richard5933

Meandering Way runs north/south. Just a bit north of my brother is Richardson, but they are in Dallas. Oddly, their kids go to Richardson schools (as did back in high school). The line gets a bit blurry between Dallas and Richardson in that part of town.

We're going to visit family in North Dallas (Beltline Rd & Meandering Rd area) over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend. So far, I've found nothing even near that where we can dry camp or get a campground reservation. Unfortunately my brother's driveway is way to small (and accessed from an alley) for the bus, and he lives on Meandering Way which is to narrow and busy for us to park on the street for more than a few minutes. No Walmart in the area allows overnight, and I've exhausted my resources looking for some place to park. Any suggestions?

That's the set I use - works well unless the fins are severely bent over. In that case, I used a plastic butter knife to gently get them lifted a little so that the comb could get under them.

Hope to see this and other vintage rigs at Gillette.

I bet it's all in the lighting...

I bought a set of plastic fin combs from Amazon. It came with various sizes for different make/model of coils. Just have to be careful and go slowly so no further damage is done. Poke a hole into the tubes and it's all over.

Very cool! We like old iron.

Do you have a good filter between the tank and the pump? One of the things that can caused the pump seals (check valve) to leak is floating debris. It could be sand particles, it could be scaling from hard water, it could be rust particles, etc. The reason I'm going down this path is that perhaps whatever caused your first pump to fail is still there, and possible made worse by changing the pumps when you were moving the pipes/tubes to install the new one. Our coach had very little use when we got it, but the hard water build-up in some places was quite visible and flaked off easily when I replaced our pump. As a side note, I just purchased an extra-long drinking-water-safe hose that will allow me to fill our water tank from the house faucet, since that faucet is fed by softened water. It won't eliminate all problems, but for most smaller trips we don't have to refill and can avoid using hard water. Hoping to minimize hard water scale as much as possible.

Thanks Brett. With that information, I may need to rethink my method for keeping the generator start battery charged.

We've got a 12v house battery bank being charged by a 70-amp Progressive Dynamics charger. Our generator has a separate start battery from the coach but no alternator, so we are using a Xantrex Echo Charger to keep it topped off and to replenish it between starts. The Echo Charger draws from the house system whenever it is being charged and puts out up to 15 amps, which in theory should be enough to keep up with the generator's load while running (just a fuel pump and fuel solenoid.) Today I turned off the main 70-amp charger to test the current draw on our new fridge, and the battery monitoring system started beeping. The warning was because the generator start battery had dropped below 11.2 volts. Last week I was tweaking the idle and settings on the generator and started it multiple times. Probably enough to drop the voltage some, but I just assumed that the Echo Charger would bring it back up. Thinking that perhaps the voltage had dropped low enough that the Echo Charger won't work, I engage the bridge switch to charge the generator battery off the main 70-amp charger to bring its voltage over 12. After the voltage was over 12, I tested and confirmed that the Echo Charger is sending a charge to the generator start battery. Anyone have any experience with the Echo Charger? Is it possible that the low-voltage situation in the generator start battery caused it to not be able to charge? Any other thoughts on how the generator start battery would be at 11.2v after 4 days on the Echo Charger?

This particular model will run on 12vdc or 24vdc as well as 120vac or 240vac. It was designed to run in most vehicles and on both sides of the pond. Not the largest of its type out there, but they and other companies do make them larger.

