Lithium Plus Solar

[chp007kd40]

Update on my Lithium/solar upgrade for my 40 ft. Itasca Horizon, model 40KD motorhome. I have always had battery power issues from day one because of limited battery space in this coach. After conferring with AM Solar in Springfield, Oregon I was caught off guard when they told me I would have to wait 5 to six months for an appointment for 12 volt lithium plus solar because the demand was that great. When I started looking around for other options I was really surprised that in my town, "Advance Power" of Redding, Ca. had a complete different approach which made complete sense to me. Their approach was to go from 52 volts to 110 volts which was more efficient, so here is what I ended up with:

1- API 13KWH LIPO-4 (52 volt) battery with 50a charger and a battery management system

2.  (2) Outback 3648 inverters with Mate-3 system control meter and two TM-2030  TRI-Metric RV (Bogart Eng.) battery monitors

3. (8) Panasonic 325 watt (each) solar panels

There are other products installed to support other systems like a 15 amp Genius to keep the starting batteries charged and an auto start for the generator. Things would have been a little easier if I had a generator that produced 240 volts and 10 KW, but I have a 7500 Onan. They were able to work around this to provide enough efficient power to the charger.

Yes, it is expensive, $28,000.00 dollars, but we really like this motorhome and it appears to be a good investment going forward.

Our first test: Ran the Coleman two ton basement a/c unit (two compressors) for 2hours, 15 minutes without any charing before the BMS auto shut down at 20% remaining battery capacity. We are now in the final testing mode before I take off for 21/2 months through Canada and Alaska. 

I'm sure I am missing something in this upgrade explanation. Greg or Pete at 530-226-0701 can fill in the details

 

 

[rsbilledwards]

Very interesting, wish you were going north next year as that is when we are planning to go. Gotta get this Panther together first.

 

 

Bill

[chp007kd40]

Yeah Bill. Took a lot of courage to go that direction with that cost, but as you know I got pushed to the limit with Camping World and everyone of my batteries were ruined by the time I got it back. I should have paid them the $13,000.00 dollars last July and pulled it out of there. 

One of the reasons Bill I could so much solar on top was because I have no a/c's on top. Another thing I learned from Advance Solar was that my roof surface needed to be cool for efficient panel production of energy so they cleaned the roof twice, installed two coats of white "ceramic" coating and what a difference that made.

I wish you had that beautiful coach up and running also, but come to think about it, I don't know if that C-12 could get you over the hill so you could get out of Colorado. lol.

Know anyone heading up that way have them give me a call. Ruthie, the three weenie dogs and I are leaving around the 16th to 18th of this month. 

[manholt]

Happy you found a solution to your CW fiasco !  I sincerely hope it holds up and no more problems!

Bill.  What all do still need to do?  My brain is not clicking on all cylinders yet, since I was put under for 7.5 hours, late March!  I thought you was ready to roll.

Carl

[chp007kd40]

Thanks Carl. The things we have to go through to get where we are going! 

Does anyone in your communication circles know of someone else spending time in British Columbia/Alaska this summer that might want to tag along since Bill can't go? We are just now finishing the repairs to my coach that C/W did wrong. The last part, if I have time to do is have a shop strip the entire rear cap of clear coat and sand out the hundreds of particles of "dust" embedded in the paint. The clear coat has sags, heavy looking spots and one pencil size hole under the ladder. Depending on how rough the two months in Alaska will be on it I might just leave it alone till I return, except that it is SOO noticeable.

Second question for you and Bill. The video of the Wynn's windshield with the hole in it from a rock from a passing logging truck is a concern. Do you know if this "Clear-Plex" film on the outside of the windshield would have deflected this rather large rock?

David

 

[rsbilledwards]

D,

As far as the rock goes, I doubt it. It would have slowed it down is about all. Windshield glass is a safety glass with a sheet of high quality plastic in the middle already. 

Here is what I would do with the cap paint issues. Let it be, for now and let it cure completely. It will sand much easier. If not fully cured it will, as sanded, heat up and then gum up your paper and it will be a much slower process. Prior to sanding the sags do this...you do it, not difficult, take a black magic marker and make a line on each side of the sag full length. This is a wood workers trick. Before you start buy some single edge razor blades. Un-sheath the blade, you are going to use it as a scraper. Use both index fingers and both thumbs to support it until you get the hang of it Hold as vertical as you can while scraping down the length of the sags. The sag is gone  when you feather it into the black lines on either side. Trust me you will not mess anything up worse than it is now. It will take a bit but you will be amazed at how quickly it will go as you get the hang of it, be patient . Call me if you wish.  What is the name of the ceramic coating which was used on the roof??

