VehicleTrader94
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Re: 2000 Bigfoot 10.6 Electrical Upgrade/Solar Advice
adamis We postponed the inverter to pay for the 2nd battery. It is shipping now so not in yet. My measurements show it will fit fine. On the inverter our use case was for my wife to occasionally use the microwave (I'd prefer to remove it as it's weight in a high CG area and takes up storage space) and my computer. I also thought about running the A/C off of it. After doing some math and my EE friend looking at me like I was more nuts than usual it was determined that was not a feasible plan without pulling a battery trailer. With the solar and the 12v powered 4.8amp USBs and 25 amp power points I can run the computer(s) that way. We have the now working Onan if we need 120v. In your use case that microwave is critical equipment! I put the Trimetric just above the dinette outlet. It was not hard to pull the wires over there. Like you it seemed like a good place to do the monitoring. On our 88 it was not viewable from the dinette. You had to sit on the bunk step to play with it. I am definitely going to look into charging the truck batteries off the solar. This truck often sits a lot and I forget to put the charger on periodically. I'm also investigating switching to a dual alternator set up since it was a factory option. Also looking into running welding cable from the engine bay to the rear bumper of the truck with a winch connection and tying that to the camper to get a higher charge rate off the truck. If no solar and dead house batteries then the truck can charge the camper while on high idle. Just out of time for that project. I also have no plans for 120 degree desert camping. Driving through places like that in the summer will happen. Parked in the back yard we often see 105-108 degree days in the summer. Keep me posted on your rot situation. I have not noticed any except in the front wall over the bed. Seems to be very old and before my ownership. Appears a clearance light leaked, but all is sealed. New light are on the wish list. I haven't posted pics on here in years. Do you still have to host them offsite and link to them? If you have not inspected your interior and exterior shower hoses you might give it a good look. We pressurized the plumbing for the first time last weekend and blew holes in the two plastic fitting that screw the shower hose to the faucet. Gave me a nice shower even though I was not in the shower. We assume them to be 21yo originals (September 1999 manufacture date on the camper). Do you have the Happijac system? Ours was mounted at the back of the closet which seemed to be an catastrophe waiting to happen when closet contents hit it. We moved it under the bottom shelf which is also where the solar controller is. We also ran higher gauge wire to the jacks. srschang: I have a breaker so I can cut out the batteries from the charging circuit. We currently are able to plug in at the house. With the solar we probably have no need to be plugged unless we need the A/C. I sometimes use the camper as a family free office or as a guest bedroom so A/C can be needed 9 months out of the year. At the moment the solar is charging enough to do everything. We did cut the solar out to test the charger but that is about it. We'll know a lot more after being in Yellowstone with no hookups for a week. We decided to jettison the toad so we will have truck charging from driving around. It won't be much as we ran out of time to run a higher gauge wire through the tow harness to the alternator.797Views0likes0CommentsRe: 2000 Bigfoot 10.6 Electrical Upgrade/Solar Advice
After 6+ months of study, research and tossing various ideas around before I started ordering items in May 2020 I am in the final stages of finishing up the project. I want to give a big thanks to everyone who replied. I plan to do a more thorough writeup when I'm not pressing to get finished and on the road to Yellowstone next week. I went with 3 Renogy panels suggested by Adamis. I could have done four but it would make waling on the roof for maintenance to be too crowded for my liking. I opted for the thin flat ones. Some suggested the life may be lower. I took that information into consideration when building my mounting system to allow for easy swap out of panels. I also considered if they fail in 3-5 years technology will likely have advanced enough that buying upgraded ones will make sense. I also considered the comments on lack of cooling for panels stuck directly on the roof. I have corrugated plastic under them to allow for cooling. I used the VHB 3M tape that Parralax123 and others have suggested. For the converter I went with a Boondocker 1260CL. Several sources including Battle Born highly recommended this. It charges at 60amps max. I went with two Battle Born 100a Lithiums. Based on ToddB and other comments on charge rates I decided to do both of them now. I also kept the charge rate more reasonable. I'm not 100% I got this right. If it blows up I'll let you know! Trimetric 2030RV and solar controller are being used. We pulled a lot of old wires out and a lot of heavier gauge new ones in. In the process we corrected some WTF wiring appearing to be from the factory. Someone decided a circuit breaker needed to be hidden under the sink when there was a open breaker available in the original converter box. On the 2000 Bigfoot 10.6B the dinette is at the front left, converter in the step up to bunk and sink on the right. The stereo is above the dinette seat in the wall to the bunk. Less that 3' away was the converter where the stereo could have been wired to and fused. They ran it past that, under the fridge to under the sink where an extra 3 blade fuse block was. Why? To make life difficult for the guy who blew a fuse some day? That was all integrated together. The solar wires went down the refrigerator shaft as it seems most do. Thanks again for everyone's advice and comments. More to come.796Views0likes0CommentsRe: 2000 Bigfoot 10.6 Electrical Upgrade/Solar Advice
toddb: I was not aware of the 1/2C rate. My future plan was to add a 2nd LiFePo4 in 1 to 2 years but that seems problematic unless I want to do one charger now and change it later. I guess there is no way to limit a higher amp charger to a lower rate?796Views0likes0CommentsRe: 2000 Bigfoot 10.6 Electrical Upgrade/Solar Advice
