Outskirts Overland Podcast
📸 Join us as we dive deep into the thrilling world of overland travel, off-road exploration, and outdoor adventures! 🌄
🎧 Tune in to hear captivating stories, expert tips, and interviews with fellow travelers and industry professionals. Get inspired to embark on your own epic journeys! 🌍✨
#AvantLink #1316929
Outskirts Overland Podcast
Off-Grid Escapades Understanding Vehicle Electricity and Optimizing Camp Comfort
Ready to electrify your overlanding experience? Tune in as we charge through the complexities of 12-volt systems, unlocking the power behind alternators, batteries, and the gadgets that define your journey. Whether you're wrestling with amp hours or considering the leap into solar charging, we've zapped the technical jargon to supercharge your understanding. And if you're on the fence about your vehicle's setup, we'll steer you through the muddy waters of DC to DC chargers and the critical importance of compatibility with your rig's specs.
In the realm of overlanding, respecting the land is just as vital as powering your equipment. As we chase the horizon, we'll share laughs about the Midwest's 'second winter' and the importance of navigation that honors property boundaries. Moreover, our seasoned insights into the rooftop tent versus ground tent debate will help you rest easy under the stars. Get ready for next week's Tent Talk event, where we'll unfold even more on outdoor habitats.
Wrap up the day with an armchair adventure that dives into the essentials of vehicle electrical components and the significance of having the right setup for a seamless overland excursion. You'll draw from real-world examples and expert opinions, ensuring you're well-equipped for the unpredictable trails ahead. Don't forget to catch the rewatch on YouTube or tune in on your favorite podcast platform – your gateway to powering up for the next adventure is just a play button away.
The power of the divine is. The power of the divine is the.
Speaker 2:All right, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, welcome to Outskirts Overland. This week is 12-volt part two. My whiteboard is literally left, exactly like it was last week Front of the vehicle over here, rear of the vehicle over here. Some housekeeping stuff just I'll go over every single time. Um, some housekeeping stuff, just I'll go over every single time. Um, if anybody from go fast campers ever listens to this, reach out to me. I would love to work with you guys.
Speaker 2:Secondly, a buddy of mine is has a big part in a group called Toyota trucks of Arkansas. So if you drive a Toyota and you're into this hobby when you live anywhere near Arkansas, go ahead and join that group. They're really cool guys over there. They do a lot of good things for the community and, uh, just really cool guys. I get nothing for saying it, but it's a cool group. It's actually a pretty positive group which in this uh, which in this space, sometimes is difficult so to find.
Speaker 2:So anyways, this week we're going to talk 12 volt part two. Like I explained to you guys, um, and I'll just go over it briefly here, but you know, got our alternator, our battery, engine fuse box, cabin fuse box, potentially an inverter DC to DC charger and second battery. We're gonna go continuation of from here and and I'll go back and forth because you may want to run some things lights or some switch panels off of this battery too. But that's all additional things and as far as additional things are concerned, that's going to be what we go over today. I want to cover adding on today, so, but I did talk to my my dad watches this and me and my dad have worked on cars. I mean my entire like my literal entire life probably. I've probably been doing something with a vehicle one way or another for as long as I could talk.
Speaker 2:So, anyways, we were talking about it and we're going over the DC to DC chargers and last week I went over DC DC chargers and, uh, the red arc um is the only waterproof one. The rest of them all have to be inside, and I didn't. I I knew that, but he was like you didn't mention it. So I was like, oh crap. So, yeah, the red arcs waterproof, so it's going to be okay to be out in the elements. So, if you want to do like a dual battery set up in the back of a truck, um, for instance, with I mean any number of applications in the back of a truck with a uh yeah, overland rack. It'll work in that, or you could probably even mount it underneath the vehicle. I wouldn't recommend that, but it is the only weatherproof one. All the rest of them can't get wet and stuff or be exposed to the elements. They got to be some type of enclosed, whether you put them in an enclosed box or whatever you do with it. But the DCDC chargers would have to be enclosed outside of the red arc. Now there might be other ones that are weather proof too. I just don't know about them, but that one is. So I wanted to make sure I covered that um early, because I was like dang, I didn't say that and that's kind of that I mean for all of us that will listen or watch this, that's kind of. I mean, for all of us that will listen or watch this, that's a rather important piece.
Speaker 2:So, anyways, this week adding stuff. So first thing I'm going to go over is, let's add I asked you guys to tell me what you're adding lights, whether those are like light bars, fog lights, camp lights, lights. We're adding lights on a switch, not, you know, string lights. Again, I guess you could do string lights, whatever, but I'm going to talk more in the fashion of you're adding lights on a switch. Okay, so diesel heater is another one that I want to go over as well.
Speaker 2:I talked last week deep cycle battery, starter battery, so anyways, we're going to get into that. This battery could literally be a deep cycle AGM2, but you'd still need a DC to DC chargerc charger. And again, not I'm not sponsored by red arc, but they just do make some good stuff that their dc dc charger is smart, so it's going to know it like. It like knows what kind of battery it's hooked up to, so it'll charge it appropriately as well. You got to be careful with some of them, though. If you go with a 40 amp chart DC to DC or 60 amp DC to DC, that might be too much for that battery to take in. So just look at the battery specs Like these two things don't just universally go together. They kind of. There's some specs involved. So just make sure the charger you have is not too much for the battery that you have, and the battery should be able to tell you, you know, maximum charge intake, like what its capacity is in regards to that. All right.
