| |
Subject |
Author |
Date Posted |
Forum
|
 |
RE: Working Status of Older Solar Panel
Agree with above. The smaller panels don't have enough output to overcharge, so no controller needed, just connect direct to battery. Do check it with a voltmeter, make sure it actually works, I had one fail and actually drained the battery.
|
AlanB
|
11/30/08 08:56am |
Class A Motorhomes
|
|
RE: batteries in parrallel using a bus bar
FYI, Buss is a brand name, the bars you refer to are spelled bus.
Electrically, it won't make any difference. In some industrial applications, batteries are often isolated so they are not hard wired in parallel. This allows the small differences between batteries to not drag down the batteries with slightly higher voltages. It also allows better charging of each battery in case they are not identical. (Fully charged voltage will be slightly different.)
For RV applications, two 6 volts in series are better for the reasons above. If the two 6 volt batts have slightly different terminal voltage, the charge / discharge cycles are not affected.
|
AlanB
|
11/23/08 08:23am |
Tech Issues
|
|
RE: 2400 watt = ? amps
It takes a little more than that to determine amps. What is voltage? Is this for a load or a source?
|
AlanB
|
11/17/08 05:33pm |
Tech Issues
|
|
RE: Unloaded PSI for E Rated Tires?
Everyone keeps saying "Max sidewall pressure", the sidewall of an LT tire does not provide max pressures. What it states is the MINIMUM psi required to support the stated maximum load. You may use higher pressures but it will not increase load rating.
|
AlanB
|
11/15/08 01:47pm |
Tow Vehicles
|
|
RE: how fast
Around 62-65 for us, its the slowest speed that will stay in high gear.
|
AlanB
|
11/11/08 11:37am |
Class A Motorhomes
|
|
RE: Interesting article about Chrysler, sad...
Its a kind of statistical thing. What are the odds of buying a US brand car that will be trouble free for 200K miles? I don't know what the odds are but I bet its not real high. The odds of getting Toyota or Honda thats trouble free for 200K miles are fairly good. (I don't don't own either.)
My last american car was a 76 Cordoba. It was a good car no real problems in the first two years, but it only got 8 - 12 mpg in PHX traffic. Wife was going to school then so I had to sell / trade for more economy. Almost had to give it away and it was less than 3 years old. Bought a mitsubishi built plymouth Arrow, got mid 30 mpg and sold it 3 years later for almost what I paid for it. Never bought american again until 4 years ago.
|
AlanB
|
10/27/08 03:11pm |
Tow Vehicles
|
|
RE: Towing Backwards using a Dolly
It might be the caster of the front end, when going forward, tends to center the steering, backwards, the wheels try to turn full lock. Thats why its so important to lock the steering down. BMW always prides itself on having a near 50/50 weight distribution, most RWD cars are heavier on the front.
A lot of people do it, I won't.
|
AlanB
|
10/27/08 12:58pm |
Dinghy Towing
|
|
RE: Too much voltage on inverter...
BattChief, Suspect voltage is too high until proven otherwise. Try the light bulb test, or better, a good qaulity meter. Question, did this meter show normal voltage before?
|
AlanB
|
10/26/08 11:24am |
Tech Issues
|
|
RE: Too much voltage on inverter...
What kind of voltmeter is your plug in? You said "pegged to the right" which leads me to think its an analog meter. They tend to read MSW output more accuratly than the digital types in the above post. For a quick check, try a 120 volt light bulb.
Digital meters take samples at a periodic rate, then integrate, so they can read too high or too low on a MSW output. The better meters sample at higher rates and have a better integration algorithm so they can read MSW output. Analog meters, have a simple coil that produces a magnetic field against a permanent magnet, and do a very good job of integration naturally, so they tend to read MSW output fairly well. A highly damped meter movement can be very accurate. (I like the old Simpson 260.)
|
AlanB
|
10/26/08 10:59am |
Tech Issues
|
|
RE: How does RV run off 50 and 30 amp too?
