Destination Unknown - 2022 JTR journal

[chorky]

Hey Chad--

I'm edging closer to getting a JTM, could happen within a week or so if everything lines up.

I'm debating the fridge in the bed vs the cabin and thinking I would do 40% delete but higher platform to go over the cubby and throw the fridge on there like you have. You did that, right? Anyway, whats the dimensions of your fridge? Looking seriously at the Kick/Ass 75L. Thanks!

Original fridge post # 34, follow up in post 48
Full seat delete post # 153
Yeah it is a tough choice there. Personally I had zero desire to have a fridge in the cab. The cab gets hot in the summer sun even with windows open. Way hotter than the canopy, which just means more energy usage. I also do most my cooking somewhat near the fridge and I didnt' want to have to constantly be opening the door. And now with my new plans in the near future, having the fridge in the back seat area would be a serious hamper (time will reveal). The fridge I have is Engle 45 Combi. It's fantastic. Lowest power draw of any fridge I have researched, reliable, and of course been around for forever. They still use the same rotary compressor and I believe they are now the only company that does, which has less moving parts than a standard compressor and is quieter. At least those are my observations compared to my snow master (but it is a 65L). But there are a lot of really good options and some of the cheapie ones have proven themselves to be pretty darn reliable. It sits on a tembo tusk slide, which is about 2'ish inches larger on all sides than the fridge. Going back I would have made my own - it's super expensive for a simple slide. I would also recommend doing a base plate in the bed to avoid drilling a dozen or so holes in the bed like I did. It's sealed up fine and rust protected but still has the option for future rust, and resale wouldn't be nearly as good with a swim cheese bed. For me it fits perfectly in the bed and is not overly large. And it does not go past the bed centerline which is really nice. But if you have a family, it honestly would probably be a tad small and you might want to size up one or two. I'm single so there is that. https://engelcoolers.com/collections/powered-fridge-freezers/products/45-combi-portable-car-fridge

As for the rear seat delete. Yes I did it myself. I couldn't justify the cost of goose gear for what you get. It's neat and all but I will never understand why people want the platform to be so low to the floor. It seems pretty useless to me. I made mine so it sits on the lip of the little cubby on the drivers side, and then sits on the lip just in front of the sub on the passenger side - so probably similar to what you are considering. It is the perfect height IMO. Plenty of storage under neath for boots, tools, random crap you dont know where to put, fly rod and gear, emergency TP, some spare parts, and general things like rags and window cleaner. I am planning on relocating my tools to under the platform on the passenger side and also installing the chargers for the ugh-duga, chainsaw, and a few other things, so they can be always ready and hard mounted. Can't do that very easily with a super low platform like the goose gear. And, it still leaves some height left where a person could build a secondary shelf if desired and still not obstruct views. The wood is just standard birch, so not the nice baltic stuff. But I will be modifying it sometime soon and covering it with a carpet of some sort. I made a H brace underneath and used a combination of wood glue and screws. So far, zero noise, zero movement, it has been trouble free, quiet, and has L-track so I can secure all my stuff in the back for a rattle/noise free drive even on super bouncy roads.

I quoted my posts below if you wanted to read them.

Well I continued work on a couple more items today.

After really thinking of how to secure the fridge slide to the bed, I finally decided to just drill holes. After all, summer is coming quick and I need to get going on some projects. I had though about making some brackets and slides myself using extruded aluminum to have a lower profile and narrower slide (this one is probably 6-8 inches total wider than the fridge :-( ), but looking at extruded alum options, their slides are SUPER expensive... And I already had this one, so figured to just make it work.

Before drilling any holes I wanted to test fit it. I was surprised to see that the width of the slide unfortunately did not match very nicely with the ridges in the bed. So I used a bolt head and a bunch of washers to figure out what amount of height I needed. It was about 1/2 an inch or so.

After thinking of the best way to deal with this, I ended up opting to just cut a slice of 3/4" plywood I had, paint it really well, and drill corresponding holes. No doubt it will have to be replaced in time, but short of having a sheet of 1/2" thick steel, which would be heavy and expensive, this is the next best thing.

After drilling holes, I took time to clean and paint them to help ward off any oxidizing and rust. Hopefully I am successful in this!!! Time will tell I guess. After letting it cure for a couple of days with the temps being so cold it was time to put things in place. I was hoping another package would arrive home first so I could finish another project, but I am crossing my fingers I can still access needed areas despite the slide being bolted in place - otherwise it will have to come out again.

I added in 2 more holes in the slide itself so that there would be 6 points of contact instead of just 4. The sheet metal the bed is made of is SUPER thin - surprisingly thin. I dont like that at all really. So I opted for a double washer setup - only because I couldn't find a large washer with a small enough hole for the bolts I had. Also using mostly all stainless hardware. Sadly, the large washers are zinc plated because that's all I could find - so I coated them twice with Amsoil HD Metal Protect.

One problem I did create, was one hole was in a not so good location. Fortunately I did not mess up any spot welds. But it did prevent me from being able to use a washer. However, since there are 6 bolts - and it's not carrying a crazy ton of weight, I am hoping it will be ok. At least this portion is through some thicker steel whereas the the other 4 bolts are just the thin piece of sheet metal.

But, it turned out ok. The slide ended up bending just a tad bent from being under load of the bolts, enough so that it doesn't slide super smooth. But I'm sure extra weight of the fridge will help with that - and it is far more important that it be secured to the bed well than to have it loose for a good slide. In hindsight - I should have built my own slide after seeing some of the super awesome options that extruded aluminum offers - but maybe in the future. For now, this will work just fine.

After a few camping trips already this year and a 8 day trip coming soon I decided to change up some storage options in the cab.

If you recall in post # 35 & 39, I previously installed a home made 40% seat delete. At the time I didnt want to commit to a full delete thinking I might have room for a third person. But that is very unlikely and I could really hse the space since the rear seats take up a lot of space.

So, out the went. Along with the center divider

I really wanted a simple system that I could finish this weekend as I have a fee more things arriving that must go on before thursday night. So taking some measurements I cut a plain flat piece And went for a test fit.

Making a couple temporary front panels I wanted to level it out.

It is a perfect fit. So far. I wanted a taller platform to retain a good amount of storage underneath. I really despise having to move things around to grab something, and the floor based panels require you to pack all your stuff on top of itself - which IMO is a terrible design. This should work well

Thinking it would be good to have another support, I cut a center section

I was using 3/4” birch. Which is all the local store had and it turned out to work great. Initially I wanted 1/2” but now that it is together I would have had integrity issues with only 1/2”. At the rear it was resting on the plastic panels. But I wanted to find a way to secure it to the truck unlike the 40% panel I had before. So I made some quick brackets that bolt to the body, and the top could be screwed into. I also needed a 3/4” spacer for the frivers side as this plastic panel is just under a inch shorter than what is on the passenger side

Next I cut out some access panels, and glued and screwed support brackets for the panels. I only wanted access for the rear portion that would be covered by the center support as the open sides allows plenty of access to the main cubbies.

Nest was more gluing and screwing of the support panels. I opted to make a hald center support as well so the panels are structurally sound. Even though the whole system would be screwed down I didnt want the supports to have any wiggle room and risk buckling and failure.

Finally it was time for 3-4 coats of paint before a crazy rain storm dumped half an inch of water!

So in it goes. I am very pleased with how this turned out especially for being done in a day and a half. It is very sturdy, has opened up quite a lot of storage space and is secured well. In the future I probably will add some L-track but for now it will do. It also gave me a spot to mount the CB and GMRS so theyre not just sitting on the floor anymore.

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[BourbonRunner]

Thanks!

Big thing I'm kicking around is putting the fridge in the cab for a couple reasons:

1. I'm not really in a position to spend on a canopy and though the fridge could eventually live in the bed, I still need the bed to do truck stuff. Eventually I'll give up on that and just get a utility trailer and call it a day but that's down the road.

2. That KickAss unit is VERY cheap and very well rated. If I could squeeze that into the cab... perfect setup with a 2-compartment unit. I also like the Anderson connectors built in and that it could live in the bed, too. Plus it comes with an insulating bag.

3. Depending on finances, if I get a canopy, I can theoretically use the bed as a bivouac until I can afford a proper hard shell RTT.

 

[chorky]

Thanks!

Big thing I'm kicking around is putting the fridge in the cab for a couple reasons:

1. I'm not really in a position to spend on a canopy and though the fridge could eventually live in the bed, I still need the bed to do truck stuff. Eventually I'll give up on that and just get a utility trailer and call it a day but that's down the road.

2. That KickAss unit is VERY cheap and very well rated. If I could squeeze that into the cab... perfect setup with a 2-compartment unit. I also like the Anderson connectors built in and that it could live in the bed, too. Plus it comes with an insulating bag.

3. Depending on finances, if I get a canopy, I can theoretically use the bed as a bivouac until I can afford a proper hard shell RTT.

