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Thank you, Mark!
The Adventures of Sylvester, the 2018 Suburban 3500 HD and our 2017 Airstream 27FB
- Thread starter Geotrash
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adventurenali92
Full Access Member
Good looking setup now that the airstream is lifted! Have fun for the thanksgiving week travels!
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Thanks, Chase!
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Easy drive down today in mostly light traffic. Got a site on Pamlico Sound.
The more time we spend in this thing, the more we understand why so many people love them.
The more time we spend in this thing, the more we understand why so many people love them.
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Update for the Airstream: Just dropped $4500 on a Victron Quattro 3000 2x120 inverter/charger from explorist.life, along with their whole system remote programming service. I also bought a second identical Vatrer battery (for 600Ah total), a 150/60 Victron bluetooth solar charge controller for the 6x120W Shadowflux panels that I'll be putting on the roof, a Cerbo GX with the larger GX 70 display to monitor the whole system on a dedicated screen, and manage it all remotely when away from the camper, a smart shunt, Lynx distributor, 50' of 6/4 SOOW cable, 50' of 10 AWG solar cable for the roof, connectors, fuses, Dihool 30A solar isolator/breaker, etc.
I'll get started on the project in the next few weeks when the temperature warms up, starting with the panels on the roof. I'm going to rewire most everything I did in the front compartment during Phase 1 so I can use the Lynx distributor, ensure that the battery wires are equal length, and upgrade the Dihool breaker to a 400A double switch design so it will cut power to both + & - leads simultaneously. I'm going to swap out the factory 50A shore power socket for a SmartPlug socket, and add a second 50A SmartPlug socket on the front of the coach for the generator feed to the Quattro. I'll likely run the SOOW cables under the floor through the holes in the outriggers so I don't have any wiring in the bedroom to hide or trip over.
At the end of all of this work I will be able to do a few things that I can't today:
1/ The combo of 600Ah worth of batteries and the Victron inverter/charger will allow us to run one A/C unit off the batteries for a few hours, when we're camping off-grid. This will be great when we're taking a long trip and need to pull into a rest area for a few hours to make lunch or take a nap.
2/ If we don't need the A/C, the battery capacity + solar panels will let us remain off-grid indefinitely in terms of power without needing to run the generator. This is vital in lots of national park and forest campground where there are no hookups and they don't allow generator use. We'd still need water and the ability to dump the holding tanks once every 7-10 days, but power will no longer be an issue. Most national and state park campgrounds have a potable water spigot and a dump station, even if they don't have hookups at the sites.
3/ The way the Victron Quattro works, it lets you supplement generator or shore power with battery power to produce up to 50A of 120V power to all electrical outlets, plus the air conditioners and any other appliances that run on household power. That means that with a small, very quiet 2000w generator, I could run both A/C units, plus make coffee, run the microwave, whatever. Normally, a generator that small wouldn't even run a single A/C unit. Or, when we're camping in places that only have a 15A household circuit, we can still run the A/C units, etc.
4/ Monitor and manage the power system remotely. This will be super important when we have to leave the dog in the camper for a few hours on a summer day. We would know immediately if there were a power problem and could get back before it gets too warm inside for her.
I'll get started on the project in the next few weeks when the temperature warms up, starting with the panels on the roof. I'm going to rewire most everything I did in the front compartment during Phase 1 so I can use the Lynx distributor, ensure that the battery wires are equal length, and upgrade the Dihool breaker to a 400A double switch design so it will cut power to both + & - leads simultaneously. I'm going to swap out the factory 50A shore power socket for a SmartPlug socket, and add a second 50A SmartPlug socket on the front of the coach for the generator feed to the Quattro. I'll likely run the SOOW cables under the floor through the holes in the outriggers so I don't have any wiring in the bedroom to hide or trip over.
At the end of all of this work I will be able to do a few things that I can't today:
1/ The combo of 600Ah worth of batteries and the Victron inverter/charger will allow us to run one A/C unit off the batteries for a few hours, when we're camping off-grid. This will be great when we're taking a long trip and need to pull into a rest area for a few hours to make lunch or take a nap.
2/ If we don't need the A/C, the battery capacity + solar panels will let us remain off-grid indefinitely in terms of power without needing to run the generator. This is vital in lots of national park and forest campground where there are no hookups and they don't allow generator use. We'd still need water and the ability to dump the holding tanks once every 7-10 days, but power will no longer be an issue. Most national and state park campgrounds have a potable water spigot and a dump station, even if they don't have hookups at the sites.
