Dreadlocks outfitting of InTech Discover

[dreadlocks]

Yup, this also allows me to protect the battery when the inverter is in heavy usage.. Inverter will draw power down below LVD shut off pretty fast, then other loads become second priority and drop off.. this is desired because my inverter can pull max discharge rate out of the battery.. so if you kick on the microwave, the lights and everything shuts off until its done cooking and then they turn back on all by themselves..

Cant run inverter behind an LVD because they drop the voltage significantly, so it being behind the big BP running in lithium mode will keep it running unless battery gets to cut off point.. then it'll shut down inverter.

When plugged into shore power, it will charge the battery back up to full and then the big battery protect will drop the battery.. continuing to power stuff in the trailer just off the shore power and letting the battery rest w/no appreciable loads (just the BMV)

I found an issue with the current setup I need to fix before fall approaches, I want the furnace to not shut off at low voltage and to run til cut off.. so its circuit is getting moved, I doubt its good for it to yank power when its hot since it runs fans for several mins after it puts the fire out.. seems like a good way to crack the heat exchanger.. besides I want to automatically start shutting stuff down on a cold night so furnace has ample energy.. (thats largely what reserve switch is for)

 

[calicamper]

Wow lots of good ideas? I really like the Explore. But I have a 8 and 10 yr old. And most of our NP trips in the future are Grizzly and colder temp parks. I’m seriously thinking of doing a custom trailer loosely based on the Explore. 6ftish wide -13-14ft long about the same height as the Explore, but with a Fourwheel popup camper style roof. So we can have standing head room at camp, flip up pipe cot style upper single bunks for the kids. Flip down murphyish style bed platform across the back for parents. Our current 60x70 beds in our original lifetime tent trailer are just barely wide enough. The 55ish tip out on the Explore would be tough.

Idea being we’er hard wall to 6.5 ish feet high bear Country legal and can do a insulated layer on the 3ft ish high soft sides. Probably a tip out bed also but that would be warm summer camping option.

I was just told to start looking for our next SUV. So thats first. Its replacing 2 vehicles 06 Sequoia and 2010 Outback. I’m eyeing the 2020 Lincoln Aviator plugin. It replaces two cars with ability to do all the local kid sports hauling on EV and 450hp 600ftlb torque! for the long highway trips?. Granted its no Sequoia 4x4 but I haven’t needed anything beyond graded dirt road ability for a long time. The Accountant likes the 4 to 3 vehicles move.

 

[dreadlocks]

Ive been camping soft sided with Grizzlies all my life, I'm not concerned about them.. I've got an 8yro and a 2yro that been camping with em since birth, plus two dogs in the camper... there's only one camp in the west that don't allow soft sided and thats in YNP, and its not a very good camp either.. but does have some ************ fishing! (wonder why).. You still need to follow bear protocol if your hard sided or not, lol if you think those flimsy camper doors will keep a bear out, so better have an exit plan.

Reflectix in the windows of the pop outs and I have no problem keeping it 72F inside even in subfreezing temps.. I was kinda leaning towards all hardsided but I'm glad I compromised, I think I'd of missed listening to the sounds of the forest at night all locked inside a box.. now only to get my wife to stop snoring.

Twin popout beds are hard to beat IMO, Beds are like the main attraction of a trailer and yet they take up practically no space inside.. I'm finding far more upsides than I thought when I "settled" on canvas still being part of the equation.. two seasons into it I honestly feel like a ************** looking back and making such a big deal over it.

 

[calicamper]

Yeah most of my camping as s kid was back country backpacking with a tarp. Bears were a common experience. But they weren’t annoying park bears lol. Yeah the camping restrictions in Yellowstone was our first experience with the tent limitations. 9 days base camped in Madison was fine. Though I would have liked camping in the Northern edge of the park farther away from the lodge crowds.

We just got back from a 6 NP trip 12 days Utah/AZ. Moab wind / sand storm was rough on the tent dwellers. We managed just barely.

I built a tiny solar system for our tent on a trailer. 18AH battery and gear all in a 50cal ammo box mounted to the front plate of the trailer. Its 8 yrs old on its 2nd battery ?. 2 10watt panels. We might burn 6 amps on a heavy day lol.
Still using a metal sided Colman cooler with block Ice. 3 blocks of ice and two bags of crushed during our 12 day Zion- Moab and back trip.

After that I did our house. 8.2Kw system 29 250watt LG panels running micro inverters. Solar is awesome.

 

[PSea]

hell yeah, been looking for someone else running em.. they look fabulous on spec sheet and worth the premium.. mine will be here Tuesday, cant friggin wait.. they been in my shopping cart for nearly a year now.

thats basically what I was going to do for wiring, these are such high voltage output with the 96 cells that with one panel on 100ft of 10awg is only like 1.5% voltage drop, if I went with 8awg.. I could go 200ft with 2% drop.. Ive got a 100ft 10awg extension cord for genset that seems like it'd be more than enough distance away.. was going to make 4x25ft 10awg marine cables with andersons and locking pins, sleeving em is a great suggestion tho, duh.. dunno why I forgot that.

