Do you ever wonder what happened to the 3V with 2V electronics swap guy? Yeah me too... He's probably with the Gadget Man Groove guy.....

 

My apologies for making you late to whatever you needed (or didn't need) to do today.

The wheels and the steep angle of the front skidplate could be better.
I don't know what one could do with the skidplate with such a short front overhang on those trucks.
They should just lose the raptor plate and make a bespoke one. The curve at the top of the plate not matching the flatness of the bumper is one of the biggest reasone it looks hackish, especially when the rest of the truck looks done very well.

I feel that the wheels should have been based off something like

IIRC these were very popular in the late 70s and early 80s.

 

I thought they claimed that they locked out the cam adjusters and used the 2V ECM. I thought they had a video of it running.
I'm to lazy today to look it up though. Bummed out by the cold an snow. We has a dusting on the grass and cars this morning and the weather chick said we may have up to 6" on Sunday night.Accuweather says 2". I'm hoping for 0"

 

Anyone know of a way to make the engine start and run to charge the battery if the battery gets below a certain level?

I'd like to use my truck for a small amount of power while I boondock at an unpowered mountain cabin. The running truck is much quieter that any generator.

 

You want the motor on your truck to start by itself, you mean?

 

Yes.
Flow:
Inverter running -> battery low -> start engine for time -> recharge battery -> stop engine -> repeat as needed
Nearest I can park to cabin is ~40'
Cabin has smoke and CO detector
I figure some camper or RV company would have this but my searches don't seem to find it. I guess I'm typing the wrong thing into google.
Too many trees (and I like them so not cut them down) for solar. Too far from grid for economical utility (and I don't want another bill) and the generators are too loud. I can't even hear the truck at 40' but even quite, inverter generators are still annoying.

 

I mean.... it's possible, but it would be complex to do it. Assuming you have PATS, you also have to be able to bypass PATS. To me, the cost to benefit would be way too far off.

I work with guys that have cabins. They charge their batteries with solar panels instead.

 

Story time.
I inherited a cabin near Grundy VA. ~400 miles from my home. On side of mountain. Probably 10 miles from paved road.
Was my mother's childhood home. I now believe her walk to school bus horror stories.
She died in Feb 2020. Was last of her siblings.
I only remember the cabin from pics from when I was maybe 8 at most.
Went up in August 2020 to see what it was and sell it.
No electricity, no phone, no cell service.
Has running water because of a spring above it on mountain, and a working toilet.
Has creek in front ~200' and downhill ~100'. Saw fish it it. Water was so clear.
Was in good shape for not having anyone in it for decades. Thank you to whoever put the metal roof on it. No roof leaks.
So many trees that it was completely in shade. Can't even see it on google maps, only shows trees.
Me and one of my kids spent a week there and cleaned it up. Was so quiet, only hear the peaceful creek and birds and nature.
Spoke to real estate agent and was told that I could probably get $10k for it as it wasn't zoned for residential. Power company want $25K to get electricity to it, and it would need rezoned.
Even after decades of empty, not a single windows was broken, no graffiti, no vandalism.
Now I want to keep it.
It does get boring at night though.
I'll probably just cut a couple trees and use solar panels.
Only bad part is that it is a day's drive to get to it.

 

My FIL has a trailer in the woods for camping. He has some camping/marine deep discharge type batteries he charges with a generator which was too loud as you say. He built a box out of 3/4 plywood and lined it with egg-crate foam. PVC tube from outside to the intake and some sort of exhaust extension that I never saw to keep the air moving in and out. The box is about 3 times the size of the generator and not sealed up so it doesn't get too hot in there when running. It cuts the noise dramatically. He runs it about 45 minutes a day to charge the batteries if I remember correctly. Not exactly what you are looking for but it works for him. If you put this ~40' away from the cabin you wouldn't hear it. I have seen generators with remote start as well. Just a thought.

Something like this crude drawing. Point the venting slot away from your cabin and the noise will be minimal.

 

Noobie - I agree 100% Those white-spoke wheels are much more "correct" for the era. The skid plate bugs me a little, too, now that you mention it.

You should check out the Honda generators. They get a bit of coin for them, but they are reliable and q u i e t. You can carry on a conversation right next to them, and they're hard to hear at all from more than 20-ish feet or so from what I remember.

FWIW, the inverters I have don't like straight 12VDC for very long, and idling doesn't charge a battery very effectively. As for starting the truck automatically, figuring out a circuit to switch a solid-state relay at 11.75V or some other value then trigger a timer and ignition relay would be the way I'd approach it. This would be a bit complicated to implement, and I've never seen a pre-packaged solution.