Further Adventures With The Guppy

One of the improvements I made before hitting the road was I replaced the charger for the RV battery and to run the 12v stuff when plugged into 110. The old one was putting out too many volts. It was putting out about 17v at all times. It was burning up the lights and killed a radio/CD player I had put into one of the cabinets to make it easier to turn on the tunes. The old radio would only work if there were several lights on or something that drew a lot of 12v power. Then it wouldn't work at all.

This is the new charger. It works as advertised; when the battery is down, it puts out 14.6v, then drops to 13.6v, and finally is at 13.2v to maintain the battery. I had to install an outlet because the new charger came with a cord with a plug on the end and no way to get into the box to wire up the 110. Also had to put in a fuse block because the old charger had a built-in fuse block. One of the wires to the fuses was white and at first I couldn't figure out what a white wire was doing mixed in with the black ones. After hooking up all the wires except the white one and trying various things to make sure everything worked, the water heater didn't work. When I traced the white wire to where it went, I found out it went to the switch for the water heater. As you can see the white wire is hooked up.

This is one of the reasons I changed the charger. Other bulbs were burning out, but this was the worst one. It got to the point where the lens wouldn't stay on the light. A couple other lights got hot enough to melt things, but instead of melting the lens the base of the light was melting.

This is the new outside light. It has a bunch of LEDs in it so it should last longer than I will be using The Guppy, and even if the charger starts putting out more voltage, it will handle up to 18v. I also ordered some LED bulbs to replace bulbs in some of the lights that we use the most. The LED bulbs were in two different orders and they are different colors or temperatures. One is a whiter light than the other one. The LED bulbs should help conserve the battery when we are boondocking.

After I replaced the charger I bought a new radio/CD player and installed it in the hole where the radio that died was in the cabinet. Now all we need is to find some decent radio stations!!

The next thing I need to do is replace the water pump. It will pump water from the holding tank, but after it shuts off there is a burst of good pressure and then the pressure drops off quite a bit. If it is original to The Guppy, it is over 25 years old and could just be worn out. I had drained the water heater before we left and when I was getting all the RV anti-freeze out of the plumbing, it took a long time to fill the water heater and get water to the hot water faucet.

I really can't complain too much. The Guppy didn't cost an arm and a leg to buy because it was 25 years old when we bought it. With something that old it's a wonder we haven't had to fix something major. Now I just fucking jinxed myself!!

Pump House Project

Last year I redid my water supply, pulled the old set-up out and drove a new point, dropped a smaller pipe down to the point for a supply line for the pump.  Poured a pad and laid up block for the walls.

This is how I left the pump house last fall.

 When I got back UP on the Tundra this year, I had problems with the pump not building up enough pressure.  Turned out the pump got wore out last year when the water had a lot of fine sand in it after driving the point and I ran it a lot trying to clear the water up.  Should have probably let it sit for a week or two to let it settle out.  Anywho, I bought a new pump, which fixed the problem.

The roof or lid for the pump house in progress.

Last week I started to make a cover (lid or roof or whatever) for the pump house.  So far the only money I've got in the project is for the hinges and the handle.  The wood is salvaged material I had and the tin roofing is part of the roof off an old house trailer I tore down 5yrs ago.  Bought the trailer (or shoebox as The Old Lady called it) in the early 70s and lived in it off and on until shortly after Y2K.  Had primer left over from painting drywall in the cabin and the blue paint has been here for many years and is still usable after freezing several times.

This is it with the first coat of paint applied.

Had some pieces of 2 inch foam and other insulation that I used to insulate the cover.  I'm going to buy a sheet of 2 inch foam to line the inside of the block walls and hopefully it'll keep from freezing during next winter.  I figure the only other thing I have to do to winterize it is to hang a 40 watt lightbulb under the line to the pressure switch.  Because of the small diameter of the line, that is the first thing to freeze in this type of pump. My past experiences have shown that a light will put off enough heat to keep the line from freezing.  By the time the bulb burns out there will be enough snow to cover everything and it will be good until spring when the snow melts away and I have to put in a new bulb.  This is the only way the old bulbs are better than CFLs as they give off a lot more heat!!