Speaker 2:Next thing is. I told you guys that I was going to go over amp hours and watt hours and I know amp hours and watt hours are a big confusion for many people in overlanding because batteries are all amp hours and power stations are all watt hours. So I'm gonna throw some math at you guys. So one amp hour, okay, is 12 watt hours. So it's it's times the voltage. So your cars say your car's 12 volts and you have 100 amp hours, okay, that's 1200 watt hours. Okay.
Speaker 2:So as you look at things that are that go off watts and such, now that's only when that's hooked up to a 12 volt source. So again, I talked about it last week and every inverter is going to be a little different. But to invert the power to 120 takes power. So it's going to take some 12 volt power just to make the other type of power. So you're not going to get an accurate representation of like. If my diesel heater uses 10 watts, it'll last 1,200 hours, 120 hours excuse me, 120 hours. If you had it hooked up to 12 volt, potentially, if you got it hooked up to an inverter, definitely not, because that inverter is converting that power and this needs power to convert power. So it's harder to do calculations. So be careful in your calculations.
Speaker 2:Now, vice versa, simple math how do you find amp hours from watt hours? Divide it by 12. It's that easy. If it's a 12-volt system. If it's a 6-volt system, do it by 6. Times it by 6, divide it by 6. But that's how you find amp hour and watt hour. So a very popular one is what is it? 1,000 watt hours, not quite 100 amp hours, but it'll just be. I mean, it's just going to be a little less, but it's useful to know that information. Just given that, almost so, you can kind of have an idea. Like this should last X amount of days.
Speaker 2:And when we're talking about things like diesel heaters and fridges, they don't run continuous. And fridges, they don't run continuous. So you're going to have to, somewhere along the line, find out what their max take is and base your calculations off of that Cause. Like a fridge, naturally, is going to run, just conversely to a diesel heater, it's going to run more when it's hot out, but it's a compressor and, just like a diesel heater, the warmer it is out it's not going to run as hard either. So you know, know, you got to pay attention to those things because they're going to go on and off.
Speaker 2:So always I always tend to think I use the most power at night because lights, heater, fridge, like they're not, they're, they're everything's closed up. So I think at the night I always use the most, that's when I use the most lights for positive, and so I always want to make sure I got enough power to get me through the night and then have a plan for the next day, which is where we'll talk about solar as well. I mean, we kind of talked about the DC to DC charger and hooking it up to your 12 volt to charge your secondary battery when you're driving or when the vehicle is running. But solar plays a part to some extent as well, um, so, anyways, I'm trying to find my freaking calculator on my phone here. So I was talking about thousand watt hour. I've redone all my apps, so do if you got a thousand watt hour, just divide it by 12 and that's 83.3 repeating amp hours. So it's essentially 80 amp hours.
Speaker 2:So, although it sounds like it's huge, it's not huge and I think that was a big mistake that a lot of people were making early on as they were getting these 250 and 500 amp hour batteries and that sounds like in your head, you're like, ah, that'll work, that won't even get you like three quarters of a day. So with most fridges and lights and charging your phone, you know like, so it's worth um paying attention to. And in that case, like when you talk power station versus second battery, I think you know outside of labor costs, I think it's a lot cheaper to do a second battery. That again, that's not what I have.
Speaker 2:But there's some conveniences with my power station that I like. Like I can literally take my fridge and my power station out of my vehicle, put them in my girlfriend's vehicle, my dad's vehicle, you know anybody's vehicle, and then I can have a fridge in that and I like that and I do that, I use that method. But if I, for instance, that was never an option ever I'd have, I would absolutely have a second battery. It's just a fixed. So you can't like without being at the car to some extent, I guess an extension cord maybe, but you can't, it's not portable. So but say you were looking at a second battery and after me going in the weeds with all this stuff, you're like, man, that's a lot of work. I just want a power station. Well, that's, 1200 watt hours will equal a hundred watt hour battery. Just pretty much the basic standard. Everything's in hundreds.
Speaker 2:100, 200, 300 is a pretty substantial um overlanding, you know, power supply. I think Revere overland um, I think he just did 500 watt hours. But those guys are doing a lot of camera equipment too and they're doing Starlink which is, from what I understand, is a power suck to the max. So that's how you do watt hours, amp hours, amp hours to watt hours, watt hours, amp hours, either, or you do times to find out the other, or divide based on the voltage of the system. So again, it's a 24-volt system, it's different. It's a 6-volt system, it's different. But again, all our cars are 12. So, unless you got like a Model T, I think that's a six-volt system. But yeah, I don't think any of us are overlanding those. So, anyways, so we're coming off of this battery.
Speaker 2:I'm going to start with lights, because actually I think lights are probably a first thing and most of us are going to run our lights just off our starter battery. Um, cause it's in the hood and the lights are usually at least in the front of the cab, forward, you know, like they're at least in front of the you know, your two front doors. So most people run lights off the regular battery. So when we're talking about running lights off the regular battery, get my power pin here. I'm going to put it to the side, but I will explain that. It could be, you know, simultaneously on top of a fuse panel or something.
Speaker 2:But anyways, you're going to run power to here, to a little fuse block switch panel thing, and a lot of people mount these on top of this fuse box cover and that's fine. And I'm going to go ahead and put a. I want to distinguish it differently, so I'm going to put a blue X in that red box and that's going to be our fuse panel. Now, the reason I like these fuse panels is because you're only going to run one power to that panel and then that panel is going to run all the accessories out of it and I'm going to show you guys the aux beam switch essentially the S-Pod or switch pros here in a second.
