Listen to the engine of Big Red on this beautiful summer evening, as I turn onto NY 443. Notice, I wasn't swearing or playing copyrighted music in this clip, so it can have audio. That doesn't happen regularly.
Took five minutes to fix. I apparently used copper coated aluminum wire to run the exciter wire. Salt, water air got into one of the butt connectors, dissolved the wire. While I should replace the wire, I instead just stripped it back and fixed the bum connection. If I ever do any more automotive wiring I’ll follow the advice of the experts and not ever use CCA wire, it’s bad news. I am not surprised, I made this mistake previously and had this issue. CCA is much cheaper than copper but it’s one headache after another.
My exciter wire is once again not providing excitement to the battery relay, so the solar panel isn’t maintaining the starting battery and alternator isn’t topping off the accessory batteries. Relay is fine, just tested it with allegator clips. Bad butt connector somewhere, nothing obvious. I’ll have to get out the test meter and work backwards to the cab where I know I have power.
I thought I had mastered automobile electrical wiring, haven’t had issues in a few years. But vibration, dirt and salt is tough mothers.
Cold but sunny! No starting problems for me today when I go out later.
Wednesday, when I last went out to check the truck and knock the snow off it, the accessory battery bank was at 12.4 volts and starting battery at 12.3 volts. It was pretty cold, it was 3 days since I ran the truck, I had the lights on a while while I unpacked my truck on Sunday evening.
Today, with the sun and power flowing from the solar panel, the accessory batteries are at 14.3 volts and the starting battery at 12.8 volts. It looks like starting battery is taking a little longer to charge, but that’s normal as the system is set to charge the accessory batteries first, then once the voltage in system is above 14.1 volts to dump the excess power into the staring battery.
I figured this snow isn't going to be real icy so make it easy for cleaning off the snow from the cap come tomorrow so I can have solar panel cranking out a trickle charge when the sun comes back out.
Taken on Wednesday December 16, 2020 at Big Red.That’s what I figured out based on my state inspection records and a count of every time I camped between mid November 2019 and currently. Maybe it’s off by 10% – with the bigger tires – but that’s still only about 7k for the year. With the pandemic smoldering all around and with my truck getting older, I’ve been choosing shorter trips and when I get to camp often setting up for multiple days, relying heavily on the solar power and the two batteries for power.
I’ve gotten to the point where I like to travel less, do less driving and when I get to a campsite settle in for a few days. Plus with remote work, I’ve been busy with work stuff and it’s been hard to ask for time off during the pandemic and my hectic work schedule. Even when that meant driving into town to get the Wi-Fi, those trips were quite direct – not a lot of chance to get out and tour the countryside.
Next year I probably will end up traveling more and if I do I’ll have to plan to make appropiate repairs to the truck to ensure reliability. That said, I kind of like setting up camp and just walking to destinations from camp. Solar and the batteries means I don’t need to drive much to keep things well charged. And walking gets you better educated on the woods then constantly driving and passing the land by at 55 mph.