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October 7, 2010, a Thursday
Lehi (Cabela's) to Uinta National Forest (Nebo Loop), Utah, USA
— Worked on the RV some more then moved down the road
We took it easy this morning because we didn't have much to do today — so we thought. I had my usual breakfast and noticed that our Link 10 battery monitor was showing a 3 A load when everything should have been off — not good. I got the accommodations all squared away with KZN Wildlife for Hluhluwe and Imfolozi Game Reserves, then started to work on an email to SANParks (South Africa National Parks) to book accommodations there. The inverter started complaining about low voltage again. Because it was cloudy and we wouldn't get much solar-electric power, I tried to turn on the generator. There wasn't enough juice left in the house batteries to start it, so I jumped them with the Jeep battery so I could start the generator. I finished the email to SANParks, then I turned off the generator and ...
Started to debug the phantom load problem. I disconnected the inverter from the battery, and the odd load was still there. Then I unhooked the converter (battery charger from 110 VAC shore power or generator power), and the odd load was still there. Then I had J look at the Link-10 display as I pulled each of the 12 VDC fuses on the power distribution panel, and the load was still there. Then I went outside to the battery compartment and disconnected about half of the leads from the positive side of the battery, and the load was still there. Then I unhooked the remainder of the positive leads, except for the lead to the inverter which also included the leads to the Link-10, and the load was still there. Then I started taking leads off the negative side of the battery. The odd load changed, and I had J look at the Link-10 while I jiggled some wires, and discovered that it was the lines to the Link-10 at the shunt that were flakey. That wasn't too surprising because the original wires on the positive side that had been attached to a butt joint had corroded severely, and a poor connection at the shunt could be interpreted by the Link-10 as a load. Unfortunately, I didn't have a new connector large enough for one side of the shunt, so instead of taking the Jeep down to Home Depot again and back, we decided to pack up and take both vehicles there because it would be on our way out of town. I reconnected all of the positive and negative leads to the battery bank and tied everything up.
I came back inside the RV around 12:50 and had lunch. J left around 1:10 in the Jeep to go have lunch at Del Taco and to run some errands. After I finished eating, I dumped the RV at the Cabela's dump station then took on fresh water. I left in the RV around 2:00.
I reached the Home Depot in American Fork around 2:15 and J was across the street getting a flu shot at Walgreen's. I went inside Home Depot to pick up the connector I needed, then started to do the final (I hoped) bit of work to get the electrical system back to normal. J arrived at the RV and I finished the installation. The odd load was gone. :) We left around 3:35 in the RV and ...
Went to get propane and it started raining. The gas station in American Fork didn't have propane like I thought they did, so I pulled into the Burger King parking lot to go online to look for some. The closest place I could find that was on our way was down in Springville.
We returned to Home Depot and left with me in the RV and J following in the Jeep.
It stopped raining.
We went to the Chevron in American Fork near I-15 to fill up both vehicles at $2.749/gal and I saw that they had propane. :) After we loaded up on gas, I went inside to see if we could get some propane, and the woman said they can't dispense it when it's stormy because of the possibility of lightning. :( I installed two new Michelin Radius wiper blades on the RV then we hooked up the Jeep to tow. We got underway at 4:30 and headed south on I-15.
Traffic was moving really slow, and we wouldn't make the propane place in Springville before they closed at 5:00, so J used her iPhone to locate another source. She was able to talk with the U-Haul in Provo, and confirmed that they could fill our RV, just before we got to the southern exit for Provo.
We reached the U-Haul in Provo around 5:15. Their lot wasn't set up so that we could pull up to the propane while towing the Jeep, so I had to unhook the Jeep first so that I could back up the RV next to the propane pump. We took on propane, then hooked up the Jeep to tow again. I went online to send out an email before we would likely be without an internet connection for the next few days. We got underway around 5:45.
Because we wouldn't be able to reach our intended destination for today before it got really late, we decided to head up to the Nebo Loop to see how conditions were there. We got off I-15 at the southern exit for Payson, and without a good map it was difficult to find the entrance to the Nebo Loop. I found the entrance and we started heading up the hill. It started raining again, and the new Michelin Radius wiper blades worked much better than the old blades!
