A palace, some trips and warm weather..

Geo and I went to Vancouver, Salmon Creek and Longview, Wa. yesterday, he to the doctors and I to kill some time, we hit Home Depot and Walmart, ate at Subway and TacoTime.  It was so warm inland that Geo left Bubba home.  It's getting up to 104F in Hagerman where Mom resides, the air conditioning is having a hard time keeping up during the day, so a larger one may be needed these few days of the year where the temp gets so bad.  I am headed down to Idaho today or tomorrow to assist in fixing things, from sprinkler timers, computer CMOS batteries to Air Conditioning. I'll probably leave my travel trailer here in Seaview along with my fifth wheel.

P.S.  I think it got up to 68F here on the Peninsula... 

EternaBond Roof Seal, roofing nails and a design to battle the dreaded rubber roof BUBBLE

  

We worked on Georges Palace (fifth wheel) and his rubber roof on Sunday/Monday designing and laying down waterproof patterns to prevent the dreaded air bubble from popping up during travel and the flaps and flops during windy weather.  The vents, front and back caps were also cleaned and sealed during the long day up and down the ladders.  This process negates having to use a couple of tubes of Dicor every year to catch those nasty cracks and leaks.  This doesn't mean you don't check (and clean) your roof anyway, it just means for the next 12 to 20 years you won't be using much Dicor.

Adding an hour meter to Honda EU2000i - another project file

Another project done, I have a list of projects I would like to do. I have time, and materials, so another project off the list, and a couple added, someday the list may be empty... Then I will have no motivation to get out of bed. :o(

I belong to a yahoo group called Honda EU2000 Generators

One of the discussions has been adding an hour meter, there are many different styles of hour meters, I had bought an electronic trigger LCD meter/tach off Amazon with it's own battery, but found a mechanical hour meter at Harbor Freight Tools. An hour meter gives you an accurate time span so the oil can be properly changed, not just guessed at. It can also help monitor your usage and calculate future fuel expenses.

From Honda EU2000i genset hour meter

Here is the working face of the Honda EU2000i genset, including the basically useless 8 AMP 12 volt connector/circuit breaker in the lower right corner. Really who needs an 8 AMP/12 volt charger (and you have to have a "special" connector, a trailer converter/charger will put out 30 to 100 amps of 12 volt power when plugged into the 120 volt outlet.

For those with a Honda Companion model and no 12v connector, try searching for "REDINGTON 722-0001" , "Hobbs 20001-17" or even "AC hour meter" on eBay.. and just connect the available 120v to the AC powered (90-240VAC) Quartz Hour Meter.

From Honda EU2000i genset hour meter

dropping the face reveals the connections and components

From Honda EU2000i genset hour meter

12 volt connector comes out easily

From Honda EU2000i genset hour meter

leaving a square hole

From Honda EU2000i genset hour meter

The 12 volt connector unconnects easily, just press the little pink rectangle tab and the 2 wires just slip out. Make note of the positive (red/white) and negative (red/black) wires.

From Honda EU2000i genset hour meter

Japanese for press here to release?

From Honda EU2000i genset hour meter

depth of meter vs. 12 volt connector, notice the Jan 06 date code on the 12v connector?

From Honda EU2000i genset hour meter

Specs on the Harbor Freight meter #66754 http://www.harborfreight.com/hour-meter-66754.html

From Honda EU2000i genset hour meter

Bonus, NOT MADE in CHINA, hope India is better. We'll see how it holds up.

From Honda EU2000i genset hour meter

sizing ring and meter clamp included, ready to cut, I actually cut the three corners at an angle so the meter wouldn't turn.

From Honda EU2000i genset hour meter

Small cuts with multi-tool and it fits

From Honda EU2000i genset hour meter

clamped in and a bit of permanent marker coverup

From Honda EU2000i genset hour meter

Good physical connection, ready for solder

From Honda EU2000i genset hour meter

Soldered and placed with correct polarity, red/white is positive, red/black is Neg.
Be sure no metal is sticking out, there is a green ground fitting in the back wall of the component enclosure

From Honda EU2000i genset hour meter

With genset running, hundredths and tenths show, tenths are 6 minutes , and hundredths are 36 seconds.

From Honda EU2000i genset hour meter

aha, caught the little red blinky LED showing the genset is running, like I couldn't tell. (but I can tell the meter is running)

From Honda EU2000i genset hour meter

Finished project with tools

One of my projects in Seaview, GM 1999-2007 classic Door bushings and hinge pins

GM 1999-2007 classic Door bushings and hinge pins

My door was drooping a bit after 148000 miles, so I spiffed it up.

Using instructions from heymccall on the Diesel Place forum.

1. Roll the window down.
2. Remove door sill plate (pull straight up, starting at the front)
3. Remove kick panel (1st, pull firewall edge of the kickpanel towards the center of the truck to release that edge, then pull the pillar side of cover toward the rear of the truck)

4. Undo rubber accordion in in the hinge area by rolling the edge on the A-pillar away from the A-pillar. (only need to do one side)


5. Depress the two tabs on the white plastic insert (revealed in step 4) and slide it up the harness toward the door.
6. Now unplug the door harness that was made accessible in step three and pull it out thru the hole in the A-pillar.
7. Place the door halfway closed and remove the 10mm headed bolt on the door post that holds the door check.
8. Open the door fully and remove the single 10mm headed bolt in each hinge.
9. Standing in the door opening, grab the inner door grab/armrest and lift the door straight up and carry it away. (or lay it on a handy table)


10. Follow the instructions in this kit that you will have pre-purchased

(a) cut swaged pins off (4.5 inch angle grinder/cutter blade worked well)


(b) pull out pins with Vise Grips and/or light taps from hammer/punch, don't bend the hinges out of alignment...


(c) pop out old cheap GM bushings


(d) install new bushings and pins by pulling them in with a nut, then using a lock nut to hold them per instructions in kit




11. Reinstall door by reversing steps 1 thru 9.

It was rather fun and reassuring the number of people that came around to see what this crazy guy was doing now... One week, the front hub assembly, and the next week the door.

Fridge Fans

I know, it's been so long, I've been busy with everything, it's no excuse. I'm sitting at the Thousand Trails in Las Vegas, Nv, trying to stay cool. I've had a few requests for this when I put "had to add a fan in my fridge coils" on my Facebook wall the other day. As I watched the temperature in my freezer climb, I remembered I had bought a couple of six inch computer fans for the reason of setting up a cooling stack on the refrigerator. The ideal position is above the coils near the roof, to draw the heat up, rather than blow air up. But you have to take the top fridge cover off, stand on a ladder and all sorts of contortions. So mine blow instead of suck.

As you should know the refrigerators in out RV's use an older, more rugged technology, ammonia absorption. Rather than repeat what others have, here is a good explanation.

I thought about mounting the fans on hard mounts, either metal or wood and bracing them in the rear refrigerator compartment, but in traveling down the road the trailer flexes, so I figured the mounts needed to flex, I used nylon flex ties for mounting. (and it was a faster install)


Getting the tools and parts ready..
Crimper, side cutters, wire, #10 push-on lugs, 14-16 push-ons, 75 degree thermal switch (NO) and 12 volt, 4.2 watt 6 inch fan.


Location to place fans


One fan placed to push air UP the stack.


Looking up the stack/absorption coils.


Finished project.


Looking up at second fan..


Thermal switch and ground connector, I can pull apart the ground to open the circuit and stop the fans if I don't want them using power. I'm taking power off the 12 volt lines to the fridge board, a 20 amp fused circuit. Both fans, when on, will use about .6 (six-tenths) amps total (4.2 watts each.)




To sum it up, the thermal switch will turn on both fans about 75 F and push air up through the absorber coils, making the system more efficient. I can disconnect the negative side connecters if I don't want the fans to turn on, or the entire system can be quickly removed and later replaced for service if needed.

Addition (2-4-2012)

I moved the fans to the proper place (above the cooling fins/coils) it was very simple, I added a length of wire to the power portion of the fans and plugged it into the right places.. I also swapped out the thermal switch to a 30 degree C (86F) NO switch. I had a problem with the lower fan creating such an airflow it would suck the flame from the thermocouple making the igniter think the pilot was not on. So it was firing the igniter dozens of times, while the fans worked well during resort/electric operation, during the LP operation the igniter would fire dozens of times..


Closeup of fan in upper fridge flue..


Position of fans, and wire ties to "hang" the fans


One side buttoned up, with small wire ties, wire tie on center bar provided "strain relief" to wire going down to thermal switch/power below.

I'm tired... of RV resort excuses for voltage

/rant on

Over half of the RV resorts I frequent have low voltage. I've seen voltages under 100 volts, when powering up the microwave. It's one of the reasons I have the microwave on the inverter side of the 120 volt system. RV techs warn RV'ers that continuous operation of motors under 108 volts will damage and shorten their life expectancy. I recently purchased a Hughes Autoformer to combat the problem. Autoformers boost the voltage by two percent whenever they are plugged in, until the voltage gets to 116 volts, then a boost feature kicks in, boosting the voltage by ten (10) percent. When at 116 the voltage will magically jump to 127 or 128 volts, which everything happily consumes.

We as consumers have been slowly led to believe 110 volts is normal, IT IS NOT.. Check your labels, 120 volts is what everything has been designed for, and the appliances are happy with anything up to 132 volts, 135 volts is when most overvoltage situations kick in. Voltages lower than 120 lead to more heat, and then lead to shorter life of the appliance. It's a conspiracy, shorter life of product means more sales over the consumers life, and it's all about money, folks. /rant off

A friend emailed me a question recently.

