I Built the CHEAPEST Overland Power System (No Solar Needed)

Hinzugefügt: 2026-05-06

[00:00:00]Boom.

[00:00:02]What's going on again, boys? I hope I'm in screen here. I really can't see. Let me flip this around, actually.

[00:00:09]All right, perfect. How's it going? Hope everyone's doing good. I'm like looking at the screen. I got to look at you guys. How's it going, guys? Uh, so what I got going today, right, what I got going today is I'm doing a budget battery box for camping.

[00:00:29]um without solar. You can add solar to this. Admittedly, you could add solar to this, but I'm just trying to keep it as simple as possible for the least money as possible. So, I have some parts here supplied by none other than your boy Max Peing rods. So, let's dig into what we got, boys. All right. Some of these parts are just parts I bought off Amazon because they don't make all of it, but they do make some crucial parts that are pretty much the main part of this. So, what we got first, right? batteries, right? They sent me two 100 amp hour batteries that are meant for this.

[00:01:12]Let's go ahead and unbox that. Boom. All right. How sick is that? And you have some terminal caps. It's a Life Po 4.

[00:01:21]Life PO4. I don't I don't know if it's a PO or LIF PO 4 battery. AGM uh sealed case. So, you can mount these however you want. It's 100 amp hours and there's two of them. And to go with this, we also have this, which if I do if I if I do say so myself, if I may say so myself, is [ __ ] sick, dude. So, what we have here is a dual battery isolator. So essentially, it uses your alternator power to charge your I I I keep wanting to call it shore power, but your auxiliary power. So this little unit right here, small footprint, not like a huge, you know, giant inverter or anything, but this will go in your engine bay, and then you're going to run your wires.

[00:02:11]You know, obviously you have a ground, and then you have your long cable that's going to go to this. And you daisy chain these in a series because you can run these in a series for more power. And you also have your remote, which is just a wired remote. U I'm probably going to mount this, not mount it, but I'm probably going to keep it like in my glove box. I'll like run the wire so it's in my glove box or it's under my uh fuse panel. But basically, you're going to have a display here with your both of your voltages for your main batteries and your auxiliary. main being like the battery in like your vehicle battery that you're not trying to run up because you know you can run those inverters that have the uh like the cigarette lighter inverters. Um but obviously you can't run much off of those and also what if you need to start your vehicle.

[00:02:54]Um so yeah, you can isolate them with this switch back and forth so that like you're you know all night you're not on your main battery power whatsoever. or it completely shuts it off and you're only on these remote. And you get terminals and some crimp terminals, which I just said I was going to need anyways, which is is perfect. This is perfect. And you get some zip ties and you obviously get that. So, you get your quality control QC certificate. So, you get your spec sheet. Tells you everything. It's obviously IP65 rated. So, like I said, it's a closed system. Your limitations for series and parallel connection. four in a series 48vt 51.2 volt uh battery system or in a parallel as a 400 amp hour battery system. Um I don't know which I'm going to run. Let's ask uh let's ask BBNet and Yahoo robot chat because honestly I'm not that informed on what the difference is between these two. So I'm just going to say I have a 200 watt Euros sinewave inverter. What is the best configuration and why? Sorry Utah, I just used up like half a gallon of water asking that question. I do apologize. There are a lot of Mormons there though, so maybe not. If your inverter is 12vt, use the batteries in a parallel. 24vt, use two batteries in a series. So typical 12vt 2000 watt inverter 12vt batteries parallel. That's kind of what I expected. Apparently 51 volts would completely destroy it instantly.

[00:04:27]So we won't be doing that, guys. All right, we're going to run it in a parallel, not a series. All right, I I guess that's that's the move. All right, my bad. My bad, battery guys out. All right, you guys are going to be Oh, dude, this guy doesn't know [ __ ] about [ __ ] batteries. You're damn straight, dude. This is the first time I'm having this. Anyways, so then I bought this on Amazon. I figured I really don't want to make a battery box and this seems nice and is compact and I could literally just do this and then just drop the battery right in and drop the other one next to it and it's done. And I have some straps that I'll uh secure them down with. Why Why am I going to build a box? You know what I mean? I'll have to build a platform for this box so that it fits nicely in there next to my subs.

