Ares - A Build Thread

[thehops]

30 JUNE 2020 Part 1

Warning: Picture heavy post.

As indicated by my last post, I expected my cockpit to be next in the pipeline. Well, all of the remaining parts arrived today, so I got straight to work.

My vision was to have a customizable, centralized yet low profile "command center" that would incorporate my phone, an *actual" GPS (with off road maps), and my personal SOS beacon (which also has trail and topo maps). I also wanted a mounting solution for my GoPro to film trail runs. With all of these devices, I didn't want a spaghetti monster of cords, so having a hidden USB hub in the vicinity of the devices was also a must. That is the main reason why I opted to go with the mounts that I did, being that they retain a portion of the recessed top cubby. After months of planning, I put together the following:

Devices (I've owned most of these for some time now):
-Phone
-Garmin Overlander
-Garmin inReach Explorer+
-GoPro Hero 7 Black
-USB charging hub (Disclaimer: I goofed and ordered an AC input/DC output hub instead of a DC input/DC output hub. I already have a compatible replacement on the way, but I will go ahead with the how-to as proof of concept)

Also, a previously installed sPOD HD panel, which is pictured in the final wide angle shot, rounds out my "command center" devices. Install is not covered in this post. Also, I purchased a pre-made harness that allows for a 10a fused circuit piggybacked off of the 12v port.

Hardware:
-CMM grab bar 20mm ball
-67d small arms x2
-67d nano arm
-67d diamond plate
-67d amps plate
-67d GoPro mount
-67d universal phone clamp
-Bulletproof driver side dual 20mm ball mount
-Bulletproof passenger side single 20mm ball mount

Another CMM mount (A pillar 20mm ball mount) and another 67d nano arm support the sPOD HD panel.

To get started, I installed a locking case on my Garmin Overlander that adds stability and offers a bit of protection, and allows me to hard mount it to the 67d diamond plate. I also swapped out the backing on the charging cradle for my inReach.

With that bit of prep work out of the way, I placed the Bulletproof mounts to determine how much space I had to work with. I determined that I was going to use the small left side indent as an ingress point for the USB hub wiring.

Before drilling, I wanted to make sure things were clear behind the dash, so I started popping panels. This was much easier than I expected. If you are unsure, Google the how-to for the JL for a step-by-step in real time. The down and dirty though, is to start with the panel with the AC controls. It is completely held in place by clips. I started with a plastic trim tool nearest to the passenger grab bar, and worked my way across the top to the push start button. Once you have that out of place, you can work on the radio. I have the upgraded radio, but I imagine it is similar for the 7" system. There are two screws at the base of the radio to remove, that will allow you to peel off the radio surround trim, which is also held on by clips.

Once those are undone and the trim is removed, you will see four screws at the corners of the radio. Undo these, and the radio will pop loose.

Once behind the radio, I was able to see my ingress point. It appeared to be safely away from all obstructions, and was not blocked by the radio when in place.

At this point, I decided to remove the freedom panels and drop the windshield in order to give myself more room to work, and so that I could drill straight downward. I used a dremel and a small bit to drill out and gradually widen the hole until the clipped USB hub wires fit snugly through. I used a small cardboard box that one of my 67d parts came in to catch all of the plastic shavings, then I hit the top side with a shop vac. The result is fairly clean, and would be easily covered by the Mopar insert if taken back to stock.

 

[thehops]

30 JUN 2020 Part 2

Having completed that, it was time to work on the lower part of the dash and get my piggyback harness up behind the radio. The lower dash (with the window controls) is held in place by a single screw, and numerous clips. Once this screw is undone, gently pry on the upper corners with your fingers and it will pop out of place.

Once that is out of the way, look directly behind the 12v port and identify the plug. Pinch against the blue clip, and remove the OEM harness.

With the purchased harness (I found them on both Amazon/Quadratec for $30, plus or minus a few bucks) plug in the appropriate piece to the OEM 12v from where you just removed the stock plug, and plug the stock piece in to the splitter on the purchased harness. In the picture below, the left piece (OEM harness) plugs in to the right piece (splitter on the purchased harness).

After that take the free end, and route it up behind the radio, and pull through. It was a bit tight for my ham hands, but not too bad once you find the route. After that, I turned on the ignition and I hit it with my multimeter to make sure everything was good.

At this point, you would strip the positive and negative wires on the USB hub, insert it in to the corresponding opening on the purchased harness, and tighten down the clamps for a solid connection. I did not do this, because it was at this point that I realized that I did not have the appropriate hub. I will fix this next week when my new hub comes in. Once that is complete, make sure all wires are tucked safely away from pinch points, and you are good to reinstall all of the trim. Don't forget to reinstall all of the screws (again: one for the lower dash piece, four for the radio, two for the radio trim)! At this point you may have two extra screws if you undid the ones in the top dash cubby. They are all identical, so don't worry about mixing them up (can't speak for the 7" radio screws, but I assume they are also the same).

The rest is just setting up your devices how you like. The following is my personal setup.

I started off by installing my inReach on the passenger grab bar, on the CMM 20mm ball and a 67d nano arm with a 67d amps plate backing on the Garmin charging cradle. Before I finally buttoned up my trim, I routed my charging cradle wires partially behind the trim. It was snug, but did not interfere with the form or function of anything.

After that, I began attaching arms and mounts to the Bulletproof bases up top. For the ball mounts, from left to right, I have a 67d small arm with the universal phone mount, a 67d small arm attached to a 67d diamond plate attached directly to my Garmin Overlander case, and a 67d GoPro mount that mounts directly to a 20mm ball. This is the final result with everything installed (minus the phone that I was taking pictures with, but you get the idea).

And here's a bonus picture of the field of view from the GoPro. I expect it'll create some awesome hyperlapses of my adventures.

I'm very happy with the end result. The final picture was taken a bit low to highlight the devices. At my height, line of sight is minimally impacted. This may not be the case for a shorter driver. The GPS blocks my right side hood vent when in a relaxed driving position, but the entirety of the road is still visible. Along with that, all wires are clean and out of sight, and all devices (will be, once I install the new hub) are wired to charge off of the ignition, and sleep when not powered by the vehicle.

This was sort of both an update, and a how-to for a solution that I've seen minimal posts on. I may try to cross post it to the how-to section. Feel free to reach out with any questions if any of you have something similar in mind.

P.S. / In other news, I pre-ordered the RSI Smart Cap, so come October/November, as of right now, that will be the direction my build is going in as far as supporting my sleep and storage setup.

 

[thehops]

This build thread is now up to date! I'll try to keep it updated in real time moving forward!

As of right now, my top priority is getting the sleep and storage setup in place so that I can get the rig back out as a fully self contained solution. As of right now, I'm sporting a ground tent, and my truck bed is open to the elements. Moving forward, my plan is to install an RSI stainless steel camper shell (pre-ordered, ships in October), and to top both the shell and the roof over the cab with Rhino Rack platforms. From there, I will be able to mount my tent, spare fuel, and 360 degrees of lighting.

This rig is a constant work in progress, so it'll be interesting to see how my plans develop between now and the fall.

 

[thehops]

Follow-up:

Here's the finished product of the dash setup with the DC hub in place. It is a 6 port, making it slightly wider than the 4 port that I previously had, so instead of laying it flat inside of the cubby I simply used double sided 3M tape to secure it to the back wall.



It works flawlessly, and powers my 3 attached accessories off of the ignition without issue. Very easy, and very worthwhile mod for me.

 

[thehops]

I haven't updated in a while, as the mods have slowed down pending a major upgrade ($$$) next month. My camper shell and new rooftop tent should be coming in in October. With that, I'll have a platform with which to incorporate a few more planned modifications, one of which is solar. A couple of parts came in today and I figured I'd share my plans.

I picked up a semi-flexible, 55W, 42"x14" monocrystalline solar panel, and a Bluetooth enabled MPPT charge controller from Victron Energy. My plan is to have a quick release solar panel attached to the top of my iKamper Skycamp Mini with industrial strength double sided adhesive, and the tent will be mounted on my camper shell, so that any time the tent is mounted and I'm in "expedition mode," I'll have solar capability to regenerate power while running the fridge/lights and charging devices at camp. I plan on routing the wire from the roof with the 5 ft of included wire, which will place the quick disconnect accessible at the black X. After that, a 15 ft MC4 extension cord will route between the bed and the cab, through an inlet on the bulkhead, along the bottom of the (not installed yet) bed rail, and will terminate at the end of the yellow line at the stock bed outlet location. There, I'll have an MC4 housing to accept the extension cord.

From there, I'll route from the outlet, between the body panels and up through the rear right cab vent, behind the rear passenger seat and up to where I'll have the charge controller mounted.

From there, the battery wires will route back out through the same inlet as the panel wires, along the right side frame rails and up to the batteries.

I'll be using 10 gauge wire throughout in order to minimize voltage drop. I don't foresee any big complications with this routing. Within the next week, I plan on bolting in the charge controller, running wires, and installing the MC4 socket in the bed. I may make minor changes, but this is the overall idea. We'll see how it goes! I'll be sure to share the finished product. Thanks for the information that you provided, @ikamper!

 

[thehops]

I made some progress today towards implementing solar. I plan to have the groundwork finished tomorrow. After that, I'll have to wait for my camper shell and RTT to finish the installation properly, but I will be testing the setup once I finish up tomorrow.

I started off by drilling a 11/16" hole in the plastic access panel where my bed outlet would be. I will have my MC4 receptacle mounted to this with self tapping screws. It looks a bit crooked in the picture because it's not screwed in yet.

Once that was situated and wire was loomed up, I began routing down, and along the top of the right side frame rail, following the harness for my rear bumper lights that I wired previously, up to the right rear shock, near the break between the body and the bed.

Once there, I moved to the inside to try and figure out how best to access the right rear cab vent to run wiring through. I was prepared to pull out the entire rear seat, but fortunately it turned out to be very simple. Fold down the rear seat, and there are two small plastic covers in the bin behind the seat. Pop them off and undo the two T20 torx bolts. After that, simply pull and the whole assembly pops out to reveal the cab vent.

From here I used my trusty wire hanger, and pushed it down through the vent until it was accessible beneath the vehicle.

From there, I taped my harness cords and pulled back through the vent. It took a bit of convincing, and stuffing wire back in to displaced loom, but otherwise it was painless. I secured the loom on a hole in the body panel just below the vent, so it would not slide down.

Now that the wires were in place, I worked on mounting the charge controller to the bin I pulled out. I could not get a good angle to drill in to the front, because there looks to be some type of plastic welds that keep the storage bin from separating in to manageable pieces, so I made a quick cardboard template and drilled in from the back. I also cut a small access panel in the bottom with a sharp knife and a dremel thin cutting wheel to route the solar panel wires in, and the battery wires out.

The charge controller mounts perfectly. It is out if sight, and will allow me to monitor charge and discharge rates via bluetooth. I didn't leave it mounted because I am running the battery wires tomorrow. I would have done it today, but unfortunately I ran out of wire loom. After a quick trip to Lowe's for some self tapping screws for the MC4 receptacle, and a stop from the Amazon van with my 50ft of wire loom, I should have a fully functioning, clean solar setup.

I'll update with more progress.

 

[thehops]

The solar install is complete and is functioning exactly as intended. Better than, even.

As stated before, I'm still waiting on my camper shell and new tent for the actual solar panel mounting, but after completing this it is now ready to plug and play. There were a few minor headaches, but nothing major.

So, today I finished running the wiring from the battery, to the charge controller by way of the top of the passenger side frame rail, and up through the rear passenger cab vent, the same spot I utilized to run the solar panel input wires to the charge controller. The trusty wire hanger came in handy again, and made routing wires through cramped spots (down through the engine bay and up through the cab vent) relatively painless.

Once the last set of wires were in the cab, I attached everything to the charge controller, bolted it to the bin, and popped it back in to place...only to find that the top two bolts were too long and wouldn't allow the bin to snap back in to place. Fortunately, it was nothing a quick hit with the dremel couldn't fix. I cut the bolts shorter, and the bin snapped in to place. I think it turned out to be a very clean, hidden install, and there is no interference with the charge controller's bluetooth capability.

Once that was done, I did a quick continuity check on the wires in the engine bay to make sure everything was good, then I crimped terminals on and hit them with heat shrink to protect the connections. Genesis recommends attaching solar directly to the pos/neg bus bars, so that is what I did.

After getting the go ahead light on the charge controller, I downloaded the app, and plugged in my 55W panel to test: Success!

On my quick test in indirect sunlight, output was nearly 2 amps, which should be more than enough to offset the drain from my camp fridge (roughly 1.25 amps) and small electronics during the day. I'm not worried at all about battery drain overnight since I run dual deep cycle 68 amp hour batteries.

Another priority project checked off. Now, if only October would come so I could get some camping done...