Between 265 & 485 SQ/FT Grumblebums Corner

[TwoBytes]

Good work on the Ubiquiti kit. I've got a couple of AC-PROs giving me full house and yard WiFi coverage, a USG router and a PoE switch to drive some security cameras, all managed from a really nice central management server. It's great stuff!

 

[xtremek]

5" ?

 

[hewey]

Wifi in the ceiling is a neat idea, nice work.

 

[Grumblebum]

Good work on the Ubiquiti kit. I've got a couple of AC-PROs giving me full house and yard WiFi coverage, a USG router and a PoE switch to drive some security cameras, all managed from a really nice central management server. It's great stuff!

Thanks TB, I've done a few installs recently mounting up in the ceiling, very happy with the coverage they provide in a domestic setup. Tucked away out of site. PoE easy to run. I've got some G3 cameras to throw in as well.

Have been using the ubiquiti gear for many years for clients. Lots of point to point setup between remote office buildings/weighbridges etc. It's pretty much set and forget.

5" ?

Haven't seen any more big ones in the last few months xtremek, we do have a baby one in the house that has been there a few weeks, about 1.5" across at the moment. Hangs out mostly around one of our windows.

Wifi in the ceiling is a neat idea, nice work.

Thanks Hewey. No complaints from wifie or kiddies about wifi since!

More updates in a few.

GB

 

[Grumblebum]

So it has been a while since my last update. I kinda went down this rabbit hole in March along with several of associated sub rabbit holes...

If you get a chance and haven't already go and spend some time here on Sakurama's thread. Gregor's writing and skillset is quality all the way. It's novel like in that you don't want to stop reading. Mid-Century Moto Mecca Makeover


We've had some cracking weather during April and May (do need some rain now though). Lots of QFT type activities and have only managed a few sessions of QST. Lot's of household de-cluttering type stuff as well so we are slowly getting there.

First up was fixing the brake light on the rear window of my Hilux canopy (topper), whacked my head on it which broke the plastic clips so I made some aluminium ones for it and riveted them on.

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When possible I do like to file items together for uniformity

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Was using the middle slot before on the plastic one, so just cut the aluminium to suit that.

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A couple of pop rivets and good to go!

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Standby more to come...

 

[Grumblebum]

Quick tip...

Used some heatshrink to fix the fraying ends on my son's school shoe laces. Worked a treat!

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GB

 

[Grumblebum]

Over the last month or so I've squeezed in a couple of hours on the weekends to work on a solar project on the Hilux.

I had made a battery box with a 105 Ah battery that lived in the camper trailer drawbar tool box, so basically when we went camping I'd have to connect everything to the battery box then pull the fridge out of the truck set it up along with a solar panel.

Figured I'd have a go at making the Hilux the main power source permanently since there was provision for battery space in my rear drawer setup, that way the fridge can stay in the truck when on trips and I can setup a feed into the camper via an anderson plug lead.

Started by making up some aluminium brackets to mount the panel

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This 60 Watt panel I purchased around 2004 or 2005 and it ran some old telco batteries (remember the orange ones I think I posted some time back?) powering an inverter running a 125Watt garden pump. Used to live on my old garage roof before I knocked it down during the house extension. Anyway got it mounted with some stainless nut/bolts/lock washers and used some thin conveyor belt matting as a gasket. (this pic was a test fit-up so not all bolts were installed yet)

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Ran the cable into canopy and used the existing window screws to fasten

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This is the battery box area. Seems I neglected to get a picture of the battery installed, but it is this battery as posted back in 2016.

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Using this 20 Amp controller at the moment that I've had for a long time. It's a Manson SBC-7120 and is a great unit. Still looking at what I will change it to once I'm happy with the setup. Current front runner is the CTEK D250SA unit which will connect an alternator feed in along with the solar panel so that way the battery is also charged whilst the vehichle is running.

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Finally in the last couple of weekends I've been chipping away at the control panel, I cut a section out of an old aluminium excavator window cover that my dad had and made a panel up. The rocker switches are the basic ones from Jaycar at under $5 each 30 Amp rated, there are some nice fancy rocker switches out there these days but they are $12 and up each.

