Al F

I don't know of anyone with a background in science who is standing up and shouting to the world: "Putting more Carbon Dioxide into the atmosphere is a good thing. We need to burn more fossil fuels. We need to warm the world even more, melt the ice caps, raise the level of the oceans." I would think that people would WANT to find ways to reduce the amount of CO2 being produced. I would think that finding ways to reduce the use of fossil fuel would be a good thing. Wind, Solar and Nuclear are ways to do that. Geothermal is another potential source.

I guess I don't understand the need to talk bad about the Brits. Is it to downplay the credibility of the people making the podcast or what? This is a conversation about energy, not about who looks down on others. Not that I disagree that many of the Brits do look down on the USA. People in most countries think their people and country is somewhat better or above other countries. Heck, cities, states, neighborhoods, and even neighbors think they are better than others. Kind of human nature. Just wondering how it pertains to topic of energy.

Yep, as a 12 year old, one year was 1/12th of my life. Now one year is just a tiny part, less than 1/70th of my life.

Thanks for the links. Interesting reading. What are yours and Bruce T's thoughts about what is happening in both Japan and India and how it pertains to this thread? Also what should be done in both countries as alternatives to the use of coal.

Excellent question. In Japan the hysteria about nuclear energy is causing shut down of a major source of Japan's electric. It seems to me that so many so called environmentalists seem to ignore that quickest way to slow down carbon emissions is to increase nuclear power electric generation. Yes there are problems with nuclear power, but there are problems and trade offs with all the ways to make electricity.

This is a little late, but what kind of info were you looking for? The Ford Chassis, is just a Ford chassis same as all Ford chassis, a well proven chassis. Floor plan is a very personal decision. If you are still looking at Tiffin products you might post over on the Tiffin Owners forum: http://www.tiffinrvnetwork.com/index.php It is independent from the mfg and was a friendly group when I owned a Tiffin some years ago.

Yep. 8 AGM golf cart batteries at around $175 each is $1400 with a weight of about 560 pounds and you only have about 50%-60% of the capacity of lithium. But OH NO, the lithium will blow up on you, you can't use them in cold weather, etc. 😬

Sounds like a pretty good package: -- Four 280AH cells at $86 each is $344 for a 280AH 12V battery -- A Dely Battery Monitor Systems at $166 each. -- Total for each battery $510 -- A set of 3 batteries $1530 for a total of 840 Amp Hours. Plus shipping of $350 for a set of 12 cells to make up the 3 batteries. Still less than $1900 for 840AH of battery isn't bad at all. Batteries: https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/3-2V-280Ah-Batteries-Cell-prismatic_62556226025.html BMS: https://www.amazon.com/DALY-LiFePO4-Battery-Protection-Balance/dp/B08KD66M54/ref=sr_1_3?crid=1L2B2UM6RH61Z&dchild=1&keywords=daly+bms+4s+12v+250a+lifepo4&qid=1616066250&sprefix=dely+bms%2Caps%2C365&sr=8-3

It took me forever to complete the course and build the TV. Placing and soldering every small component was a pain. I remember doing the convergence was a pain as well. WOW, that was 50 some odd years ago, where did the time go?

I built the pretty much the same Heathkit TV set along with the electronics coruse. Mine had remote electronic tuning, if you can call it "electronic". It had a remote and the TV would change the channels by stepping the tuning dial though the 12 or 13 channels you could select. But, hey, we didn't have to get up to change the channel.

A friend and her sister received the stimulus in their bank accounts yesterday, 3/12/2021

If you are just going to move once or maybe twice, then think about hiring someone to move the trailer for you. I don't know where to find someone, but start another topic with that question and I'm sure someone has info about that.

Good thought about gas for the "toys". I believe some Toy Haulers have a built in gas tank just for the "toys". Maybe the tank was damaged and started leaking.

A service fee on top of the price of electric sure seems different than a comment about the cost of electric from coal in the eastern part of the state and whatever the sources of electric are in the western part of the state.

I guess the quotes below, taken from the internet are just more fake news. About 1.4 cents higher in western NE than in eastern NE. Also in North Platte electric is a little cheaper than Omaha.

Speaking of know-it-all's, tunnel vision and "expert". All with no links to support a point of view.

Cute! 😁

That seems to be just what RV is doing. However you are just throwing out one line simplistic statements. Basically just trolling. How about you giving a link, copying the relevant points and providing your insights. That takes "work" and provides credibility to your side of the discussion.

Any links to provide so we can read and learn about what you have to say?

If you have the money to buy the batteries for several megawatts of power that is a good investment in Texas. Charge them only when you are able to buy cheap electric for a few cents a kilowatt hour and then sell it back when the grid will pay you several dollars or at times, many, many dollars a kilowatt hour.

It is highly unlikely that your flooded cell batteries are inside your living quarters. Most likely they are located in an area exposed to the outside air. The batteries don't gas off a lot of hydrogen gas. It is only a problem if the gas is allowed to escape into an unvented enclosure. Since you will not be dry camping or boondocking I see very little reason to change out flooded cell batteries. The exception would be is if they are located in a spot that is hard to access to check the water level every month or so and refill them with distilled water every 2-3 months.

Here is a link to the owners manual for your converter I found on the Coachmen website. https://forestriverinc.help/#/coachmenrv/guide/2021/1340-leprechaun/browse/component-manuals/Electrical/content/publication-16-en_us-multiple-709437 I looks like you have a 3 stage charger, which is very good.

Here is a link to lots of info about the batteries we use in an RV and should answer a lot of your questions. At the bottom of the webpage, be sure to click on the "continue to part 2" for more info about RV batteries, solar, etc. http://www.marxrv.com/12volt/12volt.htm Leaving the batteries sitting w/o a trickle charge allows them to self discharge. In 6 months time they probably have discharged enough and sat long enough to "sulfate" and loose capacity. Sulfating happens when batteries are not kept at 100% charge and then left at a charge level of less than about 80-85% repeatedly for more than about 5-7 days, or just continuously for weeks or months.

What is the reason you are checking your batteries? I asked that question earlier. The replies you have received just tell you what to check to see if you batteries are fully charged. Not how to check for problems. For the battery that was at 12.83V, the surface charge from charging had not bled off yet. Let it rest another hour or so and check again. For the battery at 12.65. Is that a typo for the hydrometer reading and should be 1.265? If it is voltage then that is showing a fully charged battery. If it is hydrometer reading then, just as the first battery, the surface charge has not bled off yet. As far as the hydrometer reading, what are the readings for every cell? If you have two 12V batteries you will have 12 cells to check. If you have a pair of 6V batteries you will have 6 cells to check. With the hydrometer readings what you are looking for is a significant difference in one or more of the cells. Such as if the the cells you check are reading 1.265 and you find one or more lower such as 1.120 (25% SOC) or even at 1.210 (75% SOC) then you have a weak cell then that is a bad battery. So far is seems like you have batteries that are charged. You need to recheck the batteries after a few days and see if they are holding a charge. If they are holding a charge then reconnect them to the RV and turn all the lights on in the RV and after 30 minutes to an hour check the battery voltages (while the lights are on) again to see if they have dropped way down. Be sure that nothing else is pulling power from the batteries, such as an inverter powering something. To estimate the load on your batteries, each incandescent bulb pulls about 1.5 amp, florescent light fixtures pull around 3-4amps depending on the size of the light fixture. You want a load of around 10amps or so.

Is that IF the shower hose reaches the gravity fill, or do you attach a hose to the shower and run it to the gravity fill?