Cymon's Weekend Warrior and MFD Thread

[Cymon]

Poor Baby.....now you have to live up to your promise to her!

"Daddy has Plans"

Going to go check something out that might fit our family camping/adventure needs a little better this weekend. If it goes to Plan it will allow for summer camping, tow easily and still fit in the garage (thanks HOA). If we lived North of Florida and could “off-road” with it more I never would have sold it, but we camp mostly off of unimproved roads or campsites at the current time so we don’t need something as “off-road” capable.

 

[Cymon]

Promise Fulfilled

I told the kids that I sold the previous m416 Trailer build with RTT plans that would fit our needs better. [MENTION=103267]Saker[/MENTION] as you stated I had to deliver on the promise and it occurred today just in time for the Holidays.

Picked up the last “New” 2018 Taxa Cricket from Road Trip Camping in Orange, Virginia. I set up the 1,200 mile pick-up with our usual winter trip to visit the family for the holidays and skiing/snowboarding.

Warren Keely the owner customized it for us with a lock n’roll hitch, twin child berths, 120 ah lithium battery, autowbreak break controller and portable air conditioning. He is top-notch and a pleasure to work with. If anyone is looking for a small camper (he sells an assortment of small campers from nuCamp, Opus, Aliner, Intech, Taxa) he is the man and does all sorts of in house customizations. His prices are extremely competitive and customer service is second to none. He did a half-day personal orientation today with the “habitat” going over everything from winterizing to showing us all of the electrical

The Cricket with lock n’ roll tows like a dream and can be set up in less than a minute.

Can’t wait to get back and try it out. Our first camping with it will be just after the new year.

Happy Holidays!

 

[Cymon]

Cricket Camping

We headed back from Maryland to South Florida on New Years Eve. Camped in our new trailer on the way at the Georgia/Florida border. This thing fits everything we need in a family “adventure” trailer. It tows like it’s not even back there, sets up fully in less than 5 minutes and has room for the whole family (including the dog). The heater worked great during the 38 degree night. We packed up in the morning and we’re on the road in less than a half hour from waking.

After returning to Florida we unloaded our ski gear and loaded up the rest of the camping gear and headed out 24 hours later to Fisheating Creek camp by Lake Okeechobee for the weekend (my daughter had Girl Scout camp about 20 minutes away). Again the Cricket was the perfect basecamp for our trip. We got to ride out the Florida thunderstorms in relative comfort, got some good sleep and enjoyed a relaxing weekend out in nature.

I loved our other trailer but this one couldn’t fit the needs of our family any better. Yes our m416 could follow us off-road wherever we wanted to go, but in being honest with ourselves and learning from all of our other setups this one will get to most places we want to explore and provide the traveling base camp that we have always wanted.

We are currently in the process of planning a big summer adventure in it with some short weekend trips from now until then.

Oh...it also fits perfectly in the garage.

 

[Cymon]

Trailer and Goal Zero

Disclaimer: This is not the most cost effective or efficient way to do this, but it is a portable and interchangeable solution for us.

Before we recently purchased our Cricket we had a Goal Zero Yeti 400 Lithium, 1400 Lithium and 100w Boulder Solar panel we used for camping, electrical needs for our m416 trailer and Hurricane preparedness. I really like the Goal Zero products but know of their limitations with the Taxa product solar integration (no charge controller built in for Solar Panels only a wired solar plug). I didn’t want to ditch our products as we have a bunch of $ put into it so I tried to find a way for it to work....and it does...here is how.

I discovered that we are able to charge the Cricket battery (120 ah Lithium from Experion with its specific charge controller that was installed for us by Warren L Keely at Roadtrip Camping) using our Yeti 1400 Solar Generator. We can just plug the 30 amp chord with 120v adapter with extension chord and it charges through the shore plug. The Yeti 1400 has a 1500w max output with 3000w surge through its a/c port. It charges incredibly fast as the output is 500w into the Cricket battery. The 1400 is a 132 amp hour lithium battery, so it should allow us to double our off-grid time. In addition since we already have the boulder solar panel we can use the Goal Zero Yeti as the solar panel charge controller and can use it to recharge the Goal Zero as it charges the Cricket. This may not be the most efficient but it works.

