Critter350

[Critter350]

Cheers Myralga

I looked at lots of tanks and planned this out (ie procrastinated) for a long time, to get to the point where I’m making it up as I go.
This tank is probably still the best shape to fit in the space available (other than custom), and $60 is hard the beat.




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Critter350]

Isolation is good for having some extra time, but the heavy lifting gets a bit complicated. Managed to get the canopy off and tray flipped solo.




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Critter350]

Cut the tray for battery access and mocked up the drawer.


General layout. Battery box and water tank are fixed. Drawer floor is Ali security mesh, shovel, treds and tent poles(1 in the picture, holds 6) with the drawer.


If this photo is confusing, the upturned tray is being used as a bench, flip the tray round other way up and sit on top of the rest here.1m drawer runners will extend the drawer to the back of the mesh.
Bit of spare room for light stuff, maybe hoses.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[NZMarkb]

Looking good mate
I know what you mean about the heavy lifts, just fitted a winch & Bullbar on my 200
A few skinned knuckles and a sore back

[Critter350]

Calling practical completion of this lock down project. Few tidy up jobs to go but there’s always something to do.
The original scope was to add a water tank. The drawer and battery box were scope creep, and messed with the original water tank location.
So to recap I replaced the original 100mm Z purlin sitting on 40mm unistrut ‘lattice structure’ with 150mm Z purlin rails, for an overall 10mm increase in height.


Battery box is framed in with more Z purlin.
Battery box itself is 1.6mm Ali, cut out with a jigsaw and bent up with an old bed frame and g clamps.



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Critter350]

Battery box is finished with 12mm marine ply base, reinforced for the 8mm ss threaded rod hold downs

reinforced pump mounts


access for wiring and plumbing
then wrapped for insulation.



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Critter350]

Cut a hole in the tray for access just behind the head board, and made a drop in cover out of the material that was removed.


Water tank bracket is out of steel flatbar, fixed with rivnuts at the front and longer bolts at the spare lifter at the back.



It’s a little left of centre but not so bad. There’s a bit of Lino off cut as padding between the tank and frame, and ss threaded rod to clamp it together.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Critter350]

Repipe the fuel filler- as you’d expect Toyota uses a proprietary size filler hose that no one else carries, but the genuine was $65 which is not quite as bad as it could have been. Fills better than it ever has now.



Before and after the ranex + chassis black.





Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Critter350]

Water tank plumbing uses John Guest push fittings with retaining clips and collets.

Twin taps- the lower is gravity fed, the other is pressure. Our camp wash up bowl and cray cooker pot sit on the step for filling without having to hold.

There’s also a valve at the tank, when that is closed the pump will draw through the lower tap from a head height of 8’ (according to pump manufacturer), for filling from fresh water stream, low level tank, or pre-warmed water in the big pot for a warm shower.
The orange click on fittings are blocked with hot glue, just to keep crud out of the taps.

Filler has a click on fitting too, with the female part mounted to pack rack to retain it, shown disconnected here.



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Critter350]

The drawer is 3mm Ali frame. Fortunately I found a good guy that let me use his guilotine and bender. I had 1m drawer slides already so wanted to make use of them. Base is a recycled security door. Handle is a ‘whale tail’ 3 point compression type.


The pole holder on passenger side was one of several ‘whoops’, did not allow for the larger top lip on the front of the drawer, so cut the back off and extended.

The plastic tube holds shovel and rake handles.

Catch plate for the whale tail, good thing I’m not charging by the hour eh.



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Critter350]

Few tidy up jobs getting it back together. Bit of mould inside the canopy that cleaned up easy enough


Rubber seal around the rear canopy glass was push in, so removed the glass and reseated.


High mount stoplight red diffuser had melted, so replaced the G4 halogen with LED’s and cut a new red lense out of acrylic (from jaycar). The acrylic was very clear so crass hatch sanded it to obscure, it was also a bit thick so routered the edges with dremel.


Rough enough I think

The bags (picked up for $2 each from landfill recycler) are rubbish on the left, rope on the right. Low value stuff.

