BeerBrewer
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Re: Front Frame Mounted Bike Carriers
JBarca........ Your post was a huge, huge help and so was the other one where showed how you built your rack! Your design is one of the best that I've ever seen! I'm betting that those bikes don't move at all when you are driving. Mind if I copy it? The pics were great, especially the one where you are turned sharply. You've got plenty of clearance, even if you capped the truck. The next time we hitch up I'm going to make some hard turns, get out and take some measurements. As for the question about using the ladder. There are a lot of posts on the Grand Design (https://www.mygrandrv.com/) of people having issues putting two or more bikes on the ladder and we've got at least two right now. Heck that ladder scares me, I don't use that ladder unless I absolutely have to. When I'm at home I always use my extension ladder to get on the roof. I'm 200 lbs and I'm so afraid of bending or loosening the ladder, denting the aluminum siding and/or causing a leak that try NOT to use it.348Views0likes0CommentsFront Frame Mounted Bike Carriers
For those of you who use a front frame mounted bike rack on you TT, like a Jack-It, Arvika, swagman, etc. I am wondering if any of you issues with the bikes hitting the back of your tow vehicle when making tight turns or backing into a spot. The bumper on my GD Transcend trailer can't support a bike rack and neither can the ladder. So I'm considering purchasing one of the front frame mounted bike racks, even though they make be a PITA to load the bikes on. My RAM 2500 pickup has a leer cap on it and I'm worried that the bikes will hit the back of the leer cap when I'm making tight turns. It would also be helpful to know what type of hitch you use. We tow with Hensley Arrow and I know that adds a foot between the trailer and TV, but the linkage design of the hitch permits me to make very tight turns and front corner of the trailer gets real close to the truck. The next time we hitch up I'm going to measure how close they get.2.4KViews0likes7CommentsRe: Solar Questions
Unfortunately the amps that I used for each appliance came from the electrical load rating table in the manual for the trailer. I estimated the number of hours of use for each. For instance the manual claims the Frig uses 3 amps of DC power and 6 amps of AC. I assumed that when using propane there is no AC usage, but I was stuck with the DC. Since the frig runs for 24 hours per day that equated to 72 amp-hours and yet others have said that it uses only 17 to 20 amp-hours. So I TOTALLY agree with you that my numbers look high, but unfortunately I've got nothing else to go on. If you folks have more realistic numbers I'd appreciate it.656Views0likes0CommentsRe: Solar Questions
Lwiddis wrote: Again, what is wrong with running the fridge on propane like 99% of us when not plugged in? Absolutely nothing... Isn't that the idea? I was not questioning running the frig 24 hours a day. I was questioning whether or not the frig actually draws 3 amps 100% of the time.454Views0likes0CommentsRe: Solar Questions
Sorry I made a typo....Boob Docker, you are correct, I read that you can get 30 AMP-Hours per day and not 30 Amps from a 100 Watt panel.....my bad. Is that a realistic assumption? We have the typical RV propane/electric Dometic frig. The manual claims it draws 3 amps of DC power. I assume that is the DC draw when using propane....correct? As for my power calculation, I wasn't planning to run the heat all day, just a couple of hours in the evening and morning if needed. We also have a small propane heater that we could use also. Having said that, we have no intention of camping off grid in really cold weather. If we do get lithium batteries, I was planning to install them inside the trailer somewhere, possibly into the bottom of a lightly used cabinet or under the bed, but not outside. I know that I'd have to run all new wires. I read that these types of cells don't give off gasses like lead acid cells and they don't like to get very cold. So I thought putting them inside wasn't a bad idea. I also read that most lithium batteries have battery management systems (BMS) built in to them that allow you to almost fully drain the battery. From what I read the BMS will shut the power down before any damage can occur to the cell. So I was thinking that I count on getting 80 to 90 amp hours from a 100 AH cell. Is that not the case? Based upon some of your responses I re-looked over my numbers thinking that I was way too high. Unfortunately I didn't have the frig running 24 hours, so my estimate went up! My new calculation is 180 Amp-Hours per day, so I'd assume 200 AH for safety. I included my power estimate below. I got most of power consumption numbers from the manual or off the appliances directly. Our TV and DVD only gave AC watts, so I had to convert them into DC watts. I read somewhere that you can get a fairly good approximation of DC watts by dividing the AC watts by 0.80. Is this true? So our TV and DVD draw a total of 72 watts of AC power. 72/0.8 = 90.75 DC watts. DC Amps = DC Watts/ 12 Volts. So 90.75/12 = 7.5 amps of DC. So if watch TV for 4 hours that equates to 30.25 AH of DC. If these number look off (high or low) let me know. The frig and the furnace seem to be the real draw. We are relatively new RVers so we're still learning. TV & DVD = 30.3 AH (using and inverter for 4 hours) Misc Lights = 5.0 AH Furnace = 48.0 AH (4 hours at 12 amps) Dometic Frig = 72.0 AH (24 hours at 3 amps) Water Heater = 6.0 AH (6 amps for 1 hour) Water Pump = 7.0 AH (7 amps for 1 hour) Power Vents = 5.0 AH (5 amps for 1 hour) Misc loads = 7.2 AH (LP and smoke detector, power awning use, antenna booster, etc) Total: 180.5 AH Assuming my power estimate is reasonable, how many 100 AH lithium batteries be needed to handle that load? I am leaning towards a MPPT controller and pure sign wave inverter for the TV and DVD player, but I don't have any details on which I'd buy. Lastly, I should have mentioned that we are definitely getting an inverter generator within the next few months. I'm leaning towards a 2000-2500 Watt unit just so I can lift it. The larger units (3000 Watt and up) are just too heavy. So I may even buy two smaller units and run them in parallel, so have AC. I'm just starting to investigate solar and Lithium batteries. I agree that lithium's are so so expensive right now, I keep hoping that the prices to come down. Thanks for all of your info!455Views0likes0CommentsSolar Questions
I'm interested in adding solar power and lithium batteries to our trailer, but I'm getting lost in the weeds. For starters I calculated what I think would be our worst case power need (without using AC) if we went go off grid. First, it is just my wife and I, so no kids. We we wouldn't be using the Microwave, hair dryers or electric coffee pot when off grid. I calculated our power load to be about 120 amp hours a day. We wouldn't winter camp off grid, but I did assume that we may need the heat on for a couple hours, just to remove the chill. We'd only use the batteries for LED lights, to run the frig, charge up cell phones & tablets, run fans, to run TV and DVD player a couple hours at night and of course the other parasitic loads. Does my 120 amp hour estimation sound logical? Assuming that my power swag is somewhat correct, I was thinking that we'd need two 100AH lithium batteries. Sound about right? As for solar panels, I read that you can get approximately 30 amps from a 100 Watt solar panel, so I'd need four 100 watt panels or 400 watts worth in total. I know that I need more "stuff but does my plan seem logical so far?6KViews0likes34CommentsRe: Are TPMS questions
I already heard back from TST! Unfortunately I wasn't all that happy with what they said. TSTs reply was as follows: If a sensor is lost it will read the last temperature and psi for that position. If the display does not receive any data from a sensor, and no parameter has been violated the display is thrown into stasis and it holds on to the last data received as it continues on with the rotation to the other tire positions. It may take several minutes before it recognizes that the sensor is not present. Someone above just posted that it can take an hour and not minutes to notify of a lost sensor.687Views0likes0Comments
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