A new hope ... (build journal and component reviews)

[cug]

Sounds like a good idea. I have the BROG attic installed, not going to change that, but I like your idea as well.

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[cug]

So, the next steps are coming up:

Canopy Camper Install

Alu Cab Canopy Camper gets installed this coming week. We are dropping off the truck at the shop on Tuesday and will pick it up about a week later. Shop will also do some "advanced sealing" of the truck bed and cabin, will have to see how well this works.

When we get the truck back with the installed cabin we'll do some water intrusion testing here at home and will seal what still might need sealing, but I'm confident we can get this reasonably tight. Then it's on to building out the interior.

Rear Seat Delete

We will take the rear seats out and build a 60/40 split platform, so that we can decide to leave either side in as needed and re-install a seat on the other or use the whole width for storage. I'm planning a "high platform", that leaves just enough space for the fridge to fully open. The fridge will sit behind the passenger seat, lengthwise in driving direction, and open so that it's convenient from the passenger side rear door. We have the fridge already for a few years now and really want to keep using it. It's a Dometic CFX55IM, 55L fridge, we rarely ever use the ice maker, but it's a great party gimmick to be able to make ice cubes on demand.

We'll build the platform in a way that maximizes space underneath, but will let the fridge open completely, so far we've measured only, it looks okay from a space perspective. We'll lose some room for the passenger seat, but there is enough room left for me to comfortably sit (I'm 6' with long legs) and have the seat back at a comfortable tilt. Obviously we'll move the fridge as far back as possible, but the seat connections to the rear wall are a bit in the way there. We'll see how this turns out. Power for the fridge will come from a Jackery 500 for the time being, we have it already and it makes for a simple install for now.

I have some very preliminary plans for this right now, more will be developed on the fly when we have the truck back and in the driveway and I can start cutting ...

Electrics in the Camper

I have the plan and most of the components now. We decided to go with an integrated Redarc System from GP Factor which fits in the rear corner of the Canopy Camper. I could have done a simpler system myself but I wanted to save some time and work since we are also doing the rest of the build-out ourselves, without ready made components.

The system will consist of:

• GP Factor Redarc System with Redvision, Redvision Display and Manager 30. This will give us 30A DC charging, solar, as well as shore power (if needed). The system is pre-wired to easily install into the Canopy Camper with the wiring for lights, USB, solar already done, I only need to crimp some connectors onto the camper wiring and install the panel.
• A Redarc 2000W inverter to run AC loads (mostly induction cooking).
• 2x 100Ah LiFePo4 batteries, with integrated BMS, temperature protection and self heating.
• Solar on the roof (have yet to decide on panels and installation).
• The various odds and ends of such an install.
• Optional: if we find, that 30A DC charging in combination with solar through the Manager 30 is not enough, I will leave space for a secondary DC to DC charger which would give us an overall 55A charging capacity. Although currently I doubt that we'll need this.

Wiring diagram is mostly done as well, should be okay as is (see below, it's a simple drawing, I'm no electrician, it gets the meaning across for myself, even though it might not use the "correct" symbols).

Other than some of the fuses and the batteries, I have most stuff here now. I'll start a test install on a project board towards the end of the week to figure out how much space I need for everything and where in the cabin it can be placed. The general idea is to have the batteries on the driver side towards the front of the bed, next to the wheel well in a cabinet. Then a shelf on top of that for most of the fuses, switches and initial cabling, with the inverter mounted in the rear driver side corner, underneath the GP Factor "corner unit", probably about four feet of thick gauge wiring away from the bus bars. There it is conveniently placed to plug in the induction plate for cooking on a table mounted to the rear door (another project I'll have to look into).

