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Forum
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RE: De-Winterizing and Sanitizing
Hi,
I used to take care of a swimming pool, and we wanted the cholorine level to be maintained at 0.5 to 1.0 PPM cholrine, or it would smell strongly of cholrine. I suggest that 1 ounce of cholorine will be plenty to bring the level up to 15 PPM in a small RV. Use unscented bleach. 1 gallon of pure cholrine will treat a 1,000,000 gallon swimming pool, and our's was not that large. You buy 5% solution at the store, so that gallon will still treat a 50,000 gallon pool to 1 PPM. Yes one ounce will really give you over 30 PPM cholrine, and kill all the bacteria in the system.
Mix the cholrine with about 1 cup of water to somewhat dilute it. With the hose disconnected from the water line, pour the solution into the fresh water hose outlet side (that should be empty). Put the hose into the fresh water fill, and then connect to the fauscet, and fill the water tank about 3/4 way. Run some water into each line, until you can smell the cholrine. Let it sit for a while, then run a little more water into each line. Let it sit overnight.
When testing for new construction, we would do a cholrine test the next morning, and if it stayed above 10 PPM, then we would consider the system clean, as the bacteria would have been killed by the high level of cholrine overnight.
If you are filling with city water, then the residual cholrine in the tank should keep the bacteria levels down all season, as long as you drain the tank when not camping.
Good Luck,
Fred.
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Golden_HVAC
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03/18/10 10:51am |
Beginning RVing
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RE: Center of Gravity Concern
Hi,
Is Lance measuring the center of Gravity from the rear of the truck, or the area just behind the cab, going backwards?
Think of a 4x4 with a center pivot and it is 2' long. AS you put weight on one side, the other side will rise. So placing weight to far behind the rear axle will take weight off the front axle. Installing a camper with a center of gravity closer to the rear bumper than the manufacture recommends will place more weight on the rear axle, taking away weight from the front axle. That axle is needed to steer the vehicle! And then you want to add another 300 - 400 pounds of hitch weight some 48 to 60" behind the rear axle, leveraging even more weight off the front axle.
Good thing that you have that heavy diesel engine to hold down the front tires. But remember that you have taken a lot of weight off the front axle to place it on the rear tires, and the hitch weight takes off even more weight.
Ford wants the center of gravity to be forward of the rear axle for a reason. If the center of gravity is 79" forward of the rear of the pickup bed, it is placing a lot of weight on the front axle, and Ford says this is a good thing.
Check to see what end of the camper Lance is measuring from. Remember that when you also place 300 pounds on the hitch that is 60" behind the rear axle, Ford did not take that weight into consideration when it stated that the camper center of gravity can be placed closer to the rear axle.
I can't understand why someone would want a shortbed truck and carry a camper too. In the early 70's, Ford made a truck called a Super Camper Special. It had a 7" longer wheelbase, and they put the spare tire on the passenger side, in a compartment in the bed, behind a passenger side 30" square door. The longer wheelbase helps support the weight of the camper overhang, and allows the center of gravity to be closer to or in front of the rear axle.
Early trucks, before 1960, used to have the 8' bed with 4' behind the rear axle and 4' ahead of the rear axle. They discovered that to much weight was being put on the rear axle, so the bed was designed to have 3' behind the rear axle and 5' in front of the rear axle. This also reduced the overhang from the trailer hitch ball to the center of the rear axle, so hitching up to a trailer did not take nearly as much weight off the front axle. My guess is that shortbed trucks set up to carry camper should be built with a longer wheelbase, so that the rear axle is near the back of the bed, and then a longer overhang can be accomidated, as the center of gravity will be in front of the rear axle. But that was not what happened with your truck.
I think if you get a truck camper with a center of gravity to far rearward, and then tow a trailer, it will remove a lot of weight from your front axle, and cause handeling problems. Not in normal driving, but say if you are on ice, or the right front tire go off the pavement into the dirt at highway speeds, you will not have the stability compared to a properly loaded truck with better weight distribution between the front and rear axles. The only way to check it is with a calculator (making sure the COG is in front of the rear axle) or take the truck to a scale and measure it after you own the camper.
Right now, with the camper off the truck, lets say you have 6500 pounds, with about 3700 front and 2800 rear. Hitch up to a trailer with a 500 pound hitch weight that is 60" behind the rear axle, and you will remove about 175 pounds from the front axle. Add a camper, and the weight should stay about the same on the front axle, to maintain steering stability. But your percentage of overall truck weight on the front axle has gone down from being 70% when empty to only about 28 - 35% when loaded.
Good Luck,
Fred.
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Golden_HVAC
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03/18/10 10:39am |
Truck Campers
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RE: WE DID IT!!! but have some Battery Inverter questions
Hi,
It depends. If they are replacing the coach battery, and the engine starting battery is fine, then you can just replace the one coach battery and be fine. But if there are two coach batteries, they both need to be replaced when one fails.
This is because the "Resting Voltage" of the new battery is higher than the older one. The higher voltage battery will constantly try to charge the weaker one, until both are discharged.
If you plan on dry camping a lot, I suggest that you upgrade to the largest battery possible. If you only have rom for a single battery, then a group 27 is the smallest recommended, but group 30 or 5 SHP might fit in that space (they are taller, wider, heavier, so measure twice). Basically it takes a lot of lead to store the electrical power, so going to a larger and heavier battery will store more watts of power.
AS for the inverter. What do you plan to run with it? Do you have a generator?
I have 4 golf cart batteries and 415 watt solar system, and can not run my mocrowave from a inverter because my battery bank is to small, and the inverter would draw over 150 amps while running the microwave. Running a microwave or toaster from a smaller battery is not really practical. Forget the 1,200 watt electric coffee maker too.
I do highly recommend a 300 - 500 watt portable inverter, you can get one for as little as $50 from several places. They plug into a cigarette lighter, and can recharge a laptop, run a small TV, recharge the phone, ect. It will not draw to many amps from your battery, and you can enjoy a DVD or watch the local news on the TV with it.
If you don't have a generator, consider getting a Honda 1,000 watt to extend the camping and recharge the batteries or a 120 watt solar panel.
Good Luck,
Fred.
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Golden_HVAC
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03/18/10 10:02am |
Class B - Camping Van Conversions
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RE: Should I use O/D or just leave it turned off?
Hi,
When I see a hill coming up, I let up on the throttle a little, and shut off the overdrive, so that I have plenty of engine RPM to make it up the hill. Get to the top and shift again. I really don't find it all that difficult, it is only a little button at the end of the shift lever.
When coming down a hill, if I find I need to use the brakes, I shift out of overdrive too, it saves wear on the brakes too.
Remember you are driving, not taking a nap on the couch, so activity is part of the responcibility of driving. Checking your mirrs constantly, watching the oil pressure and coolant gauges, and shifting in and out of overdrive are just as important as not going over 70 while driving. Pay attention!
Good Luck,
Fred.
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Golden_HVAC
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03/18/10 09:47am |
Travel Trailers
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RE: Another dumb tire question
Hi,
The LT 225/75R16 tire is 10 milimeters skinnier than the 235/75R16 tire, and about 15 milimeters shorter.
The 225 indicates how many milimeters the tire width is when inflated. The 75 represents how tall the tire is from the rim to the top of the inflated tire.
235 mm is about 10" so you would be looking at a 9" tire width or so with the 225 mm.
Have you checked with Big O tires? Are you looking at getting a second set of rims, so you have off-road and mud tires as well as highway tires?
I know that my motorhome tires are LT 235/85R 16E. Those are rated at 3,042 pounds each, way to stiff, and will provide a wagon truck ride to your 1/2 ton pickup. If you could find them in a D weight rating, or even C, then the tire would offer the softness of a station wagon ride while still exceeding your weight requirements.
Good Luck,
Fred.
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Golden_HVAC
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03/18/10 09:40am |
Tow Vehicles
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RE: Am I ok?
Hi,
It will pull like crazy, and get you over the hills fine.
But take it to a scale someday with a full tank of fresh water. I think you will find that the rear axle is within it's abilities, but that you will exceed 9,200 pounds on the truck. Manufactures tend to make up stories about the hitch weight being only 1,600 pounds.
You will be fine as far as rear wheel weight (probably) but as for the brakes, and so on, you will be wanting a little more, as the truck will likely be slightly over the 9,200 pound limit.
