BJ's new tug

[Bmhdg76]

Hi all,

Well for better or worse we traded the Hilux and changed it for a new MY14 Mitsubishi Challenger.
Couple of reasons for the change and hope we have made the correct choice, but only time will tell.

Now that we are back to square one with the tug setup what should we do?
In the Hilux we had a dual battery setup with an Anderson plug to the rear for the van.

On this car, they put a 7pin flat, so have to change the plug on the tug to suit, but here is the dilemma.... Do I change it to a 7pin flat and then have an Anderson added to the car, or do I change it to a 12pin and just have the one plug?

The van's fridge at the moment is hooked up to the van battery and the Anderson from the battery to the car. It worked okay on the Hilux, but didn't seem to charge so the low voltage disconnect I had the fridge hooked to cut out quite often.

I am considering putting the fridge through the low voltage disconnect and then that straight to the car. My concern is the LVD is set at 12volt cut out (can change it to lower) - is 12v still okay for the car battery to start the car? Should I be getting rid of the LVD and just getting the auto elec to wire the plug through a voltage sensing relay to only be on when the car is running?

What are people's thoughts and suggestions? I will get some pics of the car over the weekend and post them up when I have a chance.

BJ

 

[Brad]

Wow!! I thought all vans came with a 12 pin plug.

 

[Bmhdg76]

As the Hilux had a 7 pin round, jayco changed the van to match.

 

[relgate]

My understanding is that the fridge (assuming it is an absorption type) is not normally connected to the van battery because ity drains the power so quickly. My last tug only had one battery so we wired the fridge directly to the car but installed a simple solenoid to cut the power when ignition was off. Simple but effective and easy to trouble shoot. For us I cant see a situation where we need the fridge to be on 12volt for any period of time when stopped. The fridge holds it's cold for lunch stops etc, and for any more time you can kick on the gas.
In the new tug I've got a second battery that is charged directly off the car battery with the same ignition cutoff (this time it is a relay)
It's one of these:
http://www.homeof12volt.com/shop/in..._id/060def3bfbc46911c6e262636b42fdc0/offset/0

This time I'm running the fridge (and van battery) of this through the 12 pin. The fridge is powered full time when plugged in. I'm wondering if it will flatten the battery due to it's draw, but so far have been on only one 2.5 hr trip and the battery showed very little loss. It is being fed by the car battery so perhaps the charge is keeping up.
If we stop for a couple of hours I can unplug it, but probably wont initially just to see how it goes!

 

[Bmhdg76]

Ok so finally took the van out on the weekend up to my brothers place in Stanthorpe. Car handled well but not happy with the economy. We averaged 16.99L/100klms! That sucks especially as the Hilux I just traded it from averaged 12L/100klms when fully loaded. This trip we had bugger all in the van seeing as it was only being used for sleeping.

In saying that I am not happy with the economy of the tug in general. To get to work I do a mix of driving and the Hilux used to average 8.5 for my general drive so I was thinking with a smaller motor it should be less... Couldn't be more wrong I average 11.6 since picking it up (and that was BEFORE the weekend just gone). So needless to say am very disappointed.

Another issue we had was when we got to the top of Cunninghams Gap, the auto box didn't want to change up. Seemed like it was stuck in second and took about 1-2 Kim's before it managed to change. Anyone else have similar issues?

It is going in to the dealer tomorrow to get a rattle in the dash sorted out so needless to say will be having a chat with them about all of this.

BJ

 

[Bmhdg76]

On the bright side, I re-wired the fridge to go direly from my tug through the Projecta low voltage disconnect and worked brilliantly!

BJ

 

[stuartcarr2002]

Ok so finally took the van out on the weekend up to my brothers place in Stanthorpe. Car handled well but not happy with the economy. We averaged 16.99L/100klms! That sucks especially as the Hilux I just traded it from averaged 12L/100klms when fully loaded. This trip we had bugger all in the van seeing as it was only being used for sleeping.

In saying that I am not happy with the economy of the tug in general. To get to work I do a mix of driving and the Hilux used to average 8.5 for my general drive so I was thinking with a smaller motor it should be less... Couldn't be more wrong I average 11.6 since picking it up (and that was BEFORE the weekend just gone). So needless to say am very disappointed.

Another issue we had was when we got to the top of Cunninghams Gap, the auto box didn't want to change up. Seemed like it was stuck in second and took about 1-2 Kim's before it managed to change. Anyone else have similar issues?

It is going in to the dealer tomorrow to get a rattle in the dash sorted out so needless to say will be having a chat with them about all of this.

BJ

That sounds very high, although when the engines are new they use a little more. Our pathy with the same size engine uses similar to your hilux. It goes to mid 13's towing up long mountain roads.

Dash rattles are annoying. Our Pathy has had one (as most R51 and D40's do) since new, never been really fixed. I dont worry about it now. Just turn up the stereo