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jd1923

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Everything posted by jd1923

  1. Good choice, given the new PD charger is 45A. I believe the original ones were 30A and ours usually read between 20-25A when plugging into shore power. The Blue Sky SC is 25A so 6AWG is just fine. When I upgraded, I found the ground bus (the one on the floor with many yellow jacketed wires connected) only had one 6 AWG connection to the batteries. Our new inverter/charger is rated at 120A, but i have it set for 50A. Instead of replacing the 6 AWG, I merely added a second 6 AWG wire. Together two 6 AWG cables are equal to one 3 AWG cable. This may be an option for you too. You need 4 AWG (or 2x 6 AWG) wire size on both sides, the B+ Red and B- Yellow connections from your new charger to your new Epoch battery. See these links the first one is to calculate wire size, and the second one allows you to calculate the combined AWG of multiple wires: 1) Wire Size Calculator (wirebarn.com) 2) Wire Combination Calculator (wirebarn.com)
  2. Do what I do. Always leave the sewer hose attached while on the road! 🤣 Put the cap on the end of the hose. It must still be a reach with a big-a basket like this one. Nice product, but the back of my 8 ft pickup truck bed would have to get awfully full, for us to spend this kind of money for extra storage, and with the extra weight behind the trailer.
  3. Just found this today and could have used it yesterday! To grease the inner tie rods on my truck, I had to turn the steering all the way left to get the driver side and then all the way right to get the passenger side. I really dislike crawling under a truck and not having everything I need. Crawl out, back in, again and again. It's getting harder on the older body! Next time, I'll have this and perhaps it will allow me to grease the Oliver with the wheels on. Glad to see LockNLube makes this. Just bought one! Amazon.com: LockNLube 90 Degree Grease Coupler Adapter : Automotive
  4. This weekend I installed a HP Billet Alum water pump on our Ram. The WP is one known weakness of the stock Cummins. New antifreeze, changed oil and filter, new air filter too. Jacked up the front to make getting under her easier. Lastly, I greased the front end using the new Dewalt with LockNLube fitting. Adam walked by, “what’s that?” (He has a half dozen Dewalt power tools.) nothing cooler than a power grease gun, btw. TV ready to head to Tejas! 🤣
  5. Dave, 6 AWG is all you need. The ONLY reason for anything heavier is when running an inverter. OTT uses 6 AWG to connect the PD charger, the 12VDC fuse panel and everything else. Make sure all B+ and B- connections are clean and tight. I cut 1/2” off each end to bare new copper in the buses, but if you have good eyelets to the batteries, just steel brush them Blue Sky SC in our hull also uses 6 AWG in and out. Check my upgrade link re configuring the Blue Sky for LiFePo4. Good battery choice, btw! 🤣
  6. That’s all it needed. Bad Q on installation!
  7. Yes, every time I open the LP valve after parking at our campsite, Chris is inside, and our first step is to light a gas burner to prime the main line. We change fridge to LP and start the HWH afterwards and the furnace should be ready to fire up overnight.
  8. Wow, never seen such a thing and your Oliver is only 1 year old! I'm assuming your inverter was charging previously. Could something have been pulling on the 10/3 cable from outside the inverter? Anything loose or stored in that basement area?
  9. Cool, thank you! Btw, if you are a Zoom presenter, which is the vehicle of my parttime semi-retirement job, you are pushing more data up vs. down, and upload latency is an issue in all Sat connections. On all technology platforms, download speeds are 5-10x upload speeds, np for streaming movies, or if you must the Presidential Debate (oh 'twas so painful). 🤣 One part of me wants to be able to do my work on the road, so to travel more often. The other side says screw that and it's a GREAT day boondocking when in a deep canyon we're not connected!
  10. I have ONLY heard the "clicking noise" when the LP valve is turned OFF.
  11. My sediments exactly! When looking for fridge, or an upgraded A/C, anything but! I'm looking forward to your thread! The compressor fridges I've seen here so far do not enough freezer space to keep a half bag of ice, let alone a couple of fine steaks frozen, PERIOD! We need at least the same CF in freezer space, though this may not be one of your criteria. I would love a RV fridge that is literally 25% freezer or more. You can keep water bottles, condiments, beer and most things on ice, but you CANNOT keep frozen items properly frozen unless a freezer is less that 10F (speaking from many years in the restaurant industry). Anybody need an ice pack to apply to a injured joint? I sure do! You need freezer space. I will likely add a freezer to my truck bed, but...
