Hi all...

Well since it has been slow here, might as well just BS about our vans...

I am going to fix, what I think is, a rattling front brake pad tomorrow afternoon.

One thing that is pizzing me off is the serpentine belt tensioner. I have been through three, all different brands, and I still get clicky clicky clack when at low RPM - anyone have any ideas about this one?

Other than that, the van has been good (knock on wood)...I got 14 MPG last tank in mostly city driving. First time that has happened...

Happy vanin'!

 

I was looking to get a decent 100Watt Solar Panel and charge controller for my van so that I can add another battery and have the Solar Panel charge it up. Then, if I'm on a trip and happen to need to sleep in the van for a night, I can be able to use my laptop without having to worry about anything. Unfortunately, where I live I seem to be unable to locate a store where I can walk in, buy the Solar Panel and leave with it. I only seem to be able to order one online somewhere, and I do not want to go that route. I'll have to keep looking.

 

That is a good idea...

What I did to tackle the same problem was to get one of those Power/Supply Jump Starters. It is similar to this:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-Peak-Performance-Jump-Starter-600-Peak-Amps-/251325259362?pt=Battery_Chargers&hash=item3a84271e62&vxp=mtr
The one I have has a 12v cigarette lighter socket on it. I plug in a 100w inverter and I have not killed it yet. Normally I will only use the laptop for a couple of hours. Also it charges off the cigarette lighter as you drive so recharging is a breeze.

Also use the inverter to charge your laptop while driving too!

This setup has worked well for me. I just keep the box under the passenger seat. It nice for it be a jumpstarter if I ever need it.

 

Hmm, yeah, that might actually be a viable alternative.

 

My van is a rolling man cave.

I am typing this in my van, after midnight, with a few beers in me.

Those beers were cooled in a few hours by a 12vDC compressor fridge right next to me as I type this. It is 33.5 degrees in there now. I am bathed in LED lights. I could be watching Craig Fergurson, but that Robot annoys me.

I have 2 group 27 batteries powering everything "man cave" related. I have a separate engine starting battery which never gets discharged. The '27's are charged daily by 200 watts of solar and an upgraded alternator charging circuit, though I have other charging sources available too when I have access to the grid. I have access to the grid right now. I Don't need it. I enjoy that greatly.

As far a jump starters/ power packs, they are good for when you do not have a secondary battery, but the battery within them is likely only 12 to 24 amp hours capacity. Drain your engine battery truly dead, and these will NOT crank over a V8.

My group 27 batteries are 115 A/H each, at least they were when they were new, but now they have about 550 discharge cycles on them and are at a fraction of their original capacity. I'll guess about half. 35 to 40% really. Wait, that is not a fraction.....

Which is still more than enough for my overnight uses.

About running a Laptop, my laptop can use more in 4 hours than my fridge will use in 24 hours, most days. Depends on what I am asking of either that day. My fridge uses under 24 amp hours per day. My laptop can draw over 7 amps per hour, not that it always does. 2.5 to 5 amps per hour is more likely, which is still way way more than my fridge.

But I also took some steps to ensure the best possible efficiency of the fridge. More insulation and no preheated air recycled through the condenser adds over 20% efficiency.

Residential fridges could be more efficient that they are. Ever wonder why they are not?

One thing to note is that inverters are inefficient. A Laptop uses 12-20.5 volts DC. The power brick that came with your laptop converts 115-230 Vac into 12to 20.5vDC. When you use an INverter to power your original laptop power brick you are taking 12.xx vdc, converting it to 115vAC at ~85% efficiency, then your power brick is reconverting that back to 12-20vdc at who knows what efficiency.

Ever feel how hot a laptop power supply gets when charging a dead battery, and while doing something CPU intensive like watching a DVD or streaming a HD movie? That heat is waste. That is your battery power being directly transmitted to the atmosphere, and not for the first time Whether it was charged by the power grid, or your alternator, heat was created, and now created again, all so you can read my easily ignorable words, since they are not what anyone would like to acknowledge even if their one task brains could fathom it and its implications beyond their tiny worlds.