Speaker 2:And it's got, it's all switched up and I think you can do eight on it, six or eight on it. So it's going to have eight fuses in this block and inputs for positive and negative for each of them so you can run all your things off of it, but without a bunch of wires coming off of your posts, of your battery. So I'll go ahead and share that here with you guys and what that looks like. Is this guy right here and I'm going to make it full screen if it'll let me. There you go. So that's this guy right here and I'm gonna go scrolly scrolling with you guys here. But it holds eight and and those aren't pre, those are, if you see here, like it comes with a ton of deals here.
Speaker 2:And the reason I like this too is because not only is it a fuse panel, which I'll show you, it comes with the fuse panel here. That's what the fuse panel looks like and there's more photos of it but comes with a breaker as well. And again, this is your specs and these specs are super important. But that's your fuse panel and kind of how that works and what each light one, two, three, four, five, six, seven and eight, and then you can put there and then, if you see, here, that's a breaker. So that's essentially like the fuse, from the fuse box to the battery, which is going to be 60 amp, which theoretically goes right in line with the specs here that say max current 60 amp. Now if you wanted to be a stud, you could really change this breaker to an 80 or a hundred, and now it's max capacity is 80 or a hundred. I don't know if that would mess up the integrity of the rest of the system, but that's why the max is 60, because that breaker is a 60 amp breaker.
Speaker 2:And what happens with this breaker is if you, this little switch will switch up and then you just got to press the button and click it back, or you just got to click it back down and that button will pop up just like a GFCI in your kitchen, which is the same thing. So that's, that's the switch pros, and it turns into essentially this in your dash and it looks super nice and it's 127 bucks for kind of a lot of stuff really. Um, and there's your breaker I7 for kind of a lot of stuff really, and there's your breaker. I mean, obviously there's videos and stuff, but that's how you'll add your lights. So I like that.
Speaker 2:And, quite frankly, I've pieced together something different than that in my truck and with just the parts in this kit one, I've got six switches and they're just regular switches that I installed and it probably costs about the same money. So it's a lot more wires, because each switch has three wires, because all my switches have a light on them too. So it's got a power light for that, power wire for that, but the wire crimping the connections, the fuse, is like that thing comes with it all. So kind of kind of worth it. I like that thing a lot.
Speaker 2:But that and I show this first because I do feel like this is the way, this is the way now I I did say I've done it differently. I'm gonna show you guys a few of those things to you, but anyway, so that way you could put. So I'm adding stuff now, so that way you guys could put. I'm gonna take this off the screen if you guys Hopefully everybody that neither write it down or screenshot or whatever got it. So I'm gonna say off of that switch pros.
Speaker 2:And this is where we're going to get kind of crazy. We're going to go fog, light, fog, light okay, right side, left side, ditch light. And this isn't what I have, it's just what you could have Ditch light. And then we're going to go light bar Okay, boop, light bar, what you could have, ditch light. And then we're gonna go light bar okay, light bar, that's a light bar, okay in my world, okay. So you guys see where we just complicated that and you run that off your switch pros. Now you get a second one of those and just exactly the same. Run it off. This second battery for your fridge, for your diesel heater. You'd need a big, you'd need a pretty big fuse for your diesel heater, but you could do it with your diesel heater too and just have it on a button so you don't have to go back and reconnect and disconnect. And you could like hardwire your fridge in to a switch with that exact same type of thing back here. Or you could do simply like put a 12-volt socket back here, something like that.
Speaker 2:I'll show you the guys, the one that I have in the back of my truck. Let me find it here. Go to it real quick, give me a sec. Go to it real quick, Give me a sec. I have that one. Okay, I will share that. Make sure that's guys. I have this guy in the back, so it's got two usbs so it allows me to monitor what the battery is doing two usbs-volt socket and then a switch. That switch is what powers both of the sockets. If the switch isn't on, the sockets don't work, so I can shut it all off.
Speaker 2:Now, like I said, that other kit's $120. Just this thing right here is $20, and there's no wire included. So I mean, just you know I'm not a budget guy, but for me, the reason I did this specifically is I just didn't need eight. I really only use this 12 volt plug and it just was too much. But if you were, if you, if you don't have a 12 volt system in place like I do now and you're listening to this, I mean, try to fill the eight slots of the other one first. I would get that and try and fill those slots first. To be completely honest with you, that's how I would handle it.
Speaker 2:Um, here's another fuse fuse breakers. This is a 30 amp one. Again, if you don't want to deal with fuses breaking like you, find something that keeps blowing fuses, put a breaker in. You can repeatedly blow it, not that that's indicative of something else being wrong. But also, if you want something that's pretty field proof, um, breakers over switches, because then you, you, and then here's a fusible link, which is the basic of the basic, and essentially you just wire that in line, the hot wire power source to auxiliary source and put a fuse in there, and it's protection from your power source.
Speaker 2:So, um, oh, here, I didn't share it. Here's the fuse. Sorry guys, I'm freaking all. Here's the fuse. Sorry guys, I'm freaking all over. Here's the fuse. This is what I was talking about, being fieldproof. You can see the fuse is blown there.
Speaker 2:Reset, you push it up so you don't have to replace a. You don't, excuse me, it's a breaker. I keep saying fuse, it's a breaker, so you don't have to replace a fuse. So this is a lot easier for you to, you know, haven't get a jolt of power, protect your battery and and not have to carry a bunch of fuses with you with this breaker again breaker, excuse me, I was messing that up. And then the fusible link. This guy, this is a fusible link and it just essentially goes in line in your hot wire. So you just cut your hot wire and this would go in place and you put a fuse in. Here again it's. It's still really similar to the Hawks beam setup. It's just a lot messier. So again, not not what I would recommend. I mean, again, you could do it for, like, if you needed one thing, if you needed one, I think that's totally fine. What else do I got here? Um, I did put a bunch of other fuse boxes up here, and and I by no means and putting these up here for you guys because I think they're a good idea whatsoever, they just exist. So this is very similar to that.
