March 2019 – The Northwest Adventure Truck

March 19, 2019March 19, 2019

Solar Install

Finally after two years of using the truck, the solar panel is going on! Its been planned for forever, but just was low on the list. However I want to be generator free (we don’t really ever use it) but long ski trips in one spot can sometimes find us needing a charge.

So I started to do some panel research. I already had a Victron MPPT controller, so I knew that having more panel voltage to the controller was a good thing (while keeping within its 75V/15amp spec). This led me to wanting to use a larger “home” style panel not the 100w 12V ones that everyone uses. For a couple reasons, better efficiency, more output voltage, and more isolation diodes in the panel. I ended up with a LG 365w Neon R panel. This is rated at 365W, and has a Vmax of 42.8v and Pmax of 10.8amps. Just what my controller should work well with. But its a BIG panel, 67″x40″, I have it centered on the roof, and have space for one more large one, or a handful if smaller ones.

Next comes mounting, not wanting more holes in the roof, I looked into glue on mounts. The Renogy ABS mounts seem to be well liked (here on Amazon) so I purchased a set. Now the glue part, I used Skiaflex 252, i spent a few days talking with a tech there…. They do not want the 252 used for solar panel bonding, and will make that very clear. But they will tell you which primers to use on the bare aluminum roof, and the ABS. However I was warned the ABS is hard to bond well to.

The install…. I needed the panel on before a 5 day trip with no driving, the issue is it was well below freezing. The Sikaflex wants to be installed warm…. The tech I talked to said it would cure eventually, just take a very very long time. So I got to work, I cranked the heat up inside the truck, opened the roof vent, fan on high and tarped off the roof with blankets and a tarp to get as much heat up there as I could.

Next I laid out the panel and where the mounting feet would go. I was unable to use the Renogy center mounts, the roof curves too much, so I used a piece of angle aluminum instead. The mount locations were marked and sanded with 150 grit on a sander, then cleaned with MEK and the primer applied.

With the prep all done it was a matter to getting the Sika evenly on the feet and setting the panel in the make sure the spacing was perfect. Then covering it all back up to let it set up over night.

The next day I pulled the panel back out, the feet were glued down, but it was going to take a week or more to fully cure. I did not want to risk the panel flying out!

So we then got to work on the cables for the power. One hole was needed in the roof, I used a cable entry gland (gland on Amazon) to cover it, and drilled one big hole…. I located it in the rear over the gear storage, so if it ever does leak hopefully its obvious and away from the living area. It was also glued down with the Sika 252.

For the power cables I went a bit overboard…. I ran 8 gauge wire That should give me plenty of room to add more panels later on as needed, and is the largest wire the controller could accept!

The production from the panel is quite good, even in overcast days. The higher voltage panel pays off, the charge controller is able to up the charge amperage considerably as the voltage is dropped to battery level.

I am excited to see how this does over the summer!

March 14, 2019March 14, 2019

Spare Tire Carrier.

With the new wheels and tires, we needed a new way to carry the spare. It no longer fits in the location where the stock one did. The exhaust is in the way.

The plan is to mount it to the drivers side rear door. That one does not get opened and closed as much, so adding the weight to the door is not a huge deal. The hinges on the door are super beefy, the same ones used on big refrigerator semi trailers, so I think they will take the extra 250lbs ok.

The basic plan is a “basket” the tire will sit in, with long legs that will spread the load across the panels that make up the door. It will get through bolted to the door, and the tire will get a couple ratchet straps to hold it in place.

I used 1×2 steel, .125 wall I believe. Some odd angles were needed to match the tire profile. A couple of gussets were added for strength.

Painted and ready to install on the door.

It was bolted in place with polyurethane sealant, and lots of bolts. Getting them all drilled and everything lining up with sealant everywhere was a fun project. You can see the lifting eye I added also in the picture below. This lets me hook a come along to a pulley for lifting the tire. Much better than trying to man handle it up there…..

Getting the tire up is still a chores, but the mount is solid and works very well!

March 12, 2019March 12, 2019

Insulating the Floor

Here is a lesson I learned, this being my first build. Insulate the floor!

Our old rig had no floor insulation, It was cold, even frosty in the mornings in winter. I had planned to add some under the floor, to fill the cavities between the tubing that makes up the floor. So I did not put anything other than a 1mm r.5 piece under the vinyl flooring…. Partly because I did not want different floor heights, but I had plenty of head room. I should have added 1/2″ at least under the flooring. that is my lesson. Once I did get around to insulating underneath it did not do a whole lot. The floor is steel and it just sucks the cold right through.

