Tucson tortoise: Edit for photos

[KCStudly]

Milestone achieved!

The shadows make me think of Maori facial tattoos.

[OP827]

Looks great!

[noseoil]

After our recent trip to the Gila hot springs in New Mexico (see Trips, Pics & Highway tales), the DVD player had bounced around enough on the top shelf to unplug itself (take 35 in, not 15!). I decided to use a bungie cord to hold it in place & it's better now. It has a stop knot on one end & a hook for the screw-eye on the other. It's good to hold things in place & hold a DVD or two on top as well.

Ran a new HDMI cable that was longer (just in case) and had to move the TV on its mount to open the access panel, which is a door to the back of the wiring chase.

Here's what the back of the PD4045 looks like, with the TV in the "down" position & the wiring where it all comes together (lights, solar, stereo, etc.), access panel is open, as well as the top cover inside the back of the shelf. It's 10# of you-know-what in a 5# bag.


The most recent addition to this mess is in the top-left corner. It's the 3rd brake light control module which takes the wires from the stop-turn signals on both sides of the lights & converts them to make the 3rd brake light work without having it blink, if brakes are applied & the turn signals are being used at the same time.


This could have been done a bit neater, but it all works well enough.

There are still a few 12 volt circuits available in the PD4045. The red wires with tape on the ends are the open circuits without fuses in place. It's really a nice panel to use & install, just a PITA if there as many things going on as we have in our camper.

Here's a list of things we have & use regularly
2 - Cabin reading lights (all lights are LED type)
2 - Cabin dome lights
2 - Porch lights
1 - MaxxAir 10 speed fan
3 - USB charging ports, 2 cabin, 1 galley
2 - 12 volt car-type plugs, 1 galley, 1 cabin
1 - Car stereo with amplified shark fin antenna
1 - 22" flat screen TV
1 - BluRay DVD player
1 - Sound bar (35 watt)
1 - Small inverter for TV system in cabin (200 watt PSW)
1 - Large inverter for the galley (1000 watt PSW)
1 - 100 watt solar panel
1 - 110v galley outlet from the inverter (coffee grinder)
1 - 110v galley outlet for shore power
1 - 110v headboard outlet for AC unit
1 - Group 27 AGM battery
1 - Large size bit of Luck to make it all stay working!

[noseoil]

Doing some finishing things this weekend. Had to scribe the shelves a little, since the sides had a slight bow to them. They fit better now. Here's how they look, one on each side. The laminate matches the galley counter, off-cut pieces.


Working on some cabinet doors. Simple frame & panel construction with 1/8" BB inserts & 4/4 alder for the frames.


I did the stain & finish of the 1/8" first, so I can get a better finish & make sure they look OK once the doors go in place. Too many corners to stain & finish, so this is easier to have them look nice.



Sanding & finishing starts tomorrow, ugh.

[dales133]

Doors look great man.
Sounxs like im not the only one that went a bit mad on electrics , how many AH is a group 27?
We dont measure battery sizes here the same it seems

[ratrod71]

I sure do admire your work. I have been following your build. Nicely done! Bryan

[KCStudly]

Doors look great and I dig your side table, too!

[noseoil]

Thanks guys, nice to get positive feedback on the build. Slowly but surely! The shelves were done last year & have been sitting around, so I finally scribed them against the aluminum to get a good fit. I glued some of that shelf stuff (non-skid, like they use under bar glasses) with contact cement at the edge where the paint could get scratched.

The triangles are set on the shelf bottom with small lengths of piano hinge. Also, put some blocking in place before the skins were put on outside, to take up the load from the bracket pushing against the aluminum. They're actually pretty solid, once there's a bit of weight on them.


A group 27 AGM battery is about 89 A/H, according to Trojan & their specs from the web page. We never seem to run out of power with ours, at least not so far. I'll be curious to see how long it lasts with the duty cycles it has to endure. Hoping to get 8 years out of it, with a bit of luck.

Edit: It's now 2019 & the battery is showing signs of age. It's charging well enough, but has less ability to hold the charge & keep it. Will be looking at a new one in the next year or so, just not sure how much longer it will last. Perhaps next spring will tell us what we need to know when we take the trailer out in May for another journey.

[dales133]

Thanks for that mate.
What aort of discharge rates were you thinking of taking it to?
Im probably going to put in 100ah as the cost is hardly different from an 80 but 120ah is a decent jump up.
Ive just wired the landcrusier up with rear power so i can tap into the charge system and second 100ah battery in there.
Love those table too

[noseoil]

I did one test of the system, battery & inverter. Made a pot of coffee with just the battery (used a 900 watt electric coffee pot). It used 25-30% of the battery charge in about 20 minutes. That's about an 83 amp draw, when it was running. I'm not doing that again as I would consider it to be abuse of the battery. Still nice to know it all worked as planned.

Usual loads are TV or stereo, lights, phone charging & fan. We slept out last night & had the fan running on low (30%) for about 8 hours. Took the battery down about 10% (12.6 volts before the sun came up) with reading lights etc. for the entire night. Came right back today with the sun, so all's well. The 100 watt panel brings it back pretty quickly & seems about right for what we need on a daily basis. We're planning on a trip this summer which should give us a better idea of battery use & charging. No charge circuit from the truck, just the solar panel or shore power.

[dales133]

Nice. Ill get solar panels at some stage but im going to run a 40 L fridge and inverter in the back of the truck perminantly and wasnt much more work to run an anderson plug to the rear at the same time.
Besides i had all the interior panels and draws out to rewire the trailer light plug on the crusier anyway
The whole 12v power consumption / charge and discharge thing is very new to me so apreciate the info

[McGuffin]

Hi Tim,

It's great that you have all the electrics so well sorted out now and you can feel confident that it'll all work when you are off the grid. It's a credit to you that you have it all working so well.

I chickened out using a 12V system - instead just going for a shore power hook up. I intend to be going to serviced campsites so I just decided not to go the 12V route. But even then - I can't get over how much wiring is involved.

Larry

[noseoil]

Hi Larry & yes, the wiring is a PITA to sort at times, but with the 12 volts run, everything works well enough & makes it easy to run the ceiling fan at night. We like the idea of being able to sleep comfortably during trips without shore power.

We live in the west in the U.S. (many long roads, open spaces, national parks & forests for camping) so there are lots of opportunities for being out & away from people & campgrounds. For us it just makes sense to have it available.

This summer we're putting it to a test to see how things hold up for longer trips. July to Wyoming, August I'm going up to Bonneville again to watch racing on the Salt Flats.

Next month I'm retiring!

[KCStudly]

...August I'm going up to Bonneville again to watch racing on the Salt Flats.

Next month I'm retiring!

You dog!!! I'm not sure which of these two I envy most.

[azgreg]

Bonneville is on my bucket list.




So is retiring.