Speaker 2:That pod, this is. Oh yeah, you guys can see it. Okay, this is very similar to the s pod and this is really cheap. But again, it's just the board. So what you got there with this guy is you've got this is your hot side for all these different circuits. So this one holds what? Two, four, six, eight, ten, twelve different things. Oh, it's right there, twelve. But anyways, this is your hot pots. And then here's your grounds and it's going to have two levels of them and the one hot wire off of your battery. It's also got a waterproof cover. Again, you could do this I will bring it to your attention by doing this versus this guy, which, again, I just really freaking like. You don't have all those wires. Those wires diffuse. You put the input into this, dang it. Put the input into this and then it goes to the switch that's already here and that's just so much cleaner. It's so nice, guys. So again, I'm not in control of your bank accounts because I think you know what I'd do if I was Very nice, so you could use that.
Speaker 2:Now diesel heater is a big one. So everybody's diesel heater. And I did extensive research on this because I have a friend, chris. He might be listening now, but we went through a bunch of woes with his diesel heater. Now, diesel heater okay, diesel heater is going to come with a 12-volt socket plug. Everybody knows what that is, the 12-volt socket plug. That plug is going to have a fuse in it. Okay, so you're going to have a 12-volt socket which may also only handle so much, based on what you got it fused to. To whatever power source. You got the socket itself and the and the fuse up here. Now the actual plug is going to have a fuse in it. You screw the tip off those plugs and they'll have a fuse in them.
Speaker 2:So a diesel heater is a really big one because you can blow either of those fuses, because they pull so much initially. So a lot of power stations and it's real mixed Like some power stations take them and some power stations don't, but overwhelming. You need at least 15 to 20 amps on your 12-volt plug to handle a diesel heater startup, so keep that in mind. Diesel heater actually takes a lot. My fridge takes like 5 to six amps max max, so 56 watts, 60 watts max, and I have a dual zone big old fridge like. So that's not a problem.
Speaker 2:But that's what you're talking about when you're talking about why it won't start and why it keeps kicking it off. That's all based on the fuse box here and what fuse you have in it. You're blowing the fuse because that fuse is only going to allow so many amps of current to go through it. And if you're pulling more current from said diesel heater fridge, whatever hairdryer, microwave, something that uses a lot of power, heat gun it's going to constantly blow it. It's never going to work. For you Now, in a system like this, versus a power station, you could simply just put a larger fuse in or a breaker in line, a large breaker in line, and then you don't just now have this big thousand dollar brick that doesn't work your diesel heater. So it is also more customizable. Even with the panel I showed you guys, you could very easily take one sticker off and put another one on and add a different thing in that place, like I know that.
Speaker 2:So my buddy Brad has lights like this. Like, say, he's got a fog, a fog, a light bar and a ditch and a ditch. He has his set up in a way where one plug is fog, fogs, one plug is ditches, one plug is light bar, one plug is fogs and light bar and one plug is all of them. So he's got these all set just to do different stuff on different plugs and one of his plugs turns on everything. It turns on his rock lights, his light bar, his ditches, his fogs, all of it. It turns all of it on One light, does that One switch, does that Button. So that's also something you could do with something like that, rather than rewiring a different thing. You know you'd have freaking 9,000 wires going around. That makes it much easier to do that that Switch, pros, s-pod, aux, beam thing. So again, that's just another option you have.
Speaker 2:I didn't even cover it here. Rock lights is a totally another one. You know they don't use much. But rock lights is a totally, totally separate thing you could do here. So you know diesel heater. So we got come out here. We got another little fuse panel here, and you got to have something that's, you know, at least I'm gonna say 20 amps running.
Speaker 2:That the heater. You know, you got your little do-do-do-do. There's your diesel heater blowing the heat, okay, so you need at least 20 amps. That's your auxiliary. I would never run your diesel heater off of your starter battery. You want deep cycle battery for this because, also your diesel heater off of your starter battery, you want deep cycle battery for this because, also, your diesel heater typically isn't going to be running when your car's running. So, diesel heater on a 20 amp bridge, the handles, you'll want that on like a 10 amp, and then say your lights on something that's like 5, 10 amp there too, and you could obviously do many lights, wire lights together to work, but that's a pretty basic setup for how you could do your, do your second battery. The big thing with the second battery, though, truly is the fridge, because that's going to continue to run. So really, that's your biggest thing how long will this run? How much will it use for the time it's running, and then do you still have enough left to run your fridge, you know, until you're moving again to where your DC, a DC charger could charge this up, okay. So that covers very basically, like kind of adding stuff.
Speaker 2:Now I'm going to bring another component in solar. Okay, now, solar is tough, so I'm going to talk solar. Then I'm going to talk passive solar. So I always run my solar in a way that I'm always getting a charge, and what I mean by that is my fridge maxes at 60. I want to always be pulling in when I'm at sitting. Still, you know, I want a net zero. My, I don't want my fridge to be draining my battery. I want my solar to at least be compensating for the draw of whatever's on it while I'm sitting in the sun. Obviously, soldiers, I can work in the evening like no shit.
