SpeedHighway46
Member
I’m new to this site and am enjoying the posts in this category. I just wanted to make another post here, for no other reason to enjoy doing it!
Winter has settled in here in West Michigan, and my “road trips” in my Peterbilt Motorhome Conversion have ended for the season. I did do approx another 8000 miles this past spring, summer and fall. Great trips and great enjoyment.
Now the winter routine is to start the beast once a week; bring it up to temperature; top off the battery charge and make sure everything is functioning as it should.
The “winter start” routine starts with recoding the at rest battery voltage since the truck was last run. Today, after 14 days of sitting, starting batteries were 12.6 volts and the house batteries were 12.3 volts. Next, start the APU using either battery bank, today I used the starting battery bank as the voltage was just a little higher. The APU took off on the second try, immediately dumping 14.4 into the battery bank.
I run the APU for about 20 minutes. Cooling for this little diesel comes from the main engine cooling system, so as the APU is warming up the warm cooling fluid is also being circulated through the big Cat C-15. The APU also supplies heat to the bunk area of the Peterbilt, so I’m not sitting in the cold anymore. The fuel for APU comes from the 125 gallon tank on the right side of the truck, so the fuel in the tank is also being warmed at the same time, however slightly.
More to come. End of Part One
Winter has settled in here in West Michigan, and my “road trips” in my Peterbilt Motorhome Conversion have ended for the season. I did do approx another 8000 miles this past spring, summer and fall. Great trips and great enjoyment.
Now the winter routine is to start the beast once a week; bring it up to temperature; top off the battery charge and make sure everything is functioning as it should.
The “winter start” routine starts with recoding the at rest battery voltage since the truck was last run. Today, after 14 days of sitting, starting batteries were 12.6 volts and the house batteries were 12.3 volts. Next, start the APU using either battery bank, today I used the starting battery bank as the voltage was just a little higher. The APU took off on the second try, immediately dumping 14.4 into the battery bank.
I run the APU for about 20 minutes. Cooling for this little diesel comes from the main engine cooling system, so as the APU is warming up the warm cooling fluid is also being circulated through the big Cat C-15. The APU also supplies heat to the bunk area of the Peterbilt, so I’m not sitting in the cold anymore. The fuel for APU comes from the 125 gallon tank on the right side of the truck, so the fuel in the tank is also being warmed at the same time, however slightly.
More to come. End of Part One