I was reading one story many years ago, about a guy towing a fairly light fifth wheel with a 3/4 ton truck. Probably could have towed it with a 1/2 ton. He remarked that his lights where out on the fifth wheel, and it being close to dark, and near his home, drove straight there. What he did not notice was that the power cord had come undone. What he did not say was that the trailer brakes where not working, but that he noticed the lights not working. That goes to tell you that a 3/4 ton has sufficient brakes to slow a 14,000 pound combination without setting you into the panic mode. But of course it is best to have the trailer brakes working. If he had been driving a 1/2 ton with a 7,500 pound trailer, stopping at the bottom of a freeway offramp would have been interesting!
I think that a larger trailer, or larger capacity tires might be in your future. I answered this same type of question only yesterday. The problem with towing a fifth wheel with a 2500 truck is the hitch weight is way to high for the cargo rating of the truck. Sure it will tow fine, just you are over the GVWR of the truck. If the hitch weight really is only 1,600 pounds, then you have plenty of cargo rating for this fifth wheel, but like I said, many strech the truth.
Good Luck,
Fred.
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Golden_HVAC
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03/18/10 12:50am |
Fifth-Wheels
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RE: Dumb tire changing question
Hi,
Here is what I suggest, and see if it makes sence to you.
Jack up the frame to take some weight off the axles, and put jack stands on the frame both in front and to the rear of the axles. Remove the jack, leaving the jackstands. Then you might still have 200 - 750 pounds on each axle.
They say to not jack up each axle by itself (advice from the lower end trailer axle manufactures, and this might not apply if you have better trailer axles). In other words, with your truck, putting a 10 ton jack under the differential will jack up all 4 wheels off the ground safely, but never try this with a trailer, it will raise the center of the axle, not the tires to much.
What I would do is place the jack under the spring shackel, where it attaches to the axle, and jack up the end of the axle. Place a jackstand under the axle that you are working on, but don't put any weight on the jackstand. Just keep the weight on the jack until the tire is off, then lower to the jackstand while you are working, keeping that 200 - 500 pounds on the jack, and 1/8" above the jackstand. The trailer will not fall, it has those two jackstand holding up a bunch of weight in front and behind the axles.
You also don't want to stress out the trailer frame. Some brands are not up to the task of holding up all the trailer weight in the middle. So some weight on the hitch jacks, some weight on the tires, some weight on the jackstands. Keep it distributed.
Just my thoughts.
When I jacked up my motorhome, I use the leveling system to do just that. Level the motorhome, and it happens to take some weight off the axle that I was changing a tire on. I did not raise the motorhome more than normal to level it, but it sure takes about 2,000 pounds off those tires, and makes it easier to jack the RV into the air. Also should it fall off the bottle jack, there is those leveling jacks to keep the motorhome from falling on me!
Fred.
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Golden_HVAC
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03/18/10 12:41am |
Toy Haulers
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RE: Difference in Tow ratings between TT and Fifth Wheels
Hi,
The tow ratings from some manufactures can be misleading. What they do is take the GCVWR of both vehciles, subtract the empty weight of the truck and 1 driver (154 pounds) then "Claim" you can tow that much weight.
However there is one more restriction. Lets say you select a fifth wheel that is 10,000 pounds. Well within the advertised weight rating for your 2500 series truck. Now you plan on installing a 200 pound hitch in the truck bed, and that brings up the "Empty truck weight" by 200 pounds. Also you might plan on taking along the family, grandkids or whoever? That will add about 300 - 500 pounds to the truck too.
If you have a regular cab, 6L gas engine, then you still have a lot of cargo rating left. But if you decided to add a 400 pound heavier diesel engine, 200 pounds of crome and electric seats, 400 pound crewcab option, then your empty weight goes way up, beond that regular cab with only a 154 pound driver and lightweight gas engine.
So the best thing to do at this point is go to a scale. Find your GVWR on the door of your truck. Subtract the empty weight from the GVWR, and you will find the cargo rating. Lets say that you can carry 2,200 pounds. Your passengers, dog, cooler, and other things in the truck come to 200 pounds. This leaves 2,000 pounds.
