Coast Resorts Open Roads Forum: Our custom true flatbed truck camper build thread

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Topic: Our custom true flatbed truck camper build thread

Posted By: jroddick on 06/28/13 01:47pm

thorsmitersaw wrote:

where do you look for them? I cant find any on craigslist that are in 4 wheel drive. Are there any with crew cabs?

You're in the right location, most of them are in the NE. They're pretty rare out here in the west. Mitsubishi doesn't import the crew cab version in 4WD but they are a common sight in Australia :

[image]

Jeffrey

" If you don't think too good..... don't think too much"

Posted By: sabconsulting on 06/28/13 04:02pm

btggraphix wrote:

thorsmitersaw wrote:

where do you look for them? I cant find any on craigslist that are in 4 wheel drive. Are there any with crew cabs?

The expo in Flagstaff would have been a great place to look for them in person (there were a bunch of them there and all sorts of things were for sale.) I'd also start following the expeditionportal forum in their for-sale sections. People there are pretty hawk-eyed for chassis like these. They found the posting I put up for Don's old Dodge/Outfitter combo within 8 hours of my putting it up on CL and before I got a chance to post it on the portal myself.

If I had to upgrade my truck that would be pretty high on my list [emoticon]

Steve.

'07 Ford Ranger XLT Supercab diesel + '91 Shadow Cruiser - Sky Cruiser 1
'98 Jeep TJ 4.0
'15 Ford Fiesta ST
'09 Fiat Panda 1.2

Posted By: Jfet on 06/28/13 05:52pm

I have been looking around at good inverter/charger solutions and I like the looks of the Magnum Energy MSH-M 3000 watt inverter with load sharing. It syncs to whatever other AC source you have available and will parallel share the load at the transfer switch. In our case the Honda 2000 watt generator plus this inverter would theoretically give you 5000 watts. I can't quite think yet of when I would need 5000 watts in a truck camper but hey, why not? Maybe running the MIG welder, coffee maker, hair dryer and A/C at the same time?

Magnum seems to be a top tier company and they are local to us in Washington. The only slight problem is the MSH-M in the 3000 watt 12V input version is still a few months out from production.

http://www.magnumenergy.com/Literature/M........058%20Rev%20A%20(MSH-M%20Series)_Web.pdf

Posted By: RobertRyan on 06/28/13 08:44pm

jroddick wrote:

You're in the right location, most of them are in the NE. They're pretty rare out here in the west. Mitsubishi doesn't import the crew cab version in 4WD but they are a common sight in Australia

Pretty well everywhere here. Isuzu/Hino and Fuso in that order produce them in a Light Truck configurations(Like in the photo}. You have nearly as many as Medium Duty truck configuation as well, like your F650/F750 or Freightliner.

Posted By: RobertRyan on 06/28/13 08:51pm

Rbertalotto wrote:

Model 4P10(T5)

Type DOHC, 4-cylinder, 4-stroke cycle, water-cooled, turbocharged, intercooled diesel with 4 valves per cylinder

Displacement 183 cu. in (3.0 L)

Max. output (SAE, gross) 161 hp @ 3,400 rpm

Max. torque (SAE, gross) 295 lb.-ft. @ 1,300 rpm

Underpowered an understatement!! No the 3 Litre diesel is under an official truck rating for the Fuso here. OK as a small delivery vehicle. European Cab chassis variants of Vans are vastly better.

Posted By: Jfet on 06/28/13 09:17pm

RobertRyan wrote:

Rbertalotto wrote:

The 5.2 liter in the Isuzu NRR has quite a bit more power/torque:

Isuzu turbocharged intercooled diesel

5.2 L (317 in.3)

215 HP @ 2,500 rpm

452 lbs./ft. @ 1,850 rpm

Posted By: RobertRyan on 06/28/13 09:57pm

Jfet wrote:

The 5.2 liter in the Isuzu NRR has quite a bit more power/torque:

Isuzu turbocharged intercooled diesel

5.2 L (317 in.3)

215 HP @ 2,500 rpm

452 lbs./ft. @ 1,850 rpm

Yes I know. Much more effective than tbe smaller 3 Litre Fuso.Isuzu has a "mini truck" as well.