[00:05:10]But this is what I'm going with. It was $98 shipped. Can't complain, dude. Can't freaking complain. And it's a nice box with like a sealed like locking lid. It comes with grommets and all that, you know, grommets.

[00:05:27]So, boom. That's the two batteries in the box. Still have plenty of room. Uh could put bigger batteries in there, I guess, but I don't need bigger batteries cuz 200 amp hours is plenty for a weekend and especially on something that charges it charges itself. What I don't know what I want to do yet is if I want this to be mounted in the bay or in like on the box like something like that because I know the inverter I'm definitely going to mount on the box somewhere. Um hopefully the inverter's here. Let me actually unbox it so I can see how big it is and if I can even fit it on the box. All right, so we're looking pretty messy here. But anyways, this is literally the cheapest Pure Sine Wave 2000 watt inverter you can get on Amazon. It was I think $110 or maybe $130 tops. I don't even know. But it's probably overkill for what I need. It's a little big. Um I'm going to have to uh maybe mount it on the side. Probably the back side of this cuz it's going to interfere with the latch. But let me take this. Oh, you know what?

[00:06:25]No, I don't know if maybe if I flip the uh these mounts inward. But then how do I how do I mount it becomes the issue. I don't know. I don't know. Let's Let's go actually put this in the back of my car and see how much space we have.

[00:06:51]All right. How much space do we have?

[00:06:54]Not much, boys. Not much. But we we'll figure something out.

[00:07:02]This does not need to be in here. My California cat, if you were wondering. I don't need it because I don't live in California. Timing belt kit. Still have not done that. But battery isolator kit dial timing belt.

[00:07:17]It's not interference, dude. It's a 4Runner. I'm not worried about it. All right. So, now that I have that stuff out of the way, let's put this in there and see what we got going. So, it will in fact fit right there. Right. Ideally, I'd like it up here, but it doesn't have to be up there, I guess. So, I think it's going to go right here. The inverter. I don't know, dude.

[00:07:42]I don't know.

[00:07:45]Let's see what this looks like.

[00:07:50]That would be pretty good.

[00:07:54]But this would also entail me making like an L frame with at least two legs.

[00:08:01]or not an L frame. I guess I could just make like a 2x4 frame and it would be good and then somehow mount it with like some L brackets to here.

[00:08:14]H I kind of like that. I kind of like that idea. Can you guys even see that idea?

[00:08:21]Yeah, you guys can see that idea. But it's kind of like flush with the seats, which I you know I like. But I don't know, dude. I don't know. Let's Let's mock up the uh inverter. See, I could mount it just like that, dude.

[00:08:38]Honestly, you know what? That's probably the move. Can I open this latch? Yeah, I can open the latch, dude. I I think I'm just going to mount it like that. I think that's the move cuz that way I'm not taking up floor space. I I I really want to get rid of this box and just get a single 12 because these are like super underpowered subs I got from free for free from Orion. Um cuz that would cut this in half, you know? I like the box would be like here rather than you know all that. And I could put like a drawer system over here or something. But anyways, um yeah, I think that's going to be the move. Uh in which case tomorrow I'm going to have to run to Home Depot and grab some wood. I'll do that and I'll get some terminals from Home Depot. No, from O'Reilly's so I can build the platform and all that, but for now Oh, and battery tie downs because the the battery tied downs I got, they're not it. I am not using that. I do not want these batteries flopping around. So, yeah, not happening. I guess I'm just going to have to finish this video up tomorrow.

[00:09:44]Not a big deal. Um, but yeah, this is where I'm at. All right, next day. Um, we're making some headroom. I had to order some stuff from Amazon. Thank God for Prime because I needed these battery terminals. Uh I need some little step bits and you know little stuff like that. This the hardware stuff I had. Um but this is where we're at so far. I just kind of been plugging away at this.

