Good video. Change your stone guard over to a stone stomper. I've got one on the BT, and it's great. More weight savings. A bolt hole in the old guard tube of the van can retain a D shackle makes the Stone Stomper mount easy.
Easy fix on the solar, gotta like that! I noticed the panels have no air circulation underneath (recommended, overheating reduces output), but if they keep working - no probs. Cheers
must be the angle we filmed it as the panels are raised off the roof for air circulation it has alloy strips down the length of the panels but happy about the cheap and easy fix cheers Kev
Great tips & advice Kev & Chris Is going from a 3.7 to 3.5 going to save that much weight? Would love to see how you attach the seats for sliding & swivelling. Cheers 🍻👍🏼
I was going to get a 3.5 but got a 3.7 as it was around 15kg different 3.7 a lot more safer.Enjoy king ash Bay but Don't forget your ear plugs generators run 24/7.and no fish.lol.
not usually save that much weight but our 3.7 was a special build for us with extra HS about another 100 mm higher than a normal HS and a square back transom much more alloy in the rear for the extra height and shape and flooring and extra alloy for seats and bimini slide it weighs 160 kg where a 3.5 HS is around 85 kg but we will add some weight with a very small light weight floor section and seats ,we want to keep it well under 100 kg or less if possible we will do a short vid when we set out the boat cheers Kev
Cheers for your response Kev & Chris, yeah 100mm extra to the normal HS, & extra alloy in the transom would push it over. Our floor is carpeted alloy screwed down to welded C-channel (quite thin but just thick enough, done by Flash Rat boat mods in Perth) Cheers 👍🏼🍻
It's a hit and miss affair troubleshooting...you think it could be this and turns out to be that. Great episode. The weight reduction excersise will be interesting. Hope you let us know what the new tow-ball weight is. That's a great tip for cleaning out the jets. I think I need to do something like this to my mums gas bbq.
The solar shorting, because they are connected in parallel you may find the short was taking power away from the other 2 also reducing the total. Good method of locating fault. If you can place heat shrink or tube over connections to stop shorting. With rack move some weight to back on rear bar maybe trailer axle or jerrycan holders. You can buy alum jerrycan holders for rear bar.
Glad we have the solar sorted ,but for the weight our main objective is to reduce weight in the ute tray not so much the weight on the draw bar but if we lighten the drawbar we can put a bit from the tray on there cheers Kev
Hi, just a comment on your solar I think I understand from a previous comment why the solar panels are in parallel, is it because they are on the enerdrive system. from what I understand the enerdrive system will only handle a open circuit voltage of around 23 volts which means you’re unable to run them in series. This is part of the reason why I decided to go with Victron as I’m able to run house panels, I run two 265 watt panels in series with an open circuit voltage of 76Volts on a MPPT charge controller. I find using house panels, far more efficient in the low light and overcast days and more power early morning and late evening. Just a thought. Kind Regards, Spook.
first connector was a ring /loop ,changed it to a forked connector the ring was partially bridged by the plastic shoulders between pos and neg terminals cheers Kev
luckily it was just a bad connection, had no trouble with our solar since but have had problems with the new lithium batteries (changed them at xmas last year) will be changing over to Enerdrive after the trip we are on now cheers Kev
Lovely Ep and nice work sorting out your solar and extra weight guys,
we are getting there slowly but surely
cheers Kev
Good video. Change your stone guard over to a stone stomper. I've got one on the BT, and it's great. More weight savings. A bolt hole in the old guard tube of the van can retain a D shackle makes the Stone Stomper mount easy.
Thanks for the tip!
Good to see that you're keeping busy between trips.😊
always something to improve on making it better for next trip
cheers Kev
Easy fix on the solar, gotta like that! I noticed the panels have no air circulation underneath (recommended, overheating reduces output), but if they keep working - no probs. Cheers
must be the angle we filmed it as the panels are raised off the roof for air circulation it has alloy strips down the length of the panels but happy about the cheap and easy fix
cheers Kev
Great tips & advice Kev & Chris
Is going from a 3.7 to 3.5 going to save that much weight?
Would love to see how you attach the seats for sliding & swivelling.
Cheers 🍻👍🏼
I was going to get a 3.5 but got a 3.7 as it was around 15kg different 3.7 a lot more safer.Enjoy king ash Bay but Don't forget your ear plugs generators run 24/7.and no fish.lol.
not usually save that much weight but our 3.7 was a special build for us with extra HS about another 100 mm higher than a normal HS and a square back transom much more alloy in the rear for the extra height and shape and flooring and extra alloy for seats and bimini slide it weighs 160 kg where a 3.5 HS is around 85 kg but we will add some weight with a very small light weight floor section and seats ,we want to keep it well under 100 kg or less if possible
we will do a short vid when we set out the boat
cheers Kev
we usally do ok fish wise at KAB but do much better at Limmen Bight but have been told of a few hot spots so will give them a try this trip
cheers Kev
Cheers for your response Kev & Chris, yeah 100mm extra to the normal HS, & extra alloy in the transom would push it over.
Our floor is carpeted alloy screwed down to welded C-channel (quite thin but just thick enough, done by Flash Rat boat mods in Perth)
Cheers 👍🏼🍻
It's a hit and miss affair troubleshooting...you think it could be this and turns out to be that.
Great episode. The weight reduction excersise will be interesting. Hope you let us know what the new tow-ball weight is.
That's a great tip for cleaning out the jets. I think I need to do something like this to my mums gas bbq.
we are just so glad it was an easy fix and cheap too
cheers kev
The solar shorting, because they are connected in parallel you may find the short was taking power away from the other 2 also reducing the total.
Good method of locating fault.
If you can place heat shrink or tube over connections to stop shorting.
With rack move some weight to back on rear bar maybe trailer axle or jerrycan holders. You can buy alum jerrycan holders for rear bar.
Glad we have the solar sorted ,but for the weight our main objective is to reduce weight in the ute tray not so much the weight on the draw bar but if we lighten the drawbar we can put a bit from the tray on there
cheers Kev
Good to see you wearing your Irish safety boots.
Safety first can't beat thongs for this type of work
cheers Kev
Hi, just a comment on your solar I think I understand from a previous comment why the solar panels are in parallel, is it because they are on the enerdrive system. from what I understand the enerdrive system will only handle a open circuit voltage of around 23 volts which means you’re unable to run them in series. This is part of the reason why I decided to go with Victron as I’m able to run house panels, I run two 265 watt panels in series with an open circuit voltage of 76Volts on a MPPT charge controller. I find using house panels, far more efficient in the low light and overcast days and more power early morning and late evening. Just a thought. Kind Regards, Spook.
seems like you know your stuff ,I am just happy mine is working properly now
cheers Kev
Been watching your videos 📹 and not seen one on the specs of your van inside and out pls do if you wish
not really sure what you are after send me a message and we will have a look at it
if you are interested good chance others are also
cheers Kev
Looking good thanks for sharing 🦘
thanks for watching
cheers kev
If it was a forked connector, why did you put a forked connector back?
first connector was a ring /loop ,changed it to a forked connector
the ring was partially bridged by the plastic shoulders between pos and neg terminals
cheers Kev
nice video
Thanks for the visit
"Not good with heights", but wearing THONGS to climb the ladder ????
good aussie safety boots ,workplace health and safety would use me as a bad example
cheers Kev
Queenslanders only own thongs
At least he had the industrial ones on !!!
it will have a 1-2 warranty once you buy it 2 bad
luckily it was just a bad connection, had no trouble with our solar since but have had problems with the new lithium batteries (changed them at xmas last year) will be changing over to Enerdrive after the trip we are on now
cheers Kev