Dat 4Runner Life Doe - Adventures in a T4R

[Dbest]

Your work is so freaking clean.

Thanks

[Johnny_P]

So the redarc is an integrated solar charger and battery disconnect that can also accept a charge or current from the starter battery? That’s pretty cool. 2 pieces in one.

Question. Why circuit breakers for the house battery instead of in line fuses? I’m an electrical newb just wondering.

[Dbest]

So the redarc is an integrated solar charger and battery disconnect that can also accept a charge or current from the starter battery? That’s pretty cool. 2 pieces in one.

Question. Why circuit breakers for the house battery instead of in line fuses? I’m an electrical newb just wondering.

The batteries are never connected, the starter battery is completely isolated from any and all aftermarket electronics and the second battery. The Redarc is a DC to DC charger, it doesn’t connect and disconnect the batteries. When the starter battery is full charged and the engine is running it will power the charger that charges the 2nd battery at whatever voltage the charging profile is set to. Even at 14 volts idling at the starter battery it will charge the 2nd battery at 14.5v. It’s a smart charger so it will charge and maintain the 2nd battery as needed. It’s a dual input charger, it can take DC power from the starter battery or solar input directly with no need for an external controller because it has a highly efficient MPPT control built in. As long as it’s getting at least 9 volts from solar it can effectively charge the 2nd battery (albeit very slowly).

The starter battery power cable goes to a breaker then the Redarc. The output from the Redarc goes to a breaker then the 2nd battery. The second battery power goes to a breaker, then a low voltage disconnect, then to the power distribution I made a few months back.

Fuses and breakers operate the same in principal. But the breakers are 100% fully sealed and waterproof, they are reset able instead of one time use, and it’s a quick press of the red button to open the circuit and kill power to work on stuff. The breakers aren’t “needed” over using fuses, they are just a nicer set it and forget it do it once and you’re done forever kinda thing.

[Johnny_P]

So the redarc is an integrated solar charger and battery disconnect that can also accept a charge or current from the starter battery? That’s pretty cool. 2 pieces in one.

Question. Why circuit breakers for the house battery instead of in line fuses? I’m an electrical newb just wondering.

The batteries are never connected, the starter battery is completely isolated from any and all aftermarket electronics and the second battery. The Redarc is a DC to DC charger, it doesn’t connect and disconnect the batteries. When the starter battery is full charged and the engine is running it will power the charger that charges the 2nd battery at whatever voltage the charging profile is set to. Even at 14 volts idling at the starter battery it will charge the 2nd battery at 14.5v. It’s a smart charger so it will charge and maintain the 2nd battery as needed. It’s a dual input charger, it can take DC power from the starter battery or solar input directly with no need for an external controller because it has a highly efficient MPPT control built in. As long as it’s getting at least 9 volts from solar it can effectively charge the 2nd battery (albeit very slowly).

The starter battery power cable goes to a breaker then the Redarc. The output from the Redarc goes to a breaker then the 2nd battery. The second battery power goes to a breaker, then a low voltage disconnect, then to the power distribution I made a few months back.

Fuses and breakers operate the same in principal. But the breakers are 100% fully sealed and waterproof, they are reset able instead of one time use, and it’s a quick press of the red button to open the circuit and kill power to work on stuff. The breakers aren’t “needed” over using fuses, they are just a nicer set it and forget it do it once and you’re done forever kinda thing.

Got it thanks. Nice setup.

[Dbest]

Last Wednesday I filled up the tank and headed to the Denver Airport Wednesday night to pick up my buddy and we headed out into the mountains. We left Denver and took the Kenosha Pass out to Fairplay for the night where we got to bed a little after midnight.

We got up at 4:15am and drove out the trailhead to hike the 14,036 foot peak of Mount Sherman. After Sherman, we drove down to Buena Vista, had lunch and filled up the tank again. From there we took Independence Pass through the Sawatch Mountain Range up and over the Continental Divide before dropping back down and passing through Aspen on our way to Marble. From Marble we took the trail out to see what's basically the ghost town of Crystal and the Crystal Mill deep into the Elk Mountains. Crystal started as a mining camp in 1880 and had over 500 residences, the population declined to 8 people by 1915. Today it's vacant all winter due to being so inaccessible but during the summer months, the town is home to around 10 people. Passing back through Marble we stopped at Slow Groovin BBQ for dinner and then set out to find camp. We found a forest road that took us out a handful of miles and across a small creek crossing, we setup camp on the creek bank next to a small waterfall.
We got up early again, around 5:20am, packed up and headed out for Glenwood Springs so we could hike Hanging Lake. We finished the hike and made our way back east to Dillion for fuel followed by lunch and a beer at the Dillion Damn Brewery. From there we headed over to a trail that during the summer months takes you right up to the top of the Keystone Ski Resort. I’ve been there a couple times and usually the gate was closed, this time it was unlocked and open so we went up to the peak. We left Keystone and crossed the Continental Divide a second time on the Loveland pass on our way to Rollinsville. When we arrived there we started making our way up the Rollinsville Pass/Corona Pass until we got to an area that was impassable from snow in the road. From there we hiked it up to the Needles Eye Tunnel and back around and down. We drove back down the pass in the dark and hit Nederland hoping to find a late night dinner. Everything open at 11pm had the kitchens closed. We didn’t want to find a camp spot that late and in the dark, then still have to setup and cook before getting some sleep before another early morning, so we ended up going down the canyon to Boulder and hit Illegal Pete’s for a midnight snack and opted to drive back to my house. We took much needed showers, had a beer, and went to bed.
The next morning we got up and headed to Mount Sanitas to hike to the summit and loop back around the east ridge. We followed that up with a lunch and trip to the beach at Boulder Reservoir. That left us with enough time to drive back to my house to get showered up and an hour to sit and relax before heading back to the airport.
Our trip took us past 12 ski resorts: Aspen Mountain, Aspen Highlands, Buttermilk, Aspen Snowmass, Beaver Creek, Vail, Copper Mountain, Breckenridge, Keystone, Arapahoe Basin, Loveland, and Eldora. Through 5 National Forests: Pike, San Isabel, White River, Arapaho, and Roosevelt. And I don’t even know how many designated Wilderness areas and different mountain ranges.





























