Alvin

Looks like you answered your own question before I had a chance to respond... but you came to the same conclusion that I did; about the weight of an extra person. Another thought I had regarding the extra gas tank... it really comes down to the weight of the tank only... because if I want I don't have to fill the additional gallons. The additional tank and fuel lines weighs about 100-lbs... but I have to say, I would ALWAYS fill the vehicle unless it's going to be sitting for a long time... remember that the prime reason for this upgrade was because I had about a 160 to 180 mile range... maybe 200 if I drove very slowly. Now I can go at least 350-miles, even if I choose to push it to 70-mph and eat the 10-mpg rate of fuel consumption. For my location in SLC Utah, this is great. Here is the reason... before my range was about 160 miles... the problem is that in almost any direction, the gas stations are few and far between and spaced at about 100-miles. This means that I was stopping in literally every city... especially traveling through Wyoming... cities every 100 miles, since if I had tried to go 200miles I would not have made it. The 2nd reason for the extra tank was that I wanted to run my generator which was not connected to a fuel tank before that. Next you brought up the issue of balance. The additional fuel tanks is built in 2 sections, a top section and a bottom section, which were baffled and welded together. The top section actually extends over the drive shaft and is centered in the vehicle. The bottom section is on the right side of the drive shaft only, just forward of the original fuel tank. I noticed no difference in vehicle handling. Even with the tanks full, the entire extra weight is only about 250-lbs... including the weight of the tanks... and it is almost dead-center in the vehicle between all 4 tires.

Funny that you mention it... not frightened; I would say "inquisitive." This has been quite an education. Topics have included 1) De-winteriztion 2) Fuel capacity blues (solved with 40-gallon upgrade... I can now go 350 miles between fillups) 3) House electrical system upgrades and understanding the basic operation/theory of converters. 4) The "Geo-method" of waste-tank care (this made a HUGE difference!). 5) LPG tank basics... why horizontal tanks are exempt from over-fill protection devices (OPD's). 6) Fuel economy (still working this out). 7) Winterization (now in process for the 1st time... I've bought the fluid). Still to come... Furnace lighting ceremony (the only system I have not tested...) Fiberglass repair and new finish Dinette set construction. Birch interior overlay. And when I get it all finished, I'll probably sell it (at a loss for the cost of my education) and buy another one. I'm really trying hard to make everything as professionally installed as possible. I'm not skipping details and too proud for my own good. Is this experience similar to what other guys have the 1st time in an RV?

I know that the best fuel savings can be obtained by driving slower. However I live in Salt Lake City, and tend to drive long distances... any freeway leading out of my area has a speed limit of 75 (even 80) mph. I need to drive 65 as possible and spend lots of miles doing so. So far, my Odyssey is averaging only about 10 or 11 mpg, and I'm about to get a good tuneup; however I realize that the drag of driving a brick down the highway is a function of both forward wind resistance (which I can do little to affect) but also the rear vacuum pressure. I have discovered this "Airtab" product which seems like it has reasonable science behind it and people are claiming increased fuel efficiency and wind handling. www.airtab.com Here is a video: Using their values of 3 airtabs per linear foot across the top and sides of the rear of my Odyssey, I can see that about 60 airtabs would be required. Another place airtabs could be installed would be the rooftop AC unit (an additional 10 airtabs), so 70 airtabs all together. At a cost of $2.75 each, the total cost of the airtabs with sales tax is very close to $200. Assuming that I might go from 11-mpg to 12-mpg, and an average fuel cost of $3.00 per gallon (I think it will actually go higher soon but gas prices in Utah are $2.80 and CA are over $3.00 currently), I get a savings of about 7.5 gallons of fuel per 1000-miles traveled... or about $22.72 per 1000 miles traveled. Therefore the tabs would pay for themselves at around 8,800 miles... in theory. Has anyone had any experience with Airtabs? Yes yes yes, I know... slow down! But I live in SLC, my kids live on the coast, I make this drive (1500 miles) about 4 times a year and the freeway speed is 80-mph in Utah and much of the Western States. I really don't want to go faster than 65 or 70 due to vehicle handling, but 11-mpg is killing my sensibilities.

I've seen problems with thermocouples. I would find the thermocouple, loosen the wires, make sure that you have clean connections and that no corrosion exists (brush the connections a bit) and re-tighten everything back into place. If this doesn't do it, you may have a bad board. It also may be possible that the thermocouple location needs to be adjusted.

