Komodo - My Wife's Daily Driver and High Speed Overland Rig

Just get him really drunk at camp the night before and beat him to the trail in the morning. I suggest quality scotch as your weapon of choice.

 

originally installed 12/3/2016

Nitrogen Onboard Air

The name is a little misleading - the N2 actually does a few different things for us, and they're all joined together in this slightly convoluted way. In fact, as I write this post, I may just change my mind and make one that encompasses the whole shootin' match (or is it shoot n match? no fuckin clue).

Actually I should probably start with the water system, since that's what led us to Nitrogen in the first place, because we were originally just going to get an ARB twin like everyone else uses, and then thought maybe we'd go CO2 and use it to pressurize a water system, and then decide that soda water is fun to drink, but probably not to shower in, and then I realized what an astoundingly long run-on sentence this was, so decided to shut the fuck up and get on with it.


Water, Onboard Air, Centralized Tire Inflation, Shock Filling and Other Shit - A Story of Nitrogen, Drunk Engineering and Basic Ignorance

If you don't already know, we run with a team of idiots called the Speed Glampers Uberfahrt. A handful of mostly Tundra owners who think it's fun to Go Fast, Be Comfortable, and Cross Overland. Several of them are on this and other forums, and they're each responsible in some way for the stupid shit we do to Komodo - although every one of them, to a man, will say they had no influence on our decision to go Nitrogen. They tried to stop me. They all decried my proposals and dreams as the rantings of a lunatic. A madman's fever-induced delusion, hell bent on dragging the world down with him. Don't Do It, they said.

We did it.




A little history - probably more than you care to hear by now, but tough shit. Either sit through it or look at the pictures.

The guys we fell in with are bad. The kind your parents warned you about. "If all your friends jumped off a bridge, would you jump too?" Of course you would. We all would. They must be jumping for a reason, right? The reason these guys jump is pretty much just for the fun of it. Jumping trucks is a fuckin blast. And camping is awesome! And seeing new places every day is the best!!

So, how do we accomplish this? Well, hot showers on the trail are epic, so you gotta have pressurized hot water onboard. But we still wanna jump our shit, so it's gotta be light. And sleeping in comfort is an absolute must, so we got the RTT on the truck. But again, low and sleek so we don't screw ourselves out of the performance. We need to air down and up for different terrains, but moving parts like pumps and compressors will have to survive what amounts to an 8 hour long car crash every day on the trail.

Lisa and I started looking at Komodo holistically like a complete solution. We used to do a fair amount of backpacking and understand the importance of lightness and mass centralization (putting the heaviest stuff all together in the middle, trying to stay compact). Most of our hiking gear is dual purpose - like a spork right? Why carry a spoon AND a fork, when a spork can fill both roles at half the weight. So we applied this philosophy to Komodo.

How can we make a complete system that is lightweight and reliable? We're still trying to figure that out, but here's what we've come up with so far.



I don't remember exactly what sparked it, but at some point while I was looking at water solutions I found a couple pressurized systems that either use the water pressure of your garden hose, or have a schrader valve to pump some air in - either way, the water gets pushed out by pressurized air. The systems I found were pretty cool, but kinda small. I think the largest one was 7 gallons, but we wanted MOAR.

We also wanted our system to be a drinking water supply, and these systems were really just showers - not food grade stuff. I started looking around the interwebs for inspiration and ended up on some Home Brewing forums (as one does when needing a spark of creativity) where I found out the corny kegs they use for home brewing can hold 100 psi, are food grade stainless, and come in different sizes. I started looking at compressors but found that many of them allow small amounts of oil into the air and we don't want that in our drinking water. Well, if home brewers and restaurants can use CO2 to pressurize their delivery, why couldn't we?

That's how I came up with this:



I was rather proud of myself. But then realized if we pressurized the system with CO2, we'd be force-carbonating the water like beer and taking soda water showers, and that sounded fuckin cold and bubbly even if we used a water heater. Some more quality time on the home brewing forums and someone suggested nitrogen since it's what restaurants use for wine pressure and preservation. The wine doesn't get carbonated and bacteria can't grow in the 100% nitrogen atmosphere.

Dope - new plan:



Did you look at that picture? Fuckin A. We could use the nitrogen to fill shocks too! Not that we actually had serviceable shocks at the time, but our friends did - I couldn't wait to tell them!

