Coast Resorts Open Roads Forum: How many of us are there? Owners of Dodge based RV's?

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Topic: How many of us are there? Owners of Dodge based RV's?

Posted By: toedtoes on 06/16/17 09:17am

I use pool chlorine granules for disinfecting the water tank. So much easier as you don't have to flush as much afterwards - a little bit left won't hurt you. Just a teaspoon or two does the job.

1975 American Clipper RV with Dodge 360 (photo in profile)
1998 American Clipper Fold n Roll Folding Trailer
Both born in Morgan Hill, CA to Irv Perch (Daddy of the Aristocrat trailers)

Posted By: Griff in Fairbanks on 06/16/17 04:15pm

There's an animation on Wikipedia's page about Newton's cradle that illustrates what I described in my previous post on electricity. (The animation is in the upper right corner of the page.)

1970 Explorer Class A on a 1969 Dodge M300 chassis with 318 cu. in. (split year)
1972 Executive Class A on a Dodge M375 chassis with 413 cu. in.
1973 Explorer Class A on a Dodge RM350 (R4) chassis with 318 engine & tranny from 1970 Explorer Class A

Posted By: Griff in Fairbanks on 06/16/17 04:21pm

Here's the animation:

[image]

(Source: Wikipedia - Newton's Cradle)

Posted By: Griff in Fairbanks on 06/16/17 04:24pm

When the first ball is released, it hits the second ball and stops. For a split second, it appears that all the balls are motionless but what's actually happening is the energy the first ball had is transferred to the second ball. The energy, that the second ball now has, is transferred to the third ball and so on until the energy reaches the last ball. The last ball, not having anything to transfer the energy to, uses the energy to fly away from the other balls,

This transfer of energy, in one direction only, is a reasonable representation of what happens in direct current. Think of the first ball as an atom in a circuit's source, the three balls as atoms in the circuit's connection, the last ball as an atom in the circuit's load. (To complete the representation of a direct current circuit, we would need some way to transfer the energy the last ball receives back to the first ball, so the energy would continue to travel in one direction through a kind of loop.)

If we allow the Newton's cradle to continue, the last ball swings back into the fourth ball and the energy is passed back through the balls to the first ball, which flies away from the others just like the last ball did when it had the energy. This back and forth transfer of energy, in alternating directions, represents what occurs in a segment of an alternating current circuit. (As with the previous paragraph, we'd need some way to "connect" the first and last balls to represent a compete circuit rather than just a segment of a circuit.)

That's as far as we're going to go, at least for now, in mentioning alternating current. Instead, we're going back to focusing on the direct current (DC) circuits in a motorhome.

Posted By: Wolf_n_Kat on 06/16/17 05:22pm

I'm thinking Newton's Cradle is a better example than the one that I thought of...

Imagine riding on a crowded train/subway car, or a bus, and someone in the back shoves the person in front of them. That person bumps into the one in front of them, etc etc etc.

Nobody actually 'goes' anywhere, but the energy of the initial shove gets transferred to the front of the train/subway car/bus.

Posted By: Griff in Fairbanks on 06/16/17 06:50pm

Yes, your example is a bit less socially acceptable but apt in terms of real life.

However, if you arrange the people in a circle, the shoving energy will eventually reach all the way around the circuit and back to the source. So, your example has the potential of demonstrating direct current better.

Now, all we need to do is round up a bunch of people that don't like each other and film it.

Posted By: Griff in Fairbanks on 06/16/17 07:36pm

There's an aspect of most motor vehicle circuits that tends to confuse people. These circuits appear to have only one connection rather than two between the source and load. Simply put, you can follow a wire from the source to the load but that seems to be the end of it.

[image]

Compare this diagram with the Basic Electrical Circuit diagram I posted previously. The second (bottom) connection is missing, replaced with a pair of lines ending in symbols like this:

[image]

Motor vehicle manufacturers use the metal bodies and chassis for the apparently missing second connection, in a way that is generally called a common ground. This is represented in circuit diagrams with ground symbols. Whenever you encounter a ground symbol, interpret it to mean the source or load is connected to a common ground.

If you add a plus sign (+) above the source black box and a minus sign (-) below the source box, you have an accurate diagram for all motor vehicle circuits.

(This applies to modern motor vehicles using a negative ground system ... very old motor vehicles sometimes used a positive ground system that turn out to be less efficient and more problematic.)

* This post was edited 06/17/17 02:06am by Griff in Fairbanks *

Posted By: haroldpo6 on 06/17/17 04:12am

New here and need to know how many qts of oil I need to put in a (new to me) 1977 Dodge Sportsman 27ft 440cu motorhome w/filter? After I changed the oil for the first time and put in 5qts to check and add as needed, the oil pump wouldn't even pick the oil up. I added 1 more qt and oil pressure went to 65psi,good. At 5qts the dip stick said full, at 6qts it said a little over full, must be wrong dip stick? After looking around the web I have found anywhere from 6qts to 9qts for this engine.

Thanks Harold in Florida

Posted By: Griff in Fairbanks on 06/17/17 04:40am

Very likely wrong dipstick. Could be dipstick from small block, with previous owner not realizing difference between small and big block engines. (Don't be surprised, I've seen it happen ... person bought small block water pump for big block engine ... had to ask him where the distributor was ... and explain what a distributor was.)

Posted By: haroldpo6 on 06/17/17 06:25am

I got it from Camping World and they said it was a small block 360cu engine, not. It is a big block for sure. Engine runs,starts like new.
Distributor is in front right side engine.

* This post was edited 06/17/17 09:48am by haroldpo6 *

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