Welcome to botches off -road and guys if you're
wondering I waited a long time for extra room
tone because one of you have a lot of background
noise and I'm not sure who it is So I just want
to have as much room tone to clean it up. Gotcha.
Probably I I was gonna say I just turned off
all my fans all three of them. So Yes Welcome
to botches off -road. I know I just said that
it's okay Today we are talking about wraps and
wrap like items I Don't even know who's got a
wrap who did something this last weekend Yeah,
I just I've been organizing gear oh so and the
last episode I talked about my air compressor
failure so yeah, I worked on my air compressor
and I was trying to figure out what was positive,
what was negative, and plugged it into my battery,
just my little drill battery, just to see if
I could figure out which was working. It sparked
a little bit, but I think I found it out. I think
I found the right ones. If I plug it onto the
other side, it does nothing. If I plug it into
one side, it sparks a little bit, but it runs
really fucking fast. I think that's because I
have it like the battery is like one of those
larger bigger ones for like Circular saw and
it's let it for you and it's a 20 it's at least
a 20 volt or a 40 at 20. So yeah But it was running
so good. I re hooked up Reattach some Andersons
got that all plugged in clean that up So as far
as I know air compressors good next thing I'm
working on I got my battery coming tomorrow.
It's not coming from anywhere other than AutoZone,
but I'm getting it tomorrow. And then I'm going
to be ordering... We don't have any spare wire,
right? We used all that. Yeah, we used all that.
Okay, so I have another set of four gauge wires
in my... Can you stop? You're distracting me.
Alex is using his like auto follow thing with
his... It's the recording app because it does
it to me too. But yeah, so I'm, uh, what was
I doing? Hey, you distracted me. Gauge wires.
Gauge wires. Yeah. I have, uh, the wire in the
cart, the four gauge wire in the cart. Um, and
then I am going to get that ordered in, put my
Marine battery behind the seat, run that new
wire from the battery through the fire, uh, firewall,
route it somewhere where it's hidden. I don't
want those big ass wires hanging out somewhere.
Get it to the back seat and then hook it up to
the battery. So, and let me brainstorm with you
guys real quick. There shouldn't be any real
issue there, right? Going from just making a
direct connection from my main battery to the
Marine battery. Deep cell? Yeah. Yes. Yes. Like
while the vehicle's running? Shouldn't be. Because
I only plan to do that. I only plan on connecting
the Anderson together when I need to charge it.
Right? So. Yeah. You really should just spend
the like $14 on a freaking charge controller.
Charge controller. Well, I will if I need one.
That's kind of. I know we were talking about
it the other day, but... This is a much needed
conversation, because I also was trying to wrap
my head around what I need to do for another
battery. Yeah. You really should spend the, like,
16 bucks that it costs to get a 12 -volt to 12
-volt charger. Because that would naturally turn
itself off, and we don't have to worry about
it, correct? Correct. Okay, so... Let me find
one real quick Definitely gonna be a mother.
I'm gonna probably be doing this year to another
battery inside the cab Yeah, I need to do one
as well Just gives me something that I can run
stuff off without having to worry about killing
my truck. Yeah, right Okay, they are not as cheap
as I thought they were Probably looking at prices
when we first came out They're like a hundred
and fifty yeah one for sixty, but if I look up
I Think if you do an isolator that would do it
What is the yeah, here you go You would want
an ultra isolator. So what that's gonna do is
It won't let your truck draw off that battery,
but it will let that battery charge. Oh Yeah,
yeah, I actually have this in my I have the more
expensive one in And my thing but it looks like
veever has a dual battery isolator kit for 22
bucks Probably I know nylon has one for like
18 19 see I'm assuming you sent it and chat.
I did send one in chat. I don't know if it's
the cheapest one, okay Excuse me So basically
for everybody who's listening to us look what
we're trying to do is run a Secondary battery
for running like auxiliary power Other stuff
like just other stuff that isn't gonna drain
our main battery but the issue is is if we had
if we leave the like the deep cell plugged in
then I'm assuming it's just going to pull power
from our original battery when it's not charged.
The other way you could do it, which would be
really smart, is an actual relay. So on the switch
side of the relay, you're going to have power
from the battery to one side, power to your new
battery on the other, and then you tie into an
accessory. So when you turn the key on your truck,
it connects those two. That would probably be
the cheapest way. But would we need to be worried
about, like, overcharging? No, I don't think
so. Okay. Because if it's already fully charged
and I'm just running for, you know, five hours.
