Fold Up Tow Bar Part 2

Ok that's another job done, the metalwork is finished and painted and it's all installed on the truck.  It turned out quite well.
Just a couple of hydraulic pipes and some electrics to go.

Fold Up Tow Bar Part 1

Had a bit of time to mess around with some heavy engineering this week.  I wanted to fit a tow bar to the rear of the truck so i can tow a Suzuki Jimny.

I was already toying with the idea of making the rear underrun bar on a hydraulic system so I can lift it out of the way if I need to.

Now i am thinking that i might be able to do both the tow bar and the underrun bar at the same time, its a work in progress.

the plan is to make a hinge using a 24mm bolt as a pin, this will bolt on the rear of the chassis, the drop plate is a bit of 6" C channel, i will attach a ram to the back of the channel to lift it all up out of the way.

This is as far as I have got:

victron energy Inverter system

As the truck is all electric, that is to say, the cooking is done with electric, I needed a robust and scalable inverter/charger system that was totally reliable for the job.

After several months of research and investigation into both Victron and other systems, I chose the Victron Energy products, the main reason was how versatile they are, and the fact that they fitted the job perfectly.

When the 24v 8000W Victron inverter arrived, I was very pleasantly surprised at the build quality, it really is a fine piece of engineering, it looks great and the functionality is even better.

I coupled the inverter to the Victron Colour Control Unit, this allows monitoring and adjustment of all parameters of the batteries, inverter, solar controller, generator etc; and even uploads the data to the Victron VRM internet portal so I can look at the status of everything and remote control it online.

The Victron system has so many features it's only possible to mention a few, I think apart from the VRM portal one of my favorites is the “power assist” feature, this allows you to set the amount of current you draw from a wired connection (at a campsite). If you then need more power than this connection can supply, The system will supplement it form the batteries - this occurs seamlessly without you even noticing.

I essentially wanted an 8kW inverter system to be comfortable running the cooking and heating, refrigeration and aircon in the truck. I estimate the maximum usage for short periods to be approx. 6kW

This inverter system is backed up by a Victron 1000Ah AGM battery system, I was going to go for a Lithium-Ion battery system but I don’t think the budget will stretch to it.  (That's all changed now)

A 6kVA diesel generator supplements the system when needed and can be automatically started and stopped by the Victron system when needed.

There is also 2100W of solar panels connected via a Victron smart solar controller to take full advantage of the suns energy.

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This entire system will allow the truck to run with all the comforts of home totally off grid for an unlimited length of time.