TC&Z, Agree with above and add that technically, the 50 amp is still a single phase power. Its actually a split phase. Power in the USA is either single phase or 3 phase. 50Amp power is a lot like two batteries wired in series with the connection that connects the two batteries as "common". Measured from the common, to the other ends of each battery, a meter will read either +6 or -6 with the difference between the two as 12. (For 2 six volt batteries in series.)
|
AlanB
|
10/25/08 11:16am |
Beginning RVing
|
|
RE: Gensets
I was about to reply to BigSkyBob, but gunny beat me to it. I have the onan 7.5 with the kobota 3 cyl diesel and it does vary RPM according to load. Its been very reliable.
|
AlanB
|
10/25/08 10:40am |
Class A Motorhomes
|
|
RE: Readings From Inverter When Using Circuit Tester
Lenny, Most inverters do not generate a pure sine wave. The power from your standard AC outlet is a very clean sine wave and your meter is built in such a way to convert the oscillating voltage into "RMS" values that represent the heating power at a given amperage into a resisitive load. Most (not all) inverters put out a "modified" sine wave which is really a stepped square wave. Most digital meters dont correctly integrate the steps into an accurate voltage reading. That doesn't mean there is anything wrong, but in those cases, I trust an older analog meter more, as its movement naturally averages out the steps. If the resistive heating power from a inverter is the same as a sine wave source, they are considered equal.
Most appliances and electronics work OK with these inverters, some do not. Devices with switched power supplies such as computers can have problems, however my experience is most do work OK. I don't know about the clock running slow, if an old style analog clock, it would run on frequency for time, and most digital clocks have their own time base that should be accurate under any conditions.
|
AlanB
|
10/20/08 01:48pm |
Tech Issues
|
|
RE: Surviving winter in a Holiday Rambler Navigator
Agree with tooltime. I think we still have some room.
|
AlanB
|
10/15/08 08:31pm |
Class A Motorhomes
|
|
RE: Campground with no water hook-up
Once when traveling across country, we camped in a small texas town where a tornado had just passed. Campground was OK but no electricity, no water. Roads were flooded so we could not go on. Glad we carried enough water for the night. Several times over the years, we have found ourselves with only the water we carried.
|
AlanB
|
10/15/08 10:48am |
Class A Motorhomes
|
|
RE: Seinfeld Bus
It worked OK for me, after a ~40 second wait.
|
AlanB
|
10/13/08 08:08pm |
Class A Motorhomes
|
|
RE: Norcold ref
Both gas and electric do the same thing, heat the boiler. That would imply that if the electric heater is operating the refer OK, then the gas flame is not heating the boiler sufficiently. Agree with ScottG, a good cleaning might fix this.
|
AlanB
|
10/03/08 09:06pm |
Travel Trailers
|
|
RE: KVAR Energy Controller Electric Savings ?
As I suspected. I bet 95% of the savings goes away when the motor is loaded up.
Not quite true. The inductive reactance of the motor remains more or less a constant. The resistive portion changes as the motor loads up and eddy currents are produced. PF correction corrects the inductive portion. As the current load increases, the uncorrected current will be a smaller percentage of the total load but it will still be the same current.
The current not corrected goes all the way back to the source and returns, thus doing no work, but still increases total current in the system.
|
AlanB
|
09/22/08 06:43pm |
Tech Issues
|
|
RE: KVAR Energy Controller Electric Savings ?
Correcting the power factor will reduce the current flowing in the wiring and reduce resulting heat. This increases overall efficiency.
http://www.allaboutcircuits.com/vol_2/chpt_11/4.html
|
AlanB
|
09/21/08 07:48pm |
Tech Issues
|
|
RE: Another Battery Question
6 volt batteries come in many sizes. Maybe, with some research, you can find two 6 volt batteries that will use most of your space, and you will get tremendous battery capacity. Same is true for large 12 volt sizes. I don't have the web page handy, but I have seen batteries made for industrial uses that might work for you. As many have said above, 6 volt batteries need to be in even numbers.
|
AlanB
|
09/20/08 11:11am |
Toy Haulers
|
|
RE: Restricting Current Into a Heater?
Correction to above, light dimmers use thyristors, not triacs.
|
AlanB
|
09/19/08 04:37pm |
Tech Issues
|