Yeah. And that's kind of like, I like the idea
of getting this isolated. You guys will have
to talk to each other. Okay. Well, all right.
Have fun with that. So, but yeah, no, I like
the idea of getting a isolator for this though,
because being able for it to just do that automatically,
that's probably, I mean, let's see what it says.
It's a voltage sensitive relay ensures that the
primary battery is always charged and ready to
start the vehicle by cutting in at 13 .3 volts
and cutting out at 12 .8 volts. When your engine
is turned on and the starting battery is fully
charged, the isolation will start charging the
second battery at the same time. It enables you
to charge two batteries from one alternator at
the same time. So dual battery isolator is made
of high quality, blah, blah, blah, blah. Let's
see. And it's like having two separate power
sources. The dual battery oscillator kit enables
your accessories to run from a separate battery
while the engine is not running on your vehicle
while keeping your main battery charged and your
vehicle always stays ready to go. So the basic
idea behind this, which I'm going to add this
actually to my list, to my cart, because I think
I'm going to buy it, is to have something like
this so that we can run, let's say, I need to
charge my fridge or I need to power my diesel
heater all night. What I could do is have this
battery behind the seat, make a connection from
the battery to an Anderson connector, and then
run a Anderson to the diesel heater and run the
diesel heater all night. So I did some testing.
Yesterday or the day before I ran the diesel
here. It's super, super quiet. Like you could
barely hear it at all. Yeah. And so that was
really good because I think Alex showed me his
other one in the shop. I was like, fuck, this
is loud. Nobody is going to want to listen to
this. Like they had the muffler or was just the
no. But even when he put it on, it was still
like louder than I expected. But I think it was
because we were in a room. Yeah. He was in that
main shop entry. Wait, was this his actual one
we're using for camping one for the one that
was on the meal? The one for camping. Okay, I
guess I didn't read it loud. Well, it seemed
loud from inside of that room where he started
it. So like even when it calmed down, I was like,
yeah, this seems pretty loud, but I'm assuming
that's because we were surrounded with four walls
and there was no like sound dampening. So I had
this outside on my porch and I had it plugged
into my little battery pack that anchor 521 I
have. It's only like this big. And that started
it, which was really cool. And it ran it. And
I, when I started it, I think I started at like
70%. charge on the anchor power bank. And I think
just the starting procedure, which lasted, I
don't know, I want to say five minutes or so,
five, 10 minutes, just getting the fuel pumped
in for the first time, getting it lit, the igniting,
getting it up to temp, et cetera. Just getting
it there, which I think pulls more power from
what everyone says, that brought it down to like
66%. And then It hasn't projected like run time
based off of the wattage it's pulling. So you
can always check that and look. And like the
66 % I took a picture of it and said it would
run like four hours. So that's not bad. That's
most of the night, right? But that's a full charge
from full to empty on my power bank and I would
have to recharge that power bank. And that's
not allowing for... me to charge anything else.
It's not allowing for me to use that power bank
to like charge my phone or power like a coffee
grinder or charge the fridge. So that's kind
of what led me like down into this to where like
we've been, we've all been kind of looking for
a second battery, but winter gets so cold that
like, unless we have the money to shuck out for
like a heated lithium battery. It just doesn't
make sense for us to use that like a regular
lithium. Yeah, a little liquid. Yeah, because
of the cutoff. So I mean, I was looking at that
a little bit. Alex is a little differing in opinion
there, but it's kind of the same. It's just they
become a lot less effective in the cold and they
have to have like heat pads. But even with the
heat pads, from what the video that I was talking
about, there's like an electrician talking about
the pros and cons. Even with the heat pads keeping
the battery warm, it still has a much longer
like runtime. It's much more efficient. But for
our price points, trying to do this under, what,
$200? Yeah. I think my subtotal right now in
cart, is with the wiring, so I already have the
Andersons, I might upgrade to larger Andersons
like Alex suggested. Hope I didn't miss too much.
Yeah, you did, but it's okay. But yeah, so I
might upgrade to the larger Andersons. I'm gonna
grab the isolator and the wiring. With all that,
oh, and the duct, because I do need a longer
duct. Now, the duct that I did come with was
probably only like... two feet. Is that? Oh,
you're talking for the diesel heater. Yeah. And
then the little plastic port on of it, which
I could probably use for, still use for the tent,
had a little plastic port, exhaust port that
you could use. Oh. So I ordered some tent vents
that go into your zipper. The ones I ordered
use that port. And then you put your hose to
that. And it keeps the actual 3D printed part
from melting. Yeah. So but anyway, with that,
even with that two foot of hose, I didn't get
hot enough that it would like burn me. It was
not enough that I couldn't hold my hand on it
forever. But after a long time, I'm sure it would
do some damage, but it didn't melt the plastic.
And that's kind of what I was worried about.
So anyway, I tested all that out. So with that
second battery, I should be able to do that for
days without needing. on a fully charged deep
cycle battery, I should be able to power a diesel
heater for days. Whereas the anchor, which by
the way, the anchor, the power station brand
new was $100. I've had it now for three years.
It's definitely done its part, but to get another
one, it would be a hundred some dollars or to
get a marine battery. I'm getting one for a slight
discount for probably like $80 so I can get the
marine battery for $80 I can get this isolator
kit How many amp hours is that marine battery?
Let me see if she's still I think I have the
screenshot actually still Because me and Alex
are trying to figure out potential trail welding
We're gonna run off two batteries or I'm not
sure we kind of based off of the picture. It's
a 24 MS It's a value craft Oh, it's a marine
starting battery she needs the other one yeah
The other one is a deep cycle 685 marine cranking
amps 140 RC. I don't know what that is But it
was a me Alex has more than one purpose for the
battery besides you just powering stuff Oh trail.
Yeah trail welding would be a great thing even
for me I don't know how to weld but I would learn
to weld with this To be able to make sure I could
you know get off the trail with it Does that
kit need? Deep cell batteries or does it just
work with starter batteries because that would
change what we do what oh you're talking the
the welding kit Yeah I don't know. Which building
are we looking at? Either Bonner Carnage. I thought
Carnage just needed regular car batteries. I
think it just asked for two of them. I bet you
it needs regular ones. I don't know. while you
guys look that up though so that's that's basically
my wrap i tested out the diesel heater with my
power bank and this is for alex too i got 3 .9
hours at 66 where i started so i should be able
to get maybe six hours ish with a full charge
on the power bank, but then I wouldn't be able
to charge anything else or do anything else.
So using that marine battery, storing it. I think
I want to try and encase it because I don't want
those cables and stuff to be able to fuck with
with my kid. So I might look into like a battery
box and then... Does that isolator I wonder if
that isolator has to be mounted directly where
the other battery is or if I can mount that in
the battery box With it, I don't know. I'll look
that's that's that one more time. I'm sorry.
So the isolator that nylight isolator I am asking
like just can I mount that into the battery box
with the marine battery? Or do I need to mount
it under the hood somewhere closer to the battery?
I mean it If it fits in with the marine battery,
I'd put it in there. Then it's all enclosed.
And if you take it out, you just disconnect your
Anderson and pull the whole box out. Yeah, because
technically with you, because you have a second.
No, you have a single battery, but it's relocated.
But you could mount that in the box if you had
the space for it, technically. Say my battery's
in a box. So so all I have to do when I pull
it out is pull the Anderson connector and then
pull slide out the box And when I add my second
one, I'm gonna put the Isolator in the box so
that to get that battery out. I just disconnected
that Anderson and slide it out. Mm -hmm All I'm
seeing is 24 volt batteries for the bun well,
right? I don't Yeah, I don't know if it matters.
That'd be a question to ask. Yeah Yeah, but that's
exciting too because that way it doesn't drain
my main battery to charge the marine battery
I can use that isolator That's quick shipping.
It's $21 easy peasy. I Just I have to figure
out exactly I'm assuming you just run It would
just go in between Yep, right Yep, that's exactly
what it does So, I would have to, well, so I
would have to split my positive four gauge, put
a connector on the end of it, connect it to one
of the terminals, and then the other positive,
you know, put another terminal on the other end,
connect it, and it's just a bridge, right? One
second, I'm typing out a message to Von Powerwilders.
Wow. So focused on the show here. Oh, fuck. Never
mind. That's premier and premieres a whole different
thing. I'll look into it later. But yeah. You
should just go in line between the battery and
the battery like an inline fuse, basically. Yep.
Yeah. OK. That makes sense. Yeah. So then I'll
mount that. It might be better to just mount
it up by the firewall or something. If I have
if I could find the space, we'll figure we'll
cross that bridge and we get there. Gavin has
to go through all of his electrical in the spring.
and fix some stuff. I don't have anything per
se broken. It's just I have a rat nest of wires,
and I'd like to go through a shrink tubing and
with the labeler and relabel everything so that
if I ever have to pull a wire, I know which ones
are what. But for now, I did check with Sienna,
by the way. I will not be able to make it on
the 23rd because she is... Working that whole
weekend so that I could go on the 30th so But
this will be a good tester for me to see if this
is Something that we can do pretty sure it is
So that's the fun and that's my rap at least
so I had a lot of a lot of Shit, I did but not
a lot at the same time I didn't do anything to
my truck, just all wiring stuff here. It's nothing
fun. It's just a coke. Just a coke. Well, I have
a half -drank Dr. Pepper, and the only reason
I was half -drank is because the floor drank
half of it. So yeah, the only rep I've got is
that we're going camping the 23rd. Yeah. Without
Gavin apparently because he sucks. I mean you
could talk about how you downsize your pack outs
in your truck I did I ditched my drawer system
and put all my tools in I The smaller pack I'll
give you the part number on that real quick Yeah,
no, I I really been playing with packouts this
last week I down, I got rid of my drawer and
went to a. They just call it the Milwaukee packout
compact organizer. Um, I got like six of those,
I think. And I put separated my tools out based
on what they are so that if you need something,
you just grab one box and go. You don't have
to grab, you know, you don't have to dig through
a drawer. You can just grab the actual box. Um,
and I set that up and. Put all the tools out
of the drawer plus some more tools and it took
up less space than the divers I Couldn't believe
the height difference between what you had in
drawers into those You almost like I think John's
you down the half almost Yeah, I'd say it's a
good eight inches shorter So that's pretty pretty
handy because it was kind of hard to see out
the back of the car with all the packouts so
Have made it much much shorter. Yeah And then
pack out came out with a new tool bag It is This
guy Just the 20 inch pack out tool bag. It's
about the size of the ammo can maybe a little
smaller, but it's soft sided with a zipper So
That's pretty cool. That's what I'm going to
be putting my clothes in. That way I can just
click them in outside the truck, inside the truck.
It doesn't matter. They'll fit anywhere. Also
probably going to have, going to pick up those
for clothes as well. Could be a lot nicer than
the ammo can one. And we can, it can squish down
if there's a little space and put something on
top of that. Exactly. Yeah. And you could almost
use it as a pillow. Almost. I don't know what
would be that comfortable putting your arm underneath
the packout plate. It's hard, because that's
hard plastic on the bottom. Yeah. I don't really
put my arm under my pillow. I think this summer
I'll be on a hunt for a full -size pillow that
I can pack down to a much smaller size, because
I use my room pillow when we camp now. For the
first year, I haven't been. And I deeply regret
it. So I started bringing my full size pillow
and yeah, it takes up the extra space, but I
sleep miles better with just an actual pillow
instead of like a pile of my clothing. Like I
used to sleep on the inflated pillow and my backpack
that I had my clothes in. And that was just like,
no, I can't, I'm not comfortable. So. I'm going
to be on the hunt for a good pillow. I need something
that gives my head some good rays. Yeah. Thermarest
has a pillow. I technically run two pillows,
but you got to let it sit for a little bit. It'll
get nice and plump, but it folds down too. I
just got to find a list. I have a Thermarest.
It's like chunked up memory foam. Yes. And it
extends large. And that's kind of what I use
for what I did use for the first year, pretty
much. And it was nice, but it just wasn't enough
pillow. Like, I needed more. Which size did you
go with? The large. I've just got cheap, like,
chunked -up memory foam small pillows. I could
put big pillows in there. That's what I sleep
with at home, though, is a chunked -up memory
foam pillow, because then I can squish the padding
wherever I want to make it as big as I want.
Yeah. Mine is, like, heavy. I don't know what's
in it. I don't know if it's memory foam. I've
had it for, like, 15 years, and it's my pillow.
