RE: Diesel Cheaper than Gas!
Diesel was always less when I was a kid. I remember because I thought the diesel guys were lucky that they were still paying $0.99/gal when I was paying $1.03/gal. I never paid enough attention to notice when it switched from being cheaper to being more expensive.
RE: I did it, I'm officially in the 6V club now!
Well, back from our first run. The good news is that the system worked. The bad news is that I can't give you all an exact idea of how well they performed because I was unable to drain them enough for it to show up on my gauge!
Due to horrible weather, we decided to leave early Saturday morning rather than when my wife got home from work Friday night. (I'm a Realtor, so my schedule's pretty flexible these days ;)) After a day of eating Basque food, watching sheep shearing, sheep dog trials, bag pipers, exploring the 4WD capabilities of a heavily loaded dually on packed muddy wet snow (slippery!), and viewing tree carvings, we pulled into the local ski resort parking lot where some folks managing an upcoming Jazz festival were kind enough to let us park for the night.
We successfully ran the coffee pot(800W) and the microwave(600W-1000W) off of the 1500W inverter. With the old batteries, the microwave would trip the alarm on the inverter on startup and the coffee pot would cause the low voltage alarm to sound. Under the new system, the low voltage alarm still went off on the inverter, but it was quieter and the coffee brewed much faster. The microwave behavior was odd. It started with no complaints, but the food was cooking much slower than I expected it to even when taking into account that we were on the 600W setting. I plugged in the Honda and fired it up and the microwave roared to life and dinner was done in minutes. I guess I need to go back to microwave school to find out why I didn't have an alarm there.
Since it was already running, we let the Honda run until it was time to let the dogs out one last time for the night. It was cold and snowy and windy so I wanted to stay indoors where I had mini-pizzas, Sapporo beer, and Dan in Real Life on TV.
When we go skiing, I promise to use them longer to see what happens.
P.S. For those of you living in Southern Idaho, seeing 1500 sheep herded through downtown Ketchum is pretty cool. The sheep decided to change course halfway through town and detoured up a side street which made for an interesting parade route this year!
RE: I did it, I'm officially in the 6V club now!
The 6V golf cart batteries I just got at Costco say 220 amp hours on them. The old 12V batteries (group 27's which I also bought there) stated 115 amp hours. I do realize that I do not have 440 amp hours of capacity when using them in a 12V configuration.
It was interesting to note what WpgTech said about the plates. The new batteries were SIGNIFICANTLY heavier than my other ones which makes sense based on the information provided.
I got 5 years out of the 2 12V batts I had before. They undoubtedly would have lasted longer had they not run dry. I am still trying to figure out what happened. I check the water levels frequently and they rarely need water. I found a crimped connection that had come loose and my theory is that this somehow "confused" the converter into applying full charging current which boiled them dry. The camper had only been plugged in for a week of camping and two days of charging since the last time I had checked them. When the batteries wouldn't hold a charge, I looked again and they were gone.
RE: Wow! Stable Loads from Torklift
Ive got the Energy Suspension pads on my F350.Those are the pads I was planning on getting. They have a lot of applications and several size options. What length did you get?
...Air bags did not help at all in fact they made the sway worse with each pound of inflation.
The money I spent having them installed on my '06 Dodge 3500 dually was wasted. The stock rear suspension for all my applications was and is more than sufficient. So before spending the money on air bags please insure that you understand what they are for and what they will do and not do.
Seems to me that you only need them if your loaded weight is so heavy that the rear of your truck sinks under the weight and thus raising your front end. Air bags will level that load out. If your overloads are slightly engaged under a full load you might want to use air bags to lift that load up a little off the overloads.
But air bags will not stabilize or remove side to side sway. That became clear to me when a member of this board reminded me that when inflated the rear end of the truck is basically riding on top of two beach balls......because of that, sway will always be present.
That was my case........every time I turned a corner or had any change of weight balance the sway was miserable. Even deflating the airbags did not help as still my overloads were not being engaged...You are right when you state that a person needs to understand what they can and cannot do. They are not intended to maintain the empty height of the truck. In order to do that, one has to overinflate the bags which will give you the ride that you experienced.
Most one-ton trucks ride a couple of inches high in the rear. When they are carrying a heavy load, they will drop until the overloads engage. At this point, the truck should basically stop going down. If a vehicle sags too far, air bags are intended to raise the truck bag up to the point that the overload springs begin to engage again.
My truck gives an extremely stable ride when the bump stops just begin to touch the springs. I achieve this with about 50psi in the bags. If I am loaded for a long trip with full water, food, cloths, firewood, and the boat, I may go up to 65. If I air them up to 100, I feel like I'm in a boat on the high seas!
I go back and forth between whether or not I will go with springs or bags on my next truck, since I have had both. I believe that upgrading the springs give a more stable ride. However, I like being able to level my camper at camp sites.
For what it's worth, the weight on my front axle is exactly the same with or without my camper.
RE: I did it, I'm officially in the 6V club now!
I havent priced them lately, but at sams bout 10 years ago I payed 75 each and it was a good dealThey've gone up 99 cents. I paid $75.99 a piece.
RE: Wow! Stable Loads from Torklift
What other options for me are there if my '97 F250 Heavy Duty doesnt have the factory over load spring setup installed? My rear end supension has the factory installed rubber bumper installed. I do have the Firestone air bag kit installed, and my truck does have the factory front leaf springs. Are overload springs very hard to install if I went that route?