3/ The way the Victron Quattro works, it lets you supplement generator or shore power with battery power to produce up to 50A of 120V power to all electrical outlets, plus the air conditioners and any other appliances that run on household power. That means that with a small, very quiet 2000w generator, I could run both A/C units, plus make coffee, run the microwave, whatever. Normally, a generator that small wouldn't even run a single A/C unit. Or, when we're camping in places that only have a 15A household circuit, we can still run the A/C units, etc.
4/ Monitor and manage the power system remotely. This will be super important when we have to leave the dog in the camper for a few hours on a summer day. We would know immediately if there were a power problem and could get back before it gets too warm inside for her.
The LiFePO4 batteries are amazing for off grid stuff.
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They're truly a game changer for the viability of solar and off-grid living. They store twice as much energy in the same space as AGM batteries and still only weigh half as much. And you can discharge them almost fully without damaging them. Take a conventional lead-acid or AGM battery below 50% state-of-charge and you'll kill them in short order. Net/net is 4x the energy storage capacity in the same space. And they can last for 10+ years.
Back in '92 or so, I was living in Alaska, and lots of folks up there lived off-grid year-round, even in the suburbs of Fairbanks. One of my friends had just finished a small home and was running it all on solar. In Alaska. With a massive bank of lead-acid batteries. He ran a small Honda generator in the winter months for a few hours every day to compensate for no sun, and had figured out how to minimize his power use with 12V appliances. With LiFePO4 batteries, most folks in the lower 48 would never need electrical power service to their homes if they can heat with NG or wood. I have another buddy in PA that has a 92% efficient wood gasification furnace/boiler in his back yard that pipes heated water through insulated underground pipes into the house. It consumes 100% of the wood and produces zero smoke. Carbon neutral, too. 4500 sq ft house and he only uses 5 cord of wood in a typical winter.
The more I think about it, the more attractive the whole idea of off-grid living seems. Just got a $500 gas bill at the house thanks to a near record winter so far here in Richmond, VA.
I have though of converting some of my house to off grid after i discovered how good LiFePO4 batteries are.
I heat my garage with propane and an old 12V RV furnace. Tad small warming it up at 23k BTU but once warm it works great!
It's hooked to a 12V AGM battery and i keep it charged with a battery charger. Would be very easy to add 200W solar panel and controller as my roof faces south.
I heat my garage with propane and an old 12V RV furnace. Tad small warming it up at 23k BTU but once warm it works great!
It's hooked to a 12V AGM battery and i keep it charged with a battery charger. Would be very easy to add 200W solar panel and controller as my roof faces south.
Bigburb3500
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Just got a $310 gas bill in NC and used the exact same amount as the previous month… the cost increased here substantially. I’m talking with neighbors to see if we can do a group buy of solar panel and reduce cost. The increase in utility costs are killing us - not that we can’t afford it but the same amount of gas 5yrs ago cost 50%.
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Everything has arrived like Santa's sleigh crashed on the front porch! The Victron Quattro II 120x2 is in the big blue box. It's the most advanced inverter/charger on the market today for RV/marine duty. Designed in The Netherlands, and they have a great reputation with customers. It's going to take me a few months of incremental work between camping trips to get this project done, but it's gonna be sweet!
For those of you wondering about the Suburban 3500 - I haven't driven it in 2 months. It's just been sitting in the garage with a battery maintainer on it, thanks to all of the 5hitty weather this winter.
For those of you wondering about the Suburban 3500 - I haven't driven it in 2 months. It's just been sitting in the garage with a battery maintainer on it, thanks to all of the 5hitty weather this winter.
adventurenali92
Full Access Member
Meanwhile we had our first winter storm of the season more than halfway through winter and barely a week later it’s back to 60 degree days…. lol. You’re having tons of crappy winter weather and I’m having an extended fall….
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Been watching the weather out there - big storms have come through in the past few weeks. And we just had a gorgeous weekend!
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The mild, sunny weather over the weekend gave me a chance to get 5 of the 6 solar panels installed on the roof. Silly me - I ordered the panel mounts when I was only planning on being able to fit 5 panels up there from a different manufacturer. But with these new Shadowflux panels I can fit up to 8, but will stick with 6 for now. Unfortunately, the mounts I purchased are unobtanium because they came from the leftover stock of a company that went out of business 2 years ago. They're widely regarded as the best design for Airstreams, but I can't get any more of them.
