My "New" 2006 Gulf Stream Vista Cruiser!

[BBQ]

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+1

Very good.
Yes, there's no place like home.

[Hayduke]

Yay! New battery ran the refrigerator for 12 hours, and it's still at 12.55 volts. I think this will work.

[booster]

Originally Posted by Hayduke

Yay! New battery ran the refrigerator for 12 hours, and it's still at 12.55 volts. I think this will work.

If the 12 hours was overnight, the compressor frig would not use a lot of power. On cool nights, we find our 3.1cf Isotherm will use only about 1/4 or less of the 24 hour use in 10 hours overnight. In our case that is going to be in the 4-10ah, approximately, depending on how cool it is at night and how hot during the day. If you are similar, you will be using less than 10% of your capacity overnight, so it would make sense, matching the voltage you see.

What we have found is that over 24 hour periods our frig will use in the range of 17 to 40ah depending on the weather. If you are similar, which is likely, you would use about 1/4 to 1/2 of your usable capacity per day on the frig by itself. Being very frugal with the rest of the power, you could be at about 10-15ah for the rest of the use, but most use more than that. Charging devices can eat up a lot more power than you would expect. Charging them while driving is a good idea, if possible, to save the battery capacity. Also get 12v chargers and all other things you can find, so you don't have to use an inverter.

I think, over time and varying conditions, and how you conserve, you will get somewhere between 1 day and 3 days of use, before running out of power. How often you get a full charge on the battery will determine if that is long enough, or not.

Remember that you have maximum of about 80% of the rated ah that you can use, and that no matter how big your alternator or shore charger is you will need somewhere around 8+ hours on charge or driving to get the battery totally full. It will get to 70% quickly, but slow way down after that. I think most would agree with the recommendation that you need to get to the totally full condition every 7-10 charge cycles, or the battery will start to "walk down" in capacity from being undercharged, and you really don't have any capacity to spare.

My guess would be that unless you drive every day or plug in every couple of days, you will find your single battery to be OK most of the time, but not all the time, especially if you are in hot conditions where the frig uses more and you have fans and such running.

[Hayduke]

That's probably alright. We use very little other electricity. LED bulbs throughout, occasional pump use for the bathroom. Driving every day, for the most part. If not, we'll have solar plugged in, or shore power. Always charging devices while driving. We'll see; it's much better than before, that's for sure. I could also add a second battery, but I'd have to mount it in the (enormous) storage area, which would take a little from our music gear storage. Not a big deal, but I'd rather not.

Next thing to address is the "on demand" water heater, which does about F-all, as far as I can tell. LOL

[Hayduke]

We are liking the Sprinter more every time we use it. We played a couple of shows in La Veta, CO. The sprinter carried our equipment, gave us a nice cozy, comfortable place to sleep afterward, took us exploring up to Cordova Pass. Then before another short set today, we relaxed and made lunch inside while a storm raged. We drove home at 70mph, got 22 mpg. Comfortable and easy to drive, and easy to park. We are really digging it.

The new battery I installed is working great. After 14 hours of running the fridge, using the pump for the bathroom and sink, using lights, etc., it still showed 12.65 volt on my meter, which showed it as "full" still. :thumb

[Phoebe3]

That's beautiful! (And the scenery isn't bad, either!)

[Hayduke]

I just got a receiver hitch mounted on our sprinter, and picked up a Rocky Mounts swivel platform bike rack. I was looking at the Fiama (?) racks that mount to the door, because we want to be able to get into the back with bikes still on the rack, but the door mounts won't work with the awning windows on the back. This is the only platform, swing out bike rack made, apparently. So far so good. I've used it on our Bronco, on some pretty rough roads already, and it's very secure.

[Hayduke]

Just back from a 2,500 mile or so, seven day trip in our Sprinter. CO, UT, NV, CA and back, on hwy 50 out and back. Boondocked and stayed in "primitive" campgrounds. Everything worked great, we were comfortable, saw lots of sights, and got 22mpg. Loving this class B.

[BBQ]

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What a life

[Hayduke]

Just back from a 3,000 mile tour of the Midwest, with gigs around MO and IL. Living on the road was going to keep us free and clean...

We've put 10,000+ miles on our Class B since we got it at the end of June. We love it! Originally we thought we'd keep in for a year or so and then try to upgrade to a Travato, but now we don't think so; this one works so well with our music gigs and lifestyle. And I love the engine.

We had temps from 101 to 35 degrees, and slept in it nearly every night, comfortably. We averaged about 21mpg. Very impressed with this little RV.

[Hayduke]

[BBQ]

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Nice photos.


BTW, do you know if your RV has rust-proof treatment?
Some MB T1N got rusted out. I would hate to see your nice RV suffer the same fate.

[Hayduke]

It does appear to have some rust proofing on it. It will mostly spend time in our super-dry area though, especially in winter. Hopefully it will last like the other cars around here. About the only place around that you see 70's International Scouts driving around with no rust. LOL

[Hayduke]

We saw lots of rusted out T1N's in the upper midwest. Yikes!

[Lennie]

I remember seeing your RV on RV Trader and wondered if the condition was really that good. It's in beautiful condition!

I WISH mine was half that nice. Mine had rust all along the gutters and the seams, the roof leaked, one of the vents was cracked and leaking, fortunately no rust underneath. I've been working on mine in between trips. I think had mine been waxed and the dicor inspected/replaced over the years I wouldn't have had all the rust and leaking issues. I will have to get the roof repainted at some point just haven't decided what type of finish that will be.

Great to see you enjoying yours! I think if you take care of it, inspect the roof, seams and gutters regularly you won't have issues or will catch them early enough to easily fix it.

[Hayduke]

I continue to be impressed with this rig. We grabbed a spot at a truck stop after our gig last night, and settled in. It dipped to 18 degrees last night, and we were cozy. Furnace ran a lot, but barely used any propane or battery. Leaving the water tank valve dripping a little bit, and antifreeze in the holding tanks makes it a decent "winter" rig, too. We'll need to winterize eventually, but not before our next short NM tour in a few weeks, I don't think.(pic from the summer)

[User1213]

Much better than the Stalker Van!

[Hayduke]

Yes, it is. We hated sleeping in that van anywhere under about 50 degrees outside. We'd freeze! It was insulated, but had so many leaks I guess, that it was always cold. No furnace could be the difference, too.

18 degrees is ridiculous, but it was fine. I slept well.

[Hayduke]

I've been preparing the Sprinter for a winter music tour that we are about to embark on. Cleaning mostly. But who could resist a nice nap? LOL

[Hayduke]

43,000 miles on it now, and countless nights. No issues (knock on wood) gigging Austin to Idaho. A few short weekend trips coming up, then a 4,000 mile tour playing gigs in UT, MT, ID, and WY in June. This thing has been the perfect rig for us.