1900 Mile Maiden Voyage With Small Problems

[Jriddle]

We made it home from our maiden voyage on Monday. We started in Wells NV and headed east to Salt Lake City. I pulled over about forty miles from home and found that the frig was not working because of lack of 12v power. I spent some time and found that the 100 amp equalizer was shutting down. I found the house battery bank, four 8D's to be out of balance. On side had less volts than the other 12v side. I started the generator and found this to satisfy the equalizer. We headed east again. The next problem which could have been catastrophic happened at the base of Parlays Canyon just out of SLC. I had just started to climb this large HILL when I noticed the Temp gauge climbing very fast. I pulled over as fast as I could and just as I was rolling to a stop the engine shut down just over 200 deg  on dash gauge. I found fan belt rapped around the AC pump. I reinstalled AC belts and put on my spare fan belt. At the top of the hill we pulled over to check things out and found my equalizer had shut down again. I unhooked half of my house batteries and made the equalizer work again. We finally were back on the road when I decided to fire up the AC to freeze the wife and cool me. The fan for this system started to trip out. I found a nice quiet off ramp and preceded to pull my Ac pump so I could fix the wire that the fan belt had ruined when it came off. I had some heat shrink on hand and fixed this problem. With all well again we made it to the middle of WY at Wamsutter when I pulled over to check things out again. I found one of my AC belts broken, probably damaged in the first belt mishap and my equalizer not working again. I didn't have a spare belt so that would have to wait till we get to Casper, the equalizer feed my house 12v loads directly. I took one of my 8-D's and hooked it up between the equalizer and the 12v loads and found this to solve my equalizer problem. I thought that the equalizer would run the 12 volt loads directly but was wrong. We meet a fellow busnut here. He stopped and said hi he looked to be getting off work. He stated that his conversion was in the early stages. The next morning we were in Casper and started the search for new belts and a 12 volt battery to install between the equalizer and the 12v loads. I found belts and rebuilt my four 8-D's battery bank for the house. We headed to Broadus MT for a few days. Sorry Andy we didn't leave Broadus till Tuesday and headed strait to Townsend. The rest of the trip went uneventful. I did have to repair tail lite wires also caused from first belt mishap. I spotted two buses in the Helena Mt Walmart parking lot. It looked like an Eagle and  MCI were cohabiting. Our trip would have been better if I would have changed these old belts. lesson learned for me and hopefully for someone else.

PS Craig I was smiling from ear to ear in the middle of MT when we were driving though a thunderstorm with my air wipers working until the water started to drip on my dash from a leak in my windshield.

John

[gumpy]

PS Craig I was smiling from ear to ear in the middle of MT when we were driving though a thunderstorm with my air wipers working until the water started to drip on my dash from a leak in my windshield.

That's cool John!  Sounds like you had a good trip, despite a few bumps in the machinery.  Has to be expected from time to time.

Air wipers?  What are those?  I haven't seen air wipers for probably 6 weeks! I thought they went out with the dinos.   
Still, glad yours worked for you. I'm not regretting my change over. That intermittent delay was very nice on the trip to CO when it misted all day.

Wish you would have delayed your trip a few weeks. We'll be in southern WY the first week of Aug. Just about 60 miles from Wamsutter. Well, I guess you can fix those little problems
and then will need another test run to see if it's all fixed. 

craig

[Chopper Scott]

Sounds like you had a great time even with the minor issues. I wish I had electric wipers but have found out that RainX almost eliminates even needing wipers. It helps at least.

[Jriddle]

Craig

If I am not working yet in August might need to make another run I will keep in touch.

John

[gumpy]

Looks like we'll be going up to WY around Aug 2 or 3. 

Email your phone numbers to me.  I'll keep you updated for sure.

craig

[bevans6]

I can't quite visualize your equalizer problems, but it sound like you had the equalizer connected to 24 volts, and were trying to pull 12 volts out without having 12 volts connected to a battery.   Some equalizers will do this, essentially making them a 24v to 12v converter, but I don't think the Vanner is one of them, if you have a Vanner.  The 12v tap on the Vanner needs to be connected to the center of the battery stack.  It allows a load to be connected across the "lower" battery while equalizing it's charge so that it maintains the same state of charge as the "upper" battery.  Ideally the batteries need to be identical and both in good condition.  You can hook this up with 4 batteries if you want to, it would work fine and keep the upper pair of batteries equalized with the lower pair.  You would still be limited to the 60 amps (typical, depending on Vanner model) of 12v power that it can equalize.

Brian

[Jriddle]

Brian

That is what I was doing and my equalizer is a 100 amp Vanner. I needed to have equalizer hook to a battery then to the 12 volt loads. All is well now I guess one needs his head in the wrong place now and then LOL.

John

[Eagle Andy]

Hey John glad you had a good trip and made it home safe and sound. We will catch you the next time or maybe we can hook up in NV we are planning a trip in Dec down to where it;s warm lol , take care bud and happy traveling

[Jriddle]

Andy

We may make this trip again when there isn't so much family pressure if you know what I mean. You would be welcome here.

John