My point is, you can get a DC to DC converter for your laptop. It takes your 12.xx DC battery voltage and stepping it up into whatever DC voltage your laptop requires.

Since my Inverter draws 0.9 amps powering NOTHING, just turned on, my laptop "CAR ADAPTER" uses up to 60% less electricity than if I were to use my inverter to power the original power brick. Most of the time the % saved is lower than this, but still in the 15 to 40% range.

Which Is significant.

Go into Amazon electronics. Type in your laptop Make and Model and add "car adapter" into the search. Make sure the product shown has a Ciggy plug on it. Only some Mac users or those with real old laptops might not find a cost effective car adapter. Do NOT get a universal type unless your laptop is only capable of drawing less than 60 watts.

Multiply the DC output voltage times the amps to determine wattage. Ask 65 watts of a 60 watt power supply and you will release the magic blue smoke if you ask it to charge a dead laptop battery while the computer is actually on. Those are capable of charging the battery only with the laptop off, or powering a laptop with an already fully charged, or nearly so, battery. Not both at once. Bet they didn't put that in the fine print did they? Would you have read that if they had?

My 100 watt car adapter was 22$ delivered, and I don't freaking have to listen to that freaking inverter fan waste my batteries. I almost never use the 800 watt inverter. It is a last case scenario. Everything else is bought with DC power in mind. Too many introductees into the 12 volt DC world just assume an inverter turns their battery into a grid supplied AC world with no consequence. They want to run portable heaters, stoves, convection ovens, air conditioners, crock pots, Giant Plasma screens, all off of battery power from some single tiny battery they have no idea how to recharge. freaking clueless nimrods.

Like that Dingbat who thought she could use her 2000 watt hair dryer for 20 minutes each day cause she is a princess and can't live without it.

Chk Chk BOOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Pink Princess dust and a better planet.

I have actually seen a woman try to power her hair dryer with one of those portable power packs, stamp her foot at the alarms and flashing red lights which greeted her, then try again, and again, then blame the product, then any male within a mile. Her indignation was palpable from hundreds of yards away, and man oh man was it amusing to watch. So happy it was not my job to keep her happy, no matter how long her legs were nor how gravity defying her silicone enhanced torso was.
Not. Worth. It!!

Jump starter packs have their place. In most cases using them as a remote power supply is fool hardy. Their battery capacity is tiny. Once could buy a 25$ 12 Ah battery and charge it with a ciggy plug or alligator clips to the engine battery and be better off at the cost of convenience and possibly bragging rights.

This is the battery in 75% of all small to medium size jumper packs sold:


Not that the alternator does a good job at recharging batteries. Most people act like the alternator is some magical genie, an unlimited power source which nearly instantly recharges dead batteries.

I got news for you. If you have to jumpstart a vehicle, you are looking at 8+ hours of highway driving before the formerly healthy battery is in the 90% charged range again, and that last 10%, can take another 500 miles. Usually the jumpstarted battery lives the rest of its much shortened days in the 30% range until it fails, and the indignant consumer returns, expects a new battery under warranty, and every battery consumer in the world gets to help pay for it sooner or later.

Instant and Magical my A$$.
Ignorant and moronic is more like it.

Lead acid car jar batteries want to live their lives 100% charged, or as close to that as possible. Under 80% charged and they are losing capacity quickly. the lower the discharge and the longer they stay there, the faster the capacity is lost, forever. Magical battery desulfators, will not restore them, despite claims their manufacturers or those that need to justify having bought one.




If your vehicle needs a jumpstart, put the battery on a grid powered charging source overnight ASAP, or just start saving for a new battery.

Rather than a bells and whistles and florescent plastic "magical" jumper pack, one could spend that money on an Auxiliary battery that actually has an 80 + amp hour capacity for the same price as some all in one power pack flashlight/ air compressor/ inverter/ vibrating sex toy combo, that excells in neither task at which it claims ability to do effortlessly. Where did that long legged chick with the hair dryer go now?