So, finally at the end of this particular story. The Norcold DE707 worked after the thermostat was replaced. I didn't feel that it was able to keep up when the inside of the bus was hot though, like on days with the sun shining but no a/c running inside. We ordered the Vitrifrigo through Sure Marine Service in Seattle WA. Took about 6 weeks from ordering till it arrived at our door. Total cost with shipping was about $1550. The Vitrifrigo is about 2" narrower than what it's replacing and had a very narrow mounting flange. I had a friend at a local fabrication shop make a flange extension from 1/8" steel - he cut it out on the plasma cutter and I shot a few coats of paint on it so that it blends in with the cabinetry. This allowed the new fridge to slide into the space the old one occupied. Even though it's slightly smaller on the outside, I really think that we ended up with almost as much usable interior space. Plus, this one has a separate freezer that actually freezes. The air intake on the bottom was slightly smaller than the manual recommended, so I added risers to the feet on the bottom of the fridge to raise it up another 1/2" off the floor. That created almost 11 sq. inches additional air intake at the bottom. I also added a small computer fan inside the vent cover to help force fresh air into the cavity for better circulation. I originally hoped to be able to use the Formica door panel from the old fridge to make panels for the new one, but it didn't work out. On the old fridge the Formica was glued to a sheet of 3/16" hardboard to make the door panel, and on the new one there is only room for the Formica itself to slide into the groove. We like the look of the new black fridge enough that we decided to keep it for now. I can always order a sheet of the Formica later on if we decide to add it (yes - they still make that color). I did run the fridge overnight in the barn from 120v to make sure it worked, and it certainly got cold and did it pretty quickly. The whole thing looks like a residential fridge in miniature, right down to the smaller Danfoss compressor, condensing coil, and cooling fan.

Thanks - that was my major reason for the post. I appreciate the travel tips, but not knowing the terrain the safety factor was my larger concern. I used http://flattestroute.com/ and didn't see anything that looked to be more than a 4% grade but thought it best to confirm.

I'd love to see more crews working. That would be far better than miles and miles of orange barrels with no workers in sight anywhere. We've got some projects that have set idle for weeks or months in places, but the the barrels just stay in place and cause problems. Other projects are crawling with workers, but there never seems to be any work being done.

By chance does the manual make mention of a setting to invert or flip the display? Sounds like what happened to me once when the power went out - when the power came back my projector clock was showing a mirror image. Took forever to find the settings to fix it. Another thought - does this happen on shore power or just on inverter? You mentioned a problem with the fridge, so I thought that maybe the power coming from your inverter has become 'dirty' in some way and that the inverter is not producing a sine wave.

Thanks Herman. Wall Drug was on our list as a possible dry camping spot. I had seen their gravel lot listed on Overnightrvparking.com. Didn't realize it was such a tourist attraction, so I'm glad that you pointed that out. Looks like there is more to stop and see than even the three days will allow.

We're going to be heading out I-90 from the Milwaukee area to Gillette in a few weeks along a route through Wisconsin, Minnesota, South Dakota, and Wyoming. We've never been further down that route than Rochester and would love some feedback on the route, places to stop and visit, etc. Our plan is to make three overnight dry camping stops on the way to Gillette, so we'll have plenty of time to stop and do some sight seeing. We really enjoy walking around interesting old towns, doing some antique hunting, and hiking, and any suggestions would be welcome. Right now we're planning to stop near Rochester MN, near Sioux Falls SD, near Wall SD, and then finally arrive in Gillette. Our drive home will probably be done in just two and a half days with just two overnight stops. Since our coach does not have Jake brakes (yet) I'm also curious if there are any stretches of this route that we need to be aware of. Thanks!

Looking forward to it. If all goes well we'll have our new Vitrifrigo installed by the time we leave for WY. Of course, that's if I can find a good way to reduce the opening size by about 1" left and right. Then we can compare and contract the various ways of keeping beer cold.

Well, that got me thinking...maybe I was chasing a problem that didn't really exist. I found this on Wikipedia: AC systems started appearing in the US in the mid–1880s, using higher distribution voltage stepped down via transformers to the same 110 V customer utilization voltage that Edison used. ...Nominal voltages gradually crept upward to 112 V and 115 V, or even 117 V. After WWII the standard voltage in the U.S. became 117 V, but many areas lagged behind even into the 1960s. In 1967 the nominal voltage rose to 120 V My coach was built in 1974 and the conversion done at that time. So, I'm going to assume that by then 120v was the standard. Regardless, things seem to be working better with the increase in voltage/frequency. Thanks for pointing this out though, as it was an interesting read.