What kind of inverter was the (possibly fried) 1000-Watt? I have a Sunforce 11240 1000-Watt pure sine wave model that I picked up on sale at amazon.com for $194.15... wondering what to avoid with it, although it does seem to have lots of input protection. On the short to the exhaust system, was the wire melted onto the exhaust or was it simply shorting due to friction? I have been using c-clip metal (some nylon) retainers for my wiring modifications along with grabber screws to hold any cables... sometimes finding the right channels to route cables is a challenge I must admit. As a circuit board and system designer I know that strain relief considerations are extremely important in mobile systems (I actually design industrially hardened systems for military and aviation uses... if you want to fire your computer or Ethernet system out of a bazooka, I'm your man). As you can imagine I'm VERY anal when it comes to wiring, but the RV world and all of the standard practices are new to me. I'm very open to tips on how others have implemented their modifications.

Do two good airbags help this at all? One of mine is blown and needs replacement.

This is probably the proper place to add my fuel system schematic notes on the 17 to 40-Gallon conversion. I noticed a couple of spelling errors in the document and added a note about the Koplin fuel packs which we added, visible on the attached photo. odie2b.pdf

Thank you for taking the time to scan this and make it available. It took about 20 seconds to upload via broadband internet. I have an 89 odyssey, but it looks like much of the manual applies to my vehicle as well. I particularly noticed the spare tire storage option underneath the back. I considered this area for a spare gas tank recently but ended up putting the 2nd tank in another location forward of the primary original tank. My spare is located on the bumper. My wife would like to have a storage box made for the back bumper and so she would like me to find another spot for the spare tire. (See the included picture taken on the way back from the recent Restoring Honor Rally on 8/28 in Washington D.C., the picture also shows the Kolpin spare fuel and water tanks that I took along just to "be prepared"). I'd love to find a rear tire mounting system with the crank that I see in your user manual. Guess I have another toy to find. Thanks again.

Glad your converter is good... would have been expensive. As a good double-check maybe you can disconnect all 12VDC loads at the converter and use a temp "test load" suitable for 12VDC... A headlight or something would be useful as the test load. See if the unit works with the known good test load... then proceed to locate the short. A verification of the "goodness" of the converter is worth lots when it comes to spending what could be lots of time looking for an obscure short.

I'd have to agree with that. One more el-cheapo thing I can try is to beef up the spark plug wires. One thing I noticed is that my unit "rough idles" and you can feel the vehicle twisting a bit... almost as though it's missing a spark at idle speeds. The plugs all looked clean when I replaced them. So I think that a professional tuneup is in order. I'm an electrical engineer (solid state electronics, etc.) and much less of a mechanical guy... unless I'm up against a wall, so I suppose I'll just take it in and have it tuned up. If that doesn't work then I suppose I'm demoted to passenger.

Not sure if this is any help (I don't have the Parallax system at all. But here is a trouble shooting guide for the 7345 upgrade... http://www.parallaxpower.com/7300/Flowchart7300.pdf If you look at the flow chart (no DC output)... you get to a big box instructing you to do a voltage check (after a couple of other minor obvious checks): "Voltage should be at 13.2 to 14.2VDC" or something to that effect. Then if it fails that test (in all likelyhood), you end up replacing the converter. Hope that's not your case.

I'm still a greenhorn here... but my 89 Odyssey gets around 10mpg, but my wife calls me "chief leadfoot" for a good reason. We spend most of our driving hours out here in the west on 80-mph freeways (Utah is 80 now on I-15)... I really do try to keep it around 65 to 70. That could be my problem. I'm on a quest though to raise my mpg's.... it's the challenge... do or die. So far I have tried the following: New Iridium spark plugs (6). No noticeable effect. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000CJ048W/ref=oss_product New K&N lifetime air filter. No noticeable effect (my original air filter was super dirty too). http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000BR3BYY/ref=oss_product Finally, I read over at the yotatech.com that somebody increased their fuel mileage by drilling holes in the bottom of the air filter intake. I've done that... and haven't been out on the road to test it yet. My next attempts to get better gas mileage (in order) will include: 1) Tune up. 2) Bigger exhaust pipes and a good look at the catalytic converter to see how plugged up it may be (visible only when the tail pipe gets dropped off). 3) Bigger exhaust heads on the engine. 4) Get the timing checked. 5) Put on a brown's gas generator (my Dad is really fond of these... I'm skeptical). 6) Have my wife drive all of the freeway miles. If anyone can think of something else (?) I'm open for suggestions. Sheesh, with an 89 V6 motor that only has 56K miles on it, I think I should be able to do better than 10... even if I do want to go 70.

