LS6 Swap 2nd Gen Build + New Tundra

It’s like 8 or 10 gauge. Came with the trailer. Not sure what voltage it trips at, doesn’t have it on the crappy piece of paper it came with. And I’m talking about towing this with my 3rd gen. I’m sure it’s the same for all intents and purposes

 

Your probably gona have to run a dedicated circuit with some heaviergauge wire to prevent voltage drop. The battery charge circuit on a trailer plug isn't meant to run that kind of load, it's there generally to keep the little batteries that operate the emergency trailer brakes topped off.

In general an automotive circuits design current is about half of the rating of the fuse protecting it so if you have a 30A fuse the circuit is designed to handle no more than 15-20 amps during normal operation.

 

Here is an article and chart from BlueSea for amps- length - Voltage drop.

https://www.bluesea.com/support/art...oosing_the_Correct_Wire_Size_for_a_DC_Circuit

You are going to need a bigger boat. Er.... Wire.

 

I think I should just forget about doing dc to dc charging. I have 960ah of batteries. I don’t imagine that is going to run out on me while I’m camping. Even if that camping trip is a week long.

I think maybe I’ll upgrade from my 5a battery tender. It’s been plugged in for like 36 hours, and today it threw and error for incorrect battery/damaged battery, despite the batteries being brand new and it was set to the correct type. I think because it’s not seeing an appreciable voltage increase over a given amount of time it freaks out. I unplugged it and plugged it back in, and it started charging again.

Maybe I get a dual input charger. Something like a 80-100amp charger with ac power, and input for solar. Any suggestions?

I’m not super jazzed about solar. Super inefficient, no place to mount any of it on the trailer itself, unless someone makes a flexible panel built into a 270* awning. Then I’d buy it. But if not that, I’ll be setting up panels up on the ground to keep things charged. Even with a ton of panels, I don’t think I’m going to get the charge rate even close to 1C.

 

What is the black box with the flex hose behind the inverter in the back corner?

 

Diesel heater. Pumps hot air through that flex hose into my RTT

 

I get 5-7 days with 300ah of AGM in our trailer running the fridge and lights. It drops to 3 days when we have to use the heater at night.

My trailer has a full redarc system for battery management and I ran a separate set of wires with an Anderson plug to charge off the alternator. I used 6awg wiring.

On my truck I'm using a Renogy 50A mppt with dc-dc charging that charges at 15-25A off the alternator. I also run 200w of solar on the roof of the truck and have a 200w solar blanket that I can plug into either the truck or trailer for a boost.

 

What kind of heater are you using?

I think doing everything in victron or redarc is the move, but holy cow it gets spendy for what it is.

 

I've been using a webasto diesel hot water heater with a heat exchanger in the trailer but I built a portable diesel heater in a Plano box last spring that I plan to use to heat the truck and trailer this winter.

 

Well I ponied up and bought a bunch of copper for the raptor and the 3rd gen. I want both trucks ready to pull the trailer 0 fuss.

but I have a concern. those big Anderson cables are going from the vehicle starting battery to the dc-dc charger, or do they come right from the alternator?

Second concern, I have one big bank of lifepo4 batteries making up the 960ah I have on board. The trailer when I bought it, has that 7 pin connector power going straight to a deep cycle lead acid 12v battery, to power the trailer brakes if the emergency disconnect is pulled. Those power and grounds, are currently taped off, so if the trailer breaks off, the brakes won’t apply. Am I going to cause an issue taking that 7 pin power supply and putting it right on the positive bus bar?

If not, I have a second 20ah lifepo4 battery to use. Both trucks have lifepo4 antigravity starting batteires, so the chemistry matches, but will I cause myself any issues just hooking up those 7 pin power leads to the main batt’s? Because the battery will be taking in from the 7 pin power as well as the dc-dc charger.

hopefully that made sense.

 

If you're talking about a breakaway brake on the trailer, run it straight off the 12v lipo you have...they won't care if it's 1 or 100 batteries if they are wired in parallel. The controller for the breakaway should not be wired to the 7 pin as it's a separate system designed to function when the 7 pin is unplugged and the breakaway pin is pulled.

The 7 pin will still be used for lights and the brake controller but it should be independent of the trailer/house batteries. The Anderson will run off your starting battery with a relay switched to ignition so you don't kill the starting battery. Those wires will run to a plug at the rear bumper of the tow vehicle.

On the trailer side, you'll run the positive input on the charge controller to the Anderson plug at the tow vehicle and the ground from the trailer to the Anderson unless your charge controller needs to be wired differently...should break it out in the instructions. You also want the shortest run possible from the charge controller to the trailer/house battery.

 

Little land shark is helping me paint the pro eagle mounts for the raptor and the 3rd gen.

 

Pro eagle Kratos mounted in both the raptor and the green Tacoma. All of the tools needed to change a tire are underneath the jack in the tray.

 

Goodness. I just went through the whole thread today. I was linked to it, since I'm thinking about doing my third VW TDI swapped vehicle and was interested in deleting the ABS and getting the HVAC controls (and cruise control) to work.

The thread was like a movie; there were good times, times where I laughed, I smiled when it was going good and sad when thing broke/failed. And then, at the climax, they had to put Ole Yeller down (I'm old, so that's an old movie reference) and you're getting rid of it. It's a shame to be honest.

But thank you for the thread. It was great fun and I learned a bunch. If/when I do my swap, I'll use some of the reference information here, although I will probably bypass the AC amplifier, and just send 12V from the AC button to the pressure switch that I install. That is if I can do that.

Thanks again! Oh, and keep the truck. It's pretty sweet.

 

Thanks man. It’s been a journey for sure. I’m pretty set on selling it sadly. Hurts a little but at the same time, having paid off vehicles and no debt and cash to put into the market sounds great.

 

No worries. I have a feeling you'll want to eventually do some more "car-ing". It becomes addictive. For no reason whatsoever I now want to TDI swap a Tacoma, when I have two already a 1984 CJ7 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UL-u_muYbns and a 1994 XJ. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UoxL6lYivqk It's fun to do stuff like this. That's why I think you'll eventually be back to doing something. I would caution you that you don't do it to your DD though. My Tundra only has King Coilovers, nothing else. Granted the XJ is my DD now, lol.

But best of luck with the new Tacoma. It looks nice!

 

Thanks! The new tacoma had kings and deavers, but thats it.

 

Turd gen got some love.

 

Pull the sway bar and add uca’s.

 

Nahhhhhhhhhhh. Funny enough when I bought the truck it didn’t have a sway bar. Made carmax buy me one and install it.

I was thinking about getting the 2021+ TRD pro billet UCA’s, only because king says that their 3.0’s don’t work with OEM control arms, but they are full of it. I think they’re probably right if you crank the preload on it. But at full droop it doesn’t touch the coil at all.