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Showing content with the highest reputation on 11/29/2019 in all areas

  1. Since some Oliver users evidently use their rig in extreme conditions, I got to wondering what the limits were for propane use in cold temps. It seems that 30# propane cylinders have a "gas production surface" limit which gets pretty iffy under about 10 degrees F. Using the furnace and fridge and hot water will tend to starve a generator that is trying to run off the same tank. An answer is to use two tanks at the same time (twice the gas producing surface area). That brings us to the problem with "auto switching" RV propane gas regulators. When a regulator lever is pointing to a tank, the BTU capacity of that tank is at it's max rated capacity. However, if that tank is at it's lowest level, and has auto switched to the other tank, the BTU capacity is at some significantly lower level. For some regulators, as much as 50% lower. There is a huge range of "full" BTU capacity among RV regulators! Some as low as 150,000 BTU. I picked two of the units with the largest capacity, and asked the companies what their regulators were rated at if the lever was placed in the middle position. The only one which answered was the "Fairview Fittings" company. Their Fairview GR-9984 regular is rated at 345,000 BTU. They state that the reserve capacity (middle lever position, or auto switched) is 260,000 BTU, which is actually more than some of the other brand's full rated capacity. There you have it. If you intend to camp in REALLY cold weather and want to use a generator, you might consider changing your propane regulator to a very high capacity unit.
    1 point
  2. Been "offline" as I started a new job. But I did pre-order the cyber truck. It's refundable so I can see how the details work out. 1) It's got a 6.5" bed with what looks to be an actual weather/dustproof design. 2) It's a hair shorter than an F150 with a 5.5" bed. 3) standard air suspension 4) Price parity with any of the big three trucks by the time you get them to adaptive cruise/blindspot/forward collision/ lane departure. Lariat is 65k, Laramie is 61k, LTZ is 62k. These will sell for less, but by the time you figure in the savings in fuel costs, they probably cost more than the 500 mile Tesla. 5) Convenience - it is a bit of a toss up, but if I have a 50A receptacle when I pull in for the night, that's 160 kWh that I could add overnight without having to make a fuel stop as either the first thing in the morning or last thing at night. However, it means my midday stop for most days will be confined to where a supercharger is, and lunch will be whatever is close by. It does mean for "travel" days we probably don't want to boondock as ending or starting the day on the supercharger isn't ideal. Where it wins is for my day to day life, it means never going to a gas station. 6) it says it's coming with a 240v receptacle and a 120v. If the amperage is higher on these (it sounds like it might be), then I just got a nice power bank for my trailer. Like enough to run the AC for a couple/few weeks. It will also have an option for its own solar that is capable of ~15 miles/day of charging 7) even if Rivian or Ford come out with an electric truck that matches this in every way, the Electrify America/non-tesla network of fast chargers just sucks right now. I'm hoping that this works well with towing with the existing supercharger network as well as the buildout tesla is doing for the tesla semi. 8 ) Tesla is the only manufacturer that has made their cars better over time. My FoMoCo product is pretty much the same as when it was released with only a few buggy updates. The maps refuse to update (which required going to a website, formatting a USB properly, copying files over, renaming a .tar.gz file to get it to copy, and then still failed). In the meantime, Tesla dropped dog mode (keeps doggo cool in the car while you go shopping), sentry mode (records action around the car using the 360 camera), dashcam mode (duplicates having a gopro front and rear (and then updated it to include sides too)), upgraded charging to 250kW, Navigate on Auto Pilot (car chooses proper lanes and handles interchanges), and a bunch of other features. Lincoln came out with the Nautilus that supports lane centering (enhanced lane keep assist), but not even the 2020 Navigator supports it. What remains to be seen is how well this is adapted to towing (anti-sway/reversing/does blind spot cover the trailer/etc..). How they expand/improve their superchargers for charging. The looks don't really strike my fancy, but the same goes for about all new trucks sold. At least this one doesn't come with watercolor paint that will die at the first blackberry bush/branch/fingernail it meets. In the end, if it doesn't work out -- I will get my $100 back.
    1 point
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