What did you do to your bus today

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What did you do to your bus today - davidbrady - 05-21-2018 21:30

Today I serviced the Aquahot and the generator, and I installed a new CruisAire SMXII controller, I also installed new lumbar air seat control valves, and I cut the preformed, cracked, and deteriorated end off my shore power cord and I clamped on a Hubbel 3 pole 4. wire 50A NEMA plug, and I installed a new chassis AC compressor v-belt.

RE: What did you do to your bus today - dentmac - 05-24-2018 08:19

I rearranged my water bay and put in new electric black valve, new water pump and a new Sani Con TURBO. The Turbo is Thetfords new model, 35 Amp with an 1 1/2 hose vs the old version's 1 inch. Should be much faster. I used Cam lock quick connects so I don't have to feed the hose out the bottom.

RE: What did you do to your bus today - davidbrady - 06-02-2018 21:17

Added a charging wire to my toad, a Ford Flex. Don't laugh, I know it's pretty simple, and in my case long over due, but It's never fun nor easy removing the front fascia of any modern day car and attempting to find non-interfering routes for wires. The bus has a 20A CB protected feed to the accessory pin of my 6 pin connector. I installed a fresh battery in the toad and a 10A fuse protected 12 AWG pair of wires to the battery. The Ford Flex manual has a page on prep required for 4 down flat towing but there's no mention of a fuse to remove. My guess is Ford likes to keep the electric power steering energized. Well, after a season of suffering a couple of dead batteries I finally got-er-done!

RE: What did you do to your bus today - dentmac - 06-04-2018 14:54

Hi,
I have a Lincoln MKX and after several boosts, I put in the charge wire and Lincoln (Bless them Smile

) put in a new battery.
Crazy thing still goes dead occasionally. I've pulled it 2 days without issue several times, but last week it died after 4 hours towing. (And I had started it the night before after stopping for the night.)

When I first got the car , I called Ford.. Four down towing is allowed , so how to fix this?. They never heard of that happening ( even though it is all over Google) They suggested a wire from the coach, and inverter and a charger!.. and that doing that would invalidate the warranty ! )
If it was power to the PS pump.. wouldn't the PS still work?

R

RE: What did you do to your bus today - davidbrady - 06-04-2018 16:06

Ross,

Have you verified that the bus alternator is charging the Lincoln battery by running the coach and measuring 14+ volts at the Lincoln battery? Wiggle the 4-wire coiled cable to see if there's an intermittent loose pin at the 6 pin connector. "A wire from the coach, and inverter and a charger"!, good grief! What could possibly go wrong! LOL!

It's only a WAG on my part that ford wants the power steering to be energized, I don't know that for sure, but I can imagine an electronic damping mode which simulates the effects of passive hydraulic damping while avoiding the power consumption of full power steering - all pure speculation.

RE: What did you do to your bus today - RainbowrvGreg - 06-05-2018 02:42

Here is the problem with charge wires. if you start the car while hooked up to the bus and he battery has an issue, the charge wire carries the amperage and burns up or degrades. one solution I have used is installing a onboard smartcharger https://www.harborfreight.com/4-amp-fully-automatic-microprocessor-controlled-battery-chargermaintainer-63350.html hard wired and plug it into the inverter powered receptical I installed on the back of my bus.
https://www.zoro.com/hubbell-wiring-device-kellems-flanged-receptacle-single-20a-5-20r-125v-hbl61cm65/i/G0468815/#specifications
weird thing about these receptacles is the ground is on top. I was thinking of installing another hardwired 4 amp chargers to the start engine battery bank and power it off of a non inverter receptical but I am not sure if it would cause an issue to the charge processor of the inverter driven battery chargers when the banks are left combined. I guess I can set up a bosh relay to disconnect the charge 12v current when the combiner switch is lit up at the dash??