Like, nobody touches that motherfucker. It's
all mine. And it weighs the size of, like, it
weighs as much as a small kid. I don't know what's
in it. I just know it's perfect. Probably asbestos.
I don't even care. I sleep so well on it, I'll
chance the asbestos. That kind of thing, that
upgraded my sleep game, which is really important
when we're out doing that kind of shit. Leagues
and bounds, no more sleeping on camp gear. That
was so nice. Because the bad part about these
pillows is like... Maybe I just have a big -ass
head, but it doesn't matter. Even the memory
foam pillows, eventually they get flat with just
the weight of your head on them. So like the
Thermarest did. Yeah, and the big memory foam,
the ones that have memory foam chunks in them,
the big ones, you just add more, because you
can buy just the fill for it. And those are great.
Honestly, I'm going to be getting a couple of
those to put in the swag, because I'm so sick
of using those tiny pillows. And with the swag,
it's not a space. You know, I'm not worried about
space. I just roll it up in there anyway. Yeah.
Yeah, so... Yeah, other than that, though, this
week, I don't really think I've done much. I've
been organizing more. I'm just, I'm getting so
tired. And then, like, I'm not gonna lie, I've
been watching the X Overland a lot on repeat
just because it's on. And they're just so fucking
organized. And then, like, it almost points out
to how unorganized I am. Just in the house and
stuff. Like not even like with my gear in the
house, like I have flashlights and headlamps
everywhere. And like, so I'm trying to get all
of my gear situated and categorized and labeled
so that when I do want to go, I could just boom,
grab it. Hey, I need headlamps. Let's pick out
of these headlamps. Um, I'm buying a multi -port
like charging station so that I could charge
all of my headlamps, my lights. Um, anything
that requires charging, like my, uh, my water
pump, um, my, uh, inflator for like the air mattresses
or whatever, have all that charging in one area
instead of having 15 cords all around the house
because I don't have enough plugs. So I'm working
on that. I, I'm just so tired of like, like when
like we, we did the, uh, the new year's run.
I was going all around the house. Okay, I need
to get this. I need to get that. Where'd this
go? Where'd that go? And then I ended up forgetting
like the most important thing, the camera mount
for my new camera. And it was like, I'm just,
I'm over that. I can't stand the unorganization.
Yeah. I feel it. Um, the thing that's really
been helping me with that is the pack out system
because then I can just make a pack out for whatever
I need. And when it's time to go, I just grab
every pack out. Yeah. I, I, Definitely like that
about the packouts. Um, I think I just, I categorize
things so, um, specifically, like I have a, like
a specific place for coffee cups, specific place
for lighting, specific place for bedding, um,
charged equipment, like the inflators and water
pumps and stuff. And I think If I was to try
it, I could mash it all into one pack out. Um,
I think that my answer probably would be just
a large pack out with slots in it to separate
each one. So that like, you know what I mean?
Like with the separators in between dividers,
I think, I think you'd be better off doing the
smaller packouts. Yeah. For each different type
of thing. Right. Um, and so, but the packouts
would be great. It's just like, I'm not set up
for packouts and I don't necessarily plan to
be. So having a bunch of those small boxes, it's
the price of getting into it. That's like, I
don't know, maybe not worth it right now. I,
what I'd like to be able to do is to have one
space in my house that has all my gear that I
can go to with, you know, a box or something
and go, okay, I'm going to need two of these.
I'm gonna need two of these. I need to grab these
and these. put them in the box, put them in my
drawer system, and then when I'm done, grab the
box, take them out, put them back all on the
chargers inside where it's warm. Um, so I don't
know, like, cause I do have a shelf right now,
like a shelf system where I have spare water
in case you run out of power on the bottom, uh,
like in the house. Um, and then I have Like the
coffee stuff. I have the drawers that were in
the back of my truck I have those and I have
those full of gear and then I have like my sleeping
bags hanging up so that they can aerate Then
I have my pads and stuff. It's all pretty nice
and organized I just want to get everything better
because I have gear in the kids room I have my
whole room if you walk into it is You know what?
We should stop here and then talk about this
for half of our hour -long episode. Yeah. We
are at 30 minutes, so that would be our wrap
anyway. So stay tuned for next week. Yeah. Next
week. Next episode. You can hear more.