I built a spreadsheet to figure out what our drive ratios would be after re-gearing the rear end and installing the gearvendors. I'll try to sum it up as best I can...
The old: 4.63 rear meant a drive ratio of 4.63 as 3rd gear is a one to one ratio. Overdrive resulted in a final drive ratio of 3.47:1 so there is some savings as mileage goes. At 55 mph we will be doing 2261 rpm.
The new: A 5.13 means a 5.13 third, 4.00 3rd over (gearvendors on), 3.85 stock gm overdrive, and 3.03 double overdrive (gv on in overdrive). at 55 mph we will be doing 1896 rpm.
The reality: we overrode the double overdrive lockout on the gearvendors but must be careful in using it. The rule of thumb is if you can't accelerate in the gear you're in you better shift down. The only time we use this is when we're going down a grade or have the wind at our backs. I've gotten 8 mpg on occasions which isn't bad for 22,000 pounds of motor home and jeep on a gasoline motor.
Thursday, December 11, 2008
The chassis
A few years back we blew up the transmission, and blew it up again and 2 more times before we got it right. The tranny is the not so strong L480E (strong for a 3000# Corvette, but not an 18,000# MH.) I'm not sure what it's designation is now but I think it's called a L485E...maybe. We replaced the rear planetary with a forged "made in USA" gear set with 5 pinions. I'm not sure if I'm calling this stuff by the right name but the tranny has hauled us 10,000 + miles without a hitch. This whole incident led me to look over the whole system and here's what I did...
Re-gear the rear end from a 4.63:1 to a 5.13:1
Install a Gear Vendors over-under drive.
Re-balance the drive shafts (3) and re-angle them due to resonance caused by the gearvendors being longer than the original tranny.
Add 2 leafs to the rear end and put new coils up front (no more airbags)
Install Bilsteins all around including the steering damper
Install a Banks power system (headers, intake, etc)
Re-tune the main computer (tweaks to tranny shift points, fuel mix, etc)
And upgrade all the tires to a G load rating.
This thing hauls now. I don't understand why motor home companies do all this work to put a MH on a chassis and then all you can load including yourself if a measly 1000 pounds. That doesn't make any sense.
This is another one of those posts I'll have to break out to separate posts to really explain what I did.
Re-gear the rear end from a 4.63:1 to a 5.13:1
Install a Gear Vendors over-under drive.
Re-balance the drive shafts (3) and re-angle them due to resonance caused by the gearvendors being longer than the original tranny.
Add 2 leafs to the rear end and put new coils up front (no more airbags)
Install Bilsteins all around including the steering damper
Install a Banks power system (headers, intake, etc)
Re-tune the main computer (tweaks to tranny shift points, fuel mix, etc)
And upgrade all the tires to a G load rating.
This thing hauls now. I don't understand why motor home companies do all this work to put a MH on a chassis and then all you can load including yourself if a measly 1000 pounds. That doesn't make any sense.
This is another one of those posts I'll have to break out to separate posts to really explain what I did.
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
More solar than I know what to do with
This post will probably need to be split up into individual posts for details on each of the components in the solar system.
The electrical system is as follows: 2 L-16 6 volt batteries are the heart of the 12 volt system. They can be charged from an Iota dls-75 charger/converter or from the solar system or from the engine alternator. The solar on the roof consists of five Kyocera kc-130's and 4 shell 55 watt panels totaling 870 watts in full sun. These are attached to an Outback MX-60 mppt controller. The batteries are tied to a Go Power 3000 watt pure sine wave inverter which feeds a 30 amp sub-panel off the 50 amp main panel. The sub-panel is switched from an Iota 30 amp transfer switch normally closed in the inverter position, switched by power off the main panel. There is a backup 1000 watt inverter under the hood...just in case. The chassis battery is kept up via a Battery Tender trickle charger and from the alternator, of course. This system keeps us dry camping in the sun with no need EVER to run the generator, except when it's just too darn hot and we need the A/C's.
