The Autism Family Travels updated vehicle build. Take two! 2015 Jeep Patriot altitude.

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Enthusiast III

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Grand Falls-Windsor, NL, Canada
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Steve
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Adams
On today's menu, wiring up the trailer harness, add a flush mount 12v plug in on a switch in the rear for the fridge to plug into and do a once over on the swaybar situation. Getting a lot of clunk up front, but just had the LCA's replaced, so It can't be ball joints.
 

Enthusiast III

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Grand Falls-Windsor, NL, Canada
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Steve
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FInished the wiring for the rear power plug, and trailer hitch wiring. Ran into a few bumps but nothing major. Pics of some of the action will be posted today. As we were just plugging on through it, I never took many pictures to show progress. Also added some storage to the rear seats for Colin. He can now pop his ipad into the holder and watch movies and tv shows while we travel.

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Yes, Mekia leaves her mark in the Jeep for sure

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Fuse panel on the back wall of the pat behind the spare tire.

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Plug and switch for the fridge.

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And a little foreshadowing of what's next!
 
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Enthusiast III

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Grand Falls-Windsor, NL, Canada
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Steve
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Looks good! You should probably add a breaker up near the battery though to be safe.
There is an inline fuse less than 12" away from the battery. You can see the housing right at the end of the wire in picture with the battery (which is getting changed). Speaking of which, do you know of any deep cycle battery that fits our little rigs?
 

Flamewave

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There is an inline fuse less than 12" away from the battery. You can see the housing right at the end of the wire in picture with the battery (which is getting changed). Speaking of which, do you know of any deep cycle battery that fits our little rigs?
Starter battery or as a house battery? I have a Group 34 Optima Yellowtop right now, not sure if it'll fit with an unmodded tray but I think it should, my tray's cut from when I had a Group 34 Northstar (slightly bigger footprint than the Optima).

As far as house batteries, I've wanted to do a dual battery setup for years now but there's just nowhere to put a decent sized battery except the spare tire well. I have some room behind the passenger side headlight now (running KC headlights) but I'm not sure I could cram anything bigger than a motorcycle battery in the space.


edit: You meant starter, it's been a long day, I should have read more closely. lol

edit2:
 
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Enthusiast III

1,212
Grand Falls-Windsor, NL, Canada
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Steve
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Adams
Starter battery or as a house battery? I have a Group 34 Optima Yellowtop right now, not sure if it'll fit with an unmodded tray but I think it should, my tray's cut from when I had a Group 34 Northstar (slightly bigger footprint than the Optima).

As far as house batteries, I've wanted to do a dual battery setup for years now but there's just nowhere to put a decent sized battery except the spare tire well. I have some room behind the passenger side headlight now (running KC headlights) but I'm not sure I could cram anything bigger than a motorcycle battery in the space.


edit: You meant starter, it's been a long day, I should have read more closely. lol

edit2:
I have been looking to see where to put a house battery too. The best I can come up with is put it in the spot where the "cubby" is in the back, on the passenger side. Use a LiPo4 battery which packs a punch while being smaller. But I want to upgrade the main battery as well. How's the optima vs northstar?
 

leeloo

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I have been looking to see where to put a house battery too. The best I can come up with is put it in the spot where the "cubby" is in the back, on the passenger side. Use a LiPo4 battery which packs a punch while being smaller. But I want to upgrade the main battery as well. How's the optima vs northstar?
For the aux power i got 2 small 20 amp batteries that you can connect in series, for a total of 40 amps, enough for a fridge and charging small devices. They are so small, you can even tuck them in under a seat .
Something like this
Look at the size of them, you fit them easy someplace..
 

Enthusiast III

1,212
Grand Falls-Windsor, NL, Canada
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Steve
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Adams
Still going back and forth with the dealer on my struts. I am starting to get impatient as we really can't drive the rig around only to work and the store. it's brutal. to make matters worse, some A$$hole decided to steal 100 liters of gas from our F150 while we were on the road and parked at a hotel. They drilled our tank and took the gas. 2 weeks now without our back up rig.

Pic for review!

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OTH Overland

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I miss the old days where they used a hose to siphon your fuel, loss of gas and inconvenience of having to get some brought out to you, but now they are just spiking the tank or cutting the filler hose leaving you with no fuel and a trashed tank to boot.. If you had been out west they would have taken your catalytic converter while they were under there.... Sorry you guys are having a run of bad luck.. Hopefully you will get out on the trail again soon and the memories of this will fade ..
 

Enthusiast III

1,212
Grand Falls-Windsor, NL, Canada
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Steve
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Adams
So, the string of bad luck continued with the F150. Got a call last week it would be done on Friday, goes over and the dumb mechanic who drove it into the garage at the ford dealership had to keep the battery booster on the truck for it to run. First clue the alternator was bad, so instead of telling the foreman, he replaced the tank, and backed the truck back out on booster power. I sent dad over to get the truck as I was working and busy with family, he got over there and the alternator and belt were toast. another 5 hr drive, and time wasted.

Finally, a family friend drove it back yesterday and we have the truck again.

A totally unrelated story, here is the patriot in "work mode". I had to goto one of my good clients storage units full of vintage and rare snowmobiles yesterday and install a "rack" to make more room for more sleds. I also do the restoration work on the sleds too! fun stuff! The maiden voyage of something being towed with the little pat.

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