winter projects
just wondering what everyone has planned for repairs or upgrades on their truck campers over the winter.
for myself, I have to finish the new LiFePO4 build, but I keep making it more complicated ...
Forum Discussion
I am fortunate in that I am a Youtuber that does videos on off-grid, power, sawmilling and camper stuff (less of the camper) so was offered goodies that I might otherwise have held off getting.
Since Marine batteries are really only 83AH and you shouldn't really use more then 25% of that for longevity, switching to LiFePo4's gave me 100% usability of my 200AH capacity (2560wh vs 550wh or so). This would allow me to do a lot more with the DC AC unit and with the addition of another 4kwh of capacity in another battery I have and the panels I should be able to run the AC quit a bit this way.
However, 10000btu's is a little low perhaps (though I think the camper came with 9000 originally (before I crushed the old AC and switched to the High Output.
so where do you hide over 600ah of battery in your camper, I could do it but I would lose 1/2 of my closet instead of 1/4 haha
510AH but it's not in the camper 😉
I put two 100AH Vetarer batteries in the battery box (those are the heated batteries) and my first test was done with a 100AH Redodo battery and a Redodo DC to DC charger hooked up to the aux solar input. Worked like a charm (I can share that video if allowed here?).
Next, I looked at the space in front of the wheel well of the truck and realized I could place mu 310AH XZNY battery there if I placed it in a box and tied it down. I could then run the DC charger either to the camper to provide 600w of 'solar charging' off the battery, or to the truck to charge the battery 😉
I suspect what I will settle on is a small 30A MPPT controller at the solar input wired to the battery and the DC charger wired to the truck and charging the battery - this will also allow me to add 600w of solar since the Redodo has a solar input as well (it's an MPPT controller as well as a DC charger -- neat little unit).
I'm a youtuber (and long time RV net user though I was gone a couple years -- very busy on YT) and make videos about doing these things.
ya videos are ok, some times I find them the best learning tools.
ahh Ok, my battery compartment on my old girl is only sized for 1 car battery (1991) so originaly I lost my outside storage for two 6V batteries, then when I built my first LiFePO4 battery (280AH) I put it into the original battery cubby and got my storage back. now I am replacing the 280ah with a 304AH and moving it inside the rv where I always intended to put it so I don't need a heater for it.
