Debunking Portable Air Compressors

I think most RVers understand the importance of maintaining proper tire inflation pressure. The problem is if you wait until you’re on the road to check tire pressure the tires are too hot for correct evaluation. Checking the inflation pressure when you stop to refuel doesn’t make sense; you will get higher pressure readings and if you let air out the tires they are underinflated when they are cold. Another problem is when you are at the campground, and you want to check the tire pressure, there is no available air support to do it. Read more  Read More →

Bonding and Grounding Portable Generators

A few weeks ago I started a series of articles on bonding and grounding of portable generators when used with RVs.  Those articles stirred up quite a bit of conversation which is a good thing.  We still have a couple of subjects to cover in this discussion so let’s get started with checking your generator to determine if it is already bonded.  Remember, when we talk about bonding in the context of this subject, we are talking about connecting the neutral of the generator to the ground of the generator.  Also remember that this specific bonding is to be done in only one place according to national electrical code. 30 amp RV receptacle   In order to determine if your generator is already bonded you will need a multimeter which is capable of checking ohms or continuity.  Keep in mind that continuity is a specific check of resistance, except the resistance for “continuity” is zero or very low.  Next you will have to identify the neutral and the ground contacts on the generator output.  Most likely we are talking about a generator that has either 120vac, 20 amp output or 120vac, 30 amp output connectors.  The typical 30 amp receptacle has three connections as shown in the photograph of a TT-30R.  Looking at this receptacle, the ground connection is at the top and looks like it is round.  The two slanted slots at the bottom are the hot and the neutral connections, with the neutral being the slot on the right and the hot being the slot on the left.  In order to determine... Read more

VIDEO: One Way to Secure Your RV After-Hours

Gear to Get with Brian Brawdy Recently I got up early one morning to catch the sun rise. I jumped out of my RV and walked about twenty yards in the direction of the beach. Before I saw or heard him, I could feel someone else was there. A dark silhouette loomed in the shadows. I instantly said “Good Morning” startled a bit at his presence. Wearing a black skull cap, jacket and pants the figure stood there as I approached. Before I could get any closer, he suddenly turned and briskly walked away. Read more  Read More →

RV Doctor – RV Hot Skin Test How-To

Dear Gary, How do you perform a hot skin test on a recreation vehicle? Also I’ve heard you should still hot skin test a fiberglass sided RV by checking faucets, door frames and windows. How do you do that on a slick side motorhome? - Jay Jones, (Silverdale, WA) Read more  Read More →

RV Weekly Round-Up (Oct. 17-23, 2009)

1. Tax deduction for ‘09 vehicle purchases: The Internal Revenue Service wants to remind you that buying a new motorhome this year may make you eligible for a state-level tax deduction. State and local sales & excise taxes on new vehicles may be reduced for taxpayers whose incomes meet a designated range. Watch the IRS tax break video for details. Read more  Read More →

VIDEO: Boondocking & Green RVing w/ the PowerSource 1800

Gear to Get with Brian Brawdy One of the necessities of Green RVing, boondocking & dry camping is the ability to generate power. By tapping into the free and ubiquitous energies of the sun, I’m able to go off road, off the grid while staying out longer. In this video, I look at the cutting edge technology of the PowerSource 1800. A uniquely designed solar powered generator. For more information on Brian Brawdy or Greening your RV, please visit BrianBrawdy.com  Read More →

Generator bonding and grounding

In previous posts we have discussed what is meant by “bonding” in an electrical distribution system.  This is an important concept.  If it seems like I am dwelling on this, I want to make sure we are clear on what bonding means. The ground wire system and the neutral wire system are two separate wire systems.  By code, they are to be connected together at ONE point and only one point.  If there is more than one bonding point in the wiring system, you can create ground faults, circulating currents and possibly prevent a breaker from tripping if there is a short circuit.  If there is no bond, it is also possible that a breaker will not trip. The breaker panel in your RV is classified as a sub-panel.  As such there is NO bond in the panel and the neutral/ground wiring systems in your RV are NOT connected to each other anywhere in the RV.  This is because when you plug in your shore power cord, you become part of the campground electrical system which IS bonded, again, at ONE point in the entire campground, generally at the campground main breaker panel. If you have a generator that is permanently installed in your RV, such as is typical in Class A motorhomes, the generator has a bond between the neutral and the ground, such that when the transfer switch switches, the isolated neutral and ground systems get connected together. If, however, you use a portable generator, sitting on the ground or in the  back of your pickup truck, a problem occurs.  Typically portable... Read more

Winter Battery Storage & Maintenance

I was recently asked a question and felt like the answer could be useful to lots of RVers, so I am using the question as the topic for this article. Q: Hi Mark, we live in Colorado and we are preparing our RV for storage. I just had the RV winterized, but I am concerned about how or what to do to store my RV batteries. Any advice would be appreciated. A: The two most common causes for RV battery failure are undercharging and overcharging.  Undercharging is a result of batteries being repeatedly discharged and not fully recharged between cycles. If a battery is not recharged the sulfate material that attaches to the discharged portions of the plates begins to harden into crystals. Over time this sulfate cannot be converted back into active plate material and the battery is ruined. This also occurs when a battery remains discharged for an extended period of time, like during storage. Sulfation is the number one cause of battery failure. The second leading cause of battery failure is overcharging. Overcharging batteries results in severe water loss and plate corrosion. With that said let’s look at how to properly store your RV batteries. Before we talk about storing the batteries we need to talk about battery safety. Lead acid batteries contain sulfuric acid which is extremely corrosive and can cause severe burns or even blindness. And the hydrogen gas that batteries produce, when they’re charging, is very explosive. When you work around batteries you need to wear safety... Read more

Nickel-Lithium: The Next Battery Break Through?

By Bob Difley As electric vehicle proponents, alternative energy entrepreneurs, and venture capitalists have predicted, the development of better, more efficient batteries will give the electric vehicle (EV) industry the game changing boost it needs to change the way we think about transportation. Battery technology, which produced the successful development of the lithim-ion battery for laptop computers and then in the Tesla sports car, is now about to take the next leap forward with a battery that can be produced at lower prices but with greater capacity, meaning an increased range between charges. Well, the lower price hasn’t happened yet, but researchers have created a new generation battery by combining Nickel and Lithium to produce a battery that can store more than 3.5 times the energy of lithium-ion batteries.. This is a prime example of the payoff from the money and effort going into the development of smaller, cheaper, safer (the Nickel-Lithium batteries are less prone to burst into flames as some lithium-ion batteries in laptops have), and more powerful batteries that will deliver more miles between charges as the era of the Electrical Vehicle (EV) is knocking at the door. Other companies are developing the components that will complete the EV. One such company (Proterra) claims to deliver a full charge to lithium batteries in ten minutes, and has produced an all electric bus that also includes a regenerative braking system that they claim will capture 90% of a vehicle’s... Read more

Portable Generator Grounding

If you read my last post, we began a discussion about grounding and bonding of portable generators.  To begin, we talked about a standard residential electrical service and specifically discussed the ground wire system, the neutral wire system, and the single bonding point between the two systems.  Lastly and most importantly, we also described what we referred to as a sub-panel and how important this is to us as RVers. So, here we go with the next point: the breaker panel in your RV is a SUB-PANEL.  When you pull into the campground and plug in your shore power, you are becoming a sub-panel to the main panel which is permanently installed at the campground.  Therefore, the neutral wiring system and the ground wiring system in your motorhome are not bonded together.  All the ground wires terminate in a ground bar within the breaker panel, and all the neutral wires terminate at a seperate bar within the breaker panel.  The neutral and ground systems are kept isolated from each other.  The bonding or connecting together of the two wiring systems is taken care of in the campground wiring system not in the RV. Keeping in mind that the above discussion dealt only with the power supplied by the shore power cord, the next step is to look at what happens if your RV has an on board generator set, particularly with an automatic transfer switch.  With an on-board generator we are faced with a problem because the breaker panel in the RV has an isolated neutral bar and ground bar,... Read more

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