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Keith's M1078A1 Project Overland

Mullaney

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dont remember which A1 or A1r.... whichever one or both has a battery in the ecu same as any home computer. There is several threads in here on trucks where they have had to replace the whole ecu cause battery in it was dead/going dead. Other users have pointed that this may be for the very reasons you indicate above as possible causation; while there is other threads that also point out that poor circuit board soldering of the Power Distribution Panel in a few years of the trucks may be part of it too.
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One of mine with a 3126 in it sat for a month with no batteries.
When I finally installed them, truck fired right up and was good.
It is an A1 vehicle...
 

Third From Texas

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dont remember which A1 or A1r.... whichever one or both has a battery in the ecu same as any home computer. There is several threads in here on trucks where they have had to replace the whole ecu cause battery in it was dead/going dead. Other users have pointed that this may be for the very reasons you indicate above as possible causation; while there is other threads that also point out that poor circuit board soldering of the Power Distribution Panel in a few years of the trucks may be part of it too.
Again, we're talking about the battery disconnect here. The OEM one installed at the factory. I don't recall if the A1 came with a battery disconnect, but the A1R does.

So you're saying not to use it else your trans module will brick.

Gotcha

I think I'll wait for Ron to chime in here....

<snork>
 

Third From Texas

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Yeah, My nice square "factory" batteries were stolen shortly after the truck arrive here. I ended up replacing those batteries with four 27 series batteries. Worked great until I let it sit too long, so on the 12v side it was really low. It seems to be that the starter runs on 24, but whatever energizes that circuit is 12v. I can hear what I would call solenoid chatter. Stop, go get the passenger van and attach a set of jumper cables to the 12v string and the truck fires right up. Drive for 20 minutes and life is good.

OR, crank it at least once a week and the problem doesn't rear its ugly head.

The other S & S truck that I have still has the factory squares in it. For whatever reason, there are only two. I assume the PO removed two. Or removed all four and only installed two in their place. Extra wires for battery 3 and 4 are just laying in the bottom of the battery box. Strangely 3116 vs 3126 is the big difference and that older truck cranks reliably every time - even after sitting for two or three weeks.
On the three trucks that I've owned, the very first thing I did was delete two batteries and roll with duals. Again, I'm in S. Texas so it's not like I will ever have to sit in -40 degrees cranking on it endlessly trying to start (and if that ever became the case I'm smart enough to fucking move further south).

But even with just two batteries, I've come out to find the 12v side too low to allow the truck to crank, It's a pita so I always make certain the battery cutoff is tripped when I step out of the cab now. Never once had an issue since.

;)
 

Mullaney

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Again, we're talking about the battery disconnect here. The OEM one installed at the factory. I don't recall if the A1 came with a battery disconnect, but the A1R does.

So you're saying not to use it else your trans module will brick.

Gotcha

I think I'll wait for Ron to chime in here....

<snork>
.
The A1 that I have does NOT have a cute little box on the side of the battery box to disconnect the batteries.
Less useful information is that there is no picture with a disconnect inside the cover either...
 

chucky

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On the three trucks that I've owned, the very first thing I did was delete two batteries and roll with duals. Again, I'm in S. Texas so it's not like I will ever have to sit in -40 degrees cranking on it endlessly trying to start (and if that ever became the case I'm smart enough to fucking move further south).

But even with just two batteries, I've come out to find the 12v side too low to allow the truck to crank, It's a pita so I always make certain the battery cutoff is tripped when I step out of the cab now. Never once had an issue since.

;)
All the fire trucks and ambo here have the big red twist knob usally by the seat to kill all power from the batteries every time the driver parks back at the firehouse so there are no surprises when needed
 

chucky

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I'd have figured that it would require a balancer to populate the charge across all four. Know that 99.9999% of the time with these trucks the 12v side is too low due to the damned 12v vampiric leak they all suffer. So a single charger hooked to one battery with a balancer would bring all four back to life.

Never would have thought that it would work w/o a balancer.

Cool
Before i hooked up solar panels i bought that noco 12/24 v charger off amazon for 90 something bucks made to bring back ruined agms and it does you can watch how they do it on youtube but that charger i just kept it on the 12 v side of the 4 in the truck and ive never had low or no start on the 24 side you can use it like a trikle charger as well 12 or 24
 

Mullaney

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Before i hooked up solar panels i bought that noco 12/24 v charger off amazon for 90 something bucks made to bring back ruined agms and it does you can watch how they do it on youtube but that charger i just kept it on the 12 v side of the 4 in the truck and ive never had low or no start on the 24 side you can use it like a trikle charger as well 12 or 24
.
Our local ambulance folks have dual alternator sets on their trucks. Almost like a Left / Right Magneto on a plane... They have two completely independent charging and battery systems on their vehicles. Never gave much thought to how that was configured - especially with one starter motor - but it was an upgrade for reliability.
 

