TedNacho

Hey all

There is an event that I go to every year in January and I usually camp in line for about 8 hours before it starts. Sometimes the crowd is fun sometimes not this next January I am hoping to try and bring fun. The event is about 8 hours of waiting in line and then camping over night... there isn't a need for a really elaborate whole overlanding set up but that 8 hours is still a long time for most batteries.

I was thinking of taking an old LCD TV that I had (40"), perching it on the tailgate under an awning (the glare would be impossible to deal with otherwise) and a video gaming console like the SNES classic or Switch and playing MarioKart while waiting for the doors to open. Once the doors do open I plan on parking my truck, locking the TV and AV equipment inside the extended cab, moving the awning over the bed and then sleeping in the bed overnight. There is a bathroom I could get changed in the next morning or I could move the TV out of the back seat and into the bed for long enough to get changed inside the truck.

I'm having a fierce internal debate as to how to accomplish all of this.

A) I could borrow a generator from a friend, and that would only cost me gasoline but the generator won't fit inside the truck so there is a slim chance it would get stolen out of the bed. The generator would also be really loud.

B) I could purchase a battery pack like this one;


which will probably give me plenty of power for the afternoon- but it's pretty expensive! It would be kind of useful for temporary power outages at home though, require the least amount of fabrication, and be the "cleanest" way of getting things done.

C) I could run a second deep cycle battery off my truck- but I think this is going to be the most difficult of all the options and part of why I'm posting here. If you tailgate and use a second battery in the 8th/9th gen F150s (mine is the 1990 with a 5.8 and 2wd)... where'd you mount everything? There are so many different ideas in the Bronco of this gen, and there are now some Optima kids for the 97-03 that claim to be bolt in... I'm seeing some people who have inline 6s that relocate their washer/radiator overlow and mount #2 on the right hand side... etc.

D) I could buy a generator, but then I'm maintaining a generator and storing gasoline and things like that, and there is a large cash outlay up front for something that will be extremely noisy and smelly... I'm not sure that I would use it more than 1 or 2 times a year either because we do have annual storm related power outages, but aside from the air conditioning and fridge (which a portable generator isn't going to run) there isn't anything in the house that I legitimately cannot live without for the up to 1 - 2 days that power is out for (usually it's overnight that it's out anyway). Buying used from CL is probably possible but it's a ? as to how long the unit will last or is "hot" (why sell a good generator?).

Shore power, as far as I know, simply won't be available at the venue though I am going to ask about it I'm not going to hold my breath.

I have until January to think about all this and really appreciate any thoughts y'all have on what I can do.

BLDTruth

My first thought is that the diesel trucks of this generation have a second battery located where the coolant overflow tank is located on the gassers. That would be the way I would go if I wanted to add a second battery. It would require some relocation of certain things in the engine bay (like the tank itself) but it has been done before.

TedNacho

I'll keep looking at this option. Every thread that I've seen so far does this in I-6 trucks of this generation, and it looks like the air filter assembly is single-tube and points to the passenger side making it easy to relocate the overflow tank. With the V8 being a wider package, including that ridiculous dual hose + airbox + air horn set up it would be significantly more complex but maybe someone has done it- I'll keep looking thanks

Steve83

It's hard to give relevant suggestions when it's so difficult to find what truck you're talking about. Make it easy by putting ALL its details into your signature as this caption explains:

(phone app link)


This shows the factory '80-86 optional battery, which can be nearly duplicated in '87-96s:

(phone app link)


That's how Ford wired it, and it's among the best ways of doing it. Not very expensive or complicated, but very robust & versatile while being automatic. But there are some options you omitted:

E) a modern quiet low-maintenance inverter generator is compact & affordable.

F) a common automotive jumper pack would be even less-invasive, and be more-easily utilized in the future
But that's really just a package for a common SLA battery, which you could buy separately and install anywhere (even sideways or inside the cab) using the wiring from E)
They're available in MANY shapes & sizes, and can be wired in parallel for nearly-infinite capacity.

B) there are lower-priced versions

TedNacho

Thanks, I'll work on getting my sig to include all the relevant details... forthcoming. Once I do that I'll dig through the items you linked.