Gudmundur 3.0 - Build

[WreckDiver1321]

Awesome work.

I also find wiring super relaxing. Looking at a nicely-done 12v wiring job is something special too, you can really appreciate the craftsmanship that goes into doing it right. This time around, I went through the process of making Metri-Pack connectors for each accessory and the switch loom. Sooooo nice. I'll do that from now on.

 

[CORunner]

Awesome work.

I also find wiring super relaxing. Looking at a nicely-done 12v wiring job is something special too, you can really appreciate the craftsmanship that goes into doing it right. This time around, I went through the process of making Metri-Pack connectors for each accessory and the switch loom. Sooooo nice. I'll do that from now on.

I was debating going the Bussmann relay route for switched power and read the Tacoma World threads. Ended up with the Switch Pros for it's versatility. Still going to use Metri-Packs for connecting each circuit to the Switch Pros.

 

[WreckDiver1321]

I was debating going the Bussmann relay route for switched power and read the Tacoma World threads. Ended up with the Switch Pros for it's versatility. Still going to use Metri-Packs for connecting each circuit to the Switch Pros.

I've read good things about the Switch Pros setup, it's a solid way to go. Nice and clean, and it's hard to argue with fewer wires going into the cab.

I liked the DIY aspect and the ability to run non-switched accessories off of the Bussmann, so that's the direction I took it. Also, I like factory-looking switches rather than an aftermarket panel. Personal preference, really, as I've seen some really nice Switch Pros/SPOD installs.

 

[CORunner]

Installed the Swtich Pros. Went a bit OCD with the install. Wanted to keep the engine bay wiring clean so went a bit overboard. Took some inspiration from the Tacomaworld forums on the DIY Bussmann build. Preinstalled all the connections with Delphi Metri-Packs. This way I can add and swap out anything in the future without re-doing any wiring.

2005 doesn't have the charcoal canister in the engine bay, so lots of room for the mounting and wiring.

Plan was to have the Switch Pros on the firewall and a junction box on the side.

Firewall has a perfect spot for the Switch Pros unit. Enlarged an existing hole made another to match.

Installed rivnuts

Switch Pro mount done.

Switch Pros doesn't have device grounding built in, so required a busbar. Used a BlueSea 150A 10 gang. Didn't want the busbar wiring to look like a spaghetti mess of wires in the engine bay so wanted to mount it in a box. Surprisingly took a bit of searching to find something that worked. Found these ABS waterproof boxes on Amazon.
Amazon product ASIN B089K35H7R
Didn't need it for the waterproof aspect since I was going to have connections coming out of the bottom. Fab'd up some mounting plates to attach to the body mounts.

Busbar fits perfectly inside. Just had to trim the corners a bit.

Brought all the wires from the main SwitchPros wiring harness into the box. A few of them (white, pink, blue) will run into the cabin for different triggers (ignition, lights, etc). Also brought into the box a 4AWG grounding wire for the devices and connections from the starter battery for the in cabin voltage monitor. Plan was to run everything that needed to go through the firewall in one run.

Comms link from SwitchPros has 4 wires plus I was running the triggers and voltage. Ran a total of 9 wires through the firewall. Found this marine cable gland and gave it a try. There were two really nice aspects of this gland. One, you can make the hole through the firewall any size. Second, you fit the sealing gland on the wires after you have running everything through. Makes getting the wire lengths easier and could fit the SwitchPros connector through without having to take it apart.
Amazon product ASIN B01K6TFK2C

Cutting through the firewall is easy enough with a pilot hold and step bit.

Gland mounting plate installed.

Completed install of the sealing gland with comms harness and triggers.

 

[CORunner]

Installed some lights today. Shout out to @reznunt and Massive Metal Shop. Super quick delivery of a set of ditch lights mounting brackets.

Very high quality and fit up perfect. Paired them with a set of Baja Design S1 Wide Corning Lights. Don't see a lot of people running ditch lights, but I find them super useful when searching out dispersed camping sites in the national forests around CO and on switchbacks.

 

[reznunt]

Installed some lights today. Shout out to @reznunt and Massive Metal Shop. Super quick delivery of a set of ditch lights mounting brackets.

Very high quality and fit up perfect. Paired them with a set of Baja Design S1 Wide Corning Lights. Don't see a lot of people running ditch lights, but I find them super useful when searching out dispersed camping sites in the national forests around CO and on switchbacks.

Glad you like the kit =) Those S1's are clean!

 

[CORunner]

Got my 3D printed Switch Pros overhead console mount from @BenCC. I've bought 3D stuff from him before and always great quality. This one too. Had to do a little trimming to the overhead console, but very minor.

Also finished wiring the in cab voltage monitoring. Had this same unit on GUD2.0. I liked that it was a 3 position switch. UP: Batt 1, DOWN Batt 2, MIDDLE: Off.
Amazon product ASIN B01LWXWGXE
The phone holder next to the shifter almost allows a direct drop in. Just a little trimming with the Dremel to get it to fit.

 

[CORunner]

Got this box yesterday from Israel! Asfir skid plates. Took advantage of the 15% off MUD code and shipping discount. Took a little over a week door to door.

