TL;DR - The lithium system provides so much more power than I know what to do with, that I find myself turning off the charger so that the battery has a chance to cycle below 90%. The cabinet that I built is good, but needs a few updates.
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…
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…
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.
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…