Posted By: recycler on 06/29/13 05:15am

thorsmitersaw wrote:

where do you look for them? I cant find any on craigslist that are in 4 wheel drive. Are there any with crew cabs

try looking in your local commercial truck trader advertisment paper your more likely to find one there

1999 F550 truck conversion

Posted By: Jfet on 07/01/13 04:08pm

We have not been happy with the selection of 12V RV led lighting (or those in the marine selection). The home improvement environment however has a nice selection of relatively inexpensive led fixtures. Recently at Lowes we decided to hack a AC ceiling unit made by Sylvania. This is a 900 lumen surface mount light that draws 13 watts and is equivalent to a 75 watt halogen (or this is what the box says at least).

I knew these units really run on DC but I didn't know how many elements they had connected in series inside the bulb. I figured it would be around 9 to 12 which would put it well above the 12VDC available in a truck camper electrical system. After taking off the cover of the small AC to DC module mounted with 2 screws to the back of the light housing, I first measured the voltage going to the led string from the power module. This turned out to be 42VDC. This means the 9 to 12 led elements in series was a good guess. Note that it could actually be constructed of two paralleled series strings of leds. Even though externally there are only two wires, paralleling long series strings of leds is somewhat ok in practice as they tend to self balance a little bit. Paralleling just two leds without current limiting devices would eventually leave you with one or zero working leds. :-)

Anyway. I took some measurements at a few levels of current and found that the light just barely comes on, drawing 1mA at 32.8VDC. At 40VDC and 150mA (6 watts input) it was as bright as any interior rv or boat led light I have ever seen. At the rated 42VDC and 221mA draw, it was a small sun (call NIF and tell them we can now use those lasers for something else).

Note that I am seeing 221mA at 42VDC which would only be 9.3 watts of power input to the LED elements. Either Sylvania used a not very efficient AC to DC converter (9.3/13 = 71.5%), the 13 watt usage rating has some fudge factor in it, or the leds will have a slightly higher drop as they heat up, causing the power consumption to go up a bit. This last is probably likely and I will do a longer test eventually to confirm that.

Ok, so now we need a way to provide a constant current in the range of 150mA to 220mA with a voltage allowance of at least 42VDC, all from our 12V battery system. At first I thought building my own from scratch as there are plenty of reference designs from the IC manufacturers. A little more searching though and I have come across what might be just the ticket. This is a little module made by LEDdynamics called the LuxDrive A011 FlexBlock. It takes an input voltage of 10 to 32VDC (12V RV battery, check!) and provides an adjustable constant current output capable of driving a series string of LEDS with a total drop of up to 48VDC (needed at least 42VDC, check!) The price isn't too bad at $18 since you are getting an adjustable current source which will allow you to set the brightness and power consumption of your fixture. The Sylvania LED fixture itself was $36 at Lowes.

One other thing I like about this particular fixture is the base and bezel are all one piece of metal, providing a decent heat sink for the LEDS. With the FlexBlock boost converter operating at 90% efficiency and setting the current to 150mA, you would only have a couple watts of heat dissipated over a fairly large surface area of metal...should last forever.

Here are some pics of the back of the unit and a shot of it running at 1mA and 220mA:

[image]

Posted By: h2o4unow on 07/01/13 06:26pm

I work at a hardware supply store that sells 12v led lighting. I would love to help you out with any lighting needs you may have. We have LED strip lighting that has a peel-and-stick 3M backing that can be cut every 3", 1.5 and 3w LED puck lights and all sorts of strip lighting that all runs off of a 12v transformer. So long as you keep the polarity in check, I have great luck with all of this stuff in auto applications.

If you need info or pricing, feel free to drop me an email or we can chat on the phone. I've really enjoyed following your project and would love to be able to return the favor.

Check out our website and let me know if there is anything I can help you with. www.thehardwarehut.com

Nick
[email protected]

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