Alas, a crafty feller on the Airstream Forums drafted up a CAD file of the same basic design, but taller, and posted the file on the interwebz. I got the file and modded it to match the height of the ones I have, and will have sendcutsend.com produce them for me. Fingers crossed!
Drilling holes through an Airstream's roof is generally something to avoid, so the professional installers have gone to 3M VHB tape to stick down the mounts instead of screws or rivets. Then, they seal the mount feet with Sikaflex 221 to keep out UV and moisture. So that's what I did too. I've used VHB before and it's curiously strong stuff. I gave one of the panels a firm tug yesterday before I sealed it, and I have no worries about it holding the panels down after that. I'd need to be in a dead-lift position to get enough leverage to even come close to yanking a corner of one loose.
Alas, a crafty feller on the Airstream Forums drafted up a CAD file of the same basic design, but taller, and posted the file on the interwebz. I got the file and modded it to match the height of the ones I have, and will have sendcutsend.com produce them for me. Fingers crossed!
Drilling holes through an Airstream's roof is generally something to avoid, so the professional installers have gone to 3M VHB tape to stick down the mounts instead of screws or rivets. Then, they seal the mount feet with Sikaflex 221 to keep out UV and moisture. So that's what I did too. I've used VHB before and it's curiously strong stuff. I gave one of the panels a firm tug yesterday before I sealed it, and I have no worries about it holding the panels down after that. I'd need to be in a dead-lift position to get enough leverage to even come close to yanking a corner of one loose.
adventurenali92
Full Access Member
Yeah we got one big storm two weeks ago, and that’s been it. And it’s been so warm that what we got has already melted away including on the ski resorts which kinda sucks. But I’m ready for spring and for ski season to be done anyways.
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Spent the last 10 days working on the inside, drawing up designs, throwing them away, settling on a final design, and then making up the cables, pulling them through chases, rebuilding the wardrobe floor to hold the weight of the batteries, programming the devices, and putting it all together. Originally I was going to put the Quattro in the front baggage compartment under the bed, but that would've meant some long cable runs through inaccessible places. So I landed on putting it in the wardrobe and recalculating everything. The benefits are short cable runs and the added 200 lbs will sit right over the wheels, instead of just behind the tongue.
This beast can draw 350+ amps from the batteries to run the A/Cs, make coffee, whatever. Every outlet in the Airstream will have power, even when we're not hooked up to shore power. If we don't need A/C for more than a few hours, then the solar on the roof will produce enough power for us to be off-grid indefinitely.
This beast can draw 350+ amps from the batteries to run the A/Cs, make coffee, whatever. Every outlet in the Airstream will have power, even when we're not hooked up to shore power. If we don't need A/C for more than a few hours, then the solar on the roof will produce enough power for us to be off-grid indefinitely.
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Finished up the install last week and wired in the solar panels over the weekend. Everything works and we still get to use most of the closet, but my feet are killing me from standing on that ladder for 4 hours on Saturday, lol.
It's pretty satisfying to watch the power assist feature work. I was connected to a 30A 120v RV outlet at our house, which isn't normally enough to run both A/C units, plus the fridge, water heater and everything else in the camper at the same time. But the Victron Quattro inverter/charger pulls power from the batteries to run heavy loads.
The panels on the roof are rated for a total of 720w, and it was a hazy March day yesterday so I didn't expect much, but I saw an average of 400w with a few 530w+ peaks. When we're not running any A/C, that's enough to meet our 24x7 electricity needs indefinitely, with the fridge and water heater running on propane.
I attended a Airstream maintenance rally over the weekend, where a guy who owns a local Airstream shop and has been working on them for 15 years, gave an excellent presentation on maintenance, upgrades and repair. He stopped by my campsite to take a look and saw my structural upgrades to the wardrobe wall and floor. He said "That's the strongest wall in the Airstream - that ain't goin' nowhere."
It's pretty satisfying to watch the power assist feature work. I was connected to a 30A 120v RV outlet at our house, which isn't normally enough to run both A/C units, plus the fridge, water heater and everything else in the camper at the same time. But the Victron Quattro inverter/charger pulls power from the batteries to run heavy loads.