"Is the autoformer the voltage regulator/booster device?
Why are you getting it? I know I have hit a few older parks with shakey power, is that why?
They looked kinda pricey just for the voltage regilator.
Just curious and also where you gonna put it?"

You hit the nail on the head, unfortunately the the majority of the parks I've stayed in have low voltage. I define low voltage as anything under 110 volts. It's one of the things I keep track of.

As you may or may not know, in a travel trailer there are two types of loads, resistive and inductive. That is, heaters/lights/fridge (resistive)(fans-inductive) and air conditioning/ microwave (inductive), the converter (120 to ~12v) is inductive. Getting a little deeper into electric theory, Power is made up of two things, the voltage and the amperage. They have a direct relationship as expressed by the formula (P=EI) (P)ower is expressed in watts, (E)lectro motive force is measured in voltage and I (current) is measured in amperage.

Resistive loads are usually happy with whatever they are fed, if they get low voltage, they may be a little dimmer, but it doesn't hurt the resistive load, the amperage/current is used to heat directly. (an incandescent light bulb heats a wire until it glows and gives out light.)

However, most lights in trailers are 12+- volts, so the actual 120 volts doesn't affect brightness or performance.

Onto inductive loads, anything with a motor or transformer, they are most happy and will last longer with higher voltage and lower current/amperage. The reason is current flowing through a wire heats it to some degree, resistive loads depend on the concept, unfortunately the motor/transformer does not need heat, it literally can destroy the motor (usually by melting the wire covering, be it enamel or vinyl/plastic/rubber and shorting out the device.) Motors and transformers in converters are wire wrapped devices and a short (or open) makes it not want to work, (an open causing the current to stop flowing, and a short causing the current to flow more with the possibility of fire.)

Motors need a certain amount of Power to run, for an easy example, say a motor requires 1200 watts of power, that would be 10 amps at 120 volts. The motor is usually (if 100% duty cycle) designed to handle the amount of heat 10 amps produces. If your voltage drops to 100 volts, the motor now requires 12 amps to run continuously, producing more heat, and over time it will affect the life of the device because it's running hotter than design. However, the air conditioner (13.5k BTU) will pull about 23 amps/120 volts (~2800 watts) to start, then settle down to run at 10 amps. If starting at 100 volts, it will pull at least 28 amps, a great increase in amperage (and heat.) (remember, heat destroys)

By the way, these are real world figures for my trailer,(Nash 22H,) as I had some time and voltage problems on my hands in Rock Springs, Wy. The problems were cured by the power company changing the center tap on the pole transformer (a larger autoformer) and giving the house/shop it's rightful 124 volts.

To sum it up, higher voltages (to about 135v) are better because they produce lower current (heat.) The electric company doesn't care, they get paid for "power" (kilowatts actually). You ever wonder how they get away with using such small lines across the country to deliver it? They use the same theory, very high voltage and small current, (remember, current heats) and then use various transformers/pole transformers to reduce the voltage to something usable by us little guys.

The autoformer/power booster helps the trailer to be more reliable and your appliances to be longer lived. A popular booster increases the voltage by 10% whenever the voltage drops below 116v, ie: 116 + 11.6 volts = 127 volts, if the voltage goes to 110 volts (very common) your voltage would be 121 volts.

Contrary to popular belief and despite what park managers will tell you, an autoformer does NOT steal power, it merely makes what is AVAILABLE more efficient, the autoformer by itself only drops about 1 percent of the load making it 99% efficient.

So while in Palm Desert/Palm Springs, I installed my new (to me) autoformer.

Area formerly under the Jack Knife bed, (now storage area-see blog) where 120/12 volt wiring and panel are. Seems there is some room in betwixt those wires.

A slight modification to the cord box, a little insulation and presto, it fits along all the other wiring.


I converted the 30 amp power cord with appropriate plugs/receptacles so I can use any 30 amp extension. I can also bypass the autoformer if needed.

For a wiring diagram, see my other blog posts on installing the 3000 watt inverter.

I am not affiliated in anyway with Hughes Autoformer, Franks RV power booster, Surge Guard Voltage Regulators or Powermaster Voltage Booster.

By way of CV, I graduated from Denver Institute of Technology with an Electronic Engineering Certificate (AAS) and spent a couple of years working for Texas Instruments (North Building) in Dallas, Tx. A couple of years working on televisions and radios in Rock Springs, Wy. then years of hobby electronics, including hidden cameras, power supply's, building and troubleshooting my own computers, becoming a computer forensics expert, and designing simple circuits for jobs around the house/trailer.

Also see Valiant Sacrifice my hughes autoformer dies