Final decision made today on batteries

[bobofthenorth]

Mack wasn't the only mfr with that hare brained 24/12 switch.  John Deere did it too - I think it was the "20" series tractors from the late 60's BICBW.  It didn't last long and wasn't missed when it disappeared from their offerings. 

[Scott & Heather]

Why on earth did we settle on 12 volts for automotive systems anyway? Thicker cables...


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[luvrbus]

Why on earth did we settle on 12 volts for automotive systems anyway? Thicker cables...


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Beats the old 6-8v systems but you probably never saw a 6v system that all we had when I was a kid it was amazing when the 1955 Chevys came with the 12 v system they actuality  started hot or cold     

[windtrader]

Scott,

You did the research, figured out what works best for you, and made decisions to effect the best configuration for your bus. Great! Don't worry about the nit-picking from some. One size doesn't fit all. The one critical decision I'll bark from a soapbox is using true deep cycle batteries for house use.

[luvrbus]

I wouldn't call it nit-picking Jon just made his case, Scott will figure it out in the long term a battery just has so many cycles built it's life span and the dual purpose batteries have a short life span than is why they have a lousy warranty IMO

[Jon]

Not nit picking but trying to pass along experience. Our first coach had two sets of batteries, start and deep cycle for the house and we got good life out of them because both sets were used as intended. As simple as that coach was if we wanted to light an incandescent 120V light in the living room or watch TV we had to turn a big black knob to select the source of 120V electric. The source could either be an inverter, generator, shore power or "off".

Despite having it for 15 years my wife never could get past the frustration of having to remember to turn the big black knob to the correct source just to turn on a lamp or watch TV. She not only never understood why some of the 12VDC lights would always work and the table lamp did not, she did not care. It wasn't her job. To her our coach was a recreation vehicle, and the simpler her life could be the happier she was.

When we got the next coach with inverters I never turned off, and she realized she never again had to turn knobs or switches to do anything, and that she had power in the outlets, she could watch TV or make coffee without thinking about if she had the switch in the right position she was a happy camper.

And I was happy because she was happy. Neither of us considers our coach an adventure so hats off to those who are willing to experiment, to tolerate some sacrifice, and to not get terribly flustered with failures or problems. Our coach is our second home and we don't want to have to worry about anything when we leave on a trip. I don't ever want to make a repair while on the road. I go so far as to throw away perfectly good parts because I replaced them before they reached their end of life, and that includes batteries, air bags, brake chambers, tires, etc. My coach is not a laboratory or an experiment. And I can assure everyone that as we age our tolerance for things we accept when younger gets pretty thin.

[Scott & Heather]

I honestly am in love with the concept of having that hybrid  4024 magnum... the tech inside that box allows us to really harness any amount of incoming power from any source to provide power to our coach and I know I would benefit greatly from that. My wife is largely sheltered from any drama with the coach as I always have the systems working whether parked or on the road. Most of the time we can't hardly tell whether we are on the pole connected to sewer/water or not because my twin generators are so incredibly quiet, you don't know they are running from inside the coach. The power from them has a cleaner wave form than the grid power so you don't even get a flicker when on genset. My water pump currently is a house jet pump so it delivers 60psi of water pressure so we typically have high pressure while using the pump on the road. 150 gallon holding tanks and really we can take nice long hot showers, do laundry, cook pizza in our oven and run both roof airs to keep comfy while on the road. I fill the generators with fuel so again she's largely insulated from any drama or hardship. We only have 120v system in the coach. All she ever has to do is pull the transfer switch in our master bath from pole to generator power...and someday that will be automatic. But i admit if something ever happened to me, she would get it done but would probably not enjoy it very much. I'm out in the rain and snow and darkness filling those generators once every day. The worst part about having gas gensets


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[luvrbus]

It's all a learning curve people learn by mistakes made ,I wondered why you bought 2 Honda gas generators when you could have bought a good used diesel for about the same money. LOL I made a huge mistake when I bought the Attwood AC unit those are worthless in the AZ heat so now I know   

[bobofthenorth]

Why on earth did we settle on 12 volts for automotive systems anyway? Thicker cables...

Excellent question.  And the answer, as Clifford has already pointed out, is that 6 volt systems were even worse.  I once read about a move to 48 volt automotive systems which seemed to me to make a lot of sense.  Absolutely stick to the 24 volt system.  And don't get me started on household electric.  North America is seriously behind the rest of the world there.  More volts is better because its still all about the watts and more volts means less amps for the same watts.

[Iceni John]

I'm out in the rain and snow and darkness filling those generators once every day. The worst part about having gas gensets

Do you already have propane in the bus?   If so, why not convert the generators to propane?   Then you won't need to be always refilling them.   That was the best thing I did to my little emergencies-only generator.

John

[eagle19952]

Excellent question.  And the answer, as Clifford has already pointed out, is that 6 volt systems were even worse.  I once read about a move to 48 volt automotive systems which seemed to me to make a lot of sense.  Absolutely stick to the 24 volt system.  And don't get me started on household electric.  North America is seriously behind the rest of the world there.  More volts is better because its still all about the watts and more volts means less amps for the same watts.

means zip when you are paying for them.. 440 volt watts cost the same as 110v watts....

[thomasinnv]

Hey clifford if you decide to replace the atwood let me know i will buy it from you when i get home in october. I plan on buying one anyway so just as well buy it from you if it would help you out.

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Ps. I have a coleman mach 13.5 with heat strip i will be replaacing, still works good. If interested maybe we can work that into the deal.

[windtrader]

Batteries to AC - what the heck. Just curious what the problem is with the Atwood AC units, not enough BTU, quality, noise..??

[Scott & Heather]

Cliff, I was on the side of the road in winter in my old bus which had no heat at all. So I needed some electric heaters and generators asap and was literally a short bit from Honda small engine dealer. The gens were on Sale, I had just had a major failure of my Atwood furnace which filled the coach with soot and set off my CO alarm with my wife and baby inside during the night. So in the panic moment I bought the first safe and quiet power I could get my hands on. They've been amazing. Literally the only bummer so far has been filling them with gas daily. I'll use the daylights out of them and then upgrade to a little diesel genny when I have time to build a proper cooled quiet box for it too. As for converting them to LP, I've thought about it but I have also read that the hotter head temps that result can shorten their lifespan. There's some interesting experiments people have done with my gennies.


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[luvrbus]

Hey clifford if you decide to replace the atwood let me know i will buy it from you when i get home in october. I plan on buying one anyway so just as well buy it from you if it would help you out.

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Ps. I have a coleman mach 13.5 with heat strip i will be replaacing, still works good. If interested maybe we can work that into the deal.

It is going to be replaced I can tell you for sure,lol Gary Hatt the chief in command here found out also his 2 Atwoods didn't work in a 106 degrees but his shut down mine will still blow hot air but who needs hot air when it a 106