Solar power

Solar power

Late June 2015, first trip of the summer for the Blue Whale, up north to the Saguenay region, for the Bagotville International Airshow. They stayed at the St-Félix d'Otis municipal campground, just a few miles east of the military base, where they met my brother Luc & family with their popup camper, and Dad's cousin Roger in his Class B Safari Condo RV.

After the airshow, my parents drove west to the Lac St-Jean region, where they stayed for a few days and visited relatives (Lac St-Jean is Dad's birthplace).

On this trip they could test the newest addition to the Blue Whale: a nice 140W roof-top-mounted solar panel. Since the Whale is almost always used without any campground hookups, this solar panel should provide enough power for extended stays without the need to use the genset daily to recharge the battery.

One of the issue encountered when dry camping was the fridge would quit as soon as the battery voltage would drop a little. The fridge's main gas valve, 12V powered, seems somewhat sensitive to voltage drops and shut the fridge off all the time, pretty annoying. Now that solar panel keeps the battery voltage high enough that the fridge ran flawlessly for the entire week.

Also, most of the standard bulbs in the interior fixtures have now been replaced with LED lights. These lights all come from my favorite electronics and gadgets store, Deal Extreme.

Click HERE to see the exact LED bulbs used.

The solar panel provides almost as much power as the LEDs use during the evening. The battery stays mostly recharged, deep discharges are thing of the past, and this will help extend the battery's life.

The panel is glued to the rooftop on four brackets Dad made. Dad didn't want to drill a hole on the fiberglass shell to run a wire, so the panel's wiring goes down in the motorhome through a nearby roof vent, then into the small fuse compartment in the cupboard above the counter, where it is spliced in the Travco's electrical system. The panel uses a small voltage regulator (a little electronic black box) which is also housed in that fuse compartment.

What's that noise?

There was this strange noise that started on this trip, coming from the top (non, it wasn't the solar panel!). Turned out it was the air conditioner shroud that was flapping in the wind and hitting the top of the AC unit.
That shroud is in decent shape, but over time it started to sag in the middle. So once back home, Dad took the shroud off the motorhome and decided to freshen it up a bit. First the sag was cured by adding 2 small aluminium channels lengthwise, on the top. Notice how they curve a little bit in the front to match the shroud's shape.

Then some clean up, a bit of sanding, a nice coat of paint, and now it looks like new!

Gerry's lucky bad luck

Dad's best friend Gerry, who's living full time in his motorhome, has been parked at my parent's place for a few weeks. Last Sunday he decided it was time to move and pay a visit to relatives and friends in Lac St-Jean. Off he went, but after a few miles he phoned to my parents: he was coming back, his engine just blew his head gasket! Coolant was leaking out the engine, but he figured he would be able to make it back. And he managed to make it, and he was relieved he did, coolant still dripping out the engine but with the temperature still showing normal.

So, he was lucky in his bad luck. This gasket could have blown 2 hours later, where he would have been in the middle of nowhere, and it would have never been able to come back and it would have been a costly towing to get him out of there. Now at least he was at my Dad's place, probably the best place one can choose to be stranded!

Gerry will fix it himself. His Winnebago motorhome is a big Freightliner-based diesel pusher, with a Cumins engine.  There it is, parked in front of the my parent's Travco.

Gerry was a mechanic by trade, he knows these big diesel engines very well, he knows exactly what to do and how to do it. He says a head gasket job is not overly difficult, it just takes time. He figures maybe 20 hours, taking his time. Here's a picture of the engine, which is in fact under the master's bed, at the back on the vehicle:

The latest from the Blue Whale...

Yep, we're still there ! But before I go on with the Whale, a few words about its owner.

Dad injured its left knee last winter, just after the Holidays. A stupid thing, he simply missed a step going down the stairs. He didn't fall or anything, nothing broken, he just landed hard on its left leg, the kind of thing you usually forget right after. But not this time: the pain got into his knee and never left.

Went to see a doctor a few times, some bonesetter, got X-rayed, massaged, was given various medications, nothing would do. A sharp pain, that prevented him to walk and even sleep, and that only subdued - briefly - with a lot of pain killer drugs.

Normally Dad never stops. Always tinkering around the house. Just last fall, he fell 3 huge trees on his lot, pulled out the stumps, redid the landscape, cut and then carried all that wood, etc. Big big job. In his shop, he always has something going on: metal working, welding, working on the cars, etc. At 79, he's still hard to follow !

