SSTraveler
2014 LTV Unity Murphy Bed
I see it now, thanks.
Wonder FTB Upgrades
- Thread starter Klipstr
- Start date
Klipstr
2018 Wonder FTB
We just competed 39 nights out in all manner of weather! All systems functioned well and as expected. Here are some highlights!
1. 600W of solar is much better than 400W. Routinely saw over 500W at noon. Heat sometimes kept it from being higher! On the cold OR coast I could get closer to the full 600W. Adding the extra panels is worth it.
2. Huge Lithionics 315AH battery is great! Never worry about power again! Lowest daily discharge was down to 30%. Easily topped off that day with the solar/DC-to-DC charger combo. Had one day that got down to 50% without any driving and the solar easily topped it to 100%. Had great sun and exposure that day!
3. Being able to run anything in the coach without thinking about how is great. Turn on the inverter and everything works. And if you are careful you can run multiple things at once.
4. Induction stove top? Priceless. Easy to use, easy to clean, very efficient. Coupled with huge battery no problem! My particular unit developed a bit of problem a week into the trip. It started beeping periodically when the inverter was on and threw an E9 error code. Sometimes it would always beep. It is intermittent (which sucks). Solution is to flip the breaker or turn off the inverter so it can't beep! Needless to say sometimes I remembered to do that and sometimes not. I think there might be a loose connection in the unit itself. I'll try to get inside and snug things up. Unit works fine in any event. There is always something!
5. Being able to turn on the inverter and set the thermostat to 85 in order to keep the dog cool on the off chance it gets that warm in the coach? Priceless. We did this routinely, but rarely did the A/C come on (when we weren't in the epic heat wave) and the battery easily kept up. Since I have the AGS unit I can back it all up by running the generator. I didn't fool with that on this trip but will set it up on this break from travelling.
6. Being able to cool the coach at bedtime and run it into the night on that one particularly hot evening in Oregon? Priceless. I knew, though, that if it ran all night I'd be down to the 15% auto cutoff level by morning and I didn't want that. I set an alarm on the Victron BMV to ring at 30% so I could wake up and shut the A/C off. Hey! We needed coffee in the morning worse than we needed to be cool!
7. I probably should have put #7 as number 1 as the whole point of the original upgrade exercise was to replace the Dometic with the Isotherm. Bottom line: having a fridge that works no matter what? Priceless. After fooling a couple of days getting the correct temp setting we never touched it again and both fridge and freezer compartments stayed remarkably consistent as our outside temps varied from 108 to 55. I can't say for certain what the average daily AH draw is for the fridge but I'm guessing in the 30-40AH range, or about 10% of my battery capacity.
8. Only running the generator once on the entire trip and that simply to exercise it the requisite 30 minutes/month? Priceless. I chose a very hot day in Colorado Springs late in afternoon while the wife was running the hair dryer to do this. Cool wife while drying her hair? Priceless.
9. Only plugging into shore power for three nights out 39? Priceless. Two nights at Mackcs's cabin on the Columbia during the infamous heat wave and the last night of the trip in Needles, CA. We would have died without it. Or kept on going, one or the other!
In general, then, we typically used between 30% and 50% of our battery capacity per day. We never worried about using too much (after the first several days!).
I know that the Orion DC-to-DC charger will return 10% of the battery capacity every hour the engine runs. I also know that the 600W of solar will augment that dramatically under sunny skies. I routinely saw more than 60A flowing into the battery. That's 10% capacity returned every 30 minutes of so. Absolute worst case? The generator can put 25% back into the battery in an hour of run time. I find knowing these numbers in this simple fashion about my configuration to be the most helpful. I can easily "know" what's going on without looking.
I had several days where my solar generated more than 2KwH. That's pretty cool. I even got so cocky I would turn off the Orion just to see my solar do all the work. That had another benefit: the Orion is a cooker! That thing gets so hot you can't touch it! Even with my new vent fan directly next to it! On a hot day across the central valley of CA I definitely shut it off. I didn't need the battery to cook!
We had several days on the Oregon coast with minimal sun. Still generated 1KwH over the course of the day and managed to get the battery to 80% before the sun set. Not a problem. 80% is a lot. Had a normal day of usage and the next day was that 40% mentioned earlier. That was a travel day so everything topped off before lunch! Again, knowing this would the case was a comfort!
Was it worth the dollars to do all of this? Yes. Even though we thought we were happy before, we're happier now. Is that sufficient justification? For me, yes. I won't go so far as to say everyone should do this upgrade. I do wish, though, that LTV would consider offering something like this configuration at a reasonable price. They won't but a guy can wish.
1. 600W of solar is much better than 400W. Routinely saw over 500W at noon. Heat sometimes kept it from being higher! On the cold OR coast I could get closer to the full 600W. Adding the extra panels is worth it.
2. Huge Lithionics 315AH battery is great! Never worry about power again! Lowest daily discharge was down to 30%. Easily topped off that day with the solar/DC-to-DC charger combo. Had one day that got down to 50% without any driving and the solar easily topped it to 100%. Had great sun and exposure that day!
3. Being able to run anything in the coach without thinking about how is great. Turn on the inverter and everything works. And if you are careful you can run multiple things at once.
4. Induction stove top? Priceless. Easy to use, easy to clean, very efficient. Coupled with huge battery no problem! My particular unit developed a bit of problem a week into the trip. It started beeping periodically when the inverter was on and threw an E9 error code. Sometimes it would always beep. It is intermittent (which sucks). Solution is to flip the breaker or turn off the inverter so it can't beep! Needless to say sometimes I remembered to do that and sometimes not. I think there might be a loose connection in the unit itself. I'll try to get inside and snug things up. Unit works fine in any event. There is always something!
5. Being able to turn on the inverter and set the thermostat to 85 in order to keep the dog cool on the off chance it gets that warm in the coach? Priceless. We did this routinely, but rarely did the A/C come on (when we weren't in the epic heat wave) and the battery easily kept up. Since I have the AGS unit I can back it all up by running the generator. I didn't fool with that on this trip but will set it up on this break from travelling.
6. Being able to cool the coach at bedtime and run it into the night on that one particularly hot evening in Oregon? Priceless. I knew, though, that if it ran all night I'd be down to the 15% auto cutoff level by morning and I didn't want that. I set an alarm on the Victron BMV to ring at 30% so I could wake up and shut the A/C off. Hey! We needed coffee in the morning worse than we needed to be cool!
7. I probably should have put #7 as number 1 as the whole point of the original upgrade exercise was to replace the Dometic with the Isotherm. Bottom line: having a fridge that works no matter what? Priceless. After fooling a couple of days getting the correct temp setting we never touched it again and both fridge and freezer compartments stayed remarkably consistent as our outside temps varied from 108 to 55. I can't say for certain what the average daily AH draw is for the fridge but I'm guessing in the 30-40AH range, or about 10% of my battery capacity.
8. Only running the generator once on the entire trip and that simply to exercise it the requisite 30 minutes/month? Priceless. I chose a very hot day in Colorado Springs late in afternoon while the wife was running the hair dryer to do this. Cool wife while drying her hair? Priceless.
9. Only plugging into shore power for three nights out 39? Priceless. Two nights at Mackcs's cabin on the Columbia during the infamous heat wave and the last night of the trip in Needles, CA. We would have died without it. Or kept on going, one or the other!
In general, then, we typically used between 30% and 50% of our battery capacity per day. We never worried about using too much (after the first several days!).
I know that the Orion DC-to-DC charger will return 10% of the battery capacity every hour the engine runs. I also know that the 600W of solar will augment that dramatically under sunny skies. I routinely saw more than 60A flowing into the battery. That's 10% capacity returned every 30 minutes of so. Absolute worst case? The generator can put 25% back into the battery in an hour of run time. I find knowing these numbers in this simple fashion about my configuration to be the most helpful. I can easily "know" what's going on without looking.
I had several days where my solar generated more than 2KwH. That's pretty cool. I even got so cocky I would turn off the Orion just to see my solar do all the work. That had another benefit: the Orion is a cooker! That thing gets so hot you can't touch it! Even with my new vent fan directly next to it! On a hot day across the central valley of CA I definitely shut it off. I didn't need the battery to cook!
We had several days on the Oregon coast with minimal sun. Still generated 1KwH over the course of the day and managed to get the battery to 80% before the sun set. Not a problem. 80% is a lot. Had a normal day of usage and the next day was that 40% mentioned earlier. That was a travel day so everything topped off before lunch! Again, knowing this would the case was a comfort!
Was it worth the dollars to do all of this? Yes. Even though we thought we were happy before, we're happier now. Is that sufficient justification? For me, yes. I won't go so far as to say everyone should do this upgrade. I do wish, though, that LTV would consider offering something like this configuration at a reasonable price. They won't but a guy can wish.