KATroutman13
Member
A buddy of mine convinced me to put in some upgrades to the dog box I built last year. The box sits under the topper of my truck, which can get a little warm during the early season. Likewise, lights are always a nice addition to the dog box so you can check on the dogs (read: quickly locate the poop -- seems to happen at least once per season) and it is a nice feature.
So, I undertook this task which seemed to be simple enough. I bet I've got about 25 hours or so, including the research and shopping for materials into this project.
There were several things that I knew that I needed:
1) Chew proof protection over my wiring;
2) An auxiliary power source (don't want to run down the truck battery); and
3) Lots of air movement into the box and out of the camper shell (thanks to my engineer friend who educated me on this need).
So, here's how it started:
I bought a cheap aluminum sliding window that typically would in a camper shell of a small pickup and installed it as close to where the sliding window is located on my camper shell. So, now rather than having a slider that opens into only the shell, I have a slider that opens in to the shell and into the dog box itself. This allows me to see better through my rearview mirror and allows for much more airflow while driving and while operating the fan. (BTW, my dog box sits on top of a cabinet, so it is elevated in the truck bed.
Then, I bought 2 - 8 amp fans. One is mounted on the box itself and is configured to blow air from outside through the sliding window, into the dog box. The other fan will be mounted onto a screened window inside the topper (that is the conduit whip you see laying over the rest of the box -- it will exit the box vertically and will then run to the exhaust fan) and will pull air from the camper out of that window. Effectively we are pulling cool are into the box, pushing it into the shell and then exhausting it out of the shell. The dog box fan will turn over the air in the dog box about 10 times per minute and the exhaust fan will turn the shell air about 6 times per minute.
Then I purchased 4 Super Bright LEDs which do a great job of lighting this box. I couldn't be happier with these and they even mount perfectly into to ceiling junction boxes with pre-drilled holes!
The final touch was to get a single switch panel. I found one that fit, is fused and works great. It is designed for marine application, so I did that. I then added "safety features" by making a box to cover the interior portion of my switch panel and which I was able to make avoiding sharp edges and to put a screen on the interior fan.
The whole thing will be powered by a 155 amp hour battery that will be mounted in the bed and will be charged using a Pro-Logix on-board charger. Based on our calculations, I should be able to run both fans for 12 hours a day on a weekend trip.
Here are the photos (the little stub is going to be used for when I install dividers that will be held in place by electromagnets):
https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos....4_n.jpg
So, I undertook this task which seemed to be simple enough. I bet I've got about 25 hours or so, including the research and shopping for materials into this project.
There were several things that I knew that I needed:
1) Chew proof protection over my wiring;
2) An auxiliary power source (don't want to run down the truck battery); and
3) Lots of air movement into the box and out of the camper shell (thanks to my engineer friend who educated me on this need).
So, here's how it started:
I bought a cheap aluminum sliding window that typically would in a camper shell of a small pickup and installed it as close to where the sliding window is located on my camper shell. So, now rather than having a slider that opens into only the shell, I have a slider that opens in to the shell and into the dog box itself. This allows me to see better through my rearview mirror and allows for much more airflow while driving and while operating the fan. (BTW, my dog box sits on top of a cabinet, so it is elevated in the truck bed.
Then, I bought 2 - 8 amp fans. One is mounted on the box itself and is configured to blow air from outside through the sliding window, into the dog box. The other fan will be mounted onto a screened window inside the topper (that is the conduit whip you see laying over the rest of the box -- it will exit the box vertically and will then run to the exhaust fan) and will pull air from the camper out of that window. Effectively we are pulling cool are into the box, pushing it into the shell and then exhausting it out of the shell. The dog box fan will turn over the air in the dog box about 10 times per minute and the exhaust fan will turn the shell air about 6 times per minute.
Then I purchased 4 Super Bright LEDs which do a great job of lighting this box. I couldn't be happier with these and they even mount perfectly into to ceiling junction boxes with pre-drilled holes!
The final touch was to get a single switch panel. I found one that fit, is fused and works great. It is designed for marine application, so I did that. I then added "safety features" by making a box to cover the interior portion of my switch panel and which I was able to make avoiding sharp edges and to put a screen on the interior fan.
The whole thing will be powered by a 155 amp hour battery that will be mounted in the bed and will be charged using a Pro-Logix on-board charger. Based on our calculations, I should be able to run both fans for 12 hours a day on a weekend trip.
Here are the photos (the little stub is going to be used for when I install dividers that will be held in place by electromagnets):
https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos....4_n.jpg