In your case it definitely sounds like the back seats is a good place for the fridge. If I didn't have a canopy I would not have the fridge back there unless I had some type of really high quality tonneau cover.

I have also heard those kickass fridges have some really great reviews, but I haven't seen one in person yet. I say it's worth the risk. Anymore these days they are all really using the same parts, for the most part. The only ones I really ever hear issues about are the costco purchased 'coolers' which are just that, a cooler not a fridge. I dont think you can go wrong here.

Maybe build a cardboard box the size of the fridge and see how it feels in that spot. It always helps I think to have a 3d model when available. I have never really done that myself but I do take significant time measuring, looking, measuring again, pondering, taking pictures - basically anything I can to to help visualize the physical size. You might find it is terrible, but you might find it is totally perfect. Oh and definitely look into those threads about extending the rear door retaining strap. I always have a hard time finding that thread and want to extend my own doors for easier access. But I think doing that will be a huge bonus to having a fridge behind the seat. You can build your own fridge slide out of plywood and amazon slides for WAY cheaper than you can ever buy one and I would recommend that. I got some slides on amazon, same length and overall style as the 'accuslide' that came on the tembo tusk, and I think I paid 60 bucks for them? Compared to the accuslide cost which is something like 375. For basically the same thing. Both stainless, the main difference is the amazon one really can't be taken apart to repair, but I dont see a slide going bad anytime soon. If you make a platform the same size as what I did, or even a tad taller, you will have plenty of room under it for good storage as well, I highly recommend it. I think including screws I was 70 bucks into that rear seat delete. A sheet of basic birch is 50 bucks here now, a dozen or two screws, some paint, and a bottle of wood glue, and a weekend. If you are interested I can get measurements and more pictures, just let me know.

 

[chorky]

A few more things came in the mail today as I continue to work on the bed overhaul - hopefully some big progress made this coming weekend. Thanks to @Turnswrench I picked up the 'mobile' version of Victron's charger/maintainer. After seeing how nice the graph results are and information provided I opted for their perm on board option. This one is only a 17a charger. I will say this charger is very heavy and beefy compared to the previous. All aluminum compared to all plastic. This should be beneficial for me though as last year during sunny days the CTEK charger got so hot I debated unhooking it. The 25a charger was an additional 60 bucks and I don't really see a need for a 25a charger considering my battery capacity is only 230a and I have solar as well. So the mobile one I was testing went on the LJ, while the CTEK will go on the TJ. I also opted for a 15a solar controller - again because they offer a graph and data. It should work fine with the ZAMP solar panels. I opted for a 15a as I only have two 100w panels and there isn't enough real estate currently for a third. The ZAMP dual battery charge controller works just fine, and is nice and simple, so it will likely be repurposed to the TJ. Also, the 30a controller again was an extra 60 bucks. If later on it is needed I can put this on the LJ.

Not pictured is a Victron smart shunt. To keep things consistent I opted for this as well. Knowing it's not really needed I just wanted to play around with various power consumption to see how the batteries perform as it will offer significantly more information than just a voltage readout, as well as having picked up a small inverter.

 

[Turnswrench]

I already miss my Victron battery monitor that I replaced for the new Redarc.

Nice selections!

 

[chorky]

I already miss my Victron battery monitor that I replaced for the new Redarc.

Nice selections!

Doesn't RedArc have the same readouts? Ever since I read about the RedArc issues with operating below freezing temps I just didn't want to deal with any of their components. I hope they have since fixed that though.

 

[Turnswrench]

Doesn't RedArc have the same readouts? Ever since I read about the RedArc issues with operating below freezing temps I just didn't want to deal with any of their components. I hope they have since fixed that though.

It doesn't. It's very limited from a data perspective and the Bluetooth is so freaking glitchy. I have to crawl into the bed and disconnect it from 12v and reconnect to get it to work. The Victron was flawless.

 

[chorky]

It doesn't. It's very limited from a data perspective and the Bluetooth is so freaking glitchy. I have to crawl into the bed and disconnect it from 12v and reconnect to get it to work. The Victron was flawless.

Oh man that is super frustrating. What a bummer.... Maybe you should switch back lol

 

[Turnswrench]

Oh man that is super frustrating. What a bummer.... Maybe you should switch back lol

If it doesn't start acting right, by the end of the season I will.

