Car Camping / Trip Reports / Photos / Buildouts / “Overland” / Expedition Rigs Area (homeless?)

ha i have one of those panels too. It'll be going on my roof rack soon too. Hopefully add one more too.

 

Just need a regulator and wire into the batteries really. Pretty simple to add them.

 

http://www.columbiaoverland.com/product/zs-120-p-120-watt-portable-charging-sysytem

6lbs isnt bad. in fact.. its really nothing. 120W@12v is good enough to keep a decent amount running (or charging)

i dont think i would rely on solar to charge a dead battery for me though.

 

yea they get very expensive.

im only planning on using mine as a battery tender. Just to keep them charged while im not using the truck. Other then that i'm going to rely on my alternator to actually charge them.

 

Same. But just in case you do something dumb and drain your starter battery below 10v you should be able to bring it back to starting voltage in a decent amount of time.

Just trying to offset the drain from the fridge, but it would be nice to have a little more output to keep everything topped off even when charging phones, cameras, lights, laptops/tablets, running radios etc. without draining your gas tank if your sitting in one pace for a week or more.

Nothing like beer chilled by the sun! Also when we had a power outage I was the only one with cold drinks

 

I am running 3 on the roof rack that I made and like Zam15 I can get days on my fridge and battery without any worries. Only had 1 issue with a loose lead on a trip and had to push the truck into the sun for about 15 min. Also running a small charge controller in the inside of the truck that is mounted on the left side of the drivers seat. It has worked well and so far have had zero issues with the system getting hot or over charged.

 

what brand?

 

I just got the Harbor Freight kit. Which surprisingly work very well and seemed to be constructed very well. Have not had any issues with them so far. The wiring that they come with for each panel is very long however. So I'm planning on re doing the wires to allow a quick disconnect in the system in case the panels and/or rack ever need to come back off. That way I don't have to pull all the wiring back out each time. I'll post up pics of that later in here and on my build page.

 

Is this the kit you have?

 

I know it's not a taco, but just built this sleeping platform for the Dmax-

 

thats a nice Duramax man. not a tacoma but still very nice.

the sleeping platform seem pretty easy to build. Was it hard
at all to do?

 

I moved back to Oregon from Fairbanks at the end of March/beginning of April 2004. It was right at break up and the driving was perfect. Only a couple of other vehicles on the road and no RVs until I was well into BC.

 

Yep that would be it.

 

No, it was pretty simple. I wouldn't use carpet glue the next time around though. That stuff stinks and takes forever to dry.
The middle section slides out as well, so I can still squeeze my motorcycle in there if I have to.

 

Nice! I love my platform in my tacoma. How do you like it so far. I still need to cover mine in carpet and I want to build some kinda drawer system. Stuff gets lost up by the cab all the time.

 

This one has three separate compartments for the side sections, the middle is open but the lid is two pieces so stuff you never use goes up front. I designed it around the medium size action packers and it will fit ten of them with room for fishing stuff beside them. My wife really likes it a lot, it's made the camping gear much more organized. The "kitchen" fits in one box, etc. Makes me wish my Tacoma still had a bed!

 

Sounds similar to mine. The front portion has hinges so you can get to stuff beneath. I have a bin that fits all my kitchen stuff and fits under the platform nicely I installed d rings for scuba tanks too.

 

new water jerry cans from LCI are in.. These things are beef

 

Probably not, prerunner problems.

 

I have not!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bZkp7q19f0