Hodakaguy's Overland Tacoma Builds - FWC Combo

[Hodakaguy]

Installing the Solar Controller and Powerlet Connection.

I'm getting ready to install the solar panels on the roof and it's time to get the Solar charge controller installed. I'm going with a BlueSky Solar Boost 3000i MPPT Controller, I've used this controller in my Syncro and it worked great so decided to stick with what works

The factory provides a cut out for their controller right above the heater.

Removing the cover on the controller cutout.

The factory pre-wired the camper for a Solar Controller so install will be simple. The wiring is tucked up above the heater unit.

The 3000i charge controller

The factory cut out is a little small for this controller so some cutting is in order.

Covered the heater unit with a garbage bag to keep the saw dust out of the important bits.

Front cut out and here I've marked a notch that needs to be cut for the rear of the unit.

Test fitting the controller.

Battery wiring is tucked against the far wall behind the batteries.

All the wires were marked from the factory making it easy to identify, I went ahead and verified everything with a meter before wiring everything up just to make sure.

I used Marine grade heat shrink crimps on all connection. I didn't get any pics but there is a fuse holder wired into the battery area.

Connecting the controller. I'll be fabricating a cover for the rear of the controller soon.

Continued Below....

 

[Hodakaguy]

Time to install the power connection for the ARB Fridge. I absolutely hate US cigarette lighter connections, they always get loose and your constantly pushing the plug back in. I cut the factory cigarette lighter plug off the fridge harness and wired in a Powerlet connector instead, I'll keep the cut off end and make an adapter so I can also connect to a Cig lighter if needed. Powerlet connectors are great, they snap in place and won't get loose as you travel down the road.

Here is the fridge harness with the new Powerlet end installed.

Powerlet socket that will be installed in the camper. The depth of the socket isn't deep enough to pass through the wood on the camper so an adapter will need to be fabricated.

Fabricating the Powerlet adapter from a scrap piece of aluminum.

Holes drilled and socket test fit.

I drilled a hole in the heater unit just above the heater to install the Powerlet. The hole needed to be slightly bigger to clear the nut on the back of the socket.

Wiring completed for the Powerlet socket.

Controller and Powerlet installed, I painted the adapter black. Looks factory

Hodakaguy

 

[Casa Escarlata Robles Too]

Question,when you cut the plug from the wire how do you determine the + and - ?
Frank

 

[Hodakaguy]

Question,when you cut the plug from the wire how do you determine the + and - ?
Frank

Before I cut the plug off I used a multi meter to check continuity between the tip of the factory cigarette plug and the fridge plug end so I can determine which one was hot and which one was ground. I then marked the plug on each side and then double checked with the meter as I wired the new connector.

Hodakaguy

 

[Rafter C]

Howdy Tom,

Loving your build up here on both the truck and camper. As usual, attention to detail and precision. I remember that from your days over on Adventure Rider. I'm one of your customers for an Acerbis tank bracket for my trusty XR650R. Still going strong. I'm also an ATC Cougar owner. Nice to combine the interests into one. Tow the trailer with the bikes, sleep over in the camper. Keep up the good work...

 

[CougarCouple]

Hello Hodakaguy

Real clean work you and you pop's do.

Russ

 

[Hodakaguy]

Howdy Tom,

Loving your build up here on both the truck and camper. As usual, attention to detail and precision. I remember that from your days over on Adventure Rider. I'm one of your customers for an Acerbis tank bracket for my trusty XR650R. Still going strong. I'm also an ATC Cougar owner. Nice to combine the interests into one. Tow the trailer with the bikes, sleep over in the camper. Keep up the good work...

Thanks, glad the brace is still going strong! I'm still making the braces . The FWC's work great for dirt biking trips!

Hodakaguy

 

[Hodakaguy]

Hello Hodakaguy

Real clean work you and you pop's do.

Russ

Thanks, we enjoy it

Hodakaguy

 

[Hodakaguy]

Installed the fridge to run it for a couple days and test the battery system, should be able to run for several days with no external power with the dual batt system. I'll be installing 240W of solar soon then battery power shouldn't be a issue.

With the top down on the camper there is still plenty of room to get into the fridge at rest stops ect without having to pop the top. I'll be installing mounting straps to keep the fridge secure in this location.

