Daily Archives: January 23, 2015
The Roughneck Life . . .
I mentioned the other day about my rig muffler/tailpipe repair where I reattached my pipe to the muffler where it had broken off.
So out of curiosity, I called Spartan this afternoon to see how much a new muffler would have cost me. Turns out I saved $272.12 plus $45 shipping. Pretty good return on $10 worth of clamps, brackets, and screws.
I’ve run into a small problem with my recent power converter that I installed around the middle of December.
https://ourrvadventures.com/2014/12/original-mexican-and-old-friends/
Well, I’ve run into a small problem with it. The Float Charge level is about 0.1 volt too low.
Like most power converters, mine has 3 output voltage levels.
The first one, the Bulk Charge Mode will run at 14.4 for a maximum of 4 hours. This mode is used if you’ve been draining your batteries pretty hard so the system needs to catch up.
Next is the Absorption Mode, which at 13.6 volts, is considered the ‘normal’ mode when you’re using a lot of 12 volt power.
Lastly, is the Float mode. At 13.2 volts, this mode is where the converter mostly stays, due to the fact that most of our lights are LED, and we just don’t use much other 12 volt power, except when we run the vent fans.
The problem is that 13.2 volts is not enough to cause my rig battery controller to switch over and charge the engine batteries. It needs to see 13.3 volts before it will switch.
I talked with American Coach to see if this level is adjustable, and found it wasn’t.
I can make the converter charge the engine batteries by turning it off and back on, which starts it back up in Bulk Mode for little while, but then it cycles down to Absorption Mode and then back to Float Mode. But this is a PITA.
I talked to the PowerMax power converter people and found that there is an adjustment inside that will raise output voltage slightly, but to do so, I would have to drill out the rivets in the case to get inside, and this would void my warranty, and the two year additional warranty I bought for $9.95
Right now I have a 3 amp float charger on the engine batteries, keeping them right at 13.3 volts, while my house batteries sit at 13.2 volts. And that’s how it will stay until and if, I come up with something else.
Update: What I finally ended up doing is to put the Power Converter on a timer. Three times a day, every 8 hours, the timer shuts off the Power Converter for 30 minutes, so that when it comes back on, it goes into Bulk Charge Mode at 14.4 volts, which will charge the engine batteries, taking care of the problem.
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Although the bottom has temporarily dropped out of the gate guard business (one service guy says they’ve gone from 40 gates to 16 in just a few weeks), it’ll come back. It always does.
Anyway, I came across a really good article describing the life of a rig worker.
7 On, 7 Off – The Roughneck Life
It’s a good read even if you aren’t interested in gate guarding. The comments are interesting too.
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About 4pm the rain had started to slack off so we headed out for dinner at Golden Corral and a second try at Wal-Mart
I mentioned a few days ago about how good Golden Corral’s 5 oz. Sirloin’s are.
And that they were better than the $24 steaks we had the other night at Nancy’s Steakhouse in Columbus.
And tonight was no different. Still delicious and still all you can eat.
Did I mention it’s all you can eat?
Tomorrow’s supposed to be nice, sunny, dry, and about 60 degrees. So I should be able to get back on a couple of projects.
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Thought for the Day:
What happens on the internet, never stays on the internet.
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