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Forum
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RE: Maxxis M8008 still good?
I switched from Maxxis to goodyear endurance. cost was basically the same, endurance is a real >65mph speed rated trailer tire (85mph IIRC) without any load reduction based on speed. AFAIK Maxxis is still an excellent , but in my mind no longer the top of the heap,
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ktmrfs
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03/22/23 10:51am |
Tech Issues
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RE: Seven States to Ban the Sale of Gas Powered Cars in 2035
I assume a bison expels much more gas than a cow??? But the greenies love those bison and say nothing about their gas expelling.
I have never had a bison burger. Maybe someday.
bison burgers, bison steaks delicious. As long as you don't want them well done.... then tough. But then I refuse to cook any meat well done anyway. Bison roasts are great also.
Take it any day over beef.
but then now we are WAY WAY WAY off topic
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ktmrfs
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03/21/23 10:38pm |
Tow Vehicles
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RE: Propane Powered Engines Featuring a 7.3 Ford and 6.7 Cummins
Let me say I'm no automotive engineer, I was going on posts like this:
ack of lubrication is a universal problem in the diesel world - older vehicles weren’t built to run on ultra low sulfur diesel (ULSD) and new vehicles are built with extremely tight tolerances, producing higher pressure and temperature, making the lack of lubricity possibility catastrophic. Every single diesel engine injection system relies on diesel fuel as a lubricant to protect and lubricate all the moving parts within the fuel system including injectors, in-line pumps and injection pumps. If the lubrication of the fuel isn’t good enough, the internal components begin to wear against themselves and can fail from excessive wear.
post
yes, before ULSD the fuel pumps relied on the sulphur for some lubrication. it was for the high pressure fuel pump, and injectors, not the valves.
However any diesel sold afer about 2005 is designed for ULSD
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ktmrfs
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03/20/23 12:24pm |
Tow Vehicles
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RE: Propane Powered Engines Featuring a 7.3 Ford and 6.7 Cummins
a spark ignition engine designed for propane operation is capable of high power output and efficiency, since propane like alcohol has a higher octane rating one can run much higher compression and much more spark advance.
Course it will use more gallons of fuel than gasoline due to the lower energy content, but it gains in thermal efficiency to partially offset.
Dual fuel engines another story, spark advance can be adjusted but not easy to adjust compression ratio.
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ktmrfs
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03/20/23 09:22am |
Tow Vehicles
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RE: Propane Powered Engines Featuring a 7.3 Ford and 6.7 Cummins
I bet the valves will love it
I doubt it, diesel engine valves get lubrication from the fuel. That is an issue with low sulfur fuel, it provides reduced lube.
in a diesel fuel is injected into the cylinder after the valves are closed, not sure how it provides any lubrication.
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ktmrfs
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03/20/23 09:20am |
Tow Vehicles
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RE: Propane Powered Engines Featuring a 7.3 Ford and 6.7 Cummins
at one time around here after comparing energy density and cost and fuel economy propane was noticeably cheaper even after conversion costs for gas engines if you put 10K miles or more/year on the vehicle. Some of my co workers who had 50+ mile round trips each day did the conversion and were happy with it. You still had to pay fuel tax on the propane. But then propane got more expensive so the advantage disappeared,
For a while folks with diesel trucks were doing a conversion where propane was injected into the manifold and diesel injected into the cylinders again, for cost advantage along with longer range (but with a propane tank in the back)
Propane can tolerate a much higher compression ratio than gas before detonation, so like alcohol, you can gain power IF the engine is designed for the higher compression and can take advantage of ignition timing. That gains power and economy.
Lots of stationary power generators and big backup generators run on propane, no worry about fuel going bad and the burn so clean oil life is much longer and they are easier to start.
Then there are dual or tri fuel portable generators. My honda 2200 is modified to run on gas, propane or NG. Propane or NG does have less power, but if I need it at home if the power goes out, running on NG give an infinite run time, no worry about how much gasoline I have. Run it on gas when camping.
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ktmrfs
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03/19/23 01:39pm |
Tow Vehicles
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RE: A/C blower motor question..
the blower motor on our coleman lasted about 10 years, then started to emit a low pitched whine for a while on startup. Original motor was a FASCO, bronze oil lite bushings were dry, replaced it with another FASCO motor.
BTW FASCO motors are in our home AC and NG furnace, both over 20 years old and still purring along.