Keith Knight

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Preparing to paint the interior of the habitat! Going to be challenging because with the interior walls and painting the door jams requires the door to be open means Everything has to be taped off. I’m doing inside the shop that is climate controlled helps tremendously But now the lighting is terrible. Flood lights on a stand are causing lots of shadowing and hot spots plus if you accidentally look at them I kills your vision. So we decided to put them as close to the sealing pointing down. About the best we could do. Here are some progress pictures. 27414102-FBEA-4A0D-B13B-75FED4FCF789.jpegF6E6B032-6FD4-4CC8-A94A-9195AF31D426.jpegC300AEA6-7D67-4E9E-A7A5-6FA793A0CBCC.jpeg2F9A9A47-829A-41A9-BE36-618243DE7B21.jpeg
A couple of exhaust fans. I still have to cover the exterior. That’s today’s job. Then painting tomorrow morning.image.jpg
Using an industrial direct to metal two part paint. It’s a thick paint that is meant to cover with one coat and and prevent sagging. The test have been great.
 

Mullaney

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Preparing to paint the interior of the habitat! Going to be challenging because with the interior walls and painting the door jams requires the door to be open means Everything has to be taped off. I’m doing inside the shop that is climate controlled helps tremendously But now the lighting is terrible. Flood lights on a stand are causing lots of shadowing and hot spots plus if you accidentally look at them I kills your vision. So we decided to put them as close to the sealing pointing down. About the best we could do. Here are some progress pictures. View attachment 846192View attachment 846193View attachment 846194View attachment 846195
A couple of exhaust fans. I still have to cover the exterior. That’s today’s job. Then painting tomorrow morning.View attachment 846196
Using an industrial direct to metal two part paint. It’s a thick paint that is meant to cover with one coat and and prevent sagging. The test have been great.
.
My opinion is that that build looks pretty darn good.
Even taped up and ready to paint is pretty impressive...

Can't wait to see more pictures as you get it sprayed!
 

Keith Knight

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So yesterday didn’t go very well. The paint data sheet recommends airless sprayer or brush. The owner of the paint store said I can spray it using HVLP spray gun with a 1.8-2.2 tip or airless. The professional auto body guy that sprayed the exterior of the truck did a small test spray a couple weeks ago and everything was fine. Buuuutttttt yesterday doing the larger surfaces the paint was to thick and thinning it more than the recommendation didn’t work so half way through we stopped. Today I have a very talented interior home painter that is skilled using the airless sprayer painting at 4:30. 🙏🏻 Praying it goes better today. Alway fun spraying a product for the first time on an detailed project.
 

ramdough

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So yesterday didn’t go very well. The paint data sheet recommends airless sprayer or brush. The owner of the paint store said I can spray it using HVLP spray gun with a 1.8-2.2 tip or airless. The professional auto body guy that sprayed the exterior of the truck did a small test spray a couple weeks ago and everything was fine. Buuuutttttt yesterday doing the larger surfaces the paint was to thick and thinning it more than the recommendation didn’t work so half way through we stopped. Today I have a very talented interior home painter that is skilled using the airless sprayer painting at 4:30. Praying it goes better today. Alway fun spraying a product for the first time on an detailed project.
Good luck Kieth! Send pictures when done.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

Keith Knight

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So….I did finally get it painted that day after trying multiple tips that didn’t work and finally the last one spray it nicely. After that it only took about 35 minutes to spray 3 coats on the inside. B4E9DE1C-6D51-4F22-8533-2A2FD2A495D2.jpegC39D34AA-ACCC-404E-8B8A-42B0F7D1BE19.jpeg12C7D214-08C2-48BD-B0FF-3769A49AFC7E.jpeg0405CD9C-7326-4A9C-9040-0D5A56BBE933.jpegF67A2C58-BE0D-4B9E-AB89-96A45BE8B8C0.jpeg1E78C059-AB3E-4B2D-9C46-53E96071521E.jpeg
That night I was pulling paper, plastic, and tape off when I miss stepped on a ladder resulting in a trip to the hospital for a CT scan revealing that I had broken my foot in 3 places!31A40BA3-C832-4928-B284-44D5D08E1D6D.jpeg
Luckily I didn’t need surgery. Doing much better now, I can finally walk without that stupid boot.
 

Wandering Bison

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I was wondering if I missed it but I’d live more information how you used RFID in your FMTV. I assume a push start implementation but really curious what you did and how if you’re willing to share.

Thanks.


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