New (to me) FWC Owner

One last thing I did since I had the fridge out is install a mount for a Rotopax can by sacrificing one of the rear steps like I have seen others do on here. It will be nice to have a place to store mixed fuel, extra fuel or extra water depending on the needs for a trip!






i think that is it for now!

Love what you've done! Nice pics too

Thanks! It's been a lot of fun working on it.

Happyjax said:

Love what you've done! Nice pics too

Click to expand...

I had some 6x1 watt Blitzpro led lights laying around for a while. I decided to install them as some side facing lights under the cab over portion. I wired them into the Bluesea 12 position panel that I replace the original 6 position panel with. I still need to mount the switches somewhere but that can come later.







I really need to paint the jack brackets...

I also refurbished the drawer with some real drawer hardware because I was tired of fighting the thing to get it open.

Late last month After some major thinking I ended up signing my life away upgrading to a new 3/4 ton truck. We immediately drilled holes in the bed, threw the camper in the back and took off to explore some place we've never been camping at... Oregon! Had a great trip with the final destination being the painted hills after hearing about them here on this forum. We stayed in all free camping national forest and blm land. We got a good mixture of rain,snow and sun which was awesome.

The big fuel tank with the range of the diesel was very comforting in eastern Oregon where fuel stations were very far apart at times. Even with the reduced payload of the big Diesel engine I still have an extra 1000 lbs or so above the f150 payload. Riding on springs instead of airbags is soooo much better.

3/4+ ton trucks are a very worth it upgrade if you are already in a full size vehicle and hauling even a light weight FWC imo.

I bought this remote 12 volt switch off of amazon:

Logisys Corp. 12V 4-Channel Remote Control (RM04) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0012Q5PWE/ref=cm_sw_r_awd_agEPvbP8P17ME
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0012Q5PWE/ref=cm_sw_r_awd_agEPvbP8P17ME

I hooked up the rear LED spots to channel 1 and each under cabover led spot to their own channel. The unit works great! I can now turn on the lights from in the cab or even outside or wherever I happen to be with the remote. Will certainly help for backing up and setting up a camping spot when arriving late.

What I don't like so far is the separate on/off switches instead of just a single toggle for each channel. I also thought the unit was going to have two remotes. Oh well!

I had some time today with the camper off the truck and was able to install the so called "roof lifter shock helper thingies" that most people are doing now.






Works great. The top pretty much lifts itself now. Need to pull a bit to get them down. I don't seem to have the problem with one side lifting while trying to lower the other side which is nice. I used 40lb Suspa struts ordered directly from them and some random offset brackets.

So I think my Fridge/Solar/Battery setup has met its match. The solar panel itself has been great, usually outputting greater than 5 amps. On most days where the ambient temp is like 90 or lower this seems to be adequete to completely recharge the battery fairly quickly and the fridge stays nice and cool. However, the combination of higher temps in the day and lasting into the night starts to weaken the system, and with a hazy/cloudy day thrown in things can go south pretty quickly.


To reiterate what my system is, I have a:
63AH Interstate deep cycle battery
65L Dometic 2-way compressor fridge -
Renogy Tracer 20Amp Negative Grounded MPPT Charge Controller
Renogy 100Watt "solid" panel mounted to the roof
10 awg wiring from panel to controller
8 awg wiring from battery to fuse panel
10 awg wiring from fuse panel to fridge

This system is completely isolated from the trucks alternator. My camper did not come with a camper/truck connection and I haven't retrofitted one yet. The camper lives on my truck nearly full time and I leave the fridge on always.

I don't think the single 63AH battery has enough capacity to effectively run the fridge through a warm night very well and the auto protection shutoff on the controller shuts off power at some point the next day without getting a really good charge in. The result is the other day the temps inside my fridge reached the 60's!

I think the short term solution for me is a connection from the truck battery to the camper battery, so my daily commute at least gets some charge.

Long term solution is another 100 watt panel on the roof ( which I conveniently left enough room for ), and a second battery

You've got a great camper Norcalhusky.

Hope you get years of fun with it!

Before you spend more on additional solar, your amp hours in the battery is probably the biggest issue. You could run your setup much better with more battery capacity.
I'd recommend 150-200 amp hours. At least double what you currently have. Those compressor fridges use more power than you think.

If that still was not working a second 100 watt panel probably would do it.

DrJ said:

You've got a great camper Norcalhusky.

Hope you get years of fun with it!

Before you spend more on additional solar, your amp hours in the battery is probably the biggest issue. You could run your setup much better with more battery capacity.
I'd recommend 150-200 amp hours. At least double what you currently have. Those compressor fridges use more power than you think.

If that still was not working a second 100 watt panel probably would do it.

Click to expand...

Thanks! I agree with you, the amp hours is probably what I need most. Especially after I have the charging ability from the truck. Although adding another panel is probably easier (and cheaper) than adding another battery!

IMO you should connect to the truck charging system.
It at least gives you some safety net.
And at some point get a larger battery 75-100a.
I have a 105w solar system and the 75ah AGM battery that came with the camper.
I have ,for our needs enough power.
My draw is a Truckfridge 45L cooler and LED lights,plus heater only used in mornings,never through the night.
I find with my system I can charge our personal items,camera battery,laptop.that sort of usage.
All seems to work for us.The test for our system came back in July as we camper on the Oregon coast in tree cover and for 3 days little or no solar input or truck movement,and had enough power.But that was about the limit.
When camped in good solar gain I could last "forever".
Use 3way on propane or 12v while traveling.
Plus with the right type of battery isolator,the solar system will charge the truck battery also.
Win win.
Nice camper and enjoy your time using it.
Frank

norcalhusky said:

I don't think the single 63AH battery has enough capacity to effectively run the fridge through a warm night very well and the auto protection shutoff on the controller shuts off power at some point the next day without getting a really good charge in. The result is the other day the temps inside my fridge reached the 60's!

I think the short term solution for me is a connection from the truck battery to the camper battery, so my daily commute at least gets some charge.

Long term solution is another 100 watt panel on the roof ( which I conveniently left enough room for ), and a second battery

Click to expand...

Although your battery is only about 6 months old, a deep discharge daily for 180 days has probably put a big dent in its capacity.

You've figured it all out, truck connection, a bigger battery, and maybe a second panel.

My Renogy MPPT disconnected the load once in the last few months, not sure why. The battery was full, fridge was off, the master switch was on but only thing powered up was the LP/CO detectors.

Well I was getting the camper ready to go out this weekend. The controller showed something like 12 volts. I turned on the fantastic fan and it shot down to 11.4 volts. Nothing had been using the battery for a few weeks now. I was thinking the battery was on its way out. I left the fan on and continued my prep. While working in the battery department I gave a quick look at the controller and wiring. I touched the fuse between the controller and the battery and noticed it was warm! I thought uh oh. I kind of pushed the fuse into its holder. I didn't really feel it move but the voltage on the meter shot up to 12.4 volts instantly. I decided to rip that portion of wiring out and put in new thicker gauge wire and a new fuse/fuse holder. I think I found a majority of the problem that I had been having. For some reason there most have not been a good connection in the original fuse that was causing some major voltage drop. I bet the system is going to work fine again .