MAX Burner

Well, let's see... The ultimate answer should be - "It depends". Why? The situation for us is fluid. Currently, the boys and I are solo in Quartzsite... Therefore, I get which ever "side" I want - port or starboard. Last night I chose the port side, head fore because we were watching a Netflix movie - Magnus did too. Oscar was banished to the starboard rack. When D is aboard - she opts for the port side and usually takes Oscar with her, he's smaller and gives her more room. Magnus and my 6'1" old bones get the STBD side and make due. What about morning coffee/shower time? Similar to @ScubaRx's comment, interestingly, after the coffee is made we switch from heads fore to aft... Why? Better view - especially when D climbs out of the shower... Cheers!

Just another sun rise at The Q... The 'yotes were singing all night! 41F here now and expecting "Wall-to-Wall" sunshine today... Cheers!

Some Sun setting pix from this evening at The Q... ...and if you look closely, you'll see where the locals placed their "Q" in Dome Rock: Cheers, All!

Where's Ollie? Well, this one's at Picacho Peak SP near Tucson enroute to "The Q" after breakfast this morning... Sunset last night: Sunrise this morning: The next sunset will be at Quartzsite later this PM... Cheers!

FYI: The Victron instructions for the unit recommend mounting as we did instead of flat - they also recommend at least an inch of clearance behind the cooling fins for obvious reasons. We used aluminum angle for the mount, easy peasy. Did the same for the Cerbo S GX unit which now resides under the forward hatch under the port-side rack. Yesterday from Elephant Butte SP, NM to Lordsburg, NM (about 160 miles) - the charger moved the departure SOC of 76% up to 100%, this was sooner than I had calculated. Heat build-up wasn't an issue as the IR temp gauge measured 105F on the cooling fins at an intermediate stop with engine running in park during bulk charge mode. Cool gear, Victron, IMO.

Concur 100%. That's why we did it ourselves - it took less than a half-day to configure the Tundra with wires, fuse, and Anderson plug/mount from engine compartment to hitch area. Took about the same time (maybe a bit less) for the OTT side of the equation. We used clam hull penetration hardware to introduce the cables into the area below the bathroom sink, underneath and in front of the head, under the forward dinette, to the aft dinette area where we mounted the DC/DC charger. Note: In bulk charge mode this particular charger kicks off some heat. We've been leaving the aft seat hatch off while towing to better circulate air around the cooling fins of the charger. There's a ton of YouTube videos of how some RV fabricators attach cooling fans. As described and photographed earlier, having two of these bad boys in close proximity will create some serious heat and auxiliary fans would definitely be helpful. As of this post, currently boondocking just south of Elephant Butte Lake SP waiting for the temps to rise above freezing before heading off to "The Q" - planning for a mid-afternoon arrival in the Sonoran Desert where its been above freezing temps for a few weeks now. FYI: OATs here last night dropped to 20F. Starting a 10pm last night with 96% SOC, ran the furnace and water heater all night and woke up at 5am to a 78% SOC. Not too bad.... I'm expecting to have 100% SOC by the time we hit Benson, AZ, with the DC/DC charger cranking +/-30A/14.4vDC into the BBs. Cheers!

Great mod, brother! Thanks for sharing this with the OTT family! BRAVO ZULU!

Concur 100%. After receiving "DC/DC Charger - 101" from @Geronimo John last summer, it was a "no-brainer". One nice key feature with the "smart" DC/DC Chargers is that there's an option to select an "engine-off" sensor. When selected, the charger senses that there's no alternator generating current and will secure itself thus not draining the TV starter battery when parked w/engine off. Not true when that 7-pin black 12AWG wire is connected. We've known of those who didn't disconnect the 7-pin after landing in a nice boondocking area and woke up the next morning to a dead TV battery.

@Geronimo John: FYI - after having serviced each of the 30# tanks 2 or 3 times since installing the "Halos" - keeping them in place is not an issue, a very tight fitment. My concern is getting them back into the cradle - it's almost a "press-fit", but once they're in and seated, they don't budge! Also, like @ScubaRx noted, they give a bit more recess for the Mopeaka sensors... Bottom line, the Halos should keep the steel cradle and bottom tank rings from rusting out and generally helps keep the compartment neat and tidy.

Definitely familiar with the Victron Dongle, but didn't realize it can extend the bluetooth signal reception. Will need to look into it - if only to get another 25 feet of coverage, we'd be able to monitor while towing. That would be nice. Real nice.

