almost finished camper

[frostyblue]

Hey all, rooftop tent, water tank, drawbar batt box and ill be almost finished

Cheers

[130man]

Hi Frostyblue, looking good. Feel free to tell us more about the build when you have the time. Cheers, 130man.

[Leroy_Riding]

looks cool, care to share whats inside the box? maybe a bit of a run down on the specs.

Leroy

[frostyblue]

thanks guys, It all started with an aluminium ute tray, the chassis was built using 50x100x3mm rhs and drawbar 75x50x3mm rhs, fully mig welded, all new 1000kg axle, 2000kg springs and new 6 stud hubs, alloy 16" rims, I used the outriggers from the tray and was bolted and welded on, every 6mm gusset that is welded to the chassis is bolted to the tray with 13mm bolts and nyloc nuts, every bolt on the trailer has been replaced with nyloc nuts, the frame of the cabinet is 20x20x2mm rhs and also mig welded, 13mm booga rod was put thru the uprights on each corner and bolted thru the tray, because the rod is inside the rhs it looks neat and tidy, the rod is also put thru plate so it cant be pulled thru the ally tray, all walls are 10mm marine grade ply with the sides being 17mm due to cutting out the doors as 1 piece and leaving a nice and strong 50mm surround, all corners and edges have been sealed and covered with ally stripping, tail lights are led waterproof with an extra led strip light (red) that I made up, It has full length led white strip lights for the interior lights, the tray inside was covered in high density matting (blue) to quieten it down a bit, it has 2 roll out awnings 1 on each side, 2.5 x 2.0 mt, on top of those I have 2x 1 each side 1300 lumen led floodies, 60 litre water tank with electric pump to a swing out water tap (like your laundry), 4 jerry cans, 2 deep cycle batts in front box, homemade switch panel with 4 waterproof switches, 2 cig lighter sockets, 2 extra toggle switches and a 600 watt inverter, car radio, 120 watt solar panel on roof with waterproof regulator, inside is 650 watt 4 stroke genny, chainsaw, portable BBQ, toilet,shower, slide out kitchen bench, 50 litre waeco, at rear end is a new rooftop tent sitting on 2 welded rails running full length of cabinet , the roof top tent will fold out over rear end so I can utilise the annex that came with it, 2 slide out outriggers to stabilise and stop trailer from tipping when the tent is folded out, offroad coupling just about covers it, I have lots of photo's during build up if you would like to see them, underlined items not yet fitted, wiring up the switch panel is next as all the wiring has been run, blue colour was done to kinda mimic the D2.
cheers

ken

[frostyblue]

Finished fitting 1 batt, 1 to go, should fit really neat as they are so thin, also finished switchboard, all wired up, nearly finished, cant wait, some piccies

Cheers

[frostyblue]

Just about done, extra batt to go in, checkerpalte on rear wall to stop twin spares from rubbing thru paint.

cheers

ken

[drivesafe]

Hi Ken and all that work looks great but your battery compartment appears to be a totally sealed enclosure.

You must NEVER house lead acid battery in a non vented compartment.

The way you have the batteries hermetically separated from the rest of the electricals is brilliant but all lead acid batteries can gas and having them in a sealed enclosure is setting up for a situation where an explosion can occur.

[frostyblue]

Thanks for the comments, they are not lead acid they are 100 amp deep cycle gel and according to Fiamm specs they are totally sealed and have optimized internal gas recombination?, spill proof and non hazardous, as you are in this type of industry your expertise and comments would be welcome

cheers

ken

[drivesafe]

Hi Ken and sorry mate but someone has been giving you grossly misleading info, and I bet it was the company who sold you the battery.

Your battery is a lead acid battery and it is NOT totally sealed.

The labelling of lead acid batteries stating they are sealed, means they are sealed against SPILLAGE of electrolyte, not against gassing.

Many of the battery manufacturers are now changing their labelling from “SEALED” to SPILL PROOF because of the misleading advice many battery sellers give their customers.

All lead acid batteries can gas and all lead acid batteries have some way of allowing that gas to escape to avoid a pressure build-up in the battery.

Causing a battery to gas can be done from something pretty simple.

You only need to hit a bump a bit hard and you can cause an internal short in any battery and this will then cause that battery to gas while being charged, whether it is by Solar, an alternator or a battery charger.

Note, the most common cause of battery gassing, and this applies to batteries in good condition, not just one with some form of fault, is overcharging caused by faulty battery chargers and one of the best known brands of battery chargers is renown for suffering from runaway charge voltages.

Once gas escapes from a battery it must be vented to atmosphere otherwise, in a small enclosure like that, it can easily explode.

So again, Ken, you really need to vent that box, both at the top and bottom, to cause a natural air flow and reduce the chance of any gas build-up.

[rangieman]

Hi Ken and sorry mate but someone has been giving you grossly misleading info, and I bet it was the company who sold you the battery.

Your battery is a lead acid battery and it is NOT totally sealed.

The labelling of lead acid batteries stating they are sealed, means they are sealed against SPILLAGE of electrolyte, not against gassing.

Many of the battery manufacturers are now changing their labelling from “SEALED” to SPILL PROOF because of the misleading advice many battery sellers give their customers.

