Another Around the World Tacoma

Can work as both, but to your point, it would need to be mounted in a high pressure zone.

 

All I can come up with (maybe I should email my CS Rep at OK4WD) is that the description of the vent on their website is wrong.

It can't possibly be a vent for the condensation in the tent, as the two surfaces (the canvas and the aluminum the vent mounts to) do not share a common space.

Check out this photo (pardon the sun spot), and you can see that a vent up there would in no way allow for condensation to escape from the inside of the tent:

Antenna Install by Michael Rickerd, on Flickr

I just installed the PPV on the drivers side, mid height of the hatch, at its leading edge.

I wouldn't use this as a condensation release vent, even if that's what it was, because the window is a much better option. Plus, with the diesel heater, I now have no condensation issues, so it would just transform into an open hole for hot air to escape through. Haha

 

For records keeping sake:

Added 2" wide Velcro to the underside of the new adjustable backrest, let it set overnight, and then stuck the bags on. Definitely more stuck on there now, relative to just having the Velcro hooks hooking into the carpet material of the old desk. We did have to downsize to just (6) bags, from (8), but tbh we barely had (2) of the little bags full anyways.

Winter Upgrades V5 by Michael Rickerd, on Flickr

I thoroughly cleaned the inside of the camper, especially in the areas (front and rear corners) where dust had intruded over the years. I did this to keep an eye on the efficacy of this positive pressure vent. I had this camper fully sealed, and I tested it with lights and water, way back in the day, but since then, some of the Sikaflex has pulled away from some surfaces, exposing small cracks that dust can enter in through. It is still a paltry amount, nothing to be concerned about in the day to day (far more dust blows in just during a normal windy day when we have the hatches open).

Speaking of the PPV, here it is mounted:

This is the drivers side side hatch, at its leading edge. This is the inside of the vent.

While making the template for the holes that needed drilled, I used a blue marker to trace out the 1.5" center hole, and got blue marker on it, thinking nothing of it. That is, until I mounted it and saw the blue sitting there. I need to find a way to clean that off.

Winter Upgrades V5 by Michael Rickerd, on Flickr

GP Factor wants you to use (4) 5/32" rivets, but I hate rivets as I can never get them to install easily/correctly. I have tried two separate hand riveters to no avail.

I got the (2) rear rivets in. These are the rivets that can't be replaced by bolts/nuts (at least easily), as they live in the tiny nook at the back of the cover.

For the front (2) holes through, I went with my trusty M5 hardware.

Here it is from the outside, hatch closed.

Winter Upgrades V5 by Michael Rickerd, on Flickr

To be totally honest, despite spending ~40 minutes figuring out where to put it, I hated where I installed it as I was laying my head down on my pillow that night. Haha. Not sure why.

That feeling has disappeared now, thankfully.

The photo below isn't super crisp, but that is the vent inside of the cover. The vent has a rubber gasket between itself and the campers hatch. The vent opening is actually up and under that top cover. Seeing this, I doubt that water intrusion will be a big deal. Water running along the hatch will not get into the vent at all. It would have to splash into it, from below basically. The holes/openings in the vent are not that large also, it's not like an open cap, but rather a collection of 8 or 10 small openings in the underside of the cap.

Winter Upgrades V5 by Michael Rickerd, on Flickr

And as promised, here are photos of the cooktop tray, sans induction cooktop, installed on the back door:

In the closed position:

Winter Upgrades V5 by Michael Rickerd, on Flickr

I swapped from traditional washers to M8 nylon washers for these sliding bolts. Much smoother operation. All (6) of the bolted connections are double jam nutted, as none of them are cranked tight in order to facilitate the opening and closing of the tray.

Winter Upgrades V5 by Michael Rickerd, on Flickr

Opened. Access to the inside of the camper is not hindered by the stove any more than it already was with either previous stove. We can no longer open and close the rear door with the tray in the opened position, but I knew this when designing it.

Winter Upgrades V5 by Michael Rickerd, on Flickr

One final thing that I need to determine with this is how to latch it closed.

I have tried a few small latches, typical of what you find on regular camp stoves, but I can't get them to work 'around the corner', as I don't have two parallel surfaces to mount the clasp and latch to.

