Snook, Solitude, and Solar

So this last week I took the Beast down to Snook, Texas to do the Solar work at my Uncle's farm. Since he was away on vacation, it was pretty much The Beast, some donkeys, a dog named Fritz, and myself.

First things first, I needed water. I didn't feel like driving the 200 miles with the extra 800 lbs of aqua in my tank.

Filling the 100 gallon tank up water

The front yard.

Since this was taking forever, I took some pictures of where I would be doing my working and sleeping the next few days.

Pretty sure I'm the first one to ever sleep in the workshop

Nestled in among the tractors and tools

Had to unfurl this mighty satellite one more time before removing it to make room.  As well as the HD antenna behind it and the fan vent to the back right.

Over the next few days, my cousin Jason and I got to work on the solar install. We managed to get most of the panels installed before the weekend hit and he had to run off to some fairs and such showing some old tractors. But we did finish the seven hardest to place ones, leaving just a few for me to finish.

First 4 panels on front glued and screwed on

Framework for 2 of the panels in the back right

I took to the road back to Plano Texas early Saturday morning and subjected the build to a 80 mph wind test on I-45. Happy to report that none of the panels blew off! I stopped and checked at a couple rest areas along the way to make sure nothing was amiss as well.

This Sunday I completed the Solar install, building a platform for one panel in which the cords all connect and go down into the electronics cabinet below. I also hooked up five of the panels to test out the supply to the batteries. They were putting in about 5 amps at 95+ volts.  Once I connect the second set, it should be up to about 10 amps. I may have to juggle this around a bit to optimize my amps to the batteries.
The OCD among you might want to just ignore the panel in the lower left...there was just no other way.

Late today some MC4 connectors I had ordered arrived which allowed me to create the cables I needed to connect the 2nd set of five panels. Unfortunately the sun had gone down so I had no way of testing if they were working as I planned or not. I have to wait until tomorrow. Once the test is complete I'll do the wire management and secure some of the hanging wires.

In other news, the interior of the RV got a bit of an upgrade. The uncomfortable leather got replaced, though we did save the old covers. Here's the transformation:

Solar Preparations

With the temperatures cooperating for the first time in 6 months, I crawled on top of the Beast with 10 sheets of Styrofoam that are cut very close to the sizes of the 10 solar panels I bought.  They were also conveniently in the solar panel boxes sent to cushion them for shipping.

Until now I only had a rough idea of where I was putting the 10 panels, I was pretty sure there was space, I just wasn't sure what all would be on the chopping block to make room for them.

So I have my before picture of the very cluttered roof:

Cluttered Dirty Rooftop

After placing my solar mock-ups around, I ended up with this series of looks..

7 Panels, bye bye to the HD Antenna and the wind cover for the fan.

As I suspected, the Solar Dish is a goner. Middle 2 panels.

Final Panel in the back corner.

Prepping the Bug-Out Vehicle

Nothing like a death from Ebola and another potential patient being reported in the general area to give you a kick in the butt to get the Revcon ready to live off the grid and to get out of the Dallas area.

Over the last 2 months I've been doing some pretty substantial upgrades to some of the systems.  Primarily upgrading to an Air conditioner that can run on Solar power, Batteries, and/or 110 v of AC power.
The only one I could find after extensive searching was made by Kingtec.  After exchanging emails with the company, it seemed the best solution to my dilemmas. The dilemmas you ask?  Well: a) staying cool anywhere in the RV without the generator burning diesel or requiring an electrical hookup, and b) to keep the dogs alive and cool when we leave them in the Beast for extended periods of time.
So within a week after ordering, my Kingtec Solar K25DZ arrived.

After getting the local RV place to install it, we discovered it wasn't cooling and was showing an error on the thermostat.  A week later a replacement unit arrived, which worked like a charm.  So maybe the first got damaged in shipping or something, who knows.  But Kingtec quickly resolved the issue by sending a replacement.

Though I did take the precaution of hooking this one up and testing it before installing it just to be sure.

Next on the list of must haves was to have a battery bank large enough to run the a/c all night long if necessary.  So after hunting around a bit I found these batteries that seemed to be up to the task:
VMAX 6V AGM Battery, 225ah.  Which was conveniently sold in an 8 pack on Amazon.  Exactly what I needed.
Another few days later after ordering them, I had 8 batteries that I needed to find a home for in the Beast. After a bit of thought, I cleaned out the 2 cabinets that are under the seats of the dinette and discovered that the batteries fit almost perfectly in them. Plus all the weight of them on that side of the Beast would probably balance out the 100 gallon tank of water that's always on the other.  Maybe I won't be as lopsided going down the highway as in the past.

2 on the right, I thought I had more space here
until I realized that the gas tank fill-up goes
through this area

6 on the left, even a little space left
over for some pantry supplies

The final placement before I started creating wires and putting it all together

After I did the wiring, I had that moment of doubt wondering if the batteries would power the Air Conditioner.  I was feeling like Clark Griswold in that moment when he was trying to get his Christmas lights to come on after checking all 10,000 bulbs.  But it powered on just fine.  The thermostat itself pulls about 0.1 amp.  With just the fan running it pulls about 2 amps, and when the compressor kicks in, it takes about 16 amps.  With 225 amp hours of battery power, could theoretically get 15 hours or so continuous cooling without any other sources of electricity.

