Bikepals
Member
Thanks, I suspected as much. I was hoping they had strip sensors which are very accurate. The tech at Tom’s told me they were float sensors but he has been wrong about other things.
Black Series HQ Tips, Tricks, and Learning.....
- Thread starter kevin_j
- Start date
kevin_j
Member
I'm going to admit to doing this with my HQ15
In a lot of situations and specifically when calling for a recovery I agree with this. Having said that however.... In two different occasions I've self-recovered by unhooking, dropping the jockey wheel low, digging out the trailer tires and getting the max-traxx under them, recovering my Land Cruiser, then winching out the trailer. It does work, but there's a ton of variables Deep mud like that is tricky as hell and in Southern Utah it can be wicked.Edited to add: A big lesson I learned doing that was making sure to clear a path for the jockey wheel. In my case that meant digging a track and using my leveling blocks to crib up a gang plank of travel until I got to solid ground. That jockey wheel will dig in like a ******** when pulling it nose first.
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Hi Raspy, can you tell me what connections you bought or used to make the city water connection? Thanks.
Raspy
Active member
hopp,
I installed a 6" Frost-Free Silcock up through the bottom of the trailer, under the fridge and behind the pump cabinet area. There is a large area of dead space there. I cut a 4" hole in the divider, at the back of the pump cabinet to access the area. Outside, it came out behind the tires and behind the mud flap. It sits vertical so it drains when disconnected to prevent freezing. I made no holes in the side of the trailer. Inside, I installed a 1/2" stainless steel faucet pigtail that goes from the Silcock to a T installed in the cold water line right after the pressure pump. There is an extra check valve that Black Series installed just downstream of the pump. After that, there is a 90. So I pulled the 90 out and replaced it with a T. The incoming city water goes up through the Silcock, through the pigtail, and is teed into the water system just after the main cold line check valve. This setup is not visible outside the trailer unless you look up behind the mud flap on the driver's side. I keep a hose cap on it when not in use. It is also a good place to screw on a pressure gauge to check how much pressure the on-board pump puts out. It can also be used to hook up a compressor to winterize the trailer.
I installed a 6" Frost-Free Silcock up through the bottom of the trailer, under the fridge and behind the pump cabinet area. There is a large area of dead space there. I cut a 4" hole in the divider, at the back of the pump cabinet to access the area. Outside, it came out behind the tires and behind the mud flap. It sits vertical so it drains when disconnected to prevent freezing. I made no holes in the side of the trailer. Inside, I installed a 1/2" stainless steel faucet pigtail that goes from the Silcock to a T installed in the cold water line right after the pressure pump. There is an extra check valve that Black Series installed just downstream of the pump. After that, there is a 90. So I pulled the 90 out and replaced it with a T. The incoming city water goes up through the Silcock, through the pigtail, and is teed into the water system just after the main cold line check valve. This setup is not visible outside the trailer unless you look up behind the mud flap on the driver's side. I keep a hose cap on it when not in use. It is also a good place to screw on a pressure gauge to check how much pressure the on-board pump puts out. It can also be used to hook up a compressor to winterize the trailer.
Sounds good, thanks.
My 15 started catching a bit after a few outings, I sprayed all the latches with silicon and it was a little better but not the same as new. I ended up changing the rounded screws that hold the catches on to the door frame. The stock ones are rounded and were rubbing on the screen part of the door, I found a lower profile flat screw at ace hardware. That fixed my problem.
Was getting bored staying at home during the whole Covid thing, so started the next HQ15 project. Adding a single 310W solar panel, with a second charge controller, on the front of the trailer. The solar panel is 65x39 inches in size, and I got it from the local solar installer. Normally these panels go on the roof of a house. I decided to go with a second charge controller, as the orientation of this new panel is too different from the existing ones, that a single charge controller will likely not be able to get the most power out of all panels. Plus this panel is a 40V panel, whereas the others are all 20V panels. I went with a Victron 100/30 charge controller. Maybe the scariest thing was to drill holes in the roof to run the wires, and hope I can fish the wires from the inside of the front storage compartment. The first hole I drilled no luck, there was something in the way. But the second hole was right on, and I was able to fish the wires! I ran the output of the charge controller out of the bottom of the storage compartment to the divider box next to the hand brake, and tied it in there. That is the same connection as the Anderson plug, which runs straight to the batteries (and the 50A resettable fuse in the battery compartment).
Bikepals
Member
Well now you’ve done it. Yet another project I will think about. I have a 160 watt flexible panel I had thought about putting in the same place but I have been rigging it up for use on the ground for when I’m in the shade.
I’ve been thinking about installing Battle Born batteries and I watched another video by “RV with Tito” . In it he mentions that he bought his BB batteries for $875 each with his membership with the Escapees RV Club. Membership cost $40 so you get your money back and more with the first battery. I’m thinking about getting 3 batteries. I already have a Renogy lithium battery that I used with my previous trailer. I will put it in the front storage compartment to run my Dometic chest refrigerator. Not sure if I could put it in parallel with the Battle Born batteries. I might call them and find out. I’m bored!!
