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StellaTariche

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StellaTariche last won the day on February 10 2022

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  • FirstName
    John
  • Make
    Monaco
  • Model
    Diplomat
  • Year
    2000
  • City & State
    Colorado Springs, CO

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    12245 Jones Park CT, Colorado Springs, Colorado, 80921
  • Brief Bio (Optional)
    Electrical Engineer
    CEO of Lead Free Design
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    LeadFreeDesign.Com

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  1. Hi Joe. The TV mount was from Fry’s Electronics (no longer around), but there are similar ones on eBay and Amazon. It is mounted to the modified cabinet structure (scroll back a bunch of photos). The “latch” is a sliding child door latch the pivots down and away when unlatched. Again, from “Babies R Us” (no longer in business), but similar ones on line. Mounted into a piece of covered wood which was attached securely to the ceiling structure. Below are some photos on the cabinet/ ceiling mount. Mounting to the horizontal cabinet allows it to be stored screen up (protected). I painted the back of the TV to match the ceiling - had I had extra ceiling material, I would have either covered the back or made molded cover to hide all the connections. the latch is a pivoting 90 degree safety latch. I believe it was designed to keep a door closed. When closed, it is effectively an angle iron covered in felt and non slip rubber. When open, it pivots down and out of the way. Sliding it in line with the pivot unlocks it. It is very strong and will not slide open by itself, but takes only one hand to unlatch. It is PVC covered steel. mounted properly, the screen is held up to the cloth covered ceiling and does not rattle or move. There are other ways to do this, including hiding a linear actuator in the cabinet to “push” the screen up to the ceiling for storage and lower for viewing. I might do that this summer when I make the 360 dash cam screen slide up/down and hide in the top of the dash. They are now age 24, 30, and 33. They and their wives / fiancés saw your comments and the photos and laughed and told stories of those three months in the paint booth. Two are engineers. One is a successful construction company owner. Yes I still have the Uberbounder, and Each asked to use it this summer. Thank you for the kind words.
  2. FYI, the other reason not to do this is obsolescence... USB-B specs (the typical rectangular USB ports seen in the pictures) are minimum 500ma for charging, although they typically can go up to 4 amps split between the multiple ports. They also require deeper boxes. And their quality and safety varies greatly. You should see what is inside them - scary if you certify electrical safety like I do. BUT, everything is moving to USB-C smart charging (required by the EU, so will happen everywhere because of economies of scale). USB-C are backwards compatible with USB-B with tiny cheap dongles (4 for $10). My company certifies electronic products for sale in the US and worldwide. Everyone is moving to USB C. I have not seen any high capacity battery powered devices using USB B in the last nine months. USB-C smart charging ports negotiate with your USB-C devices to up the voltage and current to the max wattage the device can take - which changes during the charging time. My Macbook Air M2 charges at 100W off a USB C charger. So, I compared charging my iPhone 15 and new iPad Pro v6 (both plugged at the same - a typical use case - into one of these USB-B wall 2 amp per port wall chargers - I rewired the house 6 years ago and added them in a couple locations): USB-B charging: 2 to 7 hours, depending on the cable, how low the battery charge was. USB-C 100W small hub x 2 outlets with appropriate cable: 22 minutes when both were almost empty. Better to leave the outlet as is and get a multiport smart charger. There are even some that plug into the dual AC outlet - flush mount - and add 2 x 60W USB (60W total split between the ports) smart ports. More than enough to charge a USB-C laptop AND a phone at the same time. For quality and safety, get a UL certified device. While ETL and other safety certs may be ok, UL certs on AC outlets and chargers are more expensive for a reason. We also see CE (self certified) devices - I would NOT buy or use one. Hope that helps. - John John Taylor CEO Lead Free Design Incorporated John.Taylor@LeadFreeDesign.com (719) 359-5170 direct line
  3. I too have this issue. Still is disconnected, so I'm interested in what others say too. thanks, - John
  4. ”Waxing your Beaver” What a disappointment this thread turned out to be: [scoffs] Not at all what Google promised….
  5. Tom, Thanks for the education on the differences between home 240V systems, RV GenSet 240V and Pedestal 240V systems, capacities and wiring. And since I don't want to see my skeleton light up (like those shocking cartoon electrocutions), I think I'll leave my wiring as is (or consult my engineers who are NEC electricians and CE Safety certification experts) best, - John "I would only recommend for an electrician vs an EE who gets shocked by the toaster. 🤣LOL" Me, the Toaster, and the fork Every. Single. Saturday. You'd think I'd learn, but no...
  6. On the subject of 120v vs 240v dryers…. (and I should know this but dont) Why can’t we run a 240V dryer off the genset (Onan 7500w for me) or 50A service? phase issues? because a 240V dryer would sure work better, right? Thanks, - John, (the guy with a 5V EE degree who still gets shocked on the toaster on Saturday mornings)
  7. Dave Pumphrey, thank you for the Napa part number. Yup, it was the windshield washer pump. Easy 10 minute fix. - John
  8. Wow Vince. They did a great job on your coach. Don, If you (1) have access to a +50' paint booth for two months, and (2) three teens who needed jobs as slave labor, and (3) are brave, you can do what we did: (Scroll down - lots of pics of the repainting process at the link). Cost of quality materials, slave labor, booth rental was about $15k.) BTW, color sanding (final paint finishing to a mirror finish) can be done sooner with the right paint, HOWEVER, color sanding 1100 sq ft of paint is NOT fun at all :) - John
  9. Mike's custom painting redid some clear coat on mine (orange peel). Re-cleared both side of the rig (not the caps - those were already color sanded and great) Outstanding work. A lot less than anyplace else in US. Two years ago and perfect... https://patrickpaintgroup.com/mikes-custom-painting/ ignore the passenger side roof radius where I had a disagreement with some trees - working on that this fall :(
  10. note from someone who used aluminum Pop-Rivets.... ...don't. The aluminum is not strong enough and will shear/break when you least expect it. If you are going to pop rivet (especially without a backing washer), use stainless pop-rivets.
  11. Hi Tom, Unfortunately I have lots of experience with the dreaded "Death Wobble" See here of details and photos of what can happen: Because that year Cherokee and Grand Cherokee are marketed and advertised as Flat-towing ready (and they clearly are not without the expensive modifications) Jeep corporate should pay for the fix (about $500+), although they will fight you.. Let me know if I can be of help. - John Taylor
  12. Yup. Exactly. I originally thought they were a great way to replace a starting battery, but (as my lab guys, who actually know what they are doing have said) “nope. Not for the casual RVuser”
  13. I did some research into replacing the starting batteries with a couple of “super capacitor” banks. Each bank looks like a 6-pack of tall boy beer cans (or spray paint cans) Pro: They last 20 years They require no maintenance They deliver an insane amount of starting current. You’ll end up leaving the undersized wire to your starter in place to limit the current (home made fusible link) They work in very cold conditions You can place them under your bed with all your house lithium batteries They don’t weigh much. They can be hooked up in parallel with your lithium house bank which simplifies converter charging off solar, pedestal and genset Con: Expensive. Not insanely so, but still more. Our typical rig requires two - and they don’t combine the typical way two batteries do (because they are capacitors and have almost no internal resistance, so they sometimes combine electrically like capacitors and sometimes combine like batteries). Easy to hookup, but calculating your CCA (cold cranking amps) is different than lead acid batteries in parallel. The manufacturer will help you. Alternator charging (as always) is the problem. When you ditch the lead acid bank, you will lose the “buffering” and “regulation” of the choppy signal coming out of your alternator. So the charging circuit off the alternator must be modified to prevent unintended reverse voltage / current dumps (back EMF) and you might have to “smooth” the the alternator signal yourself. They can only crank the engine 4 or 5 times (for about 20-25 seconds of cranking) before the super capacitor must “recharge”. Recharge means letting them sit in parallel with your big lithium house bank for about 15 minutes before trying again. Their ‘self discharge’ rate is higher than both lead acid and lithium batteries. You’ll want to keep your rig plugged in or on solar if storing for a long time (months). You could wire in a disconnect, but the you’d have to wait 15 minutes for them to recharge off your lithium house bank before starting. Interesting concept though if you want to rid yourself of lead acid batteries and go all Lithium.
  14. When my original pump died a few years ago, I put another pump in-line, leaving the original in place (evidently a common solution). Still have yet to get my meter out and test - could very well be a burned out replacement in-line pump. It is on the list...
  15. Unintentionally funny for some of us and our rapidly aging parents: Someone asked what you call a “bathroom” when we were on a month’s tour. “Depends”, said our guide….
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