OK the other questions, is the dirt in the color coat or the clear coat? If in the color coat a headache, if in the clear maybe not so bad. I have to tell you that I painted the whole lower portion of the Zanzibar coach, about 30 inches tall in the parking lot of my shop on 4 different a breezey days and had virtually no dust particulate!! I only sanded and polished two spots not from dirt but for a feathered edge. There were quite a few amazed people, other owners of the garage units, that it could be so clean. It was every bit as clean as the OEM paint work.. It looked so good that I wheel polished the entire rest of the coach and now it really looks amazing and even better after a coat of wax. Janet says let's keep it, it's so pretty. I must continue with the sale of it as I certainly do not need two of these things...they are not Porsches.

 

Carl,

As for ready to roll hardly!!  You two will get a kick out of this. The basement is torn apart...old sewer leak, repaired. I had to disassemble the water bay face plate assembly to access.  I Chloroxed the rear floor all the way across 3 times, scrapped the glue and now new carpet, all of it. Extensive repositioning of the primary electrical components, transfer switch, inverter, panel with all tank modules, and assorted wiring to clean up a real OEM assembly mess. I put the transfer switch and module board on the ceiling, easy to work on if needed. Discovered none of the cargo doors were sealing. Some of them missing the seal by an 1/8th on an inch, so adjustments made to all but hose on the slide out. All of the stainless sills on the basement floor on which the cargo doors seal across the bottom on, removed. The urethane sealant/adhesive for stainless trim/sill to the frame removed, frame work to be cleaned and painted and then the stainless can go back on. The carpet will go back in after a couple coats of Kilz. I hope to get the first coat on yet tonight. One section of the ply wood floor at edge delaminating so loaded it with tightbond glue and clamped it up. It looks good now.

 I have the gray water tank out for the sewer cleanup and have repositioned it 6 inches further in toward the back of the water bay. It was actually a piece of cake as none of the fittings are actually permanently glued together so repositioning the piping easy. At the same time I am fitting all of the solar electronics on that back wall in front of the rt rear wheels. I fab'ed a shelf bracket on which to place the new Magnum pure sine wave inverter that positions it up on the outside of the right frame rail above the solar stuff. It hung down into the cargo bay below the frame rails prior to this clean up. I replaced all the vent caps and sealed the piping into the coach since it had never been done.

I removed the manual Wineguard antenna and the old in motion dome In favor of a Traveler SK SWM 3 for Direct TV. It is not yet installed. I will position it well to the left of center so as to allow for two solar panels on its right. I will install a total of 6, 4 of which were on the Z at one time not long ago. I also have a WiFi Ranger set up to install. I have done this before to so a quick and easy thing to do now. The first thing I did was scrub the roof white and clean and will give it a quickie before mounting all the goodies.

I have to do a coolant change and related filter. The oil and filters and brake fluid flush were done prior to bringing it back to Colorado.  I have synthetic for the trans and the diff as well. 

The wheels need a major polish as I doubt they have ever been done, pretty sorry looking. So really not too much to do for another of the just joined the ranks of officially old guys group, well only 4 months till my second year in the group.

Where is Herman when you need him?

 

Tired Bill Edwards

[hermanmullins]

So Bill, what are you going to do with the rest of your day?

Herman

Happy 4th.!

[manholt]

"Rest of the day"?  WOW !  Let me know when you start a Custom Coach Business...I'll invest !   Looking forward to seeing the finished product.  1999 aka 2016 !

David.  Your 2 problems will be flying rock and dust, depending on where you go in Alaska !  Know people who has gone round trip and nothing happened, others, not so lucky !   

Happy and safe 4th.

 

Carl

[rsbilledwards]

You guys get up and hour earlier so yes Happy fourth to you as well. Well Carl I have the Zanzibar for sale and on the Safari International. org site if you know any one looking. Same sort of deal many up dates and upgrades in favor of this coach. Z is a Knock out old coach and only 44K on it.

