Short drive on Sunday and some repairs

On Sunday, we just needed to move Gracie a short distance in Zanesville to the parking area for Fyda Freightliner. We had visited Fyda in August 2023 (https://journeyinamazinggrace.blogspot.com/2021/11/the-house-battery-project.html) to have them work on our dash air conditioning. They replaced the air conditioning compressor then. We had noticed that it did not seem to be cooling well in the last few weeks, but when Carl tried to re-charge it, the system would not take any additional refrigerant. Jimmy and Carl did some problem determination on it at the farm -- they saw that the dryer had not been replaced when the system was opened to install the new compressor -- both of them thought that should have been done at that time, and that it might be the problem. Since we had had the work done at Fyda in August, we thought it should go back there just in case the new compressor had failed.

We had called Fyda a few days before; they don't take appointments (we knew that from last August), but they suggested that we get there at 5am on Monday and they'd take us as soon as they could.

We knew that they have a gravel/dirt lot outside their fencing where we could park and then have a short drive to the shop on Monday morning, so we left the Harvest Host greenhouse location before they opened, and moved Gracie to Fyda on Sunday.

We had a couple of tasks that were on our "to-do" list for us to get completed at the farm, but we didn't get to them so we had moved them to our "Illinois to-do" list. One of the items, however, we were wishing we had completed on this drive... 

When we changed to lithium batteries back in 2021, the Battery Isolation Manager (BIM) that was on the coach no longer worked to allow the batteries to be charged via the engine alternator -- the way that lithium batteries behave is different from lead acid batteries, so to the old BIM, they did not appear that they needed charging, so the BIM would never have the alternator engaged in charging them. This meant that the batteries would not be charged by the alternator while we were driving. We figured that was okay -- we have solar panels on top, and when we were driving, the solar panels are pretty well exposed to the sun when we're on highways (not shaded as they could be when parked). Unfortunately, since we left Mesa, we've been in a lot of rainy, cloudy conditions on our travel days -- meaning that we don't get a lot of solar charge -- so when we arrive at our overnight (boondocking) location, we are often not at a full charge. It would be nice if we could make use of the alternator as we were driving (in addition to solar charging) to provide charging as we travel.

Carl had ordered a new BIM that is designed to work with lithium batteries (it would recognize the characteristic when they need charging) and we had it with us - it just needed to be installed. The parking lot at Fyda was a good location for doing this, and the day was warm and not raining.

In order to do the task, we had to remove all power from the coach -- disconnect the house and chassis batteries. We weren't plugged in so shore power wasn't a concern.

The old BIM in place at the back of the electrical bay -- you may be able to see two large wires coming into the back of the existing BIM -- the concern we had was whether the short length of those wires would work with the new BIM.

A wider view of the electrical bay. The cord reel fits into this bay; Carl had already removed it to give room to access the back of the bay -- but it was narrow and deep enough to be challenging to access.

As I noted above, the short length of the battery cables were a concern. We wondered if there might be any available length behind the back wall of the electrical bay... but we couldn't get to that area from the electrical bay. We tried to get to it from the storage bay on the other side of the rig (it has a rolling tray) -- here I am removing the screws that hold the back wall in place. Unfortunately, even after we got that wall loose, it would not come out -- another side wall would need to be removed, and we decided that was too much work -- we would try to make it work with the shorter battery cables.

In addition to the battery cables to connect to the BIM, there were three smaller gauge wires -- one to ignition, one to ground, one to a dash switch (a battery boost to connect the house batteries to the chassis batteries in a case when the chassis batteries are not holding enough charge to start the rig). Carl needed to put new connectors on these to make them ready to attach to the new BIM.

A picture of Gracie while this work was going on... there was a commercial bus parked in the same lot with us, and the building for Fyda Freightliner is behind the bus.

Here's the new BIM almost installed -- the two battery cables are installed, and 2 out of the three smaller gauge wires are attached. I don't have a totally finished picture -- we could not attach the new BIM to the back wall as the old BIM had been (because the battery cables were not long enough), but we created supports under the new BIM by using zip ties connected to the ceiling of the bay to support it so it won't be bouncing around as we drive down the road.

In addition to the BIM project, Carl also wanted to replace the fuse link in the battery bay that had loosened, corroded, and heated up causing us problems before we got to the farm (https://journeyinamazinggrace.blogspot.com/2024/04/its-always-somethin.html). He had ordered a replacement fuse link and, since the batteries were off, figured this was a good time to install it.

Unfortunately, the new fuse-link wouldn't allow a connection by one of the battery cables (the connection was too close to another component), so Carl needed to square off the end of one of the connectors. This gave him an opportunity to use a new tool he got while we were at the farm: Jimmy had let him use his air-powered angle die grinder to clean the corroded ends of the battery cables. Carl decided that this was a tool that he could make good use of as we travel, so he got one from Harbor Freight (https://www.harborfreight.com/pneumatic-14-in-mini-angle-die-grinder-58711.html) while we were in Virginia. We have built-in air compressor on the rig, and he got attachments that allow him to use the tool as a cutter or a grinder. Here he is squaring the end of the battery connector by cutting off the end.

For good measure, he also used the sanding head to clean all the battery cable ends.

He still has one more task to do -- adding a cut-off switch to allow him to easily remove power from the batteries to the inverter. It seems that the inverter rather frequently gets into a state where it needs to be reset, and its installed location between the frame rails in the middle of the underside of the rig makes it nearly impossible to access. Having a battery cut-off would make it simpler when he needs to reset the inverter. To do this though, he needs a short battery cable made with ends of two different sizes... and we haven't gotten that yet.

Regardless, we were both very happy that we got completed what we did!