Category: 2008 FJ Cruiser Overlander

After moving to Mesa, AZ, the fridge gets incredibly hungry in the summers. Basically, what would last 2-3 days on an AGM battery in Colorado, lasts barely a day in this incessant summer heat. So I abandoned the AGM battery and upgraded to a Lithium Iron Phosphate battery. The advantages of these batteries are surprising. The best thing is that a 100AHr battery will discharge 95% before going dead. An AGM is done after 45% discharge. The LiFeP battery is also less than half the weight. These batteries are not suited for hot environments, so engine compartments are not ideal. I have solar attached to the FJ, but even in direct sun, can get 5-6A max, so if the battery is at 50%, it will take 10 hours to recharge, ridge running.

I decided to move my RedArc DC/DC charger from the engine compartment to the rear cargo area. In the cargo area, with my cargo there is exactly enough space between the side and the small space under the rear pocket window. I fished a 2g battery cable through the firewall and to the rear compartment and created a fused link to the DC/DC charger. Due to the solar low charge capability, I purchased a 20A AC/DC Renogy charger to manage the battery more efficiently. And as long as I was doing this, I purchased an AC plug adapter used in RVs and mounted it through plastic rear quarter panel into the cargo area. Since these were two AC wired one up to the charger and the other to the fridge. The effect of this is when in the garage, I can plug in AC to the back of the FJ, and it will power the charger and switch the Fridge to AC. Perfect for FJ while I work from home.

The only thing I have left, is to add in a fuse box and an DC/AC inverter. This will allow me to power computer and a monitor for working on the road, and possibly will power a cook-top, leaving the need for propane to emergency only.

I’ll add some pics, but in all reality, it is boring as the wiring, battery, and charging are tucked away and hidden.

next project….water pump connected to power and with and ability to take a road shower when needed.

I decided I wanted to rebuild my FJ to get all of the add-ons installed with a proper plan rather than over 11 years of ownership. But it’s my daily driver. So I decided to purchase a scratch and dent FJ. Here is Project Zins after my favorite wine, 7 Deadly Zins.

She is a 2007 burgundy FJ with a complete title, not salvage. I purchased her for $5k from a guy in Maryland. The draw was the price and the fact it was almost drivable. I figured it would require a fender, door, and hood. There is a bit more damage, but It looks as if he hit a guard rail. He already replaced the UCA and LCA and steering knuckle. He said it needed a half axle.

I flew out to Maryland to pick it up. I should have added in the half axle right away but thought I’d make it to the hotel. Forgot the front wheel requires the axle to be attached so I had to do some road repairs to get it to the hotel.

Well after some investigation, it needed front brakes and a half axle. I brought the half axle with me as I had some spares (TSA was confused). It took a trip to Harbor Freight to get some additional tools and Autozone for calipers, rotors, and pads. Then I got to work. Getting the half axle out was tough, but I won. Then I tightened the suspension and steering up and began on the brakes. I had called the guy and asked about the brakes and he said he changed them for tundra brakes but couldn’t tell me the year. So I put them back to stock.

It turns out this guy is one of those that doesn’t do regular maintenance, but thinks upgrades improve the vehicle. He hadn’t changed the oil and hosed up the engine. It cost him $5k to have Toyota completely rebuild the engine about 80k prior.

Well, I got the brakes installed, and the first thing in the morning on Saturday, I bled the brakes and took it for a test drive. It ran great and now stopped perfectly. A few other checks and I was in my way back to AZ around noon.

The steering was a bit off, but it drove well. The first few tanks I averaged 19mpg, until I started in the mountains and then with the headwinds across the plains. Overall trip was 16mpg.

So now the work begins.

I decided I wanted to rebuild my FJ to get all of the add-ons installed with a proper plan rather than over 11 years of ownership. But it’s my daily driver. So I decided to purchase a scratch and dent FJ. Here is Project Zins after my favorite wine, 7 Deadly Zins.

She is a 2007 burgundy FJ with a complete title, not salvage. I purchased her for $5k from a guy in Maryland. The draw was the price and the fact it was almost drivable. I figured it would require a fender, door, and hood. There is a bit more damage, but It looks as if he hit a guard rail. He already replaced the UCA and LCA and steering knuckle. He said it needed a half axle.