Instead (using the photo below as a reference), I am thinking of adding (1) M5 hooked bolt to the rear door of the camper, between the top of the cooktop tray and the bottom of the door bar, and then installing another hooked M5 bolt on the underside of the tray. I would use some sort of stretchy O-ring type thing that I would manually stretch between the two hooks to pull the tray against the rear door.

Winter Upgrades V5 by Michael Rickerd, on Flickr

I haven't locked that idea down yet, as I am not sold on having a protrusion (albeit a small one) into the camper space for our feet/hands to catch on. If you all have any ideas I'd enjoy hearing them.

Thanks for reading.

 

My 3R tent has this vent on the back. I think it mostly helps with air escaping while closing the tent up. I can hear air coming out of it while closing it the last 6 inches or so. I can theoretically see how it might allow a tiny amount of air inside the shell when closed but I can’t imagine that doing much for condensation.

 

Definitely a good point that I did not think of. With the Canopy Camper I don't have that issue.

 

What about like a rubber boat latch?

$17 Mudder 2 Pieces Rubber Latches 9.5'' x 1.4'' Boat Hatch Latches Rubber Hood Latch Hardware Trunk Thermoplastic Hood Latch for Hood Boat Lid Compartment Cargo Box with Stainless Steel Bracket Screws

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0D1R5LHHB

 

I had a similar thought. I used rubber T latches like these for a previous project

$20 Creatyi 4 Packs Rubber Flexible Hasp T-Handle Draw Latches (Style 1..)

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07GPFJPQD

 

Excellent ideas you guys, thank you!

 

Time to document more updates:

We ended our discussion last time with the installation of the PP Vent, and I teased at the water system upgrades. Well, it's time to explain what I did.

First off, sendcutsend makes obtaining these custom pieces of metal very easy.

My crummy, hand cut, now rusting, water pump mounting plate on the right, and the beautiful .1" 5052 aluminum SCS masterpiece on the left:

Winter Upgrades V6? by Michael Rickerd, on Flickr

I took out some excess material, mainly to make it easier to simply 'lay/place' the panel into the space next to the tank, instead of having to work/bend it in around the protrusions on the water tank itself. I moved to a single mounting hole, as (2) would be overkill as this panel is far more stiff than the original 26 gauge piece of sheet metal. I also had SCS cut out the holes for the M5 nutserts, exactly where I needed them to be. This made it a lot easier to install the pump and accumulator.

Shurflo 3.5 gpm pump (bottom) and Shurflo accumulator (top), bolted to the panel.

Winter Upgrades V6? by Michael Rickerd, on Flickr

The right side of the pump is the inlet from the tank, the left side is output to the accumulator. The right side of the accumulator is the input from the pump, while the left side is the output. The accumulator can be installed in any orientation, though they recommend having it 'upside down' (relative to how I installed it) for draining purposes. I didn't care about this, and I needed to be able to access the Schrader valve more easily, so I placed the accumulator this way instead. The accumulator also does not care which side is the 'in' and which side is the 'out'. I routed the tubing this way so the tube routing in the truck was more convenient. It also doesn't need to be inline with the water flow, it can come off of a tee for example, but a pass through install made the most sense in my situation.

The accumulator stores a bit of water (2-4 oz., depending on pressure). You pressurize the accumulator to just above your pumps shut off pressure (55 psi) in my case. I got it to 60 psi, as it is very tricky to get it right, at say 56 psi, because it stores so little air inside of it.

The Expedition Upfitters flexible PEX tubing (https://expeditionupfitter.com/coll...ts/products/drinking-water-hose-10mm-red-blue) arrived before the Guzzle H2O water filter, so I went about replacing my original tubing with this new fancy stuff.

This tubing is a tighter fit on the PEX connectors, and I decided to go all in and use the PEX clamps to secure the hose to the connectors. I want 100% leakproof from now on. No more messing around chasing down screw clamps with a screwdriver when I hear the pump cycling on and off when it shouldn't be.

This tubing states it is for 3/8" connectors, but I found it actually works better on 1/2" PEX connectors. The tubing is a bit stretchy, so you can semi-easily work it onto the 1/2" stuff, and the 1/2" clamp cinches down tight on the connector. It also readily accepts the 3/8" connectors, but the 3/8" clamp is harder to get onto the end of the tubing itself.

