From fire truck to MTV

[Skyhawk13205]

Took out the front coil springs, this leveled the truck and made for a better ride. A1R only had those spring for future armor so without it, it was overly stiff.
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Had a check engine light today, cat et showed a high voltage on the boost sensor. $280 for the sensor and a lot of fighting I got a new one back in.
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Finished all the setup for towing the Xterra and took it on a test. Using the 7 pin harness and air brake service line. All lights are functional, the brake activates proportionally with the MTV brake. It also has a breakaway tether to automatically engage the Xterra brakes. A little tough to conbect by myself but normally I'll have the wife and kids around to help.
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did you use the M&G brake system, how hard was it to put the actuator on your brake booster, out of all the car towing system this the air brake system on the brake booster seemed the safest and well designed. It would also be nice to be able to use the service glad hand rather than running a line to the brake canister.

 

[aw113sgte]

Used this kit (The universal 2.0 version) https://www.mgbrakes.com/products
Would have like to use the direct mount master cylinder version, but they said it wouldn't fit.

Basically I'm just using the service brake airline from the truck and it feeds into an air cylinder that has a cable connecting to the brake pedal so when I step on the brakes in the MTV I get a proportionate braking force on the pedal in the tow vehicle. It also has a secondary chamber with breakaway so if I pull that breakaway cable, the brakes apply automatically.

 

[Mullaney]

Used this kit (The universal 2.0 version) https://www.mgbrakes.com/products
Would have like to use the direct mount master cylinder version, but they said it wouldn't fit.

Basically I'm just using the service brake airline from the truck and it feeds into an air cylinder that has a cable connecting to the brake pedal so when I step on the brakes in the MTV I get a proportionate braking force on the pedal in the tow vehicle. It also has a secondary chamber with breakaway so if I pull that breakaway cable, the brakes apply automatically.

.
That is a good deal!
Definitely a big plus.

Especially having the breakaway feature...
AND it is even Made in America!

 

[aw113sgte]

Another weekend trip in the books. This one was about 1.5 hours away. Started off by seeing the CTIS constantly trying to adjust to HWY. The front QRV was hissing air, indicating the front wheels valves weren't closing. This caused an imbalance in the front and two rear axles. I just unplugged ctis for the trip. Back home I cleaned out the wheel valve and put in a new diaphragm and spring that was slightly stronger - seems to be working solid now.

Don't have any pictures but the duct going from cab to habitat blew apart on the highway. It was a test fit super cheap hose and I haven't gotten around to finalizing it. Just threw some duct tape on it and continued. Ordered the proper parts when i got back,

Other than those issues, truck did great. It was colder and we were staying for a few days so we used the diesel heater to heat the water(all 4 showering every day) and sometimes to warm the habitat. No issues and worked great! Use 10-15 gallons water for all 4 over 24hours. Do want a different mixing valve for shower, this one works pretty well but doesn't allow for really hot water to pass though.

A number of bike crashes, no fish caught, lots of fires (carry lots of wood on the truck). Campground people were super cool, raced their ATV against my sons bike multiple times. It's an electric bike with DeWalt batteries. They said they maxed out at 25mph and he was pulling away. Another campground we went to, the lady camp director yelled at him saying he had to have a license and be 16 to ride one (both false in our state) - a true Karen.

Systems on the truck worked great, family puts a pretty bid demand on the electrical system - lots of tea, hot water, my coffee, showers, keeping the inside at 72+, charging lots of batteries for the bikes, no issues. Had a lot of shade and clouds but after 48 hours batteries were at 65%.

 

[Skyhawk13205]

Regarding your CTIS issues, you might want to think of installing a CTiS off switch, the arctic trucks have them installed and I had to activate mine when it got real cold due to the tires draining when the PCU does a tire check.

CTIS Cold weather operation

I am up in Alaska, I been having trouble with my truck CTIS system draining all the tyres after shutdown. I did some troubleshooting and all the wheel valves stay open, after the CTIS ecu does a pressure check. I can go through and manually close them and they stay closed. My CTIS works well...

www.steelsoldiers.com

Looks like you are having a good time, enjoy your time with your family, these trucks are a tool to build memories. I have taken quite a few trips with my family and the work and time I have put into the truck has been more than worth it.

