Getting ready for the Death Valley trip... Acquired a new ARB 50 quart fridge/freezer (my anniversary gift from my amazing wife!), and installed an Odyssey Extreme battery.
I'm already running a dual battery setup with a small Optima Yellow Top as my aux battery, and the fridge will be wired to that. I installed the Odyssey because I killed my 5 month old Interstate primary battery and don't want to do it again. Now that I have a little commuter car, the Xterra sits in the garage for days at a time without being driven and the dash cam killed the battery (didn't even think it would do that with such a low draw). When I tried to start it, it only had 2 volts in it.
That was a few weeks ago and since then, it's never been the same. If the truck sits for 2 or 3 days, the battery voltage drops a little too much and it turns over very slowly. Plus, with the winch installed now, I probably would have killed my primary battery the first time I needed to make a long and tough pull. This should fix that problem.
For those who've been shopping around for this battery, I found it for about $240 at 4 Wheel Parts. They had 4 of them in stock at the warehouse and it was in the store the next morning with no shipping charge. This is cheaper than all of the options I could find online (most were about $270 and some charged shipping).
In regards to the fridge - I stole a nifty little mounting idea from a post on TNX. It involves using the ARB mounting kit and attaching the brackets to the existing seat brackets on the 40" side of the rear seat. Hard to explain, but I'll post up some photos as soon as I get the tie down straps in place. They're currently at a shop being extended by a couple feet to accommodate the setup.
What have you done for your Rig lately.
What have you done for your Rig lately.