Next up fabricate a rear guard for the solar charge controller to protect it from items stored inside the cabinet.
Starting out with a piece of aluminum plate.

Cutting the piece down to rough size.

Corners trimmed.

Marking out the locations for the air vent holes.

Air holes drilled and beveled.

Using the finger brake to bend up the guard

Fabricating some hidden mount tabs from some scrap pieces of stainless.

Factory trim pieces cut down to size and re-installed.

Test fitting the guard in place.

Guard painted and installed in place. Should keep the controller well protected.

Hodakaguy

 

[Hodakaguy]

Lots of progress today......Picture Heavy!

Started this morning by installing a 110V NOCO power plug on the side of the camper. This port will connect to a IOTA 15A AGM onboard charger (to be installed soon).

The NOCO power port

I'll be sealing the port to the camper with Sikaflex 221....Good stuff.

The port will be going into the battery compartment just aft of the vent.

Pilot hole drilled....committed now lol.

2" hole drilled.

And power port installed and sealed.

Next up install the Hypertech inline speedometer calibrator. This is a small unit that goes behind the instrument cluster and allows you to correct the speedometer for larger tires. Drives me crazy seeing the speedo off from the GPS
The Hypertech unit.

Installing the unit. I routed the USB cable down under the dash and stored it up out of the way, if I need to make tweaks to the calibrator to get the speedo spot on with the GPS I can just plug in the computer and easily make the changes without having to remove the dash again.

Time to install the new SSO (Sothern Style Offroad) Hybrid bumper. Here I've installed the Baja Designs 30' light bar and the winch fairlead.

Installing the synthetic rope on the Warn Zeon 10S. The anchor setup to the spool is pretty slick.

We connected the winch to temporary power and with my dad pulling on the cable spooled it in. Once the assembly is on the truck we will properly tension the cable.

Mounted on the bumper.

Continued Below.....

 

[Hodakaguy]

Continued from above.....

Now the fun part....trimming the plastic. Grill removed and laying out the cut lines.

A cheap HF Die Grinder and a skinny wheel made quick work of the cutting.

Nice and clean.

Edge trim installed.

The factory bracing for the lower edge of the plastic bumper. This portion of the brace will interfere with the solenoid pack on the ZEON winch, other low profile winches will clear without modification but I wanted the ZEON unit. I really don't want to remote mount the solenoid pack so I decided to cut out this portion of the brace and fabricate some replacement braces that won't interfere.

My father starting to fabricate the new braces while I get ready to cut out the middle section of the brace.

Brace section removed.

Continued Below.....

 

[Hodakaguy]

Continued From Above.....

New braces built and painted.

And braces installed. Lots of room for the winch now

With the center brace gone I supported the wiring harness with a snap tie.

Bumper in place, trim came out pretty good.

Running the winch wiring. I split some rubber hose and placed it under the tie points for the wiring. Drilled two holes and ran the electrical wiring out behind the drivers headlight assy.

Outside again

More to come.....

Hodakaguy

 

[Hodakaguy]

Starting to install the Switch Pro wiring unit and dual battery wiring.

I'll be running a Switch Pro unit that has 8 programmable circuits for electrical accessory distribution. First up I mounted the Switch Pro onto the PowerTray mount.

Local ground installed to the Switch Pro, Blue Seas fuse panel and ground buss bar.

Fabricating 1/0 battery cables from high quality welding cable. These cables will connect the truck battery to the aux battery through the ACR (Automatic Combining Relay).

Running the batt cables.

I places loom over the section passing by the battery tray and added a piece of rubber hose as an anti abrasion guard.

Next up I will splice into the factory wiring harness and extend it over to the smaller passenger side battery, this battery will become the truck starting battery. The larger drivers side battery will supply power to the Winch, Lighting, Camper, Air Compressor etc. The ACR will keep both batteries charged up while allowing me to manually combine the two battery banks for higher amp loads when winching or for jump starting a dead truck batt off the aux batt.

The temporary red fuse holder going to the camper will be changed out and cleaned up before it's finished. Still need to add the rest of the lock nuts on the ACR tie down bolts as well.

More to come...

Hodakaguy

 

[DJSponge]

This is an amazing build...one question, why the Taco? I saw you had a Tundra, wouldn't that have made a better platform for an FWC? I'm weighing options right now myself for a camper platform for next year. Love to hear your thoughts.