[00:10:06]Uh got this in there. Got the new these came from Amazon as well. So now these are actually sturdy. Uh mounted the inverter to the side of the box and made these little ghetto legs. I guess I don't know. I'm just going to This is going to be like that. And then I'm going to do like a L bracket that goes to the uh the plastic panel on the side.

[00:10:28]And yeah, but as for like the reason all this is happening, the max feeding rod stuff, I tried to put my other thing there. I tried to put that fuse box here and the hood wouldn't close. So I'm putting that there without bolting it on this time and seeing if the hood will actually close. So if the hood closes, that's where it's going. And that's perfect because I could run a cable from the back or from the alternator right here right up to that and then right into there and right back there. So, uh, let's see if this hood closes.

[00:11:03]Just going to sit you guys down right there. E.

[00:11:08]All right.

[00:11:09]Hopefully no Honda hood.

[00:11:17]The hood closes, dude. That's where it's going. Boom. Got the self tappers going.

[00:11:22]Word filling. Open the hood. Damn it.

[00:11:25]That's [ __ ] mint, dude. That's styled. All right. Sick. So, that means yes, that I'm good at explaining stuff.

[00:11:37]Sorry, Max Piny Rods. I'm actually not.

[00:11:40]Um, so I'm going to go ahead and bolt that up there. Go ahead and bolt that up. And uh I believe this is just Yeah. So you ground the box. I'm going to ground that right to the hole that I you know mount this with. And then the remote will go underneath the box with the other wires for the um for the light bar and all that stuff into there. And then main right here will go right down to my alternator because this is a mess and I need to do something about this. And uh I don't want I don't have any more space. I I don't want another cable here. And then the aux will be the wire that this actually came with that'll go through that hole down through my panels and then over there. But yeah, sweet, dude. Put the battery box in the car.

[00:12:29]Ran the main battery wires. Going to hook it up to the alternator very last.

[00:12:35]Just making the main ground for the battery box itself. And uh we should be good, dude. Hey. Uh, by the way, if you don't have, uh, crimpers, just get a big old Harbor Freight Chanel log, dude.

[00:12:49]Sort it out. You know what I mean? If you can squeeze it pretty hard, you got it, dude. But finish up this ground wire. Everything else is ran. I just got to hook up this ground wire and then I got to put these little L brackets um in the back like to the floor through the wood and all that so it like doesn't come loose I guess. I don't know cuz going off road you I mean there's going to be a lot of movement. So I figure the more of these little L brackets I could put there.

[00:13:18]But boom, my ground cable. Let's go wire up that box. Here's that. There's my cable to the alternator.

[00:13:27]It goes down with my sub wiring. Here's the controller that I'm going to be putting inside here so I can take it off and kind of you know what I mean? Like I could I could like hard mount it right there, but I don't really want to. Maybe here. Nah. Nah. I'm going to put it inside my fuse box panel just so I can like use the cord with it. Like I don't know. Maybe it would be good to kind of have it out like that. I don't know.

[00:13:47]We'll see. Also, I found the the bracket for the switch panel. So, I'm going to be mounting that over there. This what we're working with so far. I got a good ground point right here cuz that's right to the body through the uh the hook.

[00:14:01]This cable's going to go up back into the grommet back there. And uh yeah, that's about it, dude. I don't want it to run up this way. So, it's going to go behind it and then into it. But even as it sits, it's pretty freaking sturdy. I just got to put those brackets on for peace of mind. All right, so there it is. just have to put the uh battery in the or on the alternator. But this is what it looks like inside.

[00:14:28]So my main battery is coming up through that way. Boom. Boom. My ground's over there. So now I could just do this in theory.

[00:14:38]Lock that. Boom. And um one more power.

[00:14:42]And then the inverter should turn on with the remote. And the remote I'm just going to probably leave back here. I'll, you know, maybe velcro it or I'll Mac.

[00:14:49]You know what? I have sticky magnets.

[00:14:51]I'll magnet the the remote like right here. Boom. So, I just put a little magnet on this. Shove the cord back here. Should power on if I hit this.

[00:15:00]There it is.

[00:15:06]There it is. 13 13.1 volts.

