187 replies to this topic

[Hodakaguy]

Quick after work upgrade.  On our last outing I noticed that the USB charge ports in the camper charged my phone and tablet very slowly, there is no rating printed on the factory USB units so I assume they are cheap low amperage chargers.

Time to upgrade!

Here's the factory USB chargers, taken as I'm removing them from the camper.






I'll be installing two Blue Sea 4.8A chargers.  I've used these before and they work great.




The new Blue Sea charger next to the removed factory unit.




Marine heat shrink terminals installed on the factory wiring and new chargers going in.






And all installed...ready to charge up our gadgets while we travel.








Hodakaguy

[Hodakaguy]

Time for a TPAM mount power upgrade.

Just like the camper the TPAM mount came with a cheap low power USB charger that won't charge my Garmin Montana and charges the phone very slowly.  I'll swap this unit out with a Blue Sea 4.8A unit (2.4A per channel).  NOTE:  Jeff from ExpeditionEssentials seen my post and may start offering the Blue Sea chargers with the TPAM when you order....Nice.

First removed the TPAM from the truck.  Here you can see the low power charger I'll be replacing.  It's quickly removed from the mount.






Now a little back story on my install:  I originally planned on using a Blue Sea 4.8A round charger that I already had on hand, Just like the ones I installed in the camper.  I figured I would file some notches in the TPAM mount to allow use of the round charger in the factory square cutout, I would then fabricate a cover plate to cover any gaps on the sides of the charger. Filing the notches and installing the round charger went to plan but I failed to notice the charger was to long and would hit the dash when trying to install the unit back onto the truck......Time for Plan B. I ordered a square Blue Sea 1039 charger which is a direct replacement (should have just started with this unit) and fabricated a small aluminum cover plate to cover up the half round notches I had previously filed into the TPAM, if I hadn't done that it would have been a 5 minute plug and play job!  Oh Well...what I get for not thinking things all the way through :-)

The notches I cut in for the round charger.




Here's the square Blue Sea charger next to the original unit.






Time to fabricate a cover plate to hide the half round notches I filed into the TPAM mount.  A small chunk of aluminum will do nicely.






And painted a matching textured black.




New charger installed in the TPAM mount.  I need to trim the rubber gasket on the back of the charger a bit so it doesn't stick out past my cover plate.









This charger is also slightly longer than the original unit, to give a little extra clearance between the electrical connections and the dash I bent the tabs upward on the back of the charger.




And all mounted back up.  My Montana is now happily charging :-).  Overall a quick and easy upgrade (If you don't try and make it fit a round charger lol).



Hodakaguy

[ETAV8R]

That is so cool.

[Hodakaguy]

Sunday night and not ready for the weekend to be over?  Wife wants to camp out in the Swift tonight...in the Shop.  Sounds like fun to me :-)






Hodakaguy

[Hodakaguy]

Manual Control over the factory ACR: I want to be able to force the camper to stay separated from the truck batteries under certain conditions. I'm currently running 4 AGM batteries total, two in the camper and two under the hood of the truck. Currently I have 180W of solar on the roof and the solar charge controller will bring all 4 batteries up to 14.7V which is great for proper charge/maint on AGM batteries.

When I'm camping in the same spot for several days and not driving the vehicle and there is limited sun I want all the available charge from the solar controller going into the two camper batteries only, with limited sunlight I don't need any current going up to the truck batts. You can force the factory Blue Sea ACR off by disconnecting the ground wire going to the ACR. With the ground disconnected the ACR cannot sense voltage on either battery bank and will go open, thereby disconnecting the battery banks and separating the camper batteries from the truck batteries.

Since I have my ARB fridge located over the access door to the ACR it makes it inconvenient to access the ARC and lift the ground wire.....Time to install a switch. This morning I installed a Blue Sea Manual ACR switch that I can easily access without moving the fridge, with the switch located in this position I can reach into the camper from the door and turn the ACR on of off in needed. The switch just connects/disconnects the factory ground wire going to the ACR.

Another option would be to replace the factory ACR with a Blue Sea M-ACR that has full manual control. With the M-ACR you can use the same switch I installed to force the ACR Off, On or place it in Automatic. With my power usage I don't expect the need to manually combine the truck aux batt with the camper batteries so the factory ACR and my manual switch should do the trick.


