Fantastic Fan and Generator

[snowwillow51]

Hi,

We just sold our 17' Casita and purchased a Jayco 19RD. We are excited and really like the floorplan - just finished our maiden "voyage" of 4 days. We would very much appreciate knowing if anyone out there with the same floor plan has been able to install a Fantastic Fan anywhere besides the existing opening in the bathroom? We have the windows that only open at the bottom and it gets pretty warm in there when cooking...also if it is just a hot day. We mostly dry camp so do not usually have a hookup to run the A/C. We had the dealer install the FF in the bathroom as Camping World said that was the only option. However, Jayco customer service just told me they think there is a spot over the bed area...but she didn't seem certain. We are several hours from a dealer, so wondering if anyone out there has any experience with this. We have also discovered that our new Yamaha 2000 doesn't work for the Jayco. Help anyone?

[cb1000rider]

1) On what's overhead of the bed - The only way I can think to corroborate this is by knowing if there was an option for a vent, fan, or AC unit in that location. Otherwise, you confirm with Jayco... Personally I'd want specific instructions on the exact location before trying to open up the roof.

2) "We have also discovered that our new Yamaha 2000 doesn't work for the Jayco" - What does that mean exactly? The Yamaha 2000 is rated to 16.7 Amps, which is probably very very close to the peak amperage of starting your AC. Starting the AC in combination with anything else, such as the refrigerator or the battery charger will probably result in over-taxing the unit and set the circuit breaker. Is that what is happening? It should work just fine with everything except AC.. Or maybe not with the microwave and battery charger.

[RVhiker]

1) Are there any other ceiling vents besides the one in the bathroom?
2) What sort of issue are you having with the Yamaha 2000?

[snowwillow51]

Thanks for your reply - I was surprised that the customer service could tell me that inside the ceiling over the bed there was an area blocked for something, but she didn't know what and I should contact a dealer. I just did so, but found out that unless I bought the Jayco there no one will work on it. That means driving 4 hours to Denver...a fact we were unaware of when we bought the trailer at Camping World in Salt Lake City. They drop you like a hot potato once you drive off the lot. I don't think we will mess with the ceiling unless we find a dealer who can get permission from Jayco. In the meantime, we will just use a portable fan that hooks into the 12 Volt/DC outlet.
That is good info on the generator - thank you. My husband hooked up the generator and then tried the microwave and the A/C - I think it did throw something on the A/C as it quit working. From what you said, it seems that we can hook it up to at least plug in a computer, charge a phone or run a fan?

Thanks so much!

[snowwillow51]

I was really hoping the 2000 Yamaha would charge the batteries for dry camping!

[Bassdogs]

Originally Posted by snowwillow51

I was really hoping the 2000 Yamaha would charge the batteries for dry camping!

Wooooo there pardner. The Yam 2000 or the ever popular Honda 200i will both power anything in your camper expect the AC. Some people have been able to power up the AC with a 2000 but that is really not enough output. Don't underestimate what you can do with the Yam 2000. I'm a Honda owner, but by all account the Yam 2000 will get it done too. You can power up a battery charger, run the microwave, the TV/sat receiver and as many fans as you want. Make sure your water heater is on gas and not electric. The microwave is a power hog, so you may need to power down the charger and a few other things when it is running. Where are you guys getting your info about generators??

As for the roof vent and installing a fantastic fan; I would not mess with cutting another hole in the roof. That is almost never a good idea. Just replace the existing stink fan/vent with a FF. They come from the basic exhaust all the way to In/out, a tstat, and even a remote. I installed the basic exhaust fan in my new White Hawk [in the bathroom opening] as my experience with my previous TT was that I almost always [99% of the time] ran the fan pulling air out thru the roof vent and selectively opened windows where I wanted the inflow of fresh air. You can cool the main salon during the evening or while cooking and the bedroom at night.

You might want to direct your ??'s to this forum rather than where ever you have been getting advice up to this point. There are experts on just about everything camping related [or at least we think we are] and some of us [myself included] have already done pretty much all the dumb stuff and can help you avoid them.

[Bassdogs]

Just reread your original post and see that you already have a FF in the existing roof opening. So just put it in the exhaust setting [air out] and open and close windows based on the part of the TT you are using at the time. Don't open all the windows or just crack them a little in the bedroom until about an hour before going to bed. When you do that close or crack the front room windows. Think you'll be surprised how quickly you can cool things down once the sun sets. PSon't set up in the sun if you can avoid it.

[cb1000rider]

Originally Posted by snowwillow51

I was really hoping the 2000 Yamaha would charge the batteries for dry camping!

As indicated above, it will. It's just not going to do so while running the AC or microwave. And it may not run the AC at all, depending on a few variables.

That generator if it is the ES2000i - can also charge a 12v battery directly, without going through your converter (charger). Refer to the manual.

To run the AC and charger - or AC and microwave, you're probably needing at least 3500-4000 watts. To do the AC, I plan on a 3000 watt generator minimum...

Note, your fridge may switch to electric if you use the generator and is set to automatic, so you may be powering more than you think...

[snowwillow51]

Thanks everyone! I am very glad I found this blog as there are so many things we don't know about trailers. The Casita was easier, but we really like the room and features of our new 19 RD - I'm going out right now to finish packing for our trip tomorrow - yippee.

I think I get it about the generator now - we will be sure the refrigerator and the hot water heater are on gas and we will not turn on the A/C. At least we will be able to do the other things you all mentioned.

I'm sure I'll more questions when we get back from this trip - thanks so much for taking the time to answer!

[Rustic Eagle]

I have a Yamaha EF 2400iSCH and it runs my 13.5 A/C just fine in concert with the other standard devices, but not using the Micro at the same time.

