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Made up the covers for the electrical area, all quick to pull the off for full access. Mounted the control panels as well, the Victron unit, the Arduino screen and keypad, then the general use panel (phone charging, e-stop, cigarette plug, amp connectors). The largest black section is the heat...
Victron system gives some really nice data. Dropped to 40°F in the evening the other day, from the time solar went away to it coming back the next morning, truck had lost 10% battery from running the heat. Batteries were back up to 100% by 10am. Seems the high efficiency of the heat pump and the...
Batteries have an air gap of several inches, they all have individual temp monitors inside as well. For forced airflow, I have speed and direction control of the heater matrix so if I need to cool, I can suck cool air over them, or turn on heater and reverse air flow if heating needed.
Took the truck to a kids birthday and gave him a ride home (he loves army stuff).
Boys testing the electrical system.
Learning how Node-Red works to set discharge limits on the batteries. Using this I can interface and control everything in pretty much any way I want.
Finally got around to...
Fun milestone today, charging the electric truck from the....military hybrid diesel-electric truck? Try to guess our political leanings 😄
Lots of learning to do as there are tons of options with the Victron equipment. Generator and shore power inputs are up and running.
Been working hard on the truck trying to get it done soon so we can go on adventures, haven't been taking many pictures though. Mcmaster and Amazon love me right now.
The storage boxes came in, still need to mount them. I maxed out the size so need to be careful with clearances. All 24"tall...
Got the batteries, a bit over 15 kWh.
300lbs so was considering where to place them to keep passenger/driver level but habitat corners were within a few mm to the ground so doesn't look like it matters much.
Got a few of the storage boxes for the interior (harbor freight) unfortunately one came dented but too much effort to return and wait for another few months so a hammer and paint is the solution.
Also mounted the air/water heat exchanger. Rock solid with the unistrut. Got the motor drivers too...
Problem with series is shade, have lots of deciduous trees around here so if a single panel is shaded, it would kill half my output. (From my very limited research) I plan to look at some technical reports, forums seem to be ripe with opinions instead of facts from the RV community.
MPPT controller can handle 250V, each panel is 48 VOC per datasheet. I could easily do 3 in series in 2 sets with lots of headroom. I'll probably do 2 in series with 3 sets - to optimize generation with shading. Each panel is just below 10A so I could run the 3 sets into one set of cables and be...
Haven't done it yet, based on voltage and current ratings I can do either. I'm currently thinking I'll series each set of 2, then parallel those 3 sets
Mounted solar panels today, 2200w residential. 4 points of attachment, M8 riv-nuts into roof. Sealed with sikaflex 221. Zinc chromate 10.9 fasteners.
Didn't even fall off the roof once!
It's the expansion tank, the only flow into/out of it will be from coolant expansion-no circulation through it. Sure there may be a little of it mixing in the system from turbulence but I doubt it will be significant. The main coolant lines will most likely get some insulation.
I think it will...
Got the main electricals mounted. The batteries (3x 24V LiFePO4 victron, 15.3kWh) will be underneath the inverter/chargers.
I think this will be the location for the water heater and fresh water tank.
Someone asked a while ago, this is with the cab tilted and it's door closed. It has a...
Took a few hours today and fabbed up the stairs mounting. For now straps can hold it in the upper position but I'm going to make something a little slicker.
Figuring out location for the webasto...can fit it nicely in the battery tray, however it's best for it to be higher than the tank to avoid bubbles in the fuel line. Would be nice to have it below the stock overflow tank and to be able to not have a second overflow. I don't have a lot of...