 

[chorky]

I have been continuing to work on redoing the bed setup but unfortunately it has been going a lot slower than desired. But, today I finally finished up the main electrical. Although I still need to re-attach all the accessories and properly secure the aux batteries cable, and clean up the wires, it is functional! And it looks really clean. Here I added all Victron components. After seeing how neat it was to have the readout of the Victron charger, I relocated that to my LJ and ordered all new components for the JT. Now everything can talk and give great readouts on what is happening. Totally unnecessary, but I wanted to see if my math added up properly in terms of the right aux battery sizing for my application. It will be interesting to see how things actually perform with real numbers instead of basic voltage. So pictured here is a Victron hard mount 17a charger/maintainer (which also has an option to be turned on as a power supply if at a camp ground with power), a Victron 75v/15a solar charger, and a 30a DC/DC. I really was hesitant on getting the DC/DC as my particular application does not need one, and they are quite expensive and unnecessary. But I wanted to do some real world testing - again with numbers that Victron can provide, so took the plunge to test it out. Also pictured is the Victron 500a shunt which gives functional consumption numbers. Not pictured is a second battery selector, and seen is a second fuse block - both items required due to the additional DC/DC and more complicated wiring setup. So far it looks great, and the Zamp panels (2x100w) perform amazing. I am still astonished at how well the Zamp panels perform even with only 1/4 or 1/8th of the panel area seeing direct sun. Even zero direct sun the panels provide enough power to operate the bed lights.

 

[chorky]

I have been pondering more and more how to make this, or something like it, work with my plans for a 30" wide by 15" deep counter top. It needs to go down much lower than this - having it 4' off the ground is just silly and nobody cooks at that height. But I have yet to come up with a functional idea......

It also needs to be able to flip up and be used inside as well when folded away.

 

[chorky]

Making more progress today I mostly finished the new air system setup. There are a few small leaks to tighten down and one air line to replace when new parts arrive but for the most part it is set and functional. I now have an air/water separator as well - hard to see. I realized after separating the tank and compressor a couple years ago that the inside of the air lines were already rusting due to the amount of water generated from temperature differences. So this separator should at least prevent water from building up in the tank and getting into the tires and possibly freezing a valve core. The 25' hose reel is fantastic too. It was a bit of a pita and it is a little flimsy for my taste - so that will need to be fixed, but it will do wonders for making the whole process easier. I realized last year that the 4 tire fill-up really is not as functional as they seem. At the end of the day it takes just as much time doing each tire at a time as it does all 4 at once. Plus it gives you a chance to stand up and walk around from a day full of driving. I am happy about this setup and it is consistent with the rest of the build - making things easier and quicker.

 

[chorky]

The last few days I have been doing some very very basic reviewing of the Victron components - specifically the shunt. The solar charger works as designed and it is fully able to take advantage of my dual 100w 26'ish volt Zamp Obsidian panels. So far even in the lowest of light the panels still put out, and in good light they max out. I purposefully have the JT parked where it only gets about 2 hours of full sun a day, and in those two hours it is enough to fully recharge the batteries. Although, to be fair I am only running the fridge, with no food in it - so amp draw and duty cycle is fairly low, but with hot temps the next couple days it will have a little strain. The Victron components allow you to fully customize all sorts of things, which is fantastic. The Full River FT and DC series batteries charge best at 14.7v. Most solar chargers use the standard of 14.4'ish to my understanding. So I am able to adjust the voltage output of the solar controller, DC/DC, and shore charger to all be at 14.7v.


The DC/DC offers total customization as well in terms of voltage lockout, starting voltage, etc... Although still not necessary for my application I did want to play around with it and see if it might extend battery life and double dip along with the solar charger to ensure a full recharge if the batteries just happen to get down to 30-50% - and with some basic testing, the answer is yes. Not all DC/DC and solar charge combo's will do this.

The app lets you see real time the main bits of information which is pretty cool and fun to monitor, without having to go individually into each device.

By this point I have gone about 17 hours without any sun on the panels

In about 1.5 hours of direct sun the solar fully charged the batteries - not that 25ah of consumption is very much in the first place, but it is quicker than I had expected.

The info the shunt displays is pretty awesome. You can change the graph to show any combination of 5 or 6 different options. I was mostly interested in SOC and current. Knowing that each panel outputs a max of 5.1a, Im' not too concerned about viewing voltage as that's pretty easy to infer. I should also mention this was on a big puffy cloudy day so constant fluctuation of sun/shade/sun - as can be seen by the amperage output.

