Sunday, October 25, 2015

Electrical miseries....

Well, I guess I can be accused of being a Pollyanna most of the time, not posting the downfalls of being on the road. But now I'm finally weary of the little niggling things, and I'm going to vent . About a month ago in Bisti, when I was there for the lunar eclipse, I had a minor solar disaster. Well, actually it was pretty major.  As I was packing up to leave in the morning some people pulled up next to me and I got distracted. That's really no excuse, but it explains what happened next. As I was driving out on the crappy washboard road I hit a pretty deep hole and heard a weird noise. I stopped and got out to see what the deal was. Well, at some point in the half-mile I had driven, the solar panels came off the rack and were dragging behind me by their wires. $700 worth of panels pretty much destroyed in an instant, leaving me headed for two weeks of dry camping in Albuquerque for the balloon fiesta without solar. I couldn't believe it. I wanted to cry. I think that perhaps I only secured one bungee cord. Or maybe I did both, one has come loose before. But on a normal road with the lightweight panels it was not an issue. It only happened once and I was more careful to make sure it clicked around the ladder after that. But on this day I think I was distracted and only put on one cord. Which could not hold on the miserable road.

, Well, I couldn't live without solar for two weeks, so I ordered a Renogy  100 W panel from Amazon and had it overnighted to Albuquerque. 100 W is not much but it's better than nothing. When I got to Albuquerque and parked and set everything up, I was astounded to find that the abused plastic panels were still putting out a couple amps each. It was enough to make the time in Albuquerque livable.  

Another issue I had been dealing with was the fact that my batteries had boiled over while they were plugged in while I was gone. That has been a problem with those batteries since I got them, and I wasn't sure if it was the battery or the charger. Either way it was a giant pain to deal with. After Albuquerque, in a Sam's Club parking lot in Santa Fe, Barb and I worked on the batteries for an hour and put almost a half a gallon of distilled water in them. It turned out to be the kiss of death. While they had been operating with a very low electrolyte level, diluting the acid made them no longer hold a charge.I messed with it for a few days, hoping they would resurrect themselves, but it was to no avail. So I went to Gallup and got two new group 27 deep cycle batteries. It was quite the debacle getting them installed but I don't have the heart to go into that now. I'll just say, watch the guy wiring them like a hawk.

With new batteries, I thought my troubles were over. Two days after the batteries were in I looked at the charger in the morning, and it was showing 0 Amps. It was overcast, but I still should see something. Even .2 amp. But it was showing zero. After much cursing and some quality time with the multimeter, I determined that the solar charge controller was simply not supplying any power to the battery. Nothing I did would make it work. I took the temperature probe out, I disconnected it from the battery and let it sit for a day (which worked when this happened once before), nothing worked.  I was at the end of my rope at that point. Now, here I am with $850 worth of solar panels on the back of my rig and I'm running my damn generator for hours every day. And if you know me, you know what I think about generators.  Well, since this was the second RioRand controller that I had had fail, obviously I wasn't going with that brand again. I ordered a MorningStar controller and had it sent to Page. To the address of the UPS store I found on a UPS locations page. Later that night looking at Google maps I discovered the UPS store that I had sent my charger to had gone out of business several years ago. It turns out that wasn't an official page.  Awesome! I sent a panicked email to UPS, and to my astonishment they immediately rerouted my package to a real pick up location in Page. The controller is sitting there and I will pick it up tomorrow. I have to say, I am about out of patience with this electrical bullshit. And if this doesn't work I don't know what I'm gonna do, because running the generator every single day is not an option. And neither is living without lights, charged camera batteries, or all the other little electric things I rely on. 

So, I've spent the day in kind of a funk. I've got myself all worked up that this charger isn't going to work and I'm just going to throw in the towel. It doesn't help that the site at Lone Rock Beach, while it has a beautiful view, is like Grand Central Station. I am so tired of people driving back-and-forth at 45 miles an hour. Hopefully once the weekend is over, it will calm down a bit.



9 comments:

  1. Oh my godness Gail. Those are some serious trials. Wow... I pray that it all works out for ya kiddo. Hang in there
    Amy Keeler

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  2. Oh my godness Gail. Those are some serious trials. Wow... I pray that it all works out for ya kiddo. Hang in there
    Amy Keeler

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  3. I'm sorry you are having so much trouble! You aren't far away from here, you know where I am. If you need a break, come on! The door is always open, so don't hesitate to drop in! I have RV parking, so no worries there and you can work on stuff and relax at the same time. I have all the tools you'll need, unlike the Gallup issues!...lol. Just know, the door is always open!

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    1. Thanks so much Mary Beth! I won't have a ton of time after the balloon regatta, because I'm heading back to Mom's for Thanksgiving and I want to stop in Sedona on the way. But I will try to swing by there. I'll let you know.

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  4. I guess you'll be plugged in at a normal campground like we do. Those poor people next to you that have to listen to that damn generator running. It will work, I have faith in ya. If it doesn't, then maybe you will have to spend a little money and have someone look at it for you.

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    1. Doug if I had to be in a regular rv park every night I'd probably sell the rig and buy a boat. The noise, barking dogs, crying kids, everyone on top of each other and up in everyone's business......it reminds me when I lived in that tiny condo in NYC. I swore I'd never live like that again. At least in State and National Park CGs they usually have a decent amount of space between rigs and maybe a tree or two between. Of course, they seldom have hookups.....

      But yeah, when I get back o FL I will probably have someone hardwire a panel on the roof and permanently install the controller.

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  5. I recently bought a 2003 Class B It was delivered to me from the RV dealer in Ga. I live in La. I was told driver would go over all details...that didn't happen, so...I don't understand the whole battery, converter, inverter situation?? Everything works fine, but if something goes wrong ??? I am very envious of all your knowledge on your rig, but I know it has been 'the school of hard knocks'!! lol Oh I forgot, no user manual for my rig.

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    1. Haha I don't think any of them come with a manual, just an assortment of pamphlets for the stuff in it! :-)

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  6. Gail, a waltz around AM Solar's site (http://www.amsolar.com) at the RV Solar Education Tab might help you to straighten out your solar situation. Greg and Deb Holder have been in the business for as long as I can remember and really know their stuff.

    Virtual hugs,

    Judie

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