Note: 1/2" 'standard' fittings are of a larger diameter than a 1/2" PEX fitting, fyi. The Guzzle H2O came with standard 1/2" and 3/8" push connectors, and I was unable to use the 1/2" PEX clamp on the 1/2" push connector, even though I could work the flexible tubing onto the connector. You can see in the photos below that I had to use the standard 3/8" push connectors going into the filter and out of the UV light, and you can see how squished the flexible tubing ended up. Just a note if you are sourcing parts for a system like this for yourself.

I'm not sure exactly what all of this is about, but it being able to go on both sizes of fittings made this very easy for me. Its flexibility is also awesome.

For example, here in this rear cubby, I used to have to have (5) connections in there, and one would always be leaking.

With this new tubing I was able to go down to just a single connection, and it is very tight, so no more leaks for me.

Winter Upgrades V6? by Michael Rickerd, on Flickr

The Guzzle H20 charcoal filter and UV light arrived, so I got about installing them.

I went with the Stealth option, which separates the UV light from the filter, allowing more flexibility in mounting locations. I likely could have bought the 'normal' version, but when I ordered it I wanted the flexibility of the stealth option. The system was a bit larger than I originally thought, based on the photos on their website, but nothing too crazy.

I originally thought I would be using either of the channels (drivers side, where water spigot is mounted, or back/headwall) at the bedrail/camper bottom flange height, but then it hit me to just use some double sided tape and stick the filter down on the side of the bedside.

I spent a lot of time messing around with the placement of the filter and light, trying to put it in a spot that would be the least inconvenient, based on how we use this back little cubby area of the truck.

Ultimately I settled for low, stuck to the bedside, and close to the pump. I am not 100% sure it couldn't be placed better, but I had to stop wasting time and just pick a place to mount it. Haha

Here is the installed system, I suppose I forgot to take progress photos:

Winter Upgrades V6? by Michael Rickerd, on Flickr

Tank to pump to accumulator to charcoal filter to UV light to tee to spigots. Easy peasy.

The UV light is an 'instant on' light that requires no maintenance. The green light means it has power (it has it's own 12v from the BlueSea fuse block) and the blue light means it is sensing water flowing (I took the photo while doing the recommended (5) gallon flush of the charcoal filter). Some UV lights require a warmup period before they are blasting away stuff in the water, but this one does not, thankfully.

The UV light uses .9 amps while active, and cycles on for 1 second every 30 minutes when not in use, in order to keep itself clean.

The charcoal filter is easy to swap out, just unscrew the clear housing from the bracket, and they recommend every 6 months or 1,000 gallons of water (which is basically one year for us). The filter is .5 microns, which seems pretty good to me. You install the UV light after the charcoal filter, as UV is most effective when the turbidity (dirtiness) of the water is as low as possible.

I maintained the (2) water exits like before.

Winter Upgrades V6? by Michael Rickerd, on Flickr

First impressions?

Much better. No leaks at all. Water looks clean and fresh. People say the accumulator makes the pump 'quieter', but I definitely do not notice that. It does sound 'smoother' though, if that makes any sense. It takes a bit of the 'shock' out of the system when the pump turns on and off.

I definitely would have done this back on day 1, but hindsight is 20/20 it seems. I am stoked on the far fewer connections due to the flexibility of the new PEX tubing. Adding UV light purification into the mix gives the system a nice, cozy, safe feeling too. I did have a good chuckle while wiring up the UV light, as it is just another item that is 'powered on' 24/7, as this camper has so many little electronic gizmos in it at this point in time. When I first started building this truck I did not envision a day where I would have numerous items always on and ready to go at a moments notice.

That aside, on to other things:

The induction cooktop experiment has been going well.

Here is a photo showing the total kwh used to make our (2) cups of fresh rice:

Winter Upgrades V6? by Michael Rickerd, on Flickr

170wh is 12.8ah, or roughly 30 minutes of full solar input from the panels on a sunny day. Not bad.

