Hodakaguy's Overland Tacoma Builds - FWC Combo

[Hodakaguy]

Solar Install.

Originally I was planning on utilizing two 120W flexible solar panels on a custom aluminum mount that I would fabricate to fit the FWC, I utilized a similar setup (with 3 panels) on our old Syncro and it worked out really well. After doing some more research I found a 175W single Mono panel with almost the perfect dimensions for the Swift so decided to switch to this panel. This switch will save a lot of time and hassle over using the flex panels, and should be more durable in the long run.

The NewPowa 175 W Mono Panel.

Back side of the panel.

The factory solar plug installed on the roof of the camper is an SAE connector, I will shorten the wiring on the panel and install the SAE connector in the proper location. I'm using high quality crimps and two layers of marine grade heat shrink on the splices. The connections will be covered by the panel. The insulation on the panel wiring is quite a bit thicker than the wire on the SAE connector, the actual conductor size is very close to the same size.

You can see the factory installed solar plug on the roof of the camper in this shot. The panel will mount on the Yakima roof tracks and fit between the two vents.

Fabricating 4 mounts from 1.5" aluminum angle. These mounts will bolt to the Yakima tracks then onto the aluminum frame of the solar panel.

Connecting the panel to the camper.

Panel mounted up. The size of the panel is perfect, almost like it was made for this application.

It was raining and nasty this morning, after the sun popped out I was able to check out the panel operation. I ran the heater and roof fan for a couple hrs to pull some juice out of the batteries so the panel had something to make up. The sun eventually started popping in and out but I seen as high as 8.5 amps going back into the batts, not bad. I programmed the 3000i charge controller for a bulk charge voltage of 14.8v for the AGM batts, and a Float rate of 13.8V.

Hodakaguy

 

[coloradoclimber97]

Hey Hoda, will you take a close up of the connection between the panel and the Yak track? Also I'm wondering if your Swift came with the Yak track connection nut, and what size bolt you used to connect to the track and panel? Once again, following your lead and getting ready to do this exact install on my new Fleet shell.

Last question, I promise. In your pic of the top of the camper, it looks like there is room for one more NewPowa 175 W panel at the back of the camper. Is this accurate or an optical delusion?

Really appreciate you posting up all these pics of your build. Since I'm such a visual guy, It has helped me immensely with all the little details that I can't completely wrap my head around without pics.

Thanks in advance,

Mark

 

[Hodakaguy]

Hey Hoda, will you take a close up of the connection between the panel and the Yak track? Also I'm wondering if your Swift came with the Yak track connection nut, and what size bolt you used to connect to the track and panel? Once again, following your lead and getting ready to do this exact install on my new Fleet shell.

Last question, I promise. In your pic of the top of the camper, it looks like there is room for one more NewPowa 175 W panel at the back of the camper. Is this accurate or an optical delusion?

Really appreciate you posting up all these pics of your build. Since I'm such a visual guy, It has helped me immensely with all the little details that I can't completely wrap my head around without pics.

Thanks in advance,

Mark

Hi Mark. Here's a photo showing the small angle brackets connected to the panel and the Yakima tracks. The tracks came from FWC with 6 nuts Pre-installed on each side which leaves enough to mount the panel and still have enough nuts to mount the Yakima roof rack towers. Not sure on the thread pitch as I found 4 bolts I had on hand that fit, FWC should be able to tell you the thread pitch.

The nuts installed in the track.

The panel is 26.75" wide. The available track length behind the rear vent is 19.5" so the panel won't fit. The Fleet may have a different amount of space available than the Swift?

There is enough space left to add a 120W Flex panel if you needed more power.

Glad I can help out, let me know if you need any more Pics or have any other questions.

Hodakaguy

 

[Hodakaguy]

With 5K miles on my truck it's time to pull it in the garage and change the engines vital fluids, I know they aren't due yet by the book but having fresh fluids in the engine every 5K miles makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside Installed fresh oil and filter, greased the upper control arms, greased the front drive shaft and will rotate tires soon.

Someone was asking for a picture of the amber back lighting on the S8 bar, not the best shot but you can see what they look like.

Our running errands this weekend and parked next to a fellow Snork

Installed my fathers RAM phone holder on his TPAM mount today, I love this setup!

Also installed my fathers Snorkel this weekend.

I typed up a detailed How-To article on the installation with lots of pics and info. The install article is located here: CLICK HERE

Snorkel on my fathers truck

More to come.....

Hodakaguy

 

[mitch h]

Great fit on the panel. Nice job on the whole rig.

 

[billharr]

One question where did you find a 90 degree SAE plug? I have been looking for one for years.

 

[Hodakaguy]

Great fit on the panel. Nice job on the whole rig.

Thanks!

Hodakaguy

 

[Hodakaguy]

One question where did you find a 90 degree SAE plug? I have been looking for one for years.

Not sure who carries them, FWC provided it with the camper. You might contact FWC and they can probably set you up.

Hodakaguy

 

[Hodakaguy]

Re-visiting the storage box area. Decided to make some rub rails out of 1/4" ABS Plastic to protect the wood next to the storage area.

Piece of scrap ABS that I picked up a few days ago.

Cut a 1" Strip on the table saw.

Beveling the ends that are open to the camper.

I'm using 3M tape to adhere the rails to the camper. It can be removed if needed by carefully sawing through the tape with some fishing line.

And installed in the camper. I will install matching ones in the rear and back corner. Should do a good job at protecting the camper from the wooden storage box. I left a gap on the front edge since I thought it looked better than the plastic going all the way across....if I change my mind down the road I'll install some new pieces

Hodakaguy

 

[billharr]

Not sure who carries them, FWC provided it with the camper. You might contact FWC and they can probably set you up.

Hodakaguy

Thanks, I will give them a call tomorrow.

 

[coloradoclimber97]

I bet the Fleet is a little bit longer in back, but I don't know about 7" longer. I guess I will just order one for now and see how much room there is once I take possession (mid June). Since I will be running the ARB fridge and will have the exact interior build you have, I will be interested to hear your experiences regarding power - a second panel may not even be necessary.

Thanks for taking the time to reply.

Sweet Rig!

 

[Hodakaguy]

I bet the Fleet is a little bit longer in back, but I don't know about 7" longer. I guess I will just order one for now and see how much room there is once I take possession (mid June). Since I will be running the ARB fridge and will have the exact interior build you have, I will be interested to hear your experiences regarding power - a second panel may not even be necessary.

Thanks for taking the time to reply.

Sweet Rig!

An adaptor extension plate could be made to make a second panel fit on the rails, that being said I think you will find that one panel will do the job nicely.

The ARB is very easy on power and will run for several days on the two deep cycle batts with no charge coming in. Add in the 175W solar panel that will put out close to 10A in bright sun....and that it also gets charged while driving...and that you can install an onboard charger for charging when 110V shore power is available.....and I don’t expect to have any power issues

 

[Hodakaguy]

Solar issues and wiring the Air Compressor....

The morning after I wired the controller I noticed that although the controller was showing amps in/out it wasn't actually going into charge mode and connecting to the batteries. After some troubleshooting with a meter I found that the factory red power wire going to the solar roof plug was shorted to ground......Ugggg. If I was running an older PWM style charge controller it wouldn't be that big of a deal since I could swap the ground wire over to be power and let the red wire stay shorted/grounded, with a PWM controller the PV and Batt ground can be common. But...I'm running a newer style MPPT controller that is more efficient and requires a separate PV and Battery ground to function correctly.

Factory power wire shorted to ground. Time to get searching for the culprit, at this point I'm suspecting a screw in a wire somewhere or a stray frogs hair.

I connected the meter to the wire and started chasing the wire up to the front lift panel where it goes into the roof looking for a short. I was really hoping the short wasn't up in the roof itself. After a bit I found the short right at the end of the bed, there is a loop in the wire that is tucked back into the campers side where the wire transitions and goes vertical. A staple had been shot directly into the wire at this point during construction. Soon the wire was fixed and panels were back in place.

Almost back together in this pic, just need to apply a new strip of Velcro to secure the Arctic liner back in place.