  12. Ship me the second one! 🤣 Is the second box the interior assembly?
  13. Has anybody worked a permanent rooftop installation? I like the specs, IP67, wide temp range, wind speeds 60+ MPH. Anybody wire Starlink Mini as WAN input to a router? We did our Pepwave upgrade in Jan. Just 9 months ago Starlink was $2500 HW cost and no Mini. It’s now feasible! Anybody use this yet for Zoom meetings? How is latency? (common in Sat connections) Thanks @Patriot
  14. Recommended Charge Current is 50A on the Epoch 300AH LiFePo4 battery, and Max Charge Current is stated at 200A. That is a large difference. My question is, what would "recommended" be for two batteries in parallel? For batteries wired in parallel we add amperage, so why not add amperage of charge rates? I could not find a decisive answer to this question online. For these batteries Recommended Discharge Current is 100A and Max Discharge Current is 200A. I've set our Victron MP2 at a charge rate of 50A where up to 120A is available. I want what’s best for the batteries, but if I only have limited time on shore power, can I charge at stronger charge rate? Is it OK to be greater than the recommended rate and still considerably less than Max?
  15. I had suggested 2WD earlier in this thread. Though hard to find one these days on dealer lots. Any 4WD truck is a climb! Love our 2WD TV, easy step up and it's not like you're going rock crawlin' with back issues! The weight of a TV is mostly on the rear axle, front wheels are important for steering vs. pulling.
  16. Get these parts to flush black or gray tanks: https://a.co/d/1jRtUTP https://a.co/d/b4RE4F6 https://a.co/d/5eEU0sE
  17. Actually, @Frank C did it first and best, quite detailed using u-clips. Mine was a quick job but the part re mine I like is the rubber seal, inexpensive part too!
  18. Looks like you’re going to have to open it. I put mine back with 4 screws, drill 5/32” holes, rubber washers and a white rubber seal, no caulk. https://a.co/d/5G5pVZd
  19. I did this upgrade first and by itself. Made a shorty cable and just mounted it at the batteries. You also need to connect the red wire to positive, so simple. When I upgraded to LFP and new inverter, I mounted the shunt at the other end of the B- battery cable closest to the inverter to get it out of the battery bay.
  20. Yeah, my older 2KW Xantrex had the remote on/off button, no display, and I never thought to see if there was an app. For $100 and easy installation, the Victron SmartShunt is a very nice accessory! Now with Victron MP2 Inverter and MPPT Solar charger, I have 3 app screens to view. This one is for the SmartShunt. It's about 2PM, SOC is 100%, so the solar charger is only needing to add +0.75A net (in addition to amperage being used by 12V accessories/lighting and the inverter at idle. This can be added regardless of make and model of other system components: Amazon.com: Victron Energy SmartShunt IP65 Battery Monitor (Bluetooth) - Victron Smart Shunt - 6.5V-70V, 500 amp : Automotive
  21. Just leave it on. Measure how much amperage it is drawing. The older 2KW Xantrex we had, took 1A when no 120VAC is being supplied. Our new Victron MP2 also takes approx. 1A at idle. This adds up to 24AH per day. Divide 24 by the AH of your battery bank for SOC loss. We have 600AH which comes to -4% per day. But with the solar charger running, net amperage is always positive during daylight hours, until you run a 120VAC appliance. We generally leave it on 24x7 unless we're gone for the day. We run our TV and Soundbar afternoons and nights, often the next morning too. Use our 1100W electric tea kettle to heat water for coffee and SOC is often 90% or high 80s. Maybe some microwave use and it's always back to 100% by the afternoon, unless it's raining or extremely overcast. Not sure if Xantrex has a good app. We added the Victron SmartShunt prior to upgrading our inverter. I'm checking SOC and +/- Amps on the phone app regularly and always just before leaving the Oliver for the day. One night we hit the fridge into DC mode without knowing it. I should have checked the app but had my phone charging at the dinette when I got into bed. Woke up at dawn to see the DC light on, checked the app and SOC was down to 63%. That was with the 450AH lead-acid we had at the time which is not a good situation. The following sunny day we got back up to 83% and then 90% the day after, rooftop solar only. Still used our inverter, ran the TV, but heated coffee water using LP on the cooktop! Keep in mind due to the fridge DC mode, this error would have occurred with the inverter on or off.
  22. This is also true with the Victron MP2 setup where "User Defined" allows you to manually set charge rates to battery manufacturers' specifications. For Epoch batteries, the Absorbtion rate is 14.2V and Float 13.6V.
  23. Thank you, but the old body is too sore, and our to-do list is never-ending! 🤣
  24. Can you buy just the rack, less storage boxes? I’d like a 12VDC fridge/freezer back there, locked down, very nice given it fits in the receivers on our old hull. TY!
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