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What did you do to your RV today?

I have a 22 year old coach. It has a Norcold electric/propane fridge. Same with the water heater. I can't run the AC without being plugged in or using the generator.

Camping on the property last month pic
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Beefed up the trailer hitch today on the MH. Currently rated for 10k towing & 1k tongue weight. My new setup is 11k and 1400 tongue weight. IMO a shortfall on most trailer hitches is the torsional load on the single spreader bar. So adding an additional spreader bar in front of the current bar and tying them together eliminates the torsional load. Now it only has a vertical load and puts any torsional load on the added spreader bar.

I didn’t snap any pics and it’s back in the yard. Incoming pic tomorrow of the MH and trailer.
 
white-rhino said:
I am wanting to understand this stuff better. I have to admit, for as good as I am mechanically, this solar stuff confuses the shit out of me. What I need, how to do it, how to integrate it, all intimidate me. I see people posting that you need to spend thousands of $$ and here you are saying you are really happy with about $1k investment.

Our new motorhome has a residential fridge and since we dry camp a lot, I'm not sure how it's gonna work out. On our last outing, the batteries were around 12.6v when we went to bed and were at 11.9v when we got up. So it survived the night but that was not running the furnace, which will be a problem in the spring/fall which is when we camp the most. Our system has an AGS feature but I'm not looking forward to the genny starting in the middle of the night. That said, solar will be no help in the middle of the night so we might need more/better batteries. It already has 4 but I honestly don't know what type they are. (I haven't had the time to dig into it)

Add in that we dry camp under heavily leafed Oaks, Maples and pines, a roof mounted solar system may not help me much at all. As I type this, it makes me think we are probably just gonna need to rely on the genny.
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I don't mount my panels to the roof, due to the trees and a cover, they'd be useless often.

So I've got smaller 100w panels and just set them south on the bumper or side as need be for where I'm at. I've got plenty of wire length to be away from the rv as well.

The other advantage is it is easy to match the panel inclination, so you get better output instead of being flat on the roof.

I'd you want to get fancy and rig up some mounts, it'd be even better.

There's lots of options, but having enough battery to survive the night is important 11.6 v in the morning isn't great
 
rockdog57 said:
Okay, you gonna build your own trails. Then wheel em?
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We have recreation property where we dry camp. Lots of wood to move, some grass to mow and generally fuck around with the tractor.
Also a local ORV park 7 miles away and miles and miles of state forest and seasonal roads.

I only get 1 bar of cell service (occasionally) so I will post more pics if we go into town for ice cream or when we get home.

RE the actual on topic of this thread, everything towed great. Scaled it with a full tank of fuel and water and we are just over 40,000#. Weights are just about what I had hoped for.

We had heavy 20 mph headwinds and at 63-65 we were right about 8 mpg. So I am hoping to be around 9 on average. 360 hp / 800 ft# is kinda gutless but gets the job done with the mild hills we have in MI.
 
If you ever want more than one bar, I suggest the WeBoost Destination signal booster. I've had one for about two years now for camping on my property. Couldn't get enough service to text or call before I got it, now I can stream movies.

Destination RV Cell Phone Signal Booster - weBoost

With a telescoping directional antenna and powerful booster, RVers experience stronger cell signal when parked with the Destination RV.
www.weboost.com
 
BDK said:
Bad idea. I'm actually glad two of them stopped working because it saved my roof. If I had left them on there it would have cooked the fiberglass. The roof is still solid, but it's discolored
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I would have never thought about that. I'll stick with what I have.

BDK said:
I replaced them with two HQST 190 watt panels. I highly recommend them. They are the same panels as Renogy 200 watt panels. They keep my four AGM series 2 golf cart batteries charged and I mostly dry camp. I use quite a bit of power (40" flat screen, streaming movies, 540 watt surround sound system, cell phone signal booster, Xantrex 3000 watt inverter/charger, etc.) and they are charged back up by 10 AM. Having two larger panels also gives me more room up on the roof to walk around.
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I've got 3 of the 200w renogy panels on it. Don't need that much usually. But I figured a lot of times we are in the trees and don't get much sunlight so the extra panel or two might help in those situations. We only have one AGM in it right now, it gets us through the night as it just needs to run the fridge usually. And if we are out in the sun those panels have the batteries back to floating in a couple hours.

I've been wanting to buy a battleborn lithum battery or two for it, but havent been able to cough up that much coin. And still worry about the whole lithium battery fire stories. I've got a victron controller thats for lithium batteries, along with the battery temp sensor...but thers's still horror stories out there about them.
 
Shouldn't be horror stories about lithium iron phosphate lifepo4 regarding fires. The mail doesn't even have them as hazmat.

Other types of lithium are fire hazards though
 
New solar panel. I kept killing batteries and didn’t understand why untilmy 3.46 amp panel was actually putting out 1.4 amps at the peak hours. Definitely not enough to keep up.

Previously I only had cheap solar charge controllers. I didn’t know how to test the amperage from the solar panel. Even when I tested the Renogy it was telling me 5 milliamps (yes I plugged it into the 10A port and saw 0.000). Now the charge controller actually showed a float charge, and everything works.