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Spent some time getting the holes aligned then used some spray adhesive to line the visible area with some vehicle carpet offcuts.

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The Narva USB socket lights are cool. The middle one is a standard cig socket and the one to the right is the Engel fridge socket.

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Took most of the day to wire this up, very time consuming. Later found a supplier that has units with a common feed + ground which I'll be looking into.

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And how it looks all buttoned up. There were some stickers that came in the fuse block (mainly marine based) but put a couple on so I knew what was what for now.

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Next to do is setup a feed with an anderson plug to connect to the camper trailer and wire up the camper trailer with another fuse block to run the water pump/lights/USB's etc.

So that's sort of it for garage progress at the moment. I am trying to get back to finishing the projects which I have the materials for or have already started - still need to get back onto finishing the gate.

Cheers GB.

 

[bj383ss]

That looks fantastic GB!

Bret

 

[xtremek]

You use Anderson plugs for an external connection? Is there a weather resistant/proof style that I'm not aware of? The battery/solar charger looks really nice, very clean and tidy. BUt I'd expect nothing less from you.

 

[HOTFR8]

Nice work with the Solar panel and wiring.

You use Anderson plugs for an external connection? Is there a weather resistant/proof style that I'm not aware of? The battery/solar charger looks really nice, very clean and tidy. BUt I'd expect nothing less from you.

Xtremek, Have you not seen these?

 

[ajohno]

Looks great GB

 

[rmalkow2]

A great use of solar power and a very professional installation of the controller and system. Well done.

 

[Grumblebum]

That looks fantastic GB!

Bret

Thanks Bret

You use Anderson plugs for an external connection? Is there a weather resistant/proof style that I'm not aware of? The battery/solar charger looks really nice, very clean and tidy. BUt I'd expect nothing less from you.

Thankyou kindly xtremek, I have one of these ones to use purchased many years ago. It's just like a trailer plug with a flap and you install the anderson plug inside it.

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Google "trailer vision" - the website on the product package no longer works, but the below site has lots of options now.

https://www.autoelec.com.au/brand/trailer-vision/?pgnum=1

A quick amazon.com search seems rather sparse for that product though, if you can't find anything locally just sing out and I'll grab some and post over.

Nice work with the Solar panel and wiring.

Xtremek, Have you not seen these?

Thanks HOTFR8, jaycar or altronics have them too from memory.

Looks great GB

Thanks Aaron

A great use of solar power and a very professional installation of the controller and system. Well done.

Much appreciated RM, still some tweeking to do. This wasn't a high priority project but just needed something smaller to work on and get a result for a change.

I think I've decided on the CTEK D250SA unit as it has the MPPT charging vs the PWM charging of the older SBC-7210 so will order one over the weekend.

Thanks for dropping in fellas, much appreciated.

GB

 

[HOTFR8]

Thanks HOTFR8, jaycar or altronics have them too from memory.



GB

What you posted looks 100% better.

 

[xtremek]

HotFr8, I actually have that, but the back side of the connector is open. I'm going to put it on my daughter's truck, since it probably won't get driven in the snow.

GB, thanks for the tip. I absolutely love Anderson's, but I want to run one on the dump truck which will probably see a lot of bad weather.

 

[shortykorte]

I don’t remember if you showed the inside truck bed area but it looks nicely done. One of my many projects is to set up my cargo trailer for camping so these post are of interest to me. On the fabric, is that an outdoor carpet material or the speaker box material? What do you use for adhesive? Look forward to seeing the finished wiring.


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[Terrick down Under]

Great work.

 

[sublime68charger]

GB, since you commented on my humble thread I now feel like i need to read through yours!

So far I got page 1 and this page done!
I got some reading to due that is for sure.

Looks very good so far!

 

[Grumblebum]

What you posted looks 100% better.