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ktmrfs
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03/19/23 01:07pm |
Tech Issues
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RE: Seven States to Ban the Sale of Gas Powered Cars in 2035
Been to china multiple times. Depends on where you are as far as visible polution as well as non visible but noticeable polution (eyes, lungs etc.) Some places are really bad, other places are comparable to most large U.S. cities.
But then in the U.S. places near coal fired plants have pretty bad visible and respiratory pollution as well. it's hard to clean up the pollution from coal fired plants, way worse than NG fired plants.
We had a relatively new coal fired plant about 150 miles from us. Every time we drove by it on our trips east the air was visibly darkened, sometimes pretty bad. Now that they have converted it to NG air is visibly clear whenever we drive by.
If you are referring to the Boardman coal fired plant, it closed two and a half years ago. Don't believe they ever converted to natural gas. The owner, Portland General Electric, closed the plant as it transitions to renewable energy sources, namely wind energy. The emissions of that plant were nothing compared to the sight of the hundreds of ugly wind turbines serving as a visual blight and destroying the view shed of nearby pristine country. Wind turbines have destroyed the beautiful vistas of the Eastern Columbia River Gorge. If the greenies weren't so anti fossil fuels, they would be protesting in the streets to remove the wind turbines.
When boardman was operating the "pristine view" down the gorge within 50 miles of Boardman was obliberated by the smog from boardman. It was hardly "pristine". Now at least the sky is clear all the way down the gorge. Oh..... it's worse, now the smog doesn't obsure the windmills!!!
PGE has two NG fired plants near boardman. Not sure if they were new plants replacing the boardman coal fired plant or reworking the boardman coal fired plant for NG, but non the less the coal fired plant(s) are gone and there is NG plants to replace it.
And from our traveling down the gorge, once boardman coal fired plant close, eureka, amazing difference in the air quality for 50+ miles around boardman
Don't know why wind turbines are painted white, it should be easy to make them less visible, not doubt. And it does distract from the view. However IMHO it's WAY better than the smog that enveloped the gourge from before boardman to north of tri cities on most days from the coal fired plant. We travel down that area dozens of times during they year and while boardman was operating we NEVER encountered anything resembling clean air, always either hazy or very hazy in that area. Not to mention the mercury emitted from coal fired plants.
Coalstrip in Montana with the coal fired plants is as bad or worse for smog and emissions.
I'll take the visual distraction from wind turbines any day over the smog from a coal fired plant.
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ktmrfs
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03/19/23 11:01am |
Tow Vehicles
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RE: New small Airstream TT that will fit inside garage.
Nice to see an alternative to Casita, Oliver, Escape etc. in small trailers
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ktmrfs
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03/19/23 09:08am |
Travel Trailers
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RE: Seven States to Ban the Sale of Gas Powered Cars in 2035
Been to china multiple times. Depends on where you are as far as visible polution as well as non visible but noticeable polution (eyes, lungs etc.) Some places are really bad, other places are comparable to most large U.S. cities.
But then in the U.S. places near coal fired plants have pretty bad visible and respiratory pollution as well. it's hard to clean up the pollution from coal fired plants, way worse than NG fired plants.
We had a relatively new coal fired plant about 150 miles from us. Every time we drove by it on our trips east the air was visibly darkened, sometimes pretty bad. Now that they have converted it to NG air is visibly clear whenever we drive by.
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ktmrfs
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03/19/23 09:05am |
Tow Vehicles
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RE: Propane Powered Engines Featuring a 7.3 Ford and 6.7 Cummins
Propane gas engines as well as propane or NG diesels using a diesel to start ignition and propane/NG injected into the manifold have been around for a long time. Propane is compatible with either spark ignition or compression ignition engines.
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ktmrfs
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03/19/23 08:58am |
Tow Vehicles
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RE: EV alternative for light/medium duty trucks
Eddie,
They took thousands of years to accomplish what we have done in 200 years.
more like 10's or 100's of thousands of years.
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ktmrfs
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03/17/23 10:28pm |
Tow Vehicles
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RE: Seven States to Ban the Sale of Gas Powered Cars in 2035
The electrical grid can only (with great difficulty) support all the electrical demand now (but not on a very hot or very cold day). eAutos will require almost 3000 NEW COAL FIRED electrical generating plants plus upgrade of all the substations etc. NO WAY.
not sure where 3000 new coal plants number came from but I suspect (a) someone slipped a digit or mare likely 2 and (b) NG, solar or wind with battery or dam reservoirs, wind, etc. is more than capable of negating the need for most any coal plant.
bury your head in the sand if you want, but it's going to happen, will it be by 2035? I'll say no, but we will be at a point of the majority if not vast majority of at least passenger and LT vehicles being all electric and IMHO virtually NO vehicle that is not at least a hybrid if not plug in hybrid.
We already have a fleet of city buses that are all electric, doing well and much nicer to be behind than the older diesel buses.
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ktmrfs
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03/17/23 01:51pm |
Tow Vehicles
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RE: Seven States to Ban the Sale of Gas Powered Cars in 2035
Given the rate of advances in EV's, batteries, charging, infrastructure etc. IMHO it may take a bit longer than 2035, but not much longer before there won't be a need to ban CO2 emitting ICE's, because there won't be enough demand for mfg to continue to build them.
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ktmrfs
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03/17/23 09:18am |
Tow Vehicles
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RE: Battery question, opinions needed
go for it.
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ktmrfs
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03/15/23 08:04pm |
Tech Issues
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RE: Solar charger
Clamps are a poor means of connection. Bad connections cause heat. However, that little panel shouldn't generate enough current to make much difference.
Did you install a fuse on the positive cable near the battery? It should have one to prevent this sort of thing.
Do you have a charge controller or did you just hook the panel straight to the battery? You really should have at least a basic charge controller to keep the battery from being over charged.
I'm going to guess a cheap solar panel that shorted out with no fuse or charge controller to protect it.
I'd say cheap fuse..... a length of 20ga or so wire as a fuseable link!!!! something shorted in the panel and the battery tried to light it up!!
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ktmrfs
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03/15/23 08:03pm |
Tech Issues
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RE: SeeLevel tank monitor system
I've done a little more research. There are 2 stick on sensors available and they are stackable. They work on tank height of 3.5" to 26". According to Grand Design, my 4 tank heights vary from 7.75" for the fresh tank to 8.75" for the 3 holding tanks.
The sensors can be trimmed with scissors to accommodate different height tanks. The manufacturer suggests a 1/2" gap at top and bottom of tank due to the extra thickness at those points.
one trick is to pick the optimal sensor, the ones that will give you a nice increment in level adequate for your needs. In my case I was able to pick a sensor length that gives me readout in 10% increments.
Since the system is reasonably spendy, before I ordered I'd open up the bottom and actually measure the tank height where you are going to install the sensors, likely near the existing sensors.
To close to the top and it won't read 100%, to far down and 100% won't be full. Trick is to tape them on and find a happy medium, in my case for the black/grey/galley one where 100% reading was really around 90%, was close to the top, but didn't want to push it more. And for the fresh where 10% still had enough for a quick shower, washing some dishes etc. Not low enough that at 10% I would risk running out of water.
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ktmrfs
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03/15/23 08:01pm |
Tech Issues
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RE: Solar charger
no way a 50W panel would have enough current to melt the wires. Max current would be on the order of 4 amps, most likely in the range of 3A from a typical PWM controller. even 20ga wire can handle 3 A continous,
My guess is that the issue is with the connection to the battery, and it was reversed, damaged the controller, caused a overcurrent in the cables.
However, the controller should have protected against reverse hookup w/o any damage.
So.... w/o more info puzzling.
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ktmrfs
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03/14/23 09:22pm |
Tech Issues
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RE: Camping With Toddlers
if your concerned about the kid falling off the dinette, just take the dinette cushions and make them into a bed on the floor instead of the dinette.
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ktmrfs
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03/14/23 07:05pm |
General RVing Issues
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RE: SeeLevel tank monitor system
yup, as I mentioned in a previous post, the only improvement I would like to see is a way to calibrate the meter for odd shaped tanks. e.g. typical grey/black tanks that have a slopped bottom. calibration assumes a rectangular tank, But then once you have used it a few times, you'll get familiar with it.
It is a well made, well thought out, solution to the factory sensor system.
There is another system (don't remember the name) that let's you do a calibration for odd tanks, but it's much more complex installation, doesn't use the typical facgtory wires, and is even more expensive.
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ktmrfs
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03/14/23 07:03pm |
Tech Issues
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