Most of the DC gear in my RV is Victron – the BMS 712, 50 amp solar MPPT controller, and an old Venus to connect to Victron VRM (remote Internet monitoring). I always wanted a Victron Inverter/Charger but I don’t have the space, location, or weight capacity to mount one, so I settled on a […]
Read More… from Connecting a Victron Cerbo or Venus to a Xantrex XC Pro
Well into my trip to Canada I encountered the dreaded “08” and “07” errors on my Xantrex Inverter. This indicates at least one of the fans has failed. In my case, and probably most cases, the fan hasn’t actually failed – the tachometer signal the fan sends back to the Inverter to prove its running […]
The Epoch 300 is so popular that they are literally everywhere. And for good reason. It’s a high quality budget battery made by Roypow, which is a Chinese conglomerate with a good reputation. It normally sells for $995 but with the Black Friday sale after thanksgiving I purchased mine for just $799 each. The price, […]
I previously installed a NovaKool Dual Compressor Refrigerator, and I took that opportunity to gut my original refrigerator cabinet and reshape to my liking. One thing I never used much was the OEM Microwave oven. I know some people like it, and it can bake also, but we rarely if ever turned it on. We […]
I have had a Starlink Gen 2 – for quite a while – and its been great. I converted it to 12v DC for the RV. Still, nothing is perfect. Its large and heavy, and I really got tired of lugging it around at every stop in the wilderness. On one or two occasions we […]
I previously installed an Isotherm Cruise 219 refrigerator. This gigantic refrigerator was a huge pain to install because it required extensive cabinet modifications. And after a couple glitches I have been reasonably happy with it. I probably would have continued using it for years, until this NovaKool RFU6406 D fell from the sky into my […]
Note: Please do not try this at home unless you have a good idea what you are doing! Connecting 240 volts to your RV would probably result in “very bad things” ! Always check that a new adapter actually is 120 volts with a voltmeter, and that it is wired correctly with ground. From time […]
Read More… from RV Road Warrior Dryer Outlet adapters for 120 Volts!
Now that I have successfully “hacked” my RV refrigerator, I would like to improve the thermostat. My goals are: Most of all, add the ability for something that engineers call hysteresis. This means, sure we can turn on the compressor when we begin to hit unsafe temperatures (around 40 degrees in the fridge or anything […]
Read More… from Build a Better Refrigerator/Secop Thermostat
Ever since I installed my Isotherm Cruise 219 I have been able to travel anywhere in the USA, in any weather, and have food safely stored in my refrigerator and freezer, which is more than I can say about my factory Dometic propane fridge. Still, its not perfect. If I had it to do over […]
The “Fantastic Fans” in our RV work pretty well, but are definitely less than fantastic. The main issue is that water can come in when open. So they have elaborate rain sensors which work perfectly to close the fan at the slightest drizzle. Which is a major problem when trying to sleep with the windows […]
I previously installed a Renogy 40 amp DC-DC charger. It worked fine, but had limited settings and no Bluetooth. My new batteries want a low absorption charge set at 13.8 volts which the old Renogy can’t accommodate. Also I would like to have a reverse DC-DC charger to keep my Mercedes battery charged while parked. […]
I previously had replaced my junk Sprinter radio with a Pioneer Avic-W8400NEX. This worked out pretty well. It had wireless Apple Carplay and was pretty advanced at the time. That thing was damn expensive! After 4 years of use, I was *mostly* satisfied. But, since riding in Teslas I have grown fond of the oversized […]
This will be my third Lithium upgrade in the same van. I’m unwilling to sacrifice any more space or weight, so I do upgrades as technology improves. First it was (2) Battleborn’s, then (3) Renogy. All performed fabulously (some Renogy hiccups were just rough software and resolved themselves after cell balancing), and met my expectations, […]
Read More… from Discover DLB-GC12-12V Lithium Blue 12V 200Ah Batteries
Nov 2024 Update – The Starlink Gen 2 was great but I since purchased and installed a Starlink Mini on my roof. I’ll admit I was initially a Starlink skeptic for RV usage. Its heavy, big, uses a lot of current, and until recently can’t be used in motion. (While you might be able to […]
I regularly read posts about either being stuck with broken jacks or slides, or, people who travel without either for fear of being stranded. And I’m totally in that camp of not wanting the embarrassment and inconvenience of being stranded if possible. So I wanted to practice retracting my jacks manually. There are several excellent […]
In order to install Starlink in an RV you are probably going to want custom cables so that you can mount and dismount the dish easily and neatly. There are lots of articles on the Internet about this. Since the cable is a standard shielded Cat 5e (with large 23 gauge wire for dish power) […]
Ever since I upgraded to an Isotherm Compressor Refrigerator I have found my outside propane switch even more annoying. I get that its good to have an outside switch – in case of a leak or fire, but couldn’t LTV have also installed one inside also? Even when I had my absorption refrigerator, with hookups […]
June 24 2022 Update: Now that the RV plan came out I switched to RV so I could pause at times. So If you plan to use at home the convoluted instructions below are still correct, but for RV there is no service address and its a simpler signup. That said you may now have […]
We never liked the galley closet in our Unity CB. We already have a closet near the bedroom, and the front closet just filled up with junk that spilled out. So we put in plywood cherry shelves. Now we can at least neatly organize it. Simple project. We bought home depot cherry plywood (special ordered […]
The Jensen JWM9A has to be one of the most loathsome devices in my RV. In case you aren’t familiar with it, JVC took a very low end auto radio, and mated a huge control panel to make it look impressive, and then sold it an exorbitant price. As if that wasn’t enough, this was […]
Once I completed my 3000 watt inverter installation I started looking for a soft start for the AC. While my inverter was capable of starting and running the AC even without it, its kinder on the batteries and everything else not to spike the current. And being able to run the AC more reliably from […]