Step 3, the Solar.  I'm told the a/c will run off 1000 watts of power.  After a bit of research I ordered from Renogy.    They are 100 watt each, flexible and only weigh about 3 lbs each. The issue now is finding space for all 10 on top of the roof.  I am pretty sure I will have to yank the huge satellite for room.  I'm going to consult with my cousins and uncle and see if we can use some backwood's engineering and create some space for them.  I have a few ideas on the matter, but I lack the welding or metalworking skills to accomplish them.  One of the casualties of the install so far is the carpeting on the ceiling.  It was stained and in already drooping in many places(Thank you Texas heat):  So I made the decision to just start ripping it down and to later replace it. With the added wiring of the A/C and solar panels, the destruction was necessary in order to access the nooks and crannies where the wires can be run.

The current solar that keeps my 12v battery
charged, I believe it's around 80 watts

This is the area above the King size bed that I hope I can fit 4-6 of the panels

A partial picture of the satellite dish that I will
most likely have to take down, room
for 2-4 panels

Manufacturer's picture of the panel

Out with the Gold, In with the New!

First off, I'd like to apologize to our followers for our really slow posting as of late. Doesn't make for interesting reading when all you can do is reread old posts.  When the only people making comments on a blog are ANONYMOUS spam comments, it's not a good sign.

Though we've been idle on the blog, we have actually been making strides baby-steps towards getting the Revcon ready.

I believe we hinted at the replacement faucets we were putting in and after quite a bit of work I did finally get those installed.

Bear Witness: The New Kitchen and Restroom Faucets

This is what the old stuff looked like in case you needed a refresher:

Or if you look at our youtube video from when we first picked up the Revcon, you can see them in all their Golden Age Glory.
Revcon

I also finally got around to ordering some wheel covers so the tires don't melt away in the Texas Heat while it awaits our departure. I also found snap-on window covers hidden away in one of the many secret compartments.
Here it is waiting ever so patiently for us in the 100 degree weather.

The other big project I've been working on is negotiating on a battery bank of lithium-ion batteries.  I'm aiming for a bank of about 840 amps, or 6 batteries..7 if I can get them. Then I'll be upgrading the solar panel array which is currently just one panel to hopefully 500-700 watts. Also I'll be finding the heftiest inverter I can find as I hope to be able to run the A/C, washer/dryer, and future induction cooktop when needed.
Finding the space for the batteries was kinda fun, since anyone who has been in an RV knows that space is limited and usually already used. So it was behind this electronics rack/drawers that I found some space. I may have to sacrifice the bottom rack space which is currently just the BASS for the surround sound system. I think batteries take a higher priority than a bit of enhanced sound.

BTW, all the above pictures were taken by my new Samsung Galaxy S4, it has an amazing camera to my untrained eye. I thought I had some pictures of behind the rack, but apparently I forgot to take my phone spelunking with me.

We had planned to take the Beast out for a ride Memorial weekend, but that whole trip was foiled when my rear-view camera had apparently melted. Driving without rear-sight makes me feel blind, so I wasn't going to risk changing lanes on top of a motorcycle, or backing over a kid while getting filled with diesel. Ordering a replacement of the same kind has been slow. The broken one was a black and white and the replacement I ordered is color. So Fingers crossed that it works okay when I get it and hook it up. Should be arriving anyday now.
Update:  Rear Camera Arrived, I did a quick test on it, and instead of the black squiggly lines the old camera was providing, now its colorful squiggly lines.  So the problems appears to be with my in-dash lcd screen.  Did not think it was the lcd screen since it displays other things fine, just not the camera.  So..back to the drawing board there.  Might be time to get a in dash LCD with built-in Nav system.

On the home front, we had a real estate agent give us a market analysis of our home and things are looking bright on that end. Just need to do some cosmetic repairs for the most part and get it listed as soon as we can and hopefully sold quickly.

Cheers!

Power-Sucker

Started my day today by getting out my new fancy amp meter and jumping into the RV to search for the culprit. Hooked up my amp meter directly to the battery, turned on the DC disconnect switch, and saw it immediately spike to 16.5 amps. Then I proceeded to remove EVERY DC fuse on the panel and still it was draining 16.5 amps.

So I went to the only thing I knew of that could drain that power IF it was turned on (and it was NOT), and that is the refrigerator/freezer. So I hooked my amp meter directly to the dc power on the back of the fridge itself and lo and behold, 16.5 amps. Disconnected and terminated the lines and checked the battery again. Down to 0 amps being drawn. PERFECT.

Zubie says there is no power in a
birdhouse either.... something must
have drained it too

So not only did I find out the refrigerator was draining the power, I also found it was bypassing the fuse panel, but not the power disconnect switch. Someone made a boo-boo wiring or rewiring this fridge at some point. On the plus side, nothing else was draining the batteries once I removed the fridge from the power.  Looks like a new control panel is in my Dometic refrigerator's future.

So that's the good news, the bad news is I still don't have enough juice to start the truck. I think when I closed the hood of it yesterday with the trickle charger on it, it hit the power button. So all night long, no power was going to the batteries. So I'll tackle that one later and hope that this issue didn't kill the 2 main engine batteries. I have no idea how old they are anyhow, so they may need to be replaced.  Could be original to the truck for all I know.

Update:  Was able to jump start the truck and ran it for an hour or so...will test it in the morning to see if it kept a charge on the batteries.

Update 2: Started up the Revcon with no issues today, so the hour long running yesterday charged up the batteries good.  Looks like 2 less batteries to replace.