Randyretired

When charging at night I sure hope the wind is blowing. I would hate to think we are using fossil fuel to charge all those cars. Is that why it is so cheap.

I have a Fumoto drain on an ISX in a 2001 Volvo. Been on since before I bought it about 18 years ago. Not a lot of miles but also no problems. Sure makes changing oil easy.

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We purchased a long term policy each in the 80's. It only pays $65 a day for one year. We looked into adding to it but it isn't widely available and is very expensive. For now it is what it is. I guess time will tell.

I had a terrible experience with Banks and will never do business with them again. In 1999 I purchased a new diesel PU. Ordered a Banks kit for it. Per the directions I cutoff the existing tail pipes and muffler. However, the new kit didn't fit. I called Banks and they insisted I was doing something wrong and gave me the runaround. After fighting with them for a couple of weeks I guess they received enough complaints that they finally realized they had a problem. They promised a fix was on the way but please be patient. It will be at least 90 days. Our new PU was not useable for 90 days or more plus the 2 weeks fighting with them. We missed one big RV trip planned with friends and more. When the tail pipe fix finally arrived and we tried to drive the PU it set trouble codes. That was another lengthy ordeal that was never resolved. Many have had good luck with Banks but their customer service when things go wrong failed us miserably.

Kirk, that is certainly one of my what if thoughts. One of us needing full care for an extended period could be a budget headache to say the least. And with inflation the way it is that cost is certainly the elephant in the room.

We use mostly a 2 bucket approach. I handle the investing and most of our funds are in index funds. ] The S&P 500 is by far the our largest investment. Of course up until the last year all of the market returns were pretty good. Our situation is a little different than most as only a small amount of our funds are in tax deferred retirement accounts. This severely restricts our ability to change investments without tax implications. Right now we are shuffling funds to build a new place and the current market is not what I had hoped. The figures say it should be fine but I guess there is always a what if. My children tell me I, we are way to conservative but when you have saved most of your life... I have read that many retires are more conservative than needed so I guess we are not alone. My DW's health requires we stay close to home now so our expenses have gone way down.

For me it was worth the bother to build the bed and so on to convert a HDT. At least at that time which was around 18 years ago. Today it would be more of a challenge than I might be ready for and I doubt I would try it. Depending on what you want it can be a project and the lifting and work involved is significant. At least for me it was. I carry a Subaru length wise so the frame is extended and it has 100 gallon water and waste tanks along with toolboxes.

Our Teton had the RV type refrigerator with a similar wood covering. The wood went with the old refrigerator. Our residential refrigerator is black to match the stove and microwave.

I found a filter wrench that fits on the bottom of the filter and as you turn it to remove the filter it digs into the filter. It has 3 prongs and accepts a 1/2" drive. The harder the force the harder it digs in. Unfortunately I don't know where I bought it.

Most BMS"s are set to cutout at 2.5v on any cell. That is considered fully depleted. I have my inverter cutoff at 12v to leave a little in the battery as I don't like to run it all of the way down. Using the BMS to cutoff can cause problems. We use a lot of power and buying extra batteries to maintain 50% would be expensive with little benefit. Our battery bank is 1400ah @12v and 50% or 700ah is a lot of power. Our off grid place will have a substantially bigger battery and 50% would be pretty expensive. It will have enough to last 3 days with zero solar so hopefully it won't deplete often. Another problem we have with the RV is the 3,700 watts of solar will not fully recharge a depleted battery on one sunny day when the days are short.

For most of us I wonder if cycles will even be the end of service determining factor. The recent cells I purchased are rated at 6,000 cycles. Most believe partial cycles are added to equal full cycles. That is a long time for solar applications and it would seem environmental concerns could come into play before cycle life ends. Especially since cycle life is based on 80% of capacity and it would seem that the battery is still be useable beyond that.

Some manufactures suggest fully charged and held at that state plus for a period of time for balancing. There are a few things to consider for charging. Some BMS's have active balancing and others passive balancing. There is substantial differences in balancing power in BMS's.

There are charts for lithium battery SOC. I use LifeP04 batteries and use a 12v cutoff equal to the 48v you use. This is 9% SOC or 91% of capacity. I charge to 14v which depending on absorption time is about 99% charged. Totaled that means I can use 90%. I don't use all of that most of the time but need all of that late in the year or during cloudy days. I am planning an off grid system for our new place and it will require a lot of capacity for December and January and idle most of the rest of the year. My planning is for 3 full days of storage and enough solar to fully recharge in 1 sunny day. That will still require some generator time but hopefully not a lot.

I also often carry a 380. It is difficult to work with a larger outfit. It fits in my pocket. A friend also carries a little 22. He is a skilled marksman and retired LEO. He also says placement is more important.

We also have that for one of our PO Boxes but locally where we are now they won't allow it.

For us FedEx and Ups deliver to our door but USPS leaves packages anywhere. Often our packages are left leaning against the post that holds our mailbox on the side of the public road. Sometimes if I don't get to these packages quickly someone else does. I have contacted USPS about the problem and they promised to fix it but they don't deliver on their promises either.

Another consideration is if you plan on using the generator at high elevations. There is a power loss that will need to be compensated.

We only have a 2,000 watt inverter but that and the charge controllers create a lot of heat. I felt it necessary to put in a vent that could be opened in the summer.

Are these the same experts that assured us inflation was transitory? All it takes is one bank flying under the radar with a few missteps and down goes another. The whole system may not crash anytime soon but if it your bank...

When heating with mini splits it is eye opening to see how much power they use especially in a poorly insulated, leaky RV. Tetons are better than some but still not near stick built standards. In the fall at our mountain property 3,700 watts of solar struggles to keep up. Usually need to use propane to assist.

We have had 3 RV's all using one 1,000 gallon septic tank for several winter months over several years without a problem. Grease, bleach and preservatives (formaldehyde) can really cause problems. Periodic pumping is necessary.

Most modern septics have 1,000 gallon tanks or larger. Any that I have installed in the last 30 years start at 1,000 gallons and then add on as necessary Still that is why I dump the black tank weekly. Modern septics are engineered to withstand large flows. The washing machine, a couple of bathtubs and toilets should all be handled even all at once. Maybe if all that is going on when you dump I guess that might ... I worry more about bleach and preservatives in large quantities stopping the action. In our case we use just water.

We have been dumping into residential septic systems for years without a problem. I dump weekly even though our black tank isn't full. We have 3 properties with septic and dump into all 3. The health department approves of this. Most septic systems are designed to easily handle that much waste at a time. At one of our properties we often have 2 or 3 RV's all using 1 septic system. If dumping caused "P" traps to go dry there likely is a vent problem and it shouldn't normally be a problem. When dumping weekly the output is mostly just liquid with little solids so I doubt a macerator would make much difference.

Lithium batteries are not typically used for starting batteries. These batteries have a BMS and that will in most cases limit the maximum draw well below starting requirements. I would be surprised if you could find a single lithium battery that could start your MH. Lithium or LFP batteries are well suited for house batteries. The long life, lighter weight and faster more efficient charging is great. If you have solar the MPPT charger likely will work even without any changes. If it charges between 14 and 14.5v it should work fine. Depending on the voltages of the inverter/charger or the converter it may also work without any changes. In addition most newer units have a lithium specific setting available. You are most likely to get good battery advice from a store that specializes in batteries. A dealership would not be my first choice. We have a large LFP bank, with solar. We have been using it for four years and boondock extensively. It is working very well for us.