TL;DR - The battery tie down that bolts to the core support has cracked core support as a result of all the rattling around. I've reinforced it, and will monitor it going forward. As I was pulling my battery to make a bit more room to remove the alternator and service the worn alternator brushes, I was greeted with a rude surprise. Upon loosening the 12mm bolt that secures the battery tie-down, the nut underneath just started spinning. At first, I thought the tack welds that secured the nut to the core support had broken. If only I'd been right!…
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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. Unlike many of the topics in a rig review, where I go into a little detail in the original post, but most of it in the review, I covered the alternator failure pretty well when I told the story. In the end, I'm not really all that surprised that the brushes wore out - they'd been rubbing in there for…
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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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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. After my previous fiddling with the Hella's, I decided to take a closer look at the rest of the circuitry for them when I was creating wiring harness for the Diode Dynamics SS3 fog lights that I installed recently. As part of that, I removed the Bussmann relay/fuse box from the engine bay and carefully looked it over for loose connections, etc. I didn't find any, but it did seem like - perhaps - the…
Leave a CommentTL;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. I originally thought that my HIDs in the 7" Hella 700s were not turning on because there was a problem with the ballasts. I contacted DDM Tuning to initiate a lifetime warranty repair (which they were going to honor, though I'd have to pay shipping), but then decided I ought to try a different relay before sending in the ballasts. The relay seemed to fix the issue for a…
Leave a CommentTL;DR - Everything is working again. I replaced one of my Fiaam Freeway Blasters - that wasn't working at all - with the original horn, which I'd saved for some reason when I replaced it. Everything seems to be working again - albeit not quite so loudly - and no more blown fuses. I'm pretty sure that non-working horn was shorting out and blowing the fuse.
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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. I noticed on this last trip (or at least recently) that the Hella's - into which I installed HIDs - don't always come on when power is supplied to them. I don't know if this is the result of cold weather or failing ballasts or what, but I'll eventually need to get to the bottom of it. My guess is that it's something to do with the ballasts, which are part of the DDMTuning Ultra HID Kit…
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TL;DR - I think there's a short in one of my horns. On my last couple of trips, I've noticed something strange. The first time, I was honking my horn at a couple of cows and suddenly everything went quiet - the horns had stopped working! I was pretty sure I blew a fuse (though I shouldn't have) but didn't worry too much about it - I don't use my horn all that frequently. However, I later noticed that my hazards didn't work either. I use those more frequently when travelling to/from destinations and so I reasonably quickly swapped in…
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TL;DR - The (warranty) replacement battery is working great! Not much more to say about that - here was the write-up where I replaced the faulty battery. Props to Mike over at GPCarAudio for great customer service.
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TL;DR - Even with relatively cool days and nights, something was wrong with my house battery. Need to investigate. I have a confession to make - a few days before departure, I left the ignition on in the truck overnight, and that meant that the radio, clock, and maybe a few other little things were on for ~24-36 hours. My batteries didn't love it, and the draw was low enough that the Blue Sea ML-ACR (automatic charging relay/battery controller) did not isolate the batteries at any point. When I discovered my mistake, the voltage of both batteries was at something…
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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. The dual battery setup I recently built worked flawlessly, and the plywood cabinet hasn't rattled apart into a bunch of pieces. The two Northstar 24F batteries, and the Blue Sea Systems ML-ACR were spectacular - all working in tandem and keeping the truck's electrical system in tip-top shape for the entire trip. I never realized how much time I spent worrying about whether the fridge ran at night…
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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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