Ultimate camping and towing rig

I will add that the lithium batteries are great in cold weather. Why? We previously had 140 A-hr of lead-acid batteries and we generally couldn’t get through more than a couple of cold nights without the gas heater quitting. The lead-acid voltage decreases rather rapidly with discharge and by the time they were discharged only perhaps 30% the voltage was low enough that the blower in the gas heater would not spin fast enough to activate the airflow interlock switch. The Lithium batteries are higher voltage to start with and have nearly flat voltage characteristics until down to about 10% charge. Now we can run the heater (and everything else in the camper) for many days on end, even when solar charging is not possible. We will run out of gas before we will run out of power. It won’t take you many nights of 10 degree temperatures and having the heat fail for you to appreciate this.
 
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Another advantage to the lithium batteries is that they, just like AGM batteries, can be kept and used inside an inhabited space. There's no gassing like standard flooded cell lead acid batteries.
 
Yeah, that’s true. I vented my battery box to the inside to keep them warmer. That minimizes the amount of time the battery heaters have to work.
 
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toximus said:
FYI - SuperDuty prices go up again by $1000 on Tuesday. At this point Fidelity should offer a truck index fund.
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Gosh dang it! I went to the dealer and showed them my ford but the trade-in was murder so I'll have to sell it private market. Thinking of waiting for a while now that i got the diesel heater in my canopy it works pretty well. I drove a 2015 Cummins in the 2500, not impressed. I'd like to drive a HO 3500 to compare but as of now, my plan is a new F350 and 80% leaning toward 6.7L.
 
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someguysjeep said:
shuttin down plants over here for 2wks now, cause they cant get parts.
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IT's like the absolute worst time of all time to buy a new truck. NOt sure if world war will hurt or help, assuming china ends up snagging up Taiwan we might be in for even more difficult time getting processors.
 
toximus said:
Anyone familiar with installing solar? I wanted 200 watts for running the fridge, laptops/phones, and topping up the batteries without having to turn on the gen, but Sundowner can only install (2) 100 watt kits (meaning completely independent systems with their own controllers not linked panels on one controller). That seems weird to me so I'm thinking I'll just do it myself instead.
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I got the 2 jackery panels 100W a piece and they daisy chain together super easy and plugs right into portable jackery power supply with its own charger. It's what im using in my truck canopy "camper."
 
this is our "rig", we named her "The Escape Pod" ~~~ because we escaped from New Yorkistan. We are living full time in the Escape Pod. Thor Magnitude XG32, 4x4, F550 6.7L diesel.....MSRP (now) $270,000. we bought last September, we paid under $175K
we'll be pulling the Tj with the new roof canvas. HOPEFULLY the solar will be going in sometime this week, hopefully
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rasband said:
I didn't even look at the title, I was just interested in these camper options! I get really depressed by the lack of content in popular videos.
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I wish somebody would do in-depth walkthroughs on campers. Don't just show what's in the promotional pictures, but really dig into it and show how the doors open, explain how the features work, show maintenance, etc.

These campers looks like the best option if I were to have gone with a short flat deck trailer. Just the right amount of luxury compared to a simple truck topper without totally getting in the way like a hard side slide in camper would. The biggest thing missing seems to be a toilet. And they might be a bit cramped for 2 people living in it on rainy days or working remotely while on the road.
 
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