I debated on this one some. If I was going #fullted, I would get some 110V mini-splits and mount those. That would require fabrication, and it would also give me the benefit of having some units that would work down to something like -4F or -13F. While we probably won't be RVing with it that cold out, we have RV'd with it in the mid to low teens, and we removed the propane heater (not likely to put that back in, although I might do something). This would require a lot of fabrication, as there is no good place to mount your standard mini split head units, and the ceiling cassettes are significantly larger (like about 10" in each dimension) than the standard RV units. I could put those in, but I think it would be too much work. What I'm looking at are some new standard RV rooftop AC/heat pumps, which are supposed to be quieter, and more like mini splits in a single unit just with the form factor of a standard RV rooftop unit. The problem is that they will only work down to something slightly below freezing. We have thus far made due just fine with a couple of space heaters, and with how well-insulated the RV is now, that does just fine even in the teens (while parked). So, summary is, if I go the way I'm planning it will be a bolt-in replacement essentially.
This is NOT a serious video that has anything relating to actual work. But @jesse sent me a case of Amsoil coolant booster, so I threw it in the RV. I am only posting this here for potential entertainment value since another PoAer sent it to me. If I get something sent to me, 99% chance I will do something with it. However the timeline of that may take a while.
I'm always looking at experimenting with new things, and one thing I've been thinking about is adding a water-methanol injection setup to the bus. The primary use case that I'm looking at for this is extended slower climbs where the cooling system is being taxed and the engine is having to work at higher power settings for longer periods of time. Our trip out west this summer will have a lot of those. Water/meth injection seems to be good at cooling induction temps (which are good for everything), but what I'm also looking at is reducing the intercooler's portion of the heat load that the cooling system has to absorb, which should let me turn up my cooling fans some more and help cooling further. Also, it's something I've never messed with before, so mainly I'm just interested in seeing what it does. Since I'm not looking for max horsepower, my thought is I would probably run a smaller amount of water/meth mix than would typically be used on an engine of this power, and just accept a reduced intake air temp that goes with that as sufficient. One thing with the proposed setup, though, would be putting the mixture in ahead of the intercooler, rather than after. There are some warnings about that, as the liquid can pool up in the intercooler and cause hydrolock, but I don't think that would be much of a concern with how I'd run it. For one, I would be setting it to only come on at higher boost conditions (and thus higher intake temps, so more likely of boiling things off), but I would also not just be leaving it on anytime the engine was on - it would only be for specific portions of a drive during the use case, and that would also give a good bit of driving time for anything left in there to boil off. Has anyone on here dealt with water/meth injection before, especially on a diesel, and have thoughts on it before I pull the trigger on a system?
Now that the school year is done and I got the Cobra driving in time to drive the kids to/from school for it, it's time to get back to focusing on the bus to prepare for summer travels. I decided to go ahead and order the water/methanol injection kit. I ordered one from AEM with a 5-gallon tank. It has three different nozzles, 250, 500, and 1000 cc/min. Given that my engine's horsepower (330 HP) and my goals (lowering IATs, and with that reducing heat load on the radiator/intercooler setup - not necessarily going for max lowering/max performance), I'm going to plan to start off with the smallest 250cc/min setup and adjust from there. The controller will scale the flow rate with boost, and I should have some room to play with it. Ideally, the idea would be that a 5 gallon tank should last me at least one day's worth of driving for the sections where I'm going to be running it - and those sections are specifically intended to be extended climbs at lower speeds. A long day for us in the bus can be 10+ hours, but obviously that does not involve any sort of continuous injection that would go with it, it would just be for harder sections. Like most of the projects I've done on this bus, I'm going about things different than conventional logic/wisdom, but I think it will work. We got the old rooftop heat pump/ACs off and got the new ones up, but not fully installed yet. I put them in place and then wired them up to see if 1) they worked and 2) initial impressions. I think they will be a noticeable improvement. The biggest improvement that I found right off the bat was that the compressor was completely silent internally for turning on and off. That was one of my big complaints with the old units and disturbed sleeping with the fans on. Another interesting note is that these units have three fan settings rather than just two, which also should help with keeping the sound down. I'm looking forward to finishing getting them up. The bedroom is getting new updates in the form of a new TV (replacing a 2010 era 22" flat screen with a new 27" flat screen - the biggest I can fit in the available space) and a sound bar with a subwoofer mounted under the bed. The bedroom TV has always suffered from poor (by today's standards) video and audio quality. While we don't watch very much TV, we like to be able to enjoy it when we do. The subwoofer under the bed will be a nice use of that open space that is otherwise unutilized. The toilet on the RV appears to be original and so is its base seal. On the last trip it was leaking. We decided to just go ahead and buy a new toilet to replace it, which should hopefully have better function and appearance. Lastly, I need to pull the generator and give it a good once-through. I was dreading that because of the lack of good access to do it, but it shouldn't be too awful. The work I did to mount it on air springs will make it a lot easier to unmount it. Height wise, it's 22", and even in the bus's current state with the springs deflated, there's 17" of clearance between the front bumper/fiberglass and the ground. It won't take much to get those extra 5". Once out, I'll take the cover off and assess which parts I need and what should be replaced for maintenance and to make sure it's reliable for us on our trip. Most of all, I hope that results in it being quieter. The air mounts helped with that, but it's still quite loud.
But the real question is... what direction are y'all headed this time? We've got some friends doing a road trip up to Yellowstone and back - planning to camp the whole way. I was helping them figure out how BLM/NFS land works and how to use those maps to their advantage. That has just reinvigorated my itch to do some exploring. Hoping to get into the hills and hollers of N. Ga. mtns soon. ...which reminds me, I need to look for some new CAs and SYE for the Jeep.
Our next trip will be heading out west, checking out the northern half of California and other things, and we'll plan to be at Bonneville for part of speed week. To be honest I'm not 100% sure of the planned schedule, but I know enough of it to know that it will be hot and there will be serious mountains, hence part of my extra attention to systems that involve both 1) interior comfort and 2) engine cooling. Another system that I may add depending on timing is a mister for the radiator/intercooler. I'll probably see how much time I have left after I get the other more important things done (especially if I have a chance to see what the water/methanol does first) and then maybe add it. Ultimately I know the bus well and sometimes you just have to accept a slow slog on an uphill, and I've never not been able to make that work so far with the electric fans.
I actually found that the record at Bonneville for a Class A is 122 MPH (going off of memory). That's not very fast and I'm pretty well certain I could beat that, but not in this bus the way it's geared. 2400 RPM (at which point the fuel cut-off starts kicking in) would end up being something in the high 90s. There are marine versions of the 3126/C7 that I think will rev up to 2800 and so if I could get a file for one of those maybe I could make it work, but that still would be under 122. So I'd either have to really rev the snot out of this engine and get into experimental territory, regear it, or look at something different altogether. Definitely not happening this year.
Aero would definitely become a thing at that point. I would need more than the 330 HP I have now, but I that's a relatively easy to overcome item. I've noticed that, except in extremely calm wind conditions, the bus does get a lot of aerodynamic flutter/turbulence above 85 MPH IAS/TAS (really haven't experimented enough to determine which one of those it is). Of course if it's very windy (unless that wind is a tailwind) I probably am not going that fast. The airtabs helped significantly, I would probably need to look at more additional/other aero at that speed, but most of all the winds would need to be calm.
Definitely get a RV porcelain toilet with rim flush. They make em in different configurations. Get the right one for you and your family. It was the best upgrade ever made to our RV.
Reminds me of the year at Reno when they cancelled the Formula One Race just after the Golden Knights (Army Parachute Team) took off in the C-130. They also cancelled the Golden Knights drop as well, so to fill in the time they had the C-130 flying the race course with the Golden Knights standing in the door making sure they didn't cut any Pylons. Brian
That's what we had before and that's what we're getting again. We're going with a different model from previous, so hopefully we're happy/happier with it.
I managed to get a little shop time and made some progress on the TV/sound system upgrade in the bedroom. There's a nook under the bed (which is on the slide) where the subwoofer can fit and won't interfere with the slide mechanism. I secured it (with big zip ties) and sound tested it - no vibrations or rattles - and very good sound and bass. It should be a nice upgrade, along with going from a 22" 2010-era flat screen to a new 27". Of course anything is better than the probably 13-15" CRT that was in there from the factory, but still - may as well make it nicer and more updated. Thinking about the blocks of time I'll have over the coming weeks, I think my plan will be to try to finish up the rooftop AC install and the bedroom TV work, maybe the toilet as well (that's really a 5 minute thing once I get the gasket) and then pull the generator and get it apart with a full parts list of what I want to replace and get those coming. Belts and hoses I know, I'm going to guess motor mounts, but once I get the cover off I'll be able to see better. Hopefully somewhere in there the water/methanol injection kit arrives and I can install that while waiting on parts for the generator, then put the generator back in. And while the generator's out, put some sound deadening on the floor above it - not that the inside has much noise now anyway, but it should also reduce road noise. Another thing I want to do before this trip that should be quick is to replace the harmonic damper on the engine. It's original which makes it around 23 years old, and they're known to harden and wear out. While the engine isn't giving me indications of problems, it seems that a lot of people with Cats are in favor of preemptive replacement on them after a certain age. I've been thinking about it for a while and it's an easy one to do, so I may as well just go ahead and do it.
