whyverne14

I'll just say good luck. I hate working with stuff like that. Usually end up paying somebody.

This is a Renogy 100 watt kit. Under $200. I'm quite happy with the results, though I had to do some things to make it work better as a portable system. The main problem was that the wires from the battery and the solar panel had to be screwed into the controller. This would be fine for a nonportable setup but since I wanted to use it as a portable, it was too much work. It took too long and it was obvious that I would eventually strip the head slots on the set screws rendering the controller useless. Now the solar panel rides in the cab bed and it only takes about 5 minutes to get it working. The wires from the panel came with disconnects so I screwed them tightly into the controller and then squirted a bead of epoxy around each wire where they entered the controller. These wires are very stiff and would eventually work loose with movement without some serious stress relief. Hopefully they're attached permanently now. Then for the battery. I'd like to thank the person on this forum who pointed me to the needed quick disconnect. That's the little grey box in the picture. Actually I think I bought one size too big. But better too big than too small. For that I had to cut the battery wires and torch solder four connectors onto the wire ends. These connectors come with the the quick disconnect and snap into the gray box to provide good contact. If you do it right it is henceforth impossible to connect the battery with the wrong polarity. After soldering I snapped on the two halves of the gray plastic connectors. Then I tightened and epoxied the two short pieces of wire into the controller, making sure polarity was correct. After that it was simple to attach the the long wires onto the coach battery, again triple checking polarity. Now I just snap the disconnect together and I'm juiced. You have to connect the battery first with this solar controller. Then the panel or else it gets all confused. In the picture I have the controller hanging on the battery door with velcro tabs. I also have velcro on the back of the solar panel and that's where the controller rides when not being used. They give you a lot of wire with this kit and I can lean the panel anywhere around the Dolphin to get the best sun. I haven't had to deal with high winds yet. I might have to lay it flat on the ground for that. So this solved my main problem. Which is that I can't plug in where I park at home. I was lugging a generator up there and running it for a few hours. Now 3 or 4 hours of sun and I'm fully charged. The refrigerator is long gone out of my Dolphin and all I have is one of those 12 volt TE coolers. I've found that with the solar and a couple jugs of frozen water, I can boondock all weekend and everything is still cold. If I unplug the cooler at night. Those TE 12 volt coolers are better than an ice chest but the problem is that they run constantly. I hope to be able to afford a regular 12 volt refrigerator by next year. I've heard that the 12v. refrigerators actually use much less battery than the coolers because they shut themselves off. I know that a propane refrigerator is the best way to go but like I said that's long gone. The vents are boarded up, I'd need a new propane line. Maybe in the distant future. Too many other things to fix first. So this old man is happy with his first solar project. It's like magic to me.

Yeah, I work for an auto parts store. We have a camera that takes a picture, a computer that figures out a formula, and we can put it in rattle cans. I haven't done it yet because I'm still working on "important" stuff.

Oh boy, you come up with the best ideas! I like that, I'm going to do that. I seldom use the shower, I'm too big. I mostly use it for storage. Even at public showers I usually wash down in my swimsuit because the public showers are often wet everywhere and sometimes not so clean. That way I go back to the Dolphin and change clothes in dryness and comfort. I could do the same outside the sink window if there is no public shower.

Yeah that's big time. Always wanted one on those.

My friend suggested that but I was worried if it would handle the current. I don't know such things for sure. Thanks. I will look into those. Thanks. That sounds good. Yeah, I knew it wouldn't hurt it but I knew I didn't need it. I read with these cheap controllers, if they seem to be acting up then you have to become the controller. I'll keep an eye on it. Thanks to everybody for responding.

