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"Start isolation" is almost never required except on boats. Used a home brew intelligent charger on a camper for years with no form of start isolation. As a practical matter, most of the time the ACR will disconnect as soon as you turn the key because the demand of the starter on the starting...

You don't need "start isolation." Just let it work.

You don't need a dual bank charger. Simply attach the solar panels/controller to the battery of your choice - typically the camper battery, and the Blue Sea ACR will combine when the battery exceeds the target voltage, thus charging both batteries. Scholars can debate MPPT vs. PWM. For me, the...

Actually, it is not hard. Let's play. -- Guessing that the truck alternator runs at 13.9vf, call it 14v. -- Assuming a normal truck, with batteries at the front, pace it off. For giggles, let's call it 30 feet from the front of the truck to the front of a trailer. -- If we are going to use a...

But to repeat - a B2B can assure the proper voltage and, if needed, limit the amp flow, but it still requires adequate wiring. AFAIK, no multi-pin connector has adequately large wires.

What distance, how many amps, target voltage i.e., what kind of battery, and, of course, are you using a battery-to-battery charger at the distant end? (Hint: Most of us would tell you to simply ignore the multi-pin for charging.) Use this and have fun...

Corrected the weights a bit, first was a Blazer (1/2-ton pickup) with over 50 USG of fuel, second was a 12,000 lb. Tiger, built on a one-ton Chevrolet pickup. My current truck is not on a US one ton, but it runs at about 18,000 lb. - which is another set of problems. Parthian Shot: I went...

Been doing this for 50 years. You are welcome to your own opinions. As I said, I am talking about a loaded expedition vehicle traveling in the real, mostly third, world. Not a jeep on a trail. The link you posted is for an empty pickup, not a Edited to correct: 6 - 12,000 lb. camper.

I have never met anyone who actually owns a compost toilet who does not prefer it. Except, perhaps, the gentleman who bought my Tiger. Most of the nay sayers have never seen a composting toilet of any form. After five years with two of them, we would not have anything else. FWIW - I first...

This is a particularly nice upgrade of this camper by some folks who have actually lived in and with it. (Of course, I am a total REDARC phanboi.) I would stick a C-Head in that toilet box.

When you are talking about a heavy camper or camper conversion, off-road articulation is much less important than stability and damping - we are talking about a relatively big vehicle on dirt roads, not a Jeep on the Rubicon. A properly integrated, progressive spring pack will be more durable...

Everyone that I know, including myself, eventually seems to end up with: -- Good shocks -- Big anti sway bar -- And, finally, after bags, add-a-leafs, etc., a new set of rear springs, calibrated for the full, not the empty, load. Free advice, YMMV. etc.

Drop the overhead storage, push the windows up as high as you can, and maximize the lower storage. Free advice worth…

Sometimes my REDARC bubbas are a bit too clever for me. Sooooo. Assuming standard layout, 86 left, 30 bottom, etc. -- When the winch is activated by some switch, NOT shown in the diagram, current comes down the blue wire, seeking ground. -- 86 completes the circuit to 85 and the relay closes...

Yo! Dave! As a non-winch guy, what is the switching logic of the relay? It appears to be on the ground/earth leg. Is it activated, to make a ground, when you turn on the winch? The other relay, the SBI212 is an intelligent relay - how is that being used? It appears that the ground is broken. So...

As noted, I can't help you with the Odyssey batteries - talk to Dave. -- With a "smart" alternator, you may well need a B2B to keep the camper battery happy. Sterling, Victron, RECARC and others all give you options. Lots of electrons die horrible deaths debating which is best. Mixing lead...

G'day Dave! No personal experience, but I have noted some folks that I respect using high tech, light plywood, faced with a melamine like substance. The melamine is highly water resistant while the plywood makes a nice screw surface lighter things, like wire looms, etc. The ply is almost as...

In my case, my Lifelines were at the end of their life. I was able to cram 840 Ah into the space of 600 Ah of AGM. Total cost, including buying the tools, came out to well under $2500. The carpentry was the hardest part. EDITED TO ADD: This all assumes that you understand the different...

As Dave noted above, paralleling, for starting, or worse, winching, requires properly sized wires. If you used those wires with a B2B, then any form of bypass - jumper cable, manual or relay controlled circuit, will work. According to Sterling Power, at least, there is no need to remove the B2B...

I confess that I did not have a ruler or the exact dimensions of the 280 Ah cells at hand. They are very narrow. They could easily be too big, but the point is that there are many prismatic cells at 50Ah, 100 Ah and beyond available. It is really a game of Tetris. The concept is the same: --...