Thanks,
KAThere are several aftermarket overload springs available. I think Hellwig makes one that is really popular. They simply bolt on top of your existing springs. You would probably have to remove your air bags and then re-install them after the springs were in. In the past, I have always gone to a local suspension shop and just had them install some for me. I have never paid more then $150 for a set although the last pair I bought was 5 years ago. I am surprised that a 3/4 ton truck doesn't have overloads.
RE: I did it, I'm officially in the 6V club now!
When is the trial camp out? What are you charging them with?
Welcome to the Costco golf club. :)My first outing is actually tomorrow! We are going to the Sun Valley/Ketchum area for the annual Trailing of the Sheep Festival. I am charging them using the camper's converter and the truck's charging system. We will most likely be camping on BLM or Forest Service land so I will be bringing my Honda EU2000 on this trip just in case things don't go as planned.
RE: Exteme TC'ing in a dually?
I have experienced a rock jammed in between the duals first hand on my Magruder Corridor trip.I forgot you did the Magruder Corridor. I haven't done that route, but that looks to be about as rough as anything I've done in mine. Your Dodge is higher and shorter than my Chevy so you should have a better time of clearing obstacles than I do.
I did it, I'm officially in the 6V club now!
My dual group 27 12V batteries died (read my other thread about drying my batteries out) so I investigated the switch to dual 6V's.
I went to Costco to price batteries and the 12V's I had were $71.99 while 6V Golf cart batteries were $75.99. I know many people swear by Trojan T-105's, but they ran around $150 a piece and I just could justify double the price.
I measured the dimensions to make sure they would fit in my battery box, and they did so I went back and bought 'em. I used SMH quick connectors for my batteries so "re-wiring" was simply a matter of putting the positive and negative leads together in separate connectors and then making a bridge between the two batteries.
When I installed my 2nd battery years ago, I ran a second set of 6ga wires. When I converted, I made sure that my power is still running through both wires. My connector from the battery terminal to the quick connector is two 6 ga wires, and the bridge is also dual 6's. I keep using two six gauge wires because connectors and wire are more readily available in that size.
Before I even gave them their first charge, my battery indicator was showing Good/Full, which is something that my old batteries only gave me on their best day.
RE: Awning installation?
I too have an awning sitting on the side of my house with no clear picture of how to put it on my camper. Mine is a 10 footer and is pretty heavy.
RE: Exteme TC'ing in a dually?
My favorite truck for pulling a rock out was by looping your tow strap around the rock and then sticking the other end under your front wheel. When you back up, the rock will just pop out.
RE: Check Local Fuel Prices
The temperature map really shows you the impact of taxes. The folks in Georgia are getting nailed.
If you zoom in far enough, it gives it to you by zip code!
RE: Have you ever had or heard of a TearDrop Camper?
a dealer bought four 6 years ago, this was in Boise Id, and I think he still has all four of them. they don't sell too well in that town.If you remember which dealer or anything about them, I'd be happy to swing by and see if they are still there.
BTW- Do you mean that campers don't sell well here or just that brand?
RE: Gas prices dropping like lead balloon in the US
I paid $3.50 at Costco the other day, down from $4.19 at the highest this summer. I don't hear that on the news. In fact, the news last night was that Idaho gas prices are still higher than the national average. That may be true, but they never mention the good stuff too.
RE: I let my battery water get low. Are they toast?
To the OP... Question.. Did they come back?Nope, looks two posts up for the details. I went to Costco today and found that two golf cart batteries are only $8 more total. I measured them and the opening to my battery box and they will fit! I am going to call around for prices on Trojan batts tomorrow.
RE: I let my battery water get low. Are they toast?
It's official, they're toast.
I plugged the camper in and let them charge for two days. At the end of that time, the converter was putting out 13.1 volts. I unplugged the camper and turned on one of the florescent lights for two hours to dissipate any static charge on the batteries. When I checked them, they measured 12.2 volts. Not a good sign so since a fully charged battery should read 12.6+.
I have spent several night running our fantastic vent all night to regulate temperature in the summer so I thought this should be a good test. I left one florescent light on and put the fan on medium speed. I figured that if it could run this, and still have a decent charge in the morning, I should be able to run the furnace and CPAP for two nights which is what I need. I went out this morning and the light was off, the fan was barely moving, and the batteries read 3.5V.
To quote Adam Sandler from Punch Drunk Love, "That settles that."
Now the ever popular question, do I go with two 6V's, or two 12V's????
RE: Oregon Cascades trip report
We were at Crater Lake in early September. It's true, words really can't describe how beautiful it is there. We took the hike down the side of the crater and went on the 2 hour boat ride around the lake. It is definately worth the effort of the hike, about 20 minutes down and 35 to 40 minutes back up. I'd recommend this trip to anyone, it is really amazing there.
RichDid you ask how they got the boat down there?
RE: How to charge a battery as I'm driving?
I'm with Matthew_B. It's possible that your camper doesn't have a converter at all. Our first camper had no battery. I would charge mine up before we left home and set it in the bed after I loaded the camper. I had a short pig tail ran to where the battery sat. It never occurred to me to connect it to the truck for charging!
A person could simply use a typical relay/isolator setup and store the battery in the bed. Just remember to disconnect the battery before unloading it! (You'll only forget once!)
