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Expo and camping tools and toys.

102K views 182 replies 36 participants last post by  eebamak20 
#1 ·
Thought I'd start a thread where we can show off and discuss our favorite camping and traveling items. Fun stuff that makes the great outdoors better, safer, or more convenient for us. Last year or 2 I've been getting back into camping more. Especially the vehicle based type. So I've been adding to and refining my gear a bit to better suit the way I'm using it these days. I've got some cool stuff to show (at least I think so) and hope you folks do too. A little arm chair camping for when we can't be out there.

I'll start with today's SCORE!!!!!!!!!!!!!! As with everything else I have a story to go with it. My wife has a Honda CRV. The storage area under the back instead of being covered by a piece of Masonite like many small cars has a nice little card/picnic/tailgating table. I been wanting a couple of these for camping tables. Nice and strong and a good size. Besides I like salvage stuff instead of spending $60 bucks on a new fancy roll up table.

So anyway I've been calling junkyards and hadn't found one yet. I was on my way to the land fill to dump some waste oil and junk today. On the way I passed a local junk yard I hadn't called and pulled in. I asked about a CRV and he said they had one just up the hill go check it out. It was in great shape and had a table so I grabbed it. I told the man I was on my way to the land fill and would they be interested in any of the scrap in my trailer. He walks out and says that it was crazy to just give scrap away. He looked in the trailer and said "I'll take the broken car seat, the old push mower and those couple of pieces of steel scrap. You take that table and have a great weekend!" SCORE! I got my table for trash.

It's roughly 31"x27"x25" tall and very sturdy. Once I took off the latch it is only about an inch thick folded up.






The best part is how it fits in the Trooper with the back seat up and the tool box in place.


I've got a lead on another one that I intend to check on this week. 1 for cooking on and 1 for eating at.
 
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#152 ·
Cool. Now all I need is a roof rack to attach it to.
 
#153 ·
New toy arrived today! I got my Road shower. This will work on Red Beans or the Camper. Now I will have a hot shower when I camp in remote spots. Solar heated. I want to eventually make up an Insulated cover for it. Something to wrap it with at night.

Seems to be well made and I like the design. For the price It's not hardly worth trying to make one up yourself once you've seen it.

Sitting on some packing foam.


Brass valve, shraeder valve to add some pressure if you want, and a place to lock a cable to.


Fill cap with 20 lb release valve. Adjustable hose sprayer.


The bottom. 4 SS carriage bolts slide in this track. 1 on either side of a rack bar. Then 2 curved pieces of metal go under the rack bar on the bolts and add lock washers and SS locnuts.


I sat it on the roof rack on Red Beans just for a look see. I would probably move a bike rack inboard some and place it there if using it.




Gives a nice idea of the size compared to a bike rack.


Once cleaned with a little bleach these are safe for potable water. Hot water for dish washing ect. And you can drink out of it if not too warm. It holds 5 gallons.

I think I'm going to like it. Now I can leave my little Solar Shower bag at home! :D
 
#154 ·
Mark, you are certainly going the comfort route with the camper, the refrigerator and now hot water. Can A/C be far behind?
 
#155 ·
I already have not one but 2 generators. Both are a little big for travel use though.

The Fridge came in today. So far I like it. Same foot print as my old steel belted Coleman cooler but a little taller. Pretty much the same interior volume. But no ice taking up room.

Eventually the idea is to add solar to the camper to run it self contained indefinitely at the beach ect. No more ice runs!


After I installed the handles.








 
#156 ·
All the amenities of home. :D

Let us know how you like the fridge. I'll be driving by that store next month and will have to stop in and see what they have on the "scratch and dent" floor.

