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RE: Bearings packed
Well, this has been fun......I've packed my bearings all my RV life and during the time I worked at my dad's RV shop. I think it takes about 45 minutes to an hour a hub to:
1. Jack it up and place safety stands
2. Remove wheel, hub, bearings and clean.
3. Grease and reassemble w/new seals
4. Adjust play and remove jack and stands.
I'd say it's a 1/2 day job. I've alwasy had a place to do this type work, so I can. Not everyone has this option so, to find someone you trust to do a good job that charges a c-note per wheel doesn't really seem that out of line.
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Vintage465
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03/03/23 07:23am |
Travel Trailers
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RE: Favorite Cooking Quotes
Don't eat what went over the fence last........
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Vintage465
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02/21/23 06:58am |
Camp Cooks and Connoisseurs
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RE: Can the grid keep up with EV use?
“As a person that has worked it both Gas and Electric construction and maintenance for a utility, I can tell you there is currently not enough generation in California to support this....we all knew that”…..
Well, where do we go to find the non-politicized, non-subsidy seeking, non-virtue signaling, rational individuals (independent of Gov’t Grant moola $$, and trendy popular narratives…) capable of saving us from this self-imposed day of reckoning??…Why are sentient minority voices of concern (the Socratic method = critical thinking…) being utterly dismissed??…The sage wisdom of Sir Winston Churchill comes to mind, “With each generation, a new world begins” - Just thinking about the future…
3 tons
Hey now.........I don't have those answers....I just had a view from the inside. At my age....I'm just going to know what I know. I hate to sound like "that guy", but as I said, I worked 40+ years to get where I am, looking forward to living the retirement I planned........and so far it's working out, I didn't plan on $7.00 a gallon Diesel, but I'm going live my retirement anyway. I won't say I'm not concerned about the one sided direction this is going, I just figure I have limited time on this earth, and taking on this at my age isn't something I'm interested in. But I will support any legislation and groups that support sensible solutions to our future. Of the three "Green" energy generation, Hydro, Solar and Wind, they are't as green as the envo's say they are. Everything has a footprint in my mind, and the site of those wind 'copters and solar sprawling across my view isn't something I enjoy seeing. Hydro is not as bad and truth is I think since it's been around forever, I think the majority of us see Hydro as part of the American Fabric of our nation. And I'm not saying wind 'copters and solar are bad, I'm just tired of hearing people say how great it is because it not part of the carbon foot print. But it is part of ecological foot print. The is the group that truly believes since they have a battery they have zero carbon or ecological impact.........OK.....so you got me started.......sorry for the rant and hopefully didn't offend anyones
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Vintage465
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02/19/23 10:37am |
Around the Campfire
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RE: Can the grid keep up with EV use?
As a person that has worked it both Gas and Electric construction and maintenance for a utility, I can tell you there is currently not enough generation in California to support this....we all knew that. If there was enough generation in Cali, there isn't the infrasturcture to support it. In Cali, the Pot Farms have stressed the system already. EV's are just that much more. Due to the fires, much of the infrastructure is being replaced, upgraded and hardened. Not sure I can say much of it, but some of it is being undergrounded and it is likely including charging stations for EV's. EV's are likely going to be the future, and I think in time(beyond my time)the system will catch up to the charging needs generated by EV's and it is likely that by then the EV's will be more logical from all aspects. But for me, I didn't work 40 years to figure out a new way to travel. I plan on being Diesel to the dying day.
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Vintage465
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02/19/23 08:50am |
Around the Campfire
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RE: Harvesting Solar
Please see signature for list of equipment installed and in use.
We are currently sitting for 2 weeks in a RV Park in Goodyear, AZ with included electric. I was curious about just how much solar power I could harvest for a mostly sunny day in February. So I unplugged after breakfast and while the solar charger was still in bulk charge mode. I don't recall exactly, but I think we were at about 96% SOC or down about 40 ah. While unplugged, electric water was on and DW did 2 loads of laundry, plus 20cf res fridge, microwave, TV etc were consuming battery/solar power.
Solar charger stayed in bulk charge all day and finished 5 ah shy of full charge. The Victron SmartSolar app showed the panels provided 4.97 kwh of energy for the day with a max of 1014 watts. Based on a reference of 13.5 VDC, that is 368 ah that could go to the batteries if no loads were present.