What can we run while camping? I've never done a true load calc to see what we're pulling but I can tell you what a typical day is. Microwave in the morning for no less than 25 minutes combined time to get our bacon nice and crispy; coffee maker for the group; TV running to keep the kids busy with cartoons for a couple of hours while we sleep in; fantastic fans when smoke alarm goes from cooking; water pump as needed; AND THAT'S ALL FOR BREAKFAST. As the day progresses we have an air inflatable bounce house running off and on and the TV or radio off and on. Lunch brings on the microwave again. The afternoon is where we really start going to town...lots of lights on; sometimes our rope lights outside will be on; the microwave again; don't forget the rice cooker and sometimes the slow cooker; water pump again for showers and then both TVs are going with DVDs. In between all of that we have lots of parasitic loads going with toothbrush chargers, phone chargers, and all the little electronic stuff when in the off position. During our trip to Death Valley in late November we actually had to turn off the inverter during the day while we weren't there so the batteries could recover. Usually we just turn on the inverter when we start the engine to go camping and don't turn it off until we get home. We have a neat little manual transfer switch to run the refrigerator from the inverter while we drive so we can save on our propane. We've pulled 35 or so amp hours in late November with this system. When we had just the four kc-130-'s we would typically produce 210 amps or so for the day. I'm looking forward to the summer to see what we will make now. This is good enough for now; I'll try to elaborate on each of the components later.
The electrical system is as follows: 2 L-16 6 volt batteries are the heart of the 12 volt system. They can be charged from an Iota dls-75 charger/converter or from the solar system or from the engine alternator. The solar on the roof consists of five Kyocera kc-130's and 4 shell 55 watt panels totaling 870 watts in full sun. These are attached to an Outback MX-60 mppt controller. The batteries are tied to a Go Power 3000 watt pure sine wave inverter which feeds a 30 amp sub-panel off the 50 amp main panel. The sub-panel is switched from an Iota 30 amp transfer switch normally closed in the inverter position, switched by power off the main panel. There is a backup 1000 watt inverter under the hood...just in case. The chassis battery is kept up via a Battery Tender trickle charger and from the alternator, of course. This system keeps us dry camping in the sun with no need EVER to run the generator, except when it's just too darn hot and we need the A/C's.
What can we run while camping? I've never done a true load calc to see what we're pulling but I can tell you what a typical day is. Microwave in the morning for no less than 25 minutes combined time to get our bacon nice and crispy; coffee maker for the group; TV running to keep the kids busy with cartoons for a couple of hours while we sleep in; fantastic fans when smoke alarm goes from cooking; water pump as needed; AND THAT'S ALL FOR BREAKFAST. As the day progresses we have an air inflatable bounce house running off and on and the TV or radio off and on. Lunch brings on the microwave again. The afternoon is where we really start going to town...lots of lights on; sometimes our rope lights outside will be on; the microwave again; don't forget the rice cooker and sometimes the slow cooker; water pump again for showers and then both TVs are going with DVDs. In between all of that we have lots of parasitic loads going with toothbrush chargers, phone chargers, and all the little electronic stuff when in the off position. During our trip to Death Valley in late November we actually had to turn off the inverter during the day while we weren't there so the batteries could recover. Usually we just turn on the inverter when we start the engine to go camping and don't turn it off until we get home. We have a neat little manual transfer switch to run the refrigerator from the inverter while we drive so we can save on our propane. We've pulled 35 or so amp hours in late November with this system. When we had just the four kc-130-'s we would typically produce 210 amps or so for the day. I'm looking forward to the summer to see what we will make now. This is good enough for now; I'll try to elaborate on each of the components later.
Sunday, December 7, 2008
Fresh water savings
The first thing I did was to move the vent location on the tank from the side to the top. Where it was located reduced our water capacity by at least 10 gallons by trapping an airbubble at the top of the tank. Our coach has a pressure water fill system and didn't have the ability to dump water from a container in to the tank. I added a gravity fill system on the other side of the coach so we can now fill from either side. This comes in real handy while we're dry camping at the beach and have to use jugs or water coolers to fill the water. In recent years we've never run out of water on our trips but it's nice to know it's there.
I ran the vent pipe to the roof through a dishwasher air-gap and back down to the bottom of the coach. This keeps water (on a full tank) from pouring out the vent while on hills or going around corners. You'd be surprised how much a tank can drain while on a hill. I've been told the vent line can be tied in a knot to mitigate this but our system works better. I don't use the vent fitting on our gravity feed system, just one vent for the tank is all you need.