I flew out to Maryland to pick it up. I should have added in the half axle right away but thought I’d make it to the hotel. Forgot the front wheel requires the axle to be attached so I had to do some road repairs to get it to the hotel.

Well after some investigation, it needed front brakes and a half axle. I brought the half axle with me as I had some spares (TSA was confused). It took a trip to Harbor Freight to get some additional tools and Autozone for calipers, rotors, and pads. Then I got to work. Getting the half axle out was tough, but I won. Then I tightened the suspension and steering up and began on the brakes. I had called the guy and asked about the brakes and he said he changed them for tundra brakes but couldn’t tell me the year. So I put them back to stock.

It turns out this guy is one of those that doesn’t do regular maintenance, but thinks upgrades improve the vehicle. He hadn’t changed the oil and hosed up the engine. It cost him $5k to have Toyota completely rebuild the engine about 80k prior.

Well, I got the brakes installed, and the first thing in the morning on Saturday, I bled the brakes and took it for a test drive. It ran great and now stopped perfectly. A few other checks and I was in my way back to AZ around noon.

The steering was a bit off, but it drove well. The first few tanks I averaged 19mpg, until I started in the mountains and then with the headwinds across the plains. Overall trip was 16mpg.

So now the work begins.

That makes more sense…

I have lots of favorite upgraded in the FJ Cruiser and one of the many bests is the ARB Fridge in the back that keeps the water, sodas, and beers cold. I have been tuning it for years and made it a full-time item over two years ago. I ran into problems with battery fatigue caused by too many discharges. It turned out that the battery was not being adequately charged with the solenoid circuit and the alternator. So instead of purchasing another battery, I added in a RedArc BCDC2525D charging system. It conditions the AGM battery properly and during the Alaska trip, as long as I didn’t keep the 300W inverter running overnight, the battery would never go below 12.3V. However, now that I live in Mesa, Arizona and it is F****NG hot here, the fridge has a hard time keeping things cold. In its valiant efforts in a 150 degree vehicle, it sucks current from the battery and in less than a day can decimate the battery.

Since the RedArc charger has a solar circuit, I bought a 100W solar panel on Amazon Prime days and hooked it up. It puts out 4-6A of current consistently during the day and since the fridge should not take more than 1-2 Amps, It should not suck the battery dry. The problem, however is that it seems to maintain 12.2V when charging, but when I am driving, it ignores the alternator input and just uses solar. This would be OK if the system would boost charge at 14V, but it will not. I decided to send a note to RedArc and ask for some advice.

To RedArc: I have a yellow-top battery as a secondary in my FJ Cruiser. It is isolated from the main and I use a BCDC2525D system to charge it. The battery is only 55AH, but its primary job is to power USB and an ARB 60L fridge. It has worked great so far on a 7 week overlanding trip. However, I have noticed that if the temperature outside is in the 80’sF (26C), the battery will last up to 2 days with the fridge and the truck off. It has so far charged the battery perfectly with daily driving.

However, I recently moved to Phoenix Arizona, which has temperatures outside above 100 deg F (38C). This makes the truck interior hot and the fridge has to work extremely hard to keep the temperatures down. I generally keep the windows cracked, but basically the fridge will drain the battery in less than 12 hours in this heat. So I purchased a 100W solar panel and in full sun it puts out 4-6 Amps of current throughout the day, so I thought this would keep the battery charged. It seemed to work the first two days with the truck sitting. But the battery was down to 12.0 V about mid day today so I drove it around for an hour on errands and I noticed an issue: the solar keeps the charging voltage to 12.2 to 12.4 V rather than the normal 13.5-14.3V that it was charging from the alternator input alone (through the BCDC2525D). Is this how it is supposed to work? Tonight the battery was at 11.7V and I shut the fridge off to keep it from draining the battery to cutoff.

I understand the temperatures are hot here this time of year, but I would expect the RedArc charger to kick charging up to max 14V when the truck is operating, especially if the solar is only putting out 4-6A.

Should I rig up an isolator that disconnects the solar circuit when the truck is running so the BCDC2525D will use only the vehicle alternator charging circuit?

I will see what they say.