Unfortunately, that is not enough energy to permit us to boondock strictly off solar for more than a few days at this time of year.
I'm not sure where you're going with this other than "information". Normally, if one wants to boon dock for any real length of time you not only set your coach of with a robust solar, you fit the coach with appliances that minimize the use of 12v power Surely with the loads you have boon docking for any amount of thime will take more power or less load. We have a totally different set up than you. 450w of solar, four 6v Golf Cart batteries, absorption fridge and zero 120v appliances, so no inverter. And obviously since we have such a small draw we can go weeks at a time off our solar and battery bank.....but we will run out of water with in 2 weeks........and ironically the holding tanks are about full when we run out of water:S
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Vintage465
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02/15/23 07:51am |
Tech Issues
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RE: Propane smell inside oven
I had the same thing going on and it was a real small fuzz leak where the tube tightened into the pilot assembly. Tightened, smell gone.
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Vintage465
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02/09/23 07:59am |
Tech Issues
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RE: Are the new WFCO's as bad as the old ones?
My thinking......and My Opinion. A P.D. retrofit is a relatively inexensive way to address the WFCO. I installed one on mine when the WFCO conked out. Went in very textbook perfect. The other thing is, most companys(companies?)use #8 or #6 wire from the converter/chargers to the batteries and they are installed at the factory as far from the batteries as possible...sometimes in the next county. There is lot of Charge Voltage loss in that distance. I ran a #2 wire from my batteries to the coverter/charger location to minimize voltage/charge loss. Result is, with my four 6v batteries, I can charge from 12.1 volts to 13.2 volts(float)in about an hour.
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Vintage465
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02/03/23 08:37am |
Tech Issues
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RE: Why consider 12v fridge for boondocking?
when it comes to power usage, a 12V is not near as energy efficient (battery power wise) as an adsorbition fridge. you will need much more battery capacity and solar or a generator if you switch to 12V compressor.
In terms of BTU or KWH needed to cool, compressor driven fridges are much more efficient than a absorption fridge. Generally you can get about 3x the input BTU used in cooling BTU from a compressor driven fridge. No it doesn't violate any laws of physics, it's the energy needed to move heat from one place to another.
By contrast an absoprtion fridge is much less efficient COP is on the order of 0.7 or less vs 3 or more for compressor fridges.
But in terms of how the energy is stored to use the fridge, propane in BTU/gallon or BTU/weight or BTU/volume FAR FAR FAR exceeds any battery for the same volume or weight.
And ultimately this is my point, and why I still use an Absorption unit: "But in terms of how the energy is stored to use the fridge, propane in BTU/gallon or BTU/weight or BTU/volume FAR FAR FAR exceeds any battery for the same volume or weight."
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Vintage465
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01/04/23 11:36pm |
Travel Trailers
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RE: 12 volt fridges and boondocking?
We have a 07 27' Komfort trailer, I put 480 watts of panels on the roof, we have a 600 watt inverter for the Sat TV and 2 GC batteries. The only time we need to fire up the genny is after 2 or 3 days of rain. We only boondock, never have hookups.
I'm on the ORV Facebook group and people there seem to have lotsa money to upgrade their new expensive trailers. 3000 watt inverters, lithium batteries and 12 volt fridges are all the rage.
So now I've found a 2019 ORV with 2 - 100 Ah Lithium batteries, a 12 volt fridge, 600 watts of solar and an automatic sat dish on the roof for sale at (what I think is) a great price. I think the owners travel a lot in the US with full hookups.
It also unfortunately has a Schwintek slide, so I've been researching that but also I'm unsure if the 600 watts of solar would be enough for us when boondocking for 3 or 4 weeks at a time.
Any advice would be appreciated.
