E350 Chinook Build

luthj

Engineer In Residence
All batteries loose significant capacity when cold, especially below 0F cold. If you don't have a temp compensated charger, those batteries are getting badly undercharged, even with good solar. At low temps they may need 16V for a full charge.

Do you have a battery meter? Failing to fully charge them every 3-7 days will kill them fast. A full charge after 5 days of partial cycling may take 20 hours at the absorb voltage (charge until the return current drops to 1% of the rated capacity).
 

hurstjd

Adventurer
Willy. You have done an amazing job with this beast! Thank you so much for sharing! Love all of it!
 

hurstjd

Adventurer
Willy. On your push button cabinet latches. How are they working? I've read some reviews about them them not working good. Are they hard to install?
 

willywalderbeast

Master of None
All batteries loose significant capacity when cold, especially below 0F cold. If you don't have a temp compensated charger, those batteries are getting badly undercharged, even with good solar. At low temps they may need 16V for a full charge.

Do you have a battery meter? Failing to fully charge them every 3-7 days will kill them fast. A full charge after 5 days of partial cycling may take 20 hours at the absorb voltage (charge until the return current drops to 1% of the rated capacity).

Yes my solar controller does have a temp sensor ran to where the battery compartment is. It’s been COLD and cloudy for many days. Cleared up today and the battery’s charged up pretty well. We’ll see what happens.
 

willywalderbeast

Master of None
Willy. On your push button cabinet latches. How are they working? I've read some reviews about them them not working good. Are they hard to install?

They still work great! Make sure to purchase the metal ones, not the plastic ones. Install is easy, drill the proper size hole in the door and mount the catch!
 

willywalderbeast

Master of None
Quick little video showing how she goes in the snow! We got about 12” of snow overnight, had to help 3 other people out the lot that were blocking the exit. Then I pulled right out! That night at Copper Ski resort the parking lot was a ******** show. Probably got another 8-10” during the day. Must have been 100+ cars and truck stuck in the lot everywhere! I helped a bunch of people and the rig was unstoppable thru the lot.

 

68camaro

Any River...Any Place
Quick little video showing how she goes in the snow! We got about 12” of snow overnight, had to help 3 other people out the lot that were blocking the exit. Then I pulled right out! That night at Copper Ski resort the parking lot was a **** show. Probably got another 8-10” during the day. Must have been 100+ cars and truck stuck in the lot everywhere! I helped a bunch of people and the rig was unstoppable thru the lot.

Nice video and good info. While leaving a spot steelhead fishing in Dec we had to get up steep but short snowy incline, biggest problem was very little area to accelerate before hitting incline. Couple trucks tried in 2wd but had to switch to 4wd, being 2wd I was worried but Chinook made it up with no hesitation or slipping. I have tire chains but have not used them yet.
 

eporter

Adventurer
Nah, it’s just getting broken in! I wonder what size of rear spoiler would be needed to help blow the dust off the back of a Chinook? Less of an issue with a side entry, but annoying with the standard rear entry to have everything coated in dust.
 

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