All lead acid batteries can gas and all lead acid batteries have some way of allowing that gas to escape to avoid a pressure build-up in the battery.

Causing a battery to gas can be done from something pretty simple.

You only need to hit a bump a bit hard and you can cause an internal short in any battery and this will then cause that battery to gas while being charged, whether it is by Solar, an alternator or a battery charger.

Note, the most common cause of battery gassing, and this applies to batteries in good condition, not just one with some form of fault, is overcharging caused by faulty battery chargers and one of the best known brands of battery chargers is renown for suffering from runaway charge voltages.

Once gas escapes from a battery it must be vented to atmosphere otherwise, in a small enclosure like that, it can easily explode.

So again, Ken, you really need to vent that box, both at the top and bottom, to cause a natural air flow and reduce the chance of any gas build-up.

I think i suffered a similar miss understanding from a battery shop 130amp/h AGM , On my camper i had a very similar battery box made air and water tight which housed all fuses connectors:angel: Luckily for me i realised after two or 3 trips as it had rubber backed carpet under the battery that inside said battery box was damp:eek: , It is now vented;)

[drivesafe]

Hi Rangieman and unfortunately, this belief that a battery, labelled “sealed” means it won’t gas is really a problem the battery manufacturers themselves, have created.

There is also no set mandatory standards for the RV industry but there is for industrial use of lead acid batteries.

http://www.traxide.com.au/Caravan/AS_2676.2.jpg

[frostyblue]

Well thanks for the valuable heads up on this issue, there is a 5 mm space between lid and box which I haven't seal taped yet and the conduit plugs have space around them so it looks like that will be left open, thanks again fot the valuable information, nothing like a bit of knowledge to keep one safe

cheers Ken

[frostyblue]

Finally finished camper, tows really well, towball weight about 60 kgs, now to get out camping and try it out

[worane]

Nice job. Are you running some type of stone guard or rock tamer to save your back window/trailer form chipping?

[frostyblue]

thanks Worane, I am still undecided how or what to build, any ideas or piccy's welcome

cheers

ken

[Sitec]

Hi there. Great build. Not sure why I'd not spotted it until now. I too had not realised that gel batteries were not 'sealed'. I thought one of the main selling points of a gel battery was that it could be mounted in any position as it is 'sealed'... Obviously not, (this is the first thing I've learned in 2014, and means that I can spend the rest of the day asleep under a tree somewhere!! :D).. Useful info. Looking at stone guards I've seen a lot of trailers with the mesh system (pictured) across the front of the trailer. Can't help but feel that these then deflect the stones back into the car..? Had nothing to do with them tho so also interested to hear from people who have used them. I would thing a mud guard in front of the trailer wheel would help along with a full with rear mud flap on the rear of the vehicle... Cheers for now! Simon.

[slug_burner]

Plenty of discussion on van stone guards in other threads. The one pictured could be improved by tipping the top forward to get the angle such that stones will bounce down and out towards the sides.

Sealed lead acid batteries like AGM do not breathe but can vent if an over pressure situation occurs inside the battery. I don't know how often they vent but they can.

[drivesafe]

Hi Sitec and while many batteries are labelled as being “SEALED”, the labelling is not only misleading ( unintentionally ), it is now being changed.

Many of the battery manufacturers are now labelling these batteries as being “SPILL PROOF”, not as being sealed.

All lead acid batteries can be caused to gas and it can be done very easily.

It is not high current situations that causes gassing ( as many people think ), it is high voltage that is the most common cause of gassing.

If a battery is fully charged in the first place, you only need a voltage a little above what the battery can safely tolerate, and a battery will start to gas.

To get a high voltage you only need a battery charger to fail and continue to raise the voltage being applied to the battery after the battery is fully charged or, something that is now not so common but use to be, and that is a runaway alternator regulator.

This can have an alternator producing constant voltages of 18+v, for as long as you drive.

There is also a new cause of over voltage charging and that is DC/DC devices.

Most DC/DC devices have a TIMED boost charge they apply to a battery at the end of a charging cycle, and this is not a problem in most RECHARGE situations, like when you have been camping and your battery is down a bit, or even in a low state.

Your battery will probably not even get to the boost cycle while you are driving.

Where the problem is now occurring, is when you leave home with a fully charged battery, that not only has a DC/DC devices connected to it but it also has a fridge connected to the battery.

What is happening is that the fridge cycles on, pulls the battery voltage down, the DC/DC device cuts in thing the battery is in need of a charge.

The DC/DC device will apply a higher charging current current to the battery than the current the fridge is drawing and the battery voltage will quickly rise back above the fully charged level and the not so smart DC/DC device thinks this is the battery's first cycle and then gives the battery a TIMED boost cycle.

Doing this once is fine but unfortunately, these "SMART" DC/DC devices continually go into the boost cycle every time the fridge cycles on.

So you have a situation where you leave home with a fully charged battery and arrive at your destination with a gassing and stuffed battery.

This problem is now so prevalent that a number of DC/DC device installation manuals specifically state “Do not connect a fridge to any battery being charged by this DC/DC device”

So as you can see, gassing is a very potential and dangerous problem.