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Last Call Guest on these Group Buy Deal Items from Baja Designs
What did you do to your RV today?
- Thread starter CarterKraft
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CarterKraft
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Nice work on all that.I finally got back to my toy hauler solar/charger/inverter project to wrap things up.
3x 165ahr Lifepo4 batteries with disconnect. Fuses are behind the near side. Victron smart shunt.
Victron Multiplus II, Cerbo GX and MPPT mounted behind the walls in my storage space. The black circle is a vent and there’s another one behind the Multiplus ii.
Storage area walls back in. Back one pushed back 4” and the side on pushed out 6” with a filler plate in the corner.
We always park in the shade, so no use hard mounting solar panels. Here’s the plug for the portable panels.
The display attached to the Cerbo GX
And Now to load up for dirt biking.
Any cold camping? I got worried about having my lipos on the tongue.
GLTHFJ60
Stupid is as stupid does
His battery might have internal heating pads to keep the cells at temp. Mine does.
Even if inside the camper, not like you're running the heat during winter storage.
CarterKraft
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Yeah I cheaped out and got the non heated ones. I don't worry about them freezing in storage just when I'm out camping. No wrong answer just curious.
Gumbybronco
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Thanks and not usually very cold. Maybe 40 degrees at the coldest.
I hit the easy button since that’s where the stock single battery was.
Gumbybronco
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I have 3 of these:
I’ve had them for about a year and have been manually charging them.
They seem solid so far.
I’ve had them for about a year and have been manually charging them.
They seem solid so far.
CDA 455 II
ANFAQUE2
I used the microwave oven and A/C unit for the first time! 
Gumbybronco
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I finally got back to my toy hauler solar/charger/inverter project to wrap things up.
3x 165ahr Lifepo4 batteries with disconnect. Fuses are behind the near side. Victron smart shunt.
Victron Multiplus II, Cerbo GX and MPPT mounted behind the walls in my storage space. The black circle is a vent and there’s another one behind the Multiplus ii.
Storage area walls back in. Back one pushed back 4” and the side on pushed out 6” with a filler plate in the corner.
We always park in the shade, so no use hard mounting solar panels. Here’s the plug for the portable panels.
The display attached to the Cerbo GX
And Now to load up for dirt biking.
Had fun dirt biking. Off grid for a few days. I learned to turn off the Multiplus II when I don’t need AC power - it’s hungry and uses a bit of juice doing nothing. Everything worked great.
Provience
Kill!
Any idea how much it was using at idle or just enough to be noticeable?
Gumbybronco
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Enough to show up on the display. But easy enough to hit the off button.
I wish I took a photo of it. I was focused on fun and happened to check the display and noticed that the battery was down to 13.2vdc doing nothing.
CarterKraft
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My 2500w uses 2 amps I recall in standby powering nothing, another reason I converted my starlink to dc
How big is your battery? Solar?
I have the same inverter, it needs to be on all the time since I'm putting in a 120v fridge.
Gumbybronco
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I have 3x 165ah lifo4 batteries. Solar is portable and 400 watts, but not in use this trip. I run my fridge on propane off the grid with 12vdc pilot. Most things I use are 12vdc.
The Multiplus II fans were running and lights on the microwave were lit and GFCI outlets lit
wrath
Red Skull
Any of my fellow hillbillies modify a Lippert Ground Control electric leveling jack as a retrofit on something else? They've finally gotten cheap enough without buying a pallet full from alibaba for me to try it. I have hydraulic on my motorhome, but my parents are getting old and still use leveling ramps.
Provience
Kill!
nope, i've gotten close a couple time to go that direction though. i'm still rocking the old flip down jacks, only issue has been the redoing the cables a couple times. the lippert style direct up/down looks like a much better system.
anything beats the ramps though.
if you do go ahead and swap them on, please update the journey here. i'm curious if they are as nice as they seem
Pulled up the wood floor in the bedroom the previous owners had done. Poorly. Added some sound deadening because there's no insulation on the floor sound or thermal. Needed to get the nightstand on the P side back in so the shore power could get hooked back up.
Floor with foam and staples still there.
Cleaned, insulation and flooring
Stand in, wires run.
Other side the subfloor was rotted out pretty bad. Had an old can of killz. Dumped enough in to make it self level. Hopefully it dries or it will be a huge mess.
Floor with foam and staples still there.