In addition the Goal Zero 1400 can also run our Air Conditioner. Test specs look like it will give us about 18 hours of run time (we haven’t tried this out in the “real world” yet) as the portable a/c that we got with the trailer pulls about 70 watts and 6 amps when running. So I think we also have weekend worth of air conditioning at night without shore power.

As an additional note I tried the same tests with our Yeti 400 but it can’t charge the Cricket battery because the shore power hook-up pulls 500 watts and the Goal Zero’s 400 surge protection turns it off at 300 watts of constant draw.

I also purchased the Lithium specific 12v charger for the Goal Zero batteries so the can be charged using the tow vehicle while we are traveling using the 12v outlets in our 4runner.

Hopefully this setup allows us to camp comfortably for a weekend off-grid in the Florida heat. I’ll report back once we have some real-world testing completed!

 

[Cymon]

Presidents Day Weekend: Long Pine Key Everglades

Got out for a short weekend trip to the Everglades. Stayed at Long Pine Key Campground in Everglades National Park. Nice Campground and central to a lot of hiking and biking trails.
Tested out our bike hauling solution with the trailer and it worked perfect. Kids bikes go loaded on the 1-up rack in the trailer and tied down. This way when we get to camp we just pull the whole thing out and put the rack on the car to hold/lock/transport the bikes. The adult bikes go on the roof of the 4runner.
Air conditioner with the goal zero didn’t work as well as planned. Luckily the temps at night dropped to the upper 60’s. The a/c was pulling way more wattage then the trial (700 watts with compressor running). This would only allow for about 3 hours of total run time. Running as a fan only we could get 18-20 hours. We were also pulling 50-75 watts of solar during the day so we had no problem keeping up with the fan. Guess we’ll need electrical hookups for Florida summer camping, but it’s better than no options at all.
We also got to check out the NIKE missile base that was used as a line of defense during the Cold War. Very cool tour if anyone is ever down at Everglades National Park.
Overall we are only liking this trailer more and more each time we take it out. We have a couple more short trial trips planned to work out packing, necessities and efficiency before the big one this summer...
South Florida - Colorado - Moab - Bryce - Zion - Yosemite - Grand Canyon

 

[Cymon]

ARB Single Compressor Installed

ARB Compressor install complete (4X4 Labs Mount and AOB Switch). This has been a long time coming. Not doing a write-up as there are so many threads, YouTube videos, and web tutorials on it so it would be pretty redundant. I did use an add-a fuse to an empty accessory fuse slot for the switch 12v and tied into my light bar for dimming and backlight (wiper warmer grey and green). It’s all in the “If I can Do It You Can” Light bar install tutorial linked in my signature.

This will save a bunch of recovery gear space from where I stored my old Masterflow 12v compressor. It worked great the past 5 years but is being retired to my wife’s Outback trunk. Now we have more room for other supplies necessary for our upcoming summer adventure...

 

[Cymon]

Why a Taxa Cricket?

So I have had a lot of people ask me “Why give up the RTT for a Taxa Cricket?”. Here is something that I put together for people who were interested in it but only have seen reviews by dealers trying to sell the product. In the video I discuss what I like, what I don’t, and the whole decision buying process. This is my first stab at YouTube, but figured it would be easier than typing continuing to try and explain by typing the same responses over and over...Hopefully it helps people who are looking at these or something like it with their decision.

Link To Video Below

Taxa Cricket Overview/Review

 

[Cymon]