The Blue Sea M-ACR Switch.  Any switch will do for this application, I already had this switch so I'll use it.  I like that the rocker portion is guarded to resist against accidental switch changes and that if I decide down the road to install a M-ACR I'm all ready to go.  Here I'm starting to fabricate a mounting plate for the switch, the wood is to thick for the switch to mount into so I'll fabricate a plate to attach the switch to then screw the plate onto the wood.








All painted up and ready to install.




Hole drilled in the wood and all mounted up.  Switch is wired up to break the ground going to the ACR.  You can see the rest of the factory spaghetti mess wiring here as well lol.




This location is easy to access and out of the way.  It's nice having easy manual control of the ACR when needed.








I need to start getting my fathers electrical system caught up to mine.  Starting today by installing the NorthStar Group 31M on the drivers side.  Here's the factory battery setup.






Factory battery removed.




Installing the PelfreyBilt Stainless Steel group 31 battery tray.....fits like a glove!  In these shots you can see the stainless studs that we welded onto the top portion of the retaining strap to mount the ACR onto.






The Blue Sea M-ACR mounted into place on the battery tray.



More to come soon.

Hodakaguy

[Hodakaguy]

Installed the passenger side Group 35 Northstar Batt in my fathers truck this morning.

First up I drilled a hole and inserted a Rivet Nut to secure the bottom of the OffGridEnginnering Aluminum Mount.  As I found out on my mount OffGridEngineering made this mount for the second Gen and decided not to relocate the lower hole to the proper location for the 3rd Gen trucks.  The mount seems to flex more than my liking without the lower bolt so adding the Rivet Nut allows the mount to be secured properly again.

The Rivet Nut Tool, here a Rivet Nut is inserted on the end of the tool and ready to be put in the truck.






And the Rivet Nut installed in the truck.  There is a hole very close to where the Rivet Nut needs to be inserted, the hole just needs to be enlarged towards the rear of the truck a bit to accept the Rivet Nut.




Battery Mount bolted into the truck.






And the battery securely in place.






Wiring to come soon....

And now a Quick fix for the factory screen door slider: The factory clear plastic slider on our screen door is frustrating at best. When you go to slide it I've found that you have to put even pressure on the upper and lower finger holds while sliding otherwise the slider often binds and doesn't want to slide..... Time for a fix.

Here's a few pictures of the clear factory slider panel.  You can see the molded finger grabs in these pics, they work ok if you grab both of them at the same time but the slider often binds when using only one.








And now the fix.  I Went to the hardware store and picked out two matching drawer pulls.  Pick ones that have a wide flared base for better support.





I cut one of the bolts down so that each half of the bolt threads almost completely into each pull. Screw the bolt into one of the knobs and mark where it bottoms out (Black marker), then doubled the length and cut the bolt just shy of the total so it leaves enough space to tighten the knobs together tightly without them binding.






Next I Drilled a hole in the door slider right between the two factory finger holds





 

Continued Below....

[Hodakaguy]

Continued from above...

 

Applied LocTite on the threads and installed the new knob assembly onto the slider.


















The slider now slides smooth every time using the new knob since your applying pressure evenly on the top and bottom of the slider, it's also a lot easier to grab than the factory finger holds. The knob has plenty of clearance and doesn't interfere with anything. This will make the screen door a lot nicer to use and cost only $3!

Hodakaguy

[Hodakaguy]

What’s better on the rear camper door than...well a vinyl graphic of your own truck lol.   A member on another forum made up a graphic out of one of my photo's and sent it to me, I used that image to cut the sticker out on a Plotter.

Doesn't look as plain now.








Hodakaguy

[craig333]

Nice, won't have to wonder "is that who I think it is?" while running off the road trying to get a good look

[Advmoto18]

Thanks for all the great ideas so far Hodakaguy!!!

 

I've upgraded:

1.   Radio knobs installed

2.  Ordered the TPAM with the BS 1039 from Jeff

3.  And have a custom made ACR switch plate inbound

 

Now only to find a good gear shop to install the Nitro 4.88!  Needs to be local to half day drive away.  Shipping the unit is cost prohibitive.

 

Bill