RTT/Fridge/Solar Trip Report

[jsyn]

We just finished our first trip with everything set up.

Power
I built my own power station in the bed of the truck using 18mm Baltic Birch plywood, next to the fridge. Its job is to power everything Overlanding-related, the fridge, tent lights, rechargeable AA/AAA battery charging, USB lantern charging, etc. I chose NOT to charge this battery from the Alternator, and instead only from a 100W solar panel. I made this choice because I hate running big live wires with that level of juice the full length of the truck. It just feels like asking for trouble. Perhaps I'll change my mind in the future as I monitor my power usage.

• Spare Battery: Renogy 100Ah Hybrid Gel Battery. I chose Hybrid Gel because I live in Las Vegas, where heat kills normal car batteries in just 1-2 years. My research suggests that Gel deep-cycle batteries can handle the heat better than the other options. I did look into the Genesis under-hood dual battery system, but that would just be two batteries I'd now have to replace every 1-2 years, plus it's not a true deep cycle.
• Solar: Rhino Adventures SolarHawk 100W Skycamp-specific solar panel. This is a new product that's a flexible solar panel that attaches right to the top of your RTT. Quick-disconnects allow you to still take the tent off without wiring concerns
• MPPT Controller: Renogy Rover Li 20Amp MPPT Solar Charge Controller. You can't just connect a solar panel straight to a battery. You need something to monitor the battery's power and charge it appropriately from the solar panel. Renogy seemed to be a good price with complete support for Gel batteries
• Battery Monitor: Renogy 500A Battery Monitor. This allows me to see at a glance exactly how low my battery is, what my power drain is, how well the solar panel is charging, etc
• Wiring and power ports: All just generic junk off Amazon, chosen for what would get here first, not for what was best. Every power port has its own switch to turn power to that outlet on/off and has its own fuse. The fridge is the only special port, which is the ARB fridge-specific port that the power cable screws into so it can't fall out on bumpy roads.

On our weekend away, the heat was not horrific, and so we never went below 95% battery. However, once back home a night of 100°F+ with no solar power coming in did drop the battery to 79% before the sun rose to help bring it back up. That poor fridge was working hard that night to keep my food at 39°F all night!

I did this all last minute before a trip (literally the day before we left), but here's what the side of the power station looks like. Far left (black, outside the box) is the MPPT controller. The plywood stack above the battery is a thin stack that is pushed down from 2 bolts in the shelf above. It's job is to hold the battery in place and not let it bounce or slide. The bolts can be adjusted to provide more pressure. The messy box is the wiring for the ports, and below that is an open area so I can still access my bed's 110v AC plug. And I managed not to cover up the bed light!

Here's the front of the power station. Again, forgive the ugliness, I was leaving on the trip in less than 24 hours and tossed this together REALLY quickly.

On top of it all is a charging shelf. You can see that right now my solar panel is in the sun and charging the battery.

to be continued in a few minutes with details on fridge, fridge slide, and tent with solar panel....

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[jsyn]

Fridge
I read a lot of complaints on this forum that no fridge would fit under a tonneau cover. Well, I have a JCR full height rack with Access soft tonneau cover, and I found that the ARB Elements 63QT fridge still fits! The trick was to find a way to slide the fridge out so it could be opened and rifled through easily.

The only options I found that was low enough is made by DFG Offroad. Their ARB Elements 63Qt Fridge Slide raises the fridge by less than an inch. It's really only about 3/4 of an inch. That's freaking amazing for a full depth slide that's strong enough to support this massive fridge while it's loaded down with food. However, it can't just sit in the back of the pickup due to the ridges that go front-to-back in the bed of a truck. It needs a flatter surface. I didn't want to raise it any higher than I had to, so I took a piece of 18mm Baltic Birch plywood and routed out grooves for the truck bed.

