Cabin Fever 2005 double cab Tundra "build"

[Cassiooohh]

That overload would have given you more lift (stating the obvious) but IMO sacrifices some ride quality. Also running the wheeler 3 pack and rear bilstein. Truck looks good.

Yeah in hindsight I wouldn’t have minded that little extra lift. But I’m going to wait a couple hundred miles and see where everything settles to. Then I may look at some small blocks or shackles to dial in the rear end and get a little rake back. I too tow a small boat pretty often and don’t want to be riding around nose high.

However the ride quality right now is a huge improvement. Doesn’t feel like I'm driving an old Lincoln anymore.

 

[Cassiooohh]

Arb wiring kit came in and my gamble paid off. I was hoping that the ARB fridge plug would work on my Alpicool. I heard Dometic uses the same plug as ARB so I figured it may work for me too, and it sure did.



Looks a little different but plugged right.



Ran the kit through the little “nipple” and everything looks factory.



Ran the 10awg wires to the back panel and installed the socket housing.



Wanted the plug to sit sideways to have plenty of clearance.



Strapped down and ready to go. The CF 45 is a really great size and fits really well into this space. I also ordered a jerry Can holder to mount next to it to carry a 6 gallon water jug. Obviously leaving enough room for the compressor fans.

 

[Cassiooohh]

My battery (X2 power 27f) should arrive at Battey plus tomorrow. So I can’t help but have electrical on my mind.

Fridge is wired up so now I’m looking at wiring power to the bed of the truck. I ordered a Blue Sea accessory panel for a nice clean look. This will be mainly for phone charging, and a 12v fan for the girlfriend/dogs if I can find one that doesn’t draw too much power (any recommendations).



What do you wiring gurus recommend to wire it? 10 awg wire from the battery with a 15 amp fuse near batt Is what I was planning.

Should I also run the negative straight from the battery?
What about my dome light in the shell, could I just tap into 10 awg prior to the blue sea panel?

This panel and the fridge should be all the electrical I will be installing. The Northstar battery should handle that just fine. After some real world testing I may consider a solar set up also to keep battery topped off if not driving for a few days.

 

[smokeysevin]

Determine if you are using current capacity or voltage drop as the governing factor. What is the current draw of the fridge and how far is it from the battery? I would use a circuit breaker and not a fuse. Resetable can be important if you can fix the problem and keep your food from spoiling.

I upsized my chassis ground connection to the battery and use the frame as the ground point for most runs, it cuts down on wire cost since you just need a short lenght to tag it to the frame.

If I was doing marine stuff I would run everything back as a home run to a terminal block or run it all the the engine to minimize corrosion potential.

Anywhere I do a ground connection, I use dielectric grease on the terminal.

Sean



Sent from my LM-G710 using Tapatalk

 

[Cassiooohh]

Determine if you are using current capacity or voltage drop as the governing factor. What is the current draw of the fridge and how far is it from the battery? I would use a circuit breaker and not a fuse. Resetable can be important if you can fix the problem and keep your food from spoiling.

I upsized my chassis ground connection to the battery and use the frame as the ground point for most runs, it cuts down on wire cost since you just need a short lenght to tag it to the frame.

If I was doing marine stuff I would run everything back as a home run to a terminal block or run it all the the engine to minimize corrosion potential.

Anywhere I do a ground connection, I use dielectric grease on the terminal.

Sean



Sent from my LM-G710 using Tapatalk

Before I even read your message I went ahead and purchased a small fuse block with negative connections, also from Blue Sea. I'll add it in the engine bay and run the fridge and rear panel to it along with both negatives. Both using 10 awg (fridge is inside cab). Then I'll run a single power wire from the fuse block to the dome light in the shell, its grounded to the tail light harness. What do I use for a single bulb, 16 awg?

 

[smokeysevin]

What wattage is the bulb? There is nothing wrong with running a home run but you need to make sure that the entire length of the run is included (To the circuit and back to the ground). By grounding to the chassis you can save some money as long as your main body/chassis/engine ground is big enough. In marine applications, I always do home runs to mitigate corrosion.

I always use tinned copper conductors with gxl/txl/marine insulation and use adhesive lined heat shrink on any terminals. More often than not, I crimp and solder connections because I have run into numerous instances of corrosion wicking up the wires which makes repairs down the road much harder. The key here is to make sure that the solder does not wick up past the terminal too far and create a brittle section of wire. The blue sea wire is easy to work with and not too expensive. They also offer multi-wire insulated runs.

Additionally, make sure wire is secure and sheathed in some form of protective covering. I used a combination of flexo and gorrilla braided coverings as well as some other brand stuff from frys before I ordered my current round from wire care. (https://www.wirecare.com/category/braided-sleeving/heavy-duty-sleeving)

You can also get thermal reset breakers that fit standard fuse slots. (https://www.wiringproducts.com/atc-circuit-breakers)

I like this chart, there is another chart I use as well but I can't find the link.



Sean

 

[Cassiooohh]

What wattage is the bulb?

Thanks for all the advice,

It's a single 906 bulb. So a whole 9 watts.

If I run a LED bulb it would be more like 1.5 watts. I think 16 awg and a 5 amp fuse should be what I need.

 

[smokeysevin]

Happy to share.

I consider 16 awg the practical minimum for auto wires in general, smaller than that and they are too easy to break on accident.

Sean

 

[dubk_trd]

subscribed. What a nice build so far. I had me a 2000 model and always wanted a 2005 DC for the 5sp transmission. I ran into the same problem with the cv boots after lifting with the bilsteins. I solved this by installing some thicker material Kartek offroad 930 cv boots .

 

[Cassiooohh]

subscribed. What a nice build so far. I had me a 2000 model and always wanted a 2005 DC for the 5sp transmission. I ran into the same problem with the cv boots after lifting with the bilsteins. I solved this by installing some thicker material Kartek offroad 930 cv boots .

Wish I could blame the boots failing, but I clearly damaged them when installing the front suspension. My lift is small so I plan on getting some oem boots to reboot the axle soon but will use the improved hose clamps instead so I don’t have to deal with oem clamp tools.

 

[Cassiooohh]

Battery Plus finally got my battery in. Employee said he’s never seen one brought in for a replacement in the year he’s worked there. The 27F fits in the factory location with the factory tie down. I sat in my truck with the key in acc while listening to the radio for the first time in months with out having to worry about a dead battery.

Going to leave the fridge on overnight and monitor voltage tomorrow since I don’t plan on driving anywhere.

Also picked up all the electrical parts I needed to wire everything. Just waiting on the blue sea fuse box and accessory panel.

 

[Cassiooohh]

Just a quick update on the x2 Power battery. Parked the truck around 6 PM and battery read 12.6 volts. Left the fridge running all night with cutoff set on the low setting. At 8 am this morning I checked voltage and it hadn’t change. Truck started right up and fridge maintained on.

It passed the overnight test with flying colors.

 

[dubk_trd]

I'm sold on the battery and fridge!

 

[Cassiooohh]

Wired up a 100 amp circuit breaker and Blue Sea fuse box. Pretty straight forward install. What took the longest was finding 4 awg battery cables. O’riellys was the only auto part store that carried both black and red battery cables in bulk.



Just waiting on the UPS man to arrive with the accessory panel for the rear. Then I’ll wire that up along with the shell dome light.

I had a hard time finding 10 awg wire. Auto part stores only carry it in small 8ft packages.To run from front to back I probably need 15+ feet (yes I know I could splice but rather not). I did find Thhn wire at Home Depot. It will work but any suggestions of stores that might carry Automotive 10 awg?

 

[smokeysevin]

I get wire from westmarine.

Sean