Speaker 2:But so, that being said, getting 60 to 70 watts is pretty standard in direct midday sun out of a 100-watt panel. So a 100-watt panel and I hear people do this all the time they're like well, I got an 80-watt panel. You're going to be lucky if your little 80-watt panel on your hood gets you 45 watts. And if your panel's getting you 45 watts and your fridge takes 45 watts, I mean that could work, or put it on your roof, whatever. But again, they're not 100% efficient, efficient. So I always I have 200 Watts of solar and pretty standardly, out of 200 Watts, 200,. I have two 100 watt panels and I'll typically get 160 out of those somewhere between 140 to 160. So that's what you're looking at with solar.
Speaker 2:So solar is not, you know, one equals one. It's not. 100 watts of solar gets you 100 watts of power and it varies Now with each of these panels. So we'll draw a panel over here. It'll look close enough to a panel. Anyways, we got this panel.
Speaker 2:It's going to require its own controller. Now, not all DC to DC chargers do this, but some which again look at it, some DC to DC chargers will manage solar too. So you could be putting power from the truck to the DC-DC charger and simultaneously solar. Then when the truck shuts off it's just solar. Now sometimes you don't need to do that because sometimes these have their own solar controller. Now, for instance, mine don't have a solar controller because my power station has the solar controller. But if you buy panels on their own not like kitted they usually have their own controller and then in that case you can run them just to the battery and they'll charge the battery and control it.
Speaker 2:Solar controller exists is because once your battery's topped off, it tells, it tells the controller doesn't let power go from the solar panel to the battery anymore and overcharge the battery. So that's what the solar controller essentially does. It's usually I, I, it's overcharge protection, typically, um, it's always going to take a charge if there's sun and the battery can take a charge, but what it's doing is keeping it from just always being power to it, because that's not good. You can overcharge a battery and hurt it just as much as draining it down. So that's how you would add stuff. So just make sure you're paying attention to. Does your dc to dc charger have a solar controller? Does your power station have a solar controller or does your solar panel have a solar controller?
Speaker 2:Now it's also important we're going to talk I'm going to talk about a typical thing with solar called an anderson plug. Now, not all panels are created equal. You got to be careful with solar panels because when you're adapting them, you know a red and a black on this Anderson plug coming from the battery that you bought separate from this solar panel. They might be reversed and you'll fry the solar controller. Ask me how I know. Okay, been there, done that.
Speaker 2:So learning a little bit, either getting a solar controller in it with that, you understand it. But instead of, like, making your own stuff, I'd get. I'd buy all that at once the solar and put it to the power source correctly one time. Correctly one time because I I tried to add a panel and it was a little different than the last panel same brand, same panel, different year and I fried a controller and yeah, but we end up taking the ohm meter, the multimeter, and and and and understanding it. But that's.
Speaker 2:Most of you guys don't even have a one of those, so that's a. It's not even worth discussing. So, yeah, again, that's how you would do all of those things. Does that make sense? I know I only got a few of you guys watching. Does that make sense to everybody, though? Kind of what I'm talking about and like how that works and what, how many amps can goes, watts, and how fuses work and how to, how to kind of gauge what size fuse you need or breaker you need, or circuiting things. Is that hopefully that kind of? You know I've been going for 35 minutes, but hopefully that kind of gets you guys where you want to be.
Speaker 2:Now I'm going to take the biggest caveat. Ever, right now, I have spent an hour and a half talking about this in the most basic fashion ever and that's just talking about it. Hours and hours and hours of work. Now, if you put lights on, you're going to put lights on. That's going to be what it is.
Speaker 2:But all this other stuff back here and all this, you can just get a power bank guys. Just get a power station station. It does all of that. You just gotta make sure it's got enough of a 12 volt fuse to run your diesel heater, quite frankly, but it'll have plugs and adapters for a panel too, solar panel as well. So, again, I maybe just did an hour and a half of technical tech talk just to convince you to spend the money on a damn power bank, quite frankly.
Speaker 2:And also, when you do something like this, this doesn't come with a warranty, and a lot of power banks come with a warranty. So that's also something to be considered Like will your charger come with a warranty, maybe? Will your battery come with a warranty, maybe? But the wire's not gonna, the fuses that you're gonna have to buy, and you know, and all the mounting and the, because you still got to insulate all this wire and weatherproof it and just a whole bunch of other stuff. So just think about it. But that's, that's essentially basic overland 12 volt. So I know it was a lot and I know it looks like a lot here. Um, and let me see, I got a better here. This thing does do this now. So there's what it. There's what it looks like, guys. So you guys can see there's your diesel heater alternator XYZ there. So that's how that all is gonna work there. I don't like that. This light is like. There you go.
Speaker 2:Ah it'll look like that. There's a lot going on there Fridge, solar panel, diesel heater, second battery, fusing it all together, lights, et cetera. Okay, that's basic 12 volt, guys. Basic, all right, there's that covered. That Done with that. Moving on with my life. Okay, that's done. Basic 12 volts done. I'm not gonna make a third week of it. I figured I could probably cover it pretty easily after the basics of last week. So let's move on now.
Speaker 2:So got the 12-volt talk out of the way. You guys can reference it whenever. If you listen to this later. Again, this is on youtube, it's under streams. I may even put it to podcasts, honestly, um as well, and just double tap it, because I don't know if you guys are all finding it. Either way, if you want to see what I got going on there and if you like this type of video, I can continue doing these types of videos. That's absolutely no problem at all for me. I'm going to put the chat up on the screen. The only person that's commented is Mr Jonathan Pinto here. So, anyways.
