Wisconsin Tacomas and bad financial advice

So that's just a one-shot application?

 

Thanks, Adam!

I don't have a real plan yet, but I have a rough idea. I'd like to get a fridge, similar to yours, eventually. I was thinking about having the battery charge off the 4Runner while it is running, and using the solar panel to keep it topped off. I might also use it to power an electric blanket on winter trips.

It seems like the battery should have enough capacity to run the fridge as long as I can get it topped off daily. The solar setup I got seems like it should be more than sufficient, but I know those things are rarely putting out their full potential.

 

Would anyone have any interest in an RLD designs topper, thinking about getting rid of mine to put towards a GFC.
I’m thinking like 2k for it but wanted to ask on here before I put it on marketplace.

 

That's the battery I have. I can attest to Adam's heavy comment! Now that my tune is updated, I have little problem getting a 13.4v charge. It will run my refrigerator day/night, be available to charge my phone or whatever, run the bed lights and still have plenty of reserve.

 

OH, James @Thatbassguy, I had to upgrade my tablet to get cell service. GAIA works like a champ on it!

 

Catch up when l get a chance. Several days no service. Several days amazing off-roading!

 

Like @pearing said, we have lots of great pics to share. Back on pavement now, headed north.

 

Awesome!

Between the battery, fridge, and charging equipment, it looks like I can finally rationalize sleeping platform version 5.0.

Now I just need to get a fridge and some lumber.

@wi_taco , I'm eyeballing one of the Iceco fridge/freezers. How are you liking yours?

That's cool. I didn't even think cellular was an option. I was going to use offline maps and/or run it off my phone's wifi hotspot.

I see that GAIA raised their rates. And, Avenza updated and it's a pain in the ass to upload maps now.

 

Awesome, guys!

I'm looking forward to hearing stories!

 

Same!

Looking forward to rendezvousing here in a few hours

 

Waiting to hear the stories.

Safe travels home.

 

All smiles about the ICECO fridges, both models that I've used so far worked perfectly. One thing to consider if you are shopping them is watch for power consumption on the models with Bluetooth. Yeah, it's nice to play with gadgets from your phone, but power draw is nearly double because of Bluetooth. Since your 100Ah battery has a 50% DoD that means you really will have 50Ah that is useable. My non-bluetooth fridges seem to use maybe 20Ah on the hottest of days running full blast so you'd get like 2 days offgrid that way with no charging (of course your solar should help that). Bluetooth model would only get about a day, ouch.

Re: Gaia and Avenza, I've had some pains lately with Gaia but I still think they are the best. Avenza never worked right for me no matter what I did. In the past I used Maps.Me for offline street navigation but found out it's basically Russian spyware so that's no good. Testing out OsmAnd as an alternative because they seem to be a leading app in that area now. But combining all those plus backup paper maps it's pretty dang hard to get lost nowadays.

 

Awesome! Great information as usual!

I definitely don't need a Bluetooth fridge, so thank you for pointing that out about power consumption.

I really like that you can choose which side of the Iceco you want as the fridge and which side you want as the freezer.

I'm starting to get excited about this project! Now the fun part will be fitting everything in the 4Runner while maintaining a worthwhile sleeping area. I'm going to have to take some measurements and draw out some ideas on graph paper this weekend.


I really just liked Avenza for using GPS enabled MVUM maps. I'll have to get more familiar with GAIA this year.

 

I thought getting lost was part of the fun of it all!

 

I like Avenza additionally for the fact you can buy a digital version of the WI Gazeteer and have that as a base layer. I'm kinda old school and such.

 

Speaking of old-school, I have an analog Gazetteer in each vehicle.

 

Gas stop. Picture:

 

That puts a whole new meaning to underbody flush.

 

Rest stop picture. Dave showing us how deep the water crossing is.