I think it all depends on what you need, if it's just a dust cap all good but if you are going to permanently mount to feed a trailer then the external cover I have should work well. Will see how it goes once I get that bit done

HotFr8, I actually have that, but the back side of the connector is open. I'm going to put it on my daughter's truck, since it probably won't get driven in the snow.

GB, thanks for the tip. I absolutely love Anderson's, but I want to run one on the dump truck which will probably see a lot of bad weather.

Ah ok the backside of this has a rubber grommet that surrounds the cables. It compresses as you tighten it up to seal it by the looks. We don't have the weather you have during the winter seasons. If it's mounted up higher on the dump truck it might not be too bad

I don’t remember if you showed the inside truck bed area but it looks nicely done. One of my many projects is to set up my cargo trailer for camping so these post are of interest to me. On the fabric, is that an outdoor carpet material or the speaker box material? What do you use for adhesive? Look forward to seeing the finished wiring.

Actually I don't believe I have shown the drawer setup in there, I purchased it a bit over a year ago now. I'll do some photos of the setup tomorrow if I can to show you. It's just a speaker box/car carpet boot liner - pretty hard wearing. Not quite outdoor marine carpet which is thicker and harder to manipulate around bends etc.

I just used sikabond sprayfix. Any decent quality spray adhesive is more than fine. Just let it tack up for a bit before putting the pieces together.

Great work.

Thanks Terrick, glad to hear you are on the mend.

GB, since you commented on my humble thread I now feel like i need to read through yours!

So far I got page 1 and this page done!
I got some reading to due that is for sure.

Looks very good so far!

Sub, thanks for dropping by. There are so many threads on here to get to, just not enough time. I'm struggling to get caught up on just my subscribed list so far.

All, had another good few hours on some changes to the hilux solar setup today, I'll post that update a bit later on tonight.

Cheers GB.

 

[Grumblebum]

So made some updates on the solar setup on the truck today. The setup seems to be working out so as I mentioned earlier I had been looking at the CTEK D250SA DC-DC 20Amp charger unit that also accepts solar input. One of the other reasons for purchasing it is that it will trickle charge the vehicle starting battery once the house battery is fully charged.

This is the setup that I've had for the last couple of weeks. (I'd taken the battery strap off before the pic). The SBC-7210 is a great little solar charge controller, but is not able to take a feed from the vehicle alternator.

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During the week the goodies to install had arrived. CTEK do sell these items together as a kit, but they charge a stack more for some reason. I sourced the items individually.

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Started by making a cardboard template for the BM1 display so I could line it up and drill the holes required to pop the cable through.

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In the end I could have left the carpet material, I was concerned the thickness of the unit would protrude too much and the tailgate would hit it when closed. Turned out to have a good 1/2" clearance once done.

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And mounted...

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Didn't take too many progress pics here, but after a lot of getting in and out of the back of the canopy I ended up with this. I'll probably add a 4 way fuse block from the + terminal to tidy that up a bit, never have been a fan of too many connectors trying to fit onto terminals. I also added a timber cleat at the bottom to stop the battery sliding around which it was doing with just the strap before - there is also a section of thin conveyor matting under the battery now which is very grippy.

Had to put the lifting handle back on, otherwise it's too heavy to adjust and move.

There is now a shunt in the back corner there which is what the display panel is using to work out charge/discharge current etc.

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After setting the unit to the size of your battery it works out what is happening. Shows voltage and charge/discharge current, estimates time to charge and discharge based on current load and solar/alternator input. I turned on the led canopy lights and plugged my phone in to charge and it reported 0.2A. The notes suggest running some load so it can work out exactly where the battery is at so tomorrow I'll put the fridge in and run it for a while and see how it goes as a real use simulation. I think it should be ok, only concern is that the 60 watt panel may not be enough when out camping but we'll see how it goes hopefully soon.

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So next to do is:
- run a feed from the vehicle starter battery in and connected up to the CTEK unit.
- then run a feed out to the back of the truck somewhere so I can connect to the camper trailer when setup
- hardwire the camper trailer to accept said feed
- do a final cable check and tidy up
- go camping and test it all out !