Speaker 2:So moving into, just back to the normal format of things what's as we uh, as we uh, move on. I've been thinking a lot about it and I said it on an earlier podcast, like the build, the build process of your truck is fun but I'm happy to be over it. Well, I'm not. I'm not. I've got some things that recently I was doing some maintenance and they need a little love so I had to upgrade them. But it made me start to think what use does potentially talking about some of that stuff have for you guys like, like, obviously there's some higher wear parts? Would would more educational stuff, like I just did with 12 volt, be useful to you guys as far as, like I don't know, understanding ball joints and tie rod ends and and potentially, differentials or transmissions and how to keep your converter locked versus it slipping and what does that mean? And I don't even know if that's relevant to you guys service intervals for things under extreme conditions, which if you extreme conditions doesn't necessarily mean you're off road and all the time. If you added like a thousand pounds of stuff to your truck, did you daily drive it? That would be extreme conditions. So just think about it. You can comment. I mean I don't give very many comments or anything. It could be something I go over. I could make some littler videos about some of the stuff I'm doing. I mean I could do how to's all day. I mean I got on snorkels or I don't even know whatever you guys would want to do. Um, obviously I went over 12 volt the way I did, cause that's not how mine set up on this truck, so either way.
Speaker 2:So the weather's changing. Um, actually we're in what I like to call second winter now here in the midwest, where it was 80 last week and it's currently 38 um. So that sucks, but either. You know regardless. You know it's going to get warmer here soon. I already mowed my grass once, which is like you're married to the lawnmower every week after that. So that's taps into the camping, overlanding, building your truck, life, mowing the grass all the time.
Speaker 2:But I am looking into maybe doing a, getting into go do a float so I might go. One of the rivers, current river, buffalo river, I don't even know. There's a place in kentucky we saw where you can. It's like glow in the dark and the uh, it's like a glow-in-the-dark cave and the canoes are clear. That's pretty cool. It's like a bunch of neon lights coming up through it and stuff. Really cool. It's like an indoor river in a cave. So look pretty cool. So we might do something like neon lights coming up through it and stuff, really cool. It's like an indoor river in a cave, so look pretty cool. So we might do something like that here coming up, um, starting to look at all those things.
Speaker 2:Uh, recently saw a video and thought it was worth. Um, thought it was worth bringing up, as we all are planning routes and doing things, is that? Uh, I recently saw a video where, like, a pretty well-known guy was traveling and he was using his Gaia maps and he ended up, uh, essentially getting approached by a landowner because there was an easement from public land to public land. Um, and I say easement. Easement would say you could go through, but anyways, there was landlocked public land on the other side. So we have public land here, private public land. I don't know how you would ever get to this public land, but essentially Gaia does not. Gaia does not show private from public land. That is something that Onyx has. So if you guys are really big Gaia people, by all means use Gaia and if you're familiar where you're going. But if you're not familiar, it'd be at least worth toggling between the apps to make sure you're not on private land, because not everybody handles people very nicely if they catch you on their land. I saw that and thought I've always used Onyx. Anybody that knows me here knows I used Onyx for hunting years, many years before Onyx off-road existed and Onyx Hunt has. You can even see who owns the private land from the aerial views and stuff that also exists on Onyx Off-Road. So just to make sure that, just to make sure that you know you guys are paying attention, because I personally never thought that you know it was BLM land, bureau of Land Management land, public land and Bureau of Land Management land and this big strip of private and this Bureau of Land Management land here had a lake on it but you could never get to essentially that side of that lake ever without going through the private, that side of that lake ever without going through the private. So, um, that's not something that happens a whole lot, but I would hate for any of you guys to get hurt or something based on somebody just freaking out Cause you're I mean, somewhat rightfully on their land and you shouldn't be. Make sure you're paying attention to that stuff.
Speaker 2:Back to the part stuff Johnny said some people carry spare tie rods and CVs. So yeah, so would I recommend? That is what he asked. Johnny asked would I recommend carrying spare parts? Yeah, I mean yeah, yes and no. Yeah, I mean yeah, yes and no. But you have to remember that those parts have such a effect on your steering, your alignment, how your rig handles. I think there's instances where carrying spares is a good thing and I think there's instances where you probably just shouldn't put the spare on Like you're already, like you're effed, like you're, like it's an L, you're going to take an L, like I think sometimes you could potentially limp a rig off of a trail and you might think you can do a trail fix and you can't, and you get something apart and you can't get it back together and now you're in a worse spot. So to answer your question, yes, I think carrying spares is probably a great idea.
Speaker 2:Do I think a trail fix always ends up in a better scenario or even a fix? No, I don't. So just keep that in mind. Like, if a CV goes out, carry an extra CV, but just put it in two-wheel drive and have somebody pull. You Don't think you're changing a CV on a trail. Get it off the trail, like, say, you're far away, get it off the trail, then potentially change a CV. But if the CV breaks and it's in pieces, just remove the pieces Zip, tie the two pieces up, try and get it back in two-wheel drive. Probably still can. It's a CV, it's not the front diff that's broke. I mean the CV goes in the diff people, I get it. But just put it back in two-wheel drive and attach to another rig and have somebody pull you out, because if you take the wheel and tire off and you might get yourself in a worse situation trying to do that fix on the trail. So yes, I do think extras are a good measure, even a tie rod in, though like when you take that tie rod in and you beat it out of the spindle, essentially I don't know that you not all the time are you going to get it back, like just I mean just pay attention to that stuff.
Speaker 2:And Tyson said pre-trip checks. I do pre-trip maintenance. I torque shocks, sway bars, sway bar links, upper ball joints, lower ball joints. Check for any play um, tighten down. In my truck I have leaf springs, but make sure my leaf springs are. The U-bolts are tight. You know, make sure all my none of my bump stops are loose, because, god forbid, I'd be beating something off the frame because my bump stop comes off. Yeah, do your pre-checks make a list of pre-checks?