Dec 2022 Update: The Renogys worked great after a few kinks were worked out and have been reliable. However I recently upgraded for more power to a pair of Discover Lithium 200 Batteries. The rest of this post is still relevant about installing the Xantrex, busbars, switch, etc. I only later updated the batteries themselves. […]
Read More… from Rewire RV with Xantrex 3000 XC Pro and (3) Renogy 100Ah 12V Bluetooth Batteries
Its been over a year since I installed the Isotherm Cruise 219 in my RV. I just completed a 3 week trip out west and I thought it would be a good time to record some thoughts. So here, in random order, is what I learned so far: Refrigerator Drainage I originally totally missed the […]
Finally! TPMS. And no, you don’t need to install Borg stems! Here is the background: Many people buy DIY TPMS off the Internet, and have their stems crack on the way home or after a short trip. The reason is usually due to either a rubber valve stem, or more often, a dually valve stem […]
Read More… from TST 507 Series 6 Flow Thru Sensor TPMS System with Color Display
My RV came with a propane regulator (Fairview) known for early failures, and sure enough, like clockwork, it failed before 2 years passed. The symptom was propane smell around the rear of the RV; but others report a reduced gas pressure as the first sign. Actually now that I think about it it may have […]
2023 Update: I have since installed Discover Batteries and a Rego DC-DC charger. I still use the dash switch, but I eliminated the solenoid and IRD. Many people who have switched to Lithium, particularly with more than 200 AH of capacity, have installed a DC-DC charger. But I am not quite ready. They steal some […]
I previously installed a Cradlepoint IBR900 Router. I was reasonably satisfied with it. It wasn’t a perfect experience though. The registration process (required to manage remotely) was chaotic and took numerous calls and trouble tickets to be resolved. It immediately started crashing due to router bugs. Again, resolved through support tickets. It was a firmware […]
This is one of those super trivial upgrades that I almost didn’t write up, except its really useful. My Unity CB had a dual USB socket behind the drivers seat. That was useful. My security cam stays plugged in there. But I really wanted a cigarette lighter plug there as well. I have a backup […]
Just like clockwork, after about two years of ownership I noticed my alternator stopped charging my batteries reliably. Its always a little unreliable on my Lithium batteries. (I count on the solar to top them off.) But in this case the alternator completely stopped charging. (Although sometimes it would). From posts on the internet I […]
When I ordered my RV I made the big mistake of ordering it with 400 watts solar, a costly option. It made sense as it was the most you could get and LTV must install the best, right? Well as I learned in time it was actually awful. The solar controller was a cheap PWM […]
Update October 2022 – Looks like Vantop disappeared from Amazon. There are many there that appear to be the same manufacturer, but Wolfbox seems popular and well reviewed. See Amazon link at bottom of this article for Wolfbox. For my RV (and most others unless you have a really small van) the rear view mirror […]
The best way to describe the Venus GX is remote control. It will basically export all your Victron devices to the internet, assuming you have either a router or hotspot in your RV. There are two main reasons i wanted this. First, while the RV is being stored, I can keep an eye on its […]
Note: This is an older post and I have subsequently upgraded to 300 AH of Renogy Lithium and a Xantrex 3000 XC Pro Inverter. Its like a domino. Each thing I kick in the RV causes some new deficiency to be noticed, that either wasn’t there before or had escaped my attention. After all my […]
(Pictured on the left is the original Dometic refrigerator. On the right is my replacement.) Also see my postscript article where I summarize the experience once I got things ironed out! My RV came with an industry standard Dometic refrigerator. I won’t spend a lot of time on the deficiencies as they are well known. […]
Note: This is an older post and I have subsequently upgraded to 300 AH of Renogy Lithium and a Xantrex 3000 XC Pro Inverter. The solar charge controller still works great, I just moved it around! My new RV came with what I thought was pretty good solar. Only as I learned, it was just […]
Note: This is an older post and I have subsequently upgraded to 400 AH of Discover Lithium and a Xantrex 3000 XC Pro Inverter. A few people have asked me why I didn’t simply purchase more Battleborns. Answer is: No Bluetooth. This new technology lets you monitor the health of individual batteries – very important […]
Note: This is an older post and I have subsequently upgraded to 300 AH of Renogy Lithium and a Xantrex 3000 XC Pro Inverter. So, I will be replacing my refrigerator with a compressor refrigerator (more on that soon). The first step in doing that is to expand the battery life by going Lithium (more […]
UPDATE 21-Feb-2021 The Cradlepoint worked well but I put in a new router and antenna. This article is still mostly relevant for drilling the roof and installing in general. We travel in our RV to get away from the city, and enjoy remote places. That said, I have a job, and I need to be […]
Sooner or later, if you have an RV, you are going to discover that some of the nicest places you would want to camp don’t have any cell service. None. Nada. Now, some people might think that’s just fine. But I have a job, and can take emergency calls round the clock, even on vacation. […]
Note: This is an older post. I’ve upgraded everything since then. Nowadays you also have the choice of a smart shunt from Victron with no display. While that might be tempting because the Bluetooth app is way more convenient, reports are that a very short range Bluetooth is used on the smart shunt, so I’m […]
DEC 2022 Update: The Pioneer worked pretty well but after 4 years I replaced with an Alpine Halo 11 iLXF511. This article is still relevant for some installation issues but the Alpine was much easier to install – basically plug-and-play since Critchfield offers a custom wiring harness. Times have changed I never used the DVD […]
Update: Jan 10,2023 A few people asked me why I cut the pex and installed the Tee. The answer is that on my bowl the pex is so tight behind the toilet that there is not room to do anything. If you can reach the water fitting behind your toilet, you might just be able […]