On average, we use ~700wh (~53ah) of electricity on the induction each day. This is not bad at all, especially considering that Stacy's laptop alone uses ~650wh during her ten hour work day, an amount of electricity that the system easily handles. One downside is that we use A LOT of that energy first thing in the morning, in a short period of time, for our breakfast items. I still don't see this being an issue at all though. It also needs to be said that you can burn through a lot more energy if you aren't attentive. On Boil mode on the left burner you chew through a watt-hour every ~1.5 seconds, so you can easily eat up 100 or even 200wh if you let the water boil longer than it needs to. This isn't a problem for me, as I am a naturally attentive guy, especially when it comes to this truck, but yeah. The timer on the Boil setting is handy, though it defaults to 10 minutes, and I wish I could customize it down to 2 or 3 minutes (basically the time it takes to boil our 1 or 2 person water in the morning).

I need to order (2) more induction pans to finish out our collection. I am excited to be using induction to prepare our food. No more propane is very nice.

I also installed the DISHYNOAC device, which is an all-in-one 12v to 52v boost converter and POE device, from the same company that made our Gen 2 Dish flat mount for the dish. This device also needs it own 12v input from the BlueSea fuse block. The Mofi 5G router also has its own power needs too. All (3) of these are secured via Velcro stuck to their undersides, which hooks into the carpet on this little shelf. Very convenient.

I used a Yaosheng proprietary SL to T-56B Cat 5/6/8 cable convertor as well, as I did not want to cut the end off of the SL cable and repin it. We will be carrying the OEM SL router just in case we need it, and I want to be able to plug right into that router if need be.

I purchased a small ethernet cable to go from the DISHYNOAC to the router, but it hadn't arrived when I took this photo.

Winter Upgrades V6? by Michael Rickerd, on Flickr

I was originally trying to figure out where to install these two devices on the front of the Power Command Center, but then realized that putting them up on the small shelf next to the router made infinitely more sense. Glad I figured that out before sticking them somewhere else.

One final bit of work (for now) was the installation of some sort of closing strap for the induction cooktop tray. The (2) smart guys above recommended (2) different products, and I ordered them online, but when they arrived they were comically large (my fault, not theirs), so I snooped around online and found this 'strap' that ended up being a great size for my needs.

Winter Upgrades V6? by Michael Rickerd, on Flickr

Note the drill in the background, powered off of the truck itself. Definitely a weird feeling to grab something like a full size shopvac and then plug it into the truck itself to vacuum up debris inside of the truck. Same with the heat gun to shrink the wiring connectors. Anyways...

I added an M5 nutsert to the back of the back door, and installed the strap.

The strap has (3) upper mounting holes, so I can adjust it as need be. I still need to actually put the cooktop in the tray to figure out where I will install the M5 bolt on the underside of the cooktop tray. I will have this rubber strap go around the edge of the tray to the bottom of the tray to hold it closed tightly.

Winter Upgrades V6? by Michael Rickerd, on Flickr

Even though it isn't all the way installed yet, I can definitely tell that this will be a very convenient way to secure the cooktop tray in place when it is stowed. The strap is stretchy enough to extend a ways, but thick enough to hopefully be resilient for the long term. I may buy a backup just in case.

That's all I have for now, though there is certainly more still to do.

Thanks for reading.

 

Another great writeup. If I ever write a post apocalypse survival story, the MC is gonna be you Mad skilz.

 

Many thanks Dave. Funny you mention it, for years and years now I have had this idea for a post apocalyptic story in the back of my mind, slowly simmering, thinking about it here and there. My brother writes short stories, and gave me numerous pointers, but I am stuck on one significant aspect of the story. Maybe one day, after I stop working full-time, I can start to put this idea to paper.

 

Had a bit of time this afternoon, and with a 'never decreasing' to-do list for the truck/camper, I started on a couple of those tasks:

I started with moving the charging cable I use for my phone to underneath the center console and up behind the dash and then through the DMM.

I had my phone charger plugged into the charge port inside of the center console, and then out through the lid and wrapped around the shifter, and then up to my Dashtop Multi-Mount that holds my phone.

This was less than ideal, as the charge cable was all over the place, sorta, and was a bit of an eye sore.

I only took one photo, but I had to Dremel out the radio bezel plastic that these small notches that the DMM manufacturer (Taco Garage I think) leaves available for this exact purpose.

Winter Upgrades V7 by Michael Rickerd, on Flickr

I had to take out the bezel, the shifter surround, the cubby, and the lower/front tray. I gave them all a deep clean while they were out.

Running the cables was straightforward. I now have them popping out at the dash/radio bezel interface. I can feed them down into the space between the radio and the dash if I want an even cleaner look, but I doubt I'll be doing that often.

