Got a Vanner Equalizer. What now?

robertglines1 · March 28, 2012, 06:41:30 AM

thought I'd get a stirr out of that. Have told by truck friends that is a fair figure on fast idle. so what is it for a two stroke? If travel 60 miles and use 12 gallon that is 5 mile per gallon when traveling.

?? Bob

Scott & Heather · March 28, 2012, 07:14:15 AM

Government testing and documents I read indicate 0.8-1.5 gallons per hour for most semi trucks. Detroit might be a little worse?? In any case, you think our fridge could run all night on a battery bank? That would be cool

Oonrahnjay · March 28, 2012, 07:21:59 AM

Quote from: Scott Bennett on March 28, 2012, 07:14:15 AMGovernment testing and documents I read indicate 0.8-1.5 gallons per hour for most semi trucks. Detroit might be a little worse?? In any case, you think our fridge could run all night on a battery bank? That would be cool

Call it 1 gallon/ hour, for 8 hours that's 8 gallons @ $4 gallon or $32. Good points idling (or on a generator)- you park where you want to and go to sleep; using a motel - you find a place to park, go in and check in and give them a credit card, go back, get your bag out of the truck, get into the room, have a shower in the AM (no additional cost), then you check out, carry your things back to the truck, etc., start up, drive back over to the truck stop fuel up and get ready to go. Seems lots of factors.

buswarrior · March 28, 2012, 07:58:31 AM

Do some math for yourself,

Don't go on my word, but to give you an idea of whether you want to go this way, 4 golf cart batteries, a good quality inverter, 24 volt system, and a house frig on 110AC that is already cold, and not being heat soaked by the interior of the coach being at elevated temps, will not harm a battery bank of that size.

Also, I know a busnut madman that could keep a purpose built bedroom cool all night with a roof AC with 8 golfcart batteries.

So, if you get your head wrapped around the electrical, you can decide for yourself what you want to accomplish with the funds you have available, and not follow the crowd.

Try the extensive educational opportunities at this place, as well as a wide array of products and prices:

http://www.altestore.com/learn/

You can't move any further forward by way of the bus board, you have several evenings of trying to wrap your head around all these electrical concepts. Battery health, sizing the battery bank to run the intended loads, inverter, charger, state of charge meter, and how you might tie all of this together in a system that functions for you, and the rest of those who use the coach without being a monster of a pain in the @$$.

If it ain't simple to operate at the end, you've failed.

Anyway, get reading, see you in a few days!

happy coaching!
buswarrior

belfert · March 28, 2012, 09:05:43 AM

A rough estimate is it would take 10 gallons of fuel to go 60 miles which is about an hour of travel. If it takes 10 gallons an hour while moving 5 to 6 gallons an hour idling seems really high. I know that 4 strokes don't take anywhere near that much fuel to idle.

If a truck engine has to run 24 hours a day to provide HVAC for the driver, only a maximum of 11 of those hours can be driving hours to stay legal. There are probably 10 to 12 hours a day when an APU could be used instead. If the APU saved around 5 gallons of fuel per day it would pay for itself in 350 days by my estimate at $4 a gallon. Presumably all fuel used by the APU could qualify for a fuel tax rebate for even more savings.

Some states don't allow idling more than 5 or 10 minutes so an APU is a must if one wants HVAC in the vehicle.

Scott & Heather · March 30, 2012, 09:01:57 AM

buswarrior. reading.....

I do agree there are a lot of factors. As we travel across the country, we don't stay at camp grounds. We stop overnight at truck stops. Some people hate them, but I've never understood why. I choose a well-lit Flying J, Loves, or T/A and snuggle in somewhere out of the way and we're always treated so nice. But, running a genset during the night disturbs truckers. It's a much more obnoxious noise than the gentle rumble of large diesels idling all night. So in those situations, I'd run battery bank or idle the coach all night. I've done it...we've super-sealed our bedroom area and also included fire-rock sheet rock with a 90 minute fireblock time, so no fumes, and very little heat end up in the bedroom, but we still use a CO sensor and can really fall asleep well to the noise of a DD idling. Love it. Genset is more efficient of course and can be used in other situations. Battery bank of course would be great, but need to learn more about it...will be spending some time to do that...

Busted Knuckle · March 30, 2012, 07:00:09 PM

Scott don
t fool yerself! A ginny running ain't no worse than most refer units.

But on the other hand you are staying in their truck stops as a guest so a noisy ginny may not be tolerated quite as much as a refer unit.

BK

Scott & Heather · June 13, 2012, 08:20:44 AM

Just an update...haven't done much on this yet, but decided to sell the vanners, and put the $$ towards an inverter. That being said, we also this week purchased an 8700 watt surge/7000 watt continuous generator from Horror....I mean Harbor Freight. The thing is much quieter than I thought it would be (76db) and sips fuel....really nice little unit. Very impressed. I read through this thread from top to bottom and really appreciate all of you taking the time to explain things to me so clearly. I know you have to do it 100 times every time some newbie joins the board, but we appreciate it so much. Buswarrior really took some serious time to write his carefully planned responses and I appreciate that...I am intrigued by the concept of a battery bank that can run our energy efficient digital fridge for a 12 hour stint. Already cold, running watts around 170. I understand the amp hours concept and will be shopping around for some golf cart batteries to make this work. Any reason a set of deep cycle 12 volt batteries couldn't work for this purpose?

Lin · June 13, 2012, 11:23:59 AM

I believe the 12v deep cycles will work, but it is generally felt the the 6v golf cart batteries will give you more bang for the dollar. AGM are more expensive, but if you can find some used ones, they become more reasonable. Once you have AGM, you will be so happy with the easy care, and lack of gasing that you will not want anything else.

belfert · June 13, 2012, 11:45:08 AM

The thing I don't personally like about truck stops is the noise from the trucks idling. I can't sleep to that noise for some reason. Some truck stops do have areas for RVs. I like Walmarts for overnight stops.

I bought a bunch of used 12 volt AGM batteries for my bus off Craigslist for $100 each. They were supposedly for some demonstration project for the state that was dismantled once the demo was over. They are UPS batteries and they seem to work very well. They still hold a charge very well after 4 years.