Java's F450 'Rough Road' RV
- Thread starter java230
- Start date
As the saying goes, 10lbs of **it in a 5lb bucket...
Old vs new
Out with the old
New in place
High and negative low volt done ish
Too much shit to connect to the negative stud of the shunt....
And I shorted myself on wire..... So I started on the batteries on Sunday.
Old ones coming out
New insulation, I had a piece under the old ones, but it was thin and crushed over time. 1" of XPS used this time.
The old cases showed a little rub wear between them, nothing really to worry about, but I added a little protection anyway. Old inner tubes, should give just a hint of space/cushion
And all in place!
And wired up. Need a bit more wire, and one USB to VE Direct for the victron stuff. I didn't realize you have to leave the head of the BMV in place, I was going to pull it and use the color control only.
Old vs new
Out with the old
New in place
High and negative low volt done ish
Too much shit to connect to the negative stud of the shunt....
And I shorted myself on wire..... So I started on the batteries on Sunday.
Old ones coming out
New insulation, I had a piece under the old ones, but it was thin and crushed over time. 1" of XPS used this time.
The old cases showed a little rub wear between them, nothing really to worry about, but I added a little protection anyway. Old inner tubes, should give just a hint of space/cushion
And all in place!
And wired up. Need a bit more wire, and one USB to VE Direct for the victron stuff. I didn't realize you have to leave the head of the BMV in place, I was going to pull it and use the color control only.
Yeah, like wrap the wedding ring in electrical tape when working on it scary amperage....
Got all the power wiring done. Just need to run control wires (which takes being a contortionist.... ). Plugged it in, no smoke, flipped the breakers on, no smoke. Charger fired up and went to work!
One odd thing, the inverter charger wont pass thru the incoming AC unless its in invert mode?
Added a Big negative post.
And all the power done! Just need to run control wires....
Got all the power wiring done. Just need to run control wires (which takes being a contortionist.... ). Plugged it in, no smoke, flipped the breakers on, no smoke. Charger fired up and went to work!
One odd thing, the inverter charger wont pass thru the incoming AC unless its in invert mode?
Added a Big negative post.
And all the power done! Just need to run control wires....
I am so freaking sore. What idiot designed this f***king truck?!?!?!
48" deep, 9" wide.... My wires have to run at the VERY back edge.... Put both arms over your head, shimmy in, brace feet against other wall, breathe out and push.... Ouch. I am not a small person...
After drilling two holes (because the first one was too small.....) Feed long stiff wire through and try to hit the hole in the upper shelf. Curse repeatedly. But I got it, take one VE direct cable, one power cable, and one ethernet, and hope like hell you can get it back thru the little hole.
Removed the BMV, cut the hole for the Color control, and mounted it.
Remounted the BMV (you need it for the battery calculations, the color control wont talk to the shunt directly....)
And powered it up. No programming. I was exhausted at this point...
Now the annoying part. The color control will not work with the bluetooth dongles.... WTF. I guess I will see if I can return the VE to USB I bought.... Stupid. It will work on wifi.... But you have to use their wifi dongle they like. And that's a sh$$it load more setup. I guess I will try to learn some networking..... If I can get on the house wifi from where the truck is parked that might be cool though.... Remote data logging is possible I guess. More to learn.
48" deep, 9" wide.... My wires have to run at the VERY back edge.... Put both arms over your head, shimmy in, brace feet against other wall, breathe out and push.... Ouch. I am not a small person...
After drilling two holes (because the first one was too small.....) Feed long stiff wire through and try to hit the hole in the upper shelf. Curse repeatedly. But I got it, take one VE direct cable, one power cable, and one ethernet, and hope like hell you can get it back thru the little hole.
Removed the BMV, cut the hole for the Color control, and mounted it.
Remounted the BMV (you need it for the battery calculations, the color control wont talk to the shunt directly....)
And powered it up. No programming. I was exhausted at this point...
Now the annoying part. The color control will not work with the bluetooth dongles.... WTF. I guess I will see if I can return the VE to USB I bought.... Stupid. It will work on wifi.... But you have to use their wifi dongle they like. And that's a sh$$it load more setup. I guess I will try to learn some networking..... If I can get on the house wifi from where the truck is parked that might be cool though.... Remote data logging is possible I guess. More to learn.