If you are towing a 8,000 pound fifth wheel with 25% (2,000) pounds on the hitch, and installed a 200 pound hitch, you will be 200 pounds over the GVWR for your truck. So in reality, unless you have a regular cab, or tow a trailer with a especially light weight hitch weight, then you can only tow about 8,000 pound fifth wheel.
For a conventional trailer, then your hitch weight will only be about 10% to 13%. So a 10,000 pound conventional trailer might have 1,300 pounds on the hitch, the equalizer hitch might be 75 pounds, leaving 600 pounds before exceeding the GVWR of your truck.
Back to your original question.
Why do the manufactures rate the trucks to tow more with a fifth wheel than for a conventional trailer?
The manufactures do stability tests with their trucks. They hitch up a trailer, and tow it on a closed track with many sharp curves. They find that going over a certain weight the trucks can become unstable. But with a fifth wheel, the trucks stay much more stable.
So the manufactures are stating that the truck should be stable with a 10,000 pound conventional trailer, or a 15,000 pound fifth wheel.
I guess they found a fifth wheel that has a very light hitch weight, when they conduct those tests. My guess is they use a cargo trailer full of cement blocks to do the tests, not a travel trailer or RV of any sort. A cargo trailer with a steel flatbed and a couple of 3,000 pound cement blocks can be built for about $2,000, while a RV would be over $20,000.
It is sad every time I answer this question for someone with a 2500 series truck. To explain it "Can" tow a 14,000 pound fifth wheel, but only if you find one with a 1,400 pound hitch weight. And the RV fifth wheels with a 1,400 pound hitch weight is only going to have a GVWR of about 7,500 to 8,500 pounds.
I suggested to someone in Ford's upper management that they discontinue the F-250 supercab and crewcab diesels, because the cargo rating on a F-250 4 wheel drive crewcab diesel was only 850 pounds before 2005. (66% of Ford's truck sales where diesels, they would never drop the diesel, so they did something else) In 2005, Ford started rating it's trucks for a higher GVWR when heavy options are installed. So a 4 WD crewcab can now carry 3,000 pounds, and actually tow a fifth wheel with a 2,200 pound hitch, and passengers.
So what is required to safely tow a 14,000 pound fifth wheel RV with a 2,800 to 3,000 pound hitch weight? A dually F-350 can carry 5,500 pounds. The F-350 SRW can carry about 4,000 pounds, so if you are not taking along a lot of people in the truck, it will work fine too.
As for your truck, I think you will find that the towing limit for a fifth wheel will be limited to only about 8,000 - 10,000 pounds, due to the heavy hitch weight.
There are exceptions. Check out this RV brand, it has the water tanks by the axles, so the hitch weight is not nearly as high as most RV's. GlendaleRV.com
Good Luck,
Fred.
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Golden_HVAC
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03/16/10 11:02pm |
Towing
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RE: Wrong Anitfreeze
Would I recommend drinking from your fresh water tank over the next year? The lawyer in me says no - don't drink the water from your RV water lines for about 6 months. By that time, with several flushes in between, my guess is that it might be safe enough to wash dishes and start considering drinking the water.
As for now, the anti-freeze is toxic. You can re-use it, if you can capture some of it without diluting the anti-freeze to much. Save it in well marked containers and uuse it in the car radiator. Don't let your dogs or cats drink the anti-freeze, or they will find it sweet tasting, and kill themselves by drinking a few ounces of the radiator anti-freeze.
Probably the best way to get the toxic anti-freeze out of your system is by hooking up a air compressor, set the regulator to about 25 PSI, and connect to the line near the fresh water pump. Turn on the air, and collect as much anti-freeze as possible. Wear eye protection, because the radiator anti-freeze is not good for the eyes either, and it can splash on you and your eyes.
Once you have recovered what you can from the lines, and plan on reusing it, then rinse the lines with water. This water will become toxic, so it needs to be disposed of properly. Never consider pouring it onto the ground, or into a septic system. Even a sanitarty sewer in a city is not really equipped to remove the anti-freeze from the sewage, but it is much better than pouring on the ground. I hope that you can call a auto parts store and find a place to drop off the water/anti-freeze mixture.