Here you can see the fridge on its plywood support, fully underneath a tonneau cover. The only trick is that I have to open the front 2" of tonneau cover if I want to slide it out, as the support bar at the end of a tonneau cover is slightly lower than the rest of the cover. You can also see the power station described in the above post, mounted to the same sheet of plywood.
I have the fridge connected to DC power, but the loop of power cord in front of the power station includes the 110v AC charging cord for the fridge. This way I can grab an extension cord and get my fridge down to the proper temperature using my household 110v AC power the night before starting a trip, and don't need to bother my car batteries with that heavy useage. The ARB Elements fridge automatically switches to AC power when it sense it, so I don't have to plug/unplug the DC cord.

Here the fridge is pulled out and opened up. I can get to anything inside of it with the tonneau cover almost completely closed. The fridge slide also locks into place when closed so it can't slide back and forth on bumpy roads.

63QT may not sound like much for a longer trip, but when you don't need ice you have a LOT more room than you would in a similarly sized cooler! I set the temperature for the fridge at 39°F, and the only time it went above 40°F was when the outside temperatures spiked to over 100°F, and even then I never saw the fridge's internal temperature go above 43°F.

to be continued in a few minutes with details on tent with solar panel and rack setup....

 

[jsyn]

Tent
I have myself, my wife, and a three-year old little girl, so I went with an iKamper Skycamp. It provides a king-sized mattress, sets up in under 60 seconds, and goes down in under two minutes. In 7-8 years my child might be too old to share a tent that size with mom and dad, but then I can just move into the RTT annex with a cot.

I started with a JCR full height rack and Access tonneau cover. I did this combination because at the time it was the only rack I could find that would work with a tonneau cover, and I live in Las Vegas, so every road is the dustiest road you've been on to date. If I had it to do over again I'd splurge and get the RLD truck cab, but live and learn.

The first problem was that the JCR full height rack isn't really full height, and so the RTT couldn't extend over the cab. To fix that, I bolted FrontRunner Outfitters Universal Support Tracks to the top of the rack, then added two FrontRunner Outfitter 1425mm slats attached with their short (40-50mm) support feet. This took the tent just barely above the cab of the truck. It looks tight, but it never rubbed, not even when bouncing and jouncing through rough terrain.

Rhino Adventures new SolarHawk 100w solar panel, designed specifically for the center ridge of a Skycamp tent worked amazingly well. One note if you attempt to install it: you want it an inch or two farther forwards from center. And once it's on and you've learned that lesson there is literally no way to move it. 3M advertises that their VHB tape requires a grinder to remove. It's there now, end of story. Glad I like it!

If you get a Skycamp, I highly recommend Altitude Industries bedding kit and lighting kit. The bedding kit is a simple net that holds your blanket out of the way while you close the tent up, so you can keep more stuff inside the tent while driving. The lighting kit provides color-changeable LED lights inside and outside near the ladder. Very helpful when your 3yr-old wants a nightlight while you and the wife want to stay out around the campfire to watch shooting stars.

The Skycamp also has two bars for hanging bags when the tent is open. I got the Skycamp shoe rack and hanging accessory bag, but it also worked for our silverware kit and our kitchen kit.

"Overlanding" is just a fancy term for "glamping while far from services and far from any other human beings", right?

Edit -- I should note that with a RTT, who needs sleeping bags? We used our old king-sized sheets, our old down comforter, and our normal pillows. Highs of 71°F and lows of 42°F felt like heaven after a summer in Las Vegas

continued in a few minutes with on-board air and miscellaneous notes...

 

[jsyn]

On-Board Air
I wanted on-board compressed air, but I hate the idea of carrying a tank and having to refill a tank. I got an ARB CKMTA12 Twin High Performance Air Compressor, then mounted it under the frame of the truck, beneath the passenger seat. There are options for mounting it directly under the passenger seat, but do you realize how loud an air compressor is? I live in Las Vegas, it's too damned hot to take the family out of the car while I fill tires, so I needed a location that was outside the cab.

Installing the Up Down Air Gen 2 system was surprisingly easy. The quick-release are annoying to deal with at times, but the system as a whole is amazing. First, you install an air regulator under the hood.