Alright smart people...... Help me out here.
Installed batteries, charger etc. Set the charge profile to what the battery mfg speed. 14.7 bulk, and I don't remember float... According to the meter it was full, taking in no more Power(plugged in for a couple days).
We took it out this weekend, and by this morning batteries were dipping to 12.0 under load.... Shunt showed 95ah drawn out, and ~87% left (set at 500ah). Jumped back to 12.2ish no load.
Battery temp was 39.8F (on the closet ones, the outer wall may be a little colder, but there is an air gap there)
WTF is going on??
And otherwise the weekend was pretty damn decent.
Truck is now connected to the interwebs.
Installed batteries, charger etc. Set the charge profile to what the battery mfg speed. 14.7 bulk, and I don't remember float... According to the meter it was full, taking in no more Power(plugged in for a couple days).
We took it out this weekend, and by this morning batteries were dipping to 12.0 under load.... Shunt showed 95ah drawn out, and ~87% left (set at 500ah). Jumped back to 12.2ish no load.
Battery temp was 39.8F (on the closet ones, the outer wall may be a little colder, but there is an air gap there)
WTF is going on??
And otherwise the weekend was pretty damn decent.
Truck is now connected to the interwebs.
How every good evening starts?
Quiet little breakfast spot.
And a couple little upgrades. Noticed my fire extinguisher was in the red last week. Been eyeballing these for awhile.
And did one of these. I like it so far. My only complaint is its plastic. I got a different model originally, but it didn't cover the hole in the door.... But it was all metal.
Quiet little breakfast spot.
And a couple little upgrades. Noticed my fire extinguisher was in the red last week. Been eyeballing these for awhile.
And did one of these. I like it so far. My only complaint is its plastic. I got a different model originally, but it didn't cover the hole in the door.... But it was all metal.
Rolled in late Friday night, nuking snow! Ending up with 7-8" and it kept snowing all day.
Snow was amazing. We skied. A lot.
Fun little cornice to drop off of.
Saturday was gorgeous weather, so we skied then too.
And I learned more new things..... With the truck now charging at higher voltages for the cold temps, the maxfans now turn off. They have a high voltage cutout..... I will need a resistor or some sort of DC-DC voltage regulator.
Snow was amazing. We skied. A lot.
Fun little cornice to drop off of.
Saturday was gorgeous weather, so we skied then too.
And I learned more new things..... With the truck now charging at higher voltages for the cold temps, the maxfans now turn off. They have a high voltage cutout..... I will need a resistor or some sort of DC-DC voltage regulator.
Well it seems that the Corona virus has killed the rest of the ski season.
But we did get two more days in in Idaho.
Spent Friday night social distancing ourselves..... this is one of our normal climbing spots, weird to see it in snow.
Heading East on Saturday, it was windy, windy enough to be spinning the tractor trailers around and shoving them in the ditch. We passed 8 that were aiming the wrong way and jacknifed. I am SO happy with our trucks performance, I could tell it was windy, but it wasn't shoving us around at all. I think the articulation just killed the semis. It was super icy too. Long stretch of 35 in a 70 zone....
But we made it over to Sandpoint ID just fine.
It was certainly beautiful, but 9 degrees, and REALLY windy.
Ski in ski out lodging!
]
And overall it was a really good year. We got a ton of great snow days. Ignore the speed since I forgot to turn the tracker off one day..... But thats a good year! The speed from last year is my personal best though
But we did get two more days in in Idaho.
Spent Friday night social distancing ourselves..... this is one of our normal climbing spots, weird to see it in snow.
Heading East on Saturday, it was windy, windy enough to be spinning the tractor trailers around and shoving them in the ditch. We passed 8 that were aiming the wrong way and jacknifed. I am SO happy with our trucks performance, I could tell it was windy, but it wasn't shoving us around at all. I think the articulation just killed the semis. It was super icy too. Long stretch of 35 in a 70 zone....
But we made it over to Sandpoint ID just fine.
It was certainly beautiful, but 9 degrees, and REALLY windy.
Ski in ski out lodging!
]
And overall it was a really good year. We got a ton of great snow days. Ignore the speed since I forgot to turn the tracker off one day..... But thats a good year! The speed from last year is my personal best though