You should rinse the system with as little water as possible, then blow out with air again. Remember that this "First rinse" will be toxic, and needs to be disposed of, so consider that you will need a 10 gallon container, that will not get filled with food or drinking water again. A couple of 18 gallon Rubberaid containers filled about 1/3 of the way might work. But 7 gallons is over 50 pounds, to heavy to lift, and might break the bucket.
After you blow out the lines with air again, then there will be about 95% of the toxic antifreeze removed. So after this, I would consider any additional rinse water to be safe enough to go into a city sewer system. When in a campground, or place with hookups to city water and sewer, flush many gallons of water through each line. I still would not want to take a shower, and would wash the dishes once you return home. Rinsing them in the RV could still leave a tiny amount of anti-freeze on them.
By the way, did the water heater get filled with radiator antifreeze? If it did, then drain this first.
Next winter, you might want to just use compressed air to flush the water from the RV water system. The problem is when the water freezes in the water line, and has no place to expand, then is when there is a problem. If the line is full of more than 75% air, the droplets of water still in the line can freeze and expand harmlessly without damage to the water lines. And no antifreeze taste afterwords. Yes even non-toxic RV antifreeze has some taste to it, and can leave an aftertaste to the lines.
Good Luck,
Fred.
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Golden_HVAC
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03/16/10 10:35pm |
Class C Motorhomes
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RE: solar panel installation
Hi,
It really does not matter to much about how close to the batteries the controller is, just don't run an extra 50' of wiring for the heck of it. When I put the controller in my motorhome (97 Bounder 30E) the closet was right next to the refrigerator, and I cut a hole in the closet wall, next to the door, and this lead to an interesting thing happening. When the closet door opens, the light comes on, backlighting the first solar controller.
I ran #10 wire for the pair of 45 watt solar panels, and used the same wire when upgraded with one more 75W panel. Then kept the same wire with a new pair of 120 watt panels, getting almost 30 amps through that wire. I know I should have installed a second #10 wire for the new pair of panels, but it still works well enough.
I ran #8 wire from the controller to the battery, about 6' away from the new controller in the basement. (after upgrading I installed a 50 amp controller in the basment to replace the 15 amp controller and display in the closet wall). I have a remote display now. SB 50 with remote. The controller should have MPPT to get the greatest output.
A pair of 180 panels should provide almost as much power as my built up system. And because you are using #8 wire all the way, you might get more amps under certain conditions.
Some controllers allow 24 volt input, with 12 volt output. I installed that type in a fifth wheel, it has 4 each 100 watt panels, and the voltage drop is 1/2 of that when using 24 volts instead of 12 volts nominal.
I was able to carefully drill a hole in the area near the bottom of my refrigerator. I ran it in between the area that is occupied with the drain hose and the factory installed wire bundle. Don't drill into the wires!!!!
Then I routed the wires through the basement to the batteries, and installed a 30 amp fuse next to the battery. I made sure to route the ground wire all the way to the battery, for the minimum voltage drop. I portected the +12 wire going through each metal wall, with a counduit fitting, and drilling a 7/8" hole into the metal. Or use electrical tape to cover the wire with 3-6 layers when you can not install a fitting.
Good Luck,
Fred.
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Golden_HVAC
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03/16/10 10:03pm |
Class A Motorhomes
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RE: 50 gal how long can u go
Hi,
Nice trailer!
I was able to camp about 10 days with 100 gallons with the wife. But normally I don't conserve water that much, and bring along a couple of 7.5 gallon tanks, I refill them while out sightseeing.
One way to conserve is to plug the tub while taking a shower. Of course shut off the water after getting wet, then shampoo with the water off, then rinse. Take the gray water from the tub, save about 1/2 of it in a old gallon container, and use that water to flush. This also saves filling the gray tank too.
I have a 59 gallon black tank, and 42 gray, so it makes sence to dump as much bath and kitchen dish water into the black tank as possible, so I can avoid overfilling the gray tank.
I don't try to get every last drop out of the tub enclosure, just what is easy to get, so I use a dishpan to scoop most of the water out of the tub into a funnel and 1 gallon container.
Also if I am dry camping in the desert, I can use a dishpan to wash dishes, and then water the local plants with the dishpan full of water. I use bio-degradable soaps.
I have always used the fresh water tank to drink that water. I have a Everpure water filter, rated to stop anything harmful. But if you don't want to use your 50 gallons as drinking water, then taking along 1 gallon per day per person will add some more weight to the RV, and give you an additional 10 gallons on a 5 night trip, or 20 gallons on a 10 day trip.
Have fun camping!
have you heard of this website? FreeCampgrounds.com
I have listed about 10 of my favorite sites, many of them in the desert, where you can dry camp for a week or more for free! Many wonderful sites, much better than any paid campground.
Good Luck,
Fred.
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Golden_HVAC
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03/16/10 09:44pm |
Public Lands, Boondocking and Dry Camping
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RE: SurgeGuard on the ground?
Hi,
Due to my inverter, I can not use a surge guard.
I really don't understand why the design would not trip at a certain level if not mounted in a certain way. At least I would keep using it, even if diagnally or upside down, because if you have a problem, it will trip at some point, if it is in the circuit.
Most GFI will trip at 6/1,000 of one amp. Lets say hanging down the surge guard works at that level, but laying on it's back it will take 7 or 10/1,000 of one amp. That is better than 30 amps going through before the main breaker trips.
Also circuit breakers have a upper limit that they will not trip at. This is normally 10,000 amps and for some breakers is 25,000 amps. Above 9,000 amps, the circuit breaker normally will weld itself in the "On" postition, not tripping ever again. That is why I like to use fuses on air conditioners, especially when above 400 volts, three phase. A fuse will normally trip, even wiht 200,000 amps going thorugh it. Even cheap fuses might explode, but will always stop conducting electricity!
Good Luck,
Fred.
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Golden_HVAC
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03/16/10 09:32pm |
General RVing Issues
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RE: Thousand Trails Opening to Non-Members?
Hi,
The park that I belong to is not a THousand Trails, but sent out a letter explaining the same thing to me. Basically they stated that they always had set aside about 10 - 20 campsites for "Prospective members" and that is where you put people that come for the "Free Weekend" and the sales pitch. THey are not members either.
So now their new sales approach is to use those 10 - 20 sites, rent to the public in general, and then try a "Soft sales" to tell those renting a site they can come back for "Free" if they buy in and pay a yearly membership. (That part reminds me of my free cell phone, all I have to do is pay it monthly, and the phone is free).
So to answer your question, yes they did allow the public to try out the park.
Yes you could have stayed in the park without being a Thousand Trails member, there are a couple of camping clubs that you can join for only $100 or so, then pay about $20 - $30 a night in certain camping areas, these include campgrounds owned by Thousand Trails and Coast to Coast. The camping club also contracts with many more private campgrounds to offer "1/2 price" camping. So while the public might get a $35 site, the full price is $45, and camping club members will get in for 1/2 of the $45 price or say $22.50 per night, up to 7 nights with no sites allowed on weekends in the summer, or some other restrictions.
Even those campgrounds without "Official" restrictions might say "What membership do you have?" "We are full for those days", while because you own thousand trails, your homepark is supposed to save more than 25% of the sites for members only. So you are more likely to get a reservation after someone from a camping club calls and the campground says "We are full".
Many times the camping clubs can not reserve a site until the 2 weeks prior to arrival, while your membership allows reservations up to 5 or more weeks before arrival.
I guess the major drawback to memberships is the yearly dues. I hated paying those, so when offered to pay 7 years worth of dues, I paid the $3,500 or so, and now don't have yearly dues anymore.
Good Luck,
Fred.
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Golden_HVAC
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03/16/10 09:24pm |
RV Parks, National Parks, State Campgrounds & More
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RE: 2011 Superduty Diesel Looking Good
WOW !
THat sounds like a great review.
This is not Ford's first diesel, or first diesel truck, or even the first million diesel engines that Ford build. Ford has been building diesels since they put them in tractors and then in big rigs, and small cars in Europe and all the rest of the world.
I really want to test drive one - even more now. But I really don't need something strong enough to move a barn, I actually like the barn right where it is sitting, and have no need to move it.
So according to this article, the engine is not injecting fuel at all above 1,000 RPM, that will add to it's ability to slow the truck by compression alone.
Fred.
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Golden_HVAC
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03/16/10 07:32pm |
Truck Campers
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RE: Power options for trailer
Hi,
I started out in a camper, no TV, and no furnace. Not much need for a large battery bank, as I had nothing to run with it anyway. Later upgraded to a camper with a refrigerator, furnace, hot water heater, shower and toilet. I only had one battery, and that charged while I was out sightseeing, so no need for a generator for me.
Later I upgraded to a class C motorhome, with a 90 watt solar system. I could watch TV, and use everything, and the solar would recharge the batteries (3- 12 volt).
You can recharge the batteries with the generator or by plugging into shore power. I would highly recommend storing the RV where the batteries stay charged, or at least charge for 24 hours before going camping. The truck alternator will provide up to 15 amps charge per hour, but you have about 200 amp hours of storage, so that really will not charge the battery well.
The generator or shore power should supply 30 - 45 amps per hour to the battery, and it will take what it can. When discharged about 50%, it will take the most charge at the fastest rate, but as it gets beyond 80% full, the charge rate slows way down. So running the generator 1 hour in the morning and 1 hour at night is a good way to recharge the battery if you will be dry camping more than 3 days. If the battery is to low to start the generator, plug into the truck for about 1/2 hour, then you should have enough power to crank up the generator. Keep an eye on the battery voltage, once below about 12.2 volts, consider running the generator about 1 hour. But watch the generator run hour limits in your campground. They might have a restriction from 10 am to 4 pm or something like that.
Solar panels recharge the battery in silence. If you leave the RV in storage without power, it is a great way to prevent battery damage. The battery will build up sulfur on the plates if left discharged, and plugging into shore power, or disconnect the battery - terminal can prevent this while it is stored.
Don't plug in the trailer without the battery connected first, a voltage surge can damage circuit boards, or the charger itself.
Good Luck,
Fred.
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Golden_HVAC
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03/16/10 01:07am |
Beginning RVing
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RE: Weekend trip to the frozen lake
Great pictures!
I was up at the North Pole a couple of summers ago. It is kinda weird going to bed with sun shining, and waking up to it being in a different window, but still out there. I was visiting a friend who lives out on Chena Hot Springs Road, about 2 miles NE of Fairbanks.
I also was talking to someone who's brother and uncle just finished riding the Iron Dog race. He was one of the oldest teams (330 years between 6 of them) and had one of the oldest finishers - 71 years old. They complained about it being 80 degrees warmer than last year (near freezing with some rain, not -25 that they had been ready for with a wind chill of -50F).
He called them snow machines.
Glad to hear you had a great time!
Fred.
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Golden_HVAC
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03/16/10 12:56am |
RVing in Canada and Alaska
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RE: upgrade existing norcold 1200 to a residential fridge?
Hi,
I would call these two suppliers, and see what they say. Either or both might give you an idea of the amp hours required, and recommend a good inverter that will run a high torque motor.
RvSolarElectric.com
SolarOnSale.com
I understand there are a lot of advantages to having a 120 volt refrigerator - mainly IF you plan on camping mainly in campgrounds with 30 - 50 amp hookups. But I like to dry camp to much. Your conditions might be different than mine.
You will require a pure sine wave inverter. I might recommend the Prosine 2,000 watt inverter/charger, but they might also recommend another brand, such as outback?
They also might recomend a solar system, so that you will not need to run the generator more than a couple of hours a day. they will also be able to give you an idea about how many batteries will be required to run the refrigerator overnight. I might say that 6 of the T145 golf cart batteries would be a minium but they might suggest 4 each 8D battery, leaving you with a larger capacity battery bank, as one 8D= the weight and elecrical storage of a pair of golf cart batteries, jut you can not lift a 8D by yourself. The T-145 is easier to install and lift, with about the same capacity per pair.
You might also want to consider a Sunfrost Refrigerator. They make very energy efficient 120 volt and 12 volt refrigerators, but are not self defrosting. If you only camp for less than 6 weeks at a time, then that is not a concern, as it will take more than 2 months to build up any thick frost on the freezer section. Yet this is also an expensive refrigerator, mainly due to it's quality construction and more expensive 12 volt compressor. Yet it will not require a inverter (for the 12 volt version) and uses about 10% of the electricity as running your ammonia system on electric. (Ammnonia refrigerators are very in-efficient and use huge amounts of electricity).