Well, not this winter. With this knee pain that prevented him to do just about anything, Dad felt like a lion in a cage. Pain, lack of sleep, strong medications, frustrations in the face of all the undone jobs around the house piling up...

Last month Dad finally had some stuff injected in his knee. Not sure what is was, but it's supposed to heal the knee and cure the pain. Well it did, but it's a slow process. Dad still feels some pain, but not as much. He doesn't take as much medications as he used to, he sleeps better, and he slowly began to tinker around the house. He now has to walk with a cane.

The return of warmer days and some ability to do things (although still limited) certainly helped boost his morale. Sometime with the help of one of his brothers, or with his good friend Gerry, Dad was able to go through most of the little springtime jobs around the house: take down the car and the Travco winter shelters, cleanup of the backyard, put the summer tires on the car, and of course de-winterinze the Blue Whale and get it ready for it's first trip of the season, possibly in mid-June.

The Whale

The Travco spent the winter in comfort, in the temporary shelter that Dad builds around it every fall. The only issue noticed this spring: the battery was completely dead. That's rather strange, since everything on the vehicle was OFF, that battery should have kept most of it's charge through winter. But this battery, a big and heavy 8D battery that's fairly recent, was never really good, with poor capacity right from the first day, according to Dad.

So the big thing was taken out of its tray and brought into Dad's shop. Then it was submitted to a "smart" charger's maintenance and desulfation cycles, then fully recharged. Not sure how really "smart" that charger is, but anyhow once stabilized the battery showed 12.7 V, which is the normal voltage of a fully charged battery, but doesn't guarantee any Amps capacity.

Today I helped Dad to put the heavy battery back in its compartment in the Travco. Boy this thing is heavy, it must weight well above 100 lbs. Then I did a few tests with the multimeter, trying to figure why the battery got discharged like that during the winter. I couldn't find anything wrong, I got a real open circuit (infinite resistance) between the battery leads of the vehicle, and I couldn't read one single milliAmp of current flowing when the battery was hooked up.

So for now Dad decided to give this battery one last chance. We'll see how it goes, if the battery doesn't deliver the juice, Dad will replace it.

Lets crank it up!

Now it was time to start, for the first time this year, the good old 440. The Travco had been sitting there since late October last year, so the engine had not run for 7 months. Dad engaged the starter for about 10 seconds (pretty good battery by the sound of it) then paused a little, while pumping the gas pedal a few times. Then he re-engaged the starter and the big V8 instantly roared to life !  You should have seen the smile on Dad's face!  No sputtering, no clicking or suspicious noises, just a smooth idle, the engine just ran like if it had just ran the night before.

I caught this first start on video:

While at it I checked on the Travco's charge system: if the battery remains suspicious, no worries about the alternator, which was putting out a healthy 14.7 volts at the battery.


Arizona

Last winter was even harder for Gerry, Dad's good old friend.

Gerry and his wife Pierrette used to be snowbirds. Every fall they left Quebec and went south to Arizona for the winter, driving down in their nice Winnebago Class A diesel pusher. However last winter Pierrette fell ill and they had to quickly fly back to Canada. Unfortunately, Pierrette passed away this last spring.

Gerry's motorhome was left behind in Arizona, and now must be driven back to Quebec. It's a long trip for a man alone. Finally, Dad will make the trip with him. Dad and Gerry will fly together next week, all the way down to Yuma AZ, then they will drive the motorhome back to Quebec City.

Both men are experienced drivers. Gerry has done the trip many times. Dad spent his life driving semi-trailer trucks, and is very excited and eager to drive the legendary American Southwest country.

Gerry and Dad are both from the same little Lac St-Jean town, and know each other since infancy.  They lost sight of each other in their early 20s, due to work.

The two friends didn't see each other for 37 years. Then Gerry retired and moved in the Quebec City area, and both friend were finally reunited. Boy did they had a lot to talk about !!  And they still do !!

A few years later, Dad, Mom, Gerry and Pierrette planned a trip to the Canadian West. Each couple had a small Class C motorhome, and that trip brought them all to way to Alaska in 2001.

I've probably written it before, but it's worth mentioning again. Gerry was a master mechanic by trade, he's in fact a extraordinary mechanic, his vast knowledge makes him and absolute reference for anything that runs an engine, and his support and advise to Dad has been of utmost importance during the restoration and repairs of the Blue Whale and Dad's previous Class C.

