Mikemike’s shanty

[mr.mindless]

Heater exhaust wrapped. Still gets to 250F when it’s cranking. Exiting through aluminum door

Chargers mounted to a rack shelf. Room for an additional solar controller if I want to add more panels.

Test fitting

Initial arrangement was a poor choice and wasted some cable and ends. Could not make it tidy at all with things on top of the batteries.
Exhaust fitting installed and door reinstalled. Top of the door is spray foam, had been bare naked vents.

Magic cleaner.

Mess

Final arrangement with mounted bus bars + & -
Fuses are Marine Rated Battery Fuse type. Kinda big but I think I’m a fan.


That’s about where it sits until I get home, pass out, and don’t touch it lol

[M]

I dont think I've seen that on a truck yet. Any pics of that?

[mr.mindless]

New to old. Last is when I first picked it up




Test camp in Fingerlakes natl forest

I can dump right at home

[etk300ex]

man that's a big unit!

[M]

get a toilet plunger and use it to pop those dents out! 

[mr.mindless]

Creased and cracked paint. Long ago deer damage. It’s fine.

Will get fixed if I repaint the rockers and pinch weld. Rust just starting to show

[mr.mindless]

Almost ready for interior reassembly.

I took apart the back side of the cabinet above the sink for running a couple wires.

Got the inverter in and fully wired. Seems to run the aircon and claimed 7 hours run time. Need to be careful about fridge - it draws 30 amps off the batteries running on ac.

I gave myself a pretty complex problem and successfully solved it. I added a manual transfer switch ahead of the automatic transfer switch (which gives generator priority over shore power) so I can select shore or inverter source, and added an outlet that is selected between generator or shore but never inverter.

Didn’t get the roof washed today, might just spot clean it to work on solar panel wiring and panels while it rains. Running the wiring from the roof to the breakers is the last thing needed before buttoning up the interior.

[M4wdFab]

gona make AOAA this weekend or?

[mr.mindless]

still catching up from my month sick, I don't think so. hopefully get close to finishing this up and maybe get the snow tires off and make sure things are ready for overdue inspections

[mr.mindless]

so where I left this sitting after sickness and Ram failure was with a couple small open roof penetrations, and a need to run wiring back from those roof penetrations to the solar charge controller.

Need to punch a few feet through roof foamcore if I can to cross the ceiling directly, then spot clean a couple places and glue down the glands. Once that's sealed up, get the camper outside, wash the roof really well, then install the panels. They're semiflexible and will get a couple screws around the edges and butyl tape underneath. Make up a couple solar plugs, triple check polarity, and should be wrapped up??

Seems like a couple days' work if I remember right exactly where I left off.
I want to get jack extensions made up for ease of gooseneck on/off too, and there might be a couple other lil things

[mr.mindless]

snows mentioned above came off like 4 days ago, and things might be entirely ready for stickers?

[mr.mindless]

So far this week, got the interior put back together but not cleaned up and have 2 of the 4 panels final mounted on the roof.
Ended up unable to go through the foamcore, there's support structure in the way somewhere around the skylight that I could not get over or under, so the TV antenna hole got sealed up and foamed, and the wiring has to run across the exterior.

Tonight I'll reseal the roof to front cap joint that I cleaned out last thing yesterday and get the last 2 panels mounted, and wiring final run.

Should have a test run at Erik's party saturday into sunday.

I did have it outside with all panels on the roof and I was able to top out 50 amp charge capacity with clear midday sun. not sure how much I'm giving up, but I bet 20+ amps. I could easily add another charge controller to split the 2 strings, and have enough overhead in voltage to add a third panel to either string for more capacity. I wouldn't need to change anything to add one more, to add 2 more I'd need to remove the luggage rack and replace part of it with a handhold to be able to get up the factory ladder. If I did that, I could probably hold up the AC with solar alone in bright sun - it draws 80a through the inverter. No sun, it would run for something around 4 hours on batteries. Only have tested that for about 40 minutes but everything stayed cool and happy. The hottest running component I have is the 30 amp 120vac battery charger. It'll keep it warm in the cabinet for sure when bulk charging for better or worse.

[mr.mindless]

done?

not cleaned up inside but roof is done, all sealed and resealed and mounted. will go on the truck and fill water tomorrow.

[mr.mindless]

Ran the ac all night at 73ish. Woke up to 21% battery.

Not much headroom but very serviceable. And outside of aircon use, that’s more power than I’ll ever need.

Cool

[mr.mindless]

After a couple cycles the batteries’ BMS all roughly agree and agree with the battery monitor. 29-31% according to the batteries and 27% by the shunt.

Leaving the camper
Up and out and running, curious to see where battery charge will end up. I parked in partial shade in the house driveway.

I need to check my 12-12 charger, it doesn’t see power from the truck now so no charging from the trailer wiring circuit presently.
That and a pissed off fridge were the only issues at all. The fridge door wasn’t shut all the way when I first started cooking it down and I think something froze up. The freezer was fine but the fridge took another 20-30 hours to cool off after I closed the door. It’s good again now.

Couple pictures of the outfitting

Diesel heater mounted to the side of the oven, exhaust through the metal battery door






Chargers mounted to a rack shelf that goes between the batteries and hot water heater. Predrilled for second solar controller to the right of the first. The tall box is the 30a 120v charger and the adjustable 40a 12-12 is on the back side.


The jumpers aren’t on but fur blocks are mounted and feed and load wires installed.

I don’t currently have a battery disconnect. I probably should add one, the easy place will be between the shunt and the grounds. Will need to do minimum 200a continuous, I’ve seen 125 drawn from inverter loads.