time2roll: The thought process on the adjustable is that it if fine tuning is needed I have the capability to do so. Better to have it if needed rather than the other way around. Other than time to charge is there any benefit to the 75amp? It's only $10 more. Are there any drawbacks to the 75amp? My understanding is it can charge up to that amount but that does not mean it will.408Views0likes0CommentsRe: 2000 Bigfoot 10.6 Electrical Upgrade/Solar Advice
I wanted to thank all that have replied so far. I'm 99% sure you have converted me to LiFePo4. I'm not sure which brand of LiFePo4 to go with. BattleBorn appears to be a good value with a good warranty. Based on the number of products they seem to be a relatively large company. I'm also guessing that being in Sparks, NV they may have an edge being near Tesla and also lithium mines in the state. I also like that they sell battery warmers that fit their product and that they are on a thermostat. That solves my wife's complaint of not being able to charge in very cold weather. She is very hung up on that even though we have never run out of battery power in those temps. Expion360 is recommended by Best Converter. Being an OEM option on Airstream suggests it is a good product provided their engineers knew enough about LiFePo4 and tech has not changed since then. I like the extra 20ah from them. The replaceable BMS is either a nice feature or a feature that tells me their BMS fails too often. How often do BMS systems fail? I like reliability but I'm not on a sailboat in the middle of the ocean. I will also have solar and a generator. It would be an inconvenience, not an emergency I can set the high idle on the truck and charge off it. In general once I get something working correctly I prefer not to tinker with it. Any more opinions on batteries? With any relatively new technology you have to wonder which companies will still be in business in 5 years. My rough draft spec list is: Boondocker adjustable converter. Not sure on 60 vs 75amp Bogart Tri-Metric 2030RV Bogart SC-2030 Solar controller At least 2 100w Renogy flexible panels (Thanks adamis!) Appropriate shunt Bus bar Various wires, connectors, 3 languages of curse words (for running wire under the refrigerator), etc. In speaking with BattleBorn they recommended charging at 14.2-14.6 charging voltage and after pushing on converter information the person volunteered the Boondocker 3 Stage (Boondocker claims 4 Stage but one of those stages appear to be the Off mode) would be a good match. The biggest selling features for me on the LiFePo4 are weight and being able to be stored long periods uncharged. Where Bigfoot has the batteries they are behind the end of the bed. Losing weight here certainly helps CG. Thanks again for the advice. I'm guessing around $2-2500 total cost.272Views0likes0CommentsRe: 2000 Bigfoot 10.6 Electrical Upgrade/Solar Advice
toddb: I'm about $850 for 250a/h of AGM Lifeline 31XT batteries. Where are you pricing the $950 lithium and what are the a/h and size? I'm also curious on yours and others thoughts on the fire risk. I realize there are different chemistries. I believe it was the Airbus A380 that has fires early on due to lithium battery issues and Texas Motor Speedway recently banned all electric vehicles from drag racing due to fire risk and not having proper fire gear to deal with it. https://www.thedrive.com/news/29192/tesla-cars-and-other-evs-banned-from-texas-drag-strip-due-to-battery-fires I will study the Victron Energy website. The biggest problem I see for lithium batteries is that are killed if they freeze. Do they freeze at 32 degrees like a conventional battery? We often use the camper throughout the winter as we are TX based. Driving through 15-20 degree weather seems like it would potentially freeze & kill them. In storage at the house we can see several days in a row with lows in the low 20s. It is likely I will forget to take them out or be traveling when a front comes through and won't be able to remove them. That's a huge plus for solar on the roof is that I will not kill batteries when not in use as they always get charged.272Views0likes0CommentsRe: 2000 Bigfoot 10.6 Electrical Upgrade/Solar Advice
Thanks Paradox123, that's very helpful information! I picked up the camper last weekend and it looks like the 31XT batteries will fit. It looks like there is adequate room and pretty good access to upsize the battery wires and run everything around to the converter. Also good access around the dinette. Still considering components before ordering. After some thought I think I'll skip the inverter for now. I can run computers off 12v and that is more efficient anyway. If I want to run the A/C it really needs to be off shore power or generator anyway as it's such a hard load. If my wife really wants to use the microwave we can always turn the generator on for a few minutes. We haven't had a microwave for the last 12 years of RVing so I think we can survive. One other question to the board involves adding a Marinco shore power adapter. On my 88 this was no problem as the factory power cord came through a small opening and the Marinco adapter just needed slightly more trimming for a tight fit. The 2000 has a 4-6" door that swings open so the opening is way too big unless I fiberglass in around it. The reasons I like this set is it seals tight, it insulates better, it is easy to replace a damaged cord and in bad weather it is faster to remove/store. My fiberglass skills are functional but not pretty and I don't know how well a gel coat repair would look. Unlike the 88 camper the 2000 has nice shine to it now.274Views0likes0CommentsRe: sway bar upgrade on 2002 F-350 dually
I have a 2002 F-350 Crew Cab dually 4x4 with a diesel and have both front and rear Hellwig bars and weigh about 12k loaded. They help in corners and make the truck feel more tied together. It was a noticeable difference but not huge. The rear bar is not stiff enough for my liking. I still get rocking pulling out of uneven driveways. Truck Camper Magazine had an article that mentioned just this problem when they had bars installed on their rig. I believe it was Roadmaster they used. They were able to get a slightly thicker bar from another application that made a huge difference for them. I have not taken the time to research larger bars for my truck. I guess I should mention I started with factory bars front and rear before installing Hellwig. I have front and rear Hellwig on a 95 F-150 2wd regular cab short bed that came from the factory with no bars. MASSIVE improvement and 100% satisfied. Just backing out of the driveway I could feel the difference in stability.279Views0likes0Comments
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