This 5000 km trip from Arizona to Quebec will take some time. They should be back home around mid-June. I wish them a good and safe trip!

Agrandir le plan

Summertime

Stoneham

Just as expected, getting the Travco ready for its first trip of the year was a race against the clock. There was so many things to fix! Once he had the engine oil changed, Dad started the big block V8 for the first time this year. The engine fired right up, idling smoothly, as if it had been shut down only a couple minutes before.

The big challenge was to get the motorhome out of its winter parking in the backyard wihout getting it stuck in the mud. Dad's good friend Gerry came to help, wich was a good thing because the Whale almost got "beached" behind the familiy house. The soil was completely soaked, thanks to the continuous rain, and after a significant grunt from the powerful 440 engine, the 14000lbs Whale was safely out on the street, leaving behind her two deep muddy tracks in the lawn!

We had a great time in Stoneham, despite the rainy weather. Last year the Blue Whale was on a rather concealed campsite, this year it was in plain view of the entire campground, and it certainly drew some attention.

A few pictures:







Back to the shop! Here are the latest jobs done on the Travco:

Dashboard and interior

The new dashboard is now completed. The large rotten plywood piece shown in my last post has been replaced by a new one, covered with a gray vinyl, and with new air vents. A wood trim has been installed in the front of the dashboard, and on the driver side Dad re-installed the plastic trims over the instrument cluster and heater controls. Many of these controls were missing buttons, so Dad got some replacements. Also, many of these heater controls were not in their right location on the control panel. Someone probably took the thing apart at one time and couldn't figure out how to reassemble it properly. For exemple, pulling on the "Driver Heat" control actionned the defrost air flow... Dad reinstalled everything in their right spot, and everything works just fine now.

The previous owners installed some aftermarket engine gauges, because some of the original gauges are not working. A fuel quantity indicator, engine temperature, oil pressure and Amp meter gauges were all attached on the bottom of the dashboard, with a bunch of loose wires hanging everywhere behind them. Dad made this little console to hold these gauges, and it now looks much better.



The inside finish around the windshields and the front side windows was not very good looking. A mix of peeling old paint, old dried sealant and cracked fiberglass. Mom took the job of cleaning and repainting the frame around the windows. Here's a picture taken after the first paint coat, with the masking tape still on.


The new paint makes a real difference, and with the new dashboard, the inside front of the Whale now looks brand new.




Sun shade
Most motorhomes, incuding this Travco, have a curtain that can be slided in front of the front windshields, to provide some shade and privacy. As you may guess, the Whale's curtain wasn't exactly new and good looking. And Dad didn't really like the way the curtain is designed. The curtain is attached to the top of the windshield, leaving a big gap at the bottom, due to the winshield angle. Under direct sunshine, the empty space in front of the curtain acted as a greenhouse and was a significant heat source in the motorhome. So the curtain has been replaced with an outside, removable sunshade. Made out of a gray tarp by Dad and Mom, it is similar to the one thay made a few years ago for their previous class C motorhome.



The sunshade can be installed and removed in seconds, offers complete privacy, blocks the sun and keeps the inside cool. Mom even made a pouch to stow it. Dad installed, outside and just behind the side windows, two small stainless hooks on wich the shade is held with bungee cords.



Air vents
On each side of the Travco, abeam the front seats, are two small air vents, that can be opened with a small handcrank. The vent on the driver side was in good shape, but on the passenger side the mechanism was broken and the door was held shut with a piece of string. Dad took the handcrank and mechanism from an old RV roof vent and used it to fix the broken vent. Now this wasn't as easy as it sounds, it actually took a lot of time to fix this simple thing. The hinge was also broken and had to be replaced, Dad used a lenght of aluminium awning track to rebuilt the hinge. A lot of work for a simple air vent, but since the vehicle doesn't have air conditionning, fresh outside air will certainly be welcome while travelling.








External storage compartment
Outside the motorhome, Dad repaired the left front storage compartment. Like the rear one, it was pretty badly rusted, and had been "repaired" a few times by the previous owners with a mix of sheet metal glued with roof scealant... Dad reinforced the frame of the compartment, then used a thick weatherproof plywood for the bottom. The door was crooked and not closing properly, and it looks like its always been like that, the door was misaligned from the factory. Dad fixed it all, and the storage compartment is now nice and clean.

