice, that looks big!

 

It's a biggun at 48 pounds, but a lead acid equivalent would weigh three times that. 2560 watt hours ought to do everything I need it to providing that I get some decent panels to charge it. I plan to have the camper electronics and fridge running off of this system, and everything else truck related on the existing dual battery setup.

 

Nice, I dont think I realized you had a dual battery setup already. Should def give you lots of power especially with solar charging to back it up!

 

Yeah, I may ditch the dual batteries up front to clean up my extremely sketchy fuse/relay/breaker setup. The supercharger air to water coolant tank, dual batteries, charging relay, ARB twin, all left the tiniest amount of room under the hood for my electronics to fit. One tiny inner fender bolt is all that keeps my aftermarket circuits secure.

 

Lithium batteries are fun! I’m toying with a setup that should deliver 300ah to my trailer.

 

Nice! That should keep the family comfortable for sure. You documenting the trailer build somewhere?

I really went back and fourth on batteries for a bit, but my rig is so heavy already that it made the choice for me. I'll have to come up with a way to keep the LiFePo4 battery warm during the shoulder seasons, but that's future Brandon problems.

 

Short answer is to get a heating pad and switch, and wire it to your BMS - but I'm not sure if you can do that, since yours is all self contained. (on the plus side, you don't have to worry about the headache that is building a battery pack)

https://youtu.be/_B15cwz2dX8?t=203

That video pertains to my specific BMS, but the heating pad concept should still apply.

 

Oh, and trailer is here: https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/navs-it-takes-a-village-off-road-trailer-build.695303/

 

Yeah I opted out of building my own battery for this project, but that would be really cool. Kuddos for doing it right!

The battery I picked up has a 200a BMS and I'm currently thinking that I'll need a charge controller that has thermal parameters I can set. I may forego charging in colder temps since battery capacity alone should get me by. I've seen a lot of DIY heating solutions in the solar forums, but I can't decide which will be the best route until I have the camper on the truck and can start taking measurements.

In all actuality the battery enclosure should stay warmer than the outside air temperatures anyway, so long as it's in my conditioned sleeping space. Then during the day when I'm not in the heated sleeping area... the outside temps shouldn't be too cold to drop the battery temp to a dangerous level. It takes several hours to cool down a batter back that is being used, so I could at least have a temperature alarm or something to warn me if I'm nearing the danger zone. It may not matter at all except that I do plan to have a large inverter able to pull from those 200 amps. I don't want to power a microwave in the wilderness or anything, but if I have a power failure at the house I can plug in all of my home fridges and freezers into the truck until I get around to the home backup system. I like redundant redundancies.

 

Pulled out my water pump and driver bed cubby, then put a temporary cover over its spot in the bed. Not sure if I'll change the OBW system or put it back after replacing the old hoses and fittings. I also touched up some rusty spots on the bed stiffeners and sealed up the tailgate and various holes I've put in the bed over the years. Ready to pick up the camper tomorrow.

 

Yooooooooo!

 

KEVIN! Whaddup my man?

 

Got eeem

 

That's awesome! Congrats!

I checked out their website, I really like the annex that includes the tailgate.

 

Thanks! That extra square footage is one of the main reasons I picked this one over the other wedge campers.

 

Same old soup my bud. Havent thought about truck stuff or tw in a while. Guess I am back into it. This camper looks killer. Miss all you guys, haven't got out in a while. Tell Melissa I said hi.

 

Grats, Look great!

 

Hey! Haven’t seen you in years.

Turkey Trot at Barnwell Nov 11-13.
Not an event, just friend.
Come wheel & camp before the holidays.