Summer Trip 2020

Final Trip Report:
Time on the road - 3 weeks
Distance Traveled - 7,149 miles (over 300 off-road)
States Visited -17
National Parks Visited - 8
-Arches
-Canyonlands
-Capital Reef
-Bryce
-Zion
-Yosemite
- Grand Canyon
-White Sands
Number of Public Restrooms used - 0! (Our Luggable loo and Bathroom/Shower tent were the trip MVP’s).
Campsites:
Payne Campground, GA
Knob Noster State Park, MO
Mueller State Park, CO
BLM Dispersed Camping near Moab, UT
Dead Horse State Park, UT
Bryce Canyon NP Sunset Campground, UT
Lynore’s Sister’s front yard, Yosemite NP, CA
Grand Canyon NP Mather Campground, AZ
Lincoln National Forest Dispersed Camping, NM
Lake Mineral Wells State Park, TX
Meaher State Park, AL
Our Taxa Cricket Trailer was the perfect mobile human habitat for our family. Just enough room for 2 adults, 2 young kids and a 50 lb Baltimore mutt. We luckily planned this trip months ago before the pandemic and only had to make adjustments in our setup to allow for us to be completely self-contained while on the road. We did occasionally order curbside carry out while on the road but never needed to use a public restroom (thanks again Luggable Loo). We ate at 1 restaurant in 3 weeks, which was a completely empty outdoor seating restaurant in Moab, UT. The rest of the time we prepared our own food on the road or at camp (except the week we stayed with family in Yosemite, where we mooched off of them).
This was truly an amazing trip, but I won’t say once in a lifetime as the plans to try and one-up it are already in the works for next summer.
Hope everyone reading this is staying healthy and safe (kind of a bummer we went away for 3 weeks to return to the Covid capital of the world!)

 

[Cymon]

Summer Trip 2020 Continued...

More Photos...

 

[Cymon]

Summer Trip Continued again...

More of the photo dump!

 

[Cymon]

Summer Trip 2020 Continued #3...

Yes...still dumping photos...

 

[Cymon]

Summer Trip 2020...Last Photo Dump

Here are the last couple photos I chose to post from White Sands. This was an awesome trip...next summer is already being planned!

 

[nb rob]

wow!!! awesome photos!

I've spent my summer behind a computer. Looks like you're making the most of it! Congrats on a very cool trip!

 

[Cymon]

[MENTION=122813]nb rob[/MENTION] Thanks! We started planning this trip once we purchased our new trailer in December and finalized most places to stay before the pandemic. It just worked out that this kind of trip aligned itself as being the most conducive during these circumstances and the National Parks had opened back up. The only thing we changed in the trip was booking all campgrounds before hand instead of just finding places on the whim due to booking restrictions and making sure we had a place to stay. We also got all of the restroom/toilet stuff together so that we didn't have to use any public facilities (that 5 gallon bucket, the biogel congealing powder and pop-up shower/bathroom tent were the best $75 we spent on the trip).

 

[Cymon]

After Trip Mods

I’m usually more of a mod/accessorize by need type of person. After our last trip West, two of our wants/needs that we learned from experience was more quick shade and emergency fuel (we almost ran out twice due to closed gas stations in Nevada and New Mexico).

Ironman 2m Awning

2 Wavian 20L NATO JerryCans with Frontrunner mount.

*We looked at rotopax but figured, what good does 2-4 gallons of gas do when you’re 100 miles to the next gas station and you’re averaging under 14 mpg’s?

 

[Cymon]

Everglades Camping December 4-6th 2020

Taking advantage of Florida in the cooler weather. Long Pine Key Campground in Everglades National Park.

 

[Cymon]

New 4Runner Accessory

14 years and I don’t know how many miles...I finally retired my 2007 Gary Fisher Caliber for a new ride. It was between this and new suspension for the 4Runner...my OEM suspension can make it another year. Maybe it will be it’s 100k present.
Santa Cruz TallBoy FTW!

 

[rageandlove]

That's a beauty!

 

[Cymon]

That's a beauty!

Thank you! 6 month wait well worth it!

 

[Cymon]

Solar Installed

Cascadia 4x4 solar installed (been sitting in my house for 3 months). Even though we travel with a small camper we always keep the food and fridge in the tow vehicle, keeping food away from where we sleep (bear aware). Last summer over 3 weeks we were able to get by using our Goal Zero and portable solar as fridge backup if we were off-grid for more than a couple days without a long drive but we did stay in multiple campsites with power. This summer we will be off-grid for over 3 weeks so we wanted something to allow us to run the fridge in the vehicle indefinitely. It can also charge our Goal Zero power stations and camper with MC4 adapters. This combined with our portable 100w panel should take care of all of our power needs. Another added benefit is the solar and charge controller will trickle charge the battery keeping it healthy even when sitting in our driveway.

Also installed AVS hood deflector to push most the air and debris over the front edge of the panel...just in case.