Carpet stowage
Another unique feature of the Blue Whale. Dad was looking for a way to stow the awning carpet. Simply rolling the carpet and tying it to the rear bumper, just like everybody else, wasn't good enough. So Dad installed this stowage tube under the rear of the vehicle. Roll up the carpet and slide it in, close the lid, that's it! Of course everything is made of junked stuff, works perfectly, and it cost nothing! The carpet can be stowed even when wet, as it is made of a material that will not rot.




12V electricity

The Travco's fuse box was in a pretty bad shape. Made out of molded fiberglass ans screwed under the dashboard, a screwdriver was required to open it. Imagine doing that every time you need to replace or check a fuse, in that little cramped and dark corner of the vehicle. Also, many fuses were missing (but everything in the motohome seems to be working), there are wires hanging everywhere that we can see were not part of the original wiring, some have inline fuses, some are connected in the fuse box, some are not connected anywhere, and in some cases standard lamp (110V) cord is used. Some have soldered splices, some have black electric tape, some have nothing... a real mess. Nothing very reassuring, especially since Dad had to replace a fuse lately (altough everything has been working fine since). One thing Dad doesn't need is getting stranded somewhere due to an electrcial problem he can't solve. We still had in mind the issues we found with the 110V wiring last year, it was time for a good checkup of all this. With a good multitester, a test light, and a Dodge truck wiring schematic, we went to work.

The huge 250 Amp/h 8D battery of the Travco feeds the starter and starter relay, and many important circuits of the motorhome. One large wire goes from the battery to the 12V converter, wich allows the converter to recharge the battery when the motorhome is plugged in a 110V outlet (or 110V from the genset).
Another main wire goes in the kitchen were another fuse box distributes power to various motohome appliances: heater, water pump, lights, etc.
Then another main wire goes straight to the front of the motorhome, under the dashboard, and is connected to... nothing! Yep, that's right, a big gauge 4 or 6 wire, continuously live, runs from the battery and just hangs there, under the dashboard, with a bare end and no protection at all. And we still don't have a clue what this wire does, and since it was obviously dangerous, we properly secured and stowed it.

After some investigation, we found that most of the non-original wires under the dashboard were from stuff added by the previous owners, like the engine gauges previously mentionned, a cruise control (wich is not working, probably due to a wiring issue...), a stereo and its 6 speakers (I guess they liked it LOUD), etc. Most of the added wires are connected here or there, using black tape, a real botched job.



Once all these wired identified and all conections secured, we tested the electrical system to its maximum capacity. We wanted to check if, after a certain time, some circuits were overheating or fuses blowing. With the battery charger hooked to the battery to prevent discharge, we turned everything ON in the vehicle: all exterior lights on, headlights, heater blower, radio, turn signals, EVERYTHING was ON. After about 15 minutes of continuous operation, we made a couple interesting discoveries...

One of the wires in the fuse box was getting dangerously hot. Another wire, not original to the vehicle and with an inline fuse, was burning hot and the plastic fuse holder was almost melting. When we took that fuse out, all the parking lights outside, and the dashboard lights went off. Why were the parking lights powered through this fuse (and such a tiny wire), when there already was a fuse for the parking lights in the fuse box? When removing the one in the fuse box, the lights were going out as well. So why a 2nd fuse on that circuit?

The wiring schematic we had was a "generic" schematic for Dodge trucks of that vintage, and did not exactly match the Travco's. We had to figure the Travco's wiring, then figure out what modifications were made by the previous owners, and why. We spent quite some time figuring it all.

We finally found that one of the contacts on the headlight switch, the contact that switches the parking lights, is not working anymore. The previous owners tinkered with the wiring to make the parking lights work. I don't really understand why they did it that way, but they had the whole circuit going through a very thin wire that was overheating, and this "fix" could have eventually caused a fire.

We found a better workaround for the defective headlight switch, and rewired everything properly. Everything should now be safe and reliable Nothing overheats, the remainder of the wiring is in proper condition, and all the loose splices have been fixed. Dad reinstalled the fuse box with a hinged cover held by a small latch that can be opened without a screwdriver.
There are still a few non-original wires that we haven't been able to figure out, but right now everything works fine and nothing is unsafe. The electrical system of the Whale should be reasonably reliable, as reliable as a 33 year-old vehicle can be.

