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RE: Electrical Issues
It does sound like a loose connection. I would see a failure time as an opportunity to track it down using a voltmeter. Whole trying not to jiggle anything I would check to see of there is 12 V at the fuses, before the fuses, at the wire coming from the battery and so on.
It could very well be a ground connection problem so it might be necessary to attach a long wire to the battery negative and connect it tothe meter negative for all readings. If you find 12 V at the light bulb but it doesn't light up, then use the long wire to connect the meter positive lead to the light positive and check out the ground system with the meter negative lead. If it shows -12 on the battery negative but nothing on the metal chassis, the problem is the battery negative connection to the chassis. Just keep testing until you find the failure point. 12 V across a connection is a sure sign the connection is faulty. 12 V across a breaker or fuse means it is not letting any current through.
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Harvey51
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05/17/13 10:33am |
Tech Issues
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RE: Neat OZ Stop Sign
I had an interesting conversation with a truck driver stopped to check his load before the Rogers's Pass tunnels in British Columbia. He had a tool like the one shown in the video and was very careful. He had a load of cars, 3 decks high. I gather his employers were in the habit of pushing their luck a bit because he mentioned letting air out of the car tires on some trips to gain an inch or two.
I would definitely lay some of the blame on the trucking company for an overheight accident. A run through a tunnel should be carefully prepared and scheduled with checking by more than just the driver. And the driver should have the traIning and experience necessary. The one in the video should have been weeded out long before he got in that driver's seat.
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Harvey51
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05/14/13 09:28am |
General RVing Issues
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RE: Basic electrical questions
RV electrical systems are 12 volt, so put two 12 V batteries in parallel or two 6 volt ones in series. Be sure to get deep cycle batteries, which are designed for discharges below 50% unlike engine starting batteries. They start at about $80 at Costco and Walmart.
Our small MH recharges effectively from the engine so we have no need for a generator and we never plug in to shore power at campsites. Less than an hour of driving per day keeps the batteries nicely charged. We don't use any heavy loads like TV, microwave or coffee machine - they certainly require the generator. We often hear generators starting up in campsites in the early morning so someone's electric coffee pot will work and have had people apologize for the noise when they leave it running all day to keep the coffee hot. We use the propane stove to make coffee and keep it hot in a coffee butler thermos.
I found it necessary to have a basic voltmeter in order to know what is going on. With no charging going on, the voltage across the house battery will be something like 12 or 13 volts. Start the engine and if it is charging the house battery, the voltage will rise to around 14 volts. If it doesn't, try flipping the battery isolation switch, often located at the outside door.
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Harvey51
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05/13/13 09:40am |
Beginning RVing
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RE: Splicing Into Fridge 12V?
Likely there is a 12 V supply wire underneath the vehicle. Ours has one leading to a connector for a trailer and another charging the house battery. Maybe too low down for your project.
What about tapping into an existing exterior light?
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Harvey51
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05/09/13 07:06pm |
General RVing Issues
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RE: Surpentine belt replacement
Thanks very much for those details, guys!
I got one replaced on a GM 2500 van recently, by my mechanic friend as part of a waterpump job. Twenty one years old and 270 k km. He did an amazing thing in the first step. He noticed that the shroud around the radiator fan was in two parts, bolted together. It took maybe half an hour to get the upper half out but it really opened up the whole front of the engine. Then it only took a few seconds to take the belt off, bending the tightener with a wrench on its bolt. The tightener, an idler and the alternator had bearings that needed replacing. Changing the water pump was easy. I figure he saved me $500.
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Harvey51
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05/07/13 11:32pm |
Class C Motorhomes
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RE: Recharge Coach Batteries???
I'm wondering about the comment that a few cranks of the engine drained the house batteries. If so, I would be checking to see if the house batteries are connected to the engine battery. Maybe the emergency starting switch is stuck on. Disconnecting a cable from the engine battery should leave zero voltage between the two cables; if the house battery voltage appears there, there is a problem that would likely cause damage to the house batteries.
I use Costco batteries because the price is good and I heard they are quality. Kind of like Ron's argument that Walmarts are easier to find, though, and I am pleased to hear they are good, too.
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Harvey51
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05/05/13 10:08am |
Class C Motorhomes
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RE: semi full time no generator
Former school teacher here. In your situation, I would be making friends with some schools which have notoriously badly tuned pianos . . . And rows of parking lot plug ins no one uses at night.
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Harvey51
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05/03/13 09:34am |
Tech Issues
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RE: Mini fuel cell generates electricity directly from fire
The $130 bio lite produces 2 watts, $65 per watt. That is ten times the cost of a fold up solar collector.
I never heard of a fuel cell that was powered by heat. I suspect it is a misuse of the term.
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Harvey51
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05/02/13 12:45pm |
Tech Issues
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RE: 12-Volt LED Night Light
I mounted a single LED and holder into our ceiling light fixtures with a resistor in line. The wall switch provides power to the fixture and the fixture has a switch built in for the lights. I installed the LED before the switch in the fixture.
Great idea. I like the motion lights, too. And the switched night light. Just using flashlights now.
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Harvey51
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05/01/13 06:46pm |
Do It Yourself Modifications and Upgrades (DIY)
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RE: I.R. Leak Detection - Does Anyone Understand How This Works?
At one time you could buy IR film for a 35 mm camera. It had to be kept cool before and after exposure. It was used to find warm spots on a house in very cold weather so you could see where heat loss was happening.
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Harvey51
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05/01/13 01:59pm |
General RVing Issues
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RE: Inexpensive Kids Toys? Foam Planes, etc.....
Frisbee golf.
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Harvey51
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05/01/13 01:47pm |
General RVing Issues
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RE: LED Light Fixtures
We went fully LED a year ago, 36 and 48 warm whites in small rectangular arrays.
We always boondock and don't have a TV so we don't need a generator. The lights are our largest use of battery energy for the warm part of the season so reducing the load by a factor of seven means no worries about the batteries going low. A short drive every few days tops them up. Love the quiet camping.
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Harvey51
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05/01/13 10:10am |
General RVing Issues
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RE: hard bed
For the popup, our first move was to put carpet underlay under the thin mattress. As we got older, we used Thermarest inflatable mattresses on top.
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Harvey51
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04/30/13 07:04pm |
Beginning RVing
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RE: Tip for owners of older RV's
PartsGeek has E350 manuals for 18 dollars!
Alas, they won't send to Canada.
The alternatives are all about $150 including shipping.
And so many scams in the search list.
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Harvey51
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04/29/13 07:42pm |
Class C Motorhomes
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RE: Convert MSW Document with Images to PDF
I downloaded CutePDF writer a few days ago. Perfect for making archive copies of income tax returns that can be viewed and searched without having that Year's tax software installed.
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Harvey51
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04/25/13 06:00pm |
Technology Corner
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RE: Helpful vendors or scam artists?
Wow, thanks so much for the heads up! I had no idea this was going on.
I don't know if it is appropriate to put a good turn anecdote in with the bad ones. The tire fix reminds me of noticing by the clicking sound that we had a screw in a tire. This was in Nova Scotia, Cape Breton Island. The proverbial tire shop was across the street from our motel. The guy there interrupted his work, took the tire off, screw out and put a plug in while I watched. I couldn't believe it when he charged only $8. I brought muffins for their lunch.
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Harvey51
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04/24/13 06:34pm |
Class C Motorhomes
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RE: hard wired or battery co detector
A smoke detector strikes me as extremely important because we had a lot more deaths in fires before they appeared 3 or 4 decades ago. I'm not so sure about CO detectors. I got exposed to CO around trucks and tractors - people just aren't careful about running engines in sheds and the like. Now I am a very sensitive detector myself; getting very sick even on a boat that runs its engine when not moving. Also in an ambulance bay where somebody made a rule that the ambulance must be running while the doors were closed. And any area or vehicle where smokers gather. Lots of places where there should be CO detectors but I have never noticed it in a house or RV.
When our RV CO detector expired, I bought a $15 one on eBay and compared it with the $80 one from our house. The cheap one was quicker to detect car exhaust so that's what I am using for now. The expensive one has a level display but it doesn't perform reasonably in my estimation.
The Unconditioned spaces argument strikes me as silly because the temperature will be conditioned when you are using the RV and you don't care if it fails to work when no one is there. It might be an idea to store it in a stick house in winter, though, at least here where temps go down to -40 occasionally.
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Harvey51
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04/23/13 02:17pm |
Tech Issues
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RE: power window
Likely all the power windows are on the same fuse. If other windows work, it probably isn't the fuse. Could be the switch or the motor or wiring. Someone will have to open things up to check.
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Harvey51
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04/22/13 10:58pm |
Tech Issues
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RE: Dry Ice in Non-Working Fridge
The heat of fusion for melting water per gram is about the same as the heat of sublimation for dry ice, so a pound of ice is just as good as a pound of dry ice for cooling. It is also has a much nicer operating temperature of zero C instead of -78 C. And no gas released.
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Harvey51
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04/22/13 06:23pm |
General RVing Issues
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RE: A warning about your Sleep Number Bed
On a flight recently, we carried on a sealed bag of chips. It puffed up and was pretty firm but didn't blow.
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Harvey51
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04/22/13 06:02pm |
General RVing Issues
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