In the first part of this series, I outlined the components necessary for adding a 12v house electrical system to a Tacoma (or any other vehicle). This time, we'll walk through the specifics on how to do the actual installation of those components in a way that will stand up to the abuse of truck used for adventure. Just a Bit of Background This is my second take at a house electrical battery system installation in the Tacoma. My first system was based around a 12v AGM battery and worked well for more than 6 years. In fact, it worked…
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Six years ago, when I initially installed my house battery, it allowed me an entirely new sense of calm when I was in camp at night. No longer did I need to worry about my fridge - or the other small electronics I might turn on or charge - draining my starting battery overnight, thus leaving me stranded. Plus, the whole system of linking the two Northstar AGM 24F using a Blue Sea Systems ML-ACR (automatic charging relay) meant that I could easily - either manually or automatically - link my two batteries for charging or more power, and unlink…
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TL;DR - Almost all of the electrical wiring I've done in the last 7 years has used shitty wire that needs to be replaced.
Copper Clad Aluminum. Over time, turns to wire powder. Wish someone had told me that earlier.
TL;DR - My Northstar 24F batteries have been great, but after 5 years, they are both dying. I need to start figuring out what I'm going to do next.
No green lights, no bueno.
Worn out brushes in an alternator. A $15 part, and a 45 minute service - in the comfort of your garage - can mean the difference between completing a trip and being completely stranded.
TL;DR - the alternator failed as I was about 90 minutes from home, and it was because the brushes had worn out. Luckily, I was carrying a spare set and swapped them in about an hour, completely fixing the issue.
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TL;DR - I've replaced my Bussmann fuse/relay box because the old one melted around some of the connectors. This issue has been ongoing for a while, but initially I didn't understand what was going on. Initially, I thought that I was having a problem with my HID-modified Hellas (see previous rig reviews) and so I contacted the manufacturer to see about replacement ballasts, and verified that all the pins were properly seated in the back of the Bussmann. After reseating a couple pins, I tried replacing the relay that was powering the Hella's, and that seemed to solve the problem...…
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The Hella's (and the related HID components) were never the actual problem.
TL;DR - My Hella's are working again, and the problem wasn't the Hella's or the HID upgrade at all. It was my Bussmann relay/fuse block.
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I'm not as happy with the HIDs in the Hellas as I was when I initially installed them.
TL;DR - My Hella's are working less and less now; I'm biding my time until the end of the year, when I hear that Diode Dynamics may have something fun coming.
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TL;DR - I need to figure out why my Hella's don't come on all the time. Low priority though for me right now.
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The plan with the 4Runner was always to keep it a little bit more tame than the Tacoma. After all, it's our family adventure vehicle - used mostly for home-base-style camping, and less for prolonged driving adventures. But, some systems need to work in both vehicles - and the fridge is a great example. The Backstory Up until this summer, when we ventured over to Washington's Olympic Peninsula, I'd always just nursed the fridge along - running it as we drove to camp, and then turning it off once we reached our destination. There were a few reasons for that…
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I just got done camping in one spot for three days. Temps were in the high 80's, the ARB 50qt fridge was set to 35ºF, and the 175W inverter was running much of the time charging various electronic devices. The whole time, I didn't start the truck once. A couple weeks ago, my dual battery system would have been hosed by the end of this trip - probably wouldn't have even lasted the entire time - but when we pulled out of camp this time, the batteries were topped off and had power to spare. This my friends, is the…
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On our last trip to the Eastern Mojave, one of the things I noted early in the trip - actually, before the trip even started really - was that the battery in the cab seemed low. I chalked it up to an error on my side and figured that the long 20-hour drive from home to our first hike would be enough to get it back up and kicking. It sort of did, but the battery seemed weak the entire trip, dropping below 12V reasonably quickly - much more quickly than it has in the past. Initially I figured that…
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TL;DR - Even with relatively cool days and nights, something was wrong with my house battery. Need to investigate.
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It's not natural. It's uncomfortable. It's hard. And, I know it's the right thing to do - I want to find a way to cut some weight off of the Tacoma. When I purchased the truck, Toyota listed the curb weight of a 4WD SR5 V6 Xtracab at something right around 3,500 lbs, and the gross weight (GVWR) at something near 5100 lbs. Or at least, that's what I can find on the internet in 2019, since I wasn't at all interested or concerned with those numbers at the time. Unfortunately for me - and the truck - when I…
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TL;DR - the dual battery system is working amazingly great. It was extremely nice to not have to worry about powering the fridge, even when the overnight temps were in the 50°F's.
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Well, this post is a long time in the making. In fact, I assumed this was a project I'd get taken care of in the dead of winter, since much of it would be done in the wood shop, and none of it required the truck to be outside in the rain and cold. But like many well-laid plans, mine got comfortable and took a six-month nap. So let's start at the beginning... My Battery History To date, I've only had to replace the battery in the truck once. I did that back in 2011 after owning the truck for…
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TL;DR - Though it's a great battery, my days of running a single Group 24F Toyota TrueStart battery are numbered; I'm moving to a dual battery system. And, I can no longer recommend the DBPOWER 600A 18000mAh Portable Car Jump Starter, since it failed to start my truck when I had a dead battery.
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