Induction Cooking Tests

Over the last 10 days we have now done some testing with an induction plate and a Kill-A-Watt meter here at home, which lead to the following results, all converted to used capacity from the batteries, inverter ineffiency not yet included:

Task	Ah needed
Boiling water for coffee or tea for two people, three to four times a day	5Ah per two big mugs
Cooking scrambled eggs, no other incredients, we will do this only sometimes, not every day	5Ah
Cooking a one pan dish with chicken, vegetables, rice (pre-cooked rice)	up to 40Ah (but that's an upper limit, did it twice, one was around 30Ah, the other around 37Ah, it depends on the incredients)
Cooking noodles for two	15Ah
Re-heating left overs	5Ah to 10Ah
Scrambled eggs with veggies (including mushrooms which take rather long on high(ish) heat to evaparate moisture and cook down a bit)	20Ah

Given that we normally eat cold breakfast at camp, with coffee for two, then have bread, cheese, snacks, cold tortilla wraps or similar during the day, have one or two more coffee/tea stops, then cook a dinner with some more tea, that results in an average of about 50Ah for cooking tasks. Add some inverter overhead (TBD), and some smaller consumers like lights and USB (remember, fridge is on separate system), I don't expect to use much more than 60Ah in any average day with a high of about 80Ah.

That means that an average of two to three hours of driving would be sufficient to recharge the batteries. Given that I plan on roughly 150 to 200W of solar on the roof as well, I think we'll be okay without the optional charger, but I'll leave space for it somewhere and might even pre-wire to the truck DC and to an Anderson plug for a solar blanket while I'm at it and if I have the cabling left over.

For fuses and breakers I went with recommendations and with adequate sizing to protect the cabling, but might have to adjust (easy enough).

The induction plate we have been using for our tests is this one:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01FLR0ET8

If we find that a single plate is inconvenient for our cooking, we can use either our emergency stove (MSR DragonFly with white gas) as a sidekick sometimes or get a dual induction plate that is also limited at 1800W. Duxtop has one, but it is very bulky and I'd like to avoid that if possible. I've done most of the test cooking outside and sometimes in windy conditions and it was so much better and more convenient than propane cooking, I'm super stoked about that.

As a cookset we currently use a Stanley stainless steel set, this includes a large pot, small pot, as well as a small skillet as well as a Greenpan 10 inch pan with detachable handle. All of these have turned out very well so far and a subset of this will become the kit in the truck.

So far, so good. Now to the next things: planning "furniture" layout, toilet, etc.

 

[cug]

Regarding rear seats: took them out today and was surprised how easy that was. Weirdly we found some extra nuts and a plug we so far can't identify in the cabin. Need to look more into that, but will do that when do noise insulation, meaning we'll empty the whole cab anyways.

Somewhere I read people commenting that you'd need a breaker bar for the rear E14 seat bolts, but it was absolutely straightforward with a standard 1/2" ratchet.

Findings: there is a subwoofer that I hadn't even realized (since it doesn't seem to do all that much anyways) and that thing is in the way of my fridge. It'll need to come out. Again, something to be done when we get the car back from the installer, we took the seats out to measure some more and to have space in the rear for camping gear that we don't want to put in the camper since there is nothing yet to attach it to.

Always more things ... but at least when the subwoofer is out, the fridge we have will definitely fit. Whether we'll like it there may be a different story, but at least it'll fit. ;-)

 

[smlobx]

Now that the rear seats are out build a platform. I did a write up here and was able to build it for less than $100. We stack Front Runner boxes on plant of the platform that carry our clothes and kitchen stuff and works remarkably well.

 

[cug]

Need the car back for that, so that build will start end of next week. Until then it’ll be furniture planning, building a few cardboard mock-ups for bulky and heavy items to make figuring out placement easier once the car is back.

I want to build the platform in a way that optimizes space underneath as well. Would be great to be able to store our existing chairs and table underneath while still being able to open the fridge fully. It’ll be a tight fit, so some CAD (cardboard aided design) will help.

Plus need to crimp a bunch of cables and lay everything out to figure out best component placement to avoid having to wrangle the 2/0 gauge wire all too much. All the 4 gauge should be easy enough. The big one will be interesting. Batteries are due Wednesday, so I can really try it out before putting everything in the truck.

