Just a thought on electrics and stuff

[Van]

Thanks Cody ,sent Bob a PM .Have a good day

  Van

[TomC]

There is just no substitute for size and capacity.  I have three 13,500 Colemans with a 10kw Powertech.  It runs all three with lots of power left over to run the water heater, refrigerator, washer/dryer, etc at the same time.  Yet it loads the generator engine enough so that it doesn't wet stack or smoke.  I use my roof tops as the only air conditioning source, and since alot of my vacationing time is in summer, is used quite a bit.  I have almost as many hours on my generator as my main engine in use time since conversion completion.  It is entirely possible to make a big generator actually quieter then any portable generator.  I have experienced many in buses where the only way you know the generator is running is by the air coming out of the exhaust (with no engine noise except the sound of the air coming out) and putting your ear on the bus to hear a very distant engine sound.  My generator has about 800 hours on it (like 32,000 hours of driving) with no problems.  Then you'll also have the same fuel to use as the bus.  Good Luck, TomC

[cody]

Thats also something that I've been thinking tom, one thing I've seen and was wondering about too are the diesel generators in the factory quiet boxes, do those boxes really help all that much?  I see the generators available with or without them and from what I can tell it's a battle either way to quiet them down, does it really pay to buy the factory quiet boxes or would it be better to build my own if I decided to go that route.  I would miss the economy of the honda tho, from what I'm told the diesels use up to 1/2 gallon of fuel an hour, my honda will run all day and most of the night on 3 gallons, about 1/3 of the fuel usage, but that all comes as a tradeoff.  It's just hard for me to justify the cost of the diesel generators at this point when I already have the honda.  I guess my concern right now is not so much the honda but more what the problem is with the front a/c unit and why it doesn't work on the road when the back one will.

[TomC]

Personally- the factory quiet boxes do a half decent job of quieting, but all have noisy fans.  All the really quiet gens are the ones that have been made in place.  About the quietest ones were made where the gen was mounted in a box, then that box was mounted on air bags, with another enclosure built around the box-truly silent running-with double mufflers.  Just talk to some of the studio generator people.  When you can walk past a 150kw generator and have to look at the gauges to see if it is running-then that is truly quiet.  Good Luck, TomC

[cody]

I'm kinda thinking I need to get into a bigger inverter, but kinda uncertain on how big to get involved with yet.

[cody]

Bontrager says they have a xantrex freedom 458 2000 watt inverter with the 3 stage charger, anyone running that animal? I have the same one but in 1000 watts.  Would 2000 watts be enough to be workable in a conservative bus? any ideas?

[Kwajdiver]

Cody,

The problem may have nothing to do with the AC unit itself.  While running down the road you will have more trouble keeping the front cool.  Lots of glass, a little air moving through the bus.  My overhead will freeze the bedroom, the front does a good job, but not a great job.  Bigger room, more glass.  It's been mention here that in order to cool the driver, the front AC should be way forward on the bus.  I have often thought about adding a third air,,, making two in the living room.

Put a therometer in the vents of the air units.  Turn it on, see what the temp drops to.

My two cents,

Bill

[junkman42]

Cody, I use a freedom 458 that is 2500 watt!  The inverter runs the fridge,2 TVs,sat rec,lights etc.  Never any problems.  The microwave does not object,My wife's laptop doesn't complain and so far it has not burned up any chargers plugged in while on the road.  I have a 10kw powertec that rarely gets used.  If it rolls over tomorrow it has served its purpose.  I saw one go on eBay for 450 dollars and was tempted to buy it as a backup.  The one complaint is the documentation , It is not the easiest to follow, but understand I am a retired enlisted man so go figure.  Regards,John

[cody]

Bill the front one won't even fire up, it'll run on fan but when I set it on low cool it trips out, I wired it direct to the honda and it ran just fine tho, I'm thinking my pass thru feature of my invertor failed.

[Sam 4106]

Hi Cody,
Maybe you could reverse the placement of your A/C units. Since the living area is most likely bigger than the bedroom, you would have better performance where you need it.
Our front A/C gets far more use than the rear one, so, after 18 years, I reversed them. Just a thought.
Good luck, Sam 4106

[cody]

I've isolated the problem to something in between the a/c and the generator, I hooked the a/c unit to a cord and plugged it directly into the little honda and it fired up just fine, so I'm thinking the pass thru feature of the inverter may have failed. My inverter is only a 1000 watt heart, I've locatred a 2000 watt heart, I'm not sure that one is big enough but I may try it anyway.

[Sean]

Cody,

I'm guessing even a 2000 watt inverter is not big enough to run your Carrier.

It's possible that the inverter, in pass-through mode, is adding enough resistance to the circuit to be causing the trip, but unlikely.  I would double-check all the connections from the genny all the way through to the AC unit. Since, presumably, both units share common wiring from the genny through the inverter to the panel, I suspect the problem is downstream of the panel.

As another piece of unsolicited advice, since you have an inverter that is not capable of running all your loads, I recommend a two-panel strategy -- a "main" panel plus an inverter "sub" panel.  Large loads that the inverter can't run, such as your two air conditioners, would then be driven directly from the main panel.  In addition to keeping the inverter (and any problems it may have) out of those circuits entirely, this will also keep your inverter from trying to run those loads in the event of a main power failure such as a campground or generator breaker trip.

-Sean
http://ourodyssey.blogspot.com