Future FWC Hawk owner...

[RLS]

Hello,

I just stumbled across this website and am really enjoying reading about the FWC's. I ordered a Hawk model and due date is 6/2023. I'm already planning a battery/electrical upgrade and have learned a lot in the last week, reading the various threads from this site. I went with the single, agm battery offered with the camper, with the intention of either hiring a shop to do the install or attempting it myself. I'm fairly comfortable around a multi-meter
Anyways, I just wanted to pop in and say hi.

Rick

 

[Wandering Sagebrush]

Hi Rick, welcome to WTW, we think it’s the best place to hang out on the web. Feel free to post questions/comments, and certainly do post photos of your new Hawk when the day arrives.

If you need help, the moderator team listing is at the bottom of the home page. Reach out to any of us.

 

[Vic Harder]

Hello,

I just stumbled across this website and am really enjoying reading about the FWC's. I ordered a Hawk model and due date is 6/2023. I'm already planning a battery/electrical upgrade and have learned a lot in the last week, reading the various threads from this site. I went with the single, agm battery offered with the camper, with the intention of either hiring a shop to do the install or attempting it myself. I'm fairly comfortable around a multi-meter
Anyways, I just wanted to pop in and say hi.

Rick

Welcome to the cult. We're happy to help you figure out how you want to make this camper uniquely yours. For the electrical side of things, I suggest you get a Victron Bluetooth shunt and install that and use your camper for a bit to see what you need/want. Then start spending the big bucks to upgrade the electrical if you need it.

 

[billharr]

Welcome to the cult. We're happy to help you figure out how you want to make this camper uniquely yours. For the electrical side of things, I suggest you get a Victron Bluetooth shunt and install that and use your camper for a bit to see what you need/want. Then start spending the big bucks to upgrade the electrical if you need it.

Welcome, you will find some great people here. The quote above is the perfect example of the good advice you will find.

 

[Jon R]

Hi RLS.

I bought a new 2021 Grandby front dinette model 18 months ago. I ordered the minimum battery system (one agm) and sold the new agm to the dealer at delivery. I then added solar, a dc to dc converter for charging from the truck, and a 200 amp-hour lithium battery. If your camper is a front dinette I can provide pictures of how I installed everything in the battery compartment and answer questions about what I did and why.

 

[Beach]

Welcome. You might even get a little info overload on some subjects. LOL

 

[fish more]

It will be a long 6 months waiting for camper

 

[kmcintyre]

Welcome and as Vic correctly stated, "the cult" .

When I ordered my new camper, I was able to do a battery delete and then put my DIY LifePO4 in... easy to do and since you know what a multi-meter is, it's easy once you figure out what all the wires are (tracking where they all go). I will say that on a flatbed, running a higher guage wire was a challenge due to space and figuring out how to pull wires to make it look factory installed and I wish FWC would either just do it at the factory or charge a little to "upgrade" it. It literally would take an extra 5 mins when they are building them. I also replaced the fuses, etc. at the time, etc.

 

[DavidGraves]

Howdy

WTW is a tolerant good group of folks both welcoming and respectful.

We come from a wide expanse of the North American continent and include lots of differing ideas about enjoying and observing the outdoors.

Mostly, we seem united by enjoyment of smaller. simpler forms of vehicle campers of many stripes.

David Graves

Pacific Northwest

 

[RLS]

Thanks everyone for the kind welcoming.

Vic, I've really learned a lot from your article on "Building out an Electrical System". Also read a good one from KP Pawley. I came away with a much clearer understanding of the three ways to keep those batteries charged.
I originally went with the "lithium battery option" when ordering my FWC. After reading a few articles, yours included, I thought I could do it myself for probably way less $$, so I cancelled that option


Jon R, I ordered my Hawk with the front dinette. I would welcome any and all photos on your battery installation.

Cheers,
Rick

 

[Vic Harder]

Thanks everyone for the kind welcoming.

Vic, I've really learned a lot from your article on "Building out an Electrical System". Also read a good one from KP Pawley. I came away with a much clearer understanding of the three ways to keep those batteries charged.
I originally went with the "lithium battery option" when ordering my FWC. After reading a few articles, yours included, I thought I could do it myself for probably way less $$, so I cancelled that option


Jon R, I ordered my Hawk with the front dinette. I would welcome any and all photos on your battery installation.

Cheers,
Rick

KP has done good work for a lot of people. His Manifesto is succinct, and pretty direct. I focus on patience and not overwhelming the audience... aka, you. That said, my threads can be long and deep, and feel like a "rabbit hole" on occasion. Best to pace yourself on absorbing all the new content.

Are you likely to want to turf the AGM right away? How much do you know about your expected camping habits/gear and what you will be wanting to power?

 

[Jon R]

Here are photos looking in the battery compartment door. The items mounted above the battery are:
Top left. Positive bus bar with guard
Top right: Negative bus bar
Bottom left: main battery fuse block
Bottom right: Shunt for battery monitor

All of the large wires you see are 6 awg Ancor Marine Type IIi wire, which is what I ran to the truck engine compartment.

 

[RLS]

Hello again.

JonR, thanks for the photos. I think I recall reading where you went with the SOK 206Ah battery. Am I correct? If so, is the battery cabinet in your Hawk by the back door? How is the fit?

Vic, yes, I'm going to ditch the factory AGM that comes with FWC Hawk. I've decided to go with lithium battery. Probably the 206Ah from SOK (assuming it will fit in the Hawk battery cabinet). Will be powering the basic things on the FWC: 130L compressor fridge, propane heater, two roof fans, water pump, led lights. Also charging cell phones and laptops.

I'm going to start with the truck alternator charging circuit. Then do the solar later on.

Here is a partial list of items I've landed on. What do you guys think?

