Going Off Road

Taking the road less traveled (in its most literal sense) is heavily encouraged among people in the overlanding community. Danell Lynn said that she had driven under 2,000 miles on paved roads during her 30,000 mile trip around the US. Most of the 2,000 miles on interstate were incurred in order to get to Overland Expo on time. Initially, I wondered why people would be so averse to driving on interstates and the like. Wasn’t the point to get to your destination?

Having grown up in the Midwest, I can see why avoiding unpaved roads through unending farmland might be a reasonable choice. Driving through corn fields is boring at 65 miles per hour. It’s just as mind-numbing driving through it at 35 miles per hour. I have since learned that not all unpaved roads are meant to access fields upon fields of monoculture agriculture.

It's a fallacy to associate off road with boring. The truth of the matter is that off roading can be borderline terrifying! By terrifying, I mean exhilarating for those worried parents thinking off roading is a call to premature death. Who doesn’t want to scream “OH MY GOD!” (in a good way) on silent repeat while driving?

As fate would have it, my first off road experience happened as I was leaving the Overland Expo. The GPS somehow decided that taking a 7 mile “shortcut” through the Coconino National Forest was the best route. The road had a sign warning, “Road is not maintained, high clearance vehicles only”. How did Garmin know I could handle that road?! I thought about it and decided this would be the perfect opportunity to discover what all those overlanders were talking about.

The “shortcut” might have indeed worked out to be a shortcut had I been able to drive those 7 miles faster than 15 miles an hour. Luckily, the road was no worse than a Minnesotan road a few winters overdue for repair. During the whole experience, I only saw one other truck which blasted by me going the other direction. I’m still not sure if going 40+ mph on that road was a good idea even with off road suspensions. But, it gave me confidence that if that truck didn’t think the road was bad, it probably wasn’t.

View from the "shortcut"

From that experience and several other times I’ve gone off road since, I have discovered that what overlanders talk about isn’t something they say just because it’s the “cool thing to do”. Being able to go off road allows you to find and enjoy fascinating places without the annoyance of the tourist mob. Peace, quiet, and a great view is what FREE gets you out here.

It’s time to get off the beaten path!

View at breakfast (Coconino National Forest, AZ)

Water Canyon campground (Cibola National Forest, NM)

View at Dinner (Forest road 443, Lincoln National Forest, NM)

Merchant and Marines Military Cemetary, Fort Stanton, NM (in the middle of nowhere)

After Overland

The Overland Expo was an excellent way to kickoff my travel adventure. As excited as I was to get out of the mud pits of Mormon Lake, the end of the expo meant that it was time for me to figure out what was next. Let’s just say it's been a learning experience. But, for as many things that went wrong, a lot of random things turned out much better than I expected.

Here are some things I learned:

1)     Camping on US Forest Service Land is free (if you can find it)—If I had my way, I would spend the majority of my nights camped out on Forest Service (FS) land because it’s free, beautiful, and rather private. However, there are a couple problems with camping on FS land. The first main problem is that even though you are driving along roads clearly within national forest boundaries (based on my Rand McNally roadmap), you can’t just camp anywhere. I’ve learned that there are a lot of privately owned areas within designated national forest that you can’t just pull off into. Most of it is fenced off. There are specific maps which show you exactly where dispersed camping is allowed within each forest. This leads me to the second problem: you can’t depend on your phone being able to display the maps that the FS has online. So, it’s extremely challenging to find free sanctioned camping on the fly while in remote areas.

2)     Not knowing where you’re going to sleep by nightfall is stressful—I now have a personal rule to know where I’m going to stay the night as early as possible.

3)     Make sure all your belongings are strapped down and that the interior of your vehicle is in ship shape before deciding to drive off road—It’s incredible the distance things can travel inside your vehicle after you’ve been bouncing all around on rough roads. Also, that one thing in your car that’s been clinking on and off for the better portion of your drive will become the bane of your existence in an off road situation as it will soon start clinking as furiously as a woodpecker millimeters from finding food.

4)     Always ask about the status of the wifi before ordering a drink—Free wifi might as well be synonymous with unreliable wifi and in some instances non-existent wifi. One day, I went to three different establishments before finding wifi I could use. In the process, I had one lemonade, one order of chips, and had slotted $3 for parking. Needless to say, by the end of the day, I’d spent enough money to afford speed of light internet for the full two hours I used it.

