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Re: eBay Solar Panels
If you are recharging batteries with those panels... look for some panels that put out 17V instead of 18.2V, and to still make 100W claim, the amperage output is higher. Since your voltage needs to be dropped to 14.8V or 14.4V, depending on how you set up your PWM charge controller on these smaller 12V systems, the losses are less. I much prefer getting the larger 150w 12v POLY solar panels for 12V. You will see honest 8.8 to 9 amps charging rates with them, actual, if the battery is low enough in charge when you start recharging in the morning. 5.5 Amps for a 100w panel is pretty low, IMHO. You want that current, the PWM charge controller needs the higher duty cycle, due to lower solar panel input voltage, without throwing voltage away, wasting it.615Views0likes0CommentsRe: Bio-diesel / Is it a good or bad thing for the engine ?
T18skyguy wrote: Thank you all, you guys are teaching me a lot. I am in Oregon, and the button on the pump said S15. Had never seen that before. I have a 2016 Duramax, so I better read the manual. My rig has only 3600 miles on it, and I have changed oil once, but not fuel filter. I better look into it. I need to find out how often the fuel filter needs changed. We got a foot of snow now. I can wait a bit. I don't drive it much right now. S-15 is 15 ppm sulfur or less, otherwise known as Ultra Low Sulfur Diesel or ULSD. Been around, and mandated for years now, ever since Diesel Particulate filters, common rail diesels, Catalytic converters and Ad Blue NOX treatment has been around. Sulfur pollutes all those filters and emissions scrubbers, and contaminates and ruins them. S-15 is regular old diesel 2 or D2 nowadays. Bosch does not recommend anything more that B-5 or 5% biodiesel in any of their fuel injections diesel systems. As a lubricant agent, 1 to 2% blended in adds plenty of lubricity to lower the wear of your fuel injection system. I have very strong opinions on running biodiesel made from waste vegetable oil or renderings or recycled Fatty Acid Methyl Esters based biodiesel through any diesel engine. It's simple.. Garbage IN, Garbage OUT. No way I am going to knowingly run garbage waste oil through a very, very expensive fuel injection system that's standard with these common rail diesel engines. Beyond adding a 1 to 2% addition of biodiesel, for lubricity, if you are doing high turnover rates of your diesel fuel, I don't see any value added. It has about 7 to 8% less energy per gallon that regular ULSD. If you can avoid biodiesel, I would, no engine or fuel injection system has ever been white paper designed to run on biodiesel. All of them have been designed, since inception, to run on petroleum based D2.680Views0likes0CommentsRe: How much converter/charger is really needed?
My solution... find another heater, that doesn't require electricity and your batteries all night.... there is stuff out there that runs on propane and a cracked vent and a cracked window for proper ventilation. Olympic Wave 3 or Wave 6.549Views0likes0CommentsRe: Mex's 20% AGM Rule Sucks.
MEXICOWANDERER wrote: If you have to buy a for fifty bucks on eBay Set the pot for 14.4 volts then when you get home plug in the Megawatt for several hours. That'll make absolutely sure the batteries get topped off right then your converter can take over the float. You do NOT need a converter change, and time spent at 14.4 volts at home is not that critical 3 hours, 5 hours then unplug the Megawatt. This will bypass the most common error in AGM management and can easily TRIPLE the longevity of an AGM. The best $50 you'll ever spend. Hi guys, been gone a while with that Deka 155Ah surplus Telecom thick plate battery. Easy as pie to maintain. Put it on the Megawatt 350,s set the variable pot voltage to 14.4V with mega watt turned on, then turn it off, and connect the battery. Max amps I've ever seen that thick plate Telecom AGM battery take is 20 amps at 14.4V I'd say it's imperative to get it down to 40 or 50% SOC every year or two, and let it take 20 amps off the generator or the pedestal for maybe 4 hours. After that.... when I get back home, pull the battery, store it in the garage and as soon as I get home, put the Megawatt on it for 3 or 4 hours to let it taper charge down to anywhere to from .75 amp to .50 amp charge rate at 14.4V. Battery just seems to keep on doing a really good job, I have to run it 2.5 to 3 days to get it down to 35 or 40% SOC, followed by 2 hours of generator time with the MegaWatt at 14.4V, then the rest of the day, the 150W 9 amp solar panel,again set at 14.4V gets to add another 40-50 amps, while camping. I try to do the generator and 20 amps is all she'll take thing a time or two on every camping trip. I always top off charge the AGM when I get back home. I believe Mex is right, if I continue, I should see 10 years out of this battery, with the way I operate. Do an occasional 50% discharge, and set the volts to 14.4V and let it take all the amps it will handle to a 80% SOC, and then don't worry about the taper amperage rate, keep the volts steady. I feel a deep discharge helps stir up the battery chemistry. I DON"T do a hard drain rate on me telecom, running heavy draw in amps from it. I keep it under a 10 amp draw max, at all times. My Deka telecom doesn't like fast discharge rates, or fast charge rates, due to few plates, and the plates are very, very thick. Price I paid.... $125 for a near new 150 AH Telecom... I knew what I was getting into... works great for off the grid dry camping. Works great with the solar panel, for about a week... then it needs the clean up cycle, or a drive with the alternator on the Touareg, which also has an AGM battery, to get it topped off, to a new campsite. Lucky for me the Touareg also has that AGM battery and a max voltage that I can see on the Scan Gauge as 14.4 to 14.5V. Not enough to worry about, it just works well. The electric drum brakes on the trailer on hard braking session, seems to pull a lot of amps out of that battery.492Views0likes0CommentsRe: Diesel engines why not more available in smaller vehicles ?
