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  1. Turtle

    Going Green EV eSprinter

    The eSprinter only has a range of like 250 miles on the highway and about 310 if you stay in the city. It's thoroughly impractical for time-certain expedite. A 700 mile trip is gonna require 3 charges, at roughly 45-60 minutes per charge, That turns a 14 hour trip into a 17 hour trip and you're...
  2. Turtle

    What vehicle is most popular for expediting these days?

    From what I've seen, seems to be the Transit.
  3. Turtle

    Birthday! Happy Birthday, Turtle

    Thanks, 66
  4. Turtle

    AC off batteries

    So you're considering using a $15,000 generator instead of a $2,000 generator? Seriously, your line of thinking isn't wrong, I and others have tried it out crunched the numbers with experts (off the grid RV and boat people), it's just that many others have tried to do the same thing, and it...
  5. Turtle

    AC off batteries

    Correct. 12-volt air conditioning is for short term usage, like in the cab of a farm tractor. The LiFePO4 batteries will last longer than a wet cell or AGM lead acid battery, but a 95 amp draw even for an hour or two will rapidly decrease the lifespan of the battery. On paper he's right. In the...
  6. Turtle

    Decision

    There's no way up know an extract number, but I talked with tu he dispatchers on a regular basis to find out how frequently 3 skid loads showed themselves. It's certainly possible that I missed three 3 pallet loads before getting one I could take, but the point is, I got one I could take instead...
  7. Turtle

    Decision

    I held tuff at a permanent bunk. I waited to be able to sleep while loaded, no matter what. And I often did sleep while loaded. That meant 9 feet for freight, not even a quarter inch more. So 2 pallets. I can count on one hand how many times I missed out on a load because it was 3 skids and...
  8. Turtle

    Decision

    If I were to get a new van it would be a Ford Transit.
  9. Turtle

    Turtle and electronics

    The picture above of my battery bank is exactly that - two pairs of 6-volt batteries. The 6-volt batteries are beside each other left/right, and are connected in series with the black and red cables. Each pair of 6-volt batteries equals a single 12-volt battery. The resulting two 12-volt...
  10. Turtle

    Turtle and electronics

    No, you chain them together to EITHER add the voltages together OR add the amp hours together. Like LDB said, your house bank is not a bunch of individual batteries, it's one great big battery (once chained together in parallel). What you have here is three 12-volt batteries of 100 Ah each...
  11. Turtle

    Turtle and electronics

    Why would you have them in series? Everything you're running inside the van is going to be 12 volts. The van itself is 12 volts. The alternator won't charge the house bank if the bank is 24 or 48 volts. If you have a bunch of 6 volt batteries, you'd series those in pairs to make one 12 volt...
  12. Turtle

    Turtle and electronics

    Batteries wired in series will have their voltages added together. Batteries wired in parallel will have their capacities (measured in amp-hours) added together. For example, wiring two 12-volt batteries with 100 Ah capacities in series will output 24 volts with a 100 Ah capacity. Wiring the...
  13. Turtle

    Turtle and electronics

    The the the more better.
  14. Turtle

    Turtle and electronics

    Correct. It'll take longer to recharge the house bank than you think, but at least with lithium batteries you don't really have to worry too much about making sure they are full recharged every time you charge them.
  15. Turtle

    Turtle and electronics

    Your best bet is a 12 volt fridge designed for an RV, truck or a boat. Not a dorm fridge or an Igloo plug-in, but a $600 or so fridge designed to efficiently run on a 12 volt system. I started out with a very efficient down fridge/freezer, but in the end it was just too hard on the batteries...
  16. Turtle

    Turtle and electronics

    A fridge will use more amps than a microwave will. It's just that the amp draw from the microwave will be a really, really lot over a short period of time. Let's say the microwave draws 900 Watts. 900 / 12 = 75 amps. Add 10% for the loss from the inverter, so 75 + 7.5 = 82.5 amps drawn from the...
  17. Turtle

    Turtle and electronics

    If the starting battery is 12 volts, the house battery bank needs to be 12 volts, as well. Otherwise the alternator won't charge the battery bank. Two 6 volt batteries wired together in series gives you one 12 volt battery. Four 6 volt batteries wired in series / parallell gives you one great...
  18. Turtle

    Android phone dash cam

    You can do it in a pinch, but I wouldn't rely on it long term. Constant video recording will heavily tax the memory and storage on the phone, in addition to heat. Over the years I tried my phone as a dash cam, and gps mapping. Also used my laptop for gps mapping. Eventually I realized the...
  19. Turtle

    Turtle and electronics

    One thing I should add...it doesn't matter if the batteries are wet cell, AGM, lithium or Russet potato, it's all about amp hour capacity of the battery bank versus amp requirements of the appliances. You need to know how many amp hours you'll draw from the battery between full recharges of...
  20. Turtle

    Turtle and electronics

    No, they weren't lithium batteries. If you can afford them, that's the way to go. The battery isolator separates the battery bank and the starting battery as long as the voltage coming from the starting battery is less than about 13 volts. As soon as the alternator kicks in and the voltage...
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