UPDATE: After doing lots of research and talking to the guy that services our home's a/c units, here's what I've done... I opened both basement a/c units and did a visual inspection. Fan motors turned freely, and all wire connections were clean and tight. There is no visible damage or leaks anywhere. Used compressed air to blow the condensing coils - both were relatively clean and now even cleaner. The relay contacts were contained inside a plastic housing that didn't seem keen on being opened, so I left it alone. The interior units are really quite clean and all connections were tight. All connections at the generator and at the transfer switch were checked. All were tight. No signs of overheating in sight. Finally, I adjusted the governor on the generator to raise the voltage & hz just a tad. At no load it produces 120v @ 61hz. At moderate-to-full load it read 115-117 volts @ 60hz. Previous readings at load were just under 110 volts and 57-58 hz. The a/c units both ran fine today. Both units blow cold and no short cycling yet. Fingers crossed. Of course, the outside temps are not that bad and only in the upper 70s. I'll be able to better test things in the coming days as the temps are expected to be in the 90s. We're heading to Gillette next month and plan on dry camping three nights on the way, so we'll have a chance to test it out more thoroughly then as well. If you think of something I've missed, please let me know.

I'm assuming that whether 12v or 120v, any well insulated refrigerator will cycle on & off like that. Of course, as the temps go up inside the coach the more it will cycle. If you're going to be at Gillette I'd love to see how you have things set up and compare notes.

To produce that 1.7 amps at 120vac your inverter is consuming about 17 amps at 12vdc. That's over 200 watts. This is the part of the equation that pushed me to a 12vdc compressor fridge. It only consumes 2.6 amps at 12vdc, which is about 31 watts. Mine is a smaller fridge, but there are larger 12vdc units out there and I've yet to see one that consumed as much electricity as a residential fridge. Nova Kool has a 9 cu ft two-door (fridge over freezer) unit that only consumes .2 amps at 12vdc. If one has a large enough battery bank to run the residential and a way to keep the batteries charged, then no problem. However, if the battery bank/inverter is not large enough or lots of dry camping is in the plans, then maybe there are better options than a residential fridge. All depends on how someone is planning to use their RV.

The weather is not as simple as you describe, at least not in Wisconsin. No desert and no high altitude, but the sun can still work its magic on vehicles parked without shade. We were camping a few weeks ago in Black River Falls with temps reaching the mid 90s. There was a nice breeze blowing. Evening temps down to the mid 60s. I could have parked in the sun or the shade. Huge difference between how the coach heats up parked in sun vs. shade. In the sun it would take hours after the temps dropped to a comfortable level for the inside of the coach to be comfortable. Parked in the shade with the windows open the inside coach temps drop as soon as the breeze blows through. We have lots of windows on our 35-foot coach. Even in the middle of winter when temps are frigid, the inside of the coach can be in the 40s or 50s after a few hours in the sun. Greenhouse effect works really well in a vehicle with windows. So, when possible I park in the shade. With our night time temps still comfortable for sleeping the big factor to comfort is keeping the coach from getting baked in the sun all day. With 50 feet of cable I can put the panels in the sun and the coach comfortably in the shade.

Depending on the actual size you need and the capacity of your battery bank, there are refrigerators made that will run on both 12vdc and 120vac. That's what we use in our coach, and when I search for a replacement recently I found that there are still a few made by Norcold that can replace many of their LP units. We went with a Vitrifrigo since they were the only ones making a unit to fit into the cabinetry, but there are at least a few companies making these right now. A good 12vdc fridge uses a compressor instead of the absorption unit, and will sip electricity at around 3 amps or less. Even some of the larger ones only use about 5 amps. They cool well and if the one we're replacing after 44 years is any indication they are reliable. Might be an option if you want to avoid the danger of the LP fridge.

Just for comparison, the two places (commercial truck/coach service facilities) in Milwaukee we take our coach for service both charge about $130/hr for service. However, once I established a relationship with them, they both adjust the rate down to about $90/hr.