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thezafts

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Posts posted by thezafts


  1. Been gone too long!

    we have Winegard Travler Dish sat on the roof and Hopper 1?, first one.

    anything recorded at home comes with the Hopper to the RV..  the dongle allows us to record any over the air if for some reason it is not on sat.  Can watch one channel while recording 2 other channels.

    looking into Hopper3, will have to modify the sat dish, not hard.


  2. What are you asking for?

     If you are there with a rally group they usually have many events scheduled.  If you are there just for the parade, on your own, did you get your grandstand seats a year ago? There are many events scheduled during that period, check with Tournament of Roses.

    if you are asking for campgrounds there not any within 20 miles of South Pasadena and they are probably booked solid for the New Year period. 


  3. If the furnace use of battery power is the main issue, why not use a Big Buddy or a Wave propane heater that does not need any electricity?

    Also change all high use lights to LED bulbs.

    Then to re charge the batteries, besides generator, there is solar.  All he needs a is panel, say 200 watts about $200, solar charge controller, about $150, and some cables.  In good sun that would re charge the 80ah used in about 8 hours.  He still has the generator for bad days and additional charging.

    Use the generator to run any 110 volt appliances.  If he wants to use an inverter for110 volt devices then the solar system will probably need to be increased in size.


  4. Some residential refers need pure sign wave inverter, some will run on cheaper modified sign wave inverter.

    if a small residential like 10.7 cf Whirlpool, it should run on MSW inverter, mine does, and takes about 100 ah for overnight.  Your 4 GC batteries will supply that at 50% stare of charge. Now they need to be changed by solar, generator or driving.  Assumed no shore power. If you are connected to shore power most of the time, residential is much less expensive way, unless you need major cabinet work.

    You need to shop for what will fit in your space. For my install I just had to trim off 1/2” on both sides.


  5. If it is hot enough to run the a/c, you are probably in the desert, very few trees there, so may have to run the gen anyway.

    If you don’t need the a/c, you are probably at a high altitude where it is cooler, and you may be in the shade, so portables are better.

    All depends!!!

     


  6. MPPT controller maximizes your ouput for the battery, and will provide close to 100% of your panel output. With a regular controller you may get only about 70% . Complicated, read it here: https://www.solar-electric.com/learning-center/batteries-and-charging/mppt-solar-charge-controllers.html

    All panels plug together very easy, that is just sales hype by Zamp. 

    Your 4 batteries will give you about 200 amp hours, but to prolong battery life you want to use up to 50% or 100 AH. Add up all your devices that use 12volts and see how close it comes to 100 AH. Unless you have some unusual power requirement you should easily last overnight on batteries and will be able to recharge to 100% by noon the next day, with good sunshine. 

    You should add a battery monitor, it will tell how much you are using, how much going back in, state of charge and other things. A simple one is Vitron BMV 700, about $150,


  7. You should be able to buy solar panels for about $1.00/watt or less.  I just added a 250 watt panel for $250.

    Once your first panel is installed it should cost very little for additional installation, all you do is connect the new panels to the existing, no wires to run to the batteries, unless the initial installer used under size wire.  

    Are you connecting the panels in series or parallel?  Is your controller MPPT? You might want to insatall a battery monitor to see how your  level of charge and others info. 


  8. Not a system, a 250 watt Canadian Solar panel 2 years ago, with a  Vitron mppt 100/30 controller and a Vitron 700 battery monitor.

    Last month added a Centro Solar 260 watt panel, no Canadian locally, when I installed the refer, close match.

    I have room to add a 3rd panel, 29' long coach, but we are not hard core boondockers.  Also have 4 golf cart batteries.

    Will see how we do this year.

    Harry


  9. OK, the Whirlpool is installed, used for 10 days plugged in and 5 days at Quartzsite boondocking.

    Ther refer uses 80 aH per day, average, when dry camping we use about 100 aH total per day. In January sun my 500 watts of solar has the batteries at 100% state of charge by 3 pm.  Yes, on cloudy days will have to run the generator.

    Freezer stays at 3*, refer at 37*, 40% more capacity in same space, works on 1500 watt MSW inverter, cost for solar and refer $1800.  New Nocold about $2300.

    Harry


  10. On 12/14/2017 at 8:31 PM, manholt said:

    Go to any OTR truck stop that sells tires, get the registration form, back date it with all the info including the DOT an mail it in! :) End story.

    Manholt, are you 80 years old, are you ready to crawl under your coach to get the DOT numbers that your Tire dealer failed to provide you?

    Are you ready to remove the outer duals because the dealer installed the inner with the codes facing in?

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