Second trip
Over the last couple days, Dad and Mom got the Blue Whale ready for a little trip in the Montréal area. As usual, Dad always has a myriad of last minute things to do on the motorhome, and they never leave as quickly as Mom would like to!
One exemple of a small last minute add-on, is the installation of auxiliary driving lights. Mounted on the front bumper, they will certainly increase vision when driving at night or in bad weather.


The Whale should be back in Quebec City early next week.

Floor repairs

Metal work on the driver's side floor is almost completed.



Dad is now working on the passenger side. After getting all the old rotten plywood out, he found that the rust spread all the way to the step at the entrance. So he cut and removed all the rusted metal.






Instead of simply having to cut a single metal plate for the passenger side's floor, he ended up cutting many small plates to rebuilt the step, and then weld everything. That's a lot of work.




The openning seen just beyond the step is the battery compartment. Last night Dad was making final adjustments on the large metal plate for the passenger side. The plate is fairly thick, almost 1/8 of an inch, and quite heavy. To help manoeuvering the plate around, Dad welded a temporary handle on hit with a piece a steel rod. There is a lot of "trial and error" involved in fitting the plate in the Travco. There are almost no straight lines, there are a lot of curves. Dad started with a cardboard model, then used the model to cut the metal plate, but the plate still requires a lot of minor adjustements: install the plate, take measurements, pull the plate out, grind, reinstall, etc. until it fits perfectly.

First discoveries

Dad parked the Travco in front of his garage, where it is going to rest for the next few weeks. The Whale is too large to fit inside the garage.
The work begins. The front of the motorhome is raised with a jack and lowered on wood blocks. The front wheels are removed in order to inspect the front suspension and steering components. I gave Dad a hand loosening the wheel lug nuts, as they were extremely tight. We were the both of us on the wrench, lenghtened by a 4ft steel tube, and we had to heat the nuts with the torch to break them loose. For the rear wheels, Dad explained that a special tool will be needed to take the dual wheels off.



The rear window

Seen from the outside, the rear window has been painted over with the same gray color as the rest. From the inside, a piece of white Coroplast (sheet of currugated plastic. Temporary signage is often made of or Coroplast) has been screw over the window to block it. No trims, very ugly work, and there is a water leak from that window.

On this picture, looking towards the back, you can see the white plastic sheet covering the window:



Dad removed the plastic panel, only to discover that the window has been sealed many times with various types of rubber sealants, even foam has been sprayed on the bottom. What a dirty job. And even with all this, water still leaks in!

The good news is that all the stuff they used trying to seal the window is not sticking hard to the fiberglass finish on the inside, and everything should be easy to clean. Water gets in around the rubber seal. This seal is the type that uses a locking strip. The locking strip is missing, the window is not held in place very tightly and this allows water to seep in. With help from his good friend Gerry, Dad correctly sealed the window and installed a locking strip. This should take care of the water leak issue. Inside, some kind of trim will have to be added around the window to hide the holes where the plastic sheet was screwed.

Outside, centered above the rear window, is a metal strip screwed where both halves of the main fiberglass shells meet. The joint at this place didn't look too good and might also be leaking. Just in case, Dad redid that joint, it took most part of a day just to get the rusted screws out. He put some new sealant, and screwed back the metal strip with new stainless steel screws. This can be seen on the next picture. There is still some cleaning to do around the window seal.



At the same time, Dad also resealed the front passenger windshield. This passenger windshield seems to have been installed slightly off-position, as one edge is slightly outside its frame. We'll have to live with this, but at least once correctly sealed it should not leak water anymore.

Then Dad found some rotten wood at the door step. This shouldn't be too hard to fix. The battery compartement is close by, and the cover of the compartment doesn't close quite right, this will have to be fixed also.



Wheel wells

There is quite a bit of rust inside the front wheel wells. That's inside rust, as the outside is made of figerglass and doesn't rust. What is rusted is in fact the floor below the front seats. That's where Dad found the most significant problem so far. The floor is made of a metal sheet (visible from inside the wheel well), a thick plywood, and the inside carpet. The metal sheet is completely rusted out and the plywood is mostly rotten on the edges. As water was leaking in from the windshields, the wood and carpet soaked the water, causing the rust and rot.

Fixing this is a major job. Everything has to come out: steering wheel, front seats, pedals, carpet, etc.
The rusted part of the floor has been cut out with a cutting disk.
View from the inside (yes you can see outside through the hole!):






Original floor:




That's it for now. It's only the beginning!