Bedlam wrote: There is a strong demand for diesel cars. I sold my TDI in four days from the time I posted an ad and got my asking price. Your little spot in Washington state with a bunch of greenies that wanted your 2002 VW TDI that is capable of running on biodiesel, which is why they wanted it, does not represent the interests in diesel cars in the other 49 states. Keep in mind, you live in the Evergreen state, which is a big political statement about the state of affairs in Washington State. You also want minimum wage to be $15 an hour in Seattle, because flipping hamburgers at McDonalds is a career that you should be able to get married, buy a house, and raise a family on, which is how the majority vote in WA. The rest of USA doesn't believe in that, certainly not employers, and certainly not McDonalds, they now offer automated kiosks to place your order at now, eliminating those $15 /hr cashier jobs. The newer Common Rail TDI's run on nothing more than 5% biodiesel, the demand for them or pricing is a better idea of how people feel about smaller diesel vehicles. Not much, when I can buy a 2015 VW Passat TDI SEL loaded with 25k miles on it in January 2018, a $35K car new, 2.5 years later, for $16.5 K in Dallas, TX. That's a hell of a depreciation hit. 2.5 year old car with 25k miles on it, loaded, for $16.5k or 16 year old 2002, possibly bought in late 2001, $22000 list, for $6,000. There's a lot more 2012 through 2015 passat TDI's out there than 2002 TDI wagons. You live in the VW TDI freak capital of the USA. I can assure you, you found a sucker for your 16 year old VW TDI. Especially with tha 01M autotragic transmission in it, that's known for failure right quick between 100 and 125 to 150k miles on it. Well known in circles on TDIclub.com, where many have offered transmission swaps from automatics to 5 or 6 speed manuals, because the replacement cost for the automatic was horrendous, at $5000 a pop, and the old transmissions were not rebuildable, as well as the MPG on the autotragics being 20 to 25% less than the 5 speed manuals which easily saw 48 to 51 mpg. An automatic was lucky to get over 40 mpg in that model TDI you owned. There's 40 million people where I live, in the state of CA... there aren't a lot of TDI's your age for sale, most of them are in the junkyard, VW stops supplying spare parts 10 years after end of production of a model.635Views0likes0CommentsRe: Is a Johnson AGM starting battery fully charged at 12.68v???
Never had a problem with my surplus AGM DEKA 150Ah + Telcom battery... 12.88 to 12.90V depending on the temps in the garage where it's stored. 10 months from date of manufacture. As stated by Landyacht, cycle it, stir the chemistry up with a good 50 to 70% SOC discharge, and then top it up at 14.4V until it holds a low current that no longer is decreasing. This battery might not power a big inverter, but for my 21 ft travel trailer, it's the Energizer Bunny. Just keeps on going, and going, and going. I don't draw a lot of amps off of it, but I am sure I could run 2 days, probably 3 between a generator recharge at 2 hours, and 150w solar panel on a sunny day for the rest of the 3rd day to top it off, fully. It stores well, doesn't lose voltage very fast or discharge very fast at all in storage, when fully disconnected.733Views0likes0CommentsRe: Is a Johnson AGM starting battery fully charged at 12.68v???
Naio wrote: Thanks, Mex and Landy, for your posts earlier today, which I am just now reading. The behavior of this battery is strange to me. It draws low amperages from the meanwell for hour after hour after hour. Starting yesterday at 12.76v, it took 2 amps with the meanwell set at 14.7. After 4 hours it was down to 1 amp, and I had to go home and make dinner. Getting back to it this afternoon, it started out at 12.87v, again happily drawing 2 amps. After about 3 hours, it was down to about 1.3 amps, and I left again to make dinner. Why does it want this low amperage for such a long period of time? (On the slim chance that it's relevant: I do have 3 dashboard solar panels connected to this AGM, although I'm not really sure they are doing anything and have not checked them for continuity lately. Two of them at least used to work. I'll try to remember to check them tomorrow, but it's a busy week.) I haven't felt comfortable leaving the meanwell hooked up overnight on a timer, at the place I have the van stored. But I'm moving the van tomorrow, and then I could do that. The voltage does drift upward at the battery terminals while charging. So far it seems to take 2-3 hours to go up .1 volt. If I'm going to set the timer and go home and go to bed, how many hours should I set it for? Disconnect the battery from any of the car + and - terminals, then plug in the meanwell, then recharge at 14.4V until you see 0.4 amps. It will probably take 3 hours, maybe 4.... You have phantom current draw from the van at all time when it is connected up to the battery. Alarms systems, memory for Electronic Control Module, all kinds of little bits drawing current out of the battery as it sits with the motor not running. When you disconnect the - terminal, all those suckers quit giving you false readings on current drawn while recharging the AGM. I do the same thing for my big 158 AH surplus Telecom AGM battery... 14.4V setting when I get it home, and current it will take is down to .70 to .80 amp usually in 2 to 3 hours, sometimes 4. You can't and won't hurt the battery leaving it on the MeanWell at 14.4V overnight, the battery will be fine at that voltage setting. I strongly recommend, as stated before, a good chemistry mix up by discharging the battery to around 50% State of Charge. Then put the Meanwell on it and let it take it's time bringing it up to 14.4V and 0.4 amps. That's a good "stirring" of the acid inside the battery and the plates. It should then take a very good "top charge" all the way up, once you do that.731Views0likes0CommentsRe: Trojan T-105 versus T-1275
landyacht318 wrote: Niner, was not your t-1275 used and abused before you got it? Perhaps a t-1275 recharged properly from new, would not require the extra voltage and duration at that extra voltage. I was going to get a t-1275, but then my Northstar AGM -27 proved it alone could meet my needs, and next month will have been flying solo for 3 years. My T-1275's came out of a golf cart. Went on the charger every night. They lasted about 2.5 years. I pampered them, I recharged them at 14.8V, I equalize recharged them when they got home from a trip. The oddest thing about them was the cells never really all got in synch with the specific gravities all being the same., the variance between cells was quite high. They were a bugger to desulphate if I went 10 to 14 days between an equalization recharge. Very time consuming. I knew they were done when I fully recharged them the day before on a 7 day trip, both generator and solar panels, at 14.8V, hardly ran anything all night and took a 5 or 6 minute shower the next morning to drain the fresh water tank before doing a dump, and the water pump was fading fast to a trickle from the showerhead while washing my hair to get all the camp dirt out of it, the 2nd time around. Time for something new for my battery needs, pronto. Good thing it was at the end of a trip. The best thing I did (though it won't help the OP, he wants 1000w) was replace them with a single 157 AH lightly used DEKA thick plated surplus TELECOM bank battery with very very thick lead plates, in AGM. It's slow to recharge, won't take much over 20 amps, but it's a breeze to fully recharge, and it doesn't lose much voltage in storage, during the winter. For my usage, it's perfect.619Views0likes0CommentsRe: Trojan T-105 versus T-1275
T-1275's are not the best choice for ease of maintenance, top charging, or equalize recharging. They require quite a bit more voltage, time and work to equalize recharge to a full 16.0V to desulfate. Ask Mexicowanderer more about the details on these floor sweeper, scrubber, and sometimes golf cart batteries. Unless you understand the limitations of these batteries, and are willing to go the distance to really get them fully recharged, GC-2's are a much better value, and much easier to top charge, maintenance recharge, and desulfate, due to the physical volume, plates, and electrolyte volume to lead plates dimensions.619Views0likes0Comments
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