Eve "n" Stephen

"Im not sure why but car adapters today are largely ac inverters. This is totally retarded because laptops are dc. all of them. Its a conspiracy definitely. to sell you something you dont want, and use more power to do it." It's even worse than that (except those with LED backlights) as there is then an internal inverter to go back to ac to power the backlight! Steve

Since solar power is fairly expensive and the roof area is limited, you don't want to waste power with wire that has too much resistance (too small for the distance). There's a nifty voltage drop calculator at the bottom of this page. You enter a wire size, distance, voltage, and amps, it tells you how much you lose. Makes it simple to figure. With my 100 watt panel and about 12 feet of wire to the charge controller, I used 10 gauge stranded copper and only loose .8%. I could have used 16 gauge and would have lost 5%, but figured I'd be adding another 100 watt panel so wanted the larger wire. I bought 1 short plug in connector for my panel and cut it in half, then soldered the 10 gauge wire to it. Soldered connections are much lower resistance and don't corrode over time. I use shrink wrap tubing over the connections. Steve

My experience is that the cheap yellow ones I linked to are just fine and too bright to look at directly. Also, crystaline panels do work fine in cloudy weather, although there's certainly much less energy there to be harvested, somewhere between 1/8th and 1/32 as much energy as full sunight. Amorphous panels work fine when partially shaded though, where crystaline panels don't. The catch to amorphous panels is that they are 3 times as large for the same output and, unless they are the peel and stick kind, also weigh much more for the same output. So, if you are parked where there's any branches or other partial shading a large part of the day, you likely are better of with amorphous panels. Otherwise, I'd go with crystaline. Size and weight are definetly considerations on the small open roof areas of our mini motorhomes! Steve

Here's what I bought, 7 of them actually. They are very bright, good reading at 4 feet away with the original plastic light diffusers on the old ceiling lights in place. http://www.ebay.com/itm/36-SMD-3528-LED-Light-Panel-Warm-White-Festoon-Dome-Adapters-144LM-12V-DC-/280986533757?pt=Motors_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories&hash=item416c1a3f7d&vxp=mtr They come with a bunch of adapters, none of which is correct for the 1156 type base! I made my own adapters by popping old bulbs and soldering the leads to the wire leads that come out inside the bult and hook to the filament, but it would be easier for most people to just hard wire these to the light fixture. I've been using them for about a year now. It's nice to have good light that uses so little power that I never worry about leaving them on for long periods. Steve

Charging at 3 amps would take at least 35 hours from dead, probably longer as none of this is 100% efficient. You might pick up a plug in battery charger, I found a nice one that will charge at up to 12 amps at a yard sale for $5, plugged in somewhere, that will still take overnight though. If you are plugged in and run everything off the 110V circuit, a table light, your laptop, etc., an overnight stay might charge you up. There's a limit as to how fast you can charge a battery, before doing major damage though. The charge can start pretty heavy, but needs to taper off as the battery charges. There's a thing that defines the charge/discharge rate. If you have a 100 AH battery, C10 would be the rate that would charge it at 10% of it's capacity per hour (10amps). Most batteries can take this charge rate even unregulated without damage as long as they are disconnected after they get a full charge. Generally, anything over that needs careful regulation. Charging really fast, like an hour or 2 from dead is really bad for most batteries of the deep cycle type. Steve

Batteries are not all the same! A battery designed to start your vehicle has lots of thin plates inside that are set up to send out a huge amount of power (possibly 300 or more amps for a few seconds) for a very short time, starting the vehicle. Normally, this discharges the battery around 5% and the rest of the time, as you drive, it stays full, or as it is called at float voltage, which is around 14 volts. This type battery is very poor at being discharged more than 10% and then only for short times. A deep cycle battery is more on the order of a slow discharge over a long period of time. It too, needs to reach full charge somewhat regularily, but works well if not discharged more than 50%. This type should not be drawn on at more than about 20% of it's capacity max. So if it's a 12V, 100 AH battery, the load really shouldn't be more than 20 amps at the max, if you want the battery to last. The internal chemistry will be damaged if it doesn't get back up to full a couple times a month, this shortens the lifespan a lot! Running it dead also is very bad for the battery. If it is the type you add water to, use only distilled water. Most water has impurities that are "poison" to the internal chemistry. Be aware also that batteries give off highly flammable/explosive gas, hydrogen, when charging, so make sure it is well vented! Steve

