GX 460 Air Down Gear Up Dometic Drawer Fridge + Kaon Table

[IanTxGX]

I don't really want to maintain a build log, so I am doing a write-up and photo dump of my GX460 as it currently sits to hopefully inspire others and answer fitment questions.

I bought a used Richlite Air Down Gear Up sleeper system from a very kind local gentleman who sold his 2022 GX. I had already ordered most of my planned goal from Air Down Gear Up during the Black Friday sale. The math worked out to do a partial cancellation with Air Down Gear Up (Great Guys) and just receive the fridge.

I was concerned about fitment with the Kaon table, but it came together decently.

In this photo, you can see the arrangement with the sleeper folded up.

This is the Dometic CD-30 fridge at full extension. There is an area approximately 10 inches deep in front of the fridge that will be the site of a further battery system build.

These two photos are to show the available fridge access with the Kaon table down. This was what I was most worried about, but it has about 2/3 of the drawer accessible from overhead, so careful packing should allow access to whatever is actually needed.

I was returning from a gravel bike race, so the rear of the GX has a bunch of disorganized stuff. The rack is a Rocky Mounts Backstage which works very well with the GX 460 due to the easy cargo access through the back window. The rear window can go all the way up with road bikes. It cannot with a mountain bike on the close spot without tipping the rack backwards.

The tie down for the rear window is available at Home Depot. The clip slides into the lock at the bottom. Push the button inside the door frame and outside the door at the same time to release it. It gives me adjustable angle on the window which is nice when standing at the table loading rocket engines or making a sandwich.

 

[IanTxGX]

Reserving for next,

 

[IanTxGX]

Reserving for next.

 

[bryanle96]

You scored such a great deal on the drawer system. Wish I was local

 

[IanTxGX]

Crap. I can't figure out how to edit the previous two posts.

Anyway, I'm attaching the other photos now.

This shows the full rear better. Bike rack. Kaon table. Air Down Gear Up Table. Having the table down keeps me from whacking my shin on the bike rack.

This was the first install of the used drawer and sleeper system with a drawer on each side. For securing loads, you can run a strap through the notches to either strap something down or strap the folding portion up to keep loads from shifting forwards.

There isn't a lot of headroom when I put a sleeping pad in there, so I'm not sure how much I will actually sleep on there versus pitching a tent.

I bought it for hauling robot arenas without destroying my interior and/or being a massive danger to myself if I have to slam on the brakes.

This photo shows the drawer box width and visually shows the clearance to the second row with the seats in the rearmost position. I have a wool blanket over the second row for protection. The electronics mounting plan is to make a plate that goes across the port drawer area. This gives me a working area approximately 16" x 9" x 3" for load distribution and charging.

This was after putting the fridge in. I had this 12V 40Ah LiFePO4 battery lying around, so I used it to test fit batteries. I can compromise fit about 120 Ah in there where the starboard side seat can't slide all the way back. I have ordered two surplus 12V 50 Ah batteries that should fit better, but I will have to wire up a BMS myself.

This shows how the forward part of the area under the top looks. I should be able to mount the batteries off of the vertical 80/20 1010 rail and maybe the longitudinal rail. The fridge manual says to keep a 50mm airgap around the heat exchangers, so I will need to maintain an offset.

 

[r2m]

Crap. I can't figure out how to edit the previous two posts.

To edit one of your existing posts, just look at the bottom, left below your post and it'll ask you:

Just click "Edit"

 

[IanTxGX]

New battery test fit. 2 x 50 Ah. I'm liking this arrangement more.

New battery test fit. 3 x 50 Ah. The seat still has full range of motion.

Batteries are from Battery Hookup.

 

[Littlehouse]

I really like that set up with the smaller fridge. Can you not just swap sides with the drawer to get it all the way open when the table is down?

 

[IanTxGX]

I really like that set up with the smaller fridge. Can you not just swap sides with the drawer to get it all the way open when the table is down?

Yes, but I access the drawer more than the fridge. Without having to swing the rack out of the way, I can get to the first compartment of the drawer.

I would rather be able to access 2/3 of the fridge with the tailgate table down than 1/3 of the drawer. The drawer has dividers which block reaching back further.

 

[Littlehouse]

Yes, but I access the drawer more than the fridge. Without having to swing the rack out of the way, I can get to the first compartment of the drawer.

I would rather be able to access 2/3 of the fridge with the tailgate table down than 1/3 of the drawer. The drawer has dividers which block reaching back further.

Fair point. Great build so far

 

[IanTxGX]

I camped for the first time last Saturday night since buying this. It was for a mountain bike race. 10 hours total driving. 3 hours riding a bike.

I ran my Kings 900 swag which was nice when the cold front blew in, 45F, windy, and bright from moonlight. Not as great for the misting rain in the morning, but it was still dry and warm inside.

I need to get a freestanding awning, but I wouldn't have pitched it that night anyway due to 20+ mph wind gusts. I want a 270 awning and roof rack, but my SSO rack on my old GX470 was moderately loud at 75 MPH and the MPG hit sucked. I'm really enjoying 18-19 MPG on road trips over 14.7 MPG.

