Builds Moonshine - A Build Thread
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- #3,982
Going back a week, got loaded up and headed to GSMTR:
First trail Tuesday AM was Trail 15 (double black diamond/red):
Quite an off-camber bit between that lower rock garden and the upper one:
Upper garden made for some good pics:
By the time I got to the top of 15, I looked down and noticed that my engine coolant temp was at 230* as measured at the back of the head
After a mild panic attack, I deduced that my fan controller override switch must have been wired incorrectly (by me) meaning that in the neutral position, which should be automatic, it was telling my fan to stay off. Didn't smoke the motor, didn't lose any coolant, and she ran great the rest of the week. Out of all the electrical that has changed, that's the only hiccup I had all week, so that's a major win.
After 15, did easy trails and some exploring. Made for some good pics.
First trail Tuesday AM was Trail 15 (double black diamond/red):
Quite an off-camber bit between that lower rock garden and the upper one:
Upper garden made for some good pics:
By the time I got to the top of 15, I looked down and noticed that my engine coolant temp was at 230* as measured at the back of the head
After a mild panic attack, I deduced that my fan controller override switch must have been wired incorrectly (by me) meaning that in the neutral position, which should be automatic, it was telling my fan to stay off. Didn't smoke the motor, didn't lose any coolant, and she ran great the rest of the week. Out of all the electrical that has changed, that's the only hiccup I had all week, so that's a major win.After 15, did easy trails and some exploring. Made for some good pics.
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- #3,983
Thanks for letting me drive moonshine buddy! it was a blast!
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- #3,985
Trail 15 claimed a DS rear door (caved in):
A crushed tail light, and warped DS rear quarter panel from letting it roll backwards straight into a tree:
And finally a pretty good dent in the PS rear lower quarter panel:
All in all a good day. No, the two 80s here didn't do 15
A crushed tail light, and warped DS rear quarter panel from letting it roll backwards straight into a tree:
And finally a pretty good dent in the PS rear lower quarter panel:
All in all a good day. No, the two 80s here didn't do 15
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- #3,986
Tuesday night into Wednesday the rains came. Went to do 22 and it was a mess:
Shortly after that point, our group had a smoked alternator and battery. Swapped the alt on the trail, but the truck still wouldn't charge, so we headed back to camp to verify wiring and drink some brews. @AJR and @4LowandSlow pictured here:
Diagnosing back at camp:
Shortly after that point, our group had a smoked alternator and battery. Swapped the alt on the trail, but the truck still wouldn't charge, so we headed back to camp to verify wiring and drink some brews. @AJR and @4LowandSlow pictured here:
Diagnosing back at camp:
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- #3,987
Thursday we did trail 22 and had fun. I smoked my PS rear quarter panel and tail light. Frustrating, because I was going faster than I should, thinking I had ample clearance, but I didn't.
Talking my buddy @AJR through the lines I took in this spot on 21 the year prior. Go check out his build, this truck is sick.
Thursday group:
Talking my buddy @AJR through the lines I took in this spot on 21 the year prior. Go check out his build, this truck is sick.
Thursday group:
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- #3,988
Thursday night I had a look at the front end to see where my death wobble was coming from, and found three out of four tie rod ends were smoked or wore out. Fun fun. Had to take Friday off to find parts and fix it:
Saturday we went to go do 35, and smoked a lower rear u-joint in @AJR 's truck. Got him off the trail, and had some beers. All in all an EPIC week.
Saturday we went to go do 35, and smoked a lower rear u-joint in @AJR 's truck. Got him off the trail, and had some beers. All in all an EPIC week.
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- #3,989
Some pics of camp. Hell of an awesome week @neslrac @SFROMAN @fourtrax @4LowandSlow @raanderson77 @AJR @Fort Knox !!!!!!!!!!!!!
Looks like you guys had a blast. Great pictures!
Hojack
♠️Project Snowball❄️
Build, wheel, fix, repeat... love it Johnny
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Was there anyone at GSMTR that DIDNT break anything??
@Bama4door ?
@Bama4door ?
Bama4door
Supporting Vendor
Fortunately I came out dent-free and didn't break anything, but I didn't do 15
Fort Knox
SILVER Star
I didn't break anything. Got a little more body damage, but nothing major. My dents got some dents and scrapes. My clutch was acting up a little bit and I need to replace a rear u-joint and rebuild the driver's side knuckle, but nothing really failed....yet. Just need to replace some stuff before it does.
Definitely need beadlocks.
Definitely need beadlocks.
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- #3,995
Damage pics. DS first.
Backed straight into a tree by accident:
DS Rear door, dented when the truck slid left going up a rocky climb:
Backed straight into a tree by accident:
DS Rear door, dented when the truck slid left going up a rocky climb:
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- #3,996
PS rear quarter got hit pretty hard. Entirely my fault, was going too fast through a section I thought I had ample clearance in.
This lower section was damaged on Trail 15, same trail that got the driver's side:
Despite all that, she still looks good. In a few weeks I'll work on the dents and redo the body work/paint in the damaged areas. Don't have any hard wheeling planned until next summer at the moment, so might as well have her look good until then. In addition, hopefully I'll have a rear bumper by then, which would have averted most of this rear quarter damage.