For a small job I've spent a good portion of several weekends fiddling now. I guess it takes longer when you have to get all the tools etc out only for a couple hours work multiple times.

Cheers GB.

 

[Unruh]

Wow! You have been busy. My knowledge in electrical/solar is very minimal and I’m completely in awe of of that solar setup. Great work!

Also I love what you did with that cart. Nice to see it find a home and used. That “Not for highway use” could be taken as a challenge.

 

[HOTFR8]

Neatly done. I will be keen to see if all your work on this finaly works as it should. Running the fridge will be a good test.

 

[Grumblebum]

Wow! You have been busy. My knowledge in electrical/solar is very minimal and I’m completely in awe of of that solar setup. Great work!

Also I love what you did with that cart. Nice to see it find a home and used. That “Not for highway use” could be taken as a challenge.

Thanks Unruh, I've been very slow off the mark this year so far with projects but it does feel good to be making some progress.

I was at a clients warehouse the other day, he actually sells those carts I noticed, he had one there for laptop storage/charging with a price tag of over $2k on it

I think my young bloke whose name maybe awfully familiar to your sons may build a cart or something with the 'not for highway use' wheels.

Thanks for stopping by - I do have to catch up on your thread as well.

Neatly done. I will be keen to see if all your work on this finaly works as it should. Running the fridge will be a good test.

HOTFR8, I've just plugged the engel 40 litre fridge in and taken some photos, it's pulling 2.4-2.5 Amps and says 34 hours of battery. I'll check it in a couple of hours as it will be at temperature and see what it says. I won't run it more than 12.2V which is 50% battery.

GB

 

[Grumblebum]

Tour of my Hilux rear tub setup.

I hadn't posted this before but I saved up and purchased the drawer set just over a year ago. They are Aussie made up at Gloucester NSW. Some real quality gear, check out drifta.com.au They also ship to Europe and the US.

The drawer sets are custom made to match exactly the vehicle you have so every mm is used. With the exception of the fridge slide rails, the draws are fully plywood constructed and lined with a boot-liner carpet material.

In the default configuration this is how it looks. The cover on the tailgate I made myself although you can get that made as well if you need.

The battery box I have been fiddling with is up the front there, you can see the cable from the solar panel that goes down and into it, the lid just has a finger hole to lift off. The panel on the top of where the fridge slide is on the left just lifts up and is held down by a couple of bungee loops.

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The side wings lift off to access storage.

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Tucked in is a good size table. You can slide it out a bit to use as a bench or:

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...take it all the way out and use as a freestanding table, which was super handy yesterday while I was working in the back.

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On RH side there is a full size drawer the full depth of the tub, has my tools and gizmos. The two canvas bags are tea/coffe kit and first aid kit. I really like to be self sufficient and in the event I get stuck somewhere at least I can make a cuppa and have something to eat.

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The draws slide on teflon strips, so you don't need heavy slides. This means that you get maximum width of your drawer.

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Also carry a single burner butane stove, was good I pulled the stove out actually for the pic as I had to swap the empty canister out which I forgotten.


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The LH side is a full slide out for the engel fridge. When the fridge is not in there I use it for my work tools.

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I'm going to get the 12V version of the Makita battery charger to try.

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Then when we want to go away we put the fridge in. The idea now is that it stays in there the whole time with the solar setup and I don't have to lift a full heavy fridge out to place under the camper trailer awning. Also note I got the fridge box surround, this stops bags and **** falling around the fridge, there are holes in the front of it as well to aid airflow around it.

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Threw some cokes in the fridge and turned it on. It's pulling 2.3-2.4 amps which is where it should be since starting up from room temperature, I'll check it in a few hours and it should settle down once it gets to temperature.

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Shorty, hope that gives you some ideas. I have a few more tweaks I want to do like working out some sort of drinking water storage like 10 or 15 liters that is always available.

Cheers GB.

 

[BoilermakerFan]

Shorty, hope that gives you some ideas. I have a few more tweaks I want to do like working out some sort of drinking water storage like 10 or 15 liters that is always available.

