Wednesday, December 18, 2019

Batteries and more

Ajo, Arizona - Wednesday, December 18, 2019

This morning I was awake with the sun.  I jumped out of bed and went out and took a few pictures with wisps of colored clouds.  Didn't wait for the sun to rise and went back to bed.

It was cool out with about 42 degrees and no wind at all.  No wind is always nice in the desert.  We took our walk after breakfast.  Actually during breakfast.  I eat breakfast in stages and it takes awhile.  I'm not an out the door early kind of guy.  Did enough of that during my working years.

It is such a beautiful day and I did not take anymore pictures until sunset.   In between I did some battery switching.  

Help: I have a 2002 MH and with the awning slowly flapping in the wind yesterday, I noticed it was separating from the MH in the middle and needs to be sewed back on or replaced.  If anyone has had awning work done in Quartzite or Yuma and would recommend, I would appreciate.  Just leave a comment.

If you're not interested in RV battery setups then just look at the few sunrise pictures and sunset pictures and move on.  It won't hurt my feelings.  Just leave a comment though!



I have six huge inhouse 100 amp batteries and two old batteries that came with the MH I use to charge all my electronics such as laptops, phones  etc.  I have a 100 watt solar panel hooked to a 500 amp true sine wave inverter for the two dead batteries.

The two dead batteries work great during the day while being charged by the sun but no sun no power.  The batteries drop to less than 12 amps.

The six massive batteries take forever to charge and I rarely use them for much, so today is the day to make a change.  I took the two old batteries out and pulled two of the six parallel connected batteries out of the stream.

Took the two huge ones and put them where the dead ones were and now I have battery power both day and night.  As for the four remaining, I hope they will charge faster.  Will have to see.

Got it done by three o'clock being very careful not to hurt my already sore back.  The big batteries weigh about sixty pounds.  Enough to hurt me if I'm not careful.

I took a chance doing it today.  Tonight is Survivor night and if I had destroyed the batteries or worse yet burned down the MH, I wouldn't be happy.

Tonight is the last episode of Survivor and it is a three hour episode.  I only watch two hours.  Not really into the chit chat with all the participants and family during the third hour.  This will give me a good test of how four batteries work versus six batteries.





Doing my post early tonight in preparation for the finale.

See you later.

18 comments:

  1. Great sunset pics Doug. Hope your power issues are resolved. Sounds like those old ones are due for the recycle bin.

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    1. I think you're right Dave. Those two dead batteries worked great as a conduit from sun to charging electronics but time to upgrade.

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  2. Shhh don't tell me anything about Survivor. We have to download it later tonight and watch it tomorrow night. I will remember not to read your blog tomorrow until I have watched it!! Great pictures today.

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    1. Thanks Lorne. Promise not to tell. Watching now and,.....😁

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  3. I sure do miss those beautiful Southwest sunsets.

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    1. Today was just perfect. Wish you three were here.

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  4. Beautiful sunset pictures. I especially like the reflection in the window of the motorhome. All I can say is I hope the whole battery thing works out. Hope you find a place to get the awning taken care of.

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    1. Thanks Deb. You and Tom had such good words to about RV Lifestyles, I'm going to give them a call.

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  5. Your sunrise photos are fantastic - even better than a lot of sunset pics. The blue is so vivid. Glad you started early with the whole battery switcharoo - and didn't hurt your back. I got really scared that Survivor was gonna get messed up with the congress voting !! - but thank goodness CBS handled it smoothly. I was "OK" with how it ended - but, in general this season was not as good as a lot of others have been. 🎃

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    1. Thank you Moonfly. I usually don't get up before the sun so I'm glad there were a few clouds to help. I was also afraid the special was going to cut into our show. I was happy with the three last ones standing and would have been glad for anyone of them to win.

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  6. Aren't the sunrise and sunsets gorgeous? I can't get enough of them and you've captured them perfectly.
    I admit, I didn't read about the battery stuff and I'm not the 'fixer' in the Suite but I would imagine RV Lifestyles be a go-to vendor in the Q. Everyone seems to have good results with that staff and their work.

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    1. Thanks Patsy. I was just reading Tom and Deb's post about their fridge installation. I'll have to give them a call.

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  7. Wow. Beautiful sunrise and sunsets. Darn, I was ready to comment about Survivor....lol. No spoilers from me!

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    1. Thank you Elva. Glad you didn't give away the winner to my millons of subscribers 😁.

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  8. Nice to have the battery project complete and now reliable power for your adventures. You had a beautiful day to get things done.

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  9. Thanks Jeff. Working out great.
    I think I'm going to buy another 100 watt panel so I can charger both sets at the same time or double up on one.

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