5)     Never run your gas tank below 100 miles left on the tank if you can help it—On my way to the Overland Expo, I was running short on time and decided to drive straight to the expo instead of filling up in Flagstaff. I calculated I would have plenty of fuel to drive into the Coconino National Forest and back into town as long as I was conservative in my fuel usage. There was still a good 60 miles left on the tank and I only needed 20 to get back into town. On the way back into town after the expo, the Forest Service had shut down an entire segment of the road. They were flying several people via helicopter out of the forest and there was no knowing how long it would take for the emergency vehicles to clear out. The only way around was to drive the opposite direction about 50 miles before turning back to Flagstaff…the closest gas station was 40-50 miles away based on the traffic director’s estimate.

6)     Keep all paper materials in a moisture sealed container—Sleeping in an enclosed space on cold nights causes a lot of condensation to form inside the truck. Books are a magnet for all that hot air you’re exhaling. Once the two meet, never shall they part.

Here are some things that worked out better than anticipated:

1)     Couchsurfing is a lifesaver—I arrived in Tucson, AZ midday thinking I’d have plenty of time to find internet and research my next place to sleep. I quickly realized it was too hot in Tucson to sleep in my truck and it was about 1-2 hours to the nearest National Forest. Remembering my failed attempt at finding a place to sleep near Show Low, AZ, I knew camping was not an option. Thankfully, I found Yasmin through Couchsurfing last minute. She was a most gracious host and even invited me to join her in Albuquerque, NM that weekend where we stayed with her friends.

2)     Meetups—I never went to a Meetup in Minnesota, but I happened to find a meetup happening in Phoenix the very night I was there. It was a movie night and I got to see a comedy and meet an interesting group of women who gave me tons of info on traveling in CA, AZ, and NM. 

What are some of your travel tips?

The Build: Dual Battery System (Part 3)

The purpose of having a dual battery system was so I could have a dedicated battery just for running “house” electronics such as a fridge, rice cooker, hot water kettle, personal office electronics, etc. I didn’t want to risk killing the starter battery and being unable to start the truck. I also wanted to prevent repeatedly deeply discharging the starter battery as this can permanently damage the starter battery.

There were several objectives I wanted to accomplish in the setup:

1) Connect the auxiliary battery in parallel so that I could charge it off the truck’s alternator while the truck was running.

2) Isolate the starter battery from the auxiliary battery when the truck was not running, thus preventing the starter battery from being drained.

3) Install fuses to prevent fires.

4) Convert direct current (DC) to alternating current (AC) to run house electronics.

5) Add solar panels to charge the house battery when camped for an extended period of time.

Connect the auxiliary battery

Since there was no space under the hood (without moving existing wiring around) for the second battery, I had to place it in the bed of the truck. I’m using an Absorbent Glass Mat (AGM) deep cycle battery for the auxiliary battery. AGM batteries are sealed and do not require ventilation and are made to be deeply discharged unlike starter batteries.

Wires were run from under the hood to the back of the truck following the under body of the truck and coming up through the drain holes in the truck bed. The wiring for the battery/isolator circuit was 4 AWG which according to three different wire sizing charts is the correct gauge to use. As a general rule, it’s better to err on the side of larger wire.

The circuitry

Isolate the batteries

To isolate the batteries, I chose a digital voltage sensitive relay (VSR)** which was mounted under the hood near the starter battery. The VSR automatically links both batteries in parallel when the engine is running and separates them when the engine is off based off of a voltage reading. An added benefit of the VSR is that it allows a second battery charging source (in my case solar panels) to charge the main battery as well. The VSR I’m using does not have a manual switch to override the VSR to use the auxiliary battery as a jump start in case the starter battery is dead. Should the starter battery die, I do have an Antigravity XP-1 to jump start the vehicle. 

**The actual VSR I'm using I purchased from Boatersland http://www.boatersland.com/bep710-140a.html

The VSR is in mounted on a plate in the back corner

Install Fuses

In order to prevent fires and wire meltdowns, I chose 100 amp ANL fuses and E-Block fuse covers for the two red wires between the two batteries and the VSR. The E-Block fuse covers are clear which allow you to see if the fuse has blown. The fuses were installed as close to the battery positive leads as possible because I wanted to minimize the chance of the wires melting and starting a fire. Fuses are an absolute must since most modern cars basically run off their internal electronics and a short could blow your car's computer chips to bits.

