New Grandby Day

[Jon R]

I took delivery of my new Grandby front dinette last Friday. I installed a 200 Ah LiFePO battery, solar panels, and chargers over the weekend. Here is a photo of it on the new truck, a photo of the solar panel installation. (Two Renogy 200 watt panels), and a couple of photos of the battery compartment after installation of the battery, chargers, bus bars, fuse block, and shunt. The electrical system is up and running now. Tomorrow, water and propane.

 

[Wandering Sagebrush]

Jon, nice camper! Nice work!

 

[ski3pin]

Jon, nice camper! Nice work!

Yes, congrats!

 

[Jon R]

Thanks, and thanks to everyone here for all the advice on the electrical installation.

I’m happy with how nicely the battery compartment came out. I had mocked it up on some plywood after measuring a Grandby battery comoartment while i waited for the camper, so once the camper arrived I was able to just transfer the layout of all the mounting holes and finish the wiring. I had premade most of the cables as part of the mock up. I ended up saving over $4000 versus the similar factory 320W solar and 200Ah lithium option prices, and I ended up with a 25% more solar panel output and full knowledge of my power system installation. It’s a great feeling when you do a project like this, turn on the switch, and everything works.

 

[Casa Escarlata Robles Too]

Jon R have a great camping time with your new camper.
These pop ups are great.
Frank

 

[CougarCouple]

Congratulations on the new camper and a cool solar job.

Russ

 

[DavidGraves]

Hi Jon

Additional congrats on the new truck AND camper !

They are only new once and hope you have many years of enjoyment from both.

David Graves

 

[veryactivelife]

Keep an eye on the Orion, it gets really hot.

Dean

 

[Jon R]

Thanks Dean. I had read a number of comments saying it gets hot enough that sometimes it will reduce its output. Have you had problems with it due to heat? I was thinking I could secure battery compartment door partly open while driving if it gets too hot in the closed compartment.

 

[ri-f]

I ended up saving over $4000 versus the similar factory 320W solar and 200Ah lithium option prices, and I ended up with a 25% more solar panel output and full knowledge of my power system installation. It’s a great feeling when you do a project like this, turn on the switch, and everything works.

+1 on that sentiment. Nicely done and congrats on your DIY. Rich

 

[Jon R]

Hi ramblinChet,

I assume you can see the labeling of the Victron Chargers in the photos. The bus bars, fuse block, and guards are all Blue Sea. The wire is Ancor marine 6 AWG and the crimp lugs are Ancor tinned copper lugs. I also installed a BMV-712 battery monitor. I really like the bluetooth access to monitor and change settings via your cell phone.

My battery and solar panels are probably larger than what most FWC owners would need if they camp in mostly sunny conditions. I live in the Pacific Northwest, and wanted to account for extended cloudy conditions, low sun angles, and treed camp sites. I also bought the largest 2 way compressor fridge option.

The battery is a BigBattery.com 12 Volt OWL Max 202 Ah LiFePO battery and BMS. I first saw it in one of those youtube review and teardown videos done by Will Prowse, and it appeared to be well made and the components are replaceable. Its dimensions fit the Grandby/Hawk front dinette battery compartment dimensions very well. It was around $1250 shipped. It also has an on/off switch and voltage display. I really like having the switch.

My solar panels are Renogy 200 watt rigid panels. Two of them fit perfectly between the vents. Together they add about 50 lbs to the roof, and it makes it fairly difficult to lift the roof the first several inches. I plan on getting heavier struts, but that won't help the initial lift force much due to the angle of the strut.

Did I miss something?

 

[Jon R]

I just switched to 40 lb lift struts. Big improvement. The back is easy to lift, but still comes down on its own. The front is still a bit heavy initial lift but is much easier once it’s up a few inches. I think 50 lbs would be too much.

Suspa 40 lb struts were $34 a pair on Amazon.