Australian Retro Rambler

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Re: Australian Retro Rambler

Postby edgeau » Sat Oct 10, 2020 10:24 pm

The current plan is to move the sliders to the edges of the under floor area where you can see the feet of tarp poles in this photo.

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I will still do a 3mm metal shelf. But at the top of the sliders not the bottom. The poles will still slide in. I will just have to haul the fridge out and drop it 20mm onto the shelf when setting up. Not as nice as sitting on a slide out shelf all the time but more convenient than using a set of fold up legs.

The divider between the BBQ and fridge will have to move and be a little slimmer but that is easy, it is secured with screws in some angle.

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Re: Australian Retro Rambler

Postby edgeau » Thu Oct 15, 2020 4:25 am

Power use experiment update.
So I started by measuring the re charge of the battery from our last night camping. 8AH. The battery is rated at 40Ah but at 50% depth of discharge that is 20AH useable. So 12 available.

Stage 2.
Rig up anderson plugs on the power pack so I can measure the fridge use.

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This has the added advantage that if I decide to take advantage of a powered site I can plug the power pack in to the solar panel input on the drop and run without modification.

Overnight result was 4.5AH over 8.5 hours.
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Re: Australian Retro Rambler

Postby edgeau » Thu Oct 15, 2020 4:32 am

I also left it on during the day.
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11.5 AH over almost 23hours

It is starting to look like my habit of overdoing things might pay off. It is possible I may be able to get away with out upgrading everything.

To that end the next stage of the experiment is to repeat with the fridge changed to eco mode.

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Re: Australian Retro Rambler

Postby edgeau » Thu Oct 15, 2020 8:09 pm

2.6AH this morning after 9.5hours. eco mode seems to work.

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Re: Australian Retro Rambler

Postby edgeau » Fri Oct 16, 2020 5:02 am

Oops this last run will need to be redone. Mrs Edge had the day off planning young ones birthday and loaded the fridge with warm drinks for the party. At least that gives me a working hard figure of 14Ah on ECO mode.
It is starting to look borderline. Definitely only one day on the battery and no reserve if there is an issue charging.

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Re: Australian Retro Rambler

Postby noseoil » Fri Oct 16, 2020 7:25 am

We use a 100 watt solar panel on the roof (designed it for the "hard points" during the build, fortunately) for ours & we have plenty of power for our needs. The battery is a 100 AH deep cycle, so there's never been an issue with lights, radio or movies at night. 50% capacity is a fair load to pull on a battery every day, so having a good charge is important to keep things moving properly.

I know it's wrong & over-simplified (I'm no electrical engineer & never played one on TV), but my rule of thumb for solar is to have 1 watt of charge for each amp-hour of storage capacity for a system. A 40 watt panel would take care of your energy needs every day & even on a cloudy day it should work well enough. Too many cloudy days might be a problem, but if you have "mostly" sunny weather it should be fine.
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Re: Australian Retro Rambler

Postby edgeau » Fri Dec 11, 2020 9:26 pm

I have been a little quiet. Rush to the end of the year with work. But I have finished the fridge housing and using position. It turned out rather different to the plan because when I went to attach the sliders I realized they would interfere with my lifting mechanism to remove the TD from the trailer. I use that functionality a lot so I had to adapt to a fold down shelf. The supports are aluminum slats from a long dead camping table. As they slide out completely I can remove them for a lift.
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Re: Australian Retro Rambler

Postby MickinOz » Sat Dec 12, 2020 12:46 am

I was looking at a few things the other day and I wondered how often you actually use the removability feature.
I confess I thought you'd get sick of it and just buy another trailer, so its nice to see the work you put into making it removable wasn't in vain.
I had another look at the brass monkey fridges at the shop today. The 22L looks like it will slot into the space occupied by my Engel. I have a small bonus coming from work. Its tempting.
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Re: Australian Retro Rambler

Postby edgeau » Sat Dec 12, 2020 1:01 am

Another trailer would be convenient but it is a matter of parking space. It only takes me 10 to 15 minutes to convert it to a box trailer using the cordless impact driver and drill so a good compromise.

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Re: Australian Retro Rambler

Postby bdosborn » Mon Dec 28, 2020 6:43 pm

I' d keep track of the temperature when you run your tests. Usage goes up a lot for my fridge when its hot outside.
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Re: Australian Retro Rambler

Postby edgeau » Mon Dec 28, 2020 6:50 pm

bdosborn wrote:I' d keep track of the temperature when you run your tests. Usage goes up a lot for my fridge when its hot outside.
Bruce
Absolutely! On a real world test at the moment. Going well. High 20s low 30s at the moment, two fans going all night and the fridge battery at 56% in the morning. Back to full before 11am in cloudy weather.

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Re: Australian Retro Rambler

Postby bdosborn » Mon Dec 28, 2020 7:39 pm

edgeau wrote:Absolutely! On a real world test at the moment. Going well. High 20s low 30s at the moment, two fans going all night and the fridge battery at 56% in the morning. Back to full before 11am in cloudy weather.


No wonder your usage is so low, wait till it gets up in the 90s and 100s. ;) My Waeco CF-40 uses around 0.5 amp-hr when its 78F.

http://www.tnttt.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=46331&hilit=+waeco

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Re: Australian Retro Rambler

Postby edgeau » Mon Dec 28, 2020 7:44 pm

bdosborn wrote:
edgeau wrote:Absolutely! On a real world test at the moment. Going well. High 20s low 30s at the moment, two fans going all night and the fridge battery at 56% in the morning. Back to full before 11am in cloudy weather.


No wonder your usage is so low, wait till it gets up in the 90s and 100s. ;) My Waeco CF-40 uses around 0.5 amp-hr when its 78F.

http://www.tnttt.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=46331&hilit=+waeco

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Lol that was deg C not F so about 90 in your scale

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Re: Australian Retro Rambler

Postby bdosborn » Mon Dec 28, 2020 7:55 pm

I know, just kidding. :D
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Re: Australian Retro Rambler

Postby edgeau » Mon Dec 28, 2020 7:58 pm

bdosborn wrote:I know, just kidding. :D
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