A present the wife got really impressed me... one of those Yeti cups. She fills it with ice in the morning (5am), leaves it in her car during the day (90+ degrees) and when she gets off around 3pm, there's still ice in the cup. :D
 
#157 ·
Will do Van. I'll probably turn it on this evening. It's supposed to sit for 24 hours after shipping before being turned on. Gotta let the coolant settle I guess. I'll use it on 120vac 1st and get it cold loaded with water bottles and such. Then I'll hook it up to a pair of Optima blue tops and see how long it runs on them before dropping to 12.2 volts without charging.

I did a test fit in the Spacer. I think I'll be carrying it there. This keeps weight forward. I should be able to reach through the pass through back window from the camper and reach it from the truck. I would have to put it in empty. Kind of a squeeze past the seat back. No back doors on these early trucks. But it fits well and there is room on either side for a reasonable sized day pack ect. The plan is to install it in the truck but wire it to the camper battery.





Not a bad match with the interior.




 
#158 ·
It;s been running in the Hot garage all evening. 1/2 full of cold sodas and water. It took about 2-3 hours on AC to cool from high 70's to 36*. Very quiet running. Once it got cold I switched it to economy mode. It's even quieter that way. Hardly even coming on at all now.
 
#159 ·
Hack said:
Mark, you are certainly going the comfort route with the camper, the refrigerator and now hot water. Can A/C be far behind?
Duh 1st time I read this I though AC =Shore power! No AC. I actually have a Coleman RV unit on the car trailer I could use. But way to heavy. We have a couple of small personal fans we use if needed. Last year at the beach with summer temps in the hot sun heat wasn't an issue in the camper. As long as there is a breeze anyway.
 
#160 ·
Hey Mark,
I finally went camping for a couple of days with the cot tent and pad. Slept like a rock! Thank you for the good information. I did not want to get up in the morning, way comfortable.
 
#161 ·
Glad it worked out. I have used mine for everything from a quick overnighter to week long trips in campgrounds surrounded by big RV's. It's pretty much my standard place to sleep these days. Several folks have bought them after camping with me and seeing how easy they are. I hope you continue to enjoy yours.
 
#162 ·
The 1/2 full fridge has been plugged to AC power in the garage for several days now. It's been working fine and staying cold. Set to 34* it maintains a displayed 34*-36*. I think real temp is slightly higher.

So I got to thinking and said, "Why make a 12 v test hookup? Just put the batteries in the camper. Then plug the fridge into one of the lighter sockets and test it that way." So I did. 2 older (Made in USA) Optima blue top marine deep cycle batteries. Both charged to 12.75 v. Once hooked together in parallel and allowed to sit a while the meter read 12.62. Normal full for these batteries.



I took the 1/2 full fridge and placed it on the ledge in the camper. Even 1/2 full of sodas and water bottles this thing is much lighter than my ice filled old Coleman steel belted cooler. I set the cut off switch on high. Which means anything over 12.4 should fire it up and it shouldn't kick off till down in the 11's per the manual. I Plugged it in and soon got an E1 error. Not enough voltage! So I unplugged the cord from the fridge and checked the fridge end with a meter. 12.61 volts. HUH! So I changed the switch to the med cutoff position. It's been running fine in the ECO mode ever since.





I think this is just a calibration issue. The thermometer seems to be at least a few degrees optimistic. Set to around 32* nothing is freezing but the stuff is cold. I'll check it in the morning and see what the battery voltage is then. I'll keep an eye on it. I want to see if it will last the weekend without charging on these batteries. They are pretty tolerant of deep discharge. These are the trolling motor batteries from my boat. They are old and get beat up a lot. But just keep coming back for more.
 
#164 ·
It's been almost 24 hrs. The outside temps are in the high '80s and the camper is mostly in the shade. The fridge is set for 34*. Batteries are reading 12.49 v!
 
