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Subject |
Author |
Date Posted |
Forum
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RE: Portable water bladders
Excellent idea! I wonder how they'll travel stacked?
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howardwheeler
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04/25/12 10:41pm |
Fifth-Wheels
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RE: Portable water bladders
Thanks. I'm going to look at the 45 gallon tanks at Camping World. It looks like the hose connection is on the end, so I could stack one on top of the other and get 90 gallons in the bed of the pickup between the tailgate and the hitch assembly.
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howardwheeler
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04/25/12 09:39pm |
Fifth-Wheels
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RE: Portable water bladders
Sorry but it did just occur to me that two of those 50 gallon bladders available at CW would be cheaper than one 100 gallon Husky. Anyone know of construction comparisons?
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howardwheeler
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04/25/12 09:10am |
Fifth-Wheels
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RE: Portable water bladders
Where I'll be I need to be able to transport around 75 to 100 gallons at a time. My Onboard freshwater tank is 100 gallons. I was wondering if the Husky or the CW bladders have a rubber taste as does water from some hoses. I have a good 12v Shurflow pump already on hand and can make up some hose connections. The Husky 75 or 100 gallon bladders seem good for my purpose. I just don't know about durability or taste of the water. If there's some other brand along the same size that anyone's had good experiences with I'd be interested in that. I can't carry a tank while traveling so the collapsible bladder seems best. Thanks.
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howardwheeler
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04/25/12 09:07am |
Fifth-Wheels
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Portable water bladders
I need to be able to carry extra fresh water to refill my fifth wheel when I'm parked away from a water source. I saw a 75 gallon Husky water bladder for around $250. Size is good for what I want. Anybody used one? Any other suggestions?
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howardwheeler
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04/24/12 07:51pm |
Fifth-Wheels
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RE: Reading Lamp Amps Test-LED/Incand/CF Results UPDATE
Is a 12v CF different in output from the normal tubes you get from homedepot? I have all 12v fluorescents. They are the two tube Thinlites. They came from the factory and I replace the tubes with ones from Homedepot that go into a regular 120v fixture. I am probably missing something but I thought the ballast converted the 120 to some other voltage for the light tube. So what is the difference in a 12 v setup. I guess it's because the ballast is part of the CF whereas my tubes are different from the ballast in the fixture. I think I may have answered my own question. But do my 2 tube fluorescent fixtures compare okay with your experience with the 12v I've never known what kind of draw on amps they require.
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howardwheeler
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04/22/12 10:04pm |
Tech Issues
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RE: Battery monitor accuracy
If two Hondas can get it to two hours that's the way I'll go. I have a five gallon auxiliary fuel tank that will keep two EU2000i generators running for many hours. The tank runs off the suction in the Honda's own tank formed as the gas level goes down. I'll give a test here at home before going out camping. Thanks. By the way, what is the right way to measures voltage on the batteries. Do you have to unhook everything?
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howardwheeler
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04/20/12 05:02pm |
Tech Issues
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RE: Battery monitor accuracy
Solar is in my sights. It may be next year's project. My trailer has a 50 watt panel on it from the factory that some day I'd like to replace with multiple panels, say 250 to 400 watts total. The price still seems a little beyond me now, though.
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howardwheeler
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04/18/12 10:58am |
Tech Issues
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RE: Battery monitor accuracy
Yes for dry camping, gas is better, but for all other uses 22 cf of frost free space with a huge freezer seems to make it worth it. When I changed trailers from one with your lp frig to my current one with the electric 120 volt residential, I thought I would miss the flexibility of the gas/electric but I'm really now happier for my uses. If I was to camp a whole lot without hookups it might be different. But I've been surprised at how workable the residential has been.
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howardwheeler
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04/18/12 09:59am |
Tech Issues
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RE: Battery monitor accuracy
The 200 amp in 24 hours is the frig. I have a 2.8 amp draw that is constant. I assume it's the meters, CD player lights, smoke alarm etc.
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howardwheeler
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04/18/12 09:08am |
Tech Issues
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RE: Battery monitor accuracy
I have automatic waterers on my batteries so it would be a little inconvenient to test with a hydrometer. So the consensus is that when the Remote Panel says it has gone to float the batteries are really at 90%, which means the Linklite is telling the truth. I discharge to 50% because I have a residential frig and 24 hours is about 240 amphours. Now that I've done it a few times, I'll let it go 20 hours which is around 200 amphours and recharge for four hours. It recharges around 70 amps at the beginning because I set the load share on the remote panel to 20 amps so as not to overload the Honda. I have a setup that allows you to connect two Honda 2000s and know someone I can borrow one from. So I may try with two Hondas, put the load share at 30 amps and see how much faster it will charge. Thanks for the info.
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howardwheeler
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04/18/12 08:14am |
Tech Issues
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Battery monitor accuracy
I have a Xantrex Remote panel with all the LEDs that tells what the amps and volts are generally. It also tells what the iinvertercharger is doing when charging: whether in bulk, acceptance or float. I also have a Linklite monitor that showse how many amphours I've used and actual amps drawing or charging. When dry camping I recharge my 500 amphour battery bank with a Honda 2000i generator. I put the share load on the remote panel on 20 amps so it won't overload the generator when charging deeply discharged batteries. Here's my question: When I discharge to around 50% which is around 250 amphours on the Linklite I then will begin to recharge with the Honda. After around 4 hours the remote panel says the iinvertercharger has gone into float, which I thought should indicate the batteries are full. But my Linklite has only counted back up to around minus 50 amphours. It takes a long time to push the amphours monitor on down toward zero as it shows it's only taking around three amps at that time, which makes sense since the remote panel says the charger is in float. Are my batteries full like the remote says or are they still 45 to 50 amphours shy? Any of you guys that, unlike me, actually know about this stuff want to comment. What I'm doing now is when the remote says the charger is in float I manually synchronize the Linklite back to zero.
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howardwheeler
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04/17/12 09:04pm |
Tech Issues
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RE: Jayco "arctic" vs. "polar" packages?
Thanks Fordsooperduty. It sounds like the arctic and polar are virtually the same. Maybe it's just advertising techniques but Jayco told me in 2009 that the polar had just been introduced in the Eagle that year and had only been available for the previous year on the Designer. So I thought it was something unique. My experience was the it did work well.
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howardwheeler
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04/11/12 07:56am |
Fifth-Wheels
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RE: Jayco "arctic" vs. "polar" packages?
I'm really wondering what the arctic package in my friends 2005 Designer is. Does anyone know how it compares to my 2009 Eagle with the Polar. It worked very well and I'm trying to give him some sense of what he can expect.
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howardwheeler
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04/10/12 07:52pm |
Fifth-Wheels
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Jayco "arctic" vs. "polar" packages?
I had a 2009 Jayco Eagle with their Polar package. It had the reflective foil and all the air leak areas on the trailer were sealed with spray foam. It really did seem to be a better insulation job than the other trailers I'd had. Jayco told me at the time I bought the trailer new that that was the first year it was available in the Eagle series but had been in the 2008 Designer. Well, a friend has just bought a 2005 Designer with what is labelled the Arctic package. Do any of you Jayco experts know the differences in the insulation? By the way, the Designer my friend just bought is in very good shape. I generally like the Jaycos. We never had any problem.
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howardwheeler
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04/10/12 04:33pm |
Fifth-Wheels
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RE: Splendide washer/dryer dead
John and Angela, thanks for your hint. I think the reason hitting it didn't work was that it's a full moon. Just kidding. I appreciate your help. I've learn a little about the washer that I never would have known if it hadn't broken.
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howardwheeler
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04/04/12 10:08pm |
Tech Issues
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RE: Anyone Have a Residential Fridge in Their Fiver?
My trailer has a side by side Amana run by a 2000 watt Freedom 458 inverter. It's 9 years old and works great. We can dry camp if we use a generator around 4 hours a day. Works great travel along down the road. I've hooked up a special charging circuit to keep the batteries charged from the truck alternator. But really it would do fine just going down the road before. I wanted to arrive more charged up so that I could dry camp at night if need be. 22 cubic feet sure beats the old gas/electric for space!
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howardwheeler
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04/04/12 08:48pm |
Fifth-Wheels
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RE: Splendide washer/dryer dead
I agree. The plug itself was melted so the solder joint on the board could easily have been damaged but was not. I think this may have happened rather quickly rather than heating up over a long period of time. Any way, I'm glad I didn't have to buy a $300 board. The spade clips cost me around 20 cents.
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howardwheeler
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04/04/12 08:17pm |
Tech Issues
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RE: Splendide washer/dryer dead
I finally got to my dead Spendide today. Hitting it wouldn't help. I had to get help to pull it out and get access to the inside. It's heavy for a small washer. I finally found the problem. The main power connector plug onto the main board was fried. Fortunately, the plug itself took most of the heat as the male spade connector on the board looked okay. I scraped it clean, cut off the fried plug, put on two new female spades and all seems good now. Everything works great. The plastic on the plug was a bear to get loose as the heat fused the plugs together. I think the high amperage during dry may be the culprit. In about 6 months I may pull it out again to see if it's starting to burn again. It seems like I got a good clean tight connection though, so maybe it will last. Thanks for the help. I also downloaded the repair manual from Splendide. It may help in the future. Splendide service did tell me that if all lights are off the problem must be in the power into the board. They were right.
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howardwheeler
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04/04/12 10:20am |
Tech Issues
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RE: Splendide washer/dryer dead
Can it be the drain impeller if the symptom is everything is completely dead..... No lights, no nothing?
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howardwheeler
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03/30/12 08:10am |
Tech Issues
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