If you sit on the bumper and swing the tailgate towards yourself, it works well to eat off of. I reheated some breakfast tacos using a pot of boiling water. Put the food in a freezer bag. Dunk bag into water that just came off boil. Not technically good for you, but it's easy when you have other stuff to do.

The platform was pretty good for carrying firewood. (The $20 pile didn't seem as big sitting outside the feed store.)

 

[IanTxGX]

I bike commute and live super close to work, so my commute if driving due to bike breakage or weather is currently minimal.

I live in the Houston area, so my vehicle build is mostly around life and hobbies. I am currently actively not over equipping this vehicle in a way that sacrifices road noise and MPG. I do drives to bike races, visit family, rocket launches, etc. If I lived in the Mountain West, this vehicle would be very different, but I kind of think it's important to show the boring side focusing on suburban utility.

My last vehicle was a 2006 GX 470 with the side steps removed, no rear seats, an Engel fridge, a SSO roof rack, and 31.6" KO2s. I went to the Asheville Overland Expo East, did Imogene pass, a camping trip to Utah, a couple Big Bend trips, skiing in New Mexico, plus commuting and towing a UHaul trailer. Having range anxiety took some of the joy out of that vehicle for me.


Newest Mods:
LED interior and undercar lights (This was to reduce power consumption with the door open, but I still need to measure the actual difference.)

Planned Future Mods:

• Kaon rear door organizers (the ones for the right side, non-toolkit) - For plastic utensils, blue Dawn dish soap, paper plates, small knife.
• Kaon cutting board (would also work as a plate)
• Redo my vehicle tool kit to be smaller and lighter.
• Lexus first aid kit needs reworked to have OTC meds for upset stomach, headaches, and sore muscles.
  • I might eventually have a bag custom made on Etsy for the upper left storage area above the jack.
  • The tweezers were helpful for a splinter on Saturday.
  • I already added more bandages and a variety of bandaids as I think I get hurt more than most people.
• Add elastic paper towel roll holder to the table. (takes the paper towels out of the drawer and makes them more convenient.)
• House Battery with Victron XS DC/DC charger and a load center.
  • Current 100Ah 12V LiFePO4 battery is assembled with a 30A BMS.
  • Just ordered a Blue Sea 6 load center and a couple battery disconnect switches because Amazon was having a hardcore sale.
  • I still need to size my wires and determine my actual fuse sizes. Planning on MRBF fuses for both batteries.
• Retro-reflective tape for the bike rack.
• Shock Cord attachment for carrying a couple fishing rods on the starboard side inside. Likely just loops around the grab handles at first. I want to make some sort of bracket that tucks them up against the headliner though. Maybe TPU front holders with elastic to hold the butts.
• MTS

Potential Mods

• Diff breather extensions for the floods.
• Possibly add small trailer lights to the bike rack.
• I keep wanting to replace the high beams with ultrabright LEDs, but I have only used high beams for about 20 minutes in the last four months. At night, I am generally on a main road with other cars.
• Tires are a fairly new set of Michelin Defenders (2021 date code). They are probably going to stay for 2-3 more years. I will probably go for an all-terrain with good road manners at that time. (Might swap wheels to 17s for more cushion)
• I might cut an access hatch into the area above the port-aft wheel. It's a compartment about 18" long, 12" wide, and 12" tall that could have rarely used stuff in it.
• Kaon rear shelf / overhead storage thing - I want it, but I'm trying to decide if it would be more useful or more in the way.
• Ghetto Crawl Control, but done with a momentary-off-momentary rocker switch.

 

[IanTxGX]

MTS has been added. Bell Lexus was having a sale with free shipping. $233.44 which is steep but makes me feel better.

Basic (single speed) crawl control was added using the DAC switch. I realized that it was going to be easiest to do the soldering in my apartment, so I removed the entire assembly. It made doing a quality job far easier. I also made a momentary switch tool as I didn't have paperclips for the recalibration step. The error lights don't go away until the vehicle is shut off and restarted.

I played with it at a local park's gravel parking lot and access road. I really want variable speed now. 2-1/2 MPH is really slow for some things and quite fast for others.

I am planning to tackle that using a custom CH4X4 Small Dual Push Button Switch to be put in the spot above the center lock. This will be a handy way to use up some aviation surplus ptfe jacketed wire that turned out to be too stiff for combat robots. I'll twist the three cables with a drill. No lights for the switch, but I don't expect to use it very much anyway.

Oh, the cigarette lighter wiring is tiny. Looks like 20 AWG. No wonder I'm getting huge voltage drop charging my EcoFlow River 2 at 8A. I switched to 6A because things were getting hot.

 

[IanTxGX]

ELECTRONICS:
The electronics mounting plate is kind of designed.

Battery cutoff switch goes outboard near the top to be easier to access. The Big Blue Sea Fuse Panel goes next to it.

The DC/DC will go over the big open space. I need to do a layout and add mounting tabs. Planning on mounting a Victron 75/15 Smart Solar behind the panel. I don't expect to use solar charging a lot, so I am mostly just planning to build in the mounting points for now.