[00:15:11]121.

[00:15:12]Same display on here. That's [ __ ] sick, dude.

[00:15:18]Hell yeah. So, this is officially done.

[00:15:22]Um, and I do have more stuff to put back here. So, and look at this. My my rear windows down so the hatch like doesn't want to stay all the way up. Maybe that's the next mod, huh? Some uh some stronger hatch struts. I need dual struts on my [ __ ] mounts over here.

[00:15:37]But, um, let me go ahead and, uh, kind of make how I got to see how this layout's going to work. Uh, the fridge should fit right here. Um, I have like a water thing with like a spot. Ideally, it should go right here to cover this and just take up this area because there's not much I can do with just this. Whereas over here, I could make like a drawer system or like a two-tier drawer system. Maybe the cooler goes up here and the uh and the bottom has like a drawer that comes out for um for a stove or something. I don't know. I don't know. Let's see. Let's see what we can fit in here. Let me let me clear this out. So, here's that. So, here's the max peeling rods controller for the um the unit over here. So, that's it all hooked up. Got my fused power going to the alternator just cuz it's a positive post and then running through the car like subs. And this I'm just going to put right here. But dude, look at the slow controller. All right. Boom. Hit that. You have your display.

[00:16:40]Sorry, guys. Frame rate's making it bug out.

[00:16:44]link. So now it's linked, right? So now that will charge that. And then when you go camping, you hit link again and it'll unlink it. And then you can see your main battery is 128 and your AUG is 32.

[00:16:58]So dude, that's that's legit. That's [ __ ] sick. So if your if your battery is dead, you literally just boom, hit link. Now you're chilling. Now you're charging charging everything.

[00:17:11]Boom. You can hear it when you click link. It makes like a little click up here. So, it's unlin right now. Let's link it. Boom.

[00:17:19]Equal voltage.

[00:17:22]So, I suppose you could kind of use this as a jump start, too. Huh. Hopefully, you never need to. That's the whole idea behind this is like you don't waste your main battery when you're camping.

[00:17:34]And uh you have, you know, two 100 amp hour batteries which are also supplied by none other than your boy Max peing rods, dude. Boom. That's supplied by Amazon. Just kidding. It wasn't supplied. I bought that. Um but yeah, dude. Uh I think I showed you guys this, but I I think the wiring looks pretty damn good. They are not ran in series.

[00:17:53]They're ran in parallel, but you can run these batteries in series. That's solid.

[00:17:58]So, let's go get the uh the other stuff and see what we can do with this trunk area.

[00:18:03]Okay. So, this is my little electric water spigot thingy. I don't know how to use it. I got to like you got to you got to do something and and freaking Yeah.

[00:18:13]So, that fits there perfectly. Um and this little water spet thing. This pops out and it's uh and it's USB powered, which boom, USB power right there. I'm pretty sure this is just rechargeable, so I don't actually need to have it hooked up to that the the entire time.

[00:18:27]But um yeah, I got my little drama kit, tools, you know, the essentials, the the boom box. I got everything, guys. Let's get the uh let's get the fridge and see how that fits. I really I like I think I'm going to have plenty of space back here. Like realistically, the fridge is probably going to take up this footprint and there's going to be like space here and here and here and up there. So, obviously this is going to get optimized as the camping trips go just to see like what I actually need and like where I should put it. But that is perfect right there. That's not going to get changed.

[00:18:59]This probably not going to get changed.

[00:19:01]If anything, no, I think this is fine.

[00:19:04]This side maybe a drawer system. Maybe a slightly thinner subbox with just one higher RMS12. Uh so just so I can get rid of like the the dead space in here from the subs. Um, which means I could have a drawer system that would be as wide as the fridge. So, the fridge could stay on top of it and then the drawer system could come out and I could have like a big shelf and stuff like my buddy. Let me go grab the fridge cuz I have plans very soon and I got to make moves and finish this video. All right, so I got this on Amazon. was like I want to say it was like 140 bucks for a 42 quart fridge. And uh yeah, that's pretty cheap for a lot of fridge.