This is about when the Uberfahrts told me to jump in a lake and take my stupid ideas with me.

But, guys!

1. No moving parts
2. No electricity needed
3. Lightweight (replaces pump, compressor and dual battery)
4. Pressurize water
5. Air up tires
6. Run air tools
7. N2 for shocks!!!

'It's too complicated' 'It'll leak' 'Just do what everyone else does'

Nah - not gonna do what everyone else does. We had the benefit of seeing how much weight everyone had put on with their systems before we did ours, so we dedicated ourselves to keeping it light, if not simple (but it's actually really simple. no moving parts).

I set about finding all the parts we were gonna need, and during that time we also decided we were tired of airing up tires one at a time and kneeling down in front of each tire forever. We needed a centralized tire inflation system. We found a local shop that had one 2WayAir system left in stock and grabbed it. This company has gone out of business, but their concept is awesome. I think they just overcharged for the parts they cobbled together and people figured out how to do it on their own. Either way, armed with a metric shitload of pneumatic hoses and connectors, I started to figure out where everything would go, when ingenuity struck. Or maybe it was drunken laziness. Either way, I saw how I could use these pieces to make the water system work too. I mean, water is basically just really thick air - if the system could hold air, it could hold water



I told you, I might have been drunk at the time.

Basically use the N2 bottle for the water, central air inflation and a regular air chuck. Plus a vent from the central air system to atmosphere for airing down all four at the same time, too.


Here's some pictures instead of words since I've basically written a damn novel now.


Parts Vomit


2WayAir connections use a more flexible version of PEX tubing and press-connect fittings. One Schrader valve goes under each wheel well. A quick connect whip then attaches them to each wheel.




Test fitting the N2 bottle and a corny keg as proof of concept




cardboard mockup of the N2 bottle so I could figure out where to mount the damn thing



Final placement for ease of access and weight distribution



Figuring out how to mount the kegs. We wanted them inside the cab for weight centralization and to prevent them freezing on cold nights. I had originally thought I'd mount them flat on their sides with a platform for the dogs over the top, but access for filling became a problem, and if one of the lids failed, we'd have five gallons of water inside the cab. Fuck that.



SCUBA tank straps hold the kegs to the wood via footman loops bolted through from the backside.



Gotta move some shit outta the way so they can sit flat on the floor




We put the fridge in at the same time, but that's another story. Kinda.




Nitrogen enters the cab via the clear line and water leaves the cab via the black line





Water comes out at the end of the bed to a regular garden hose sprayer.



And here's a couple videos that describe it. The first one was labeled "too complicated" by the uberfahrts, so sometime later after I was good and drunk, I refilmed it, and thusly Drunk Engineering was born.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hB9o2D0ohvk


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLcuCXqM-Yw

 

I should have tagged some of those turkeys

@osidepunker @n2deep @dragos28 @papasmurf @roypark @zackbremer @Spolar @jc153

 

i'm beginning to see a pattern...

 

btw, that's a pretty slick setup. just starting noodling on something similar the other day. gives me some ideas.

 

Hit me up if you have thoughts you wanna bounce around. I did a shitload of research and have pages of notes on it. I’ve seen some other great ideas out there too.

 

I still think that system is complicated AF and has too many moving parts. It is convenient for sure and I applaud your creativity Kevin Also, your videos are engineering gold!!

 

Will do. Thanks.

 

Holy shit. I almost forgot the most important part!

Since we're running homebrew kegs and nitrogen, we ordered an extra keg so we can have nitro beer on the trail. I still have to rig it up to a chiller and tap, but that's where we're headed...

 

Very cool and creative project thanks for sharing. Do you have to have a certain type of tank for the nitrogen - would the gas supply company fill an 80 cubic foot dive tank with Nitrogen if the tank had the appropriate color / markings?

 

More than likely yes. Would be very similar to a nitrox fill at a dive shop. You will need new o-rings at the neck and valve.

 

If you can get a CGA 580 valve onto a scuba tank, they'll fill it, but not otherwise from the shops I asked. They won't put 100% N2 into a scuba tank without that valve because if someone tried to breathe it on accident it would kill them. My dad was a saturation diver in the Navy and has all sorts of adapters and shit - his suggestion was to buy a nitrogen bottle with the CGA 580 on it already.

I also found this thread during my research. http://weldingweb.com/showthread.php?27621-Can-i-fill-my-scuba-tank-with-nitrogen

CO2 is a liquid that expands into a gas, but N2 is always (in this use) a gas, so it can sit at any angle. We get 3-4 fills per tank, and thinking of either buying a second tank of the same size, or a little bigger. They CO2 has a lot more fills per tank since the liquid expands into a gas inside the bottle. N2 has to be kept super cold to remain liquid.


Here's the bottle we got from the home brewing place. We paid extra and got an aluminum one because Weight Nazi. It only weighs 25 lbs and comes with the CGA580 valve, so we just added a regulator from PowerTank. For comparison, a steel one weighs about twice as much.

https://beveragelements.com/beverag...ders/60-cu-ft-nitrogen-cylinder-aluminum-new/

Hi flow and hi pressure N2 regulator

https://powertank.com/products/sfID1/29/productID/436

 

Interesting. Thanks for the reply and the link.

 

Originally Installed 12/10/2016

Dual LiPo Battery

Really the chemistry is LiFeMgPO4 (lithium iron magnesium phosphate), but almost everyone thinks of them as Lithium, Lithium ion, Lithium Polymer, or LiPo. So in order to make this install searchable in the future, I'm just calling it dual battery or LiPO (not to be confused with LiPOsuction which I may need in the future if I don't stop eating all these Cheetos). That should be enough keywords so anyone can find this later, but just to make sure - nude, sex, boobs, #2a, porn, pr0n, pew pew, #hashtagsaredumb.

We had already decided our air and water systems weren't going to need electricity since they're powered by the nitrogen bottle, but we have other stuff that does use +12v, and also wanted to be able to jump start ourselves if the main (traction - we'll get into this later) battery died in the middle of nowhere. Again, our plan from the beginning has been to build out the truck holistically. Our buddy @Wikid has inspired us with his builds, and one of his greatest bits of advice is 'Plan your build as far as you can foresee. Try to envision your end goal and just keep working towards that.' Don has been pretty inspirational to us, and we took that advice to heart when we set about designing Komodo's final form.



Our reliance on electricity was meant to be low from the earliest phase of design. Electricity storage means batteries, and batteries are inherently heavy (I wanna go fast mama!). I did months of research on solar panels, battery chemistry, ampacity of wire , alternator outputs, starter amperage, idle drawdown, dueling batteries, controllers and even more tedious stuff (if you really want to see all the ridiculous details, I have a 42 page document with all my research notes I can share with you. #science). I'll share the most important bits here.

TL;DR - we could accomplish our goal with 40 amp hours of Lithium battery - (40ah LiPo ~ 80ah lead acid)


Our loads:
Fridge (wait for it, that's the next install write up)
Ham radio
Bed lights
110V inverter
Self jump start
Future USB chargers inside the RTT

There were two main contributors to our capacity and wire planning - how many amp hours (Ah) we need to keep small things running, and the max amp draw from a single device.

The largest amp draw is the self jump start. The 2014 5.7L Tundra starter is rated at 2Kw, so at 12 volts it pulls 166 amps. As the voltage drops, the amps increase, so for safety I decided to plan on a 200 amp draw just in case the voltage dropped to 10 volts.

The fridge is our most important low-draw item that we need to last the longest. The fridge is rated at 7 amps, so it would draw 7 Ah if it ran continuously. I measured the actual compressor on-time in the truck in 120* Phoenix heat while the fridge was empty, and it ran about 20 minutes per hour to keep the fridge at 35* F. So now my 7 Ah draw is actually 1/3rd of that since the fridge is only really "ON" 1/3rd of the time. After some drunken math and rounding, I decided to use 2Ah as my basis for consumption calculation because we'll never have the fridge running on empty in 120*F. To keep the fridge running for a day, I need about 48 Ah. But, we never stay in one spot for a full 24 hours - we typically drive for about 8 hours a day, so realistically we need 32 Ah to keep the fridge on for 16 hours.

I nosed around on Expedition Portal for a while and came to the conclusion that 40Ah would suit our needs pretty well. I also read a metric fuckton (two shitloads more than an SAE fuckton) about LiPo batteries - they're untested, they don't hold as many Amp hours, they explode if you look at them, they don't work in the cold, they don't work in the heat, they steal your breath in the middle of the night, they don't work with lead acids, they need controllers, they fuck right off if you drain them too much... Pretty much all of that was true at one time, but the current generation of LiPo is way past all of that.

