Track Trailer Forum

Quote from: Jenny on August 26, 2020, 04:45:21 PM
Where did you get the pod from?
Jenny

Jenny, I just had it folded up out of aluminium sheet and then powder coated. Hinge made from stainless angle and bolted through back wall. Simple and strong.

I had a pair of flexible solar panels mounted on twinwall sheeting but they failed prematurely (3months).  It's a messy job to remove.
I have replaced with the glass/aluminium house panels but yes they are a lot heavier for my wife to lift.  I have now installed A pair of actuators to assist lifting the roof. 

South of Port Hedland you have Marble Bar. Do the round trip out to Carawine gorge & Running waters (which is warm water) and back to Nullagine along Skull spring road.

How to get the most out of a 50amp MPPT controller. Not often you get more than nameplate solar capacity into a battery.

I just thought I'd share a recent experience with my solar installation with a LiFePo4 battery setup  in my Topaz based camper.
I noticed that my solar didn't meet nameplate capacity and just put it down to cheap panels and BS overstated advertising. Anyway to increase capacity I installed a bigger set of panels (2 x 350w) and the same thing. Best I could get was 500w into my LiFePo4 in full sun.
Not a nice feeling after the money I spent.  After reading the installation instructions on different Battery Protect units it dawned on me that my solid state relay may be the problem.  I decided to bypass the MOSFET based relays I was using with a jumper lead. Solar production immediately jumped up. I reverted back to a conventional relay and I'm now getting full power to the battery. Yes it uses a bit more power to keep a conventional relay energised but the difference between getting 500w and 700 watts is huge.   

In summary,  MOSFET based relays used with BMS to protect LIFEPO4  systems are not truely bi-directional so you can expect losses. My system has a seperate BMS & relay  so I could troubleshoot the problem. You don't have that luxury if you buy the cheap Chinese 'all in one' drop in replacement LiFePo4 batteries.

We have plumbed a filtered water dispenser on the cold water system and this is used for drinking, filling kettle and brushing teeth. Filters are pretty good for stopping most bugs so not prepared to take any risks with water that may have been festering In the tanks for weeks. Replace filter every 12 months.

I did a DIY shower / toilet pod for my Topaz based camper. Low cost and simple.

Our Topaz had the table and the swing arm mount missing as well. I made a new swing arm from 50 x 50 aluminium tube and drilled a holes to take a split 25mm pipe for the pivot pins. A new table top was made from 3.2mm aluminium plate and had it powder coated. It's lightweight and strong.
We kept the table top small because we didn't want it to take up too much space. Made ours 600x400mm and it's big enough for two to eat at. Stays over the bed at night (N/S bed configuration.

Sorry Trev there is no easy route. Mine is a Mk1 but I ran mine up through the bottom into the fridge recess. I then went up through the corner and then into the overhead cabinet. You could also go up through the pockets where the switch panel is adjacent to the door.
From the side overhead cabinet (adjacent door) you go out through the back wall and along the horizontal rear panel at roof level. My camera is mounted just under this panel.
I plan to make up a panel in the corner to hide cables eventually but it's hardly noticeable with white cloth tape over cable in corner. 
A bit hard explaining but hope you get my drift.

Quote from: Kevin on June 19, 2019, 09:00:14 PM
Do you reckon you could put in a lift up bed base on gas struts - a bit like the AOR Odyssey and Rhinomax Renegade?

We considered a lift up bed as my wife would have liked the extra storage and higher bed. I struggled to see how I could get the bed frame strong enough without adding a lot of extra weight. The table would need to be reconfigured so the lifting bed would clear it. We mocked up a frame the size of a double bed just to see how it would work but it felt too claustrophobic even though we had the benefit of 400mm extra van length. It's all a compromise so we went with just the N/S mattress and side storage cabinets instead

Having done a lot of mods to a Mk1 Topaz myself I wouldn't recommend removing the robe. It would be major surgery and I would go the temporary infill route to get a N/S bed as Peter and AMW suggest.
We have created a 180mm wide storage compartments down each side of the bed (same height as mattress). This is fine for socks, jocks, shirts, rolled up towels etc. iPads, phones, torches etc can sit on the top of this compartment neatly out of the way while sleeping.  The existing table mount is inline with these storage compartments so it doesn't interfere with anyone sleeping on the LHS although our table top is slightly smaller than the standard Topaz table.
I like the N/S bed and the extra storage down the side of the bed it provides. The original seating and swing out table function normally.
Just my thoughts.

I agree with Rob, you will struggle with the amount of solar you have.
As an example this is my average solar requirements to run two fridges (85L and 30L drawer type). On a cold but sunny day I only require approximately 350 watt/hours to run fridges and get a lithium battery (180ah) back to 100%.
On a warm day it's more like 700 w/h and if I am playing around in the camper I may need 1 to 1.5 Kw/h. As you can see by my graph, everyday is different depending on temperature, loads and cloud conditions.

My main solar array is 390 watts but at this time of the year it doesn't put out anywhere near this amount.
In the summer months when the sun is higher it puts out more but then it can be degraded with temperature together with much higher loads on the fridges the net gain isn't that much better.
In summary,  with 390 watts solar it takes 4-5 hours in bulk to get the batteries back to 100% at this time of the year. Lithium's are great but whatever you take out of them you have put that same energy back in. It can be difficult with a small array, low sun angle in winter and any shading.

I run two MPPT charge controllers into one battery bank and don't notice anything abnormal with the way it charges. I view the history on Victron app and can see the max and min voltages along with time spent on bulk and float(power supply mode). I normally only run one controller so i can better monitor real solar data and not have it invalidated by Enerdrive DC2DC power source from vehicle but it doesn't change the charge profile for the battery.
I'm running LiFePo4 which is a different profile to AGM in that it doesn't have the absorption phase but a good quality controller should still manage it. If you are cooking batteries then I would lower charge voltages (assuming it's adjustable) on your controller.

The early model uses the small spring loaded slide bolt. The bolt hits the frame unless held backwhen closing.  It also requires a slight jiggle to get them into the locking hole sometimes

I have left the old slide bolt in place but locked it open. I can still used it if I wanted extra security on rough tracks but  the new ones are more than adequate.

And this is what happened to the old Topaz chassis. It's now a work trailer but getting setup to also use as  an off-road camper trailer.  This trailer tows beautifully.