Charging the RV batteries

I put enough solar on the roof to maintain our three (LA) batteries under normal use with a bit of reserve. However with our converter down and the solar off they were down to 60%. So i am using my smart charger to bring them Back over 90% before I turn on the solar agin while the converter is down.

Back in Florida

 

A Florida morning with clear sky’s in the oak’s 😎

Figuring out RV rain water collection

Hose on rain spout down to bucket.

Below I hook this on the dump valve then to the roof hose.

The Sawyer tap filter makes the water safe to drink.

 Trial RV rain water collection is an interesting subject for me.  I have taken bits and pieces from different YouTube videos and added my own.

First design is to simply attach a hose to one or more of my 6 roof rain spouts, down to a 5 gallon bucket with an overflow port. Five gallons of water is enough for one person for 2.5 days.  Two five gallon bucket’s will last five days or 2 people for 2.5 days.

Second design is hooking up the two back rain spouts by hose or pipe down and under the back of the RV to our freshwater dump valve. When it rains we open the dump valve and the rain water from the roof will fill our fresh water RV tank through the open dump valve.  Once full the excess will go out our overflow pipes to the ground or to empty into extra buckets.  Closing the dump valve will stop the water inflow.  I will add screens over all openings and see if I can put in a 20 micron filter in the hose to the dump valve.  For drinking I have a Sawyer Tap Filter and or if needed we can boil water for this purpose.  

We also have two six gallon jugs we keep water in in the bed of our truck.  Below you see the hose connection for our freshwater tank through the dump valve.

Sunrise over the Saint John

 7am EST go pod start of the day😎

Converter down

Above our flat flexible solar is pulling in 11 amps an hour on a cloudy day.  Below batteries started at 12.3 and are up to 12.8 volts should easily be full by dusk in four hours.

While charging volts are at 13.5 floating looks good😎

 Converter is down along with one ac so using solar to keep batteries charged while parked for several days.  Bedroom power is also down so using my solar direct plug in to power in the bedroom.  Rest of RV is on the second leg of power with no problems with power there. 

Will order new converter when we leave for Florida to be installed while there for the winter.  Also had to install our spare water pump found the old one had a hairline crack in it and was leaking some.

Still enjoying Texas

Making ham radio contacts over 1400 miles away on my portable HF radio.

Colorado River through the trees at the back of the park.

 Still in Texas.  Some folks we know went down to the Tampa area yesterday.  In places they were doing only 10 miles an hour with all the repair personnel working to bring back the areas hit by the hurricane.  Our friend's home is livable with only a little shingle damage. We will enter Florida on Friday and take a few days to get to our campground.  In the meantime we are enjoying Texas 😎😎

Breakfast

 Preparations for breakfast on the road.  Often we add potatoes to the mix.