RE: What did you do to your bus today - davidbrady - 06-05-2018 11:40

(06-05-2018 02:42)RainbowrvGreg Wrote: Here is the problem with charge wires. if you start the car while hooked up to the bus and he battery has an issue, the charge wire carries the amperage and burns up or degrades. one solution I have used is installing a onboard smartcharger https://www.harborfreight.com/4-amp-fully-automatic-microprocessor-controlled-battery-chargermaintainer-63350.html hard wired and plug it into the inverter powered receptical I installed on the back of my bus.
https://www.zoro.com/hubbell-wiring-device-kellems-flanged-receptacle-single-20a-5-20r-125v-hbl61cm65/i/G0468815/#specifications
weird thing about these receptacles is the ground is on top.

My simple solution to this is a 5A automatically resettable circuit breaker in series. Another simple solution is to wire a 1057 12V 21W incandescent automotive lamp in series. If the voltage difference between the car and bus is minimal then the bulb resistance is <3.5 ohm and the circuit supplies the 50ma trickle charge with 0.2V voltage drop. If one attempts to start the car, the toad battery dips but because of the logarithmic nature of the bulbs resistance the tungsten filament heats up and limits the current to a max of 21W/12VDC = 1.75A. It's dirt cheap simple trick that takes advantage of the nonlinear resistance curve of a light bulb, probably best explained over here: https://www.eetimes.com/author.asp?section_id=36&doc_id=1331961

(06-05-2018 02:42)RainbowrvGreg Wrote: I was thinking of installing another hardwired 4 amp chargers to the start engine battery bank and power it off of a non inverter receptical but I am not sure if it would cause an issue to the charge processor of the inverter driven battery chargers when the banks are left combined. I guess I can set up a bosh relay to disconnect the charge 12v current when the combiner switch is lit up at the dash??

I would probably disconnect with a relay as you describe. I don't have a lot of faith in these cheaply made chargers to expect them to protect themselves when faced with other chargers in the mix whether alternators or Xantrex inverter/chargers. My bus has a cheap Guest charger charging the chassis bank but Prevost wired it to an inverted receptacle which is relay protected to be on only when the ignition key is off.

RE: What did you do to your bus today - cmillsap - 06-05-2018 13:31

Greg,

There are battery chargers such as the Marinco Charge Pro that have diodes in the battery charging lead wires to prevent double charging or back feeding current. I use the Marinco Charge Pro 10A/10A on my 12V/24V chassis battery bank and it works great. They may also make a smaller charger that could be used on the toad, I don't know that for sure.

Greg,

There are battery chargers such as the Marinco Charge Pro that have diodes in the battery charging lead wires to prevent double charging or back feeding current. I use the Marinco Charge Pro 10A/10A on my 12V/24V chassis battery bank and it works great. They may also make a smaller charger that could be used on the toad, I don't that for sure.

RE: What did you do to your bus today - davidbrady - 07-05-2018 19:06

(06-04-2018 14:54)dentmac Wrote: Hi,
I have a Lincoln MKX and after several boosts, I put in the charge wire and Lincoln (Bless them ) put in a new battery.
Crazy thing still goes dead occasionally. I've pulled it 2 days without issue several times, but last week it died after 4 hours towing. (And I had started it the night before after stopping for the night.)

Ross, my toad went dead in this last trip. I traced it to a poor connection of the accessory pin at the six pin trailer connector. if you look at the pins you'll see that the male pins are split. this allows you to stick a screwdriver blade in there and widen the pin for a better connection. My Flex, with a BlueOx Apollo brake requires quit a bit of charge current. I have a 12 AWG wire, 20 amp fused, with a 15 amp auto reset CB mid stream.

RE: What did you do to your bus today - RainbowrvGreg - 07-07-2018 01:27

when I stop for the night I unplug the tow'ed to keep from using the bus battery. A diode or battery isolator might help. Not a harbor freight fan but I own just about everything they sell. I recently got a dc clamp on amp meter that I love. this thing solves major issues . https://www.harborfreight.com/600a-t-rms-acdc-clamp-meter-64015.html