Gotta love DHL.... they drove a pallet jack through one of the boxes and just taped with DHL tape. No damage to the skids.

Not a huge necessity for me to have skids off road, but bought them in part due to a huge increase in catalytic converter theft in Colorado. There is a whole 4 page thread on the Rising Sun Forum. Cat on our Prius was stolen sitting in front of our house a last month. Was a huge pain in the a$$ since there is a huge back order on Prius cats and you have to buy either CARB compliant or OEM in CO. 4 weeks without the car and cost $2,900.

Skids should offer a bit of protection from theft. Won't stop a determined thief, but hopefully they will just move on to another vehicle. Will eventually get these installed before I move GUD3.0 back onto the street.

 

[CORunner]

Installed Cali Raised Dual Light Bar today. Wanted something better than the Amazon no-name brands, but wasn't prepared to spend big money on Baja Design or KC. Cali Raised has some good reviews and middle of the road pricing.

Quality seems good. Easy enough to wire up to the SwitchPros that I had pre-wired with connectors. Have it wired up to two switches to take advantage of the dual function with the amber flood lights and the white spot.

Routed the power along the windshield in split loom. Fits perfect and holds itself in place on its own.

Throw pattern seems pretty good. Minimal glare on the hood. Will see how it performs on the trails.

 

[CORunner]

Upgraded all the bolts/nuts on the lights with anti-theft style. Ended up with a strange mix of types because one single brand doesn't make enough variety to cover M5, M6, M8 bolt/nut sizes and also different lengths for the different mounts. Probably better in the end since I now need 4 different keys to get the lights off.

 

[CORunner]

Wired up a plug for a folding 100W suitcase solar panel that we use camping. Used Anderson SB50 connectors and also a Anderson SB50 Environmental Boot to keep out the elements.

Was going to try and mount some where easily accessible, but found that it wedges in the grill slats perfectly. It has a tapered design and a rubber lip so it cannot be pushed completely out the back into the grill. It is a really snug fit so not worried about it falling forward when driving.

Can barely even see it from 5ft away.

Aready had a distribution block wired for solar inputs that goes to the Red Arc.

 

[CORunner]

Finally got around to installing the drawers from GUD2.0 into GUD3.0. The previous owner of GUD2.0 had built the drawers himself. The quality is really good and has great features. Better than some of the overland company's offerings.

Fridge slide and stove drawer are both heavy duty slides with lock open and lock closed latches. Gear drawer is keyed with a lock. Wings are hinged for additional storage. Wired for UBS and cig lighter on the back. In addition, there is a top plate that goes on the fridge slide when the fridge isn't in that makes it a level storage surface that doubles as a sleeping platform.

Power is from the 2nd battery with a 4AWG run along the interior passenger channel under the door trim. Didn't run the ground back to the 2nd battery. Just used a body mount. Anderson plug is for the fridge.

Also picked up a wind fairing from Front Runner for the roof rack. Wind noise isn't that bad in general, but in some cross winds and head winds it can get a bit loud on the highway. So hopefully this will help with that. Can't tell from the pictures, but it has ghost lettering that says "Front Runner"

 

[ClassyJalopy]

You are certainly talented with the electrical stuff! I am taking notes for cleaning up the wiring on my truck.

 

[CORunner]

You are certainly talented with the electrical stuff! I am taking notes for cleaning up the wiring on my truck.

Thanks! This is actually my first time doing any electrical. Figured I would dive in and try and learn as much as possible. What this thread doesn't show is all the mistakes I am making along the way. Have had to redo a couple of things and bought the wrong sizes of other stuff. I do feel comfortable enough now that I would take on other electrical projects on future builds.

 

[dividedan]

Love the build! Any dramas putting that big 27F X2 battery in the Slee tray? I keep seeing folks set up a dual battery system with smaller 50Ah batteries when you can just replace the main starter battery with a gigantic Group 31 and it makes no sense to me. That’s great to know that battery fits the Slee tray and at 92Ah very little difference from the Group 31 in my rig. Is the SwitchPro wired to the house battery from across the engine bay? I am in analysis paralysis mode regarding the ultimate electrical setup on mine and hate to redo things! About to replace my battery too so considering the 27F now since its capacity is nearly equivalent to my current setup and if I decide to go dual battery in the next year or so could just transition that one to the house position. Btw, does the Redarc have a good way to monitor the solar input action?

 

[CORunner]

Love the build! Any dramas putting that big 27F X2 battery in the Slee tray? I keep seeing folks set up a dual battery system with smaller 50Ah batteries when you can just replace the main starter battery with a gigantic Group 31 and it makes no sense to me. That’s great to know that battery fits the Slee tray and at 92Ah very little difference from the Group 31 in my rig. Is the SwitchPro wired to the house battery from across the engine bay? I am in analysis paralysis mode regarding the ultimate electrical setup on mine and hate to redo things! About to replace my battery too so considering the 27F now since its capacity is nearly equivalent to my current setup and if I decide to go dual battery in the next year or so could just transition that one to the house position. Btw, does the Redarc have a good way to monitor the solar input action?