I also installed a 15 minute switch in line with the water pump switch so there is a greatly reduced chance of the pump running all our our water out through a broken pipe late at night. I've seen it while camping. It's a nighmare for those it happens to and those next to them.
We have a commercial push style faucet in the bathroom which I set to an absolute minimum on time. This really helps when washing hands or brushing teeth (especially with kids).
Also, we have a cup next to the sink and we're all trained to catch any extra water running from the faucet. It gets saved for the next person to use.
I installed a shutoff valve for the shower. It works better than the shutoff the coach came with. This saves a lot. My wife catches the cold water in a bucket while waiting for the warm water to hit. We use this for our feet cleaning bucket at the door for the next day. 90% of our camping is at the beach and we have a lot of sand to deal with.
I've been toying with the idea of a temperature regulated shower valve to save on that warm-up water savings but haven't gotten around to it yet.
My cousin says we make our 60 gallon tank look like a hundred or more.
I ran the vent pipe to the roof through a dishwasher air-gap and back down to the bottom of the coach. This keeps water (on a full tank) from pouring out the vent while on hills or going around corners. You'd be surprised how much a tank can drain while on a hill. I've been told the vent line can be tied in a knot to mitigate this but our system works better. I don't use the vent fitting on our gravity feed system, just one vent for the tank is all you need.
I also installed a 15 minute switch in line with the water pump switch so there is a greatly reduced chance of the pump running all our our water out through a broken pipe late at night. I've seen it while camping. It's a nighmare for those it happens to and those next to them.
We have a commercial push style faucet in the bathroom which I set to an absolute minimum on time. This really helps when washing hands or brushing teeth (especially with kids).
Also, we have a cup next to the sink and we're all trained to catch any extra water running from the faucet. It gets saved for the next person to use.
I installed a shutoff valve for the shower. It works better than the shutoff the coach came with. This saves a lot. My wife catches the cold water in a bucket while waiting for the warm water to hit. We use this for our feet cleaning bucket at the door for the next day. 90% of our camping is at the beach and we have a lot of sand to deal with.
I've been toying with the idea of a temperature regulated shower valve to save on that warm-up water savings but haven't gotten around to it yet.
My cousin says we make our 60 gallon tank look like a hundred or more.
Gray water to toilet
So here's what I did. I had an old sediment filter laying around so I tied it into the gray water drain line and ran it to a demand water pump. The water pump leads to the toilet water supply. I installed a tee fitting and from it put in valves to select from gray or fresh for flushing purposes. In addition i put a check valve on the fresh water side so we don't get any nasty surprises if i goof up on a valve. The pump is on a second switch at the sewer clean out so I can be sure it's off. If the gray tank is empty the pump will cycle on and stay on until some liquid hits it. We only use this sytem for dry camping stays of more than 3 days. I'm speculating that my decrease in fresh water usage on a typical 6 or 7 day dry camp trip is at least 10 to 15 gallons. This not only effectively increases my 60 gallon tank to a 70 or 75 but effectively increases my gray tank from 45 gallons to 55 or 60 gallons. We can all take a military shower each day of camping. Our last dry outing was to Death Valley; we camped at Texas Spring which is a dry camp which also prohibits generators. We were there 4 nights and had more water than we knew what to do with. On a side note we had bacon cooked in our microwave everyday (no generators). More on that later.
The only noticable problem with this setup is the odor associated with the gray tanks. I will keep you posted on the progress I've made with that problem later.
Additionally, the pump system can be used as a very effective transfer pump system if the gray tanks are full and you want to dump some into the black tanks. All of us who camp know it takes a lot use to fill up those black tanks. Because our kids are in school we haven't had the opportunity to dry camp for more than 7 days so we've never even gotten close to having to try this trick, but I'm sure it would gain us a few days.
The only noticable problem with this setup is the odor associated with the gray tanks. I will keep you posted on the progress I've made with that problem later.
Additionally, the pump system can be used as a very effective transfer pump system if the gray tanks are full and you want to dump some into the black tanks. All of us who camp know it takes a lot use to fill up those black tanks. Because our kids are in school we haven't had the opportunity to dry camp for more than 7 days so we've never even gotten close to having to try this trick, but I'm sure it would gain us a few days.
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