black & white vs black and white AAARGHHH!!!
I dove into the wiring in my HTT trying and ended up getting a serious case of boatwright syndrome. I started out just trying to figure out why some of the stereo speakers weren't working, and ended up re-wiring everything in the galley!
In order to get the stereo speakers working, I had to take the microwave oven out the overhead cabinet. I then had to take the false floor out the bottom of the cabinet. When I did this, I was met with a huge rat's nest of tangled wire, and a million splices and wire nuts. I found out why the stereo speakers weren't working...some of the speakers had their grounds wired to the 12 volt ground, so I disconnected those, and wired them up to the stereo's speaker ground properly. Now, I set out to untangle the huge mess under here.
I went to the hardware store and bought to bus bars that to in a fuse box. I made one for hot, and one for ground. I then cut all the wire nuts and splices out of the wires, and extended the wires to the bus bars I had made. I discovered I actually had two circuits up there...One was a 15 ampere circuit, and the other is a 30 ampere circuit. Now comes the dumb part. The burnouts that wired this camper put only the range hood on the 30 ampere circuit. On the 15 ampere circuit was all my overhead lights, the outside light, the galley lights, and the stereo. I seriously think that these were supposed to be the opposite direction, with all the loads on the 30.
Because I installed florescents all around though, I am going to wire this up the way a building is wired...All the lights are going on the 15 ampere circuit, and on the 30 will still be the range hood, but also the stereo, a lighter plug outlet, and the Anderson Powerwerx sockets. I'm also putting the front bunk circuits on the 30 as well.
Now, the worst part of this entire project hasn't really been trying to decypher what they did in the wiring, but trying to keep my polarity straight!!! In some parts of the rig, they used red wires for hot...these were typically the trunk lines coming from the converter. They are accompanied by black ground wires BUT...after the trunk lines make it to appliances and lights, the colors change! The hot becomes black, and the ground becomes white! ???!?!?!
RE: Inverters Good or Bad????
Operating an electric heating like appliance like a coffee maker off an inverter, or even a generator is pretty stupid, especially if you got two propane bottles hanging off the front of your rig! Why not just make coffee using the stove top?!?!?!
Why? is is stupid? Well, let's look at the conversion process. You take a liquid fuel, burn it in a gasoline engine to make mechanical motion, we then throw away the heat in this process in the engine's cooling system. We then turn the mechanical motion into electricity, again, loosing more energy in heat and friction. Then, we store it in a battery if you need it later. After it's run inside, we convert it back into heat. After all those conversions, we end up with maybe about 20% of the energy we started with!
Still, why do you want an inverter over a generator? well for me, I don't like the noise of generators. Sure, the inverter-generators are quieter, but they still make noise and pollution...the very things I go camping to get away from! Inverters are not perfect however, the common modified sine wave ones do not put out the cleanest power, but the same goes for non-inverter generators. Inverters also require a nice hefty battery bank.
The beauty of an inverter system however is they work GREAT with alternative energy sources, like solar panels and wind turbines that are coupled to a battery bank for clean, noise-free power!
RE: Large Companys that Steel ?
The cable company has NO RIGHT to cut the service wiring within your home. Once the signal enters the box on the outside of the house, it is YOUR wiring beyond that. The ONLY thing the cable company has the right to do is cut the drop from the pole to your house. Who says so? The cable act of 1991 does!
I have installed several cable TV systems for people in their homes using the proper distribution amplifiers and terminal blocks. Doing this job is not cheap when done properly. All the CATV hardware is private equipment owned by the homeowner. If the cable company came in and cut your cable lines into your bedrooms, you have the full right to sue them for the cost of re-wiring your home! They damaged your property!
RE: Too much Mother Nature?
send some of those hawks into my neighborhood! We have a serious infestation of squirrels around here! I'd love to see a few dissapear into the sky on the talons of a hawk!
RE: Who still has an analog TV ...and rabbit-ears/antenna ..??
The way around the analog pass-thru issue is to connect your DTV converter box to the auxilary or game port on your TV, then connect your analogue device up to the tuner terminal in the back of the TV. Then, all you need to do is just push the input button on your set to switch between the analoge and digital tuners!
Anderson Powerpole
In the HAM radio and in the renewable energy fields, the Anderson Powerpole connectors are beginning to become the standard for running 12 volt DC power. In my trade, we have started wiring up TV news trucks with them. In most automobiles and RV's though, the annoying "cigarette lighter" adapter plug is still the standard. Do you think the Powerpoles will eventually replace the lighter plugs for 12 volt power?
Even if it doesn't, I'm already beginning the process of changing over the connections in my rig. I just started the process of installing powerpole connectors around the rig, and I've put powerpole connectors on most of my 12 volt gadgets, like my Fantastic Breeze fan, my 12 volt TV, and of course, my radio gear. I also made a "dongle" that goes from powerpole to the lighter plug for the instances when I need to plug into other sources of power.
RE: Should have stayed home.
I find that negative slope issue at more dump stations! For some reason, our state parks can't seem to figure out how to properly grade around the dump station.
I've just made it a habit of making sure my stack-blocks are ready to go when I head to the dump station. I throw a few under the curb-side wheel and drive up on 'em. I've even gotten into the habit of doing this on the few that are properly sloped so I can get a good clean dump!
RE: Pull 19' Roo with S-10?
Based on my experience with an Astro-van containing the same engine...I would say you can do it, but it may not be the most comfortable thing. My previous TT was a Norris Volunteer, and fully loaded for the road was clocking in at the truck-stop at almost 4200 pounds. The Astro got it moving reasonably well, but it was hindered a bit by it's poor aerodynamics. You may be able to help break the wind by installing a hi-top bed shell with a wedge design, maybe like this:
http://www.4are.com/product/t/
Still, like the others have said, if you are to encounter some mountains, you may have a bit of a time attempting to maintain highway speed uphill. Check to see if your truck has all the necessary towing accouterments. You should also have the heavy-duty cooling too. I made the mistake on my old Astro of buying the wrong replacement radiator...it did fine until I towed, and then the gauge started climbing. I took the radiator back and got the correct one!!!
RE: anybody make anything like this today?
Well, the biggest thing, for me at least, is that there is one less thing to set up. The unit is totally self-contained...just push a button like the ad says. So there is nothing to set outside on the ground (and worry about rain & theft) and subsequently connect to a power cord. I imagine this setup runs directly off the same fuel tank that your engine runs off of, so there is also no need to tote gas cans and need to worry about refueling every so often.
Lasty, I imagine it's a bit more efficient, since the compressor may have been driven directly off the gasoline engine...but this may be negated in reliability, because externally driven compressors tend to leak around the shaft seal. This is the reason why car air conditioners usually only last around 10 years, but your home AC unit can last over 20. This, I guess is also probably why the design didn't really make it on the market!
RE: anybody make anything like this today?
My idea was to use a unit that sits on the ground, and simply uses the evaporator air box out of a junked car. I would then run some of that insulated flex-duct stuff from the AC unit to the TT. For the purposes of minimizing Carbon Monoxide intrusion, the air within the TT would need to be re-circulated through the air evaporator box, versus drawing in air from outside, cooling it, and blowing it in (which would also reduce it's efficency/effectiveness) I imagine the Vanaire also re-circulates interior air, instead of drawing in outside (C.O. contaminated) air as well, just like the electric varieties available today.
Now, this gadget is totally self-contained and sits on the roof in a very compact package...the ultimate solution, and was probably much lighter and smaller than what my design may end up being (my design must be large enough to contain the condenser coil and the electric fan that sat on the front of the donor vehicle) It probably also contained a much quieter, smoother engine than any of the hardware-store varieties out there that I was thinking about using.
Of course, I loathe the sound of generators running, and escaping man-made noise is one of the primary reasons why I go camping in the first place, so I have never really implemented the idea...I instead just take off for the mountains during the summer, where the weather is more comfortable a few thousand feet in the air!
RE: small engine - same lousy mileage?
Okay, with all the technical stuff running around, I think I have the man's answer:
What use is a smaller engine if it gets the same mileage as a big engine? Well, a smaller engine gets better mileage when the vehicle is unloaded or not towing. SOOOO....If you use your tow vehicle a lot for daily commuting, grocery-getting and that sort of stuff, you may want a smaller engine for better mileage while the Tow vehicle is un, or lightly loaded.
Now, if your tow vehicle solely exists in your possession for the purposes of yanking your RV around, then I would recommend getting the biggest, gutsiest engine you can find. There will not be much of a difference in fuel economy between the little engine, and the big engine, but that extra bit of reserve power will make things much easier for your when entering highways, climing hills, etc.
RE: different frontal designs of TT
I noticed a significant difference between my 17 foot Palomino, which has a sharply raked front, versus my old Norris TT, which was perfectly blunt upright. The amount of power the wind drag sucked off the tow vehicle is rather significant. The interesting thing about this whole thing I have noticed is that open-road highway mileage is not that significantly different between short TT's and long TT's that have similar frontal profiles. They impose almost the same amount of drag on the tow vehicle.
What I would like to see is for TT manufacturers to reduce the drag of things hanging off the TT. For example, windows still have a lot of turbulence around their housings, The roof of an RV is also bad, with all sorts of vents, pipes and stuff poking up, and you cannot forget the awning...there's got to be a way to enclose the awning within the structure of the TT, so the roller and the arms can mount flush with the sides.
What I want to know though is why TT manufacturers are removing the windows from the front of TT's. many of the rigs I have gone in at shows are missing these windows, or they have significantly reduced the size of them. I like this window location for good ventilation and view outside. The nice thing too is that most had a fiberglass cover over them, allowing one to keep the window open in inclement weather.
anybody make anything like this today?
A gasoline powered rooftop air conditioner that also makes 12 volt power. I was thinking about building something like this using junkyard parts with a B&S motor, and a compressor off a scrap car.
This is such a cool idea, especially for boondockers! I didn't know anybody even made anything like this. At the very least, the housing is much more stylish than the rooftop AC units on RV's now
http://iiidragons.com/gallery/albums/Van-Advertisements/airpower_2000_vanaire_001.jpg
TT wheel bearing service intervals
How often do I need to re-pack the wheel bearings on my TT with grease? Is this a mileage thing, or a time thing? I am taking that the wheel bearings have never been repacked since it was new, and this past year, I put around 2500 miles on it. Is this something I should be doing here soon, or should I not need to worry about it for a good while
preventing an accidental bunk drop
I frequently go camping with friends, and the ones that do travel with me know how to open up my trailer (the rear bunk is the "guest bedroom") I am always a little worried though that someone may accidentally drop one of the bunk end doors while helping me set up and damage it. Is there any worry about taking the bunk end past it's typical 90 degrees when it's in use? Will this damage the fiberglass or the structure of the TT? I have heard about bunk ends being dropped on the propane tanks, leaving a dent in the fiberglass door. Luckily, I have a vinyl cover on my fuel tanks , so that may not happen, but the only issue I can forsee outright is that the tenting will get torn off the end of the bunk where it's fastened down.
Now, should I install some sort of safety to keep the bunk end doors from being over-extended? If so, what could I use? I am thinking I could put some cables into it...not to support the bunk end when they are extended...that's done with metal poles, but only to keep them from going beyond 90 degrees.
RE: Home Theater System & TV
Chances are, there are 3 echo's here...the first one is because the user is listening to both an analogue source, and a digital source at the same time...the analogue source is heard first, because it does not need to go through digital decoding. If the RCA audio line is being run to the surround sound system, and the TV has an HDMI (digital) line run to it, you are hearing the sound from the surround sound's front speakers, then hearing the TV's built-in speakers when it decodes the digital audio. You are then hearing a Third echo off the rear speakers...this is intentional, and is what surround sound is supposed to do, but it probably sounds odd with the other two sets of speakers out of sync.
Many surround sound systems have a "test" button. Press this button, and the surround sound system will put white noise through each individual speaker one at a time. Use your remote control to adjust the volume level of the speakers as they turn on so that they all have about the same volume level from your listening position.
RE: Computer as amplifier?
double-click your speaker icon at the bottom right of your windows screen near the clock. A screen that looks like a mixing board will come up. Make sure the "line In" and the "mic In" sliders are turned up. The "Line in" needs to be up to abut 1/2 to 3/4 of the way. If you are using a mic in, it will probably only need to go up 1/4 of the way.
The audio quality off your mic in socket may not be particularly good though. The microphone port is mono, and many filter out the lowest bass, and the treble to make a microphone sound more intelligable. The problem is that although this makes speech sound better, it ruins the full sound you want from music. Also, most microphone jacks are set up with a bit of pre-amplification for a microphone's lower signal level. If you run a line-level source into it, like an ipod, CD player, etc, it is easy to overload this input, and cause distortion.
RE: Big trucks safer?
Really, you're wrong on all counts. You set 'em up, so I'll knock 'em down ...
Airbags absolutely protect passengers when used as designed along with properly adjusted seatbelts. The fact that they're expensive to replace is a side effect, not any sort of dastardly scheme to take your money.
Also, your idea of "making the vehicle stronger so it's more easily repairable" shows a complete lack of understanding of the physics of a collision. You need to start thinking of vehicles as expendable - they die so you don't. If you built a vehicle that didn't deform in a crash it would kill the occupants. The energy has to be dissipated somewhere, and that somewhere is by distributing it through the structure of the vehicle.
As for dynamic stability control, it's not just for SUVs, it's for all vehicles, and statistically it's been shown to reduce accidents, which from a safety perspective is by far the best way to protect people. There are plenty of morons out there who drive their excursion like it's a Porsche 911, but there are also plenty instances where people doing nothing wrong can benefit from ESC.
Designing in a crumple zone into the front or rear of a vehicle is an excellent way to dissapate the impact energy, and thus reduce the force of a collision, BUT in a SIDE impact collision you DO NOT want the interior cabing to collapse on it's occupants!!! There is simply no room for a crumple zone on a side-impact situation.
As far as the side air bags go, I can see why front air bags work, because the air bag is inflated in the opposite direction the occupant is headed in during a collision. A side impact air bag however makes absloutely NO sense! The air bag is inflated in the SAME direction the occupant is headed in, which looks to me like it would be increasing the amount of force transmitted to the occupant. To me, it looks like it would make better sense to install a curtain air bag in the middle of the vehicle, between the seats or overhead, that will inflate in a side impact, thus absorbing the movement of the occupant...the whole thing just really makes me think of the "Robocop" movie where the entire car fills with foam!
Still, I am one that just takes it easy on the road and doesn't try to over-drive the handling of my vehicle. Many europeans complain that American vehicles are overpowered for their handling capabilities, and I agree, it's easy to get into serious trouble when you have 400 horsepower powering a truck with a suspension system that dates back to the horse-carriage days, and a driver with a lead foot behind the rig.
Still, this doesn't answer the question as to why comparatively smaller SUV's and pickups are found flipping over and in ditches all the time when big dumpers, semis, busses and other large rigs aren't (Don't get me wrong, they do wreck, but much more infrequently) The answer to this question is driver experience, and while yes, computer technology is good for getting a driver out of a nasty situation, it seems that all the commercial truck and bus drivers have survived for years without it and done quite well. I feel if I drive my much smaller rig with the same caution that a semi truck driver does, I can also achieve the same good results without expensive electronics.(There are thousands of semi-truck and bus drivers out there with "million-mile" crash free driving records!)