#165 ·
squatch said:
It's been almost 24 hrs. The outside temps are in the high '80s and the camper is mostly in the shade. The fridge is set for 34*. Batteries are reading 12.49 v!
Sounds like a success! Gonna be bringing ice cream and sorbet to Uwharrie? 8)
 
#167 ·
The temps today are around 90* and humid. The camper has been closed up and in the sun most of the day. It's warm inside. The fridge is running fine and has not kicked off due to voltage drop. I checked the batteries and my meter said 12.04 volts. The fridge has now been running on the batteries for pretty much the equivalent of a typical weekend trip without issues. And without charging of any sort. I'm satisfied. That was exactly what I wanted to know. I have now hooked up my 10 amp deep cycle charger to the batteries and left the fridge hooked up. The charger shows a little less than 1/2 a charge on the gauge. I'll keep track and see how long it takes to get back to full charge.
 
#168 ·
I like the auto shutoff feature, just in case. I bought a much cheaper version years ago when I was traveling to Oregon. I left it in the car for an entire day running. I was worried that the car would not start but it did. Mine did not have the auto off feature. Bought it at a truckstop for about 50 bucks. It gave up the ghost long ago but I did get a bunch of use out of it.
 
#169 ·
That was probably a thermo plate cooler. Different design. Fine for keeping drinks cool on the road. Glad your didn't leave you stranded.

These have a compressor just like your fridge at home. Just a super efficient one. You can actually set the temp control for well below 0* and freeze stuff.

Getting stranded shouldn't be a problem. This is mainly for the camper. The plan is to have at least 100 amp hours worth of battery just in the camper. The camper already has a battery isolater in it. this allows the truck to charge the camper but the camper can't draw down the truck battery. When all is done with the truck I just plug the camper into a jack in the bed when I install it. Then the truck will charge both camper and truck batteries while driving. The camper is also prewired to the roof for a solar panel. I'll probably start off with a self contained portable unit like this. That will mostly be for extended stays at the beach where the truck doesn't get driven much.
https://www.amazon.com/Renogy-Watts-Mon ... r+suitcase

The calibration seems to be off on the auto shut off. It didn't even allow 2 full batteries to start the fridge on the highest setting. The med setting worked fine but I was down to almost 12 volts. That's close to all a battery has. It should have shut off at about 12.2 volts on the highest setting. I wasn't going to draw the batteries lower than 12 to see where the med setting shut it off. I'll probably call Truckfridge about that tomorrow.
 
#170 ·
My Engel fridge doesn't have a low voltage cutoff, but I just carry one of those little lithium jump starters as backup.
 
#171 ·
I've been reading that a lot of folks with fridges in SUVs use a Goal Zero or similar battery pack. They plug that into the lighter and then the fridge into that. When stopped they just unplug the Goal Zero from the truck and run the fridge off that until they start the truck again. The Engel's are supposed to be very nice as well.
 
#173 ·
Thanks. I'm real familiar with that blog. Just reread it the other day. I have ordered some on sale solar panels. 1) 160 watt for camper roof and 3) 60 watt to make a portable unit. I'll probably order the Trimetric monitor, sc2030 controller, 500 amp shunt, and battery temp sensor later today. That's the stuff Bob recommends. Also popular with the camper folks on WTW forum. All wiring that not factory installed in the camper will be 6 + 8 gauge marine cable.

I need to have a setup to run the fridge and charge batteries by early September.
 
#176 ·
My Emberlit stove.

I've been carrying this thing around for a while now and had not used it yet. I remedied that on my recent river trip.


I kinda cheated as I cut some skinny pieces of dry oak to take with me instead of using twigs. Built a fire in it and let it burn down a little. Very easy.






Once the stuff added through the top burnt down on went the frozen beans we put up last summer.


We cooked the burgers over the fire.


The beans were cooked and hot in no time. Once the pot was off and the thing left unattended the fire went out quickly. It's a small space in there so the wood has to be fed in fairly often. Once lit it burns well as long as kept stoked. Stop stoking and it goes out. Overall I think it's a great option or back up on the river or any trip. It works anywhere you have twigs or small dry wood.
 
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