New panel from Renogy.
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New panel right after being installed.

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October 2023. No amps at 11:30am.

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Battery losing charge just sitting in the yard.
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Oh and be careful ordering from Amazon USED category. This is what they said was as good as new but minor package damage. Someone used a UPS mailer to patch the hole from the inside.
I instantly asked for a refund, dropped it at UPS and they’ve had it a few days. I’m still waiting for my refund. At least the new replacement panel showed up fast.
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Pulled the differential out again for the new abs ring



Checked every tooth, hand filed to within 4 thou of the lowest



Also about 5 thou was as low as I could get the ring gear.


Still a failure above 45 mph. Better than it was before, but not better enough to justify going from 10 to 4 runout.

Done messing with it anyways. Did what I could to add as much carrier preload as I could, it's whatever it is now. Should be fine for 10k miles, that's a pretty low bar anyways :rasta:

Drove around town, the old wheel bearing squeak seems to be gone, 1 of 2 rear brakes adjusted, the other needs taken apart to see inside. 3 of 4 doing well is better than its been in a long while :smokin:
 
shitboxvan build, scored some free church van seats that match the fronts. Need to figure out how to do the floors (insulation and cargo track) before bolting it down.

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Fixed my propane, again.

The solenoid is pulling 1.2 amps, the PWM controller I had installed to turn it down is shorted. Bypassed that so it's just switch, circuit breaker, detector and solenoid now.

Back on the list for suture things, remove propane solenoid.
 
Provience said:
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Fixed my propane, again.

The solenoid is pulling 1.2 amps, the PWM controller I had installed to turn it down is shorted. Bypassed that so it's just switch, circuit breaker, detector and solenoid now.

Back on the list for suture things, remove propane solenoid.
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If you really want the on/off feature those motorized ball valves have been working perfectly on my air compressor and my buddies. Not sure if they leak any but they have been really reliable.

Motorized Ball Valve- 1/4" Stainless Steel Ball Valve with Full Port, 9-24V AC/DC and 2 Wire Auto Return Setup by U.S. Solid Amazon.com
 
Yeah I remember talking about those before I went down the PWM road.

I'm going to just go hog wild and run it straight piped. Shut it off with the hand valve outside when not going anywhere, open it up and leave it open for the duration of a trip.
 
Provience said:
Yeah I remember talking about those before I went down the PWM road.

I'm going to just go hog wild and run it straight piped. Shut it off with the hand valve outside when not going anywhere, open it up and leave it open for the duration of a trip.
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Knock on wood but that has worked fine on my trailer. It must have some sort of leak because if i close the valve I have to reprime the line to get the fridge to work. Not a real issue though if using often.
 
As per usual I'm doing a full rebuild on my trailer 2 weeks before leaving for the big trip...

Lifepo4 batteries 2x 100ah, total re organization of the electronics/water bay
12v fan
Starlink dc conversion with indoor/outdoor switches.
New tail lights
Replace 7 pin cord
:homer:


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CarterKraft said:
As per usual I'm doing a full rebuild on my trailer 2 weeks before leaving for the big trip...

Lifepo4 batteries 2x 100ah, total re organization of the electronics/water bay
12v fan
Starlink dc conversion with indoor/outdoor switches.
New tail lights
Replace 7 pin cord
:homer:


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If you didn't hvlave the need from the trip, nothing would ever get fixed :laughing:
 
CarterKraft said:
Pretty cool ain't it, infinity energy, feels :rainbow: and :mr-t:all at the same time:idea:
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So far for 2.5 weeks, ran the generator for a little bit for the 115v vacuum for some cleaning, that's been it. Before with just the 1 panel, every 3 days had to top off with generator or running engine.

Granted, not heavy power users but still nice :grinpimp:
 
white-rhino said:
I’m an idiot. Do you just set them loose in the sun & clip to your battery terminals?
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I've got the charge controller mounted in my coach with a set of wires and open connectors under the step, carry the panels and a 25 or 50 roll of duplex wire.

Approximate the angle/latitude to match the sun, angle one a touch east and the other a touch west of south and enjoy.

Getting close to perpendicular to the sun angle increases per panel performance, as opposed to flat mounted on roof. Also helps if I'm parked in a shady spot or have the RV cover on and want to use a panel as a tender
 
Provience said:
I've got the charge controller mounted in my coach with a set of wires and open connectors under the step, carry the panels and a 25 or 50 roll of duplex wire.

Approximate the angle/latitude to match the sun, angle one a touch east and the other a touch west of south and enjoy.

Getting close to perpendicular to the sun angle increases per panel performance, as opposed to flat mounted on roof. Also helps if I'm parked in a shady spot or have the RV cover on and want to use a panel as a tender
Click to expand...
When we camp at our rec property we are under the trees but it's very open about 50 ft away. This would be perfect for me. Link?
 
Getting the lifepo4 conversion done and noticed the HVAC wasn't bringing the temp down like I thought it should... Further inspection shows it's only pulling 8-9 amps not 15 and air is not "cold".

Fuck me 7 days out ...
Ordered some Supco taps and a new Furion unit, if I can't fix it I'm gonna swap it out :mad3:
 
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