Ski Bum Truck V2.0, F450 Rough Road RV

100W folding panel, looks like they took one of the "flexible" panels and cut it in half. Its very small when folded. It will be paired with a Victron MPPT controller.

Charger is wired. Ran a piece of flextite conduit between the tool box on the drivers side and the battery area. This is so I can run my incoming power cable from there. Also ran a pair of 8 gauge wires for the solar hook up. The solar controller will likely be mounted next to the batteries though. The other two glands re for my 2/0 DC power wires.

And in the box I have about 20' of 20 amp cord, and the two solar wires. Tools and fluids live there too.

And wires up to the inverter charger.

Also started on my 120V breaker box.

Then it was time for more holes..... Water heater intake/exhaust.

I even managed to get the hole from the inside and outside to line up :D

Its a concentric vent, intake around the outside, exhaust down the middle. All stainless which is nice.

And all done.

And since It was almost 90 yesterday we thought we should give sticker peeling a go! Man it came off so much better than when it was cold out! No more sponsor names, just the number either side now. There was even a second layer of blue on the front!

More last night though.

Water tank is in, strapped in place, and hopefully stays there. Glad I didn't get a bigger tank, no way I would have gotten the fittings on the end.

Water outlet, drain valve on the right will need to go down though the floor.

And in place, it fit exactly tight against the wall.

Water heater mounted, the blue can will be the grey tank.

I did get the water ran to the other dinette bench and to the valve before the water pump. But that was it. Man its tight and takes forever! All the rest of my pics are blurry....

Dude, I haven't been on the board in a while and I'm still impressed with the amount of work you've accomplished. When you are done with this, people will not know it wasn't a purpose built RV.

I haul campers for a living and you're exceeding the build quality of those.

SyntheticBlinkerFluid wrote: Dude, I haven't been on the board in a while and I'm still impressed with the amount of work you've accomplished. When you are done with this, people will not know it wasn't a purpose built RV. I haul campers for a living and you're exceeding the build quality of those.

Thank you! And yes exceeding the build quality and being able to survive life of gravel roads is why building it myself

Taking it out this weekend, towing the boat, I think it should be far more pleasant than my v6 runner! Although i will be a bit over 50' long!

You give me hope for being able to fix anything wrong with my new to me little hybrid trailer.

What kind of crimp/shrinkwrap connectors are you using? I bought some crimp on ones and they keep pulling off the 16g wire so I am looking for some better ones for my "upgrade the kids powerwheels" project

In reply to Jaynen:

Its all simple systems when you look a them individually!

I am using a combo of Amazon special (all the butt connectors) and what the boat store sells (all the terminals). Make sure your using the correct size for 16ga and the correct spot on the crimper.

Great news on the un-wrap.

I see the strap, but.. is the water tank wedged in place so the plumbing fittings can't get crushed (if it breaks free)?

In reply to OHSCrifle:

Nope the strap holds it that direction. I'm more worried about the tank than the fittings.

Do you think it will shift?

Easy enough to install a wood block to insure it wont shift. Although, my experience is that with it full of water there is enough friction to hold it in place.

java230 wrote: In reply to OHSCrifle: Nope the strap holds it that direction. I'm more worried about the tank than the fittings. Do you think it will shift?

Possibly. Especially if it's plastic on wood, not much friction regardless of the weight. It'd be easy to make a small block like Don suggested.

I'm not sure what direction it's oriented, but I'd hate to see a panic stop crunch the fittings and leak all over the camper.

OHSCrifle wrote:

java230 wrote: In reply to OHSCrifle: Nope the strap holds it that direction. I'm more worried about the tank than the fittings. Do you think it will shift?

Possibly. Especially if it's plastic on wood, not much friction regardless of the weight. It'd be easy to make a small block like Don suggested. I'm not sure what direction it's oriented, but I'd hate to see a panic stop crunch the fittings and leak all over the camper.