It's looking like $126.08 from Send Cut Send including pressed in nuts. I need to print a full-scale piece of paper to see how I want/need to change it as I don't really want to spend all the money on laser cutting to then just have to drill holes.

I could also add clearance for the drawer slides allowing the same part to be used on each side. If I was doing that, I would probably be better off just drilling the holes myself and pressing the rivnuts (should I decide to take that approach). It looks like I could save significant money if I make it thinner.

 

[rav8]

Basic (single speed) crawl control was added using the DAC switch. I realized that it was going to be easiest to do the soldering in my apartment, so I removed the entire assembly. It made doing a quality job far easier. I also made a momentary switch tool as I didn't have paperclips for the recalibration step. The error lights don't go away until the vehicle is shut off and restarted.

I played with it at a local park's gravel parking lot and access road. I really want variable speed now. 2-1/2 MPH is really slow for some things and quite fast for others.

Crawl is a cool feature but I think you'll use MTS more. If money isn't a concern, I'd say get the 5-speed factory or hacked crawl option.

I have honestly only used it three times for recovery since install and it was successful for two of those. The only other uses were to show the feature off in beach sand.

Good looking setup so far.

 

[r2m]

ELECTRONICS:
The electronics mounting plate is kind of designed.

View attachment 3851452

Battery cutoff switch goes outboard near the top to be easier to access. The Big Blue Sea Fuse Panel goes next to it.

The DC/DC will go over the big open space. I need to do a layout and add mounting tabs. Planning on mounting a Victron 75/15 Smart Solar behind the panel. I don't expect to use solar charging a lot, so I am mostly just planning to build in the mounting points for now.

It's looking like $126.08 from Send Cut Send including pressed in nuts. I need to print a full-scale piece of paper to see how I want/need to change it as I don't really want to spend all the money on laser cutting to then just have to drill holes.

I could also add clearance for the drawer slides allowing the same part to be used on each side. If I was doing that, I would probably be better off just drilling the holes myself and pressing the rivnuts (should I decide to take that approach). It looks like I could save significant money if I make it thinner.

View attachment 3851438

Nice to see another SW user!
Is this for under the hood, perhaps to go over the fuse box on the drivers side?

 

[IanTxGX]

Nice to see another SW user!
Is this for under the hood, perhaps to go over the fuse box on the drivers side?

It is for between my second row and the front of my drawer system. This image will probably make more sense. The drawer slides are on the U.S. Driver's side. I have a fridge on Passenger which results in having a little more space on the Passenger side.

I am going to need to do a model for a fuse box panel to have an underhood fuse, terminal block pair, and master disconnect. I might go for G10 Fiberglass for that which would mean through bolting, but the benefit is that a dropped wire will be less likely to cause an arc.

2-3 more hours spent on the CAD. I found models of my electronics which is helping a lot. I also did the detail measurements to get the framing system and drawer slides in there. These are technically the wrong slides, but dimensionally, they are close.

From left to right, battery cutoff switch, 6 output fuse box, Victron Orion XS DC/DC charger, Victron SmartSolar 75/15. The grey box is a 100Ah 4S LiFePO4 battery.

The plates are now designed to be mirror images as that cuts costs by like $50. I still need to design the cutouts behind the DC/DC and the solar charge controller. The battery support bracket is not modeled yet. I am planning on using a full width piece of 1-1/4" x 1/8" aluminum angle. High strength M6 all thread to constrain the battery.

I am planning on doing my own Rivnut installation using M4 for electronics mounting.

The MOLLE/PALS pattern is heavily to be able to zip tie wires to on the passenger side panel and to maybe attach a bag or something to on driver. I'm really not sure at this time, but it seems like a good idea. The MOLLE is costing $75 total extra for the two panel.

Crawl is a cool feature but I think you'll use MTS more. If money isn't a concern, I'd say get the 5-speed factory or hacked crawl option.

I have honestly only used it three times for recovery since install and it was successful for two of those. The only other uses were to show the feature off in beach sand.

Good looking setup so far.

I am going for the hacked crawl option using a slightly more expensive (OEM look) switch rather than drilling holes in the panel. The car is still a bit nice to be drilling holes in panels and adding round momentary buttons.

Picture a button that looks like this above the diff lock switch to the right of the steering wheel. I prefer the factory location and implementation, but the factory switch (Part Number 84970-60090) is $370. This is $47 shipped which is like 15% of the cost to achieve the same function.

 

[IanTxGX]

I added crawl control using the double momentary switch above.

Crawl is fun for just creeping around at Medium-High.

The LED light in the CH4X4 switch is bright blue. I didn't wire it to power because it had glare when tested indoors. I don't want to experience it at night and didn't want to spend the time to swap the LED.

 

[IanTxGX]

I need to tidy it up, but the electrical is working. I haven't tested the solar yet as I did the work last night.

Victron 18A DC/DC charger
Victron 10A MPPT Solar Charger
100Ah 4S LiFePO4 with 30A charge/ 45A discharge BMS

The big disconnect switch is only being used for the fridge. I need to identify a good switch for the fridge, print a housing, and rewire.

I'm unlikely to use a solar panel bigger than 100W. I have dual 35W panels and a series harness.

I will probably need a cooling fan for this compartment.