mhiscox
Expedition Leader
Nah. The Jeep has (the even less natural) water breathable membrane fabric. We scoff at old-fashioned vinyl.
EarthRoamer XV-JP "Northwest Edition"
- Thread starter WhereTheHellIsJames?
- Start date
mk216v
Der Chef der Fahrzeuge
Nah. The Jeep has (the even less natural) water breathable membrane fabric. We scoff at old-fashioned vinyl.
I was referring to the vinyl applique on the exterior of the rigs. Yours has a sort of a tree motif IIRC, the Sterling looks to have a wetlands motif, maybe the Fuso could go with a palm fronds motif?
mhiscox
Expedition Leader
Doh.I was referring to the vinyl applique on the exterior of the rigs. Yours has a sort of a tree motif IIRC, the Sterling looks to have a wetlands motif, maybe the Fuso could go with a palm fronds motif?
You're right; Yves is behind the curve and needs to get some graphics on his truck to scrape off on the branches.
Ford Prefect
Expedition Leader
I think Yves needs to put something on that looks the same (ish) if the top is up or down. Like a tree that just gets taller, or a sunset or something. It could be pretty cool.
VanIsle_Greg
I think I need a bigger truck!
Just read this whole thing...wow. Beautiful rig, in every way.
mhiscox
Expedition Leader
Thanks for the compliment. I admire your vehicles/fabrication/projects/interests as well. All impressive stuff.
Best,
Mike
VanIsle_Greg
I think I need a bigger truck!
PaulJensen
Custom Builder
Excuse me for the diversion...
Some of you might be interested in the current build I'm working on...It's a Sprinter conversion...Custom all the way...I'm just getting started...
Sprinter Conversion for Alex
Some of you might be interested in the current build I'm working on...It's a Sprinter conversion...Custom all the way...I'm just getting started...
Sprinter Conversion for Alex
mhiscox
Expedition Leader
Nautic Junior 12V water heater
Back in January, wrote this:
So here's the promised report.
Long-time thread followers know that I had to replace the EarthRoamer-supplied Isotemp water heater with a smaller unit, and through a combination of circumstances, I ended up replacing it with the 12 volt Elgena Nautic Junior unit shown above, which I got from Europe through Eurocampers. (Check post 630 for the gory details).
The short story is that it works pretty well and I'm going to leave it in place. It heats the 10 liters nicely, getting you warm water in under an hour and genuinely hot water not too long after that. And the ten liters is a more useful quantity than you might think, since you're mixing it less than 50/50 with cold water most of the time. And in a little camper like the XV-JP, you don't use all that much hot water anyway. So figure that it was a success and fixed the problem.
It's also sort of nice that you don't have to run the truck to have hot water. Not that I often camp for days in the same spot, so the old heat exchanger unit usually had enough warm water. But if it didn't, you had to idle the truck for a while, and that sort of bothered me, so trading the engine's waste heat for the batteries' stored power is sometimes good. And the heat exchanger unit can't maintain a fixed temperature, and this can.
That said, the thing needs 200 watts (about 17 amps DC) when heating, so getting cold water up to temperature is going to eat the batteries quickly. It doesn't use near so much current once up to temperature, but in terms of overall battery use, it seems sort of like having a second fridge drawing from your system. That's no problem when the batteries are getting recharged from shorepower or the alternator, but a concern otherwise. And if you forget to turn the heater off when you park the truck, expect to come back to some amazingly low battery voltages after a week. (Guess how I would know that.) Not too big a problem with AGMs like I have, but if you have flooded cells, which don't come back well from complete discharges, you'll want to rig up some sort of low-voltage cutoff for the house batteries so a forgetful moment doesn't require new batteries.
Back in January, wrote this:
about this:
So here's the promised report.
Long-time thread followers know that I had to replace the EarthRoamer-supplied Isotemp water heater with a smaller unit, and through a combination of circumstances, I ended up replacing it with the 12 volt Elgena Nautic Junior unit shown above, which I got from Europe through Eurocampers. (Check post 630 for the gory details).