Victron Orion-Tr Smart 12/12-30A Non-Isolated DC-DC charger.
Victron Smart Shunt 500A/50mV
Blue Sea 2104 PowerBar Heavy Duty Bus Bar (2)
Blue Sea 7184 60 Amp Circuit Breaker Surface Mount 285 Series (2) For each end of the +primary wire.
Ancor Marine Grade Primary Wire and Battery Cable 4awg (25+/- feet)
Anderson Power Products connectors (2)
Asst. battery terminal connectors and shrink tubing.

I've seen some diagrams showing a battery disconnect switch. I'm still learning about where exactly it goes in the circuit. Or if it's absolutely necessary.

Cheers,
Rick

 

[Vic Harder]

Hello again.

JonR, thanks for the photos. I think I recall reading where you went with the SOK 206Ah battery. Am I correct? If so, is the battery cabinet in your Hawk by the back door? How is the fit?

Vic, yes, I'm going to ditch the factory AGM that comes with FWC Hawk. I've decided to go with lithium battery. Probably the 206Ah from SOK (assuming it will fit in the Hawk battery cabinet). Will be powering the basic things on the FWC: 130L compressor fridge, propane heater, two roof fans, water pump, led lights. Also charging cell phones and laptops.

I'm going to start with the truck alternator charging circuit. Then do the solar later on.

Here is a partial list of items I've landed on. What do you guys think?

Victron Orion-Tr Smart 12/12-30A Non-Isolated DC-DC charger.
Victron Smart Shunt 500A/50mV
Blue Sea 2104 PowerBar Heavy Duty Bus Bar (2)
Blue Sea 7184 60 Amp Circuit Breaker Surface Mount 285 Series (2) For each end of the +primary wire.
Ancor Marine Grade Primary Wire and Battery Cable 4awg (25+/- feet)
Anderson Power Products connectors (2)
Asst. battery terminal connectors and shrink tubing.

I've seen some diagrams showing a battery disconnect switch. I'm still learning about where exactly it goes in the circuit. Or if it's absolutely necessary.

Cheers,
Rick

Sounds good for what you are doing so far. Just be aware that even with 30A of charge via the Orion DCDC charger, at roughly 40% discharge you are looking at 3 hours to fully charge. (150AH into your 206AH battery).

 

[Jon R]

My battery is from bigbattery.com. It’s rated at 202 Amp hours. I have a 2021 Grandby front dinette, which has the same interior and cabinet layout as a Hawk except for the size of the dinette area.

My battery gives me at least 5 nights of endurance with no charging whatsoever. I wanted that much capacity because i live and do a lot of my camping in Western Washington, which has a lot of clouds and forested areas. I think for the typical Hawk/Grandby user a single 100 Ah lithium battery is probably sufficient, giving two or three days/nights worth of storage. I could not fit two Battleborn batteries and my Victron chargers in the battery cabinet without it being a crowded mess, so i looked at other battery options. If I was just installing 100 Ah, I’d use a Battleborn battery due to their design and construction quality.

 

[PaulT]

My battery is from bigbattery.com. It’s rated at 202 Amp hours. I have a 2021 Grandby front dinette, which has the same interior and cabinet layout as a Hawk except for the size of the dinette area.

My battery gives me at least 5 nights of endurance with no charging whatsoever. I wanted that much capacity because i live and do a lot of my camping in Western Washington, which has a lot of clouds and forested areas. I think for the typical Hawk/Grandby user a single 100 Ah lithium battery is probably sufficient, giving two or three days/nights worth of storage. I could not fit two Battleborn batteries and my Victron chargers in the battery cabinet without it being a crowded mess, so i looked at other battery options. If I was just installing 100 Ah, I’d use a Battleborn battery due to their design and construction quality.

I have a 2014 front dinette Hawk. I found that I could install two Battleborn GC2 100 Ah batteries simply by removing the 1/2" wood filler at the forward bottom end of the battery compartment. They are a close fit but work well there. My charge controller, shunt, etc are installed on the vertical wall in the same compartment.

Paul

 

[Jon R]

Hi Paul,

I remember seeing your pictures during the time I was planning my installation. I seriously considered doing an installation similar to yours, but I decided I wanted more space for my two solar and dc to dc chargers and the bus bars, and i wanted more accessible wiring and connections. I was also concerned about adequate airflow to cool the dc to dc charger and had no direct experience to tell me whether I’d have a cooling problem with the compartment volume 2/3 filled by batteries. I’m happy with what I did and it’s working well, but I like Battleborn’s designs.

Jon

 

[RLS]

Hey Jon R,
What made you choose the isolated DC/DC charger over the non-isolated?

 

[Jon R]

I wanted to electrically isolate the camper body and its current return wires from the truck body. There are pros and cons of doing that related to lightning, fault current, and corrosion protection, but it was what I had settled on.

However, a wiring error in the rear wall of my Grandby in the end prevented me from doing that. My Grandby has the required clearance lights, which I was powering from one of the truck’s running light circuits. I isolated (so I thought) the ground wires for the running lights at the camper negative bus bar under the dinette seat and connected those running light grounds to the truck ground. However, I noticed I was getting a slight glow of some of the running lights when they were supposed to be off, and one of my rear flood lights didn’t work.

What I figured out was whoever wired the camper connected the flood light ground on one side to the running light ground wire inside the rear wall of the camper. I was not going to tear apart the rear wall, or have the dealer do it, just to fix that. So I gave up on lsolation and tied the truck and camper grounds together.

 

[Vic Harder]

The factory wiring uses body/frame grounds a lot. I changed as much of that to isolated grounds when I did my Puma build.

Not sure I get why you wanted to isolate completely though, and would like to know more. Can you explain?