I did get the floor painted last night on the Panther like I said. One thing I failed to mention or should is that the inside of the Panther is like it just came off the showroom floor, unbelievable.

Carl,  I don't know if you knew but I owned an nationally known bodyshop oriented toward the restoration side specializing in Porsches. It is just what I do.

Happy 4th to you David and your girl. Again wow on the solar.

 

Bill Edwards

 

 

 

[manholt]

Bill.  I think you and I are on the same time zone...I'm in NM. 70 miles due W of Roswell, the land of UFO's !   I knew about the restoration of Porsche, but that's a long stretch to a RV !!!!    No matter, your doing a h&*%l of a good job and a lot more than I'm capable off !

 

Carl

[manholt]

Bill.  Just looked at the photo bucket and write up on your 01'.  That's the cleanest 15 year old/young coach I have ever seen! 

In 91', Grand Cayman, I was one day away from my Dive Master ticket...all the Instructors left, the night before for Desert Storm!   Never had time to follow up...PADI.  Never saw any off them again and I lived there until I sold the house on East End in 98'.  I had it built on 6ac. in '83!

 

Carl

[rsbilledwards]

Carl, Maybe before you head back home you should make a little loop trip to Denver area and spend a couple days. There is plenty of room here in the trees to park, easy in and easy out, elevation 8050. Yes it is a very nice coach and Wish some one would make a move. It is a lot of coach for the buck and no blue sky and not all of the hard costs. It has virtually all of the available listed options as well.  We will leave here September first for the East for a 6 week trip. Gotta find that oak.

 

Bill Edwards

[chp007kd40]

Hi Bill and to others who replied

Roof Coating----NOT ALL ARE CREATED EQUAL, her is one that works

Son-shield ceramic elastomeric roof coating. Remains elastic in very cold temperatures Bill. You can put this on roofs that are not so good shape also (house, garage, trailer, motorhomes etc.) but some roofs will need Flextac primer along with a roof cloth like polyester, fiberglass. My understanding about elastomeric paints, should not be used on surfaces that need to breathe or release moisture so your fiberglass coach roof is a good roof for this product.

The only place I know to get this product is Advance: Solar, Hydro, Wind Power, Inc., 843 N. Market St., Redding, Ca. 530-226-0701, fax 530-226-0704 Pete or Greg. I have given them permission to talk to all of you regarding my motorhome upgrade. One thing I did different that might be of interest to some is that my set-up has a dual purpose. I wanted one system that would provide power to my (although it be partial) home and motorhome. That happens when I plug my 50 amp cord into my home pedestal and send the power back into my RV Garage/ofc. and then to my home when the "electrical grid" is down. They tell me that is going to happen some day. This same 50 amp cord is then plugged back into my lithium/solar system in my motorhome whereas most cords just set there coiled up in the service bay.

I have an order into this company for my commercial building.  The price for this 5 gal. bucket was $260.00. You might want to be a little patient when you call because Advance Power is not equipped to handle large volume of calls.

I will update all of you as I go through this shake-down process over the next two weeks. I got my first draft of the lawsuit against C/W so that is what I'm working on today.

David

[jleamont]

Bill, now we definitely need to meet up, I have to see this for myself. I'm making my way around this coach also. 

[rsbilledwards]

I won't tell Janet this, but keep your fingers crossed that I get it all back together by the time the test drive comes around. I got the floor painted two coats and most of the stink is gone. The carpet is cut and ready to install. I decided that it all needs to go when painting and I pulled the bottom up on the sides for clearance, you could see where the moisture had wicked up about 3 inches. Some people and their children use air fresheners to solve problems!!

We are thinking that we may make this big loop., but any suggestions would be appreciated as to what we should see in the state. Janet's dad was reared in Peach Bottom and it is likely that we will visit there. she had an aunt and uncle that lived there for years as well.

J,  I know I have read all the posts I can find on what you have done as well. David the original poster on this thread has his eyes wide open on all of this too. He is quite excited to have this opportunity to post on the solar never expecting to meet up with a group like this. Have spoken with him several times on the phone and he's like a kid and old like me but mentally very young and sharp. Speaking with him you would never guess. Yes this is all a real Hoot!

Thanks David

 

Bill Edwards