Vanimal: 4x4 Sprinter build

[Kgorman]

A couple more tidbits..

We have been using the living crap out of this rig. Multiple camping trips with kids and dogs to various places. We have a huge trip to our ranch planned late June coming up. It's Texas, we are going to need A/C.

So I decided to get Air Condiftioning installed. I didn't want to do huge banks of batteries and we will mostly use the A/C at night. So we went with an AC based unit. But here is where it all goes sideways.

I already had a Honda EU2000i, it's a great little unit. I wanted to power the A/C off it and go with a little lesser BTU unit that it could handle at ~14A. I didn't want to cut my own roof. So I decided to see if Sportsmobile here in Austin could do the install. They basically said they were too busy (eh?). My friend and neighbor had a guy repair his camper and recommended this guy to do it. I met with him and he seemed good.

He recommended the Dometic Brisk II. He assured me the EU2000i could power it even after we traded spec sheets via text. Well long story short he did a good job except it won't power it and he dented the crap out of my van with his ladder. Lastly he said he was done without even testing it. I told him to come back and test with shore power and paid him for his time. He won't be back.

So well now we have 13,500 BTU of A/C without any way to power it. So I grabbed a EU2000i Companion genset and parallel cable. I haven't tested the parallel setup just yet. I will report back when I do. It just sucks that the miscommunication with this guy caused so much hassle. I don't know, maybe it will turn out awesome.

We are heading to the ranch in a couple weeks and it will be hot. We will give it a good workout/test.

 

[luthj]

I have heard that a hard start capacitor will sometimes allow these AC units to start and run on a smaller generator. Might be worth a try.

 

[Holaday]

Bed Platform

The MC ramps for a bed platform is a great idea. Just checked the HF website. There is 3 different versions, the only difference I can see is the thickness of the ramp. From your pics my guess would be that yours are the 45"x 69"x 2 5/16" Part number 90018. Can you confirm that. Thanks Blair

 

[jeffjeeptj]

[QUOTE
So well now we have 13,500 BTU of A/C without any way to power it. So I grabbed a EU2000i Companion genset and parallel cable. I haven't tested the parallel setup just yet. I will report back when I do. It just sucks that the miscommunication with this guy caused so much hassle. I don't know, maybe it will turn out awesome.

We are heading to the ranch in a couple weeks and it will be hot. We will give it a good workout/test.[/QUOTE]

I use a pair of EU2000i for powering my travel trailer AC. The parallel kit works great. We do have to auction the use of the AC and the hairdryer, coffee-maker or microwave though. Make sure you read up on starting the gens when paralleled. I tried shutting down one gen after the AC was running, but the AC compressor cycling did not play well. Also, use the eco throttle controls and assure you do not start or shut down the gens while connected to the load.
I thought about an extended run tank, but the gens use so little fuel, i did not want the added complexity. Since you are hauling toys, I suspect you have the gas situation handled. I have stopped trying to refuel the gens while they are running. Maybe I'm just getting more cautious

 

[dlh62c]

Magnum Energy makes a hybrid inverter that will pass AC though if connected to shore power or a generator. It's a hybrid in that it can pull additional current from the battery bank in times that the input AC power is weak or lacking.

 

[Kgorman]

Thanks for the comments. But After testing the genset setup I am convinced a capacitor won't help. The unit really requires both generators to be running even after startup.

The Parallel kit is pretty cool. If you aren't aware it keeps both unit phase synced and allows them to share the same Eco throttle level. When running the A/C full blast each generator is about 65% throttle. The noise is fairly minimal. The A/C blows really cold. Maybe I will like the 'overkill' of 13.5k BTU.

 

[Kgorman]

We are on the move again! Lots of updates to post soon...

 

[Kgorman]

A quick update....I missed an entire year of updates..oops. Thought I would share now that we have close to 30k on the odo.

We are doing some upgrades to prep for the 2018 summer. We have been using our rig a lot, and really enjoying it. We use it for family camping trips both local and around the western US, and for a camping rig for our RZR racing efforts local and in the desert. It's been a workhorse.

So far, some learnings include:

- Towing up a pretty horrific road on a regular basis with 10k trailer (open car hauler with 2 Polaris RZR's). Towing with 1 wheel in the air on rough terrain is exciting. ;-). The rig sags in the rear from towing.
- We love our Yeti cooler, but - We really need a fridge, it's that simple. Sick of ice.
- Bikes. Our ReconRack is awesome, but last year we had a custom swing away made for it - and that design just failed. We need some other well tested solution vs making our own. We either tow with the rig or we have bikes on the back.
- We've learned we don't really ever cook inside. We always remove our kitchen and set it up under our pop up canopy - we like being outdoors. So part of our configuration is to have removable kitchen stuff by Trailkitchens out of Truckee:

https://trailkitchens.com/collections/all/products/compact-camp-kitchen
https://trailkitchens.com/collections/camping-hot-water-systems/products/water-boy

So the chuck box/kitchen box comes out as well as the water supply. We can use the water supply inside the van or when we have the rear doors open as well. That brings me to...

Vanimal V4

Before summer hits, we want to get the following upgrades done. Parts ordered, I have to schedule the time for me to put it all together. ;-).