Yesterday evening I pulled the truck out of the shop to test the panel. Everything is working great! This shot shows the advantage of a MPPT controller, it will take the higher voltage of the solar panel and convert it into extra amperage going into the batteries. The older PWM controllers basically draw down the PV voltage to batt voltage and you only get what is coming into the controller from the PV.

6.1 amps coming into the controller from the 175W panel (with late afternoon light) and the controller is outputting 8.1 amps out to the battery....nice!

Time to wire up the air compressor and hook up the front locker.

The Supplied ARB wiring harness. The quality looks really good, will have to extend the pressure switch and control/trigger wires.

Draining the washer fluid out to remove the bottle, makes access a lot easier.

Pressure switch wires extended, will install loom on the wiring once it's in the truck.

Running the switch wiring and air tubing for the front locker.

Wiring and tubing tucked away in loom and ran across the firewall.

Electrical and air tubing connected to the compressor. I installed the relay close by on an existing stud. I have a plastic cap installed over the air fitting for now to keep nasties out until my purchased cap shows up.

The compressor is a tight fit in this area but works out really well with the limited under hood space.

Connections made to the SwitchPro.

All tested and the Air Compressor and Locker are working great

More to come....

Hodakaguy

 

[PackRat]

You get extra points for neatness, heat-shrink and identification of all wiring!
Nice work!

 

[Vic Harder]

You get extra points for neatness, heat-shrink and identification of all wiring!
Nice work!

Extra? I think he's writing the book on neatness!

 

[badtoytrd]

Re-visiting the storage box area. Decided to make some rub rails out of 1/4" ABS Plastic to protect the wood next to the storage area.

Piece of scrap ABS that I picked up a few days ago.

That's a hell of a piston!

Also wondering if your awning is grey in color.

 

[Hodakaguy]

Thanks guys. I like clean wiring!

Hodakaguy

 

[Hodakaguy]

That's a hell of a piston!

Also wondering if your awning is grey in color.

That's a piston out of a IR KVS 6 cylinder engine. The bare piston weights 400 lbs, works great as a vise stand. The engine produces 1000hp at 330 RPM. I was the lead mechanic on 4 of these for a lot of years.

Yeah the Awning color is grey, matches the silver spur exterior very nicely.

Hodakaguy

 

[Hodakaguy]

Solar and ACR’s. I’m running a total of 4 batteries on our truck/camper. Two AGM deep cycle batts in the camper and two AGM batts in the truck. I have an ACR (Automatic Combining Relay) under the hood that ties the truck battery and Aux battery together when the alternator is charging and the FWC has its own ACR that connects the camper batteries to the truck AUX batt when the alternator/truck is charging.

Both of the ACR’s are dual voltage sensing so when the solar charge controller starts bringing the voltage up in the camper batteries the camper ACR pulls in and starts charging the trucks AUX battery. When the trucks AUX batt starts charging the trucks ACR pulls in and starts charging the trucks starting batt. Now all 4 batts are charging off the solar controller.

With AGM batteries requiring a higher bulk charge voltage than standard lead acid batteries this setup allows the solar controller to bring all 4 batts up to proper charge of 14.7 volts, important for a full charge and longer battery life on AGM Batteries..

I’m going to add a switch on the campers ACR to give me the ability to turn off the ACR for times when I want the solar to just charge the camper batts ( days with limited sun when your not driving, this ensures the best charge of the camper batteries since everything the solar panel produces will go only to the camper batteries).

Charge controller in action.

The trucks drivers side Aux battery, the camper's ACR is pulled in and the Aux battery is charging. You can see the trucks ACR (located on top of the battery) pulled in as well and providing power to the trucks passenger side starting battery.

Passenger side starting battery charging.

Hodakaguy

 

[badtoytrd]

That's a piston out of a IR KVS 6 cylinder engine. The bare piston weights 400 lbs, works great as a vise stand. The engine produces 1000hp at 330 RPM. I was the lead mechanic on 4 of these for a lot of years.

Yeah the Awning color is grey, matches the silver spur exterior very nicely.

Hodakaguy

Power plant on the Columbia?

Thanks for the input on the awning. Ordered mine today!