Tag: solar-power

Day 2768

Half way there!

Today we will cross the halfway mark of this adventure at least distance wise, I’m going to take a different route around Oklahoma City witch will involve a little more toll road but hopefully will avoid a never ending construction zone in the city. The storm warning overnight was right on the money, and at 2 am it started and rumbled through till 3:30 with thunder, lighting and heavy rain, hell it rained so hard it washed most of the bugs off of the windshield.

It was 6:20 when I rolled out of bed this morning, maybe more of a nature call than anything else, dawn was breaking but some dark clouds to the east so no sunshine yet. I slept well until the storm hit and was able to fall back to sleep later, and the last time we were in Oklahoma waiting for our new windshields we had similar storms. As I’m typing this morning there seems to be a lot of train whistles this morning that I never noticed till now, the noise from the interstate is building as well, but it didn’t seem bad last night. Mister Sam greeted me this morning for his snacks but then headed for the big bed, he doesn’t like thunder so would have had a bad night along with not liking travel days he has been having a bad week period.

Well our route today will finally get us off of I-40 which we have been on since Tuesday morning, just a few miles of I-40 then the 344 Turnpike around Oklahoma City to I-44 which will take us right to the Mississippi River. Route 66 which ran from Chicago to Santa Monica and has been our route although most of the old highway was replaced by the interstate highway system but shows up along our route with roadside attractions right through to St. Louis.

Breakfast this morning was bacon on toasted sour dough bread along with a cup of fresh perked coffee that may have had a wee bit of Irish blessing. If all goes well this should be another four hour day, and should get us into Missouri. Our elevation at Oklahoma City is 1500 feet (457 meters) and today will be a series of rolling hills some only being 50 feet (15 meters) of roll and some having over 300 feet (91 meters) of roll, our elevation will descend as we get to Tulsa and the Arkansas River where the elevation will be 500 feet (152 meters) then climb back to 1000 feet (304 meters) at the Missouri State line.

So we managed to get on the road by 9:00 am and had good driving conditions pretty much all day, the new turnpike route reduced traffic and while a few mile longer was faster, and other than a couple of construction zones where the speed limit dropped below 55 mph (88 km/h) the cruise was set at 65 mph (104 km/h) and we made good time pulling into the Missouri Welcome Center by 12.45 pm

Today’s numbers from Thunder’s on board computer: running time 3:53, distance travelled 238.6 miles (383.9 kilometers), average speed 61 mph (98 km/h), consumed 28.5 gallons (107.8 liters) for a fuel mileage of 8.3 mpg (28.3 liters / 100 km). I have to admit I was very surprised by todays fuel mileage, I had set the cruise control at 65 instead of 64 and with the hills, it makes very little sense, but after eight years of travelling I just thought it was time to analyze the numbers a bit closer and if I can figure out how to improve the fuel mileage I will do it.

Day 2338

Tuesday February 27th 2024

Dear Journal:

5:45 and Mister Sam just met me in the coach gallery for his morning treats, as I head for my recliner and after I get settled I’m blessed with a few moments of that precious kitty lap time. But just a few moments before he heads to the bedroom to work on rousing Miss Laurie, it is only after he is able to roust Miss Laurie that he can settle into the queen size bed for his morning nap.

Some morning television, a couple of cups of perked coffee, with a wee Irish blessing, I’m working on publishing the new shorter blogs, as well as trying to keep up with our day to day life.

Today we are headed to Apache Junction to help out a fellow RVer, or at least his wife Julia has asked for some help or at least some guidance. I hate situations like this the wife has asked a lot of questions, that I have tried to answer to no avail. Now we are on our way to see if I can diagnose an issue for a fellow I don’t even know and have never met. I’m hoping he is receptive to assistance, one never knows how people will react to outside assistance.

As we drive eastbound on US-60 we can see poppies blooming on the shoulders of the road, seem too early but some rain and 80° days and poof there are wildflowers busting to life. Traffic in Arizona is pretty much.

We were greeted by Julia & Ernie at their campground, and soon headed over to their coach. Last October they made the decision to move out of their coach and purchased a park model in a different park here in Apache Junction, and after transferring items from their coach they parked to coach in a different section of the park. The coach had been operating properly before the time of parking it. but after being parked just a few weeks all the batteries had lost power. Their coach is a 42′ Monaco with a tag axle and almost every known option back in 2005, when we got to the coach there was no power in the house batteries at all so I pulled our towed close enough to boost the battery bank (4 large 6 volt batteries) and as the voltage started to climb we were starting to see different systems cone to life.

Now to diagnose why the system went dead to begin with. The coach was plugged in but it was drawing no power, so I start at the park power supply and confirm it has power, because the basement doors were all locked and only able to be unlocked by a remote we needed more battery power, but in the coach I found the main power breaker shut off. This is an easy mistake because unlike with a house breaker panel there is not a main breaker. Usually the manufacture can cut costs by just adding a 30 amp or 50 amp breaker that back feeds the rest of the circuits when turned on. In simple terms the breaker box is the most inexpensive and takes less space that a main switch box with a breaker box. After turning on the power to the breaker box, I then switch on the inverter which should charge the battery bank but I also found that the main disconnect switch in the battery compartment was switched off as well. With the power and the inverter now turned on we are charging the house batteries and now the coach circuits have been energized. Now I move on to the chassis battery which power the diesel engine and the generator, so I move the booster cable from the house batteries to the chassis batteries and now we have an attempt to engage the starter on both the generator and the chassis motor.

After some charging time from our towed’s alternator we get enough battery power to start the generators diesel motor, but still not enough to crank the big diesel motor. By this time I have explored most of the major components, such as the inverters, the solar control unit, and other control circuits, most people just have no idea how many different systems operate within the coach’s electrical systems. So I have accomplished everything that was asked other than getting the coach’s engine started but I feel it is just a case of getting the batteries sufficiently charged, so before leaving the coach we plugged in a small 12 volt charger on the chassis batteries and I suspect that the diesel will have enough power to start up tomorrow.

We moved back to their park model where we enjoyed a cold beverage along with some barbequed dogs and burgers, I think they were happy with our progress, and while disappointed with not getting the chassis motor running I think they can see a path to that happening very soon. We left Julia & Erie just after sunset and drove to the local Fry’s got this weeks supplies before heading back to the Arboretum and a very unhappy Mister Sam who was now over three hours late for his dinner. We settled into watch a recorded Voice show, enjoyed some ice cream before heading to bed, I was exhausted after a day of climbing in, on and under the coach.