Then you install air ports in each wheel well. Yes, that's four separate air ports, one for each tire. When it comes time to air up or to air down, you connect one short air line to each wheel.

You can then either turn the compressor on (I have mine running off Accessory Switch #2) or open the regulator valve to release air. All four tires are connected together, and so whether you're letting air out and pumping air in, they all stay at the same PSI, you can never get one tire that's accidentally 3 PSI higher than the others.

Here we are after at the end of the trip, airing back up for the drive home. The nearest gas station was many miles and many thousands of vertical feet away, so we couldn't just drive slowly to find a place to air back up.

Additional, Non-Jeep-Related Overlanding Notes:

TemboTusk Skottle
This was my first time trying out a TemboTusk Skottle. We really liked it. Hot in the middle for cooking, warm on the edges to keep stuff ready while the next step is being done. Just be sure you have a JetBoil system as well to boil your coffee and hot chocolate water. I haven't tried pastries on the Skottle yet, but nothing says "glamping" quite like brie and fig jam omelets over a bed of arugula.

Here's some french toast (made with Trader Joe's cinnamon bread) being kept warm while I cook up some bacon.

LifeSaver Jerry Can
I really appreciated my 5 gallon LifeSaver 10000 Jerry Can. I also had a 2 gallon Rotopax of water plus a 2 gallon flexible container of water in the fridge. However, the Lifesaver Jerry Can has a built-in filter so I can refill from a pond or stream and just keep going. One note -- I have NO idea why the "shower attachment" is sold separately. This is a must-own accessory in my mind. We used it for everything. Rinsing dishes is so much easier when you have a spray attachement!

Tables
You need both an eating table and a prep table. I went cheap and got a crummy roll-up aluminum picnic table with benches off Amazon, and a GCI camping kitchen table. The GCI does NOT pack down as small as I'd like, but it sure is useful. I'll probably replace it with a FrontRunner Outfitters camp table someday, just because that can fit under the roof rack and not take any bed space.

Chairs
They aren't as comfy as some big folding rocking chair, but nothing beats the packability of FrontRunner Outfitter camp chairs. They're just director chairs, but they fold down so small you'll want to get more to share with visitors. Make sure you get the bags (foolishly sold as an accessory) so they stay clean while you're bouncing down the road.

GPS Software
Seriously, this is so very important. You have a Jeep, chances are you're going somewhere with no cell coverage. I like Gaia GPS so far, it works well on my phone and even works with the Jeep's Apple CarPlay. Download your topo maps before you leave home!!!


I used Gaia to find this camping spot. It really wasn't anywhere on Google. I knew we had a heat wave and looked on the topo maps for old fire roads that existed inside a National Forest, were within a 3 hour drive of home, and were at least 8000 feet above sea level. When we pulled off the pavement we immediately passed dozens of tents and campers who'd had the same basic idea and had stopped at the first mountain meadow they came to. But unlike them, we kept driving deeper and deeper into the wilderness. This spot is 10,000 feet above sea level. The view is of Zion National Park and Dixie National Forest. There was no one else around for miles in any direction. And we got to wake up to this view from inside our tent.

First family overlanding trip with the new JT, but certainly not the last. We weren't even all the way home before the three year old was begging to go camping again!

 

[jsyn]

Final Note

Some lessons I learned:

• I want more water. Next time I'll add at least 4 more gallons. Maybe Rotopax on the side opposite the gas cans, maybe something else. To be researched.
• Washing and rinsing will be easier if I have a second sink!
• I didn't need a large pot to cook in, but will get a Sea-to-Summit collapsing pot that can work on the JetBoil. Mostly because when we went to mix up salad we discovered it was tough with only our bowls
• Currently the RTT is mounted on a set of load bars. I'm converting those load bars into a complete FrontRunnner Outfitters SlimLine II rack this week. That's so I can mount a large awning on the side opposite the tent. I'm leaning towards an RLD GhostAwn 360, and the new SlimLine rack should just barely be long enough to meet the mounting requirements for an awning that massive. *crosses fingers*

NOTE:
I felt safe taking my family out to the middle of nowhere because I also had a decent recovery kit. That included a bottle jack, winch, wheel chocks, tire repair kit, tow straps, snatch blocks, gloves, extra line, winch, extra straps, axe, shovel, first aid kit, trauma kit, and a Pull-Pal in case there was nothing to winch off of. And I still didn't do anything super risky, because we were out there on our own. Have fun, but be safe!!