I put the cooktop in the tray and found out where I needed to install the bolt that the rubber latch will connect to.

Very easy to get this done. I used a chamfered M5 bolt that I secured to the tray by clamping a nut on either side. I had the bolt stick out just enough to capture the entire rubber latch. The chamfered head helps it stay on the bolt. Well, at least that is the idea!

Super easy to use, and semi-minimal in nature. I dig it.

Winter Upgrades V7 by Michael Rickerd, on Flickr

I also ordered a 14AWG 6 ft extension cord so that I can get the cooktop plugged into the inverter.

If you remember, I had the interference issue with the lower bolt, and I was contemplating cutting the (4) legs off of the underside of the cooktop to get it lower in the tray to avoid this interference. I couldn't do that, the legs weren't tall enough, so I simply made a new hole and repositioned the lower mounting bolt to an area that does not interfere with the cooktop. I am now able to shift the cooktop all the way to the left, as I originally intended, without issue. Now the cutouts for the fans underneath don't look out of place.

Next, I decided to start working on this fuel pump sound deadening case, not thinking I would be able to finish it today, but I was able to get it knocked out faster than expected.

I went with the Pelican M40 case, and it barely fits inside of the 'X' brace portion under the bed that the OEM spare tire hanger mechanism attaches too. The Archive Garage Hammer Hanger Cross Brace bolts made it a bit tighter too, but I was able to just work it in there.

I notched out two openings, one on each of the short sides, at an angle, for the fuel lines as that is how the fuel line runs underneath the truck.

I drilled two holes in the appropriate locations to be able to secure the case to (2) existing holes in the previously mentioned 'X' brace. I then secured the bolts to the case with an extra nut so that I did not need to hold the head of the bolt in place to tighten the final nut on each bolt. Attempting to hold the bolt head in place while securing the top nut would have been too tricky.

I cut out various chunks of this now all-too-familiar sound/heat deadening foam, making a little 'bed' for the fuel pump.

This case is not intended to be sealed closed or anything, as the pump had no issues living without a case, completely exposed. I am going through this to hopefully quiet the pump just enough that it becomes inaudible while up in bed. Even before it was quiet enough, but a bit more quiet won't hurt anyone either.

'Filling' the case with foam

Winter Upgrades V7 by Michael Rickerd, on Flickr

Bolted up under the truck. This is as far as the lid will open, but it is enough to secure the hose clamps and plug in the wiring.

Winter Upgrades V7 by Michael Rickerd, on Flickr

All closed up

Winter Upgrades V7 by Michael Rickerd, on Flickr

I did not have time to test it out this evening, but I'll fire it up here sometime in the next week or two and see if it made a difference.

While gathering engine bay temp data, I have had the Dakota Lithium battery just sitting in the garage. It's been out there for just about two months now, and in that time, it went from 100% down to 75% SOC. I have no idea how this compares to a regular SLA car battery, but two months of doing nothing while still being plenty full enough to start the truck is a good sign. I am still on the fence about the lithium starter battery to be totally honest, but we will see. I want some summer time temp data to help solidify my decision. Winter time stuff (70's in Phoenix) is of no concern for engine bay temps. But 110+ might be a different story.

Anyways, another oil change is coming up soon. Speaking of which, I updated post #2 of this thread to be a maintenance tracker and for me to highlight any substantial sub-system changes I have done to the truck over the years. I'll keep this updated into the future.

I also need to do a full detail of the truck, maybe next week, and do some maintenance to the GSA as well.

Until next time friends.

- Mike

 

Alright, time to document more changes:

I had always read that the front needle bearing, drivers side, in the front diff, would need to be upgraded to the ECGS bushing, after a Tacoma had been lifted. I didn't believe this, as my lift was only 2" and after I had installed the lift I noticed no ill effects.

Fast forward ~20,000 miles, and the need for the ECGS bushing upgrade made itself known.

I had no noise of any kind, but I would begin to feel an oscillating vibration in the 30-50 mph range, even on high quality flat roads.

After ignoring it for a bit, I resigned myself to the swap.

Why I didn't have ZUK do this when I had my diffs out for regearing, I do not know.

