Wisconsin Tacomas and bad financial advice

Despite what the purists say, Schecter makes some quality instruments.

As far as having a ton of them... I didn't choose the bass collecting life, the bass collecting life chose me. It just sort of happens and one day you have eight instruments who don't know what to do with

 

I have hesitation about spending a lot of money on a Schecter. But, the reviews and videos can't all be BS. Plus, I certainly can't afford to spend $10K on a bass right now, so I have to value shop.

Out of the 5 basses, I could sell 3 and not really miss them. The '95 Warwick and '80's Fender Jazz bass are the only ones I'm really attached to.

 

I recently sold my number one and number three most valuable basses.

 

I have to suspect that the shit has really hit the fan, then. Regarding my #1, I have instructed my best friends to beat me senseless if I ever let it go. The others don't really matter, though.

 

To be fair that ranking was just on resale value. My actual number one which funnily enough has a big number 2 painted on. It... Is a custom jbase made from what was a dead American special from 2012. Built it back when I worked for guitar center but didn't actually use any parts they sold. Other than being able to buy the damaged bass for dirt, cheap. Plays like a dream, and has a lot of mean mean pride. A modern-day warrior, if you will

Back when I was homeless that bass lived with me in the back of my Pathfinder.

 

What a great song! Cheers everyone!

 

I've been watching a bunch of vids on setting up a dual battery. I think I understand how it's all wired and can handle that part. But all of the vids show just the battery hook up.
They all end at the part when the aux battery is hooked up and charging. They don't show how to get the power to the fridge. One vid had a super basic diagram showing a single line connecting the aux bat to a power distribution block. Cool...how is that wired ? Do I need a distribution block, or can I simply run a fused wire straight off the aux battery to the fridge? What type of plug should I use to plug-in the fridge? What gauge wire would I need? Best guess would be 12 ft.of wire.

The headache part is figuring out where to mount everything and the brackets to fab up. Wanderlost Overland has a vid that shows how they did a similar set up to the one that I'm doing. It ain't pretty, but it works. In the end I may decide I'm in over my head.

 

Dave, I haven't really spoken up on this. I had talked some to Adam, and had read a bunch and I think I got to the point you are getting to. That is, there is so much out there, so many options, that it makes your head spin.

What I wound up doing, was this:https://kickassproducts.com.au/products/portable-battery-box-complete-package-20a-dcdc-charger

It ain't cheap, but it will do pretty much everything I could want to do and it was nearly plug and play. I charge solar constantly, charge off the alt when driving. It has multiple plugs to draw power from, Anderson, cigarette lighter plugs, USB. And I added an inverter so I can run AC also. My fridge will run off this setup for days and barely drops below 12.4v now that I have everything hooked up. I'm running AGM for my batteries, which will tolerate more drawdown than flooded (conventional) wet cell.

The only thing I can't say about it is that I did it myself...and that's OK with me.

 

Did you say you had an amp under your seat?
Is the aux enough to power amp too?
Run amp power wire off aux. batt. (If it isn't long enough, splice in a fuse).
Put a dist. block under your seat.
Run one line for amp, one line for fridge.

If no amp or can't run both from aux. batt. then disregard this post.

Edit- as far as mounting it....angle iron can be useful.

 

I half-assed kinda checked those portable power packs. Saw enough reviews about issues with recharging them that a dual battery is probably a better way to go for me. I'll need to run a fridge for a couple/few weeks straight sometime next year.
I still need to find out how to get power to the fridge.

 

Aux bat will always be "power on". That's why the fridge is hooked up to the aux. If the amp is hooked up to aux bat, wouldn't the stereo always be powered up, too?

 

Amp should turn on with acc/remote wire to head unit.


Is that what you're doing. With adding the vehicle battery to the picture.

 

I considered a similar thing from National Luna. You can put in whatever battery you want

https://www.nationalluna.com/product-category/battery-management/portable-systems/

 

If you are gonna have a bunch of stuff you can do a distribution block. If you are just gonna have a couple 12v ports, I wouldn’t bother.

you can get a fridge direct wire kit, that’s what I used. It was about the same price as buying the wire and plug individually. Some of the fridges (arb and dometic for sure) the 12v plug screws apart so you can screw it into a special socket. Then you don’t have to worry about it coming loose.

 

What he said

 

There should be a spot or 2 to get the wire through the firewall, depending where it comes through is where I'd decide whether it's easier to run down under the center console, carpet. Or along under the plastic door molding.
Seat belt and seat mount posts make good grounds.
I'm use to dealing with audio but running power is running power.
With audio, I believe 8 ga. is pretty common. We always went lower to get the most juice we could.

 

+1 to this. Redarc BCDC manual has diagrams how to wire from starter batt to aux, follow steps and put some fuses inline where they say and it should be fairly straightforward.

For choosing wire size from aux batt to fridge look at ampacity chart linked below. I already know the ICECO fridges typically use a 15A fuse, and based on that I’d run 10GA wire to your fridge just to be safe and never have problems.

Buy the ARB twist socket like Shellshock mentioned, and also buy the twist power cable. Plug side should fit the fridge, same port shape/type.

 

That is not many... We have at least ten kayaks, three canoes, three sailboats, a ski boat and there must be something that floats I am forgetting...

 

At one time I had a Rickenbacker and two Ibanez basses... now I have none

 

If @Stoney Ranger is planning on adding more in the future. Would it be more beneficial to run a 4 or 8ga with inline fuse to a block then 10ga. out. (of like a 1in 2-4 out block) to aux equip.?