 

[dlynes]

amazing job! love it and I love how much your family were involved and how much use you're all getting from it! beautiful family. did you ever consider building out a floor frame using weldable ISO locks to secure the container?

 

[aw113sgte]

Regarding your CTIS issues, you might want to think of installing a CTiS off switch, the arctic trucks have them installed and I had to activate mine when it got real cold due to the tires draining when the PCU does a tire check.

CTIS Cold weather operation

I am up in Alaska, I been having trouble with my truck CTIS system draining all the tyres after shutdown. I did some troubleshooting and all the wheel valves stay open, after the CTIS ecu does a pressure check. I can go through and manually close them and they stay closed. My CTIS works well...

www.steelsoldiers.com

Looks like you are having a good time, enjoy your time with your family, these trucks are a tool to build memories. I have taken quite a few trips with my family and the work and time I have put into the truck has been more than worth it.

I may do this as we plan to go out quite a bit in the cold. Looks like a simple install.

 

[aw113sgte]

amazing job! love it and I love how much your family were involved and how much use you're all getting from it! beautiful family. did you ever consider building out a floor frame using weldable ISO locks to secure the container?

I did, but there just wasn't enough room to fab the structure needed for those ISO mounts - I wanted to keep the box as low as possible and with the battery box and fuel tank locations it just wouldn't work. Having compliance between the box and frame was very important and if using the ISO locations, the allowed displacement would have to be significantly larger than having the compliant mounts closer to the centerline of the truck.

 

[aw113sgte]

Reworked the chassis and cab grounds, that one to the cab was atrocious - paint and the toothed washed wasn't even compressed against the two surfaces. Used a flap wheel and carbon conductive grease for the various connections.
Christmas is coming so threw on some lights. Also put some on the inside.
Sprayed the spring mounts with fluidfilm to prevent rust since I'm in WI and salt is now on the roads.
Installed a durable duct from the have to cab.
Cold weather shield is installed (that thing is a PITA)
Installed a switch to disable CTIS - used a cruise control switch I had laying around, will do something better in the future.
Upgraded the software on the victron system and have been taking measurements. To keep the hab at 50degF in 10-15F weather I'm at 7.2 kwh/24hr. To keep it at 68 under those same outside temps, I'm at 12.4. this is with the mini split. The diesel heater takes a fraction of that.

 

[aw113sgte]

Currently out at a frozen lake about 2 hours from home. Absolutely gorgeous and having a wonderful time with the family.
Tried using shore power but their GFCI keeps tripping, I think it's because of the various inductive loads from the autotransformer and inverter. There are different GFCI trip curves and since I'm using the standard 15amp outlet, it seems to have a sensitive one. It will charge for a while but seems to randomly trip. Not a problem with the large battery but I think I will use the RV plugs that don't have GFCI and then use my own. Never trips the GFCI at my house.
Besides that little issue, truck is working awesome.

 

[MatthewWBailey]

GFCI keeps tripping,

Theirs is probably just defective. The RV park and outdoor pedestal GFCI's are exposed to lighting induced surges and more extreme temp swings than interior mounted units. Plus they're probably old. Inductive loads should not trip a GFCI even though there's a lag between I and V. GFCI's measure zero sequence current, a fancy term for ground short. It ignores phase angle between I and V. I get asked this a lot on people's old fridge tripping a garage GFCI. It's usually a short in the winding or bad GFCI.

 

[aw113sgte]

Theirs is probably just defective. The RV park and outdoor pedestal GFCI's are exposed to lighting induced surges and more extreme temp swings than interior mounted units. Plus they're probably old. Inductive loads should not trip a GFCI even though there's a lag between I and V. GFCI's measure zero sequence current, a fancy term for ground short. It ignores phase angle between I and V. I get asked this a lot on people's old fridge tripping a garage GFCI. It's usually a short in the winding or bad GFCI.

This is what I am referring to, but haven't looked into the details too much.
I tried another GFCI on the pedestal with same results. Sometimes charges for and hour, of sometimes trips in a couple minutes.

 

[aw113sgte]

MPG report
30400 lb weight
Eco hubs
6x6 m1096 (lwb chassis truck)
2007 C7
188 miles driven
30.3 gallons
Highway speed was 65, that was for about 90 of the miles, rest were 30-55 backroads.
Elevation along route:

= 6.2 MPG