There are other brands of 12 volt refrigerators out there. Conserve is one brand name. Solar On Sale might know of other brands. Also they are located near Victorville, not to far of a drive from your homebase.
Good Luck,
Fred.
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Golden_HVAC
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03/16/10 12:49am |
Class A Motorhomes
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RE: Rush hour morning from Palm Springs to Anahiem?
The 91 freeway hascement blocks, once you drive it, you will not want to take it again. Taking the 10 to th 57, then south is a nice drive.
But the 91 is a rough road, it can be really crowded between 5 am and 10 am westbound, and 1 pm and 7 pm eastbound.
The 60 freeway where it meets up with the 215 can get really crowded, it loses the right hand lane, and nobody wants to let another car in front of them, so expect to go from 65 to 15 MPH for about 2 miles before the interchange. (or avoid it).
Also the 60 has a especially twisting mountain part, between the 10 and Moreno Valley.
I would tune into 99.9 FM for traffic and some cool oldies, or am 790 to listen to a traffic report every 10 minutes.
Good Luck,
Fred.
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Golden_HVAC
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03/16/10 12:29am |
Roads and Routes
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RE: F450 with new diesel engine - 16 mpg empty
I was looking at ford.com and they showed the new diesel specs and some reviews from the engineers.
The new 6 speed transmission is designed for less friction, leading to about 30% improvement in the F-450 fuel economy, mainly due to the double overdrive. My guess is you will not see that good of an improvement in the F-250 with a 3.73 rear axle ratio, but who knows for sure, until they test some of them.
It has impressive horsepower and torque. It required the new transmission before they could upgrade the torque beyond 550 foot pounds and 400 HP. It also allows the 6.2L to make incredable HP without taking the transmission apart!
Someone already wrote a impressive review of his trip down the I5 freeway in Orange County, CA. Not sure on the 0-60 MPH times, but his guess was less than 7 seconds. He was driving a F-350 bought by the dealership owner.
Someone mentioned that Perma-grin might show up on the owners face!
Good Luck,
Fred.
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Golden_HVAC
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03/15/10 04:31pm |
Tow Vehicles
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RE: Is it okay to camp at a wal-mart? (hello)
Hi,
Make sure to spend some time in the Readwoods. I would even suggest that you go inland to Highway 99 at Sacromento, and visit Yosemite and Sequoia National Parks. Be sure to fill up with gas outside the park, in Merced or Sanger, because there is no fuel in Yosemite, and the gas station in Sequoia is well hidden next to Hume lake, and expensive.
Just north of Hume Lake, on the smaller road, going north, there is a place to dry camp in the woods. It will be on the right as you leave hume Lake, about 2-3 miles up the hill. There is a short downhill, cross a stream, just after passing what was (5 years ago) a free dry camping area. Not well marked either. If coming down the hill from highway 180, along the smaller road, not the road going all the way east into the canyon, then you will be going downhill for 3-4 miles, with only one small rise after that creek. At the top of that rise on the left now (west side of the road) there is a small unmarked camping area. (we are talking about the same one). I enjoyed it last time I was there, but it has been several years, and if a lot of people camped there and left behind trash, I suspect the Forest service will close the area to fre camping. But leave it clean, and they should keep it open and free.
Yes I love to camp in the boondocks too. But to many areas you can not do that.
One great exception is the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. You can camp outside of the National Park, in the forest for free.
Also if you end up in Monument Valley, just after entering Utha, look for the turn-off to Monument Valley to the right. Go 4 miles to the Visitors center, and look for the Indian run dry campground on the right. It was something like $7 a night. And you can drive through the valley by showing your camping pass, but I would not go down that bumpy road in a motorhome. Goldings offers a 4 wheel drive truck tour, probably worth it to not damage your motorhome.
Moab has many great places to dry camp. Dead Horse Point comes to mind, so does hoseshoe bend. I think I have spent about 5 or 6 nights in a Sams Club or Wal Mart, but about 750 nights dry camping on a dirt road. I much prefer the dirt roads.
Have you checked out this website? FreeCampgrounds.com If you know a couple of good local places to set up for a night or two, add it to the list, and the folks using the website will thank you.
Good Luck,
Fred.
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Golden_HVAC
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03/15/10 02:24am |
Class C Motorhomes
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