Hi Bikepedals! Ok, I did some reading on the 100AH Lithium Renogy battery, and see how that one needs to be charged. Renogy doesn't provide a lot of information unfortunately. Specifically, they do not say if a fixed time absorption stage is fine, or not. For the BattleBorn they recommend 30min per battery (so if you have 3, that would be 90 minutes). Renogy also doesn't say anything about what float voltage is acceptable, as far as I can tell. Renogy recommends a maximum charge rate of 0.2C, BattleBorn recommends maximum 0.5C. So you can charge the BattleBorn batteries a lot faster. For both, the bulk and absorption voltage recommendation is the same. 14.4V is good. Not sure I would mix the two brands and connect both to the same charge controller. Also, if you want to put the Renogy in parallel with the BattleBorns, you will have to run some seriously thick cable from the front storage compartment to the battery compartment. So as to not incur a voltage drop over the cables. But why go with four of those lithium batteries? That is a lot of capacity, will you really need that? I consider two lithium batteries roughly equivalent to four lead acid batteries. Given that you should not draw down a lead acid battery close to empty, as that really hurts battery life.
BTW Whatever you do, I highly recommend installing the Victron BMV-712 battery monitor. It is so nice to exactly see how full your batteries are. This monitor computes the state of charge very accurately. Also, really cool to see that when the batteries are full, the current going in is exactly 0. The BattleBorn batteries simply don't accept more current once full.
BTW Whatever you do, I highly recommend installing the Victron BMV-712 battery monitor. It is so nice to exactly see how full your batteries are. This monitor computes the state of charge very accurately. Also, really cool to see that when the batteries are full, the current going in is exactly 0. The BattleBorn batteries simply don't accept more current once full.
Bikepals
Member
When I bought the Victron 100/50 that I put in the main Battery compartment I got the smart controller. All that means is it has Bluetooth which works with their App. When I go check the trailer I don’t even have to go inside. The app downloads all history and it has charts. They just updated the app which is supposed to give even more information.
If I put the Renogy in parallel it would go in the battery compartment with the Battle Born batteries. The front storage compartment has a socket for power for the fridge. With my last trailer I had battery anxiety. We would sometimes camp in the woods and I couldn’t get solar. I damaged 2 Separate AGM batteries by running them down below 50%. I refuse to have that problem with this trailer. MORE POWER! I wouldn’t talk about too much power when you just added another panel which puts you over 800 watts of power on top of your trailer.
Hi again! The bluetooth for the Victron charge controllers is great, fully agree. But that is not the same as having a battery monitor. I actually really like that monitor, as it has a display (so no need to whip out your phone and connect first before you see any data). The most important value on that display, IMHO, is how full the batteries are. So with one glance at that display you know where you stand. But yes, if you're camping when it is often cloudy or shady under trees, then more batteries is good!
> MORE POWER! I wouldn’t talk about too much power when you just added another panel which puts you over 800 watts of power on top of your trailer.
Haha, excellent point
The reason I did add more panels is that I, unfortunately, do not get nearly close to that the maximum power out of the panels, as they are mounted flat on the roof. That is especially noticeable in the winter, spring and fall when the sun is lower on the horizon. Also, the locations of the panels on the roof is not optimal. The AC can cast a shadow on top of the panel, depending on the orientation of the sun, and even a small amount of shade makes that panel produce almost no power anymore :-( Since the sun is lower in the sky in winter, spring and fall, those AC shadows get longer, so double whammy. This just means the next project is on the horizon. Deleting the AC and replacing it with a nice fan
Stay safe!
Raspy
Active member
Here are a couple pix of my tank strap reinforcement project. They went from simple bent flat stock to beefed up with 1 X 1 x 1/8" wall square tube. I also doubled the vertical part of the straps with 1 1/2 X 1/8 flat stock bent to reinforce the bend at the top where the bolts go through. There are three straps, but the center one is the only strong one, so only the outer two need to be fixed to keep the tank from sagging. I replaced the hangar bolts with 3/8" grade 8 bolts, with washers on top and stainless steel nylock nuts.
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Raspy
Active member
I decided to re-pack the wheel bearings at 5,000 miles so I could get a baseline and then go to a higher interval later. The extra bearings that Black Series included are SKF bearings marked "Germany" , but the bearings in the wheels are YXHT brand with no country of origin. I used Lucas "Red and Tacky" grease and replaced the seals.
So, two of the bearings were loose enough that I could feel the play by push/pulling on the tires. That's OK as they wear in. One was WAY too tight and I actually had a hard time taking the nut off with pliers. That one showed more wear. And one of them had grease flying around in the area that must have been left on the outside of the seal. It has gotten on the magnet, the backing of the brakes and the inside of the drum.
I'm glad I looked into this and the tight one would likely have failed on a long trip.
During the process I also adjusted the brakes and found that after 5,000 miles the shoes were still not making full contact on the drums. I did a break-in process, and they are working fine, but still not fully broken in. I really like the 12" brakes.
Here are pix of the bearings and seals in case you want to order some. The stock seals have no part number, but look just like the one in the picture.
So, two of the bearings were loose enough that I could feel the play by push/pulling on the tires. That's OK as they wear in. One was WAY too tight and I actually had a hard time taking the nut off with pliers. That one showed more wear. And one of them had grease flying around in the area that must have been left on the outside of the seal. It has gotten on the magnet, the backing of the brakes and the inside of the drum.
I'm glad I looked into this and the tight one would likely have failed on a long trip.
During the process I also adjusted the brakes and found that after 5,000 miles the shoes were still not making full contact on the drums. I did a break-in process, and they are working fine, but still not fully broken in. I really like the 12" brakes.
Here are pix of the bearings and seals in case you want to order some. The stock seals have no part number, but look just like the one in the picture.
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