I'm the guy who can't plug in at my house cause I gots to park across the street. I'm also the guy recovering from two broken ankles. So I still hadn't even dewinterized. And the battery was way down. So I pushed the button on Amazon for the Renogy 100w kit. When it came I got the kid to carry the panel up and I got a chair and wired it up. Worked right off, the inside battery monitor was showing about 13.9v. Let it go all day, moved it around three times to get the rays. Then I took it apart and put the panel in the cab bed. Using it as a portable is kind of a pain cause you have to mount and screw in the four wires to the controller each time and they can be a little finicky. A jack system would be nice. Still easier than hauling the generator and dealing with gas and such. Anyway the next morning I went up and the battery was reading 12.7 so I thought that was cool, it was full. But just for the heck of it I hooked it up again and this time the green light was flashing which is supposed to mean over voltage. The inside monitor was showing 14.8v. So I unhooked it. So now I'm not sure if everything is all right or not. I'm going to wait till the battery gets down to 12.2 and hook it up again and see what happens. Meanwhile I pumped two tankfuls of water to flush and bleach the water system and the battery is still showing 12.5v, so it did a good job charging it. We will see, but I'm quite happy so far. We're going on our first trip next week. I'm going to go hobble around Pymatuning Lake. It's a plug in so I'm not going to take the panel. I got it for home and the boondocking places. Maybe someday I'll permanently mount it, after I get the more important things done. Have a good weekend.

Well I can no longer say that I have two broken ankles, now I have two badly damaged ankles. But yesterday I managed to take my walker and hobble up the hill and across the road to my Dolphin. First time in two months! I did have somebody start it twice in that interval. So I turned on the coach battery and it fired right up. I moved it around a bit. Pressing on the brake didn't hurt too too much. Then I got out and clambered into the back. I wasn't too surprised that it was quite easy to move around in, it's so narrow that there's lots of things to hold on to. So I started thinking "Hey, handicapped camping. Why not?" Put the wheelchair and the walker in there and go! Ah, by the time I figure out all the logistics of all that, I'll probably just need the walker. But you're never too old to dream. To make things even more interesting, the Yoda is my only driver. Right before the accident that broke my ankles, I had decided that my good old Buick wasn't worth fixing up for inspection. Too much rust underneath. Another perfectly good car killed by road salt. All I can do now is look at Craigslist. But no biggie, the Toy is so small that my physical therapist doesn't see any problems with me driving it. If I can make it to the grocery store by this weekend, I'll be thrilled. I won't have to beg people to do that for me any more. Still love my Dolphin. By this time I had planned to have on all the new vacuum hoses, they're still laying here. And I wanted to put another coat on the roof. Don't know if it really needs it but it would make me feel better. The Silver Seal that the last guy put on is showing small cracks. And so it goes.

Probably the same as mine, Electrical cord should be in small door front driver side. Also holds the drain valves.

You might want to replace them anyway. Pretty crappy lock and key on the original. Should be cheap and easy.

I think the thing is too bright, I seldom use it. But I'm one of those "Don't mess with my night vision, man" kind of guys. I got to cut it down one of these days.

Thanks everyone. Your concern is very touching.

Heehee. Yeah, 70000/29 years equal 2400 per year is an average of 200 miles per month, right?

A week ago Thursday, someone crossed over the road and hit my work van head on and broke both my ankles Sigh. Sitting here cancelling reservations for the trips I had planned for the next six weeks. It really ain't going to hurt the Dolphin to sit there for a month, will it? I got so many people doing so many things for me now, from taking care of the kid to the cat; that I don't want to ask, "And how bout driving the motorhome around once a week". I had just got my fancy "Replace all your 22re air hoses kit" in the mail. Didn't even get to open it. Have a good holiday and be careful out there.

I just did the little snip on the flasher for the fast signal thing. It's all over the Internet, how to do that. You just snip off a certain resistor. But then you have to check the lights yourself. It will never "fast" again.

I'm probably not good at explaining it. These guys do race car engines and I try to understand what they're talking about, but not very well. What they call a shim I think is the heavier gasket with the copper in it. And when they talk about the cam is it just will never be perfect but it's good enough for my use. One would have to get everything new for a race car you might say. They're perfectionists. The valves seem to have already been done, compression tests were all good. I worry too much. It hardly uses any oil. Less than half quart per thousand. Gas mileage seems normal, about 15 overall. It should probably be fine now. They do 4 to 6 heads per day. I must defer.

