I didn't like the ugly wood box that was holding my LiFePO4 cells together, so I designed a bracket that can be used on top and on the bottom of the cell to hold the cells together by a threaded rod. The cells I'm using are 40Ah cells. I have 8 of these cells but didn't build a 24V battery with them. Instead I built 2x12V batteries, which are connected in parallel. I'm aware, that this is not the most life extending set-up for the cells, but it has the unbeatable advantage, that in case one cell goes bad, I still have a second battery to keep things going and I will not be completely without electricity in this case. Since I'm too cheap to spend €5 for a terminal connector, I built my own, made from an old, used copper pipe, which I had in the basement. You can see this set-up in my video on Youtube.
Besides Red, the firetruck we also have a Mercedes Vito to tow our former vacation vehicle, the old Tabbert caravan. If Red turns out as I hope it will be, the Tabbert will go. So today's topic is not about Red or the Tabbert. Today I wanted to explain a little bit about a small repair I did on the Vito. Since our summer vacation the check engine light on the Vito had come on in irregular intervals, at which times the computer only allowed limp mode with little engine power. At first I thought, it was due to the extreme heat we had last summer, since the first few times the light came on, it was extremely hot in situations where the air cooling of the engine compartment was little. But after a few weeks the check engine light also came on, when it was colder. But luckily it got reset every time we shut the engine off and typically we could drive normally again after that. But finally a few weeks ago, the check engine light came on pretty much every longer drive we took with the Vito and it got annoying. Therefore I used the first day with spring like temperature to take a look at the EGR, which I knew, was the reason for the warning. Unfortunately the EGR is mounted quite far into the engine compartment on this model of Vito. In my opinion as an irregular car mechanic, it is quite difficult to get to. Therefore I was cursing out the engineers of this car, in my initially futile attempt to remove the EGR from the engine. The main issue was that the EGR was baked in quite solid. pulling on it didn't move it a bit it is also difficult to pry it out with a screwdriver, since it is hard to get any tools into that small room inside the engine compartment and move the EGR. There is a small lip on the bottom right (looking at the engine from the front) of the EGR. Since my first attempts to remove the EGR were not quite successful, I resorted to search engines and tutorial videos. To my surprise there was not really much online, that was really useful for the Vito. There was a russian guy who simply loosed the screw and started the engine and the EGR was flying out of the engine. I didn't have that luck. I even drove the car without the holding screws of the EGR up to the Dobel mountain, but the EGR didn't budge a bit. Another guy showed how to remove the EGR on a Sprinter. That didn't help me much, since the EGR of that Sprinter was completely different and also a lot easier to access. So eventually I had to come up with my own idea, which was quite simple, once you know it. One can simply pry out the EGR on the vito by using a 10mm long allen wrench that is hooked under the EGR with the long side and with the short side of the allen wrench facing forward in an angle towards you. Over the short end of the allen wrench a piece of steel pipe can be used which can be tapped by a hammer. This little special tool removed the EGR out of my vito quite easily. See for yourself:
Many people that build their own camping vehicle are spending endless time in planning, repairing, building and optimizing their vehicle. I admit, influenced by videos, blogs and forums, I ran into the same dragnet. That was partially the reason why I thought I would need a 4x4 vehicle and bought the TRM 2000. But realistically I had played enough in the sand as a kid, first in the sandbox, later, a little older, in the Sahara desert with my motorcycle. I never went back to the desert to play in the sand. It was fun while it lasted, but not fun enough to do it over again. I hated the times when we had to dig out a motorcycle from the quicksand at 50°C in the middle of the desert sun. I can only imagine how it would be to dig a 10 ton truck out of such situations. At my current age I don't really need such entertainment anymore. Having a 4x4 vehicle only to brag with at festivals doesn't make sense to me. When I arrived last year at the Adventure Southside with the Renault TRM 2000, it had rained for days and the camping area was a mud field. I had zero desire to drive into that mud. Not because I was worried about getting stuck, but because I didn't plan on cleaning the truck for half a day after having fun for a few seconds. I ended up parking on a graveled plain with no mud in sight. This way I didn't even have to clean my shoes after that weekend. This was basically when I realized that the 4-wheel drive of the TRM was completely unnecessary. I probably would never need it.
Camping area, Adventure Southside 2019
So when we decided to sell the TRM, I didn't even care for another 4x4 truck. When Red, the LN2 Mercedes 814, came along it even had differential locks, which was more than I was looking for. Unfortunately we are not in the situation to be able to travel indefinitely or live in the camper the whole year. So I came to the conclusion that spending a lot of money on our summer hobby would be stupid. If you are expecting shiny pictures and videos with expensive equipment mounted into the truck, you are at the wrong place. Instead I will be trying to test the limits on how little I can spend to receive the amenities the family expects from the vacation vehicle. So far I mounted a chinese diesel heater into the crew cabin. It heats quite well. But I already learned from it that Diesel heaters will not be the ultimate solution for a vehicle that the whole family plans to sleep in. These types of heaters are way too loud to allow a restful night of sleep and I'm usually not the most sensitive type when it comes to sleeping situations. I'm actually very surprised that many camper van dwellers keep recommending heaters like this. If I would expect to need the heater for much more than heating the cabin while I'm working in it, I would immediately replace it with a gas heater. And don't expect a more expensive brand to be much better. They are not, they are all loud. The second part already in the truck is a simple electric system, consisting of two self built 12V LiFePO4 batteries with 40Ah each, a 2000W chinese power converter with real sinus. Mainly to drive the regular household refrigerator with 230V As introduced im my last post, we started already with the cushions which will in the end build the bed or the seating area in the crew cabin. The next step, when it gets a little warmer outside will be moving the roller shade mounting of the rear cabin. Currently the roller shades don't roll up, they just drag under the roof of the reak cabin. At this position they are in our way for the project after the roller shades, which will be to build a lifting ceiling for the rear cabin. After that I will build a inside box for the rear cabin with a toilet and shower cell. After that I have not planned yet. But I'm hoping to get all of that done before our first vacation this year.