The short story is that it works pretty well and I'm going to leave it in place. It heats the 10 liters nicely, getting you warm water in under an hour and genuinely hot water not too long after that. And the ten liters is a more useful quantity than you might think, since you're mixing it less than 50/50 with cold water most of the time. And in a little camper like the XV-JP, you don't use all that much hot water anyway. So figure that it was a success and fixed the problem.
It's also sort of nice that you don't have to run the truck to have hot water. Not that I often camp for days in the same spot, so the old heat exchanger unit usually had enough warm water. But if it didn't, you had to idle the truck for a while, and that sort of bothered me, so trading the engine's waste heat for the batteries' stored power is sometimes good. And the heat exchanger unit can't maintain a fixed temperature, and this can.
That said, the thing needs 200 watts (about 17 amps DC) when heating, so getting cold water up to temperature is going to eat the batteries quickly. It doesn't use near so much current once up to temperature, but in terms of overall battery use, it seems sort of like having a second fridge drawing from your system. That's no problem when the batteries are getting recharged from shorepower or the alternator, but a concern otherwise. And if you forget to turn the heater off when you park the truck, expect to come back to some amazingly low battery voltages after a week. (Guess how I would know that.) Not too big a problem with AGMs like I have, but if you have flooded cells, which don't come back well from complete discharges, you'll want to rig up some sort of low-voltage cutoff for the house batteries so a forgetful moment doesn't require new batteries.
Rod's Jeep
New member
Sitting here with the nasty flu going around NoCal this month - the sickest I have been in 30+ years
Now I have read through a few different threads on this site over the past couple of years and while intriguing/informative I wasn't impressed. Then came this is one :Wow1: Not only did I read the entire thread, I signed up to boot! I will be hunting through every thread Paul Jensen is a part of. I have been searching for ideas to use to rebuild my jeep and I do believe I have found exactly the right source to feed my bizarre thought processes! Great job Mike & Paul.
Now I have read through a few different threads on this site over the past couple of years and while intriguing/informative I wasn't impressed. Then came this is one :Wow1: Not only did I read the entire thread, I signed up to boot! I will be hunting through every thread Paul Jensen is a part of. I have been searching for ideas to use to rebuild my jeep and I do believe I have found exactly the right source to feed my bizarre thought processes! Great job Mike & Paul.
mhiscox
Expedition Leader
Really sorry about the flu, Rod, but thanks for the very kind words. Please be sure to let us know if you have questions, and good luck on your own build.Sitting here with the nasty flu going around NoCal this month - the sickest I have been in 30+ years
mhiscox
Expedition Leader
Thanks for the compliments, both about the truck and the graphics.
I'm a fortunate guy, in that if James Lombardo had known beforehand how complicated and time-consuming applying his design was going to be, he'd have never undertaken it. But he persevered, and I'm the winner for it. Interestingly, and surprisingly to me, the graphics, including lots of little isolated 1/2" pieces, are still in good shape, even though they've gotten raked pretty hard on the trailside vegetation. I thought I'd be losing lots of those little bits as time went on, but so far, so good.
McBride
Adventurer
Who ever came up with the design and color has some serious talent. Very few graphics of that scale actually enhance a vehicle in my opinion, and yours nailed it. I can't even imagine the application process. I recently messed up the application of a 4" Expedition Portal sticker - lost the "a" when my phone rang and I was dumb and answered it and kept pulling on the sticker with one hand.
I hope to see it in person some day. Will it be at the Expo this year?
I hope to see it in person some day. Will it be at the Expo this year?
mhiscox
Expedition Leader
Probably not--it's about 3K miles of driving--but thanks for the segue opportunity . . .
Because SprinterFest sponsor Upscale Automotive did a bunch of work in the truck's early days, and because Paul Jensen did the interior, the XV-JP got invited to be in the vendor area (probably at Paul's display) at Northwest SprinterFest on Saturday, April 12th. So while McBride probably isn't going to drive up from New Mexico for the day, anyone in the Portland, OR, area who'd like to see the truck is encouraged to come. And the new Sprinter conversion Paul's been working on (http://www.expeditionportal.com/forum/threads/121227) will be finished up by then and also be in Paul's display.