The bushing and axle seal (bought in case I damaged the relatively new one that ZUK installed, which was not ultimately needed), were ~$110 from ECGS, and they took 6 days to get it in the mail, and then 5 days to make it across the country to me.

They do sell the removal and install tool as well, custom tools that you 100% need to do this job, but a local friend had a set, and a driveway, and the time, and the generosity and experience, to save me another ~$120 on tools I would only need once.

There are lots of YT videos of this process, and I would research those thoroughly if you are doing this yourself.

So we set a date for the install. In the process (pulling the front drivers CV axle basically, then pulling the needle bearing out and hammering the bushing in), you need to drain your front diff. My diff fluid is not very old (~12,000 miles), but my transfer case fluid was OEM, and @Maxx had an account with Amsoil, so he ordered me (8) quarts of Amsoil Severe Duty SAE 75W-85 (a newly released product that matches the OEM viscosity) for both diffs and the transfer case.

I didn't get any photos of the progress, as @Maxx was a very effective mentor, but I did snag one, of the truck in 'hover' mode, as we had to level the truck out while on his angled driveway to fill the diffs and case appropriately.

Winter Upgrades V8 by Michael Rickerd, on Flickr

Everything went very smoothly, thankfully, as messing with the diffs is not my favorite thing to do. Even better, the truck feels like it drives a lot smoother too, and the oscillating vibration is 100% gone, just as they advertised it would be.

The gear oil came in the easy-to-use pouches, another huge plus.

Winter Upgrades V8 by Michael Rickerd, on Flickr

Thanks again @Maxx, you made this very easy. I appreciate your assistance, hospitality, and conversation.

I picked up a set of 320 (+10 spare) TSMI-12 studs for my Coopers. Each tire holds (80) studs. I bought these as an emergency tool just in case we ever come across icy conditions.

There seem to be (2) different types of studs (though I am no expert on this, whatsoever) with one type requiring a gun-like tool to install, while the other type simply screw in. I chose the screw in type, for ease of install and removal.

I didn't do all (4) tires, but it looks like it would take me about (40) minutes to install all 320 studs in the (4) tires.

A bit time consuming, but could come in handy at some point, and they are very light and easy to tuck away. I'll likely never need them, but one of those better to have and not need sort of items, especially at their cost (~$50) and weight/space.

Winter Upgrades V8 by Michael Rickerd, on Flickr

Alright, another large-ish electrical upgrade.

It is a 2-fold tale:

The first tale involves the inverter itself. The cooktop uses 1800w max, and this 2000w inverter could only ever deliver about 1280w (verified with a kill-a-watt meter). These high loads also caused the fans in the inverter to kick on immediately, at full speed. The inverter did work great for our smaller loads, but it couldn't match the needs of the induction cooktop.

This wasn't enough for the cooktop, so I ordered a 3000w inverter so that we would have a bit of a buffer in available wattage for the cooktop. I believe in 'the bigger the better' in this scenario.

I also determined I would need thicker wiring, as 1800w from a 12v battery (13.3v in reality) is about 250 amps. The wiring charts say that you need either a 2/0 wire (big stuff) or (2) 4AWG wires (more wires and connectors). I would also need to step up to a 300A (~1.25 x max load) circuit breaker, which I did. You size your wiring based off of highest expected load, not the max discharge of your batteries, which is 300 amps in my case.

2/0 stuff is pricey, and I already had (1) set of 4AWG wire in the truck, plus I had extra 4AWG wiring and crimps on hand, so I opted to take the 'uglier' route and went with (2) 4AWG wires for the load path of the inverter.

That's the first tale.

The second tale involves the batteries, and my own stupidity.

Way back in the day we started with (1) battery. Not enough juice. Went to (2) batteries wired in parallel (pos to pos, neg to neg, maintains 12v but ups amperage to 200ah). Much better. At that point, I moved the negative wire that grounds down to the frame from the first battery to the second battery, as you do with a parallel battery bank. Positive in one battery, Negative out of the furthest away battery.

All was well, though sometimes one battery would discharge more than the other battery. This wasn't an issue at that point in time.

Fast forward to the addition of the third battery, again in parallel, and again I move the negative to the third battery, as one is supposed to do.

All is well, but as I experiment and pay more attention, I notice that this third battery is doing basically no work, even with massive loads (an 1800w heat gun for example) connected to the 2kw inverter, even running it for 5 or so minutes. One battery was apparently doing all the work.