When I went to LED tail lights, all the problems went away. Which led me to believe all the problems were inside the old light fixtures. And I was just like you, this was working, this wasn't. Checking this, checking that. But that was just me. Just saying.

Pretty big RV dealer that I deal with. I asked him about surge protectors and he doesn't even carry them. He said they just don't see it as a problem. But if you want to be extra careful, he'll get them for you.

Thanks for the replies. Sorry, it's been hectic and I forgot I wrote this. Well my guys say that they don't trust the new cheap heads and that I'm better off to stick with it and move on to all the other things that need fixing.. Just take it easy on it. Which I try to do anyway. So that's going to be it for now. They're putting new rubbers on all the fuel injectors, they were all cracked. It should be done this week. We will see. I drive for the shop so the shave and the shim were just $120. Otherwise the head was fine. Still had to have the gaskets and injector rubbers which was another $150. Should get out for about a 1000 bucks total. If I had a garage, I could have done the labor but I wasn't waiting till spring. I'll let you know.

On the Dolphin and probably on me too. I haven't been around here for awhile because I've been a bit frustrated with the whole deal. So Happy New Year to all of you. So the 86 Dolphin 22re. The guy who sold it to me said that he had rebuilt the engine. I ran it around here for a couple thousand miles and it seemed fine. So we headed for Florida to visit friends for the Holidays. Blew the head gasket in Georgia. A nice guy down there did a quick job and got us going again and we had a good holiday and made it home to Pittsburgh. Then I took it to my mechanic and said check it out. He said the new gasket is leaking oil. So I said pull it again, let's see what we got. Took it to the machine shop where I work and John said that the head was pretty well shot. But if we shaved it and shimmed it, it would probably be all right for a while. Eventually the cam shaft is going to break though because the head is too warped from multiple over-heatings. So I'm too poor for any other plan now and that's what I'm going with. What's frustrating is I spent all this money on something that should have been replaced the first time it was pulled. But there you go. I still love it but....

A little paint. Since we had an unusually warm day here in PA, I decided to try my little paint idea. I noticed that Target sells these little 8 oz. jars of paint. There supposed to be samples but I figured they'd go pretty far in the ToyHome. I wanted to do the one side of the entrance way, it was pretty funky, just the old original marred wood. It did work out well. It's nice thick paint, I didn't even put anything down on the floor. The little jar is easy to hold. I put two coats on and decided that I really don't like that color. Well, I'm only out 6 bucks. Next time I'll try another section with a different color. Maybe the first color will grow on me. Or I'll cover it when I find a color that I like. I think it's a good idea for folks like me who don't have much time for big projects.

My wish list is in Google Keep and it's scary long. Your's looks longer though. heehee. Just have fun and keep it running. Good luck.

Yeah I gotta do mine too. Please let me know what you come up with. That one does look like mine. Through my job I go to a local big time RV place a lot. So I got to know those guys. I was a bit surprised that their prices aren't really that out of line. I buy most of my parts there. And I asked him, "Hey how much do you get to put in a vent?" He said 50 bucks. So I'm thinking about that. I know it's going to take me all day if I decide to do it myself. With no guarantee.

Thanks for the answers. I saved them for spring. I had assumed that if I dug into the insulation at the top of the hose, I would probably find a valve of some sort. I was mostly wondering why I would do that. I don't think I need that valve.

Still haven't figured out what that hose does. Hangs straight down. I'm afraid to mess with it. If it is a valve that you push or pull on, I worried that I wouldn't be able to get it closed again. I don't think it's a low point drain, I can see them draining on the other side. Here comes the frigidity! I hope they don't have to lay down the salt. I made a rule, no driving in salt.