1990 Land Cruiser HZJ73 vetting and build

[CanuckMariner/Nomad]

CB Antenna - No Ground Plane

Well the weather has been warmer +3-6C and getting hotter maybe even 10 tomorrow!

So I finished the install and guess what, had about 4-6 feet extra cable left so had to reroute it from the front right side across the firewall up the left side and across the front grill to use it. Remember you do not want to cut the cable as it is frequency wavelength dependent. Also, you do not want to simple coil it or back it up on itself as it cause RF interference.

Once that was done, hook everything up and try it. The weather band does come in a lot clearer but still haven't done the SWR as the antenna can not be cut so there is a built in adjustment slider on the cable near where it attaches to the unit. So waiting for a friend who borrowed a SWR from a friend so we can both do our new NGP antennas.

 

[CanuckMariner/Nomad]

Electrical Issues

These are unique to those trucks that have full time 24 volt systems. Some Surfs and others have 2 batteries from the factory which are used only to start the engine and then everything else is 12 volts.Careful on wiring these for dual battery systems, you can do it, but be careful.

Because NOMAD has a 24 V system, it is hard to get 12V accessories to shut off with the engine. So you have to use a number of relays (24V to open/close the relay to the 12 V side) which gets a bit cumbersome as you have limited space to put them. Would be nice to find a block to hold say 4 or more relays internally or plug ins. Anyone know of any?

As a temporary solution I have found some mini switches that can handle up to 10 AMPS (micros stop at about 3 AMPS). So I now use these switches to shut down or start these accessories, like my iPod.

Another "Gadget" I am looking for is a block like device (no fuses as I have fuse blocks) to mount all my 24V stuff rather than having a bunch of wires coming off my negative on one battery and the positive off the other. Posts are looking like octopuses. Anyone got an idea, suggestion?

Last problem was the Ham stopped working after A month of not being in the truck. I have it doubly fused... factory bus fuse of 15 AMPS and 10 AMP fuse in the Blue Sea fuse panel/block as the 15 AMP bus is not so common over here. Haven't figured it out yet but think it is the wire coming from the fuse panel to the radio unit in the back has a break in the insulation and is grounding out on the floor due to all the moving around of stuff, unpacking my gear from my last trip. Will work on that tomorrow during the heat wave of +10C.

 

[CanuckMariner/Nomad]

Extra key storage

As I travel solo a lot, at least for portions of my trips, going from C to D and F to G etc. I want to be able to hide an extra key somewhere on the outside, easy to get to, but not easy to see/find.

I have electric locks on the doors, glass is way to expensive and hard to replace, but what if you did lock yourself out or lost the only ignition key you had. Now what?

I had a good place in the stock rear license plate light, but now thats gone as I have Kaymar Hi-Lift jack holder with light included.

Any ideas?...those magnetic boxes wouldn't work for off-roading as the bouncing and jolts would certainly knock it loose.

I have a ton of keys now - locks on the fuel carrier turned water carrier (don't want to loose those hard to get Scepter jerry cans), keys for the lock on the Hi-Lift jack to the Kaymar holder so it doesn't get nicked, keys for the drawers on the African Outback drawer system (left/right), lock on the receiver clevis mount so it doesn't get pinched, etc. etc.

 

[SimonInAustralia]

I have it doubly fused... factory bus fuse of 15 AMPS and 10 AMP fuse in the Sea Breeze fuse panel/block as the 15 AMP bus is not so common over here.

Sea Breeze fuse block?

What is that?

Do you mean Blue Sea?

 

[gilghana]

"Another "Gadget" I am looking for is a block like device (no fuses as I have fuse blocks) to mount all my 24V stuff rather than having a bunch of wires coming off my negative on one battery and the positive off the other. Posts are looking like octopuses. Anyone got an idea, suggestion?"

I have the same octopus problem - plus I want everything to pass through a shunt for my battery monitor for the two aux batteries... So I use a large sized block of cable connectors and just loop the cables if you know what I mean - i.e. at the back are short sections of cable bridging all the connectors together, and then at the front I just wire in my accessories. Not ideal, but it works... But then they are under the side panel of my African Outback drawers, so no one sees!
Gil

 

[CanuckMariner/Nomad]

Sea Breeze fuse block?