Hmm what else...
The number plate lights are ‘glued in’ with high bond silicone.



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[1tuff4b]

Nice one bud. Very purposeful ass end


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Critter350]

Electrical upgrade over the weekend.

Glued a solar panel on the roof and installed a Victron 100/20 controller.

Started with a wash and when it was dry, scrubbed with isopropyl, firstly with a blue chux wipe until I noticed it bleeding blue ink, so swapped for a white rag (wonder if the wife will miss that curtain...)


Product called ‘tool box’, never heard of it before but came recommended. Hated working with it though, so thick it’s so hard to squeeze out the gun, has 10 minute skin time so had to go hell for leather to lay it down and get the panel on.

Hoping it holds- the wind can get under it but the suppliers all recommend an air gap anyway.

Panel specs for record purposes, this side is down so can’t read it anymore.



Panel came with those solar connectors, so I made up leads to plug in and connect to the controller. Leads test fine but just didn’t work. Triple checked male - female inside the plugs... end up cutting them off and going Anderson. Silastic in the back of the play to keep water out, but I guess it will also keep water in. See how it goes eh.

Loving the Victron app, geeking out on it a bit.
So far have seen 68W, but it is winter and there’s no tilt on the panel.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Critter350]

Just to update on the new solar, back from a 3.5 week 7000km trip to Karajini, Cape Leveque and back around the coast.
No signs of the panel moving.
Best output I’ve seen is 168W, but usually around 140W.

Worked so well I opened the breaker linking crank and house batteries to test, haven’t reconnected. House battery has been on solar only for the entire trip and reaches float voltage by about 1pm (maybe earlier, never checked). Figure less load on the alternator may last longer.
Battery voltage overnight drops to around 12.2V which is about as low as I’d want to go for battery longevity, but is fine for now. When this 100ah flooded wet cell dies, I’ll probably replace with a lithium, for weight as well as capacity.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Critter350]

Went with DIY lithium, 4x271Ah CATL cells, 250A Daly BMS and home made aluminium case.
The LiFePO4 cells expand and contract as they charge / discharge, and keeping some pressure on helps them last longer. So the case was designed to apply some pressure, then lined with off cut Lino.



Took 5 days to charge the battery from solar, in winter.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Critter350]

New front brakes at 263700. DBA T3 rotors with DBA extreme performance pads.
Cleaned the mud out of the rears and painted the hub centres for good measure.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[AmeriKUN26]

Just caught up on your build, looks great!

[Critter350]

Thanks AmeriKUN, following yours too with great interest.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Critter350]

Bit more on the electrical recently.
Alternator died recently. Tested direct charging from the alternator to the lithium, worked fine and pushed about 30A. Tested for about 2-3 min while walked around with clamp and volt meter, then opened the breaker again. About 100km later the alternator light came on. Pretty sure it’s original so 14 years is not a bad run, considering it’s seen some water too.
Replaced with 160A unit, enough juice to run stereo, spotties and still charge both batteries.
But started to worry a bit it can probably put out too much current and the lithium BMS might shut down.
So installed a 12/12 30 Victron. Seems overkill because I “never” need to charge from alternator, but never say never and if I do need it, I’ll want it to work without tripping the BMS.
Added bonus was removing the VSR and breaker under the bonnet, now connected via 60A fuse. Have left the breaker in the rear, closing it will // the two batteries. Figured this will be handy for running the car stereo for extended times, the lithium will keep it charged. Just have to remember to open the breaker before starting the car.

Other small tweak is a switch for the water pump on top of the breakout box. Don’t need to have car turned to accessories any more.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Critter350]

Made an ali roof rack using 40mm tube and diamond mesh. Bit of noise but overall happy with it for firewood duties.


Mounting up some lights:



The stedi type X pro are great distance but not so good with spread. Hoping these 3301’s angled out fill the gap.
We’ll set back so shouldn’t glare off the bonnet.
Now I look like a rolling add for stedi.



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk