Sunseeker Desert Storm 21.6: We got weighed - Enerdrive Off Grid Battery system
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 5 ต.ค. 2024
- Welcome to our new Sunseeker Caravan, the Desert Storm 21.6.
In this video we go through the roller coaster ride of getting our rig weighed and making sure we are safe and legal on the road. Make sure you watch out for the results.
We also take the time to present to you our enerdrive battery management system in our caravan. Wow, just can't believe how lucky we are to be so self sufficient on the road. We hope you like our set up.
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★ TABLE OF CONTENTS ★
• 0.12 We got weighed
• 2.52 Digesting the news
• 6.05 Taking the steps to be legal
• 10.24 Our storage unit
• 13.52 Our enerdrive battery system and off grid living
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Finally after five years of planning, we have hit the road, indefinitely.
Jon us every week as we explore this amazing country and learn valuable life lessons
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Thank you so much re batteries it helped so much First time everything made sense Just got our first caravan 21.6 But thank god we have a Ram Warlock So very happy
That’s awesome. Glad you liked the vid. The RAM is awesome heh
Dude you off grid power system is worth more than my entire budget for my camper fully setup
Ha Ha. Yeh well its our home!! 👍 We are very lucky
Thanks for the full explanation of the battery system. We too are putting in 600wts in our desert storm. It should be ready to collect in a few weeks time. So excited. Looking forward to more info videos re the caravan etc.
Wow Kathleen. You will LOVE it. Having a cloudy day today and it still got back up to 98% battery. That's just awesome.
Nice video I'm just waiting for the exam after you solar lesson
Ha Ha. Yeh, it’s hard to stop being a teacher. 🤣
I had a 2016 Ranger and the GCM was 6T. After a trip to the weighbridge I replaced it with an Isuzu NPS. :-)
Yeh, Wow. Heard that a lot
The focus should not be on "am I legal?" but on "am I safe?" It's delusional to think it is truly safe towing a loaded van that's more than about 75% of the mass of the tow vehicle. Tail wags dog and then bad things can happen. Sure, you will "get away with it" for months or even years. But then, as Clint Eastwood said: "Do you feel lucky, punk?" Bottom line: factory dual cab utes do not make good long distance tow vehicles, no matter what the manufacturers might say.
Thanks mate, Hearing you
Well I guess all the road trains semitrailers etc our out bounds using the dog wagg theory
@@2906ry road train trailers don’t have the wheels in the middle of the trailer.
This is 100% untrue. You can safely go well over the weight of the tow vehicle with the trailer, but you have to choose the right tow vehicle. My tow vehicle from 2010 to September 2022 was a 2011 Ram 2500 diesel which weighs around 7,500 lbs. I routinely pulled a 14,000 lb conventional hitch 30' enclosed car hauler that was rated to 14,000 lbs and was often close to that weight. My heavier trailer is a gooseneck flatbed with a 26,000 lb GVWR and this trailer is too much weight for a 2500. This is why I sold the 2500 and ordered a Ford F450. The F450 only weighs around 8,500 lbs, but can easily handle the gooseneck at max gross weight (34,500 lb GCW).
@@rich7447 I presume you are in North America. My comment was in the Australian context of a typical light duty tradesman's dual cab utility vehicle (e.g. Toyota Hilux), of which there are maybe a million of them here, weighing about 2000Kg and rated to carry 900Kg of payload, inclusive of fuel, water, passengers, tools, luggage, bulbar, winch, roof racks, canopy, after market wheels/tyres and tow-ball down-weight. Too many people here push the GVM/GCM envelope, with a family onboard, towing over 3000Kg (loaded) caravans on our (by comparison) poor quality roads. I wish such punter's well, but I value the life of my family too much to try that.
I think TIAV mentioned there van was 4T loaded in a few videos, I can see why people are going to American trucks with 4.5T towing capacity
Yeh. We should have gone there in the first place. My bad
The 4.5T tow capacity is a huge de-rate for anything over a 1/2 ton American pickup. The highest tow rating currently available here in the US is the single/regular cab F450 with the high output diesel and the max tow package. That particular truck is rated to tow 40,000 lbs/18.15 tons. A higher trim Crew cab version of the same truck is rated to tow 33,000 lbs/15 tons on a gooseneck or 31,900 lbs with a fifth wheel. Conventional tow rating on the same truck is 30,000 lbs.
My GCM is 7800kg. Landcruiser 3800, van 4000kg. Towed for the last 10 years and going strong.
Awesome. Hopefully see you out there someday. 👍
Very interesting. When we ordered our van anything we upgraded/changed they gave us the weights. Did you add stuff like batteries, more solar after you received your van? Is that why your Tare would be different
Definitely worth getting van weighed professionally. We did with water and what we were taking with us. I can only imagine how hard it would be to keep weights under when you live in the van full-time as a family.
Great vid and now you guys are on my watch list.
Hey Lee. The van we bought was a cancelled order, so everything that was in the van was what. the original purchaser wanted on the van. If we had ordered it ourselves, we would not have ordered nearly as many extras on the van. But it is what it is. The van came from the factory as per what you see in the vids. Thus, we thought the tare weight should include all of the extras like batteries. Mate, weight is on our mind all of the time. We just want to be safe and legal.
We feel your heartbreak, we we’re looking into upgrading our van but had to bin our plans because we would have had weight issues 😢
Total agree we were going to do the same but we find we want everything these days in the van but the cost now is the high tare weight 2900kg plus and the payload feels like it’s getting smaller or buy a large truck to pull it also cost of vans seems to be getting out of control now.
That’s a real shame. If water is the issue, stay tuned for our next video as we show you what we do to get water into the van. We haven’t travelled with much water in the van for years, and its just going to have to be the same now with our new van.
Glenn, I guess they are your options. A bigger truck for us juts isn’t an option. We actually enjoy our mobility and ease of parking when we aren’t towing.
Thanks for your reply but I wasn’t saying you I was just making a comment I also have a 200 series Landcruiser which I got new but now my weights on the van and car are right on the limit with a gvm upgrade on both that’s with a 1000 kg payload on our Jayco safe travels all the best
All good Glenn. Happy travels.
A very useful video, thanks for sharing, can I ask if you have had a GVM upgrade on the Ranger, I will watch some of you other video's it may be in there, this is the first time I have seen your channel
We had a real journey as you may have found out from our vids. No. We never got a GVM upgrade.
great report on the solar👍
Thanks Peter. We are super happy
@@ThumbsUpAustralia dosent the solar charge the batteries whilst driving and not via 12V?
The weights on vans or boat trailers compliance plates are never what they actually are by a longway.
I see it everyday in my line of work.
My advise is to weigh it before the money changes hands wether its a boat or van.
We weigh ours and stamp it at exactly what it is.
Yup. Wish we had done that
How’s the Ram going pulling and your fuel consumption,
It’s going awesome. We average around 23L/100Km
Hi guys, liking your vids!
I was very interested to see this! I got rather upset with your previous video as we have the same van pretty much (actually with slitely less options) however our tare is 3050 on the plate (not confirmed by weighing it yet). And i was trying to understand how your van could be 200kg lighter!? Weights for us are thanfully not a big issue however the lighter the van is, the better!
Do you really need 600ah of baterr and a 1020w solar? Thats seems way over kill for you guys!? I would have thought taking one battery out and a solar panel or 2 off would save you quite a lot of weight as well as changing to 4.5kg gas bottles?
We have 400ah of battery and 680w of solar and that is plenty! Unless we got a full week of no sun i dont think we would never run out and we are pretty power hungry with coffee machine, air fryer, induction cook top, laptops, etc...
Anyway good luck with it!
Hey Brendan. Not sure if you saw our exterior vid on the van, but we didn’t order this van, it was a cancelled order and we were in the right place at the right time to pick it up. If we had ordered the van, we would have ordered a setup very similar to yours. Now that we have it, we are going to try and make it work with weight etc, but if we can’t we will have to take some action similar to what you are suggesting. Must say, on a day like today, which is pretty overcast here in Queensland, to still get 30 amps an hour into the battery is pretty good!! Thanks for messaging
Love the video, but would have been good to know all of the weights on the day.
What is the tare on the van?
I have a near new 20.6 Titanium ATX so I’m now a little scared to get the weigh in done. My tare 2760 and so far I’ve been travelling with 3 full tanks. No front tool box but a 150kg motor bike in its place.
Hey Richard. The tare in the van is 2.82 tonne on the plate. I went over individual weights in our outside of the van reveal video on you tube. Keep watching as we have some unique ways to get water into the tanks regularly without having to travel with a lot of water
Where are you mainly staying in caravan parks or free stay,
It really varies mate. We are in Tassie at the moment and it’s all low cost camps here.
This strikes me as a design and manufacturing issue. The vast majority of tow tugs have a towing capacity of 3.5T and many with less. It’s ridiculous that you should have to travel without water to meet even 3.5. Manufacturers need to find designs that provide strength while enhancing the safety of the user through better use of mass. Yes the van may be able to go to 4.5, and yes you chose to buy it, but that’s a very niche market and (more I should say) manufacturers need to do better.
Great vid by the way. Thank you.
Hey Adrian. I agree with everything you have said. I think if we had actually ordered the van from scratch, and waited the 18 month wait time, we would have ordered a sunseeker that was lighter in weight, (our van was a cancelled order) but, we chose to have this one and work with what we had. It’s nothing new for us not travelling with water. We have had many questions from people asking us how we manage, so we will show you in a future vid. Thanks so much for your comment. Stay in touch. T, J, & R
What were the axel weights?
GCM 6.4T?
Has the Ranger and/van had a GVM upgrade?.
When attached to the van, our front axle was 1336 and our rear axle was 1685 kg. (this was before we cleared out 200kg of stuff from the van and. the car.). Both within range. Yes. The new ranger has a GCM of 6.4 tonne. No. We do not have a GVM upgrade on the car.
Good video, when you purchased the van was the Enerdrive system included as this maybe your 100kg. What’s the payload on the VIN plate?
Well, we really don’t know. We assumed the tare would include everything except water and gas, but we. think we were wrong. It wasn’t 100kg it was actually 200kg less than we thought as we thought we would be 100kg under but we were 100kg over. So, there you go. The van can carry up to 4.5 tonne as per the plate but obviously we cant carry that as we have a new ranger.
Hiya bloody weights. A silly question, did you subtract the ball weight from the van weight when doing the GCM. Just a tricky one to not do??
The ball weight was included in the GCM. Hope this answers your question
@@ThumbsUpAustralia ok, in calculations you add the ball weight to the car when the caravan is connected. Then looking at the caravan gross mass weight, you subtract the ball weight from the caravan gross weight. Is that how you did it?
Yes. Thats correct
@@lesreif1879 Which is what a lot of people done do or realize
isn't water the most important thing to carry
Hey Paul. Sure. Along with a few other things like staying safe. Just as well we can carry more water in our car. 👍
so you carry all your drinking water in a bladder in your car..
then pump it to the van when you stop..
then pump it back to the car when you move again..
what happens when you camp on the coast for a week or two?
at the end of the day that van is just to big and heavy for that vehicle..
not trying to be a arsehole, just stating facts.
All good. Totally agree with everything you have said, but right now we need to find a way to to work within our limits. We have been travelling like this for over a year now and it works for us. Guess that’s the beauty about travel.
Agree and it tows better with full tanks, to much " sloshing around with 1/2 full tanks
Getting weights legal can be difficult definitely weigh on delivery many are over tare extras fitted puts things up. A LC 200 would put you well under gcm. If you travel with little water near impossible to free camp really not a good option. . Manufacturer's need to say no more, owners need to carry much less. We are up Sunny also, can't tell you how many times I have weighed our van 2.5 t 1000kg under gcm now but close to rear axle loading. A couple of months back transport dept were checking van weights at Gympie warning/ education only this time.
Agree with everything you have said. Our GCM is not an issue as the new ranger has a 6.4 tonne gcm
Hey guys love your videos the weight check was a real eye opener. Was it expensive to get the car and van done? Definitely seems worth checking
Hi Richard. It cost us $280 to get it weighed. I think. Ha Ha. I need to find the receipt but it wasn’t any more than this. It was money spent really well and Dave was a legend!!
This should be law every year to get weighed and certified
Enjoyed the video, but got some whole hard facts for you...We tow a van 2.8t tare with a dual cab ute (BT50) that has a GvM upgrade, and we have a GCM of 6.7t, by the time you load the essentials, half fill the tanks, 2 gas bottles we are only 100kg under GCM. Forget fitting bike racks, taking kayaks, golf clubs etc because it aint ever gonna work out for you. 700kg payload leaves you bugger all room to move unfortunately..To carry that fruit , its a 4.5t van and as you suggested, Ram or F250 etc.
Thanks Graham. Agree with everything you have said.
Graham if you have had a GVM upgrade as you say how does this increase your GCM I believe the Bt50 only has a 6000kg GCM from factory. I tow a van similar weight to yours with full water tanks.and yes I have had vehicle and car weighed.
True weights of a vehicle is law. Not being in the true weight frame actualy nulefies insurance.
At the time of purchase the dealer should provide an updated weigh bridge certificate. At that point certain points are reached. And honestly that would aid in descission making of . Is this the van for me. It's not just a van ...it's a vehicle and a van. It's no hood pulling a 30ft van with a mini minor is it. Or a 20 got boat with a 10 hp motor...
It has to be balanced . With at least 15% more vehicle power than needed.
And if you are remote. And have come to town to re supply. We'll that's where I would set up a weigh bridge wouldn't you.
Your not insured the moment you go over weight . And that includes 3rd party property . This ain't a game folks its REAL
Thanks for the input
Aren't weights fun.... guarantee your tare isn't correct. We stopped carrying "just in case" items and anything that could be switched to a lightweight version was. We travel with full water tanks (180L) because we like to stay in remote places, so we had to go hard on the weight saving.
I weighed EVERYTHING as it went in the van and the numbers just don't add up. If we were to carry 180L of water we would be about 80kg over so we need to go through all our stuff in the van and eliminate our just in case items as well. Will keep you up to date. Just subscribed to you guys,
I’d be surprised if the Enerdrive system and the solar panels were included in the tare weight. I’m guessing you’d have about 150kgs just in that setup.
That’s all really interesting. What makes you think the battery system was not included?
I did a bit of research when I first got my van and I read comments that some manufacturers have the base model figure as the tare weight. Any items that are installed as an “extra” are then classed as an after factory accessory “or something along those lines”. With you having trouble with your weights even though you weighed everything as you put it in sounds to me that you have your power system as an after factory accessories or whatever the industry term is. I picked my van up in Campbellfield and towed it straight to a weigh bridge in Broadford and it was way out.
Where did you get your water bladder from. I've been struggling to find a supplier.
Hey Robert. Make sure you watch this weeks episode as we go through the whole process. We bought our water bladder from fmestore.com.au. Hope this helps. T & J
@@ThumbsUpAustralia Hi guys, what fittings did you go for so that you can transport the water from the bladder to the caravan? Also did you option a 12v pump? We will soon be taking delivery of our Titanium Hardcore so your setup should work for us. Thank you
Solar panels and batteries go hand in hand, no point in having a large amount of solar that you can charge batteries in a very short time. The same with batteries, no point in having batteries that you cannot charge.
Totally agree. If you are a big energy user you need lots of solar to replenish when you’re out and about.
I saved some weight on my van from going from 2 x9kg to 1 4kg gas bottles
Great idea. We only use one gas canister at a time
Did you install different battery setup after delivery of van.
No, It was standard from factory.
@@ThumbsUpAustralia yea factory installed, but was compliance plate changed after it was installed, not too many manufacturers include that as base package, and they use base package as atm.
What did the vans weight come in at? And tow ball weight please
Hey Ryan. Our ball weight came in at 304kg and the weight of the van was 3400 (fully loaded).
@@ThumbsUpAustralia Hey guys. Is the 3400kg fully loaded where you're over by 100kg before you stripped some stuff out? Did you have water in the tanks at that time too?
@@ThumbsUpAustralia I wouldn't want to run at less than 10% of the trailer weight on the ball.
Best to upgrade your ATM on the van.
The ATM on the van is not the issue. Its ATM is 4.5 tonne. It's the fact the new ranger can only tow 3.5 tonne.
80/20 rule ftw
👍
Thanks for your video… I’m curious about a few things if you are happy to advise.
- What “loaded” van weight are you towing.
- Is your Ranger the V6 and if so… how does it tow & what’s its typical fuel consumption
- Does the rear suspension drop much particularly as I assume your tow hitch will have extended your tow ball overhang and what did your rear axle loads come in at…
My Titanium 18’6 is starting its build in 2 weeks and hoping for 2650 tare and 3100 loaded weight towing behind a V6 Ranger.
Any comments greatly appreciated.
Right now, our van fully loaded is 3.4 tonne, not ideal but we have done really well eliminating weight and clutter we just didn’t need. Our GCM is sitting at 6.2 tonne which is also under. Yes. Our ranger is the V6. It totally rocks mate. We get around 18L/100km towing our van which is awesome. The integrated brake controller is the best I have ever used as well. When we put the van on the ball, it did drop down around 35mm which is a bit low, but we then added a weight distribution hitch, that lifted the back up 20mm so it its only down 15mm now which is great. You’ll love your van Graeme. Let us know how you go mate.
Thanks mate for that info… As we are only 18’6 we hope to be 3000 - 3100kg loaded (just two of us) From your experience it sounds as if it will tow like a breeze and if I get 18ltr/100 I’ll be happy… keep you posted.
Awesome mate.
@@ThumbsUpAustralia Towing a van heavier than the vehicle is and always has been..stupid and not safe. No twin cab can safely tow 3.4 tonne!!
@@iandickinson342 Yup. starting to see that. Check out our most recent vid. Thanks
So are you saying your a 100kg over on the van , without water?
Yup. We were. Not any more 👍. We are also travelling with pretty much empty tanks. Nothing new for us.
@@ThumbsUpAustralia so how do you get over no water on free camps / non Carvan Parks? Or do you always stay in CP where water is available?
We will generally fill up our water bladder in the car once we find a spot to camp, then transfer that water to the tanks. More on that later
@@ThumbsUpAustralia Your ATM is calculated with Full Water Tanks. if you don't believe me LOOK IT UP. so if you have empty tanks you need to had to be under your GCM by the amount your water tanks will hold.
Be careful about thinking because you not filling all your water tanks does not mean you are legal ,spoke with a guy that was weighted in Queensland by Department of transport and had to get a tow truck because the caravan loaded with full water tanks made it too heavy for his tow vehicle even when he said what if he drains the water tank they said it did not matter as he could drive to next town refill the water tank he would be over weight again.
Hey Bruce. There is some misconception around this topic. Perhaps this article could help. Cheers. www.4wdingaustralia.com/4x4/can-your-atm-be-higher-than-your-towing-capacity/
😮😮😮
oh man over weight in the van!!
whats the vans payload ???
The vans payload is huge. Can weigh up to 4.5 tonne, which we can never use in our ranger.
@@ThumbsUpAustralia we have juat received our new van after waiting 14 months and now have to sell our pajero because of the terrible tow ball weight 😒
Stay safe out there
Wow. That’s awful. You too!! Hopefully see you out there one day
What was your total gcm?
It all came in at 6220kg. The new ranger can have 6400kg
Another person who tells the viewers that Lithium can be run down to zero. That may have some credibility until you look at the long term effect of cycling the batteries to that extent on a regular basis. Your battery life will be impacted.
Check the specifications for the batteries and look at the cycle life at varying DoD.
It’s a critical aspect of managing batteries, Lithium or AGM..
Thanks Len. I’ll check it out
$3,190 each for Enerdrive ePOWER B-TEC 300Ah Lithium Battery's
Yeh. Not cheap, but worth it
😮
If you believe what your manufacturer tells you WRT weights, you are kidding yourself.
DONT TRUST THEM
Get the van weighed by an independent BEFORE you take it out of the yard. If it's not as advertised, don't accept it.
Hey Lee. Wish someone had said this to us before we picked up our van. Thanks for the input
Why don’t people buy a working truck eg hino 300. Isuzu 300 canter fuso All come in 4wd. No worries about GCM. they will work every day. All day at maximum load. That’s how there built. Hino 300 4x4 has cruise control and lots of other goodie’s. Your going to pull the ass right out of that ranger. Sorry but facts.
Thats a great question. Haven’t thought of that option. 👍
I know it might be to late but there is a lot of people going that way. Even if it’s a 2wd truck They are very advanced now. Can get automatic. Cruise control suspension seats and they will work hard every day. Service intervals are long Lots of stability in these trucks. Very safe option.
Everything is a compromise. I went from a Ranger to an Isuzu NPS. Its legal, heavier than the van, the exhaust brake is great and it will probably outlast me. I had a suspension failure on the old van that would have pulled the Ranger off the road and rolled it over. the truck just dragged it straight down the road.
On the downside is not as comfortable as the Ranger, its much slower, the climb into the cab could be a problem as you get older or have an injury and is pretty big when you go shopping. Unfortunately, in Australia, there is no “perfect” tow vehicle.
Here in the US we generally use the commercial level trucks for towing. You don't see all that many trailers behind Rangers (don't see many Rangers at all) or F150s. The majority of the towing is done by 250/2500s and up. Anyone who tows heavy or often will also opt for a diesel (6.6L for Chevy/GMC and 6.7L for Ford/Ram). The GVWR on the 250/2500 trucks is around 10,000 lbs unless you get a specialty model (Power Wagon) and the 350/3500s have GVWRs up to 14,000 lbs. Tow ratings on these trucks will be far higher than a Hino 300, Isuzu 300 or Fuso and the HD Pickups will be far more comfortable too. The downside is that they are expensive. The 2024 Ford F450 King Ranch that I currently have ordered will be over $100,000 US after fees and taxes if Ford ever builds it. I have been waiting for this truck since the 2022 model year.
What a bugger guys! Time for an upgrade? 😉
Ha Ha. Not yet.
@@ThumbsUpAustralia that’s ok, you’ve got the dream van!🙌🏽
1000 % your tare weight will be wrong . The caravan industry needs to be cleaned up
I would say that they didn’t include the weight of your battery system
guess we will see when we get it weighed empty. let’s hope I’ve made a mistake
Have a garage sale guys
Ha Ha. We really really need to. Justine says yes, but Im very attached to the furniture. But we love this life. Just need to find a cheaper way to store it. Hmmm.
@@ThumbsUpAustralia was only joking guys. Take care
👍. I know
You buy a off grid van but can’t go off grid because you can’t carry water.
Hey Steve. Thanks for the input. 👍 We haven’t been off grid for about a month now. Maybe you can watch this weeks episode and we can show you how we get water into the van. It’s nothing new for us.
100kg over don't stress. Just go to the toilet.
Ha Ha. Gav, that’s funny.. Thanks so much. 👍🤣
Buy a truck
Haha. We almost did
Did you upgrade the rear springs in the ranger. Doesn't seem to sag much
No, it didn’t sag much at all. Only dropped around 25mm when the tow ball mass was applied
Might i suggest that have a look at Nathan's channel
XploringOz .
You may find some thing of interest to you in what reviews and full explanation of everything he reviews.
And all his reviews are true and fully independent.
And does disclose anything that has been asked to review ,again a true and independent review.
Thanks mate.