makemuchoftime
New member
Hi all,
Long time lurker, first time poster and I thought I'd introduce myself and ask a couple of questions. I pulled the trigger on my second Chevrolet Avalanche. My first was a 2004 1500 daily driver (no mods) that I had to sell when I bought a travel trailer and needed something with more towing power. I ended up with a Nissan Armada, a fine vehicle and I built a rudimentary sleeping platform/drawer system for camping. The travel trailer is gone now and so is the Armada, and I am the proud owner of a 2006 2500 with 125k miles. I picked this up off EBAY a few months ago. When I saw it, I couldn't hit the buy me now button fast enough. I've tentatively named her Fugly McExedavy, or MacEx for short.
MacEx came with a SnugTop, winch, big side mirrors with turn indicator, Yakima roof rack, 2” lift, 285 tires, and a brush guard. I recently wired in a second battery and built a drawer system/sleeping platform. Having side bar steps added this week. Future mods – Power Panel with solar charging (in process and purpose of this post), small inverter in dash and USB outlets accessible to backseat passengers, replace stock radio with nav and computer system, awning (for side and back), solar water heater/tank for shower and hosing off muddy gear…. She is not currently my DD.
Product underway: Adding a power panel mounted to the inside of the truck bed hooked up to Aux battery underhood. The Aux battery (DieHard Advanced Gold AGM) is mounted on passenger side right by the firewall, so the power cable run will be about 15 – 20ft. The guts (backside of the panel) will fit in the saddlebag storage space, I'll cut a hole through into the storage area from inside the truck bed (also cutting another one on the other side with a hatch so I can use that space for storage). With the SnugTop, these areas are currently not useable.
If possible, I am going to make this panel removeable so I can still use my truck to haul stuff without worrying about damage and also, so I can snap it onto a power box with batteries and use in the house when the power goes out.
This thread is a great resource… - http://forum.expeditionportal.com/t...ucture-seeking-inputs-on-my-inputs-and-ouputs. Thanks rayra
Pic below is conceptual not to scale or position, I haven't drawn in all the wiring yet.
Questions
How to I set up the Input/charging system? I want to have options in charging the house battery when I am parked at a campsite.
- Solar - I know I need a charge controller for the solar and this is definitely going in, no questions on this.
- Of secondary importance is inspired by the GoalZero….. How do I set up daisy chaining like they have? It would be nice to be able to throw in a second battery if I know I'm going to be off grid for a while. The goal here is to keep from having to fire up the truck to recharge the batteries to an absolute minimum.
- If I run some Anderson connectors with a direct connection to the house battery for the DC inputs, would this just be the same as running in parallel with the Aux. battery (in which case I'd need to use the exact same battery as my Aux.) or is there some other electronics happening in the background that would allow me to plug in whatever battery is available?
- I'd also like to be able to charge when I'm at a campground with power. How do I make this work? What type of connection, fuses, converter, etc… do I need? I have a portable power pack/inflator I bought at Costco and I just plug that into the wall to charge the internal battery, this is the functionality I want in this panel to charge the house battery.
- Should/can the inputs wired into the same fuse box?
- Any other thoughts? Suggestions?
Thanks for your time.
Maker….
Last edited: