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Date Posted |
Forum
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RE: Battery Isolator - doing exactly what it should shouldn't?
Hard to tell on a 84 Class C chassis but typically that kind of setup will do the following:
Engine on: Alternator, starting battery, and house battery at same voltage, your 14.4 sounds right for an alternator source
Engine Off and using generator/shore power: House battery at converter voltage (13.8 in your case) and engine battery resting (call it 12.6). Typically the converter does not charge the engine battery. You might have a boost switch to help the starting battery by manually connecting your house and starting battery together if the starting battery is low.
Sounds like your isolator has failed is not working (i.e not connecting house to alternator when voltage > than house battery voltage)
Also getting a reading of 12.28 on the house battery at rest is very low (approaching 50%). You need to fully charge that as soon as possible. With a converter operating at 13.8 that couuld take a couple contineous full days. You need to plug in for a while.
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hmknightnc
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05/22/13 09:27pm |
Class C Motorhomes
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RE: What TV for 6000lbs?
Hi and welcome to the forum. You will likely get a lot of opinions and various experiences on that subject. From my personal experience: Towed a 6000# scaled TT with a fully HD equiped with tow package Tahoe for years with no issues about 50k towing miles. I would characterize the vehicle adequate for that job. It was an '05 with the 4 speed auto. The newer 6 speed autos would be be better.
Since you are getting a new (to you) tow vehicle I would recommend just go ahead and get a 3/4 ton based tow vehicle with the tow package. Don't need diesel for that wieght but if you get one it will make a difference in towing comfort.
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hmknightnc
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05/22/13 08:03pm |
Tow Vehicles
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RE: I need help finding the exact TH I'm looking for...
Perfect timing for this post. I'm considering getting a TH to haul a golf cart and some horse show gear but need to use my 3/4 ton Duramax to pull it. I'll keep an eye on this thread as I can't seem to locate a FW TH with a GVWR of under 12,000# so that the 3/4 ton can carry it.
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hmknightnc
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05/22/13 05:36pm |
Toy Haulers
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RE: Why is my converter is cooking my battery?
Yes those are the signs of a classic shorted cell.
Remove the battery and see what voltage it holds after a couple days.
x2, and get it out of the system. To verify have it load tested and then replace it.
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hmknightnc
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05/21/13 09:49pm |
Tech Issues
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RE: How much HP & torque do I need ?
4000# high wall TT with Chevy Trailblazer going over the rockys. Nope, No Thanks. I think your Trailblazer would be highly taxed even on level ground.
You need any 1/2 ton based V8 SUV/Truck with towing package (trans and engine oil cooler) and you should be good.
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hmknightnc
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05/21/13 08:27pm |
Tow Vehicles
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RE: Help with calculations: length of time running on battery
Your probably making this more complicated than necessary for estimating battery usage. Instead of trying to deal with watts convert everything to amps and then add up the various uses of amps for your total draw. For 12v devices just divide your watts by 12 to get amps and for 110 devices running off an inverter just divide watts by 10 (accounts for inverter efficiency)
You can use half of the 20 AH rating to get to 50%. So as an example using a 100 AH battery to power a 60 Watt LCD TV with an inverter. TV uses 6 amps/hour at 12volt DC (60/10) so you can run that TV approximately 8 hours (48 AHs)
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hmknightnc
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05/21/13 08:16pm |
Tech Issues
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RE: No water, what am I missing
Water filter (if you have one) on sink or sink faucet screen plugged.
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hmknightnc
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05/21/13 07:12pm |
Tech Issues
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RE: Solar Help
If your able to go 2 days on a 125AH battery then you are using 60 to 80 AH over that 2 days or call it 40AHs/day. A decent sunny day the 150 watt panel should be able to do that and then some. I'm a mornstar controller fan so would recommend a morningstar sunsaver 10 amp controller (no need to derate these controllers, overloads are designed in) but several reputable people on here (HiTech and BFL plus others) are very successful with the less expensive landstar controlers. With the landstar you do need to derate so get the 20 amp model.
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hmknightnc
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05/20/13 10:59pm |
Tech Issues
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RE: Fiver TV - 2002 F-350 Lariat 7.3L Diesel Dually
Your mechanic is right. That is a rock solid engine and truck. Not as powerful as today's more modern diesels but it will definitely get the job done. With respect to FW that truck doesn't have quite the carrying capacity of today's trucks either but my guess would be stay around 16k# loaded FW and you'll be in good shape.
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hmknightnc
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05/19/13 08:47pm |
Tow Vehicles
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RE: Propane level
It's not a pressure gauge, it's a level gauge. In order for pressure to increase the liquid needs to vaporize, which heat will cause, more vapor less liquid, thus lower level.
I did turn the valve off firmly, still level went down, until this week.
I've had one in the past where the valve stem packing on that valve leaked.
Dusty
Huh, No! As temperature rises the both the liguid state and vapor state expand in volume. Since it is a saturated liquid state in the tank the vapor pressure also rises. The end result is the liquid level will rise (it is non-compressable in this temperature range) and the vapor volume will actually decrease while pressure increases.
If your liquid level is going down with temperature increase it is absolutely a leak somewhere.
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hmknightnc
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05/19/13 04:17pm |
Tech Issues
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RE: Batteries
If your plugged in all the time it sounds like you potential have a couple problems adding up to cause this:
- First check your battery water level and make sure you haven't dried them out
- check your converter output for something like 13.6 volts. Your converter sounds like it has failed and not charging batteries
- I also sounds like your disconnect switch was left one which caused the current to drain the batteries without the converter working
- since your engine battery died too, your system isolator might be stuck closed as well
- How big is the solar system? If it is small (<50 watt) with the systems on and the converter not working it likely can't keep up
Check your water level and converter voltage. Post them here and we can go from there
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hmknightnc
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05/19/13 10:00am |
Tech Issues
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RE: Air in propane line
Checked for water, then turned the electric igniter on. Turned to know to pilot and held town button for several minutes and nothing happens. Turn everything off wait 5minutes and try again, still nothing
I don't understand this comment if I am reading it right. It seems to say you turn your HWH control to a pilot position and push a button down. With a rig as new as yours with an electronic ignition it should be just flip the switch the switch on. There is no manual pilot light which seems to be what you are describing
Getting the furthest appliance to light with the delays you describe sound normal. In order to avoid the issue once you get to camp just leave your propane system pressurizered (whether or not you actually run with refer on or not) by leaving the propane tank valves open which will keep the system pressuized. Everything should light instantly once at camp.
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hmknightnc
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05/19/13 09:52am |
Tech Issues
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RE: our new mule
With a stated payload of 2600# payload and subtract couple hundred for a hitch leaving 2400# pin wieght. That equates to around a 12K# GVWR trailer. Given my experience with 3/4 and 1 ton Dodge CTDs I can tell you power will be no problem. The 3/4 ton is very capable of that 12k# GVWR trailer although you might occassional be over the Trucks payload but within it's rear axle rating.
I would recommend staying 12k GVWR trailer or less.
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hmknightnc
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05/17/13 06:52pm |
Fifth-Wheels
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RE: Norcold fridge/freezer. will it keep food frozen?
your freezer is currently 29 degrees below freezing. your good, if anything your too cold with refer at 34 degrees, you risk freezing food in the lower portion of the refer
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hmknightnc
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05/17/13 04:52pm |
Hybrid Travel Trailers
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RE: How Do I Charge, and Maintain 2 New 6 Volt Batteries???
2 GC 6vs will provide about 50% more AH than 2 GP24s for about the same price
2 GC 6vs will provide a little more than 2 GP27s for a little less money
2 GC 6vs will provide about the same as 2 GP31s for definitely less money
Unless you are running your standard lights a lot you should be able to go a weekend on 2 GCs without going to far below 50% and definitely not below 30% if they start out fully charged for the weekend. If your using more power than that then you definitely need to get a generator or solar power (your using a lot of power)
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hmknightnc
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05/16/13 08:43pm |
Tech Issues
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RE: How Do I Charge, and Maintain 2 New 6 Volt Batteries???
Recharge them fully as soon as you are able. Running any battery flat shortens the number of times you can use it, but 6v golf cart batteries will tolerate this better than 12v hybrid batteries. You don't really get more amp hours out of 2 typical 6v than 2 typical 12 v batteries (very general statement), but they will survive the abuse for more cycles.
If you hook the positive on one to the negative on the other, the 2 open terminals act like a single 12v battery.
Jim
x2. And if I remember correctly from looking at Trojan battery specs the 6v GC batteries cycled to 80% discharge still has more cycles in them than 12v marines cycled to 50%.
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hmknightnc
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05/16/13 08:15pm |
Tech Issues
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RE: Payload vs Tow rating?
The reason you see payload/GVWR/Axle ratings discussed so often is unexperienced people tend to look at only tow rating and believe that is what the truck should be able to pull. In reality tow rating is the maximum a truck can pull with a theorical trailer. TT and FW with thier associated on the heavy side tongue wieghts and large wind resistance aren't even close to that theorical trailer
So for theoritical tailer, that would max out the tow rating, you would something like a hay wagon, with wheels at the four corners, and basically zero tounge weight. Not that you would want to pull any hay wagon I have ever seen at any speed.
Well not quite that bad. Something like an equipment trailer carrying a relatively low hieght load with wieght adjusted such that there is just enough tongue wieght to prevent sway
Think about this way. You can tow a heavier flat bed trailer than a boat trailer and a heavier boat trailer than a TT/FW. All with the same truck.
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hmknightnc
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05/16/13 06:52pm |
Tow Vehicles
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RE: Payload vs Tow rating?
The reason you see payload/GVWR/Axle ratings discussed so often is unexperienced people tend to look at only tow rating and believe that is what the truck should be able to pull. In reality tow rating is the maximum a truck can pull with a theorical trailer. TT and FW with thier associated on the heavy side tongue wieghts and large wind resistance aren't even close to that theorical trailer
Unless you are talking about a dually then payload/GVWR/Axle ratings will always be the limiting factor for a TT or FW. If you stay within those load limits you can't even get close to tow ratings with anything except a dually, other trucks simply can't carry the load that a maximum tow rating would require.
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hmknightnc
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05/16/13 05:53pm |
Tow Vehicles
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RE: 2005 Thor Aerolite 26RGSL
Hi and welcome to Travel Trailers. Owned 2 Aerolyte TT previously. Good trailers for the price point and both held up well chasing kids and horses all over the eastern US.
Any 1/2 ton based vehicle with a HD tow package and good V8 (ecoboost counts too) will handle the trailer just fine. Skip those 3/8 ton based vehicles your considering. If your purchasing a new (to you) tow vehicle I would recommend (but not required) just get a nice 3/4 truck and you will never have a problem towing that trailer. We (actually my wife while Ipulled the horse trailer) pulled one with a heavy duty Tahoe tens of thousands of miles. I occasionally pulled it with a 3/4 ton dodge CTD and didn't need WDH with the 3/4 truck.
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hmknightnc
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05/15/13 09:36pm |
Travel Trailers
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RE: pls help me find this rv so we can actually walk inside it
clicky
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hmknightnc
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05/15/13 06:04pm |
Fifth-Wheels
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