Otis24's Otisbound Outdoors Bodonkadonk Supercharged Twin Locked Micro Camper Build (OOBSTLMC)

Yup, 9,000 area.

 

I’ve camped there a bunch, usually before climbing. And several times people have rolled in late and partied. Super annoying when you plan to get an alpine start.

 

That was my first time there. I tend to avoid Yosemite in the summer.

It's a good spot. I just have to make sure I have ear plugs next time.

 

Why don't you just use hole and sealant?

 

That would work as long as the cables are very secure, which they should be secure anyway. I don't think you could have any movement with the cables. Too much movement and the adhesive might fail. The total roof thickness is an 1.125 inch thick. That might give adhesive enough purchase. But with an adhesive filled hole you lose the ability to remove the cables easily if you every have to. And if that adhesive fails there could be water leaking into the area between the inner and outer skin. But, I could have that as well with the gland box thing I ended up using.

I ended up using this with self drilling/self tapping screws (same ones used elsewhere on the camper) and a liberal amount of 3M Marine 5200. It's sealed and at the same time the cables can be removed if there's ever a need.
I feel pretty good about it being secured by mechanical means as well as adhesive.
So far it's holding up well. No leaking after a bunch of trips in heavy rain and where I live in the mountains gets a whole lot more rain than San Jose/the valley etc
.
For $10 it's not too bad.

$10 BougeRV Solar Weatherproof Double Cable Entry Gland, Cable Through RV roof Solar Junction Box abs Entry housing for 14AWG to 10AWG Solar Cables for Solar Project on RV, Campervan, Boat, Van（Gray）

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07GDH2TTV/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

I used these to replace my tail lights. They do everything in one unit. The running lights are a super smooth red ring. I think they look pretty cool.
https://www.etrailer.com/Trailer-Lights/Optronics/STL201RFMB.html#/

I had to buy a 4.5 inch hole saw that was $52 at home depot. That kinda hurt. If anyone needs a 4.5" hole cut I've got you covered.

I've bought a bunch of stuff from etrailer. They have pretty fast shipping and are helpful with questions. Like the pigtails you need to use don't come with the light. It's not 100% clear which ones to use. They helped me find the correct one.

I bought a set of these as well. However, the reverse light on the tail lights I linked above are plenty bright. I may or may not add them at some point.
https://www.etrailer.com/Trailer-Lights/Optronics/BUL101CKB.html

 

What do you think about routing the wire without roof lid penetration? My plan is to route it on the roof to the edge where I have hinges and just drop down under on the front wall. I have a very tight place on the second floor and don't want to route wire inside. The length is almost the same.

 

That would be great! The fewer holes in the roof the better.

Now that I'm thinking of it I realized after I'd drilled a hole in my roof that running it somewhere else would be better.

 

Today I replaced the hinges that got all bent when I tried driving away with the door open.


The new hinge is the left. The other two are badly bent.
The small pile of junk on the upper left is the remains of what I used to hold the door on when the original screws snapped.

 

I think camping can be broken down into a few components.

These apply to vehicle based camping, bicycle touring, motorcycle camping, backpacking and others.

I’ve done all of these and I think they all share the items in the list below.

-sleeping/shelter
-Water
-Food storage
-Cooking
-Trash
-Cleaning and hygiene.

Bodonkadonk hasn’t had all these covered.

When I went out for a week about a month ago not having a place to keep trash and a good water system was a drag.

I have a trasharoo but no spare tire on the outside to mount it too.

I’ve been contemplating how to mount my trasharoo for about 8 months now.

I was going to double side tape 2” sections of aluminum hat channel to the back and run the straps through the channel. Hat channel looks like this:



I couldn’t find it in usable dimensions anywhere.

One day it occurred to me that the trasharoo’s straps resemble seatbelt webbing.
Problem solved!
I can use race harness tabs!
I ordered some race harness tabs from summit racing. These:
https://www.summitracing.com/parts/HSA-SRB241513NC

I picked up some 1/2”x1.5” stainless bolts and nuts at ACE hardware and drilled some holes and ran the straps through the harness tabs.

came out pretty good!