 

[Bacon]

This was really fun to read!

 

[Gatorized]

Excellent write-up. Please add a list of your items with links and prices. Looks like you could slide a table between the rack and floor of the RTT. would like to see how you managed to get everything packed in the bed!
Also like your air setup. Do you have a write up on that install?

 

[Rokon]

Thanks for posting the great write up.

 

[jsyn]

Excellent write-up. Please add a list of your items with links and prices. Looks like you could slide a table between the rack and floor of the RTT. would like to see how you managed to get everything packed in the bed!
Also like your air setup. Do you have a write up on that install?

Good point, I'll work on adding that stuff today. With COVID quarantine the three year old has been home all day everyday, and I haven't had time in front of a computer. I've been meaning to do a build log, but yesterday was the first day she was in school and I actually had a minute to myself to post something here.

 

[j.o.y.ride]

Love the deflation system. I presume that can be used standalone for deflation or no?

 

[jsyn]

Love the deflation system. I presume that can be used standalone for deflation or no?

Inflation or deflation. For deflation you just connect all 4 tires and open the valve. Every time you close the valve the regulator will let you know what the current PSI is. After the first couple times you get to know how long to wait for the tires to drop the proper PSI. It can also be used with a canister of compressed air or any external air source. You don't need to use it with an on-board air compressor if you don't want to

 

[j.o.y.ride]

Inflation or deflation. For deflation you just connect all 4 tires and open the valve. Every time you close the valve the regulator will let you know what the current PSI is. After the first couple times you get to know how long to wait for the tires to drop the proper PSI. It can also be used with a canister of compressed air or any external air source. You don't need to use it with an on-board air compressor if you don't want to

Perfect thanks. While I plan on the on board ARB compressor if I could at least get the deflation handled evenly and quickly that's a big help.

 

[jsyn]

Excellent write-up. Please add a list of your items with links and prices. Looks like you could slide a table between the rack and floor of the RTT. would like to see how you managed to get everything packed in the bed!
Also like your air setup. Do you have a write up on that install?

Rather than add prices and links on this page for just a few specific things, you've encouraged me to finally get around to writing up a full build log, which I'd always been meaning to do. Details of everything can be found over there, including everything installed on the truck so far (inside and outside), write-ups of some of the installs (including the on-board air), prices and links for everything, etc.

CLICK HERE FOR THE BUILD LOG FOR THIS VEHICLE FOR FURTHER DETAILS OF EVERYTHING ABOVE

Admittedly, it ended up being so long I'll have to finish it tomorrow. Still, it's a good start and I should finish the write-up before end of day tomorrow. Thanks for the encouragement and interest!

 

[darkhorse13]

Very fun read! My wife and I also run a very similar overlanding setup. Agreed that the ARB Elements 63 fits the bill very nicely to slide under the soft cover. I simply used an old set of Accuride slides, some 1 inch rubber spacers and the ARB 63QT fixed mounting kit to make mine pull out.

 

[jsyn]

Very fun read! My wife and I also run a very similar overlanding setup. Agreed that the ARB Elements 63 fits the bill very nicely to slide under the soft cover. I simply used an old set of Accuride slides, some 1 inch rubber spacers and the ARB 63QT fixed mounting kit to make mine pull out.

What bed rack is that? I like it, it looks far more useful than the JCR and it looks like it works with the Access soft tonneau cover. Nice.

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