 

[chorky]

Yesterday, the new Starlink Mini sat antenna arrived. For some initial discussions visit
https://www.jeepgladiatorforum.com/forum/threads/starlink-mini.82693/

This thing is surprisingly small and compact - which is one of a couple reasons I opted for it. Just over the size of a standard piece of paper, and about 1.5" thick, it is barely a couple pounds.

It comes with a pole mount - which is a little weird, a small 110v power adapter (USB-C cable is being manufactured still), 15m of cable, and of course the antenna. The antenna integrates the wifi router into it, so it's not like the standard sat antennas that have the antenna plus a router and two cables. This is all compact into one. In fact it somewhat reminds me of the small arrays we used in group.

It is not (currently) available to everyone and you have to have received a special email invitation to purchase it. That was the main driving factor for me - limited availability. But I am more than willing to bet in the future it will be widely offered. It's a good entry way to test out if this is something I can get use out of. The standard roam plan is $500 for hardware and $150/mo for service (but can be paused by the month as needed). The cost for the Mini Roam is $600 for the hardware, and the plan is $30/mo - it cannot be paused. The details are important so pay attention. You MUST have a residential plan to have this. It is essentially tacked onto your existing home starlink. The Starlink Mini Roam is capped at 50gb /mo but you can opt into more data at $1/gb. With my job I highly doubt I can actually work while camping unless I can also bring 3 32" monitors with me. Maybe a RV or camper some day. But I see this as a potential replacement for the Garmin InReach. I have the Garmin Mini, and though convenient I have become increasingly concerned about their service. I receive almost daily messages of their satellite network having problems or going offline. Usually it is offline only a hour or so, but sometimes over a day. That is enough to cause concern for a 'emergency' device. My dad also has the Garmin Mini and he hardly ever gets signal unless at the top of a hill with no trees - a hard thing to find in western Wa. Their own SAR coverage is also not great. At $35/yr it's a budget option that only covers up to $100,000 worth of expenses. Barely a rotary flight if needed. There are other options in the $350/yr range that have significantly better 'insurance' coverage.

I see this as a great opportunity to keep in touch with people while camping as needed and even do mild work if a fire pops up without having to end a trip early. Seeing as how I now have a rescue critter at home, I need to have a way to stay in touch with anyone who watches her and be able to drive home as needed. The Garmin will work great for general messaging, but having the ability to make wifi phone calls, emails, pictures, and even video messaging if needed is pretty cool.

Some very quick testing yesterday proved that it is more than sufficient. This plan is also caped at a slower speed - I think it tops out at 250mbps download. But that is more than enough for emails and phone calls. It's also sufficient for work even though I have tons of data consumption. I was able to send and receive pictures yesterday, browse the internet, make a phone call, stream a small video, all without any issue. The antenna connects to the satellites significantly faster than my home 'standard' unit and has a wider FOV as well, even having two large trees blocking its optimum view, it obtained signal no problem. Overall, I think this will be plenty sufficient for my needs. And did I mention how small it is?!

I will be curious to see how this handles a heavily forested area though. That is a bit of a concern

 

[chorky]

Today I was finally able to finish the battery box despite the crazy heat. I think it works out pretty well. Of course some tidying up is in order still. Because I'm not sure what, if any, changes will be made again in the future for other longer term plans, I opted to use standard birch rather than baltic since it's cheaper and readily available. I wanted to have a frame so that the batteries could be inspected and/or replaced without having to remove the entire box. Not that that is a big deal, but its nice to open things up quickly for a little inspection.

Thinking about methods to secure the lid and front panel, I chose to try some magnet latches. I do have others on hand in case these dont work, but I wanted to give them a try seeing as how there should not be a lot of force acting against the lid and front panel. Also here you can see that the tie down strap for the batteries also goes just over one of the cross braces for the frame. This occurs on the other side as well. So the battery tie down also serve to secure the box. I was hoping this would be the case, but it was by total chance as I completely failed to measure before gluing things.

The top lid also is secured by magnets. It offers a nice pathway for wires to go. I have yet to secure said wires of course. You can see on the sides the top edge of the frame where the lid sits is about 1 1/4" higher than the side braces. This serves as a pathway for wires as well as air circulation.

All closed up the box blends in nicely with the water tanks. I considered some other colors - possibly tan, but that would be too much contrast. And I am not at all a fan of everything being black, it's too closed in and shows dirt too much. All in all I think this will do well. Tomorrow will be a good test for heat as we will have temps in the triple digits in the shade, and the inside of the canopy today was already pushing 115. I might opt to shut everything down to keep it cool in there.

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