I thought I would share my views on a few items that I’m
currently using. These have made life a
little easier both on and off the water on my trips. These have been bought by me, not
given to me, this kit works for me, it might for you.
On my last boat, the Hobie Outback, initially I ran a
Lowrance 5HDI with one Hobie 12V 9AH battery. This equated to one average days
usage on the water. When I swapped this
out for a Lowrance 7Ti, I had to carry two of these batteries. They were heavy
and despite the connections being waterproofed to a point, the salt does
everything in eventually. The old battery was mounted in the rear hatch, off
the waterline and out of way. Eventually
I had to replace the pigtails and over time, the batteries degrade with use as
well as cold weather. When I moved to
the Hobie Revolution 16, I had a look at the options on Lithium based
batteries, there were lots of options going down the DIY route. There were no
options available retail, at that time, in the UK, circa January 2019. As such I opted for the FPV 12.5 17AH as I
didn’t fancy risking my DIY skills, lithium batteries and water. The advice
from the guys at FPV was good, the delivery from Australia was decent.
The battery which you see in the bottom right is waterproof
(heard that before?) The weak point that
I could see was the rubber washer connecting the female cable to the battery
block, this looked over tightened to me, even marginally crushed. If it were to
fail, other than the connections corroding, this would be where. As such, I decided to encase the battery,
connections and fuse in a Lock & Click box.
I drilled a hole, installed a gland and even kept the FPV inline fuse
inside the box. It might well be overkill,
but if you’ve every driven 3 hours to a new venue to fish for two days and had kit
like this fail, you’ll understand. The connections have a rubber o ring to provide
a seal, if you were to install it without a watertight box. It's rated IP67 when connected, just make sure not to
over tighten the connections. The weight saving versus SLA batteries is huge, this is just over a pound, against about 6 pounds on the old battery. Every ounce counts when I'm hauling out at the end of a session on some of the trickier launching spots. I also purchased caps for the connections, these
keep all the components clean and out of harms way. All in, it should now be
bomb proof and it has been so far. In terms of usage, it’s been faultless. The
7Ti is a thirsty unit but I can get two average days usage from this, without
playing with the brightness settings to conserve power.
Speaking of power, this All Powers 372wh portable power
supply has been great in my van. It’s got
AC sockets, 3 USB, 1 USBC ,2 DC outputs and a 12v cigarette socket. If you have a mobile that supports
wireless charging it also does this. It’s
simple to use and while it's not switched on in the image here, it displays how much
power you’re drawing and how much battery time you have left in use. It’s a
lightweight and compact unit, check the detailed spec online. It’s been great
for powering our phones, iPad and recharging things like headlight batteries or
topping up the FPV battery. I went for this rather than another battery and split
charger for the van for a few reasons. I could probably stretch a 5-day trip in
the van, off grid, before it would need charging. I’ve done 3 so far and it’s
been spot on. Add a solar panel and some Scottish sunshine and you’ll be good
to go longer. It has it’s limits in
terms of what it will power, but it does what I need it do, so far at least.
There are detailed reviews online, check them out if you’re in the market for
power for camping and the like.
As far as coolers go, this is loud. At least we like the
colour! I was in the market for a passive cool box after discounting installing
a fridge and anything powered by gas.
Icey-Tek have a good reputation and after spending some time researching
the options, I went for this. On unpacking the box, the first thing I noticed
is that it’s incredibly sturdy, especially in comparison to the rubbish I’ve
used in the past for bait or going to the beach for the day. It’s also heavy
and has lots of insulation, I went for the 40L. This might go someway to the claims Icey-Tek make about
keeping contents cool for ten days. In practical use, I would doubt it. When
you factor in opening and closing and the variable volume of contents and the
human factor, it would be a stretch. That said, I left 3 beers with some food
in the van as a test, day 5 and I was so pleased I had 2 of the beers. It
passed the test. It has a drain plug on
each side if you use ice. I got two of their large gel packs as this keeps the
contents dry, throw in some ice on extended trips and you’ll be sorted. It
closes with two heavy duty rubber toggles, if you keep these unfastened when
not in use it will extend their life, they won’t stretch over time. I also
added a cushion, so it doubles as spare seat inside the van or outside. In terms of capacity, they supply these from 25L to a huge 1100L commercial option. I’m
really pleased with it. Just mind how you lift it when it’s full,
less bottles might help of course….
Getting a 16ft 30+kg kayak on top of roof bars 7ft off the
ground when you’re 5ft 8, presents a challenge. I can do it without the Rhino
Side Loader, but somewhere shortly down the line, I would damage the van or myself.
After a few shots at it I’ve got it working well. I add a towel on the roof,
just about the side door, to protect the paint, then lift the front of the boat
up on to the bar. From there, I take the
end of the boat, climb the step and push the lot across the bars. They’ll be a
mistake made somewhere, probably the steps at the end of long day; I just need
to take my time. To be fair I couldn’t consider some of the other loading
options. The boat was overweight for two of them and the other looks like you’re
carrying a selection of angle iron attached to the roof. It’s well made, has a
few fitting options specific to different fittings at the roof bar end. In terms if this, it looks like it would fit
most roof bars but it’s worth checking. It
hooks around my Yakima Whispbars snug enough that it wont budge. The support poll adjusts to height and it all
packs away in the travel pack provided.
If you use it properly, it will help load a boat on to any vehicle if
you need some assistance.