 

[craig333]

Programmable switch Pro. I'm interested to hear more about how thats used. Very clean install!

 

[Hodakaguy]

This is an amazing build...one question, why the Taco? I saw you had a Tundra, wouldn't that have made a better platform for an FWC? I'm weighing options right now myself for a camper platform for next year. Love to hear your thoughts.

The Tundra and Raven was a great setup and the power of the Tundra was great for hauling the camper around......but. As a daily driver I prefer driving a mid sized truck. The midsize is just a lot easier to park (both in town and when traveling) drive in traffic and is a lot more enjoyable to drive overall (for me anyways). The smaller truck also allows better access to off road trails with its smaller footprint.

That said there are trade offs. You’ll have less power on the freeway than the Tundra so passing etc takes a little more care (not an issue for me as the Taco is doing great with the camper on the back so far). The Taco will also cost more to set up as you will want upgraded leaf springs and air bags in the back (not to much $$ but makes a huge difference in handling with the camper). To be fair I also had air bags on my Tundra as well. I also installed 4.88 gears on my Taco which really made hauling the camper around more enjoyable .

The larger truck will also get you a larger camper with more interior space if that’s an issue for you, the three of us are very comfortable in the Swift Shell and take the minimalist approach to the gear that we carry. We use mainly ultra light backpacking gear to save weight and space, if you prefer a lot of gear or heavier equipment the larger camper/truck may be better. Weight is key on the smaller trucks, the lighter the setup the more enjoyable it is

Hodakaguy

Hodakaguy

 

[Hodakaguy]

Programmable switch Pro. I'm interested to hear more about how thats used. Very clean install!

Here’s some info on the switch pro, pretty slick unit!

http://switchpros.com

Hodakaguy

 

[smlobx]

I don't know what you do for your day job but if that doesn't work out for you I can see a future in adapting trucks for overlanding!
Great job!

 

[Hodakaguy]

Time to finish up the battery wiring.

I'll modify the OEM battery connector to work with the new style terminal. Here's the OEM unit.

Cutting the OEM unit apart and re-shaping. Camera got bumped into art mode in this shot.

And connected.

I removed the temporary red fuse holder that connected the Aux batt to the Four Wheel Camper. The wiring is re-routed to the Blue Sea fuse panel. I'll be using printed heat shrink wire labels to identify all wiring and make future troubleshooting and identification easier.

The wire label machine.

Camper wiring labels printed.

And installed.

Running fused power to the Blue Sea fuse panel and SwitchPro unit.

Factory positive terminal

Here I've cut off the factory battery harness end so I can extend the harness about 6" to allow connection to the ACR.

Splice completed.

And all wired up. I installed a 300 amp fuse on each end of the 1/0 positive cable connecting the two Batteries, this will prevent a vehicle fire if the cable ever grounds out for any reason while allowing enough amperage for jump starting a dead starter battery from the Aux unit.

As it is connected now the Group 35 passenger battery is the truck battery and connected to the starter/alternator. The Group 31M drivers side battery is the Aux battery and provides power to the Winch, SwitchPro (Lighting, Air Compressor, Front Locker, Etc) and camper connection. When the FWC is removed from the truck the Aux battery will also supply power to the ARB fridge.

I still need to fabricate some guards to protect all exposed positive connections.

300A fuse on the Passenger side main batt.

More to come.....

Hodakaguy

 

[Hodakaguy]

Lots of work done today....

Time for the truck to get a breath of fresh air.

ARB Snorkel arrived. Time to get invasive again on the truck.

Removing the inner fender liner. I decided to do this while leaving the fender flares in place, didn't want to snap any tabs on the flares. Managed to get all but 4 of the retaining clips holding the inner liner out in one piece (They are a pain).

Air box removed.

Setting up the template and marking locations for the required holes.

Pilot holes drilled

Bolt holes drilled to proper size.

Preparing to cut the large hole using a small air saw. Installing painters tape to protect the paint during the cutting process.

All bare surfaces coated in primer.

And top coated with two coats of Blitz black paint.

Removing the alignment tabs on the outlet of the air box so the new rubber boot fits/seals properly.

Installing the new air boot through the fender.

Continued Below....