[00:19:45]And it's dual zone, so it has um this is obviously not sponsored. I'm just adding this into the video because why not?

[00:19:52]That's a nice looking fridge, dude.

[00:19:56]Yeah, I paid for this. All the reviews were dialed.

[00:20:02]So had the cop. Dude, this locker I just pop it up. Holy [ __ ] Anyways, boom. Check it out.

[00:20:17]So, dual zone. You got the freezer. You got this. You got whatever this is.

[00:20:23]Manual plugs. Blah blah blah blah. Cool.

[00:20:27]I'm going to be using this because I don't need DC power because I have an AC inverter dialed. Um I don't know what is this a cutting board? Is this Does this come with a cutting board? Because if so Oh, that's kind of sick, dude. That's kind of legit, dude. Close it back up. All right.

[00:20:47]Boom. It's actually really light, too.

[00:20:49]Let's uh let's go throw this in there and just see what it's going to look like.

[00:20:56]All righty.

[00:20:57]Totally could have just used the wheels, but yeah, that's that's about exactly what I expected. That's completely perfect that, you know, this is dialed.

[00:21:06]Um, this is perfect, dude. Cuz I have water, fridge, power, tools, and I got space right here for like chairs or a table or something like that. Maybe maybe I don't even need a drawer system, but I'm probably going to be rice at some point and just build one just because I really like my buddy setup.

[00:21:26]And yeah, so you know what? Let's test out this inverter, dude. How about that?

[00:21:30]How about we do that? Why not, dude? Why freaking not? Where does it plug in?

[00:21:35]Okay, guys. I don't know where it plugs in, dude. I don't I give up. We're not doing it.

[00:21:42]Oh, I'm an idiot. Boom.

[00:21:46]Plugs in right there. Okay. So, you plug that cord in and then you adapt your AC to it or whatever or DC. I don't even know. I don't know, guys. Plug it in.

[00:21:57]Um, there it is. It I guess it's just already on cuz I forgot to turn this off. But we still got 13 volts on this, which is the the dual batteries.

[00:22:09]And then here, oh, I forgot there's an app I can actually connect to. Anyways, I guess I'm just going to leave this here and just uh let it let it go. You know, why not let it freaking uh get the the refrigeration going just to test it out.

[00:22:26]Might as well. But anyways, yeah, I'm I'm stoked, dude. This is this is a sick setup for like a newbie first time, you know, truck setup setup, I guess. Oh, there it is.

[00:22:39]Damn, that's quiet, too. That's super quiet. All right, dude. I It's It's going to go down to 67 or whatever.

[00:22:47]We'll let it go. Also, I almost forgot to show you guys. Um I mounted the switch panel and the max feeding rods thing is right here just on a magnet.

[00:22:56]So, if I ever need to use it for some reason, I just think I'm just going to just leave it there because, you know, yeah, there's that. There's my readings.

[00:23:09]I think it's fine there. And I like that. there. Second video I'm filming.

[00:23:13]Um third that you're going to see, I think. Thank you guys for watching.

[00:23:17]Thank you, Max Peing Rod. Links for this will be in the description. Remember, Max Peing Rods, everything is very fairly priced. You do not get ripped off with them. And honestly, their customer service department is fire. So, if anything ever does go wrong, if you're skeptical because the car the parts are not crazy expensive, they will replace them and they will they will help you out. All the control arms front and rear on this car are Max Peing rods and they are beautiful. I've had quite a bit of their parts. My Prelude made 600 plus horsepower on their connecting rods.

[00:23:44]They're legit. So, give them a follow.

[00:23:46]Links will be in the description for their batteries and for the isolator kit. And they do make a couple more items that are kind of overland oriented. So, um I'm talking to them about that. Super excited to see what else we can work with them on because I'm always down for cool stuff and they're always down to send me cool stuff in exchange for videos. So, thank you Maxing Rods again, everyone. Go follow them. Go check their pages out.

[00:24:07]Go check their website out. Links in the description. and coupon code 10% off. I will see you guys next time. Thank you for watching. Subscribe if you have not.