For our application, the Victron Cerbo unit receives the input from each of our other Victron devices (MPPT solar charger, portable solar modules, SmartShunt, DC-DC charger, 3kw Inverter/charger (TBD), etc.) and depicts the flow of AC and DC current at that moment. It tracks a historical trend of power usage. Displays are provided on the optional 7" touch-screen. It gives us a snapshot view using a "flow-chart" graphic of exactly what's happening electrically at a given moment. We fitted the touch-screen into the space where the Zamp PWM solar charge controller used to be, FYI. This screen selection is actually animated a bit. It displays moving "dots" between the power sources and the usage points in the direction the current is flowing. Pretty cool and easy to get your head around what's happening at the moment. Cheers!

Very clean mod - many thanks for posting!

It's 17F here this AM as I read @Ronbrink's FYI.... We're getting ready to head to "The Q" this Friday (where its warm) and we're planning to depart once the temps are above freezing - probably around noon! HA!

You'll definitely want to check which type of control board you've got in your current converter/charger. We had to buy (approx $65) a new control board for ours because it didn't have the "Li micro switch" - you won't hurt your Li's, but the max charge you'll see without the Li-capable board is about 13.6vDC. After installing the new board - we saw the full 14.4vDC which is indicative of the Li charging profile. No biggie to replace the board - less than 30 minutes; if you even need it as your C/C may have the optional micro switch for the Li charging profile.

...I used to be able to eat that much! Whew, that look DEEEELISH! HA!

Well deserved "Congrats", Jason! You'll have plenty of time to post those great pics of your wonderful new OTT after all those future excursions! Very nice rig - inside and out! Cheers!

Same here, FWIW...

They work great - makes for a bit of a "tight fit", but definitely serves their purpose well...

We disconnected the 7-pin's black wire (to the TV alternator) and installed a Victron 12/12 DC-DC charger to keep the battery bank close to topped off should we be towing at night or during dark foul-WX days... The charger's been used now for over 4,500 miles without incident, FYI.

We pretty much take the same except for the extra chairs.... Wine, beer, and stogies a plenty!

We're using the BMV-712 located under aft dinette seat - the iPhone must be within 5-10' of the outside hull to connect... It would be SOOOooo nice to be able to access the 712 with the app while towing.

...this option solved our problem immediately. Thanks, @John E Davies! Although, the initial problem was found on our 1st official OTT excursion to Elephant Butte Lake SP in NM, that condition was caused by the "5.5QT Smithy Dutch Oven Syndrome" - described in an earlier post. Now, like @SeaDawg explains, our Smithy kit now rides in the TV... and we don't expect to find galley drawers by the bathroom anymore!

We use a Craftsman leaf blower that uses the same Li battery all our other Craftsman hand tools use (drill motors, saws, angle grinders, LED light, vacuum, etc.) - it's handy to use to blow out Husky hair from the interior of the TV as well as the Casa Blanca... WOOF!

We don't have nearly the experience with Starlink as @Snackchaser, in fact we're still in our "personal beta testing mode." As I'm writing this, our SL is being powered by our 2kw inverter at our boondock location in North Texas. So let's try measuring the actual SL energy usage.... Condition 1: Our Victron SmartShunt reads our current values at 76% SOC, current draw is -0.55A, power usage -7W (with all electrical components off except for Fridge in GAS mode, Microwave LED clock on, SL off, and normal phantom draw). It's wall-to-wall sunshine now at about 0725 - solar modules are adding about 2.80A/36W into the BB's. Condition 2: Same background current draw as in Condition 1, but we energized the 2KW inverter. This bumped up the current draw to 1.08A and power usage to -14W. So, roughly, the inverter itself draws 0.53A or 12.7Amp-Hrs daily - just idling with no AC appliances being energized. Good to know number, IMO. Condition 3: All the same as above, except we energized the Starlink system. Current draw now up to -7.57A and power at -98W. The SL literature notes the unit will draw approx. 65W of power. Clearly, in our configuration, it's really more like 84W and pulling 6.5A. Without the SL energized, our phantom current draw is usually around 0.15 - 0.45A/-2 to 7W that's with the Fridge in the GAS mode and MicroWave in LED clock mode, and Smoke/LPG/CO2 detectors and various Victron components drawing a few 10ths of Ampere's. We're not that sad about the SL power consumption, however we're preparing to convert it over to a 12vDC system after this trip to save even more battery bank energy while boondocking. More on that upgrade later. Here are the screenshots of the 3 test conditions, FYI: Condition 1: Condition 2: Condition 3: If your "RV-style" of on the road needs reliable access to the internet like our's does (due to D's work requirements) the Starlink system is a viable option, IMO. It's been Uber-fast in cloudy/rainy conditions both day/night. Here's a screenshot of a speed test from this morning: More info to share later... Cheers!

Woah! That's a boat-load of cash riding down the road on 6 wheels! SHEESH!