Take this powerpack with built in air compressor , vibrating Phallus, flashlight and ....
Wait this is a family oriented site ...............

Don't forget your freaking hair dryer princess!!!!!!!!!!!

Of course then one needs to figure out an automatic way for the secondary battery to get charged by the freaking magical instantly recharging all powerful hail Mary alternator, and be separate from the engine battery with the key out of the ignition

This is also simple to do, but only simple once you know how, like everything.

To learn how, prepare for my lesson,, Ha...................
Nevermind, just read a few pages in this thread....


http://www.expeditionportal.com/foru...y-setup-for-50.

As far as expecting to walk into a store and walk out with a 100+ watt solar panel, well doing some online research will have one delivered to your door for significantly cheaper, so get over it, or whatever mentality that says there must be a walk in store nearby to supply what I need at the price I am willing to pay while I rail against outsourcing and Chinese goods.

Yes I am a Hypocrite. Who isn't.

Those days are ending soon, and I'm not some kid that grew up with a cell phone a facebook account and an overblown sense of entitlement like the multitude of distracted, yet fashionable, twittering sniveling D bags we must share the roads with, while they apply makeup, sneer and accelerate as fast as they can to the next redlight to expertly thumb type at their phones Asap. Cant you see how important they are?
Chk Chk BOOMMMMMM!



75% of my purchases are delivered. Not having to deal with the traffic, self righteous indignant customers or ignorant knuckle dragging staff
............Priceless.

No Offense intended, believe it or not. Not that intentions on wally's world wide web matter. One of my better rants. I'll have to remember to see what I wrote tomorrow if it is still here. Perhaps it will be presented at my indictment instead.

This rant inspired by observation with our downward spiraling culture from its disgusted, yet possibly highly enlightened fringes, who want no part of it.

You should be able to go into a local solar installer and walk out with a panel not much above cost, but likely these are 24 volt or higher panels which require a Pricier MPPT charge controller rather than a PWM controller which need 12 volt nominal voltage panels, or they just waste the extra voltage. The MPPT turns that extra voltage into amps into the battery bank

 

.....

 

So...wtf is this...

I am on the RSS feed for Rock Auto. I saw they had Raybestos brakes on closeout for $8 bucks so I decided to buy them. I was thinking that maybe I cracked a pad when I was in Pennsylvania. So I had them ready just in case.

The very first thing I had to do when I bought the van was the brake pads. I remember that they were a real pain in the **** to get on...but this was over a year and a half ago...

I had the new ones put on (I had a friend that owed me a favor) and I got the old ones back...what the heck is this nubby? He said that it was keeping the caliper when you take off the torx screws, from coming off. He said the Raybestos ones were right and these were wrong. As you can see this nubby is right next to the piston, so any little vibration was hitting the inside of the piston caused a really weird clicking sounds...

Just wanted to let you all know what I found out. The brakes are awesome now.

 

I just spent the last 2 hours making and installing some universal Accel 8 mm spiral core racing wires. Things went well but it was annoying that the spark plugs are facing each other.
The van idles so that's a good start...I still have to gap the plugs and look inside the distributor cap so I haven't bothered to take it out for a drive yet.
Steve

 

I was looking for something to do today and decided to remove my battery terminals. I hit the inside and outside of them with some sand paper and was pleasantly surprised to find that the van ran better overall. The van seems a bit more responsive and was probably not getting a solid power connection due to some corrosion. Simple things like this can sometimes make a big difference if overlooked.

I still have to do my valve cover gaskets, but I'm not looking forward to it due to getting to some of the bolts in the back is going to be a bit of a pain.

 

My 2000 might be different, but I thought installing valve cover gaskets on this motor was easy. This is my HS roller rocker upgrade thread with a few pics. And I still say it is a lot easier to change spark plugs with the valve covers off on the 5.2L Magnum.

https://dodgeforum.com/forum/dodge-r...r-upgrade.html