a slight quirk in my cunning plan to slide the camper back a few inches so my spare fuel tank will fit. It appears the fuel door won't open all the way, I can still get the fuel nozzle in their but it takes a little more effort on my part. This doesn't happen if the camper is slid all the way forward the way it should be.
14 Comments
Hi Tom,
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Tom
6/24/2019 03:50:31 pm
Great to hear from you again Tim, I'm glad to hear things are coming along so well. I think doing things in bits and pieces like that make big, difficult jobs a lot easier. By not being in a hurry, or putting yourself under needless pressure I think things go better without getting tired or frustrated.
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Hi Tom,
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Tom
6/25/2019 10:55:26 am
I'm not familiar with a Hybrid inverter. And for what purpose does it add battery power to the shore power? Is it to make sure you've always got the proper power from the RV Park, or is it to use less shore power so your RV Park electric bill is less? I guess I never looked into a hybrid inverter because I spend so little time hooked up at RV parks
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From what I'm reading, the inverter will increase the amperage up to 50 amps. So, here's an example: Say I'm driveway surfing in the Southeast US in the summer (maybe because of a family emergency - about the only reason I would want to be there in the summer) and am plugged in to someone's house with an extension cord on a 15 amp circuit (running air conditioner, microwave, TV, computer, refrigerator, etc., etc.). Say I'm pulling 35 amps, then the inverter will kick in the 20 additional amps above the 15 amps from the house. At least, this is the way I understand the system at this point.
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Tom
6/25/2019 03:20:59 pm
I see, so it makes up for any amps you may be temporarily lacking when you're plugged into shore power.
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Yes, at least that's the way I think it works. For me, I'm hoping to be able to use my little Honda generator along with the inverter to run the air conditioner in those (hopefully) few times when I may be stuck in a hot, humid climate without shore power. However, I'm probably only go to be able to run it during the day when I'm getting solar.
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Tom
6/26/2019 04:38:37 pm
Only you will know when it's time to retire, because only you know all of the reasons you should or shouldn't. But before you started on this quest for freedom maybe mostly what you knew was why you shouldn't, but now that you've gained a tremendous amount of information, dipped a toe in the water, and spent time thinking about what freedom really means, possibly now you know some reasons you "should" so you have more things to compare the "shouldn't " to.
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Hey Tom - I got my inverter hooked up yesterday. As I was tracing out the lines, I realized that Northwoods had prewired for an inverter in the front compartment. So, I just connected in there and now I have AC current, as well as DC. Doing it this way, I'm using the existing transfer switch instead of the one in the inverter, which also means I can't utilize the inverter's ability to add to the current. However, in a later phase down the road (maybe next year or later), I plan to do some re-configuring of the wiring and will be able to use it then. That will also give me some time with the system to see if it's really worth it.
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Tom
7/1/2019 04:33:40 pm
Well you are lucky, I don't remember seeing any wires like that laying around in my front compartment but mines a 2013 so maybe they didn't do that. How did you find these magical wires? Were they labeled, did they mention them in the owners manual? Maybe I have them and don't know what they are, that wouldn't surprise me because I don't know what a lot of things are.
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Tim
7/2/2019 07:10:12 am
I spent a lot of time pulling things apart and just sitting on the floor and thinking more than anything else to find the inverter wires. I started at the panel and pulled it out to see what wires were coming into it. On mine, there is an orange 10-2 wire coming in to feed the panel. I then went over to the pantry and pulled the bottom shelf off, which hides the transfer switch and the cord coming in from the outside. I opened up the transfer switch and studied it for awhile and realized that there was another orange wire disappearing under the RV that the switch was set up to transfer. At first, I thought maybe it went to an inlet for a generator somewhere, but I couldn't find anything. Then I remembered that there is a metal electrical box in the front compartment that I kept working around. I opened it up and there were dead-headed capped off orange wires there. I then realized they had to be for an inverter, so I hooked up the inverter, turned it on and I had AC power to the RV.
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Tom
7/2/2019 12:51:43 pm
I don't have the skills or the nerve to go putting wires together from an expensive piece of equipment that I'm not sure of, so it sounds like you have a lot more knowledge in this area than I do.
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I still want to go around and check some stuff with my multimeter to make sure things are working the way I think they are with the transfer switch. The most important thing I'm going to check is the shore power plug to make sure that it's not being energized by the inverter; if it is, then it means that the wires in the front compartment aren't for an inverter, but are for adding an outlet or some other equipment. That's a possibility, but doesn't make a lot of sense and it means there's still a line going somewhere from the transfer switch that I'll want to track down.
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Tom
7/2/2019 03:56:14 pm
I always find a way to justify my mistakes, my survival will be impossible carrying a load like that all alone.
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