Celebratory summit beer

[Dbest]

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Thats an old truck

[Dbest]

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[Dbest]

There's a smashed up truck down there

[Dbest]

[Dbest]

Click pic for video

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[Dbest]

[Dbest]

Spot the marmot

[Dbest]

[Dbest]

[Dbest]

That's finally the end of the trip pictures lol

[Johnny_P]

Killer pics. Love the sunset ones. What are you shooting with?

[Dbest]

Killer pics. Love the sunset ones. What are you shooting with?

Everyone of those was my iPhone Xr, I rarely bust out my DSLR anymore.

[Johnny_P]

Killer pics. Love the sunset ones. What are you shooting with?

Everyone of those was my iPhone Xr, I rarely bust out my DSLR anymore.

Oh wow puts my iPhone 7 to shame

[Dbest]

Everyone of those was my iPhone Xr, I rarely bust out my DSLR anymore.

Oh wow puts my iPhone 7 to shame

Yeah I have a hard time justifying busting out the real camera anymore unless I know for sure I plan having big prints made. I’m really happy with the quality in general. It struggles with backlit scenes, dark scenes, and I can’t do long exposure to blur water or get night shots. But for day to day normal use it’s fantastic.

[Dbest]

Dual battery setup is "done"

There's a power wire from the positive terminal of the X2 Power (rebranded Northstar for Batteries Plus) BCI Group 24F 76ah AGM dual purpose deep cycle starter battery to a Blue Sea 40 amp circuit breaker. From the circuit breaker, the power wire runs to the red battery input on the RedArc DC-DC 12 volt 25 amp dual input (DC and solar) charger. The brown power output wire on the RedArc goes to a BlueSea 40 amp circuit breaker. From the circuit breaker, a power wire goes to the positive terminal of the Vmax Tanks BCI Group 24 SLR85 85ah deep cycle accessory battery. A power wire from the accessory battery goes to a BlueSea 80 amp circuit breaker. From the circuit breaker, a power wire runs to a BlueSea low voltage disconnect. From the low voltage disconnect, a power wire runs to the positive terminal on the power distribution module. The power distribution module ground wire connects to the negative terminal of the starter battery. The accessory battery negative terminal has a cable to chassis ground and a wire to the ground the low voltage disconnect. The blue wire from the RedArc goes to an ignition on reference under the dash. The orange and green wires from the RedArc are not utilized in my application and are terminated and weather sealed. The yellow wire off the RedArc is capped and weather sealed, it will be used as the solar input at a later date.

It's all together and fully functional. Everything is weatherproofed and fully sealed and I performed a voltage drop on each connection to verify everything is good. All of the aftermarket lights and accessories are powered by the accessory battery with the lone exception of the interior switch panel backlighting. While I ran the ignition on reference wire to the interior I also ran 3 additional power wires from yet to be utilized power distribution module circuits, one will for sure be power for a fridge, I'm thinking another might be to add 2nd row ower outlets/USBs.

Today a Noco Genius Gen 2 dual bank 20 amp battery charger shows up. It's a waterproof onboard charger that connects to both of the batteries. When plugged into shore power (normal house AC outlet) it will charge and maintain each battery individually while supplying up to 10amps per battery. I can ensure the batteries are topped up before leaving, and if we're at a campground or something with an electrical hookup we can run everything off an AC plug.

[Johnny_P]

I’d say it looks clean in there but that would be a lie

[Dbest]

I installed the dual bank onboard charger today.

[D Griff]

Hey man, I'll be traveling to Denver for work in about a month and am flying in a day early to try to hit a hike. So I have all day post landing at DEN around 9 AM to drive somewhere, do the hike, and get back. I'm in pretty good shape, could do 10+ miles no problem, but I will be alone so I'd probably shy away from anything crazy remote or dangerous.

What would be your number one recommendation?

[dubshow]

don't let [user not found] see those engine bay photos.

[ChrisoftheNorth]

don't let [user not found] see those engine bay photos.

Yea, the truck is basically totalled by the looks of these engine bay photos.