Again, hours, days and weeks of research later I arrived at the Valence U1-12RT - a 40 Ah 12 volt LiPo (LiFeMgPO4) battery that can safely be run down to 0 Ah. That means this 14lb battery has the equivalent capacity of a 56lb 80 Ah AGM battery. AGM can typically be run down to 50% before recharging, but that drastically reduces the life expectancy of the battery - maybe 900 cycles. This baby LiPo has a life expectancy over 2,500 cycles.

Then I needed to figure out how to wire the whole damn thing together. This lead to all sorts of research on batteries and controllers and longevity and just tons of shit.

Should we use an inverter to run a LiPo batterry charger while we're driving? That seemed kinda stupid, but I was pretty sure LiPo had 'special needs' when it came to charging.


Could we get away with charging the LiPo right off the alternator without it summoning the Seven Demons of Lithium Polymer Death?



I had a few phone conversations with an engineer at Valence Batteries and their suggestion was to drop it right into our system as though it were a lead acid battery - no fancy chargers or controllers required. It has a built in controller that prevents overcharging, fucked up float charges, overheating, over-discharge, and has a +20 Demon Armor (based on the 5th edition Dungeons and Dragons) to protect against 0 Volts.

On the recommendations of several folks on that forum and some other friends, we decided to go with Blue Sea parts. Specifically the ML-ACR 500 (part number 7622) which controls charging the dual battery but connecting or isolating it from the traction battery and alternator, 2 Blue Sea ANL fuse holders (part number 5005) to fuse both ends of the positive cable between the traction and house batteries, 2 Blue Sea 250 amp ANL fuses (part number 5131), and a Blue Sea ST Blade Split Bus Fuse Block (part number 5032) that has 12 30 amp circuits on it.

I did the math on wiring and voltage drop and shit and ordered up some 00 (2 aught or 2 dot, depending on your accent) cable for our 12 foot run from the traction battery to the inside rear wall of the double cab. Yes, we mounted our dual battery inside the cab. See, a LiPo doesn't release the same kind of noxious gases as a lead acid battery while it charges. When the cable arrived, I discovered my maths were all fuckered up based on the ampacity chart that was on the cables. I could easily get away with #2 wire instead of 00. back it went and we got some lighter cable to replace it.

I'm not a huge fan of chassis grounds. I understand their usefulness and the fact that pretty much everything on the truck just uses chassis ground, but I ran two leads between the hose and the starter battery anyway. This allows me to monitor the voltage of the hose battery without having a differential to ground possibly skewing my meter. I also still wanted to be sure I was providing the cleanest power possible to the LiPo battery.

Both cables are run from the engine bay, through the driver side firewall grommet, under the door sill panels and back to the rear of the cab.





laid everything out on the rear panel. Our daughters are grown up and moved out, so It's just Lisa and I and the two dogs. No need for rear seats.



Yes, our dual battery is held in by velcro...



And the whole thing can be connected or disconnected from the driver's seat





The way the ML-ACR works is that is senses voltage on both the traction and the house battery and joins them together when it senses the alternator is providing a charge (like the charge is over 13.1V or something). When the voltage of both batteries together drops below (I think) 12.5 volts, it automagically disconnects them. This way anything connected to the house battery can keep running until the LiPo dies completely, but the starter battery still has enough charge to start the truck.

Some additional reading if you're a true glutton for punishment - my exploratory thread on EP. http://forum.expeditionportal.com/t...tteries-with-Lithium-a-cryptozoological-study


SUMMARY

What all that jibber jabber really means is the batteries stay connected to each other pretty much all the time. I've had them power the fridge for up to three days without starting the truck in about 75*F weather (I forgot it was on when we got home from a trip and it ran with nothing in it for three days).
There is no special treatment for the LiPo battery. We treat it just like a lead acid.
Yes, the battery is expensive, but 14 lbs instead of 56 lbs is worth it - plus it's smaller and lasts a lot longer.

 

Very nice! Do you have a picture of the under hood battery?

 

Does anyone have them both under hood? Thanks!

 

It’s a bit dirty, but yeah here’s a shot. The thing on top of the fuse box is the Blue Sea 250 amp fuse going back to dual battery.