The PO of GUD2.0 modified the Slee tray to get it to fit the 27F. It was a gen 1 Slee tray, not sure what the differences are on the Gen 2. Pretty simple mods. Cut off the middle tie-down tab. Then add layers of wood to make the tray base flat. Also added a lip on the passenger side to keep the battery from sliding. PO used straps to hold the battery down. I modified it a bit more to use a traditional tie-down. Clearance is really close between the tie-down and the hood gas strut.

SwitchPro is wired to the starter battery. My reasoning is that it is mainly switches for driving lights. 2nd battery is for the fridge and anything related to camping (USB charging, camping lights, etc). The 27F is great. We did a few week trip around the Pacific Northwest and never had the battery drop below 12.2V when at camp. Cool weather and full fridge helped but we never had to worry about the battery.

Agree that electrical planning is a bit of going round and round in circles on figuring out the setup and all the scenarios of using power.

Redarc has a built in MPPT solar charger controller and you can set it for 4 different max charge voltages (Li, 15.3V, 15.0V, 14.6V). As for monitoring, it is pretty minimal. Only has LED status lights. One set shows the input source: Vehicle or Solar and another LED that flashes to show the different charge modes: boost, absorption, and float. Doesn't have any status on charge level of the battery, though you can kinda infer by which charge mode it is in. I also installed an in cabin voltage monitor/display (see post #27) so I will always know the voltage being applied by the Redarc and/or the resting voltage which is a good indication of level of charge left in the battery. Google AGM battery chart. In general, 12.7V = 100%, 12.5V = 80%, 12V = 50%, 11.8V = 30%, 10.5V = 0%

 

[plaidwagon]

Excellent work! I find electrical work to be a constant learning experience finding all the bits and pieces to make it clean and proper.

 

[xplore]

It's looking great! You're an inspiration to us all!

Just out of curiosity, how easy is it to remove the wire loom that runs up the side of the windshield? I'm wondering what a windshield replacement would look like.

 

[dividedan]

The PO of GUD2.0 modified the Slee tray to get it to fit the 27F. It was a gen 1 Slee tray, not sure what the differences are on the Gen 2. Pretty simple mods. Cut off the middle tie-down tab. Then add layers of wood to make the tray base flat. Also added a lip on the passenger side to keep the battery from sliding. PO used straps to hold the battery down. I modified it a bit more to use a traditional tie-down. Clearance is really close between the tie-down and the hood gas strut.

SwitchPro is wired to the starter battery. My reasoning is that it is mainly switches for driving lights. 2nd battery is for the fridge and anything related to camping (USB charging, camping lights, etc). The 27F is great. We did a few week trip around the Pacific Northwest and never had the battery drop below 12.2V when at camp. Cool weather and full fridge helped but we never had to worry about the battery.

Agree that electrical planning is a bit of going round and round in circles on figuring out the setup and all the scenarios of using power.

Redarc has a built in MPPT solar charger controller and you can set it for 4 different max charge voltages (Li, 15.3V, 15.0V, 14.6V). As for monitoring, it is pretty minimal. Only has LED status lights. One set shows the input source: Vehicle or Solar and another LED that flashes to show the different charge modes: boost, absorption, and float. Doesn't have any status on charge level of the battery, though you can kinda infer by which charge mode it is in. I also installed an in cabin voltage monitor/display (see post #27) so I will always know the voltage being applied by the Redarc and/or the resting voltage which is a good indication of level of charge left in the battery. Google AGM battery chart. In general, 12.7V = 100%, 12.5V = 80%, 12V = 50%, 11.8V = 30%, 10.5V = 0%

Damn if only I could find an old style Slee tray! I guess I just need to get past my hang up of overdischarging the house battery and recognize that it’s a part of the system that will need replacing periodically. Even every couple years isn’t bad with the cheaper smaller Ah batteries. With my battery I try and never get it below 50% discharged which is 50Ah of power in the ideal situation. The Odyssey AGMs are rated at up to 400 cycles at 80% discharge so if you can cram a 55Ah battery in the new Slee tray that’s 44Ah which isn’t much of a loss. I have 130W of solar as well, but liking the idea of the hood mounted panel for when the truck sits instead of having to hook it up to a charger. How did you wire those two solar inputs so that the hood panel is always feeding the Redarc and the portable panel can be plugged in? They’re not in series right?

 

[CORunner]

Damn if only I could find an old style Slee tray! I guess I just need to get past my hang up of overdischarging the house battery and recognize that it’s a part of the system that will need replacing periodically. Even every couple years isn’t bad with the cheaper smaller Ah batteries. With my battery I try and never get it below 50% discharged which is 50Ah of power in the ideal situation. The Odyssey AGMs are rated at up to 400 cycles at 80% discharge so if you can cram a 55Ah battery in the new Slee tray that’s 44Ah which isn’t much of a loss. I have 130W of solar as well, but liking the idea of the hood mounted panel for when the truck sits instead of having to hook it up to a charger. How did you wire those two solar inputs so that the hood panel is always feeding the Redarc and the portable panel can be plugged in? They’re not in series right?

Wired them into a single fuse block in the engine (see end of post #20) and from that block a single 8AWG wire goes to the Redarc. They are in parallel.