Speaker 2:Again, carrying extras I don't think is a bad idea. Carrying extras with the idea that you're going to fix it on a forest service road, that's a pretty bad idea In my opinion. You're, if at all costs, find a way to get the rig off the trail without, without trying to disassemble the rig on the trail. So period. And Tyson said, if you're by yourself, don't go hard. I'd say, if you're by yourself, a, don't go hard and b, have a winch and some training. Um, yeah, I mean just be smart. Um, but again, carry spares.
Speaker 2:I carry some spares, but the stuff I carry spares of is different. Like I carry a couple extra. I carry a spare air filter, I carry spare spark plugs, I carry spare plug wires. I cause stuff that gets wet is more of my concern.
Speaker 2:If I broke a CV, I mean I'm in worse shape. I mean I'm just I gotta do something else. Like I'm not trying to change a CV or a tie rod end or a wheel bearing on the trail, like it's just not happening. I change a tire yeah, it's our wheel, change a wheel and a tire. But, um, but yeah, I just, I pay attention more to the electrical stuff that could go wrong Fuses, spark plugs, wires, air filter, extra fluids I keep extra fluids. You know JB weld you never know when you might get a small leak in an oil pan. It's not a permanent fix to get you off the trail, though, um, but I carry, that's what I carry. I don't carry too much steering components, powertrain components, really at all. First aid kit, though, for sure.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and Tyson said bring a jump box. I covered that way earlier and stuff on my radar and things I think you should get early on. Get a jump box. Yeah, I mean, batteries die. I just recently saw a video. Somebody was out in the cold and they dropped a cell in their battery and they were stranded. So yeah, they're pretty important things to have. But yeah, spares are cool.
Speaker 2:I'd say unless you're NASCAR-level quick at repairing stuff and you're that familiar with it, I don't know that spares are doing you any good. They might be a waste of money, to be honest with you, if you know what you're doing and you've changed like 50 CVs in your truck before. Yeah, I mean, carry a CV. Changing a CV doesn't theoretically have to mess up your alignment even. But axle nuts aren't easy to get off and cotter pins are easily lost in the rocks and cotter pins would hold axle nuts on. So just I mean again, like if none of that makes sense what I'm saying, you don't need to carry spares like just you'd be better off with a zolio so you can call for help than you will be with an extra CV. But that leads me to a point of something that I have that a lot of people don't have.
Speaker 2:If you wanted to ever change a tire, do you even carry a jack that'll get high enough to lift your lifted vehicle off the actual ground? So many people don't. You got this badass spare tire on the back of your truck on this $3,000 swing out and you don't even have a jack that you can get the truck up off the ground to put the spare tire on the truck. Guys, you're putting a cart before the horse. Get a jack, get a jack, get a jack. I'll show you the jack I got. It's a cool little deal.
Speaker 2:You guys have probably never even seen this thing before. It's an air. It's a big air thing, like a truck towing airbag jack. It's pretty sweet and I just use it for bingo bango. That's the one. Share this tab. You guys ever seen one of those before? Probably not, but that'll do it. That's your guy right there, here we go. That's your guy right there, here we go. That's it. Air jack. Do it with my air hose. That's the one. Look at that beast, jack. Y'all stuff up.
Speaker 2:I also have a high lift jack platform that I carry that that could go on the high lift jack platform if you're on, like you could. You could put on max tracks too, though. But yeah, they make different sizes too, like this isn't the the tallest of the three ton, this one's a little taller, this one's the 11, five ton and it's a little 18 and a half. So, and you put it on a max track or a another thing a couple inches out of it. So, just fyi, that thing's super cool, I like it. You can't see it, tyson, you're not seeing it on the screen. Share. I mean, it's up right now. So it's an air jack. Essentially, it's just a big air bag that'll inflate and jack your car up. Works great, um, I like it a lot. Okay, cool, you can see it now. So, yeah, that's how that thing works, and it's again that the taller ones 150 bucks, but in jack land, that's that's. That's cheap. And then it's got a pump here you could, or a handle, essentially to roll it. Obviously I don't use any of that, I just so anyways, but that's what I have, I like it, it works.
Speaker 2:Jacks are super expensive, so it like a pro Eagle jacks 700 bucks. The harbor freight version is 320 bucks and those are great, those will work and those are fantastic. Um, but make sure you got a jack if you're carrying spare parts, jack impact wrenches, I mean, all of that's real expensive stuff too. I mean, I got so much money in just tools in general, not in my truck. I have, you know, I have some money in tools in my truck, but anyways, yeah, spares.
Speaker 2:Tyson even brought up carrying a spare alternator. I do not carry a spare alternator, um, I do carry a spare serpentine belt though, uh, for sure. Um, but yeah, my spares might just be a little different than what you conventionally have heard spares to be, because again, at some point stuff's just broke like it's just broke, like you got a problem, solve it and probably sometimes even break it worse to get it off the trail. That's just lessons learned, you know. Um, so that's kind of pessimistic, but it is sometimes just the way it is.
Speaker 2:Um, yeah, johnny, I didn't carry a spare tire for a long time. Johnny, uh, just said, hey, I don't carry a spare tire. I actually didn't carry a spare tire for a long time. I do have a tire patch kit and and I have those sidewall ones too. Have you guys ever seen those stick-on sidewall patches? They are pretty trick dude, they're great and that's new. I mean patch. They stick on and they're like sick dude, bad boys, that glue tread, that's what they're called. Share this tab. You guys ever seen these bad boys, pretty sick man, see it on that tire right there, sick dude, I don't. What are they? 60 bucks, hey, man, right there, right there, there they are here. I'll even glue treads freaking sweet. Do they work too? Now, I mean I would and I'd have some of those and then conventional patches if you get something in the tread, but those are sick.