Has your battery ever had a full charge? Something's not right here! It sounds more like you got the battery and it either wasn't fully charged to begin with or you ran it down and then never got it back up very far, so it drained rapidly. Running the truck for an hour or 2 won't fully charge it from dead. I believe that from dead, 100 AH battery will take something like 8 hours of driving to fully charge from dead. Keeping the battery at low levels of charge is a quick way to ruin it. I have a 100 watt panel and 105 A/H battery. It is not hooked into the Sunrader's charging system at all. I run all my electricals from this. 400 watt inverter for the coffee grinder, charging 2 digital SLR camera batteries and running my laptop, 12 V direct to the LED lights, water pump and stereo. I use the laptop from 1-3 hours a day doing Photoshop work and writing, the lights anywhere from 2-8 hours a day and the stereo 2-4 hours a day. We've never run low on power, even in cloudy weather. We've never run the heater for long periods , but sometimes it sees 1 or 2 hours of intermittent use as well. Steve

You can get a 20 watt, 12 volt panel from solar blvd for $29 or a 40 watt for $58, although you'd still have to get a charge controller. I've dealt with them often and been very pleased. They are knowledgeable and will help on the phone also. What type of light? A 12V tail light bulb uses a lot of power, it's a pretty fair heater though! Even it should only use a bit over an amp, so should drain at most 15 amp/hours from your battery in 12 hours. If LED, it should use so little it won't even matter. The same with the phone battery, it should use a tiny amount of power. You should never drain your battery more than 50% of it's capacity, so you really have about 50 amp hours available, more and you shorten the life of the battery quite a lot. It sounds like something else is draining things badly. The laptop, running of the inverter (what size?) is a bigger power drain, maybe 80 watts or so, call it 7 to 8 amps and the inverter loses some power also. You should be good for at least 6 hours of use before the battery is down much. Steve

If you boondock, forest service and BLM campgrounds, with rough roads, trust me, you'll be better off with an automatic. We have a 4 speed 87 Toyota PU and an 84 Sunrader auto. The pickup has a low speed of about 6 mph in low gear, too fast for any bumpy road. The Sunrader can creep across those potholes and water bars. I suppose you can slip the clutch, but on a rough hill, that's really not an option. It doesn't take much of a bump to make you want to creep across! Steve

Like I've said before, Solar Blvd is the place to get panels! http://www.solarblvd.com/index.php They have US made MX Solar 230 watt, 24V panels for $202.40 + shipping! This brings the price down for solar quite a bit. They have several other brands for under $1 a watt too. I've bought from them several times and always been pleased. They are also very helpful/knowledgeable on the phone. Personally, I really like the idea of my fridge working off of solar. I'd like to get away from having to buy propane altogether. Steve

Check out Novakool refrigerators at Backwoods Solar (link didn't apply so.. http://www.backwoodssolar.com/index.htm )! A 200 watt panel should be enough to operate this easily. Running power has been reduced with new dual voltage Danfoss compressors and a new refrigerant. Single door models consume about 35 watts when compressor is running: under 3 amps 12 volt, 1.5 on 24 volt. Two door models will consume up to 60 watts. Running time varies with temperature, but is about 30% duty cycle on a 70 degree day. Buyer glues extra 2" foam insulation to the whole box to cut per day run time in half. As supplied the R4500 uses 480 watt hours / day, but with added insulation, just 240 watt hours a day on a 70 degree day. The new Danfoss BD35F compressor uses R134A (CF3-CH2F) gas for atmospheric protection. Interchangeable for use on 12 or 24 volt. Reliable refrigerator. Also at the same place, Sundazer chest type refrigerators and freezers. R165 5.8 Cu. Ft. Refrigerator 37"W x 26"D x 35"H Watt/hours per day@ 70 and 90 degrees 100/240 $1035 F165 5.8 Cu. Ft. Freezer 37"W x 26"D x 35"H Watt/hours per day@ 70 and 90 degrees 340/600 $1035