Cheers GB.

GB, I think you meant 10 or 15 gallons... We call those storage containers KEGS.

 

[Grumblebum]

GB, I think you meant 10 or 15 gallons... We call those storage containers KEGS.

I know BMF, but it's family programming here

 

[jon72vega]

Grumblebum,
Very impressive work you've done in the back of your Hilux!

 

[shortykorte]

Thanks. That’s a very nice setup. I really would like to start on my trailer to RV trailer project but too many projects of higher priority.


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[hewey]

Thats a really impressive set up Grumblebum!

 

[Grumblebum]

Grumblebum,
Very impressive work you've done in the back of your Hilux!

Thanks Jon, I'm very happy with it.

Thanks. That’s a very nice setup. I really would like to start on my trailer to RV trailer project but too many projects of higher priority.

Are you talking about your white trailer shorty ?, I think that will be a cool project, bump it up the list

I'll provide armchair guidance from 9305 miles away.

Thats a really impressive set up Grumblebum!

Thanks hewey, just need to go and test it in the wild soon.

Ok everyone is probably sick of pics now but I still think it's a shiny toy. Fridge is just cruising now and I really dig the blue backlight on the display. I think the state of charge graph on the side of the display is the most useful thing, that's really what I'm concerned about when away.

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Cheers GB

 

[bj383ss]

That is a fantastic setup GB!

Bret

 

[Bob Heine]

Rod, that setup is fantastic. I don't recall seeing a lot of power and water hookups in the National Parks around Sydney so being self-sufficient is perfect.

 

[xtremek]

Thanks for the pics. That looks like a sweet camping gear setup.

 

[Grumblebum]

That is a fantastic setup GB!

Bret

Thanks Bret, very happy with it now.

Rod, that setup is fantastic. I don't recall seeing a lot of power and water hookups in the National Parks around Sydney so being self-sufficient is perfect.

Thanks Mr H, yes I'm not a fan of the unknown so always try to have the bases covered. We should be up for a good test out getaway soon I hope.

Thanks for the pics. That looks like a sweet camping gear setup.

It's getting there Kirk, just need to make some modifications on the camper wiring now and we are ready to test.

I did manage a small amount of QST - RIP 1/2 Cup over the long weekend and got a feed run from the starter battery to the CTEK controller in the tub. Wasn't as bad as I had expected, basically used the same route as I'd used before running a feed to a different part of the tub.

No pics of that but I did notice while crawling about underneath more oil coming between the gearbox housing and engine rear so I better get on and do the main seal/clutch soon as I have all the parts for that job ready to go.

The instructions on the CTEK nominated 6 mm2 cable for a 5 metre run from the start battery (I'm just shy of 5 metres) - it will draw up to 20 Amps. I went a bit bigger and used 8B&S (7.92 mm2), no problems terminating as I have the crimp lugs and hydraulic crimper on hand from when I installed the now removed dual battery system up front under hood.

This afternoon I managed to terminate the cable, it was starting to get dark but the CTEK is now fully wired up.

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Started up the truck, and we are getting exactly what it is specified to provide - charging at 20 Amps.

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I had had the fridge running all week just on the battery and solar setup but turned it off when the battery got down to 65%, didn't want to run it in a lower state too long as some overcast days have hindered the winter sun somewhat.

So now the list is to tidy up some of the wiring since it's all working, run the feed to a rear anderson plug ready to for the camper trailer and adjust the wiring on the camper to accept it.

Should be good once done.

One important thing to note that here in Aust at least, AUTO cable is marketed as mm in diameter INCLUDING insulation. So "6mm AUTO" is NOT 6mm2 cross-sectional surface area it is closer to 4mm2.

So be very careful when sizing your cables.



Cheers GB

 

[taumac]

Ok trying to follow.... solar charges the battery in truck and now the alternator charges the battery when truck running? Does your camper have a house battery, converter, water tank or water pump. I believe if I remember right it’s a pop up? Just wondering what systems have in camper?

 

[Grizz1963]

Most excellent results

Impressive work.