I would agree with that. There's probably a 99% chance that the strap will hold just fine for a very long time, but a small block of wood and a couple screws is a pretty small amount of effort to push that all the way to 100%. Then you'll have one spot where you will never hear "I am become water, destroyer of RVs!"

Block was added it's pinned in on 4 sides by wood.

52 feet of fun!

Hit the scale on the way home. Loaded for a long weekend, half a tank of water, 3 people 2 big dogs.

14.3k

Here is a recap on the thrash that was Friday. Whoever decided I needed to get the water done before we left was a little nuts.... Needless to say, the three hours I had planned for it wasn't enough. Oh well, I dragged my ass out of bed at 6:30 and got to work.

I had to connect the tank to the water heater, both of which were installed at this point, then do all the tank fill side of things, install the water pump, wire all that stuff, and do the grey tank. (yeah typing all that out reminds me three hours were not nearly enough, planned to work 7-10, cleanup and pack and leave at 12)

So to start we have to install the faucet. Kids oil based clay works great for making a dam.

Now you hope and prey you don't break the tile.

Breathe again....

And drop the faucet in. One thing checked off the list.

Run water lines.

Hook up water pump, used flex here to try to keep noise and vibrations in the lines down.... Pump is god damn loud. Its a used one I have had in my garage for years now.

Install fill and vent.

Add water. Chase leaks. I hate threaded fittings!!!! PEX is awesome though.

Hot water coming out!

Apparently I took zero pics of the grey tank. Its the blue jug, its a hose barb fitting off the end of the strainer basket, a piece of 1" vinyl tube. Works really well actually.

Also made a drawer latch. Drawer holds a lot of stuff and likes to fly open when you turn! Yeah not good. Ball detent pin, drawer stays closed.

Reinforcement/latch plate on the inside.

Truck drove great all weekend, towed the boat at 70 no problem.

Who doesn't love a fresh roll of 2/0? Ready for loom!

House wiring day.

It took 25' to get front to rear. Wow that was not fun.

Disappearing into the beast

But its loomed and run the whole way! Need to get come more end connectors and run the ground.

Woohoo!! Its charging from the alternators! (yes plural :D )

Ground run to the frame. Ground the paint off and used an existing bolt/ground spot.

Connected at the battery (thoughts on an aftermarket/larger terminal?)

Make the noise! Green light means the combiner works and batteries are charging from the engine. Solar controller and wiring can be seen here, and done as well!

All the electrical goodies to make it all work.

And a curtain happened too. officially a poop closet!

Nice work!

In reply to Petrolburner:

Thanks!

On another forum fusing the main line was bought up. Not a bad idea....

So a fuse "stud" was picked up, along with a 300 amp fuse.

And all installed.

Yes I would definitely fuse the main line in case it ever wears through the insulation and shielding. I'd hate to have that start a fire. I have an inline 50 amp breaker on mine. I haven't pulled enough amperage to pop it yet even with my big Puma compressor and Whynter fridge running simultaneously.

In reply to Petrolburner:

Yeah definitely good. My alternators are good for 240A in a best case scenario, so I sized everything for 250 min. 200A is as big of a breaker as I could get, so I went fuse. I've got a lot of batteries so if they are dead it should pull a fair bit of amps. The inverter draws 200....

Quick overnight trip.

Also picked up a piece of wood for our dinette table. Its a Cedar of Lebanon, came from a local 98 year old tree when they redid the opera house here. Its a little skinny, but I think it should work fine.

And stole a rod holder off the boat

BBQ time!

Great build; just finished reading it.

In regards to your front suspension issues, realize that you have not only added a bunch of weight to the area behind the cab, but you also have a rear axle that is moved back considerably from its original configuration. Much of the weight you add is now being carried in a far greater percentage by the front end than it would have been otherwise. I think there is a very good chance that you are bottoming out the front end on the rougher roads. The next time you weigh it, you should really take the time to get a second stop on the scale with just the front (or rear) tires. At least you would know what you are working with.