Anybody have a recommendation regarding solar panel? I’m thinking something flexible to save a bit of weight up top, put on with silicone and a lightweight aluminum bar to make sure the front stays down.

 

[smlobx]

We ran our heavy cable on top of the frame where Jeep ran some of theirs.
As far as solar panels I went with a foldable panel from Overland Solar. It’s not cheap but it is very good at getting suboptimal angles to produce. I don’t use it unless we are stationary and even then only if we are going to be there for a couple of days as the truck will charge the battery to 100% in about 2-3 hours of driving.

https://www.overlandsolar.com/collections/top-products/products/bugout-130-rugged-solar-charger

 

[cug]

For me, it's really to extend the number of days I could possibly stay in a place and still cook and have the fridge running. I don't need solar to fully re-charge my use, just slow the depletion.

The other use case is when we are at home and use the truck as a daily driver. Yes, we only have that one car here, so it has to do that as well. It's nice if solar could keep the fridge running when we are not driving much. Without having to connect a mobile panel.

So, I'm looking into putting some small solar setup on the roof, just enough to cover fridge use and maybe some surplus for charging on top of that. The surplus doesn't need to be high, just so that it extends a posibble stay somewhere. Thinking about around 200W.

Now, when we dropped off the car yesterday, the company recommended Sunflare flexible panels. These look great, but I can't find any real world reviews of these. Just articles repeating specs. Yes, bypass diodes on every cell are nice, but really, four times the price to direct competitors is relatively steep.

 

[smlobx]

Here’s my flexible solar panel story…keep in mind that it was about 6 years ago.

I wanted flexible panels on the roof of our expedition truck camper to provide all the power we needed but to keep the weight as low as possible up top.
Everything worked fine for a couple of years but on our 15K mile trip to Alaska in ‘20 they died. I found out that the panels need an air gap under them to avoid overheating. I used the panel I listed above to get us through the rest of the trip.

Bottom line, I would not use flexible panels unless I was able to mount them in such a way to have adequate ventilation underneath them. There is a guy on Youtube by the name of RV with Tito that has done several videos on the subject and how he fixed the issue…

PS 200 watts of solar is a huge amount for just running a fridge and charging your cell phones etc. I have 100 watts and have never had an issue.

 

[cug]

Yeah, I’m slightly worried about this, although technology has moved forward quite a bit and the SunFlare panels come with a 25 year warranty and adhesive tape on the back. They are meant to just put on the camper roof. It might be that fact that makes them more expensive.

The sizing is mostly so we have some leftover to charge the batteries we use for induction cooking. Doesn’t have to fill them, just maybe give us an extra day or two. The setup also changed slightly and fridge will also be on the main system. Happy about that since it removes some complexity. For the fridge alone a 100W panel would be more than sufficient.

 

[cug]

Some setbacks today:

1. Two batteries arrived, one is okay, one is stone dead. Opened case with manufacturer, we'll see how they handle it.
2. Inverter arrived, something metallic rattling around inside, replacement is on the way and the broken one is on the way back.

On a positive note, I've started with mocking the wiring and breaker panel:

The thick 2/0 gauge presents some challenges, so I'm trying out short "patch cables", as seen between red bus bar and switch. Need some red heat shrink for it, but otherwise it's coming along. Slowly, but it's moving. The 4 AWG is easier to handle, it'll all come together towards the upper edge there and then will be wired along the Mopar attachment rail towards the back of the camper.

I will add a second breaker and pre-wire it for a secondary Redarc charger, so I don't have to touch this panel once it's set. At this point, this is just trying layouts, handling of the cables, etc. So far so good.

Still moving stuff around to save space, I don't want it too tight, but clean and easy to understand as well as compact.