Okay, my "electrical transformation" of our 89 Odyssey has matured and I now have a definite road map of where I was, and where I'm going. In fact, I'm almost finished with the electrical part of the transformation and should be all but complete by this coming weekend when I "re-install" my video camera system to make it look exactly like my roadmap schematic. Where have I been? That's the schematic I've uploaded with the PDF file odie0.pdf. The next schematic odie1.pdf is where I'm going. Everything in this drawing is almost complete as I said... although there is one very important detail to finish... and it's not electrical... it's the furniture. Our "Odie" is missing a dinette set and table. This project will take me a few evenings and weekends... and it will involve an embedded sub-woofer, audio jack console, remote cubby's, and on the other bench... my wife wants a cold ice chest (yes the fridge works just fine... we just like to have a cold ice chest.). I've taken lots of pictures of the process along the way... so I can remember what the heck I did mostly. Parts parts and more parts. I think we've spent about $1400 on the electrical modifications and I'm glad we're about done. We've solved the problems of the transfer switches for generator and inverter and converter. We've solved the problem of noise from the ole progressive dynamics PD7231. We've solved the problems which came with running the video off of the wrong battery (poor choice on my part... I originally selected the house batter for the rear cameras... with associated noise whenever AC was present. Honestly, I really don't know if anyone is interested... but here it is for what it's worth. odie0.pdf odie1.pdf

Love the saw-horse idea. I think you're absolutely right to do this to keep the water from pooling. I'll be implementing some version of this over the winter... side note: I'm worried about damaging the roof with the contact with the saw-horses, so I'm going to be adding some footpads of some kind. Don't want holes to patch in the spring. It also occurs to me that maybe I could also park the vehicle with a set of low car ramps (5 or 6 inches tall) on the front to drain any water which gets under the saw-horse-propped-up tarp off the back? I suppose as long as I don't run the fridge it might be okay... but I'm not sure. Anyone know if parking like this could damage the fridge?

http://www.autozone.com/autozone/parts/Fuel-Tank/_/N-8vday?filterByKeyWord=fuel+tank&fromString=search $258

I believe I saw 17 gallon tanks, new, on Checker's or AutoZone's web site. Cost (not including shipping) was about $270 or so. We had an additional 23 gallon tank welded up and installed just forward of the original 17 gallon tank... 40 gallon total capacity. Someday soon I plan on posting the project details. We had someone do it all for $1000... works great.

After giving it lots of thought, I've decided that I only need to install 4 switches for the following: 1) Fog lights, 2) Rear flood light, 3) Possible side door light (under the awning, but may not be that useful) 4) Video camera system. I'm using a Pyle system bought at amazon currently for about $75.00 and the problem has been that there is noise in the video signal while either generator or shore power is connected. I plan on solving that by installing a "Pyramid NS-10" noise suppressor near each camera, and running the 12VDC wires (larger gauge) along with a much better grade of shielded video cable out to each of the 2 rear cameras. Finally, I'm disconnecting the 12VDC from the house power and using the vehicle power battery. All 4 of these systems will run off of the front battery. There will also be a 2nd power source switch for my CO/LP gas monitor system which comes from the front battery. The unit draws 40mA, so I will need a kill switch for it during long periods of time which the motorhome is sitting. Any recommendations for fog lights? There are tons available but I don't know which would do the job most effectively.

Ingenuous application of a few common sense ideas. Love it.