Fixed panel is my ez button, it'll just be there always taking advantage of any sun it gets, completely secure.. when driving it can be recharging, when locked up at a trail head for a few days it can be charging, when shade is scarce we might find setting up 2nd one wont be worth it.. I'm mounting it to top of trailer roof rack and no shade from power vent or aircon will get to it.

in the Pacific North West its a whole nother ball game, like worst conditions for solar I've had to deal with.. if its not the trees, its the clouds that get you.. usually both.. this is why I got generator, last solar setups became mostly dead weight in Oregon and Washington.. Colorado gets over 300 days of sunshine, its pretty easy here to get a little sun at least.. trailer is larger than most of our connifer footprints, so I'm not parked under em as much as among em.. its actually a bit difficult to find a camp that is always in the shade all day long.. our stuff dont grow so big and massive with the lack of water and air.

dreadlocks, do you have a link to the solar panels you guys are talking about? I'm considering adding solar. Thx!

 

[dreadlocks]

These are what I bought: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Panasonic-...-Black-Solar-PNL-NEW-40-MM-FRAME/264253263164

I'm loving em, the fixed roof top one has been pretty much adequate here in Colorado for weekending, just need a few hours of sun at any point of the day and i'm golden.. still havent mounted the rear panel yet, its going to take a bit more engineering than I had originally anticipated... need to get ahold of inTech and get some drawings for the rear gate structure.

Going from running the GenSet every other day to not even needing it has been a nice relief..

 

[PSea]

thanks. no sooner did I post the question that I saw a picture of the panels and a link. much appreciated. ;-)

 

[RandyP]

so it being behind the big BP running in lithium mode will keep it running unless battery gets to cut off point.. then it'll shut down inverter.

Big no running lithium mode. Is that a custom mode you programmed with by ?

Mn

 

[dreadlocks]

its one of the settings on the Battery Protect, basically turns it into a dumb solid state relay and ignores voltage.. the BMV controls it directly based off SOC calculations.

 

[dreadlocks]

So far this summer the fixed panel has been more than adequate, taken it out nearly every other week and have not even used the generator once this season.. This weekend we got our first bit of overcast, and I was still seeing ~100W of power out of it.. Going to hold off plans on the second panel, until I get some work from camp opportunities in.

some obligatory pics I took on the way out, because I been wanting more photos of everything in tow.. thats my son's new hiking stick on the roof.

 

[ITTOG]

Is the ladder on the trailer permanent? If yes, every have problems with people or raccoons climbing it.

I have read about people having these issues.

Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk

 

[dreadlocks]

yes its fixed, and lol no.. I store fuel up there and use it to clean the solar panel off.. it has to be pulled out to use it, if my cats could climb up there they would had figured it out already because they loved sleeping on the bus when I had it parked where I now store this.

I camp with two dogs and generally dont have much issue with critters, but before them I had coons break into my tent at 2am... quite the rush you get when you hear your zipper slowly opening in the middle of the night.

 

[calicamper]

yes its fixed, and lol no.. I store fuel up there and use it to clean the solar panel off.. it has to be pulled out to use it, if my cats could climb up there they would had figured it out already because they loved sleeping on the bus when I had it parked where I now store this.

I camp with two dogs and generally dont have much issue with critters, but before them I had coons break into my tent at 2am... quite the rush you get when you hear your zipper slowly opening in the middle of the night.

Racoon story. Anchored in a cove hot night front hatch open. A buddy of mine had two raccoons drop in ontop of him sleeping in the v berth on his sail boat. Another friend anchored near by said the ensuing screaming yelling and sailor laced colorful language at 4am had many boats awake bright and early. The raccoons apparently lost their umm stuff getting the crap scared out of them literally and my buddy nearly knocked him self out hitting his head on the main bulkhead actually had a pretty serious concussion. Its one of those camp fire stories told by him that has people laughing so hard they are crying and falling out of their camp chairs.
I only have bear in camp stories.

 

[dreadlocks]

Few years back we had a Wolf in camp, in Colorado none the less.. but he was there for the dog food I just put out, me and my Pyrenees ran his ass away.. I've encountered lots of bear hiking/backpacking, thankfully none ever in camp.

 

[Stan0]

This is how my 200 watt roof top is finally installed. Not shown is the 40 a rover and breaker inside trailer. 100 amp lithium bat in side compartment. Thanks for all the advice. I went with 1/4 inch aluminum for mounting brackets and used renogy tilts. They are tedious to setup but when staying somewhere for 2 to three weeks I think they will be worth it. Also have a 100 watt suitcase for added power if needed. Hope the traveler pwm will work along with rover when needed.