Eventually, the third battery even stopped appearing in the Renogy DC Home app, which monitors the system.

I immediately thought that I got another bunk battery with another faulty BMS.

While this was occurring and I was thinking through a solution/approach, I was gathering up the supplies for the 3kw inverter install.

And as I was laying out the wiring that I would need to double up I noticed something, and my own idiocy dawned upon me.

You see, I had moved the negative cable that runs down to the frame from the first battery to the third battery.

But this wire exists to close the DC-DC alternator charging loop through the charge controller. That is why the batteries would always charge at basically identical rates.

But this wire does not close the Power Command Center (PCC) circuit! These setups do not even need to be grounded to the frame to function.

And I unknowingly had left the main ground from the PCC affixed to the first battery, the same battery that the positive wiring was coming from.

I basically had (1) battery that had a (2) battery backup attached to it. It would do all of the work, and then the second battery would work to fill the first battery back up. The third battery was so 'far away' that it basically said to heck with it and went into sleep mode.

So yeah. Think about each different circuit/loop that your system has (mine has (2) primary loops) and make sure you move both/all negatives accordingly.

Yeah. I feel like a bit of a goofball for sure.

But, it is rectified now! Adding the second 4AWG to the path the inverter uses, with the PCC ground on the third battery and the PCC positive on the first battery, all (3) batteries appear in the app, and they all charge and are drained down at basically the same rate (within .2 amps), regardless of load on the system.

You learn something new everyday, even about things you built with your own hands and that you thought you previously completely understood.

The 3kw inverter is longer than the 2kw by ~2 inches, and it is about 1.5 inches thicker, width stayed the same.

Winter Upgrades V8 by Michael Rickerd, on Flickr

I need to buy more zip-ties, but it is definitely larger, and the wiring is more messy, but so be it. I need it to perform, and perform it shall.

I went with a cheaper option, as I no longer trust Renogy inverters, and a Redarc 3kw inverter is over $1,100. If this ~$300 version bites the dust prematurely I will then shell out the big bucks for the Redarc. This OLTEANP inverter does have great reviews, with many people using them to power ac's or heaters for hours on end without issue.

Initial testing is great. Delivers 1800w with ease, and the cooling fans did not come on even after 5 minutes at maximum draw from the system. I liked this.

Might as well highlight my induction cooktop findings thus far, as testing is likely at a close for now, as I have no concerns about its impact on our system anymore.

- Average daily draw is 700wh
- Max daily draw was 1780wh (food prep day)
- 2 cups of rice is ~170wh
- (3) bags of Ramen is ~240wh
- 1/2 pound of pasta and sauce is ~440wh
- Longest 'Boil' mode on left burner (maximum draw, only burner that can do 1800w, the right burner is limited to 1000w) was 9 minutes, and that was to do the 1/2 lb. of pasta.
- Typical non-boil setting is level 4 or 240 degrees Fahrenheit, which draws ~800w on and off, with roughly 2/3rds of the time being down at just 5.3w (the screen being lit and the cooling fan running)
- 1.3w while sitting idle
- 5.3w with screen backlit and fan running
- 4.9w with cooling fan running, screen not backlit
- You can easily burn up more energy if you are inattentive
- The timer feature is very handy, as it completely shuts the burner off when the time expires. This works great for rice and steaming foodstuffs.
- Of all the things in the world that have Bluetooth and an app, I wish this thing had BT and an app. I would love to be able to set various, customizable modes, like 'Rice Mode' where it runs on boil for 3 minutes, then automatically changes to 240 degrees for 17 minutes, and then shuts off. I would like to be able to customize the default boil mode timer, as 10 minutes is far too long for our normal use. Maybe a future iteration will have these abilities. We certainly have the tech to make it happen.

Thanks, once again, for reading and for your patience. We are quickly (yet extremely slowly at the same time) making our way towards freedom, and our full-time retirement date has been set in stone. Our plans for the summer are coming along, and we are both very happy for that time to finally arrive. Change is a comin'!

 

Wow what a great build. Definitely one the cleanest 3rd gens out there.

 

Hey, thanks for the compliment, I appreciate that!

I'll have an update in the next week or two I bet. Thanks to everyone for their patience.