This lower section was damaged on Trail 15, same trail that got the driver's side:
Despite all that, she still looks good. In a few weeks I'll work on the dents and redo the body work/paint in the damaged areas. Don't have any hard wheeling planned until next summer at the moment, so might as well have her look good until then. In addition, hopefully I'll have a rear bumper by then, which would have averted most of this rear quarter damage.
- Thread starter
- #3,997
Fixed up a few things on Moonshine before embarking on another trip this past weekend.
Spent a while trying to figure out the noise issue, and I can't lick it. Alternator whine type noise only comes through the speakers when the AUX output of the HAM is plugged into the AUX input of the amplifier. There is no noise that comes through the HAM head unit speakers when this is unplugged, and no noise when you plug a cell phone directly into the amp. I bought a noise suppressor capacitor thing, and tried wiring it into both the HAM and the amp, but with no impact on the noise. I also replaced the AUX cable thinking maybe it went bad. Only thing left I can think of is if the HAM AUX output has gone bad somehow.
Moving on, I banged out the rear quarters a bit to get a new set of tail lights in, changed to my highway tires, checked fluids, and went out to OBX.
Spent a while trying to figure out the noise issue, and I can't lick it. Alternator whine type noise only comes through the speakers when the AUX output of the HAM is plugged into the AUX input of the amplifier. There is no noise that comes through the HAM head unit speakers when this is unplugged, and no noise when you plug a cell phone directly into the amp. I bought a noise suppressor capacitor thing, and tried wiring it into both the HAM and the amp, but with no impact on the noise. I also replaced the AUX cable thinking maybe it went bad. Only thing left I can think of is if the HAM AUX output has gone bad somehow.
Moving on, I banged out the rear quarters a bit to get a new set of tail lights in, changed to my highway tires, checked fluids, and went out to OBX.
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- #3,998
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- #4,000
@J Mack I've been conducting the first full drain test of the LiFePO4 battery array for the past 12 days. Drove the truck around till the array was at 99.97% SOC, then let it sit with the ARB fridge on since then. Average temps over the past week have been lows of 40s-50s, with highs in the 60s-70s:
www.timeanddate.com
Another interesting tidbit is that I *can* reach *at least* 99.97% SOC according to the BMS with just driving around. This is bad ass, as one of the initial concerns was that it wasn't going to be possible with a regular 12v alternator. This is a BIG win. This also confirms that my Renogy shunt monitor is more or less spot-on accurate (for charging at least, see below) as well.
ARB fridge is about 1/3 full of bud light, set to 38*. These two pictures were taken on 3/24/2021 at 10:12am EST.
I got back from vacation the other day, and went out to check battery levels just now. The Renogy monitor says 4%, which isn't great, but that's almost two full weeks of fridge use in mild weather! Not too bad.
There's a twist though, and where this gets interesting @J Mack . The BMS says that the array is still at 45% SOC. This would indicate that the shunt is configured incorrectly, which is probably true, because I never set the low voltage setting due to never discharging the cells this low. Even without that, I configured the monitor for 100ah bank capacity, and set the full charge state, which tells me that the shunt is recording too much amperage draw? Not sure, need to read into this some more.
Pretty neat though, the BMS SOC @ 45% after 12 days tells me I should be able to get nearly a month of fridge use with the truck off. Too cool!! I'm going to continue this test until the BMS cuts the array off, then try self-jumping with the battery join feature. If that all works as expected, and I can reconfigure the Renogy monitor to more accurately read discharge rates, then this LiFePO4 array really is the perfect battery solution.
Past Weather in Durham, USA — Yesterday or Further Back
Weather reports from the last weeks in Durham with highs and lows
www.timeanddate.com
Another interesting tidbit is that I *can* reach *at least* 99.97% SOC according to the BMS with just driving around. This is bad ass, as one of the initial concerns was that it wasn't going to be possible with a regular 12v alternator. This is a BIG win. This also confirms that my Renogy shunt monitor is more or less spot-on accurate (for charging at least, see below) as well.
ARB fridge is about 1/3 full of bud light, set to 38*. These two pictures were taken on 3/24/2021 at 10:12am EST.
I got back from vacation the other day, and went out to check battery levels just now. The Renogy monitor says 4%, which isn't great, but that's almost two full weeks of fridge use in mild weather! Not too bad.
There's a twist though, and where this gets interesting @J Mack . The BMS says that the array is still at 45% SOC. This would indicate that the shunt is configured incorrectly, which is probably true, because I never set the low voltage setting due to never discharging the cells this low. Even without that, I configured the monitor for 100ah bank capacity, and set the full charge state, which tells me that the shunt is recording too much amperage draw? Not sure, need to read into this some more.
Pretty neat though, the BMS SOC @ 45% after 12 days tells me I should be able to get nearly a month of fridge use with the truck off. Too cool!! I'm going to continue this test until the BMS cuts the array off, then try self-jumping with the battery join feature. If that all works as expected, and I can reconfigure the Renogy monitor to more accurately read discharge rates, then this LiFePO4 array really is the perfect battery solution.