We need a battery with just enough capacity to run our fridge through the night, give us the light for the night and charge several electronic devices of two teenage kids during our vacations. Basically that is it. We don't live in the camper and we also don't go on winter vacations. So no big battery is needed. However, I wanted LiFePO4 batteries since I have never had much luck with lead batteries. The trouble with LiFePO4 is, that you should protect the cells with a Battery Management Systems (BMS) unit from high and low voltage situations. Before I built my own battery, I watched a few Youtube videos. Like so many times, the people making thes videos use good but expensive components, likely because they get sponsored by someone. Since I'm not getting sponsored for anything, I was searching for affordable components. I have seen Battery Management Systems (BMS) for self build batteries that cost upward of €120. To me it does not make sense to spend that much for a battery with 40Ah. Unfortunately most BMS units in the lower price range only have a common port for charging and discharging. That has a major disadvantage. Because the BMS will shut of charging and discharging at the same time, in case it runs into an under or over voltage situation. Let's say you wanted to fill up your battery to the max because the next day the frogs predict clouds and rain. If one cell reaches the BMS protection voltage, the BMS will disconnect the negative (-) line of your battery from your electric system. But not only the charging of the battery gets stopped at that moment, you also can not use anymore power out of the battery, to discharge it. You can now hope that the cell will drop a few millivolts so the system starts up again in a few minutes. But then you better be quick to burn some of the excess capacity in the battery. Worst case you will have to manually bypass the BMS and use up some power. The situation is worse when the system runs into a low voltage disconnect. Let say you park your camper for an extended time. You don't worry about the battery, since it's being charged every day by the solar system. But unfortunately you also forgot to turn the fridge off. Your battery may now get into a situation during a bad weather period that it drops voltage below the BMS protection point. The BMS will disconnect the battery from any consumers to protect the cells. But it will likely not be able to re-connect to allow charging. That means your battery will sit at minimum voltage until you manually re-charge the system by bypassing the BMS. Depending on how long the batteries sit a low voltage, you may already cause some damage to the cells. Therefore I would only suggest a BMS with separate ports for charging and discharging. Unfortunately many of the BMS that offer separate ports, only allow very low charge currents through the system. But wit a little trick you can also use these relatively low cost BMS and allow charging with more than a few amps. Check the video above to see how I solve that little problem. One can actually also use a relay for discharging the battery. In this case a really low cost BMS can be used to control the relais. The disadvantage is some small amperage draw by the relays. But my system is being re-charged every day by a little sunlight, even in the winter.
Making the cushions for the camper was always one of my bigger worries. I had never made cushions or a mattress before in my life nor had I ever used a sewing machine. Therefore I dreaded the work. Eventually it was time to put the cushions into the crew cabin to be able use the truck more. I bit the bullet and ordered fabric and foam to get the work done. One of my other worries is cutting foam pieces. I hate doing that as it usually does not turn out straight in any direction. So I made sure to order the foam pieces already cut to the size we needed. When I unpacked the foam the disappointment was the bigger, when I saw that the foam was delivered only as the raw 200x60x15cm blocks. In my first panic I ran down into the basement to weld a fixture to guide the knife straight. After the first few welding points the Argon gas from the welder was empty and as usual in such situations it was at the time when all stores were closed. So I gave up on that Idea. The next idea was to simply use a metal guide to make sure the knife did not run out in any directions. That actually worked quite well. But see for yourself in the video, how we finally made the camper cushions for the crew cabin of Red.
The idea to build a camper on a truck base was already born last year.
Without thinking much, I bought a truck base that I liked from the looks
and the features, a Renault TRM 2000. Unfortunately the truck I bought
was basically a wreck. With many hours of work I got it to a stage that I
was somewhat comfortable driving it. I also built a wooden box all by
myself which I had planned to build out as a camper.
But
once the box was complete, we noticed that the vehicle was not
practical for our family. The frame of the TRM with the portal axles was
very high, a feature which I initially liked. But it turned out that it
was a pain to climb in and out of the truck several time a day. It was
also quite difficult to get our dog up into the truck. Most 4x4 truck
bases would have the same issue with the hight. We also realized that
for our travel destination, 4x4 would not really be needed. While
browsing the adds we noticed that we always liked the Mercedes LN2 fire
trucks and the VW- MAN G90 4x2 truck with crew cabin. We started bidding
on a few G90 trucks on the auctions, but were always outbid. Eventually
a Mercedes 814 came up on auction. The minimum bid was set to €6000
which we found to be rather high for this type of truck from the
auction. Sure enough, nobody was bidding on it. Therefore I called up
the fire department of the town that was selling the truck and offered
€5000. My bid was accepted and we were owners of an expensive surprise
egg.
In the end I was able to sell
the portable pump with a VW beetle 4 cylinder boxer engine which had
remained with the truck for €750. In addition I sold the siren
compressor, the radio and the suction hoses as well. So in the end we
paid €4000 for the truck.
Now we are in the process of converting the truck into a simple camper. The following video will introduce the truck:
