samiam | One Thing Leads To Another

My side rails are 55". They cut easily with a fresh hacksaw blade.

 

Oh, and this arrived today.

 

Operation Solar-Powered Fridge

I have started a new project. I am placing a fridge on my back seat and it will be powered by a solar panel located on my roof rack and a battery behind the rear seat. I've wanted to do this for a few years so I'm pretty excited to get started.

My parts list is as follows.

Dometic CFX 40W
Renogy 100 Watt Solar Panel
Optima Blue Top Group 34 Battery
Renogy Voyager 20 Amp Charge Controller

The solar panel arrived yesterday with the mounting brackets. The panel will be attached to my roof rack with the Renogy brackets along with brackets that I made. Test fitted this afternoon.



Homemade brackets for the underside of the crossbars.


Now just waiting for the other stuff to arrive.

 

Awesome man I am considering the same thing.

 

Thanks man. Can't wait for it all to come together.

 

Good progress today.





The homemade brackets worked marvelously.


Solar panel cables run inside through a rubber grommet.

 

Love the brackets and clean wiring!

 

Thanks Nick

 

The fridge arrived last Wednesday, and I really like it. With good sunlight the charging system keeps up very well. I need to construct a platform for the fridge soon.





...and promtly went for a three day camping trip the next day. We missed the deluge by minutes, but flood waters going strong.





My friend's dog wanting to drive.



"Casa De samiam"

 

Love the pics and your camp furniture! Looking Sharp. The kitchen on the swing gate table is rad.

Glad to hear solar does well with fridge.

 

I love the kitchen on the swing gate, but like you, the swing gate is a real pain in day to day life, but I deal with it because I need the tire carrier.

 

Nice layout man! What size awning is that? Can’t wait to get my swingout and RTT.

 

It's a 6' footer.

 

Platform for my fridge is complete. Building it was the culmination of the extent of my wood working skills, which doesn't add up to much.

I completely removed the small section of the rear seat and used the mounting points for the seat to anchor the platform and fridge. Also added D-rings to the bolts for tie-downs.



Plastic spacers used to level the platform

 

I also added a set of 5160's a couple of weeks ago.

 

I went out for a couple nights this past weekend up to Williams again, but this time I thought I'd try my hand at towing. I bought a Honda Pioneer a year ago, but this would be the first time towing for me (ever). My suspension handled the weight extremely well, but I definitely need to look at lower gears, and I think an aluminum radiator upgrade is going to happen soon. I needed a 10" drop hitch to get the trailer almost level. The hitch pin holes in the receiver of my HC Relentless bumper were not drilled level across so I had to drill one hole out to get the pin through.





A few pics of Sycamore Canyon




San Francisco Peaks (Flagstaff) to the north.

 

I run my fridge in my truck full time, and have realized that good, constant sunlight for my solar panel is hard to get. So a Ctek D250SA is on it's way so I can charge from my alternator while driving.

 

I installed the Ctek charger and connnected it to the aux battery and solar panel, but I under estimated the amount of cable needed to run to the starting battery so that will wait a couple of days.

 

It's been a busy week working on the truck.

New Moog branded LCA's installed along with new wheel bearings. I'll rebuild the OEM LCA's with Whilteline bushings in the near future.


Today I installed Bilstein 6112's with King 650# coils using the truck to compress the springs onto the shocks. It was much easier than expected.


I placed the circlip on the 3rd notch.

 

Great work Sam!