Speaker 2:I didn't carry a spare either, though I carried fix-a-flat plugs and those glue treads, but I do carry a full size spare now. Um, I actually in my truck and Johnny, um, so those of you listening, johnny's a friend of mine. He just took his rooftop 10 off his truck Cause it felt real top heavy. I put my spare back under my truck because it balanced the truck out more, so it didn't feel as top heavy. Having the spare underneath actually balanced my vehicle out better for wheeling, um. So I mean, I I would have never thought to bring that up if I just thought of it, though. So, yeah, my truck was super top tippy and once I put the steel bumper on the back and the spare tire underneath, it is far better, um, handling and less, less tippy. It's made it a lot better, made it a lot better, um, but it was pretty bad too prior. So, and actually next week uh, I have it on the, I have it on my schedule for next week, cause we're probably gonna be wrapping up here in just a second, but next week I'm going to talk tents soft shell, rooftop tent, hard shell rooftop tent, wedge style rooftop tent, ground tent, canvas tent, hot tent.
Speaker 2:Let's talk about tents Pros and cons. I've had two different types of rooftop tents Pros and cons. I've had two different types of rooftop tents. It's a big conversation with my friends as well, like base camping, leaving your tent going out, having the rooftop tent. What's better? I mean there's real drawbacks to both. There's positives to both, but I mean, really the big difference is the, the cons. Which con is a bigger deal to you? You know, I think they both come, I think they both have similar pros, like it's, like whatever. But I think the cons to one or the other, and kind of just where your mentality and anxiety sit, makes the biggest difference with tense actually.
Speaker 2:And I have a. I have a. I'll be honest, I have a very strong opinion about it, cause I was a tent ground tent guy for a long time and I'm on my second rooftop tent, so I have a pretty I mean I have a pretty strong opinion. But I'm going to bring I'm going to just bring my experience to you guys on both subjects I'm going to bring. That's what I'm gonna bring to you guys. I'm not to just bring my experience to you guys on both subjects, I'm going to bring. That's what I'm gonna bring to you guys. I'm not going to bring too much of my actual opinion, cause there's just positives and negatives. I'm fully aware of the positives and negatives of both. Um, so you know whether that's financial or mobility.
Speaker 2:So I'm gonna talk tents next week and, uh, go over a bunch of different tents. Actually, none of my friends have the same tent. So I have seen a lot of rooftop tents and different tents over my years of doing ground tents, from backpacking tents to more of a base camp style tent with more than one person hunting, and I ground tended out of my last truck before I got a rooftop tent. So I've only been in a rooftop tent for two years, three years, three years. I've only had a rooftop tent in general for three years. Um, so that's, I did ground tents for the last 15. So, and and it was fine, it just again there's positives and negatives. You just would have to decide where you want to land with it. But so next week we'll talk about tents.
Speaker 2:Um, I'm going to start bringing some guests on. I've been talking to some folks. I'm going to try and get some guests on. I really want to get some social media people on, whether they're big Instagram photography, live in their truck, have YouTube and I don't want to ask them much about. I don't want to ask them so much about overlanding in general, but I want to ask them about what's it like when you're filming, what's it like when you're taking pictures. What's it like to actually live out of your car? Is it as glorious as you make it look? You know, on Instagram or YouTube or and those Um, but I'll have to be working with their schedule so they might be prerecorded um at that point. But that would be in in order to get people you guys would be interested to hear from. So that's something I might, that I'm going to start doing as I'm getting toward. You know, I'm just getting.
Speaker 2:I'll go back and forth between interviewing folks in the in the Overland space, whether they're experts on suspension, social media products. They own a store. They fabricate bumpers, winches, electrical, like I have been trying to get a hold of. There's an individual in Australia that does Red Arc and I've been trying to get a hold of him. Well, I've gotten a hold of him, but that's a very big time barrier there. So, um, on how to get that scheduled. So scheduling is a little bit of a thing, but I will go back and forth between you know, just my basic subjects and me just talking to. You know one or two or three people talking. I will have all my friends on here at one point together as well and we'll plan that out, but that's kind of what's on the agenda coming up.
Speaker 2:We'll talk tents, hopefully in the next month. I'll say in the next month and put it on the calendar for you guys. I'll probably have an interview with someone. So if I put somebody on your radar, it's somebody that was already on your radar. Definitely a few people that have a similar path to this, like I did, from fitness to you know, getting older kids, dogs, moving, blending, so there's some people like that. You guys can decide what you think about that, but definitely definitely will enjoy it. So, either way, I'll see you guys next week.
Speaker 2:Next week is Tuesday at six 30 tent, tent talk, not Ted talk, tent, talk. And uh, we're just gonna go a bunch of tents, um, bunch of different tents, and uh, I'll have them all kind of lined up Like I do everything else, and we'll kind of just here's what I think about this, um, man, here's what I think about that and here's what I think about that and here's what I have and here's what I don't like about it and I do like about it, and here's what I had before, and let's go over all that stuff. So, either way, you guys have a good evening. I'll see you guys next week and if anybody needs to get a hold of me, you can DM me Outskirts Overland Facebook, instagram, youtube, or you can email me, charlie at outskirtsoverlandcom, and this will be available on podcast tomorrow. So if you're one of the guys that missed something this evening, it will all be available to you on YouTube to watch again or on all major podcast platforms to listen. So have a good night, guys, and I'll see you next week.