Thanks and Merry Christmas
Will
I have 480 watts in my 5th and four 6v batteries, so simular set up except I can go a bit longer before I worrie about power.
for you two LPF batteries will give you twice the usable amount of power asuming your 6V are around that 200AH mark. with two of them for max life you should only use about 50% of the capacity so that gives you 100AH to use. with the two LFP you have 200 usable AH to get the rated life, if you want more you can use less of it, but you don't need to set that up as right now if you can go three days with out sunlight with 600 watts of solar you will be shallow discharging anyways and can go longer without charge before it draws the battery down.
the only issue I see is how were the batteries treated, did he use a normal charge profile and just keep them up all the time, did he store them properly, is the converter and solare charger a proper LFP one so the profile is proper for charging and so on.. for me I would rather the guy take a healty chunk off the price and keep thoes batteries and purchase new ones if I had any suspisions about them.
I would definatly find out if he change the converter and solar charger to ones that are LI compatable at the very least.
I am not a fan of 12V fridges, I would probably trade it to some one with a good propane fridge if it would work, but it probably wouldn't haha.., but thats because I mostly boondock and using power for a fridge is a waist to me when propane lasts forever and does a good job. most I have looked at have a 5am draw when running, when I cam in the summer the temps are pretty warm (around 40C) so that would probably work out to a 50 to 60% duty cycle so that would use up 60 to 72AH in a 24hour period. right now running my 40 foot 5th wheel I only use 80AH in 24 hours and that is the very early spring or lait fall when I am running the furnace 24/7. in the summer I use 30 AH or less and that using the kureg in the morning and after supper and letting the kids watch a movie in the evening, if I had a 12V fridge it would take my daily use to 90ish AH in the summer and up to 150Ah in the winter..maybe less 130 to 140 as the duty cycle will drop a bit. the extra cost in batteries and panels to off set that over the cost to run the firdge on propane just doesnt make sense. now if you buy somthing with a 12V fridge you just have to make it work and in all likelyhood I would try grab that 3rd battery to give you the extra reserve capacity
Steve
This is the Way
https://i.imgur.com/xLMxJF5l.jpg
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Vintage465
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01/01/23 09:23am |
Tech Issues
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RE: Why consider 12v fridge for boondocking?
... The day will come when everything will be 12v compressor and we will all need to adjust and by that time the solar and batteries will surely be up to the task.
And on that note I'm looking for advice. I have a chance to buy a trailer with 600 watts of solar panels, 3 - 100 Ah Lithiums and a 12 volt Norcold fridge.
I'll be installing a small inverter to power the TV and sat dish but no coffee makers or toasters etc for us.
If we only boondock do you think this setup will work for us? Maybe if I add another 200 watt panel and another 100Ah of Lithium?
We only very rarely need to run the genny to charge batteries with our current rig in my signature.
Thx
I think you have a good start there, but I'm certainly not any kind of expert on 12v longevity from a power stand point. But based on what you have and are willing to add to it you should be able hold out. You may encounter some issues if you winter camp using that kind of energy.
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Vintage465
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12/31/22 05:07pm |
Travel Trailers
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RE: Why consider 12v fridge for boondocking?
Though I have enjoyed reading all the comments, I should have been more specific when I started this thread many months ago. I was only looking for an energy saving advantage use of a 12 compressor fridge over and absorption fridge......nothing else. We primarily boon dock. And as I think I have stated in some of the comments, I've read on many RV reviews...."it has a 12v compressor fridge making perfect for boon docking". Reading a phrase like that indicated to me that there could be an energy saving advantage to having a 12v fridge that I wasn't aware of. What many people saw was the opportunity to share thier "preference" reasons for using 12v compressor fridges.....which is fine, but not what I was looking for and occasionally gets under peoples skin when discussing the politics of why and why not to have one fridge vs another type. And incidently I've never had any issues with our Norcold absorption fridge keeping things cool at temps over 100 degrees or down to 7 degrees.
a compressor driven fridge is likely much more energy efficient than an absorption fridge in terms of watt/hrs needed. BUT the energy density/wt or volume for propane is orders of magnitude better than any current battery choice. So it takes way less area and wt to store the "fuel" supply for a propane fridge vs. compressor driven if your not hooked to a line power source.
And I guess this sums up me not being specific enough. I'm thinking
"on board" energy that is available to use for cooling purposes. In my mind, a coach with a built in solar array of say, 500w, four 6v batteries and two 7 gallon propane tanks is pretty normal for many boon dockers out there. Some have more, some have less. With a setup similar to this, take a compressor fridge vs an absorption fridge, I'm pretty sure that on all but the best day, the absorption will win. So I'm not necessarily interested in the energy invested in the cooling unit to create a btu drop. It may ulimately take less energy in a clinical setting to achieve sufficient cooling from a compressor unit, but having that energy available thru a large battery bank, solar and generator is far more cumbersom that a couple 7 gallon bottles of gas that is neatly and normally stowed away. And on those two bottles of gas I can easily make it 30 days in spring and fall. Winter time I'll need to fill up in a couple weeks. Anyway, just me....The day will come when everything will be 12v compressor and we will all need to adjust and by that time the solar and batteries will surely be up to the task.
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Vintage465
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12/31/22 10:00am |
Travel Trailers
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RE: Why consider 12v fridge for boondocking?
Though I have enjoyed reading all the comments, I should have been more specific when I started this thread many months ago. I was only looking for an energy saving advantage use of a 12 compressor fridge over and absorption fridge......nothing else. We primarily boon dock. And as I think I have stated in some of the comments, I've read on many RV reviews...."it has a 12v compressor fridge making perfect for boon docking". Reading a phrase like that indicated to me that there could be an energy saving advantage to having a 12v fridge that I wasn't aware of. What many people saw was the opportunity to share thier "preference" reasons for using 12v compressor fridges.....which is fine, but not what I was looking for and occasionally gets under peoples skin when discussing the politics of why and why not to have one fridge vs another type. And incidently I've never had any issues with our Norcold absorption fridge keeping things cool at temps over 100 degrees or down to 7 degrees.
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Vintage465
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12/30/22 11:49am |
Travel Trailers
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RE: Tire age?
As mentioned above....Goodyear Endurance. I've had Endurance tires on my coach for 5 years now with nothing but good reports. Getting ready to head for Quartzite from Cali soon so I'll replace them mostly for age reasons and not so much tread....though it's pretty close on the tread too. I've heard all good stuff about Maxxis tires too. My understaning is that Maxxis tires are made in China, but is an American Company. Difference is Maxxis has there own factory with there own employees and quality control. Also, it is my understanding that the vast majority of Chinese tires are made in one factory and rebranded to match whatever company is requesting the run of tires. I don't know anything about Michilin Trailer Tires.
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Vintage465
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12/10/22 10:24am |
Travel Trailers
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RE: Countdown-Menu for Christmas & New Year
Well, this thread is likely driven towards people living or planning to be in their RV's at Christmas. We're normally in our RV at Thanksgiving and do ALL the traditional Turkey Day Foods......All of them. For Christmas, we will not be in our RV so I will be curing a ham from scratch and prolly a turkey with ALL the other normal "goes with Turkey" foods.
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Vintage465
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12/08/22 09:17am |
Camp Cooks and Connoisseurs
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RE: Timken Bearings
Yes, Timken USA. I've notice if buy from the Amazon Beast the info online says China is a country of Mfg. But no, all the Timkens I've purchased are made in USA. Timken Seals are a different story though.....made in Mexico or Taiwan. But having said that if you put the Timken seal against a "pedestrian seal" from the box store you can really see the difference in quality.
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Vintage465
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11/30/22 08:22am |
Do It Yourself Modifications and Upgrades (DIY)
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RE: Pump Silencing & Accumulator
Wow! As I was scrolling thru the topics I see this post.......thinking, that's just like the post I did years ago! Still working perfectly at nearly six years, never check or adjusted pressure. Still a nice even, non pulsing flow at low volume settings on the faucet.
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Vintage465
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11/30/22 08:17am |
Do It Yourself Modifications and Upgrades (DIY)
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RE: absorption refrigerator out of level, boiler temp control
I guess today I'm going to "be that guy"........I grew in a family that owned an RV sales and repair shop.....in the days that if you ran your fridge out of level(propane or electric)it would lockup in 20 minutes. The law was "not level, don't light". The repair was to remove the fridge turn it on it's head for 24 hours, reinstall and fire it up...level of course. 99% of the time it fixed it. So my question is, why hypothetically set your self up to do damage to your fridge when it just needs to be level. Yes I get it that driveways and streets aren't level, but.........I'll stick by "not level, don't light".
Your suggestion is fair enough...
I'm curious...Do refrigerators still "lock up" due to running out of level? Or is that a thing of the past?
I've heard about the "turn your fridge upside down" trick to "reset" the fluids (I guess?). Better than buying a new refrigerator if it fixes the problem, but somewhat painful to have to remove the refrigerator to stand it upside-down.
To answer your question...I personally try to remember not to have the refrigerator on if I'm parked significantly off-level (more than 3 degrees side to side or 6 degrees front to back). But I could always forget. More importantly, I let others use my RVs. When I do, I give them a tour inside and out showing them how everything works. It's a lot of info to communicate how every feature/etc on an RV works. It is likely that when I tell them "don't run the refrigerator if you are out of level" it goes in one ear and out the other.
So ultimately, if I want to guarantee the refrigerator doesn't run and overheat (and cause damage) when it is out of level, I can DIY a $25 fix with a high temp thermostat to shut it off. In a sense, it just automates/forces the shut off process if out of level to a point of causing damage so that I or others never need to "remember" not to run it off-level.
At the end of the day, adding a Fridge Defend or $25 DIY thermostat IS a risk reduction activity. It WILL eliminate the overheating of the boiler which WILL reduce potential damage over time and reduce the chances of a fire. Everyone gets to make their own decision on whether that risk is tiny, small, medium, high, or extreme. In my mind, if this overheating issue was ONLY about potential damage to the cooling unit over time that could cause premature death of the cooling unit and nothing else, it probably wouldn't bother me as much. But it makes me uncomfortable that something could overheat up to as much as 750*F-800*F and ultimately cause a fire in the RV (worst case scenario). If I can eliminate that risk for $25, to me it is worth it.
Happy Camping!
Chris
Actually, I haven't study'd or researched if they can lock up now a days. I think they they have some kind of vapor or boiling bypass now days. I've also heard running them off level is dangerous to the refer's health. I just make sure I don't do it.
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Vintage465
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11/23/22 02:26pm |
Tech Issues
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RE: absorption refrigerator out of level, boiler temp control
I guess today I'm going to "be that guy"........I grew in a family that owned an RV sales and repair shop.....in the days that if you ran your fridge out of level(propane or electric)it would lockup in 20 minutes. The law was "not level, don't light". The repair was to remove the fridge turn it on it's head for 24 hours, reinstall and fire it up...level of course. 99% of the time it fixed it. So my question is, why hypothetically set your self up to do damage to your fridge when it just needs to be level. Yes I get it that driveways and streets aren't level, but.........I'll stick by "not level, don't light".
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Vintage465
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11/18/22 07:45am |
Tech Issues
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RE: Anything other than silicone..
I have to say there are very few places on my coach that I'd use silicone because of how hard it is to maintain. Also, at some point almost all caulking needs to be addressed at sometime or another because the putty tape behind starts to oose in the heat and push out on the caulking. My ORV came with a product called GEO-Cell as the caulking on all sidewall penetrations. Though it doesn't have the life span silicone has, it is easy to remove carefully with a heat gun and a rounded/dulled putty knife. Then I remove any remaining goo with mineral spirits. The final cleaning is with alcohol. Then I use the GEO-cell caulk. It flows nicer than silicone with bit of a self-leveling feature but doesn'tsag. As would be expected I use Dicor on the roof.
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Vintage465
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11/13/22 07:20am |
Travel Trailers
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RE: All 2024 GM HDS get the 10 speed Allison.
Interestingly enough, whoever "Motorbiscuit" is, they think that Ford and GM did co-design the HD tranny, not the cars and 1/2 tons. I don't really know who designed what.....But what I know is before the Allison 1000 appeared all the overdrive automatic trannies whether behind a diesel or a strong gasser, they're(their?) days were numbered. They all caved in if you put much load on them. So Allison or not, at least now-a-days, you can get from coast to coast and not worry so much about the tranny grenade-ing in all the big three. Also, I've read that the 10 speeds tend to hunt a bit when you get into hills...hunting bugs the heck out of me and I'm glad mine just stays in 6th going up and down hills.
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Vintage465
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11/03/22 09:52pm |
Tow Vehicles
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