Convert DC to AC power

The energy stored in the auxiliary battery is 12v direct current (DC) which is nice until you want to run things that require 110v alternating current (AC or wall outlet power). I’m using a 1000w pure sine wave inverter with 2000w surge capacity to convert the DC to AC power. A pure sine wave inverter delivers AC power which is the closest to what the electrical company sends to your home. The inverter is wired directly to the battery using 4 AWG wire and a 100 amp circuit breaker. I’m pretty sure the inverter already has a fuse built into it, but I’d rather reset a circuit breaker in case I draw too much power. The inverter has two wall outlets and two USB plug-ins, which is sufficient.

Even though the inverter will allow me to have AC power, I have also wired additional 12v outlets because converting DC to AC power wastes power. It is most efficient to use electronics which take 12v instead of 110v. I will be running things like the fridge and small fans off 12v power.

View from the front

Solar panels

For my solar setup, I have a plug-and-play kit from Overland Solar. The kit comes with folding 60w solar panels, a charge controller, and about 30ft of wire which can hook right onto the battery terminals. While I have done quite a bit on solar setups and solar technologies, there were only so many things I wanted to attempt a DIY solution. This was not a task I wanted to undertake. The Overland Solar kit fits my needs as they are portable which means they can be manually moved to track the sun (solar panels don’t work in the shade). The panels can also be easily stowed away when not in use. 

Overland Solar solar panels soaking in the Santa Fe sun!

That concludes the three part "The Build" series. Stay tuned for an in depth discussion on the theory and science of each component of a dual battery system.

The Build: A Course in Miracles (Part 2)

I had three weeks to complete the build before departure day. The parts were ordered and most had already arrived. I was scrambling to find someone to help me with the build but hadn’t been able to find anyone. Then two things happened back to back which just blew my mind.

The first thing that happened was that out of the blue, my friend, Phil, who lives out of state, texts me to say his mother has invited me over for dinner. I found this to be rather strange since his mother has my number, but I ignored this inconsistency and went over for dinner. On top of Phil surprising everyone by being back for the dinner, I happened to talk to his dad, John, who is very skilled in wood working. John agreed to help me build a sleeping platform that following weekend. He later helped me build a control panel to house my electrical system.

The second thing that happened was a last minute plan to have dinner with my friends Cassie and Athena. At some point during dinner, my trip was brought up and I told them about my dilemma finding someone to help me with the electrical setup. It turned out that Cassie worked in a robotics lab and had a degree in bio electrical engineering as well as prior experience working on her motorcycle electronics. She agreed to help me that same weekend.

In hindsight, I realized there was no way I could have accomplished the build without either John or Cassie and I thank my lucky stars they were able to help me out the only weekend I could have worked on the truck.

The Build: Research and Research (Part 1)

Once I figured out I wanted to travel across the continental North America, I had to figure out how I was going to do it. Naturally, I deliberated in good ol’ INTP fashion (I match that Myers Briggs type fairly well) to the point of mental constipation). In the end, I decided to go with a Toyota Tacoma. Honestly, I think the reason I wanted a Tacoma was because of the World of Warcraft commercial I saw as a kid where a bunch of World of Warcraft characters flew around in a Tacoma. Thank you TV advertising. I mean, the Tacoma is a highly regarded work vehicle and was the best fit for what I envisioned doing.

My two main goals in the build was to create a solution for sleeping in the truck as well as having mobile electrical power while parked away from the city electrical grid. Thank goodness school did not adequately prepared me for the task at hand. Let’s just say, my knowledge of electrical circuits involved taping wires to a AA battery and wiring them to a lightbulb. My skills in carpentry were no better off.

After months of reading, watching Youtube videos, and taking an introductory course in physics/circuits, I was able to put together rough schematic for the electric system. I had sourced out most of the parts and even found a topper for the truck. I was eager to start the build. However, I didn't have the tools to execute either idea. In my ignorance, I didn't even know I needed a miracle to happen for this to work out.

Here's my rough schetch of the system