Cleaned, insulation and flooring
Stand in, wires run.
Other side the subfloor was rotted out pretty bad. Had an old can of killz. Dumped enough in to make it self level. Hopefully it dries or it will be a huge mess.
CarterKraft
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I did my own 3 point just used manual switches for the jacks, level side to side then front to back. Maybe the best mod I made to the trailer if you like to camp level, stable.
Which one you seeing from the rock candy mountain?
wrath
Red Skull
I used to use 4 Harder Fraught tongue jacks, modified. Back when they were $69 on sale. Now they're absurd.
I tried using one of those little hydraulic car jacks you can buy for $50. They're fine, but there is no good way to attach the cylinder to the frame. The plastic housing is about it for easy.
The Lippert ones that are now affordable retail are best seen as "JDMSPEED 344792". The cheapest I usually see them on alibaba are about $110 but you have to buy a lot. This one is at the price range I'd try right now and experiment but I'm busy.
I tried using one of those little hydraulic car jacks you can buy for $50. They're fine, but there is no good way to attach the cylinder to the frame. The plastic housing is about it for easy.
The Lippert ones that are now affordable retail are best seen as "JDMSPEED 344792". The cheapest I usually see them on alibaba are about $110 but you have to buy a lot. This one is at the price range I'd try right now and experiment but I'm busy.
Swapped out my dead nominal 400ah of lead acid for 628ah usable. I claimed I was going to enclose this, but I didn’t. My thought is I can cover the thing with stick-on heaters if I have to, since this is a metal case. If I have any trouble, I’ll encase the compartment as much as is convenient with some sheet metal and foam board.
This is a motorhome, so I also had to rig up a dc-dc charger to limit the current on the alternator. I did my normal thing of making a simple project take forever, and not because I added quality and skill.
Odd, today's project was also swapping in lifepo4 power. I bought 2 8D sized ones somehow thinking I was going to squeeze both in there. That's a big **** no.
So I think the house batts will eventually get relocated to the compartment where the inverter lives. I can get 4 of those ****ers in there.
DC-DC charger........ I'm going to have to do something here as my alternator is a 410A unit....... With 4 batteries installed it shouldn't be an issue, these will take 150A each.
So I think the house batts will eventually get relocated to the compartment where the inverter lives. I can get 4 of those ****ers in there.
DC-DC charger........ I'm going to have to do something here as my alternator is a 410A unit....... With 4 batteries installed it shouldn't be an issue, these will take 150A each.
Holy ****, that’s a serious alternator. The concern is that these will try to take full alternator output at idle (when the alternator has no real cooling happening) cooking the alternator. The concern isn’t really on protecting the battery.Odd, today's project was also swapping in lifepo4 power. I bought 2 8D sized ones somehow thinking I was going to squeeze both in there. That's a big **** no.
So I think the house batts will eventually get relocated to the compartment where the inverter lives. I can get 4 of those ****ers in there.
DC-DC charger........ I'm going to have to do something here as my alternator is a 410A unit....... With 4 batteries installed it shouldn't be an issue, these will take 150A each.
But a 410amp setup is maybe oil cooled? Not sure if that removes the concern. But ask yourself how often you need the batts charged super quickly.
For us, we’re weekend warriors. If a person was going from boondocking site to boondocking site, I can sure understand wanting massive charging if possible. If you’re not, you might be risking a very expensive alternator.
Well, I hooked it up and flipped the switch. It was only pulling 30A from the 100A charger. So with 2 or 3 of them going I still don't see it being an issue. I'm going to invest in one of those fancy regulators with temp monitors on it. That should keep things from cooking. This is a large frame alt, it weighs like 60#.
Do you know what voltage your charger was set to? Small changes in that make a huge difference in current. As in, 14.2v would be like 20 amps on my setup, 14.6 would be 85. Just something to keep in mind.
What ever a multiplus 2 is set at. I was going through the settings to see if it had different charging profiles like the solar charge controllers, but it doesn't seem to have any of that. Have to get out the manual, might be dip switch's.
Gumbybronco
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I’m pretty sure that I was able to set my Multiplus 2 to the exact charging profile for my batteries. I did some programming on my Cerbo GX and some in the VRM portal - I don’t remember which parts.
GLTHFJ60
Stupid is as stupid does
100% you can. There are charging profiles, then you can go into advanced and set exact voltages if you want.
The multiplus 2 is incredibly tunable.