Bob

[RoyBraddy]

You won't have much luck charging your battery off the BAT CHG plug of the Generator. This only gives around 8AMPs of DC current and is an unregulated source of 12VDC. There is only enough power here to give you a good trickle charge to your trailer battery. You will get behind the charge curve in a hurry...

You best way to charge your battery is connect the trailer 30AMP Shore power cable directly to the generator 120VAC receptacle using a RV30A-15A long 'DOGBONE' type adapter. You can get one of these from WALMART very cheap.


Your 2KW Generator will operate the on-board converter/charger and if it is a smart mode charger it will re-charge your trailer battery in a three hour generator run time.

If you do not have a smart mode converter unit then I would think your best thing to would be pick up a smart mode converter/charger unit for the trailer. You can also just pick up a smart mode portable battery charger like the B&D VEC1093DBD 40AMP charger and plug that into your generator and it will re-charge your batteries to their 90% charge state in a three hour time frame.

We camp almost entirely off the power grid in our OFF-ROAD POPUP and this is our game plan. We have a smart mode PD9260C converter/charger unit, added batteries, bigger battery cables, changed out ceiling lights to LED lights and this allows us to do almost anything we do at electric sites except run the air conditioner. We have it planned out to run what 120VAC items we want to run from an 600WATT PSW Inverter and 12VDC items from direct connected to the battery and can make it through one day/night run off our 255AHs capacity battery bank. Then at 8AM the next morning when allowed to run our generator we will connect the shore power cables directly to the generator receptacle using the RV30A-15A Adapter and then re-charge our 255AH battery bank back up to their 90% charge state so we can do all of this all over again the day/night run off the batteries.

When the generator is running we make our grind and brew bean coffee supply for the day and can also run some other 120VAC items we want to do.

In the evening we watch HDTV, play DVD, run 120VAC fans and lights, charge computers and cell phones, run our outside patio lights and lamp post light, and like I said do almost everything we do at a regular electric campground.

It does take some planning but we have been doing style of camping off the power grid since around 2009 in our OFF-ROAD POPUP.

This is the way we do it haha...

My generator is a Honda 2KW EU20001 which sits secured in the tailgate corner of my F150 truck covered and lockable bed... When we need to run the generator we just pull it out onto the tail and fire it up... The 30AMP shore power cable is long enough to plug into the generator from there.



Only way to camp for us...

Roy Ken

[Tracy W]

howdy all
We recently bought a 19rd too and so far loving it. We plan on dry camping alot also so have been looking into ways of providing cooling without powering up our A/C.

Just yesterday in fact I found this video...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?featur...TYadXM64jQLfjw

basically described: the guy makes an A/C from ice in a cooler using a small fan and some directed venting (I plan to use my 12v endless breeze fan). I wont be cutting into the top of my cooler, instead I will make an insert using plywood or rigid foam insulation to hold the fan & vent (still want to use the cooler at the lake/beach/etc). I haven't tried it out yet, but it looks promising!

This same video poster also has some neato ideas for heating up small spaces too. I've subscribed to his channel.

[clubhouse]

They have been doing this on SW golf courses for years. The ice box/fans are built into the golf carts. Works great in dry climates. Think it would be a disaster in humidity. It does require a quite a bit of ice.

[Tracy W]

Oh, ya, hadn't thought about that humidity aspect yet. I may try it out anyway during a hot dry day when we don't have hookups. I don't mind trying it out since we do plan to make our way out SW eventually and it will be nice to have lots of tricks up our sleeves.

The main thing I was interested in was the very low low energy cost of that 12v endless fan blowing cool air directly on us. I can buy a LOT of ice for the price of two 2000w Honda generators. (or I may just freeze water bottles in camper freezer - can recycle water better that way)

[Owen Stubbs]

Would this work with dry ice, or would that just disappear too fast to be an effective solution?

[Tracy W]

I thought I read that dry ice releases a gas that is harmful when inhaled, so I think that's a no no.

I am thinking of using bottled water, that way it can be refrozen easily. So if we start with a "dry" ice chest filled with frozen bottles, as hot humid air enters the cooler it would condense on the water bottles right and then collect inside the cooler? Wouldn't we be actually removing H2O from the air more than putting more H2O into it?

I am going shopping tomorrow for the new cooler and will be looking into the right size bottles too so they can stand upright in the cooler. I plan to create a grid of them so the air is forced to weave itself in and around the bottles before it exits the vent. I must try this experiment! I have to know!

[Ustabslim]

Originally Posted by cb1000rider

1) On what's overhead of the bed - The only way I can think to corroborate this is by knowing if there was an option for a vent, fan, or AC unit in that location. Otherwise, you confirm with Jayco... Personally I'd want specific instructions on the exact location before trying to open up the roof.

2) "We have also discovered that our new Yamaha 2000 doesn't work for the Jayco" - What does that mean exactly? The Yamaha 2000 is rated to 16.7 Amps, which is probably very very close to the peak amperage of starting your AC. Starting the AC in combination with anything else, such as the refrigerator or the battery charger will probably result in over-taxing the unit and set the circuit breaker. Is that what is happening? It should work just fine with everything except AC.. Or maybe not with the microwave and battery charger.

I've found that if I get the fan only running first, let it run a min, then click to AC real fast it will then start the compressor. Make sure everything else is off including all lights. Once it starts then you can turn on lights. We changed out to all led lights on our 2012 and that helps lots. Our new 2015 came with LED lights.

[jddave]

Texashighsheriff:
We have an older Yamaha 2400is [lots of construction hours logged],and your method of running the fan only first for a least a minute works for us.I leave the fan speed for the A/C on the lower setting after it fires up.
This forum has lots of great tips and general info.