Jim
Forum Replies Created
-
All kidding aside, what a great choice guys !
-
Jon,
We have both probably spent a good deal of time researching these batteries and I do believe our conclusions are about the same. While by far the Li Cobalt is the best of this group it does have substantial downside risks. The iron phosphate seems to have eliminated much of the risk but that has come at some loss in battery performance, although still with substantial benefits over lead acid, especially in the long term.
All of these Li systems apparently have to be designed from the ground up for optimum performance and reliability; while replacing the lead acid batteries is certainly possible the fact remains that the ends will probably not justify the means. The lions share of these units that I have seen described are installed in older converted passenger busses with a basic house electrical system, mind you these are the same guys that pull into McDonalds for their second hand grease for their bio-diesel set up’s. I am quite certain that solar panels may also be involved as well as discussion about living off the grid; this is a far cry from the sophisticated electrical systems and components found on most of our conversions.
My reading also shown me that virtually all of these Li iron phosphate batteries are manufactured in China although “assembled” in the USA. This leads me to the conclusion that the manufacturer of these batteries may have some somewhat toxic side effects that has caused EPA and others to become involved, not that this matters to the end user it does introduce at least some question about quality control. I realize that Apple has most of their devices made in Chima, to me its another minor underlying concern. Finally I do not see any established organizations involved in this process of developing, manufacturing and marketing; they are all rather new entities, some with virtually no track record. Alas, is the rarely mentioned patent/trade mark wars that are apparently underway behind the scenes.
-
It is just about impossiable to tighten a tapered bearing tight enough with a matched race to cause the engine heat to increase ,some tapered bearings in transmission and differentals are pre loaded to 10+ lbs no run out or play
He has something else going on is my guess at 215 degress his 8v92 should have shut down
-
Many thanks to Jon, Di, Tom, and Nancy for hosting a wonderful rally. Seeing old friends and making new ones is the best part. Kudos to everyone who was there
-
I think how we prefer to operate our coaches greatly influences things such as the use of auto-start.
We know from battery manufacturers that deep discharges shorten the number of charge cycles. But we also can do some math and calculate how often we use our coaches such that we are doing an autostart. We typically are either plugged in or driving so battery cycles will never be an issue for us.
Dry camping is rare for us, and if we do dry camp I am not sacrificing luxury so I am running my generator as long and often as possible. And if I need to observe “quiet hours” I will manually start the generator anyway when the resting voltage is at 50%. But that doesn’t mean that is how others should do it.
I would suggest folks take the time to learn the coach, how the batteries last under typical usage and then determine how they want to manage battery charging. The only key to successful charging is to make sure the batteries do get a full charge.
-
If you had that clout with Direct we would all pay homage. 😀
-
I worked side-by-side with Ernie installing engineered hardwood in my bus – the entire bus. It took well over 150 man hours. I couldn’t agree more about choosing a wood that’s ‘character grade’. You want something that has enough built-in hand scrapes, flaws, or character that dropping a utensil won’t be noticed or can easily be colored in. Gluing with Bostiks is what we did and it is a proven technique. My bus actually lost weight after installing the engineered wood floor. I used a product from Mirage. There products have a 4 mm hardwood wear layer on a high quality 7 ply substrate. The boards are 5″ wide and 0.5″ thick. I recommend it! NFI.
-
Great place to stay. Highly recommend the resort and surrounding area.
We stayed two times so far and have reservations later this month and in December.
Paul
-
If we had the clout to do that, I suspect we would have the clout to get them to have a real person answer the phone on the first ring.
-
I think Jon is probably correct. I’m pretty sure Van Hool never made a two axle bus. I’ve been concerned about the proliferation of buses built on medium duty truck chassis and the Freightliner ones that seem to be built on motorhome chassis. I won’t jump to conclusions about this tragedy, but the trend to lighter chassis 30-40 passenger buses seems wrongheaded to me. I hope I’m wrong, but a rollover accident in a light chassis bus might be a lot worse than a similar accident in a “real” bus, and I’m afraid that rollover is more likely in a light chassis bus.
But back to the topic of this thread, let’s all vigilantly maintain our tires so there is never a thread like this about an accident involving one of us.
-
It looked like an airport shuttle type bus. There was so much damage none of the available photos were able to show who manufactured it. It was like the ones you see made by Bluebird, not for school use, but for limited commercial service.
-
Jon
Ok, let’s see if I can better describe my leveling system and the problem. My system operates with the key on or off & with the cranking batteries connected or disconnected. The system is controlled by four switches just to the left of the driver and each has three positions – up, mid and down. The switch functions labeled from front to back are OFF, FRONT, RR & LR. One click down for the switch labeled OFF ( this switch controls the Level/Low light) puts it in the manual position and the lower most position or two clicks puts it in the auto position. The switches labeled Front, RR and LR I assume are in the ” over the road” position when all the way up, one click down is “raise” and two clicks down is “lower” and their function is controlled by the front switch labeled OFF or Level/ Low. When I am driving I have all four switches in the upper most position which keeps the bus up on air and level while traveling, with a soft, comfortable ride. Typically when I park the coach I level it by putting the main switch (Level/ Low) in the manual position and use the Front, RR & LR to level. Once level I put all of the switches in the top position, which I believe is off, and the key is off as I am parked.
Tests – key off and cranking battery disconnected
Test # 1. I brought the bus all the way up on air and then put all four of the switches in the upper most position. Over night the driver side rear dropped all the way down. The front and right side stayed up.
Test #2. Again the bus was all the way up on air. I put the Front, LR & RR in the top position (off or over the road) and put the Level / Low switch in the manual position. Again the left rear corner dropped.
Test #3. Bus all the way up I put the Front, LR & RR in the raise position ( one click down) and the Level /Low in the off position. Less leakage over night.
I don’t know if the problem is with an air bag (all are less than two years old), an air line or a control valve or……? I don’t hear any leaks at the “dump valves” in the compartment under the drivers feet. Do you know when leveling if I am controlling air in both the drive and tag axel air bags?. Any thoughts will be appreciated. Thank you
-
On my conversion had a problem of step slide not retracting back a month or so ago. Layed bumper down, slid Cruseairs out and still could’nt see cylinder. Pulled passenger foot slide out and could see rod and cylinder from bottom. I guess maybe unpin rod from step and pull out. My fix was spray silicon spray on anything I could see. Worked on my problem. Didn’t have air leaking,, just no slidie / workie.
-
Traxman,
Most folks do not realize the differences between the entertainer chassis and the Prevost motorhome conversion chassis. Apart from the obvious wheelbase length and the amount of stainless steel on the sides, the windows are different.
Motorhomes have awning type windows and entertainer coaches have sliding windows. It is doubtful if any motorhome owner can steer you to the source for the sliding window gasket, but the folks that might be able to help would be the operators of entertainer coaches.
The following link is to the entertainer motorcoach operators who are part of the American Bus Association, and I suspect someone on the list has the answer you seek.
-
Hey Alvie…
Is it working now??? If so what fixed it?
Cheers, Diane