Washed the Sunrader today and got the roof and cab waxed. Now the mosquitoes are out and hungry, so I'll give my arms a rest until tomorrow. It already looks so much nicer. One mud puddle will fix that though! Steve

Thanks for the compliment on my photography Davidadro! I could actually lower my license fee, as they are presently charging me for an 18' rig and they round off to the next lower footage. Mine is actually 17'8". A whole lot of paperwork and a 110 mile round trip for inspection would save me about $8 for 2 years! Licenses are high for RVs in Oregon, but the flip side is when I go in a store and buy something for $100 and it costs me $100, not $109 (WA) due to sales taxes. Steve

I spent $180 on two tiny, sticky backed pieces of plastic and applied them to my license plates! Good for 2 more years. Steve

We are the owner's of an 84 Sunrader, the 18 footer with 22r engine, and auto tranny. This is very easy to work on, very dependable and has plenty of power to get us from point A to point B in style. Being photographers, speed is not an issue! Living at sea level, everything is up from here. Our typical trip to Eastern Oregon takes us up to 5000 feet and back down to around 2000 and reverse. On these trips we get around 17.5 mpg and rarely go over 55 mph. We have a 100 watt solar panel and 105 amp hour deep cycle battery, led lights and 400 watt inverter. This keeps the battery charged fine for our low energy usages, coffee grinder, camera battery charging, laptop, stereo and extension cord to table lamp with cf bulb for light on a picknick table. The tiny bathroom takes some getting used to, but works out fine. It's a wonderful thing to have when going to town shopping, no more searching for a place when "ya gotta go"! Steve

I didn't mean the clutch slipped, I meant having to slip the clutch to go slow enough over rough ground like potholes in forest service campgrounds and water bars on roads. It's almost impossible to creep with a manual transmission unless you have a "granny gear", which I've never seen on a 2wd truck! You can creep along with an auto though. Even our .6 mile long gravel driveway has spots where it's hard to go slow enough with our 87 Toyota pickup w/4sp manual. Otherwise, I'd rather have the 4 speed, but... Steve

We have a 1984 Sunrader, 22r, auto tranny and love it. Something rarely (I've never seen it ) mentioned. The auto tranny has a huge advantage on any kind of rough ground, while boondocking! We also have an 87 pickup with 4 speed. 5 mph is about the absolute bottom limit without slipping the clutch. Many forest service cg's and back roads are gravel and sometimes pretty rough. That lower speed with the automatic is a big plus! Neither of us are large, so the closet bathroom/shower is tight, but very handy. One of the things I like best about it is when we go to town to do major shopping, there's never a problem with finding a place when "ya gotta go"! The holding tanks are on the small side, so weight and sloshing really isn't a problem. Once you've emptied them a few times, it's no big deal, pretty quick and easy. A downside to the Sunrader, you can't sit up in bed above the cab. There's very little headroom. The person sleeping in front has an interesting time getting over the other person in the middle of the night! One of the best alternate showers is a brand new (don't want one with who know what in it), pump up insect sprayer, the kind that uses a 1-2 gallon bottle and has a spray head on a flexible tube. Fill with hot water and you can spray yourself anywhere and it's very frugal with water. Steve

With my 400 watt inverter, I can use my digital projector (220 watts) and set up a screen behind my Sunrader. Go to the drive-in anywhere! Pretty amazing to watch a Blu-ray (25 watts for player) movie out in the wilds from the wrap around windows, very cool. I'll admit, I've only done it once, just to try it out. Steve

A panel designed to charge 12V batteries does not put out 12V or it couldn't charge the batteries! It needs at least roughly 15V to do so. The voltage that solar panels put out is usually up around 17-20V depending on lighting conditions, etc. This panel puts out it's most power when operating at "Maximum Power Voltage (Vmp): 17.2V Maximum Power Current (Imp): 5.81A", with is where the 99.9 watts comes from. A PWM charge controller limits the voltage going into the battery, depending on the charge condition. When full, it holds the voltage to the proper "float" voltage, which is the ideal voltage for the type of battery in use. This is around 13.5V to 14.2V. An MPPT type charge controller can get more power out of the panels, as it changes the voltage/amp to the best combination, rather than wasting some of the power. They get about 15-30% more out of the panel to the battery, so although more expensive, can save money over time. Many of this type charge controller can use 24 volt panels on 12V batteries very effectively. Most of the large panels, over 200 watt, are 24V. Steve