The panels on the roof are rated for a total of 720w, and it was a hazy March day yesterday so I didn't expect much, but I saw an average of 400w with a few 530w+ peaks. When we're not running any A/C, that's enough to meet our 24x7 electricity needs indefinitely, with the fridge and water heater running on propane.
I attended a Airstream maintenance rally over the weekend, where a guy who owns a local Airstream shop and has been working on them for 15 years, gave an excellent presentation on maintenance, upgrades and repair. He stopped by my campsite to take a look and saw my structural upgrades to the wardrobe wall and floor. He said "That's the strongest wall in the Airstream - that ain't goin' nowhere."
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pwtr02ss
Full Access Member
That looks awesome. Great job on getting it all together!
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Thank you, my friend!
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Because I can't seem to leave well enough alone when it comes to technical projects, I've gotten a few more things done as the opportunities arose. First, I upgraded the factory SeeLevel II tank monitor to the BPT7 bluetooth-enabled version, and got it working with the Victron Cerbo GX and Touch 70 display. I got to use my long-dormant Unix/Linux admin skills because it required some Python scripting and bash command line sorcery.
Victron did a great job with the Cerbo GX because it's basically a tiny computer running a custom version of Linux, which makes it wonderfully extensible. And there are a few nerdy Airstream owners out there building useful stuff that they share with the whole Victron community. So I didn't have to start from zero and was able to build on an existing project in Github.
Anyway, now I can see all of my holding tank (SeeLevel II sensors) and propane (Mopeka sensors) on the screen at a glance, and also remotely:
After that, I installed Beech Lane fans on the interior coils of the Dometic absorption fridge, in anticipation of hot summer weather, to hopefully keep it working effectively. They're notorious for poor performance in hot weather, and for icing up the coils. I wired the fans into the door switch so that they're on when the door is closed, and turn off when the door is open, to keep it quieter. Easy peasy.
Then, I installed a fuse block and a surface-mount USB-A 3.0/USB-C PD port on the upper wardrobe wall so I could control the wardrobe USB exhaust fan from a temperature probe mounted below the upper wardrobe shelf. To keep it simple, I used the temp probe that came with the Quattro inverter/charger, and ran the power for the USB port through the Relay1 block on the Cerbo. Works perfectly.
I have it set to activate at 75ºF but have since raised it to 85ºF to minimize noise and power usage. On high, the USB fan I installed consumes about 10w - not enough to sink the batteries on cloudy days, but enough to want to minimize its use to only when truly needed. The wiring ain't pretty, but it works and is correctly fused, and safe. I also deleted the inline USB fan speed control that came with the fan because it gets hot enough to melt its case on medium. So the fan runs at full speed when it's on and is a tad noisy, but it will do a better job of cooling, so it's fine.
Victron did a great job with the Cerbo GX because it's basically a tiny computer running a custom version of Linux, which makes it wonderfully extensible. And there are a few nerdy Airstream owners out there building useful stuff that they share with the whole Victron community. So I didn't have to start from zero and was able to build on an existing project in Github.
Anyway, now I can see all of my holding tank (SeeLevel II sensors) and propane (Mopeka sensors) on the screen at a glance, and also remotely:
After that, I installed Beech Lane fans on the interior coils of the Dometic absorption fridge, in anticipation of hot summer weather, to hopefully keep it working effectively. They're notorious for poor performance in hot weather, and for icing up the coils. I wired the fans into the door switch so that they're on when the door is closed, and turn off when the door is open, to keep it quieter. Easy peasy.
Then, I installed a fuse block and a surface-mount USB-A 3.0/USB-C PD port on the upper wardrobe wall so I could control the wardrobe USB exhaust fan from a temperature probe mounted below the upper wardrobe shelf. To keep it simple, I used the temp probe that came with the Quattro inverter/charger, and ran the power for the USB port through the Relay1 block on the Cerbo. Works perfectly.
I have it set to activate at 75ºF but have since raised it to 85ºF to minimize noise and power usage. On high, the USB fan I installed consumes about 10w - not enough to sink the batteries on cloudy days, but enough to want to minimize its use to only when truly needed. The wiring ain't pretty, but it works and is correctly fused, and safe. I also deleted the inline USB fan speed control that came with the fan because it gets hot enough to melt its case on medium. So the fan runs at full speed when it's on and is a tad noisy, but it will do a better job of cooling, so it's fine.
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pwtr02ss
Full Access Member
What'll they think of next? Very cool to learn about things I never knew existed. Clean work as always, my friend!
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