Finishing Projects…

Wednesday - Back in the shed. I really need to straighten out the back room, as it became quite a mess as I tried to find tools. There are still some that I haven't found, such as my small hand saw. I ended up using the Sawzall to make small cuts in the flooring. Not the right tool for the job.

The task of the day is the water softener. I backflushed it for the first time for several minutes, then I'm trying out a new water softener regeneration method/device. The blue filter housing has the filter removed and is filled with salt pellets instead of table salt. The salt dissolve slower and is in contact with the resin in the softener for longer. The claim is for better regeneration. After the regeneration process is completed, the housing is cleaned, and a filter can be installed.

Friday - It has been much cooler after a cold front moved through the area yesterday. In fact, it was only 54°F this morning. Quite a change from just one day earlier. It's been raining off and on since last night. I guess we'll see how watertight this shed is. 

Saturday - This morning, with the help of Richard and Brad, I installed a new A/C unit on the roof of the class C. The Furion Chill Cube is an 18K unit with a variable speed blower and a variable speed compressor. 

I removed the internal parts and the wiring last night to simplify things but I had left the backup camera turned on which drained the chassis battery. We used the “extension ladder” method to get the old unit off the roof and the new one up. The class C has a really thin roof at only 2¼” thick so I used a foam spacer between the roof and the new unit. 

I just centered the new unit over the opening making sure that the wires weren’t pinched. From the bottom, I trimmed about half an inch from the air distribution foam and positioned the inside mounting plate and inserted the four legs no bolts to sandwich the roof. 

The last step was connecting the 115VAC wires and connect the control box to the upper part of the A/C unit. And fasten the vents and controls. Then test…

Success! The new unit starts and runs easily from our 2000W inverter from our two batteries! In the screenshot, the unit is only drawing about 600watts. At this time, the fan was on “Auto” and, according to the shunt, we could run for over 12 hours. Not that I think that’s realistic. 

Very happy with this installation. 

New Flooring

Friday - Yesterday, I turned 70. I’m not really sure if that means anything to me. Hope and Richard made me a wonderful dinner. They are wonderful friends. My blood glucose numbers are higher than they were last year. It probably means that I need to take better care of myself, health-wise, as in diet and exercise.

Saturday - I hooked up the cargo trailer and headed to Home Depot first thing in the morning. The tires needed air, but other than that, no issues. I picked up twelve boxes of vinyl laminate plank flooring for the shed. The Internet says to put the flooring in the room to acclimate for 48-hours. So I still have my weekend "free". I have the room A/C running to help dehumidify the room. I have installed similar floors a couple of times, but never on a concrete slab. I'm told that I need to lay down a poly vapor barrier. I think that is going to increase the difficulty as it'll be slippery and challenging to walk on. 

Tomorrow, I’ll start moving things around the room and start prepping the concrete floor. 

Tuesday - I've been busy working on the flooring. I started laying it on Sunday. The vapor barrier is a real pain. 200 ft² of plastic sheet is challenging to deal with. The first couple of courses needed to be redone as it was crooked due to the wall not being very straight. But on the second attempt, it was looking good. 

The next challenge was the door needed trimming as the flooring added a bit over 10mm of thickness. 

But it’s done. Far from perfect, but the baseboard is installed, and it looks better than bare concrete or the filthy carpet that was originally installed. 

Next step is to move all of the stuff back. 

D'Hanis, TX - SKP

Tuesday - Still kinda rainy today, so no A/C cleaning. At least in the morning. The cold front that brought all the rain has also meant cooler-than-normal temperatures. I'm not going to complain about that. 

The Raspberry Pi that was running the Victron Venus OS was getting really flaky. I removed the SD card, which was a really old 8GB card, and installed the current version of the OS on a newer 32GB card. It now works (so far), and the touch screen seems to be much more responsive. It’s talking to HomeAssistant again, using ModBus as well as the Victron VRM portal. It hasn’t done that in months. 

Wednesday - No rain this morning, at least for a while. I pulled off the A/C shroud on the rear unit and brushed the fins clean using the special, plastic brush on the can lid. It did a good job. After vacuuming up the pile of debris, I sprayed on the cleaner and let it sit. After about 20 minutes, I sprayed off the evaporator with hot water in a spray bottle. It now looked new. 

I removed the shroud on the front A/C unit to see if it was equally dirty, but it was clean. I then buttoned everything back up, turned on the power to both units, and waited until it warmed up. It didn't take long. By 11:20, it was over 75°F inside, and both A/C units came on.

I then joined in for the mid-day test session. There was a shortage of VEs, so we ended up testing the two candidates serially. 

I picked up 1½ gallons of gas for the Ural. It started right up, but at 81°F, it was feeling too hot to go for a short ride. Wimp…

Thursday - I finished setting up the RV this morning after taking the Ural for a test ride. The Ural really seemed to need the blast up and down the highway and was running much better when I returned. And this is with Stabil added to the remaining fuel in the tank. 

I am pleased to report that it looks like the power problem with the class A has been resolved. Turning down the absorption voltage on both the inverter/charger as well as the solar charge controller eliminated the 12V "blinks" and the inverter shutting down. 

I'm in the shed right now, getting ready for the midday test session, and have the room A/C running. It seems to work well enough. It is forecast to be very warm this weekend.

Back in D’Hanis, TX

Wednesday - We arrived back at the Escapee Co-Op yesterday afternoon after a windy travel day from Lake Conroe. Going through San Antonio was, as usual, a pain due to the traffic and construction. We got particularly set up after moving the class C back to storage. Surprisingly, it started right up, but I should have used some sort of trickle charger on the chassis battery. 

Thursday - This morning, I finished setting up the RV, including the propane connection to the bulk tank. After setting everything up, I noticed that the awning touches the rain gutter on the shed. So I lifted the jacks, started the engine, built up air pressure, and moved the RV about 2” forward. The awning is on the south-facing side of the RV, so I prefer it to be out. But we need to be careful of the wind. 

Friday - A quick trip into town this morning to get blood drawn in preparation for my upcoming doctor appointment. Then back into town to deposit some checks at the bank. Now some projects. The rear A/C unit blows cold air for a while, then not. I pulled off the shroud, and the evaporator coil needs cleaning. The local stores didn't have the A/C cleaner in stock, so I ordered it from Amazon (at half the price!). It should be here on Sunday.

I was going to start the Ural before I realized it'll run better with at least a little gas. 

Monday - It has been raining off and on for most of the weekend, so not a whole lot has been going on. I have been slowly continuing to set things up around here at the CoOp lot. I did run into a black widow at the water spigot, and there are a handful of wasp nests around the lot. I picked up some spray for both of them, but haven't gotten around to spraying the wasp nests. 

This is the evaporator on the rear A/C unit. It really needs cleaning and with the high humidity, ice builds up on the coil, eventually blocking air flow through the coil. I suspect that the front unit may be equally filthy.

Occasionally, the power glitches in the RV. I've monitored the incoming power using the Bullydog app, and it isn't the incoming power. The A/C unit continues to run, but the TV, microwave, and Starlink will "blink". Those are all circuits that are running through the Magnum Inverter. The DC power will shut off for a very short time. My current theory is that as soon as the lithium batteries are fully charged and the BMS shuts off charging, it will disconnect the batteries, and the inverter will turn off for a fraction of a second, even though there is still AC power at the input. This morning, I lowered the absorption voltage on the Magnum inverter/charger from 14.6V to 14.4V as 14.6V is the setpoint on the lithium batteries' BMS. We'll see if this resolves the problem.