What is that?

Do you mean Blue Sea?

Oops your right, I will fix that... Must be wishful thinking on my part!

 

[CanuckMariner/Nomad]

"Another "Gadget" I am looking for is a block like device (no fuses as I have fuse blocks) to mount all my 24V stuff rather than having a bunch of wires coming off my negative on one battery and the positive off the other. Posts are looking like octopuses. Anyone got an idea, suggestion?"

I have the same octopus problem - plus I want everything to pass through a shunt for my battery monitor for the two aux batteries... So I use a large sized block of cable connectors and just loop the cables if you know what I mean - i.e. at the back are short sections of cable bridging all the connectors together, and then at the front I just wire in my accessories. Not ideal, but it works... But then they are under the side panel of my African Outback drawers, so no one sees!
Gil

Good idea, thanks! Can you send any photos so I can confirm what I am thinking of.

 

[bj70_guy]

Another "Gadget" I am looking for is a block like device (no fuses as I have fuse blocks) to mount all my 24V stuff rather than having a bunch of wires coming off my negative on one battery and the positive off the other. Posts are looking like octopuses. Anyone got an idea, suggestion?

How about a Rigrunner, and convert your ends to Powerpoles?

Good stuff...

http://www.powerwerx.com/product.asp?ProdID=3591

 

[CanuckMariner/Nomad]

How about a Rigrunner, and convert your ends to Powerpoles?

Good stuff...

http://www.powerwerx.com/product.asp?ProdID=3591

Checked into this and found that all of their RIGrunners have fuses and I do not need anymore fuses. Everything is already fused. But thanks for the suggestion.

 

[lowenbrau]

Checked into this and found that all of their RIGrunners have fuses and I do not need anymore fuses. Everything is already fused. But thanks for the suggestion.

So wouldn't the Powerpole product be right for you then?
http://www.powerwerx.com/product.asp?ProdID=15761&CtgID=3823

 

[CanuckMariner/Nomad]

I am still chatting with them on this same unit, however, I haven't heard about it's dimensions, how it attaches to the engine compartment walls and if they have one with more than 7 connections...after all I have octopuses growing on my terminals and as you probably know, they all have 8 legs! I know they daisy chain together but I have limited space.

 

[CanuckMariner/Nomad]

Another possible solution I looked into is mulitplexing, but far too expensive for my budget but may not be for some...http://www.isispower.com/products.html

 

[CanuckMariner/Nomad]

Acer Aspire One and Laptop Mount

See post # 61 and 63....http://www.expeditionportal.com/forum/showthread.php?p=336572#post336572

 

[CanuckMariner/Nomad]

Creature Comfort Gadget - Glamping

I bit the bullet after I saw a friend at SnT'08 (Jon Bachelder - Taho, NV) with a water jerry can mounted on the rear of his 71 series (from Kanukistan, where else?) with a spigot in it. He had drilled a hole and glued it in place so he didn't have to unmount the jerry can always to get some water to drink, clean, cook etc. Pretty kool setup.

Best form of flattery is copying some one, so I did. Drilled a 1" hole near the bottom of a blue Scepter water can and inserted a spigot from one of those box wines (my wife brought it home from an office party). I first tried to glue it in with Crazy Glue, only thing about that product is it does hold anything but skin together, crazy, eh? So that didn't work, I cleaned up the spigot and glue it with ABS glue and worked like a charm. Melted/fused the two plastics together and no leaking. So now I have a brown Scepter water can for showers and a blue one (with a spigot) for drinking water, cleaning and cooking.

Next I had to cut the AT jerry can holder I use to hold them. I cut the inside one as the outside one would make the spigot too vulnerable to breaking off. This way I can slip it vertically down into the AT holder without damaging it. Also, thought I might weaken the holder by cutting it. I cut so I would meet up with the smaller of the two holes in the lower corner. This worked out great!


Thanks Jon, nice touch!

 

[Hltoppr]

That's a great idea! I may steal it too!

Who put together your rear bumper? IIRC it was someone in Arizona?

-H-