Wiring:

Now that it was time to begin the installation of the electronics and wiring, we needed to have a good plan to ensure proper and reliable operation.  I also have an aversion to exposed wires and like equipment to look more like factory issue rather than added on. A couple of days were spent mocking up communication equipment and house battery and battery management gear until we got it to all located properly.  One key rule we wanted to follow is that the Jeeps wiring, and electronic systems needed to stay as intact as possible.  All aftermarket equipment needed to be installed as a stand-alone system that could easily be disconnected should something go wonky on a trip leaving the Jeep in factory and hopefully operational condition.  The decision was made that all external and equipment mounted in the cockpit would be controlled via a Switch Pros control unit mounted on the driver’s A pillar.  All the gear in the house area behind the front seats would be run from a house battery through a RedArc battery management system. Now it was time to tear apart the Jeep, all interior and exterior trims, molding and panels were removed to allow access for routing of wires and antenna cables.  The next few days were spent running cables all over the Jeep leaving plenty of length to trim and make final connections after the trim was reinstalled and equipment mounted. Aside from properly routing wires to protect them from damage, choice and quality of terminations play a huge role in providing a reliable electrical system. Off road vehicles are subject to lots of vibration, moisture, heat, and abrasion that can cause shorts, breaks and intermittent connections that can be a pain to track down. Our primary connectors are Deutsch automotive style weatherproof connectors, when those do not make sense, we use pre soldered heat shrink connectors.  Larger cables get heavy duty crimp fittings with heat shrink applied afterward. Having the correct crimping and connector tools makes all the difference.

Switch Pro Controller:

The primary controller for the cockpit and exterior electrical is the Switch Pros system, we have this on our Ram truck, and it is amazing to use and simple to install.  For Eeyore the controller operates driving, rock, and chase lights.  Also serves as the master switch for comms on the interior.  The system is fully programable and can be remote controlled from tablet or cell phone.

House Battery System The heart of the house power system is a 100ah lifepo4 battery mounted under a cabinet behind the driver’s seat. #6 ga wire provides power from the engine battery and is protected by a 50-amp circuit barrier under the hood which also allows easy disconnection from the Jeep’s electrical system. A dedicated ground also runs to the main battery. Charging functions are handled by the Red Arc manager 30 which allows charging from the alternator, solar, or shore power. We get full 30-amp charge at idle, full charge is obtained in a couple of hours.  The house battery feeds into the Red Arc Redvision system that provides remote control of all houses electrical functions and under awning lighting from either the remote display panel or from the tablet in the cockpit.  With the limited space in a Wrangler, we chose to build a custom mount for the control unit that mounts to the ARB fridge so that it can be used while in the kitchen. Since we travel and camp in well below freezing temperatures, we can run into issues with charging the lithium battery so we installed a heated pad under the battery that will activate at 34 degrees when the master switch is on so that the battery temp remains warm enough to allow charging. Ventilation of the electrical cabinet is provided by a computer fan on a snap thermostat. Finally, a 1000 watt inverter is provided for charging laptops or camera batteries.