 

Sorry, I was confused, thought you ran 2 LiPo batteries. I had visions of useful under hood space.

 

I’m sorry, last one..., could you run 2? That would be the dual battery setup for under hood, small footprint, and weight loss?

 

I'm thinking that 2 LiPo could go under the hood in that space. Of course a custom mounting bracket would be required, but I think they could fit fine. The physical dims of the Valence are



Dimensions including terminals LxWxH mm

197 x 131 x 183 mm

Dimensions including terminals LxWxH

7.76 x 5.12 x 7.20

 

You sir are very technical so I wanted some knowledge because I want long travel but I agree I don't want it any wider plus LT is expensive, would you say a dual shock setup in the front is mostly for more control/dampening/tuning ability? sounds like a much smoother ride with speed than just a 2.5 coil over alone, but is there more wheel travel? what is your total wheel travel? Im assuming theres more in the front than the rear?

 

Hey bud, my first question would be what kind of wheeling do you do? Do you live in or near the desert where you can really stretch the legs of an LT rig at speed over whoops? Do you do a lot of tight technical trails? Mud? Forest service roads?

One of our friends is full LT (front and rear), but he runs Rock Warrior rims which have like 50 or 60 mm offset (sucked in toward the center of the truck). Our rims are 0 offset (pushed out more), so he’s actually only an inch wider than us.

There are two main parts of the suspension that dictate how well it absorbs motion.

1. The amount of travel the tire moves through from full droop to full stuff
2. How much damping ability the shocks have

LT creates a longer travel path for the tire to take and so that slows down the amount of time it takes for the truck to bottom out on landing. This makes it smooth. The longer it takes to hit bottom after the tire makes contact with the ground, the softer the landing.

Two 2.5” shocks (one coilover and one bypass) are great at controlling LT because of some kinda boring reasons. The shock length is longer so it has more time to resist the impact, and some other stuff about leverage and fulcrums and shit.

For MT to try and keep up with LT performance it needs a greater damping ability because the tire is going to travel a shorter distance. A 3.0 shock has more fluid and better flow characteristics that can help slow the tire down in a similar way as LT. Not quite, but close.

We went with an MT length arm and 3.0 coilovers plus 2.5 bypasses in order to get as close as possible to LT while still keeping the daily drivability nice.

I think our front travel is 12”? An LT setup should pull 15-16 I think.

 

Cool explanation there sir . Im in the CA desert, fort irwin, I have regular kings f&r no clickers and its fun bombing down tank trails but theres a limit. Sounds like MT can really keep up with LT, to a certain point i guess, I'm just looking into it too much and should just get deavers, bypasses, TC UCA's and be happy with it till the truck is paid off then save for LT. i really love going fast, I keep thinking how much more capable LT could be in any terrain because of the extra wheel travel but thanks for the bill nye advice, I appreciate it.

 

What’s the final loaded trail ready weight of this rig? My guess is 7000#?

Maybe post up few “Komodo” desert jumping vids so we can all see how this LT Tundra performs.

 

I’d say if you already know you like to fast, go straight to LT if you can. I know a few that have gone as far as they could at the time with MT (before 3.0 were made), but ultimately went LT, and it’s kind of a pain in the ass. @n2deep @papasmurf @osidepunker @roypark

Oh, we're not LT yet. We're gonna see how far we can push this MT setup.

Fully loaded we’re about 6300. I need to go weigh-in again, but before the bed slide and fridge we were right at 5960 not including food and water. Everything we've done has been highly focused on weight savings - I'm fat enough on my own.

We don't have any good video from outside the truck yet for some stupid reason, but here's a hood mount video from Mojave Road last yea. If you listen, in the last half you can hear the tires land after a few little hits.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Be_EBE3BLuN/

 

Oh @KevinK... nitrogen! Lipo battery! What crazy idea will u come up with next?!?

 

The invisible snorkel!

The prototype and proof of concept worked out. Next episode of Drunk Engineering methinks.

 

I’ve been patiently waiting for this one

 

check my build thread, ive taken MT as far as you can im running kings deavers and tc..some things i would have done different most id leave the same...any questions just ask

 

Ill say this about that, if you are thinking going LT, just do it, worth every penny!

Nothing compares. I did front last year and now Im going a bed cage and LT SUA rear w 16" 3.5 kings in the rear. needless to say its life changing.