203066 Companion Tech Thread

[MakersTeleMark]

http://www.tetongravity.com/forums/s...-parking-lots/

There's more than you would think that goes into all the little mods we do to our cars/trucks/rv's etc. to help us feel a bit more slack in the away from home country.

This is a thread for that. It doesn't belong in the S/S forum. It's for the tech (or even more fun, un-tech) shit that we do to to our vehicles to deliver us to the goods, whatever, and wherever they may be.

I've got a ton of things I can add to start off, from the mundane (spice rack, nice little LED charging flashlight off of your cig. plug) to the major (those never end). So do you. Whether it be an aux grub kit, some carpentry or netting that made your life a bit easier, a new gadget you found, to the sky is the limit.

So, tech, or not tech folks, here is a thread where you can share your accomplishments/failures/additions/questions regarding living to ski/camp/bike/jerk off with a beer/escape in your vehicle of choice.

Personally, I'll use this thread to document my mods to help me remember, and to share inspiration. I started out with a 'yota pickup, 2 ski poles and a tarp from Campmor, that I hiked the AT with, to cover over the bed of my truck with a flashlight and a MSR. Spent years doing that and never complained.

I've gradually graduated, and find it well worthwhile. Note to you all: I have no background in anything mechanical or electrical. I come from the school of hard knocks figure-it-out-yourself when it comes to anything that I haven't been paid to do in my life (which is a shitton); so don't be scared to ask semi-stupid questions, and let's please keep the thread drift to a minimum (sorry iceman).

Put it all here, from your suspension mods, to your bed padding reccos, to your electrical systems, to your external on demand keg taps, grilling solutions, and even sanitary crap (no pun intended), etc..

Hopefully it will be the WTW/Expo thread of TGR. If you could, every time you post in reference to a specific prior post, please include the post #(s) in the thread to simplify searching [Yes, I hope this one gets really big, and search improves - for serious, I hope that we can pull a mini-expo gathering some time down the road].

For now, I'm adding a big component system to my rig which is to enable the use of the truck battery bank to charge my house battery in the '78 FWC (the "muthercucker"). I've been running it very successfully just off of solar, but since I've got 2 1000amp batts. and 2 alts in the front, I might as well tap into those to make sure the cloudy days aren't cloudy. I picked all the parts out from a million websites and have scrambled up my own concoction (you'll see this is a theme).

Here's tonight's mental project. I've been working on this in my head for awhile and needed to put it to paper since I got all the parts in the glorious PO Box tonight to do it. I'm a classic bar napkin sketcher, so this mode suits me well (another theme you'll recognize).

[Conundrum]

Your diagram appears to have some flow arrows going the wrong direction but I might be reading it wrong ie no + power flowing into the truck battery. I just went with a simple isolator for my dual battery but I have no solar or very much running off the house.

I ran a switch so I can shut the house power off and a switch so my stereo can either run on the main or the house. My winch is wired directly to the yellow top house. My CB, stereo and cig outlet also run off the house. I have a 400 watt inverter that plugs into the house or main cig outlet. Normal car operation and KCs are off the main.

The dome and back lights run off the main. My gf found some cheap swiveling LEDs that run off AAs that we put in the "living area". They are detachable which is why we went with the AA power source. We use rechargeables in those.

Cool thread. As I have more time, I'll post more pics and things I have done to Tina Falkore (my '78 E250). I've been spending a lot of time on expo and sportsmobile.

[MakersTeleMark]

The truck batteries are charged by the alts. I left those out as they weren't relevant to tying the systems together. Also, if for some wild reason the house battery is receiving a charge that is greater than the truck, the relay will sense that and send power back to the truck batts.

I've got 2 stereo systems, one simple 4 speaker setup for the truck cab with a head unit, the other a 800w amp system in the house set up to just run off of my mp3 player or laptop (makes a killer sound system for watching movies at night), each powered by their respective circuits. CB is powered by the truck batt. The 800w pure sine wave inverter is powered by the house. All lighting is LED, either replaced existing fixtures with LED bulbs, but have also added 2 interior LED fixtures and a big LED flood for out the back.

[Conundrum]

That makes sense.

[MakersTeleMark]

A couple of mods in the last week:

Replaced the old analog dial thermostat with a digital one $20 @ HomoDepot. Couple of benefits: more accurate temp. match, can set cycle time (e.g. >12 mins.), can view ambient temp, can program heating cycles.



Picked up a propane adapter that lets me use coleman like appliances off of my big tank, including this handy dandy torch attachment.



A simple spice rack, I cook a lot in the camper:



Bought some folding shelf brackets ($11) and picked up a cutting board from Wally World. Reinforced the mounting backs with 3/4" ply and now I've got some much needed expanded space for cooking prep, etc. and it takes up no space.





Extended the exterior spigot for my water tank to make it easier to fill bottles, wash hands outside:



Installed 40 lb. struts which makes lifting the popup completely effortless:



Found a hose for my grey water outlet from my sink. Turns out a standard dishwasher to sink hose (4') fits perfectly. Now the sink doesn't drain onto the side of the truck, and I can collect the grey water if necessary.

[MakersTeleMark]

Nice little mod today.

Found a heavy stainless steel loaf pan online:



A quick trip to Ace for some hardware (clasps, handle, nuts & bolts), grabbed an old clamp and a bent a jeep license plate bracket, and viola, road food baby! Perfect for hot dogs, burritos, corn, whatever.

[MakersTeleMark]

Very comfy mod last night and today. Got rid of the old hand-pump faucet and replaced it with a nice 12v electric swiveling Shurflo faucet and pump. Fabbed up a nice mounting plate, replaced and re-did all the plumbing, and wired in the faucet (internal switch, on demand adjustable flow H2O) and a redundant external led rocker as a backup to make sure the faucet and pump don't run by themselves while on the road.

Running water in the camper without having to do the old one-arm pump (really tough to wash hands and dishes) is a big improvement. I'm psyched. Not a tough mod at all. I'll post some pics down the road.

Also lined the threads on the external spigot with some teflon tape to address some drops leaking from the connections. Really tight now. Water system - golden.

[MakersTeleMark]

With springtime coming, lots of mods over the past week or so. Made a ton of battery cables from scratch, and fished a lot of 2 ga. wire. Overbuilt it somewhat, but a lot of these connections are capable of carrying starting loads, and I wanted to minimize voltage drop. Man, copper lugs and cable have really gotten expensive!

The faucet and mounting plate that I rigged up which replaced the hand pump. Variable speed rate switch on faucet connected to a shurflo pump I plumbed and wired in:



Extra LED illuminated switch for the faucet so I'm sure it doesn't get turned on accidentally at the faucet head:



Made new battery terminals, switch over to military ones which make it easy to add accessory wire to posts:



Automatic charging relay which senses the voltage on my truck battery bank and house battery. Once the alternators are charging the truck bank, it will also charge the camper battery and will isolate during starting (wired to starter relay) and when the alts aren't feeding the truck bank; it also senses input from my solar panel to the camper battery and sends excess back to my engine batteries once the house battery is fully charged:



Remote LED indicator in truck cab to let me know the relay is active:



150 amp fuse from the relay under the hood protecting the truck battery bank:



Installed heavy duty + and - bus bars in the camper to clean up the wiring, along with a 3 way perko switch that allows me to kill the relay when I want to, and allows the camper battery to assist in starting the truck battery (forced combine) if one of the truck batteries is dead, along with another 150 amp fuse protecting the house battery:



Installed 2 steel fold down steps through the camper frame to make it easier to climb up the roof: