More power

My ten year old solar setup worked fine. I just had to be judicious with electrical usage during the darker days of winter. After a lot of debate with myself, and after acquiring some extra cash, I decided to make the leap from lead acid batteries to lithium. And I would boost both my collection and storage capacities while I was at it.

With deep cycle lead acid batteries you should use only half of its capacity each discharge cycle. Otherwise you damage the battery. So a 100Ah battery is actually good for only about 50Ah. Meanwhile, you can access nearly all of a lithium battery’s power each cycle, meaning a 100Ah lithium battery has almost twice the available power as a 100Ah lead acid battery.

I had two 104Ah lead acid batteries — 208Ah total. I could have replaced them with one 100Ah lithium battery, but that would still leave me with borderline power in winter. I decided to get 200Ah lithium — twice the power. And I chose to get one 200Ah battery instead of two 100Ah ones. It was a couple of bucks cheaper and easier to wire and locate in the van.

One drawback of lithium batteries is they don’t like to be charged in cold weather. Some people keep their batteries in sufficiently heated spaces. Some use the batteries’ power to run a heater or heat pad. But now there are self-heating lithium batteries. That’s what I got.

Having twice the battery capacity meant I needed to increase my solar output. I had a single 270W panel that took up most of the available roof space. But after considerable searching and measuring I found a pair of 200W panels that actually take up slightly less room.

Lithium batteries require a different charging profile than lead acid batteries. I could have found some solar tech guy who could reprogram my existing charge controller that didn't have a setting for lithium batteries, but it would be cheaper and easier to just get a new one. It would also be smaller. So that’s what I did.

Solar experts would probably blanch at the way my original system was wired, but hey, it worked. No shorts, no destroyed components, no fires. But I figured I could do it better this time. So I watched a lot of videos, read a lot of articles, and found a wiring diagram that matched my needs. The new system is more complex, with fuses, breakers, bus bars and such, but it’s actually less of a rat’s nest than what I had.

So, wheeeee! A new solar setup to go along with the new engine. I’m set for another ten year — assuming I last that long.

I continue to continue

Home at last!

Further progress

I checked in on the Rolling Steel Tent again. The new engine was in place and Manny was busy hooking up hoses and wires.

I said, “Van engine swaps are a real pain in the ass, aren’t they?”

He shrugged and said, “It’s the third van I’ve done this spring.”

He showed me the old engine. It wasn’t pretty. And it was wrapped up in preparation for a hazmat team to haul it away.

Gone at last

The truck topper that used to be on Lou’s F-150 was the last large item to be cleared off the property. It had been on Facebook Marketplace for two weeks, offered up for free, but there had been no interest. Yeah, it wasn’t pretty, and it was for a 7-foot bed in the age when most truck beds are shorter than that, so I sort of expected it. I was thinking about how I could have it hauled away when I finally got a reply to the ad from a guy in the next town over.

“Bring some extra muscle to lift this thing,” I advised. I was worried when just he and his wife drove up. Well, Lou and I had wrestled it off the truck, so maybe the three of us could get it on his trailer.

“No need,” he said, pointing to the crane on his truck. 

Ah-ha! Excellent. And excellent to have the topper gone.

So far

I was in town on other business this morning and decided to stop by the auto repair shop to see how things were going with the Rolling Steel Tent’s heart transplant. Some shops have strict liability-based rules against non-employees being in the shop, but the folks at R&L turned out to be cool.

The first chore when doing major repairs on a van engine is creating access to it.  Grill, bumper, radiator, core support, fan shroud, air filter and intake, hoses, cables, wires, pipes… All that stuff has to go. Then it’s time to remove accessories like the alternator, power steering pump, and water pump. That’s how far in the process the mechanic was when I dropped by. This is the ugly, sad looking stage of engine replacement.

I had already removed some things from the interior to maximize access to the engine and simplify the mechanic’s job. Just before delivering the van I decided to remove the mattress as well so it wouldn’t soak up garage odors. Good thing I did, because the mechanic is storing parts on the bed platform. Hmmmm, okay.

The service rep said everything had been going smoothly so far. I hope that’s more than just a standard customer-pleasing response.

More places

My new friend, Jason, is camp hosting just outside Flagstaff. When he learned I was on the road he invited me to stop by, stay a night or two. So I did.

Evening wandering near the campground

Morning walk in the other direction

After Flagstaff I headed south toward Payson and returned to my favorite (so far) campsite on the Mogollon Rim.

Looking down from my campsite

Road trip

With the estate sale taken care of, and a week before the Rolling Steel Tent goes into the shop, it seemed like a good time to do a little wandering. And I’d take the Loumobile and mini camper.

But where to go? Out of the desert, into the mountains and forests. Yeah, that’s what I wanted. So up the west side of New Mexico, into the Gilas, over into Arizona and the White Mountains, along the Mogollon Rim, then to Flagstaff before dashing back to my appointment.

I’ve taken that route a few times before, but usually with a get-from-point-A-to-point-B mentality. This time I’ll slow down, look around, explore a little.

Finally!

 The shop called today with the great news that my new engine has arrived, and with the not-so-great news that they can't fit me into their schedule until the 30th.

But, hey, I have a place to stay, other transportation while the van is in the shop, and enough money to pay for it, so life is good.

All gone

We had an estate sale this weekend to re-home as much of Lou's stuff as possible. I thought it would be a tough job in this small village of people with modest bank accounts. I also figured that since this is largely an area of ranchers and manual laborers they'd already have all the tools they needed. But I was wrong. 

There wasn't a swarm of folks, but they came ready to buy. A lot of the major shop tools were gone before lunch the first day. The rest were gone the next morning. Some people came back for more. It's much easier to sell useful things like tools than it is nicknacks and castoff apparel.

My goal was to clear the place out, not make money, so I was generous with the pricing. But the executor, who had been close friends with Lou for many decades, was having trouble separating her grieving from the job at hand. So many things reminded her of Lou and she hoped some items would go to other close friends, to people with the same emotional attachments. Yeah, if Lou was watching from the afterlife, he probably wouldn't be happy that the buyers weren't fellow craftsmen, or were maybe even people he didn't like, but I had a job to do.

We were still left with a considerable amount of odds and ends, so we contacted some folks down the road whose business is a perpetual "yard sale" to see if they wanted to take our leftovers. They did. The proprietor is a 96-year-old woman who is much respected and adored in the community. And she's still going strong. She drove herself here and helped her son and grandson load the trucks. She says she plans on living to 120. I don't doubt she will. Maybe if she runs into Lou on the other side he'll give her a piece of his mind.

Another nice mechanic

The F-150 needed a couple of new coils. Richie at Twisted Wrenches in Santa Clara NM said I could order the parts myself to save some money and he’d install them. I asked if he could do it while I waited, otherwise I’d need to arrange a ride. He assured me it would take only a half hour, forty-five minutes tops. Cool.

So I showed up at the appointed time this morning and Richie waved me into the service bay and got right to it. None of that “I got behind yesterday and need to finish this other job first so how about you come back at about 2:00” stuff.

He popped the hood and... there was a small surprise:

Critters had started to make a home on top of the engine. Rather than say it wasn’t his job, he got out the shop vac and cleaned it up.

Twisted Wrenches is the type of shop where you’re free to hang out and wander around. So I did. Some unfortunate person was having the engine in his three-year-old Wrangler replaced.

And it’s the type of shop that saves things.

True to his word, Richie was done in 35 minutes, and now the truck runs fine. And there’s a 30-day warranty on the work.

As I’ve said before, I like small town mechanics. Their customer base is too small for them to last long doing bad work or ripping people off. So if you find yourself in southwest New Mexico needing some work on your vehicle, or just need something checked out, go see Richie at Twisted Wrenches, near the junction of highways 180 and 152. 575-412-3051.

I'll get a big charge out of this

I saw the FedEx guy coming so I met him in the yard. He delivered the first part of my upgraded solar power system. Twice as many Amp hours, half as many connections.

So old curmudgeon me is taking a giant step into 2019, embracing lithium battery technology. I’ve read up on them enough to answer my concerns.

I imagine the system that has faithfully served me the past ten years probably feels (if it has feelings) like a middle-aged wife getting dumped for a 20-year-old. I had no major complaints with it. I just had to be careful with my electrical usage in the winter.

The switch to a LiFePo4 battery means I need a compatible charge controller. And so I gather enough sunlight to keep the battery charged, I’m retiring my 270 Watt panel for two 200 Watt panels. There’s j-u-u-u-u-u-s-t enough room on the Rolling Steel Tent’s roof for them. 

Even though the old system didn’t short out or cause any fires, it wasn’t wired quite right or efficiently. So I’m redoing all my wiring.

Oh, and the repair shop called today. The new engine hadn’t arrived or even been shipped. The supplier said it hadn’t been ordered. Then they said it had but they wouldn’t have one for another month or more. So my shop is looking for a new supplier. Stay tuned.

Checking in

Making it a little safer

The door of the camper Lou built has a deadbolt. But since the door swings out, the hinges are exposed. That means a half-clever thief with a screwdriver and hammer, and maybe a little WD-40, could pop out the hinge pins and jiggle the door off.

So to add a little bit more security I made a modification I saw somewhere years ago. I drilled a hole in the jam and inserted a center punch I sacrificed for the cause. Then I drilled a slightly larger hole in the edge of the door. The tool steel center punch fits in the door hole when the door is closed. Now the door can’t be easily pried out if the hinge pins are removed. 

You could accomplish the same thing by installing a second deadbolt on the hinge side of the door, but then you’d need to lock and unlock both whenever you used the door.

I know it won’t stop everyone. A coworker’s family owned a cabin in the San Bernardino Mountains. Cabins in the area were unoccupied most of the time, making them targets for thieves who would just cut open the doors with chain saws. Now, with battery-powered hand tools, determined and equipped thieves can probably get into any unattended space. But at least I did what I could.

The big swap

Yesterday I had the auto repair shop do compression and leak down tests on the Rolling Steel Tent’s engine. Both were lower than the norm but not terrible.

I also had them try to find where my coolant kept going. They confirmed there were no external leaks and that it must be a head gasket or two, and/or the intake manifold gasket. Repairing either of those would be as much labor as replacing the engine, and I’d still have the compression and leak down issues. 

So I pulled the trigger on an engine replacement. They worked up an estimate. Parts and labor just shy of $10,000, which is about what I expected. Seven-hundred of that is a contingency fund for other parts they might discover they need.

While they’re at it, I'll have them replace the rear wheel bearings (the fronts were replaced a little while ago) and the shock absorbers.

So my home will go under the wrench on the 20th and be done sometime the next week. Then vrooooom vroooooooooom!