- Bought a Engel MT35 fridge. Big heavy beast. Start thinking more and more about the interior. #
- Just uploaded tons of inspiration photos from last weeks offroad show in Germany. http://ow.ly/1XwAM #
- After a few weeks off I made more progress. IBS dual battery monitor and a second deep cycle battery is installed. #
- On my way to the “Abenteuer & Allrad” trade show. #
- Moskow-Siberia-Moskow. Fantastic trip and great photography. Wish I could read Russian. http://ow.ly/22ZnT More parts at the bottom of page #
- YES! New season of TopGear started today. #
- It’s not worth to spend your holiday on PEI @GentleIsland if they ban RHD cars. http://ow.ly/24PFE #
- Got rid off some cosmetic rust spots today with a fresh bottle of Tremclad :) #
Monthly Archive for June, 2010
To know a little bit better what’s going on inside the engine I installed a pyrometer (for the exhaust gas temperature) and a boost pressure gauge. As location I decided to go right behind the steering wheel. This dead spot is perfect for two pods. I also wanted to keep the look similar to the stock dashboard, so the VDO gauges (from Summit Racing) seems to fit perfectly with their analog, black look and the green illumination.
The temperature sensor for the EGT was already installed a while ago, so I just had to wire up the gauges and hook up the vacuum line. We took the power from the radio and the ash-try light which was the closed and most easiest route. I’m quite happy with the outcome. The gauges (specially the pyro) will help to prevent any major engine failure due wrong driving.
A few tips:
- Make sure you get the right pod for your gauge, even if the diameter is the same, the length various widely.
- For the Delica a boost gauge up to 20psi is plenty. If you take a gauge with a larger scale you wont notice that much movement
- A pyro with a scale up to 1400°F is enough.
- Full mechanical boost pressure gauges tend to have a little silent whistle sound if you back off, which could get annoying if don’t mount it in a sealed pod.
p.s.: Sorry for not taking any photos from the install. I forgot the camera. Also if you want to read more about pyro and boost gauges on Delicas, check out this thread on the Canadian Forum.
One temporarily downside of the snorkel was the constantly releasing of the pressure valve under load. That had to be fixed. I could have just bought a stronger, adjustable valve, but it was way more fun to build my own adjuster. The most important part is to find the right strength of coil spring. Canadian Tire had a good collection and after a few tries I found the perfect fit. The rest are just scrap of aluminum and stainless steel hardware. All in all just a few bucks.
It works great and the annoying sound of the pressure valve under load is gone till the pressure hits about 18psi. I usually try to stay blow 15psi, though.
First I want to say a big thank you to Jay for the time he spent to install our new dual battery system. Without him this modification wouldn’t be as nice and clean as it is.
Many people at the exhibition installed the IBS Dual Battery system as part of the on-board power setup. Some people used the National Luna version but had no go experience with it due the not water proof solenoid and the cheap connectors. Obviously there was also the option to build my own monitor, but there are way too many upcoming mods on my list, so I wanted to save time. In the end we went with the IBS system for around CAD300. If you are interested what this system actually does, read this page.
The system itself is pretty simple. One heavy duty relay (200A/500A) and a well built remote with a lot of wires. We usually don’t need the remote while driving, so we installed it out of the way behind the passenger seat. The wiring can be kept very short this way. The relay is just on to of the batteries.
The battery compartment is quite small on a Delica, but I still didn’t want to move one battery inside the van (every inch counts), so I decided to go with a Odyssey 35-PC1400 as a starter battery and a Haze 80Ah (size 24) AGM deep cycle battery for the accessories. It’s not really huge, but we are not planing to have a lot of accessories on while in camp mode. Also the planed solar panels should extend the power a bit.
Jay, also installed a battery disconnector to prevent the batteries from draining while sitting for a longer time unused (e.g. when we want to ship the car in a container etc.)
Update February 2012:
The Haze deep cycle battery stopped working after just 20 month. It didn’t keep the charge anymore. So overall I can not recommend this brand as the lifetime is way to short. Good thing is, I found a 95Ah battery to replace it with.
One of the first interior appliance we bought recently is a proper compressor fridge. After years of ice- and 12v-coolers we finally got the right stuff. Coolers work ok for short trips, but anything longer than a weekend and you are in trouble or even worth you get some health issues with dewed food. It’s just so good to go to your fridge at any time of your trip and have properly cooled food and drinks and not soaking wet or half cold stuff.
Yes, it’s relatively expensive (CAD770 at Steveston Marine), but this is something that hopefully will work well for a long time and still can be used in the next few campers as well.
After reading reviews up and down and actually talking to people with different compressor fridges, we decided to go with a Engel MT35. Main reason was the outstanding quality of workmanship and the unique Engel Swing Motor. The patented Swing Motor, developed and manufactured in Japan (fits very well to a Delica :), is an electro-dynamic reciprocating device that connects directly to the piston of the compressor. You can read more about the technical details on their website. In short it should hold up pretty strong any long washboard roads and heavy mobile usage.
Downside of a proper fridge is the additional weight and the bigger size, but from our experience so far it is totally worth it.
A few weeks went by without any work on our van, because we went to Germany to Europe’s largest 4×4 and camping exhibition near Frankfurt called “Abenteuer & Allrad” (Adventure & 4×4). Manly to get a lot of inspiration and input from people who have experience with overland travelling and the conversion of all kinds of vans/trucks into proper expedition vehicles.
It was just stunning how people actually modified their trucks. So many different and clever ways of building the interior. Even it seems very popular to go really big (and unreal expensive) most people try to use every little inch of their car in a well thought-out way.
Check out the photo album. Hopefully you can find some interesting modification for your camper as well.
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