 

[Terrick down Under]

Taumac, I do the same thing with our slide on camper (truck camper).
While we are driving the switch opens and the 200Ah alternator pumps into all the batteries and when engine is off the 300w solar panel charges the 2x 100Ah camper batteries.

 

[shortykorte]

I was wondering what the 6mm2 was. Figured it was 6mm diameter wire bundle made up of 2mm strands.
On the ground/earthen cable is the insulation just that way or is there a cover over it?


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[Geoff289]

Is the battery box vented to outside the vehicle somehow?

 

[Grumblebum]

Ok trying to follow.... solar charges the battery in truck and now the alternator charges the battery when truck running? Does your camper have a house battery, converter, water tank or water pump. I believe if I remember right it’s a pop up? Just wondering what systems have in camper?

Yep G, so will run off alternator or solar or both as it desires when the truck is running and just solar when not. When the house battery is fully charged it will trickle charge the start battery as well.

My blue fullriver battery used to be in a battery box with my old solar charge controller (the Manson SBC-7120) in the camper drawbar box. When we set camp I normally just connected an 80 Watt fold up panel to it and that ran the camper lights/engel fridge/water pump - yes 12volt pump under camper for 59L water tank.

Yes hard floor camper, top folds over.

Couple of old pics from the camper images album - you should be able to see them if you can find my albums...

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This is how I have wired up the CTEK D250SA DC-DC Controller. (image is crop from the CTEK installation manual)

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From the "-" terminal on the house battery there is a shunt that comes in the BM1 battery monitor kit to tell you what current is going into or out of the battery.

You can see it in the top of this earlier pic.

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So the plan for the camper is that I'll hardwire up a little panel with switches and a fuse block like I did for the back of the truck, it will run water pump, a couple of USB chargers, cig socket for LED lights and and maybe an engel socket in case I do want to move the fridge out of the truck. It will just have an anderson plug to connect to when we setup that will be fed from the truck house battery.

Hope that makes sense. For your camper since it's easier to get into without having to open up like mine you could look at either setting up a permament battery (assuming it's a sealed AGM type - I can't remember what you have in your battery box) inside somewhere or adding a drawbar box and putting it in there (although you'd need to move/edit the propane bottle box). You could add a panel on your camper roof to possibly to feed the solar charge controller ?

Most excellent results

Impressive work.

Thanks Grizz

Taumac, I do the same thing with our slide on camper (truck camper).
While we are driving the switch opens and the 200Ah alternator pumps into all the batteries and when engine is off the 300w solar panel charges the 2x 100Ah camper batteries.

Your setup is a bit more ******** Terrick - are you running a DC-DC charger for that or just a standard relay (VSR) ?

My dinky 60 W panel on the canopy may not be enough and may need updating after a few field trials. Typically when we go away we'll head off and do activities with the kids anyway so while we are driving around I'll now have upto 20 Amps going into the house battery topping it up.

Hope you are resting well.

I was wondering what the 6mm2 was. Figured it was 6mm diameter wire bundle made up of 2mm strands.
On the ground/earthen cable is the insulation just that way or is there a cover over it?

Shorty, so the 8 B&S cable I used is 7.92 mm squared cross sectional surface area which is made up of 112 strands x 0.30 mm dia each (pi x 0.15^2 x 112 = 7.92).

AC voltage cable is different and has different diameter and fewer strands - maybe that is what you are thinking of ?

The ground cables are all insulated, they have a black covering as well as they are twin (red & black) off the roll. Then I have either cable wrap or split black conduit over the top.

Is the battery box vented to outside the vehicle somehow?

Hi Geoff, thanks for stopping by.

No. But having said that it's not airtight, and is a large volume box that the manufacture of my drawer system uses for auxillery batteries.

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The lid for the box has a hole in it and the canopy is certainly not air tight, so for my AGM battery I don't have a problem with it's location. For any following along, what I believe Geoff is thinking of is the gassing produced by batteries ?, certainly I would NOT install a wet cell type battery in a confined space.

All, thanks for dropping by.