A life with few possessions requires everything to have multiple purposes. That collapsible salad spinner? Also a bowl. And a colander. Single purpose things don’t serve us well, and are quickly dropped from our collection of gear. We have two main types of lights for our adventures. Small area lights solve one person lighting problems,…
Our Airstream didn’t come with an inverter installed. There is one AC panel inside the Parallax power distribution center which distributes the 30 Amps from the street connection to all internal plugs, the refrigerator, the DC power converter, and the air conditioner. Adding an inverter complicates this setup considerably, for reasons I will now attempt…
Thanks for posting this information — might be very helpful down the road. Quick question: on your diagrams, you show the line from your solar controller going to the DC bus, and then to the battery. Wouldn’t that line go to the battery first, then to the DC bus? Otherwise, you be powering your lights and fans directly from the solar panels. Thanks again.ReplyCancel
This surprised me as well during the install: The existing converter (battery charger) was also just wired to the DC Bus. But really, it does make sense. The battery doesn’t have different charging terminals than usage terminals, so connecting at the bus is nearly the same as connecting at the battery terminals themselves. Running only one set of wires from battery to Bus is actually much simpler as well, with only one set of connections to deal with at the battery.
That DOES mean that incoming solar power powers the lights and fans before charging the battery, but that is actually the desired behavior anyway. There is a loss involved charging the battery vs using the power immediately, causing immediate use to be better. The presence of the battery in the circuit means that the fluctuating voltage of the solar panels is smoothed into normal 12V ranges.
The battery will charge if the voltage on the DC Bus is higher than its internal voltage, and discharge if the voltage on the DC Bus is lower than it’s internal voltage. The Solar Panels (and also the Converter) charge the battery by raising the voltage on the Bus.
My first experience with a tire blowout on the Airstream was only the second time I towed it. We were headed back to Virginia after picking up the Airstream in Carlyle, IL. (This was back in the fall of 2013.) Our second tow was from Louisville, heading East. Our destination was Lake Vesuvius, right at the…
Debating this topic as we are heading out for a 1-yr adventure in a few weeks. I was sold on getting a TPMS, but when I asked an RV dealer that I trust, he didn’t recommend them. His reasoning was the more you do to the valve stem, including adding weight to them, the more likely you were to create a new problem. Curious is you have experienced this or have any anecdotal stories from your time traveling?ReplyCancel
We seriously own 90% of this gear, and the other 10% we would own if we could fit it in our Airstream (ahem! Vacilando quilt!). This post contains Amazon & REI affiliate links which help to fund the blog in a small, small way. Thanks for helping us out by clicking through to shop! Now that Thanksgiving…
Its no secret that I love my blender. My big, powerful blender. I wrote a blog post last year that got some attention from Blendtec and they graciously sent me a Twister Jar as a thank you for the photos of their blender in our Airstream. I was hesitant at first as to how it could…
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