We reached a nice boondocking spot with some Verizon Broadband Access coverage and were level by 7:40 just as it started to hail.
We had dinner around 7:45 of open-faced sandwiches with Lloyd's Pork BBQ.
I did some computer work then worked up a blog entry.
Started to debug the phantom load problem. I disconnected the inverter from the battery, and the odd load was still there. Then I unhooked the converter (battery charger from 110 VAC shore power or generator power), and the odd load was still there. Then I had J look at the Link-10 display as I pulled each of the 12 VDC fuses on the power distribution panel, and the load was still there. Then I went outside to the battery compartment and disconnected about half of the leads from the positive side of the battery, and the load was still there. Then I unhooked the remainder of the positive leads, except for the lead to the inverter which also included the leads to the Link-10, and the load was still there. Then I started taking leads off the negative side of the battery. The odd load changed, and I had J look at the Link-10 while I jiggled some wires, and discovered that it was the lines to the Link-10 at the shunt that were flakey. That wasn't too surprising because the original wires on the positive side that had been attached to a butt joint had corroded severely, and a poor connection at the shunt could be interpreted by the Link-10 as a load. Unfortunately, I didn't have a new connector large enough for one side of the shunt, so instead of taking the Jeep down to Home Depot again and back, we decided to pack up and take both vehicles there because it would be on our way out of town. I reconnected all of the positive and negative leads to the battery bank and tied everything up.
I came back inside the RV around 12:50 and had lunch. J left around 1:10 in the Jeep to go have lunch at Del Taco and to run some errands. After I finished eating, I dumped the RV at the Cabela's dump station then took on fresh water. I left in the RV around 2:00.
I reached the Home Depot in American Fork around 2:15 and J was across the street getting a flu shot at Walgreen's. I went inside Home Depot to pick up the connector I needed, then started to do the final (I hoped) bit of work to get the electrical system back to normal. J arrived at the RV and I finished the installation. The odd load was gone. :) We left around 3:35 in the RV and ...
Went to get propane and it started raining. The gas station in American Fork didn't have propane like I thought they did, so I pulled into the Burger King parking lot to go online to look for some. The closest place I could find that was on our way was down in Springville.
We returned to Home Depot and left with me in the RV and J following in the Jeep.
It stopped raining.
We went to the Chevron in American Fork near I-15 to fill up both vehicles at $2.749/gal and I saw that they had propane. :) After we loaded up on gas, I went inside to see if we could get some propane, and the woman said they can't dispense it when it's stormy because of the possibility of lightning. :( I installed two new Michelin Radius wiper blades on the RV then we hooked up the Jeep to tow. We got underway at 4:30 and headed south on I-15.
Traffic was moving really slow, and we wouldn't make the propane place in Springville before they closed at 5:00, so J used her iPhone to locate another source. She was able to talk with the U-Haul in Provo, and confirmed that they could fill our RV, just before we got to the southern exit for Provo.
We reached the U-Haul in Provo around 5:15. Their lot wasn't set up so that we could pull up to the propane while towing the Jeep, so I had to unhook the Jeep first so that I could back up the RV next to the propane pump. We took on propane, then hooked up the Jeep to tow again. I went online to send out an email before we would likely be without an internet connection for the next few days. We got underway around 5:45.
Because we wouldn't be able to reach our intended destination for today before it got really late, we decided to head up to the Nebo Loop to see how conditions were there. We got off I-15 at the southern exit for Payson, and without a good map it was difficult to find the entrance to the Nebo Loop. I found the entrance and we started heading up the hill. It started raining again, and the new Michelin Radius wiper blades worked much better than the old blades!
We reached a nice boondocking spot with some Verizon Broadband Access coverage and were level by 7:40 just as it started to hail.
We had dinner around 7:45 of open-faced sandwiches with Lloyd's Pork BBQ.
I did some computer work then worked up a blog entry.