Up next: water

 

Prototype for alcohol storage

 

I finally bought an Garmin Inreach Mini.

I do a lot of solo stuff.

About 95% of my mountain biking, motorcycle riding, biking and backpacking are all solo.

Truck camping is about 50% solo.

I’m much more conservative when I’m by myself and I have a cell phone and a ham radio with a good power output at 50 watts (I hit the Mexicali repeater from 35 miles away from Guadalupe hot springs).

However, I usually don’t have cell phone service and the time to get through a repeater could be difficult and time consuming.

I’ve had numerous head injuries ranging from mild concussion to moderate-severe TBI. While I do everything to avoid them short of wearing a helmet 24/7 I want a device I can easily use after a head injury. Ham is not it.

I wanted something I can easily activate SAR with as well as have 2 way satellite communication and is small enough I won’t notice it while hiking or mountain biking.
The inreach mini should satisfy those requirements.

 

You’ll love it. I love the peace of mind it gives me being out in the middle of nowhere.

 

I'll look forward to the "12 month recap" where you decide if the bar or the inreach was a better investment.

 

I predict the bar will be the winner.

 

From my perspective water was harder to implement than electricity in my case, so many different types of connections, tight room, and also balancing the weight. Not tested yet in the fields but Class A Customs tank looks good.

 

Question: do you have an electric scheme for connecting solar setup to your truck systems? I am looking into manual switches for the first time and later add automatic switches in parallel based on ESP8266.

 

I would agree.
My old set up was a 10 gallon square RV tank. I didn't like how it wasn't removable. I had it rigged up so when you filled the tank it would go through a filter and when you emptied it would go through a filter. I did this for getting water in Baja. However, there is plenty of bottled water that is easily purchased down there. So no filter needed.

This time around I'm using a 5 gallon jerry can (I'll probably add another later) and the same 12 volt pressure activated pump as before. I put the jerry can behind the passenger seat. The pump is under the passenger seat. The water has to be on the passenger side. With me driving, the fuel tank and the golf cart batteries all being on the drivers side the weight of the water has to be on the passenger side.

I'm relocating my inverter to the camper from the cab so I used the existing inverter wiring, switch and relay for the water pump. The inverter had 6 guage wire a 100amp relay and a 100 amp circuit breaker. It's a bit overkill for the 3.5amp water pump but I'd rather have too much than too little.

I wired it and connected all the tube the other day. It works pretty well. I have to decide if I want to run the tube from the passenger door each time I use the water or do I want to run the tube under the truck and up through the camper somehow.

I’m using this sprayer



I'll get to the wiring later.

 

Your approach angle checks out. (Departure angle needs a bit of help.)

 

I had some difficulties this weekend.
Sunday as we were heading out from our campsite Bodonkadonk just shut off. Dead, no power to anything.

Anything connected to the starter battery just turned off. Which aside from truck stuff is the Ham radio.

It started right back up but would keep cutting out. Sometimes it would be a brief pause in power and then it would continue on.

Around this time I noticed none of the guages, HVAC controls, turn signals, reverse light or cruise control would work.

I also noticed the battery voltage was at 10.2. Normally when the truck is running it’s at 12.8 -14 volts. 10.2 isn’t right.

I checked the fuses and the guage fuse was blown. So I put a new one in and jumped the truck off @theed truck.

As I was backing up I looked down and the gauges weren’t working again...blew another fuse.
That’s when I backed into a tree and put a very slight bend in the top of the camper.
Later we determined the alternator had gone bad.
While the truck can apparently run on as few as 7 volts the occasional shutting off was due to an intermittent battery connection issue.

The battery would disconnect and the truck would shut off.
I’ve never noticed it because normally the alternator powers everything.

I picked up a new alternator at O’Rielly’s and installed it in about 30 minutes.

Jumped the truck again and no issues for the next few hours in the drive home.

I still need to sort out the battery connection issue and the guage fuse blowing. Once the new alternator was in it stopped blowing.

It’s not the Kia alternator I wanted but it’ll do the job.