ARB Fridge + Solar. We currently have a 33Ah house battery thats charged from the alternator for internal lights, the fantastic fan, etc. We want to move to an ARB fridge and have enough Ah to last a few days with solar. We don't need an inverter at this time. I have some ideas about a potentially cool way to mount the fridge in our existing 'toolbox' cabinet that should be neato if it all works out. We think 50Ah fits our budget for power consumption just fine - so we purchased a 125Ah AGM battery. We did AGM because of our moderate needs and we already have a lot of the wiring and parts to charge AGM via alternator.

We went with:

- ARB 50Qt Fridge
- Lifeline GPL 31XT https://batteryguys.com/products/lifeline-gpl-31xt
- Victron MPPT controller. We got the 100/50 only because we got it used, it's not needed for our capacity. https://www.victronenergy.com/solar-charge-controllers/smartsolar-100-30-100-50.
- Victron Battery Protect
- Victron VenusGX (Vanimal is completely Ipad/IoS controllable, and we want to be remotely addressable)
- Mifi for Verizon
- AMSolar SP100 panel (1) https://amsolar.com/rv-solar-panels/solar-sp100
- RBComponents solar panel mount bars. They mount to factory rails. https://rbcomponents.com/collection...an-roof-bar-solar-high-roof-awning-52-c-l-kit

Suspension. Let's face it, the stock suspension is terrible. Rocking back and forth, swaying in the wind, sagging when towing are some of the things that plague us constantly. We decided to remedy this, partially it's a safety issue - while the sway control feature is awesome, when it engages is pretty late in the sway of the van. We travel over remote regions sometimes on narrow two lane roads. It's super dangerous when it's windy, the sway is NUTS. But also, we offroad a *lot*, and it's just terrible with the stock setup. We went with the kit from VanCompass. They took time to advise us on a setup including the adjustable rear shocks and rear sumo springs. The sumo springs in the rear and the adjustable shocks will help sag when towing.

- Fox Shocks, adjustable rears. https://vancompass.com/collections/...vans-adjustable-rear-shocks-sprinter-4x4-2015
- Rear sumo springs. https://vancompass.com/collections/...sumo-spring-rear-bump-stop-1994-2500-sprinter

Other Goodies. Lastly, some other things to keep quality of life up and add a bit of storage.

- RBComponents seat swivel
- RBComponents upper cabinets (16")
- RBComponents table mount (will make our own tabletop specific to our needs)
- Rear facing Baja Designs scene LED lighting
- Flexilla air hose (self coiling) for ARB air pump
- RakAttach swing out for ReconRack 5 bike rack.

Parts are starting to arrive. I will update with more pics as we work on things, here are a few from Instagram..

 

[Kgorman]

I realized I completely skipped over the electrical/control setup I did last year, so let me update. This is my favorite part.

We decided last year we needed better house lights, and wanted to upgrade our ability to charge things without having to bring the goal zero.

I didn’t want any old school looking switches and wanted the entire thing iOS controlled. We decided to use a Switch-Pro (http://switchpros.com/) to drive everything and remove the terrible stock head unit and use an iPad in its place.

The Switch-Pro can be controlled via the button pad up front or anywhere within the van using Bluetooth.

The iPad is also in charge of:
- battery meter via victron connect app and a bmv700 (https://www.victronenergy.com/battery-monitors/bmv-700)
- extra gauges via obd scanner (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B016X3L0O2)
- movies, music, email, slack, texts basically all comms
- weather via weatherunderground
- navigation via a suite of apps including LeadNav and google maps
- maybe someday a backup camera?!

We can move the iPad around inside at night so I can turn on and off lights from bed, adjust the fan, etc. when we are driving it’s mounted to a faceplate I made in the hole left from the factory head unit.

For lights I went with Baja Designs rock lights (https://www.bajadesigns.com/Products/LED-Rock-Light.asp). I bolted them to the inside of the factory lenses so they wouldn’t be too harsh. They are perfect.

I also added a Baja designs amber driving light (https://www.bajadesigns.com/products/XL80-Driving-Combo-Amber-LED-Auxiliary-Light.asp). We go through lots of dusty roads and this light helps a ton.

This battery/solar update will replace the battery I used last year, and add solar charging.

 

[vscorsa]

Thanks for the posts, how does it go towing the RZR? Fuel economy? What speed can you cruise at?

 

[Kgorman]

I wrote 10k above, that’s not correct. It’s about 7k.

Tows good. I mean it could use a bit more power, but it’s not a deal killer. You can cruise at 65/70mph. I don’t generally go over that, but you could. I have no idea on fuel economy. I’m guessing it’s 10/11 MPG.

 

[vscorsa]

No worries, thanks for the reply.

 

[Kgorman]

255/85r16 Toyo Open Country MT

 

[trae]

Nice build. Do you find the single Baja Light helps? They are quite pricy. I'm also curious; what do you use slack for when you're mobile?

 

[Kgorman]

Trae,

Thx!

Yeah the single yellow Baja Designs light is way brighter than that light bar. In reality a single one is great. It’s about 5000 lumens if I remember, I got the XL80. I want to replace the light bar with two white BD lights at some point. Expensive but excellent. My interior lights are BD rock lights BTW, different than most folks.

We use slack to chat about the trip with friends and family. I try not to pay attention to work. we have a slack bot that probes the Victron API as well. I’ll post more about that as I get more into the install.

Next week is install week!