 

[cug]

Still solving small issues with all the electrical components, the biggest ones are:

1. Batteries: I'm still fighting Renogy to finally get a working second battery. Their customer service is absolutely abysmal, I will NEVER, EVER buy a Renogy product again, no matter what.
2. GP Factor: The GP Factor Redarc System panel from GP Factor (Redvision, Manager 30, Display) uses 8 gauge wiring and comes with an Anderson crimp connector for 8 gauge, and also comes with a 80 amp fuse. From all I can find, the wiring is undersized for the possible load of a Redvision system (80 amp). I'm no electrician, but from all I can find online, 8 gauge wiring is not the proper size for an 80 amp system. That's disappointing.

For #1, I'm basically on repeated calls with them to get this done. As an end customer, I cannot, in good consciousness, recommend Renogy products after this experience so far.

Regarding item number two, I have taken a shortcut and use a 60 amp fuse for that part of the system. I might pull the panel apart at some point and replace the 8 gauge with 6 gauge wire, not sure yet.

 

[cug]

Oh, and about this one:

Here’s my flexible solar panel story…keep in mind that it was about 6 years ago.

As long as Will Prowse has this on his website:

Flexible Solar Panels? Don't Buy them!
You have been warned:

Every single flex panel on the market is garbage. I challenge anyone to prove me wrong on this. I have destroyed stacks of these things. The cells crack easily and take out a whole string of cells when the bus bars break. Or they have extreme degradation after a few months of summer. Even the latest "CIGS" panels that I was so excited about, are having delamination problems.

Do yourself a favor, and avoid the flex panels. None of them are good.

It might not apply to all of the manufacturers and all of the panels out there, but I'm just not in the mood for experiments, so going with one 200W or two 100W rigid panels. Haven't decided and it'll be more a question of which ones will fit best on the rails on top of the camper than anything else. Oh, and they won't be from Renogy.

 

[smlobx]

^^^
That’s why I run 2, 100 amp fixed panels on my expedition truck camper.

 

[cug]

Makes sense. I'll look into this next week, when we are back here with the car and camper and can measure and investigate a bit better.

 

[cug]

The story continues:

Decided to camp on the way home even though temperature was really not the best for camping. Still was around 30C (86F) around midnight. Was a pretty bad night due to that and some moron trying donuts at 5AM, after temperatures only became bearable around 2AM ...

What we found so far:

• The mattress is so so. It wasn't as bad as the useless PoS that our iKamper had, but it's also certainly not super comfortable by itself. Next step will be to add a Froli sleep system underneath. That works reasonably well for us in the other camper, so should be fine. Added benefit is that we get some ventilation under the mattress which might sleeping in high temperatures better.
• There is no "protection piece" (the triangular piece of metal in front of the awning) for a right hand side awning. Bummer.
• Shop missed the installation of the backup camera, that's still coming.
• The rods that hold out the small rear window awning are very strong, difficult to get on, pain in the rear to take out.
• The camper struts are STRONG, I have a hard time pulling the roof down. I'm fairly lightweight, so that's probably the reason. My wife has an even harder time. It'll get easier when we put the solar panel on top I hope.

We also found out, that the combination of Gladiator and Canopy Camper, while heavy, drives reasonably well. I still have OEM suspension and the rear sagged by about 25mm (~ 1"), while the front sagged about 10mm (~3/8"). Suspension is due in mid August.

Next steps:

1. Get the Froli system ordered and installed, so that we'll sleep better.
2. Take the subwoofer out, remove the rear trim, add noise insulation, put a plywood plate on as a replacement for the trim.
3. Build a rear seat delete platform. Can't fully install it just yet, since I need access to the cabin floor for a while, but I can design and build it now that that car is back.
4. Install basic insulation in the "corrugations" in the load bed, then put a marine grade plywood base plate on. That will go in and out a few times until the furniture is sorted, but it will have to go in early anyways.
5. Install LED headlights (OEM), the halogens are aweful.
6. Still need to put the electrics test setup together, I have all pieces here now, so will probably start with that tomorrow, since I can't start any woodwork before Tuesday or so, and need to call the Froli US seller whether they have the stuff in stock.

So, have my next few weeks cut out for me ... lots to do.

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