But back to the floor insulation. I just the same type of closed cell spray foam, this time a DIY kit. It was messy, very very messy. I taped off the frame rails and down, covered the axle, drive shafts etc, then got into a big tyvek suit and put Vaseline over any exposed skin…. And got to spraying on my back. Not a fun task.

The underside did get well covered. It looks like a badly frosted cake, but should be pretty well insulated, its about 2″ thick most everywhere. I think the biggest benefit we will see from this is that the heat from the drivetrain will not come up through in the summer keeping it cooler. It got warm pretty quick once we parked.

March 8, 2019March 8, 2019

LED Fog Lights

The headlights on this truck have never been great, a good friend of mine has a set of the Rigid SAE rated fog lights on his truck, color me impressed. Good light throw, amazing cut off line so you wont blind other drivers and SAE rating makes them legal to use on the road. These are the lights, not cheap but a great light.

Since my truck did not come with the factory fog lights, there is a plastic panel in their place. Easily removed from behind the bumper. With that out of the way we can bend some aluminum flat stock to make brackets. Simply bent to match the OE holes and painted black.

The wiring is very straight forward, luckily Ford did put the wires for the fog lights in! They are terminated right above the drivers side head light. Grey plug, not connected to anything. Wired to that harness all you need in the headlight switch that comes int he fog light equipped trucks. Luckily its a cheap and easy to get part here!

The output is GREAT on these, and no one flashes me when driving.

March 8, 2019March 8, 2019

Winter Fun and a True Four Season Camper.

We have been having a great winter! Lots of skiing, some snow shoeing and lots and lots of night in the truck. We have learned a lot about what works and what doesn’t, and what it takes to build a true four season truck.

Winter tips!

Leave a roof vent open, I know it seems counter intuitive to let the heat out, but you need to get the moisture out. snow, wet feet and breathing put a lot of moisture into the air.

If your doing a DIY build, run all the water lines inside of the living area. Yes it may use up a little valuable space, but it wont freeze as easily! I have one pipe that runs across the crawl through area, if it gets under 5 or so it sometimes freezes. Luckily the heater can be aimed at it and it thaws out quick.

No Buddy Heaters. Unvented propane heaters put off a lot of moisture as part of the combustion gasses. See the part above about moisture 🙂

We use towels on the floor, kicking you shoes off only does so much it seems…. The towels catch the rest of the snow as it melts…. They can be swapped out as they get wet and dried at home or hung up.

Don’t use your awning….. (as temping as it is!)Yeah rain turned to snow at Mt Baker and the awning died that night….

Deep snow and a nice campfire above Stevens Pass

March 8, 2019March 8, 2019

Super singles – Ditching the dualies.

The factory F450’s came with 19.5″ wheels and dualies in the rear. Great for heavy loads, not great for mud and snow. It sticks between the duals and creates one big tire. The factory wheels are also a 6″ wide wheel, no room to go to a larger tire either.

So, super singles! A single wheel and tire in the rear, that is larger, but also has a weight rating to carry the load. I found a set of Huchinson wheels that were designed for a armored vehicle. Unfortunately they still use the 19.5″ commercial tires, but the price was right and its a good tire size for our truck. Any bigger and it would take a lift and a lot of cutting. The good news is they are aluminum and beadlocks! Which means we can air down if needed, unlike the factory wheels.

Once the ordeal of having them shipped was done (the got lost…. multiple times) and they were on the back of my truck I was excited! Then reality hit, they are big. Its only a “couple inches” on paper but man are they huge.

The new tires are a bit over 35″ tall, the original ones are about 32″. Does not seem like much on paper, but looks like a lot in person. But it should work.

They fit in the back! The singles replace the “outer” dual. This makes the track width a little different front to rear, but it has not seemed to cause any issues.

The front are a bit tighter fit…. They rub at the back of the wheel well.

A little grinder work and a heat gun on the inner fenders and they fit much better. The drivers side still rubs a little, but not much and long term I will likely fit different fender flares in the front that make much more space.

Overall they are very nice, not a huge ride improvement on the road as the tires are still quite stiff, but they roll over little bumps and rock off road better. I was worried about losing some stability in the back, side winds especially, but there have been no issues at all yet. It drives nearly exactly the same.