I thought things were pretty straight forward! At least where I've bought all my panels, solarblvd, they post the info in a pretty clear manner. This is for the Solar Cynergy 100 watt panel. Manufacturer: Solar Cynergy Cells: with Q-Cells Model Name: PV-SC100J12-M Number of Cells: 36 cells in a series (4 x 9) Max Power: 100W Open Circuit Voltage (Voc): 21.6V Short Circuit Current (Isc): 6.46A Maximum Power Voltage (Vmp): 17.2V Maximum Power Current (Imp): 5.81A Weight: 25 pounds Dimensions (inches): 43.87 x 26.13 x 1.36 Max power volts X amps is 99.932 watts. By using an MPPT type controller, you'll get nearly all this power charging a 12V battery. Steve

If you want your deep cycle battery to last, you should never discharge it 100%! For long life, 50% is optimum for most deep cycle batteries, although they will last fairly long with 80% discharges. Also be aware that batteries are less efficient at high discharge rates. A 100 AH deep cycle battery may be capable of giving 10 amps for 10 hours to full discharge (10A times 10 hours=100 AH), but may only give 60 AH when discharge at a high rrate like 50 amps. Steve

I totally agree John, Compression fittings are a Mickey Mouse solution at best. Fine for water if you don't mind wet walls and floors! I got really lucky and inherited the best flare tool I've ever seen. It has rollers like a roller bearing, on the flare. Wow does it do nice smooth work! It also has a depth setting and stops going down at this point, but still turns, to smooth things completely. I did the maintenance for 15 years, at 8 remote cabins that used propane for lighting, heat, water heating and refrigeration. Having worked with inspectors and several different propane companies, I learned a lot. One of the things was their insistance on using flare nuts that were designed for this usage. These looked chunky, more like a cap nut with the cap sliced off. Not the type that has a long snout the tube comes into. They are much less likely to split or strip out, when tightened down fully. We always pressure tested with a good gauge and air pressure, watching for leak-down, before hooking up propane. At the very least, after working on the system, check all fittings with a few drops of detergent in water, applied to each with a brush and watch for any bubbles. Steve

As I've mentioned in other posts, solar blvd has good service and great prices. Here's a 210 watt Solar Cynergy 12V panel for $346.50 plus shipping. I've now bought several Solar Cynergy panels, 40, 80 and 100 watt over the last 3 years and am happy with all of them. The 100 watt panel is on our 84 Sunrader. About the only catch to these big panels (over 100 watt) is shipping, about $75 to me in Oregon. Steve

If any of you are over 50, check with AARP. We were paying about $800 a year with super clean driving record, for full coverage on just our Honda Pilot. Adding our 1984 Sunrader with $4000 collision, towing and car rental added another $400 a year. AARP (The Hartford) came back with a quote of under $600 for pretty much identical coverage for both, with better RV towing, lodging, car rental, etc. by far. We changed the next day. Amazing when advertisers claim they can save you big money, and they do! Steve

California State Park campgrounds are very expensive! Oregon and Washington are much more reasonable. We are on the Southern Oregon coast and would recommend Cape Blanco or 2nd choice Humbug Mountain in the Port Orford area if you want state parks and on the beach. Sixes River, a few miles north of Port Orford, has a small cg about 7 miles off of 101, Edson that is inexpensive and not bad. Our favorites in this area are up the Elk River, just a mile or so out of PO, about 15-20 miles off 101. This is one of the most gorgeous river canyons I've seen, emerald green water and awesome rock formations, great swimming and snorkling too. It is a paved but narrow and winding road after the fish hatchery, but this is where it starts being really great. There are 2 cg's up there, both are around $7 a night, small, with pit toilets. Sunshine Bar and Butler bar. We've had our 18 foot Sunrader up there several times. On the far side of the river is wilderness area. This is an extremely scenic area, do watch out for poison oak in the redwoods and along the southern oregon coast, coast range and inland valleys though! Steve