I'm swimming in idea's for improvements on "Odie" (89 Toyota Odyssey). For example I love gulfstream_greg's dash improvement and the only remaining question I have is about the transmission drive-gear indicators... I'd like to make sure that going to a 4-runner (SR5) panel will still give me a correct indication of the gear I'm in; OD and all. I can build one myself (I design circuits and boards for a living... ethernet mostly) but it would not be as cool as the SR5 panel... I had an old SR5 corolla for years and years, until it got totaled (260K and no issues!) However, in this email I specifically wanted to comment and ask about electrical improvements which are driven from the "driving experience". On my trips so far, I'm the primary driver and most time is spent in the cab. I now have a Pioneer AVH-4200DVD system and a Pyle backup camera system. Next I'm looking at properly installing a CO/LP gas monitor (which I have... but sucks off the 7323 Progressive Dynamics Ripple King converter... holy crap, what a pile of crud... it's another post though). Also, I want to power both rear-view video camera's and a rear floodlight off the front engine battery. The idea is this... a bank of switches with night-time dimmable LED's for indicating video camera power, and rear/side lights... I dont' want these things on while driving. But the "normal" mode would be working exclusively off the key switch... and another 2ndary power mode which would be on a timer... to give up to 1/2 hour of power... and then shut down to not to drain the battery. The gas monitor is a simple 2-battery system... I'm installing power filters in several locations for the monitor and the video... Are there any other outdoor features that would be must haves for a high tech Odyssey that I'm leaving out? I could leave a couple of extra positions for future switches but it's so hard to 'guess' ahead.

I used to work in a cabinet shop to get through school and I know this sounds crazy but it works for may materials like laminates, some plastics, or thin particle woods; put your 50 or 60 tooth 10/12" circular blade in the table-saw (or other saw) BACKWARDS. You should experiment with this a little to see the result, and remember to always follow shop safety. The cut tends to come out very nice... no chipping.

6102 miles. That is the number of miles we just travelled with the new dual fuel tank system. We had a 2nd fuel tank 23-gallons custom welded and placed just in front of the original 17 gallon tank. One filling spout for both tanks, using a "Y" connection in the main fuel line to both tanks, and a small air hose return coming from each tank near to the fuel cap. The two tanks were connected using a small fuel hose between the tanks...so no switching required from 1 tank to the other. The 17 gallon tank was tapped using the drain cap at the bottom of the tank and welding on a banjo fitting over the drain plug. The banjo arm went to the other tank. Finally, we had our 3600 watt gas generator fuel connected to the new 23 gallon tank too. Perfection. That is all I can say. Simply perfect. No issues. None. 6100 miles of utter joy passing gas stations along the way. Not being forced to stop and fillip in every city was AWESOME. We paid an even $1000 for the new tank including the install. I'd have paid more. Now if I can just fix that mileage. I'd like to get closer to 14 to 15 mpg like some claim. We get 10 or 11. The generator uses about 4 gallons overnight. I have 40 gallons. Whoa.

Hi, we're looking for a cover for our 22-foot Toyota Odyssey (89). We came up with this one... http://www.safeguardcovers.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=CV-RVC-32024-GE ...which looks like it should work, but it's out of stock. Anyone have experience buying these and have any links or recommendations? Thanks

My wife's ex is a welder and he custom engineered the tank (he has done many fuel tanks in the past). The tank was built in 2 sections, a 16 gallon lower section with a 7 gallon upper section... includes tank baffles too. The two halves were welded together and pressure tested prior to mounting. No leaks after adding 40 gallons of fuel. We're giving it the initial workout tonight.... leaving on a long trip. We believe that with the engine horsepower increases (new K&N air filter and new iridium tipped plugs... high temperature) along with oil change, engine reconditioning etc, that our range should be close to 500 miles now. I will definitely report back at some point.

In my RV, I also have a 3600 watt generator. In order to use the 1000-Watt inverter on the road (I now have a Sunforce 1000W from amazon... see my post above), I've wired mine to the vehicle battery with AWG 2 gauge cable. I simply plug into the front. HOWEVER if I wanted to put one or two of the RV circuits on a switch, I could switch between the Sunforce Inverter power and the "Progressive Dynamics PD7231" system installed in the RV which takes either generator power or external power. The wiring to the RV has to be intercepted out of the PD7231 on the OUTPUT side. You can't run the RV electrical charging system off the 1000W inverter... that would be bad... and for the same reason, it makes no sense to have the inverter installed on the RV battery. You MUST remember to turn completely disconnect your inverter when not in use, or you run down your battery; but the best way to do this is to install a 12V relay/contactor circuit wired for a manual start AFTER the vehicle has been started, and switches the contactor to the open position when the vehicle ignition key is turned off. I can post more details about this later if anyone is interested. Getting my RV ready for a road trip and have not actually implemented this trick, but it will work, I know it (I design military electronic systems for a living and this is a cake walk in comparison). I'm think I'll get it working and publish the details in a month or so. When the system is properly designed, it will use the forward vehicle battery, the ignition switch of the vehicle (for sense), and a single "ON" momentary contact push button. The switch of the RV plugs could also be wired into this system... that may or may not be desirable.