Our "New to Us" Winnie

[homeless]

Sorry 24v. My my eyes and fingers don't want to work together

[T1 Terry]

Battery technology certainly is developing pretty fast, remember my late mate saying graphene would be one of the next big things in batteries and it seems with NA batteries, that's the case.

Terry did you get your NA cells from lifepo4 Aus, they are selling them in single or 16 piece batches, but think they have a bit to go in their development to get over lifepo4. My first batch of lifepo4 are now 18 years old and the second, 17 years and they still have 100% capacity and performing great. Will be looking at getting more storage as the workshop runs on the Lister generator mostly and the 120ah portable lifepo4 pack. But the noise and vibration from the gennie leaves a lot to be desired and have got two 24v more wind generators, 1 x 400w and the other have rebuilt as it came off my boat and kids threw rocks on at it and smashed it up a bit when at the wharf. Now have 3 wind generators, 2 x 250w and 1 x 400w. It's amazing how such small wind gennies can keep the lights etc on simple because they can run 24/7 down here and they are all self feathering which so fare has kept them from flying apart, unlike the weather station wind speed indicator.Boat got sold a few years ago, owning a 52ft wooden motor sailer is a bottomless hole to throw your money into and been looking for a steel yacht around 50-75ft, but they are expensive and want one to do up.

Look forward to hearing how you go with the NA cells Terry and how they perform.

Direct import from the manufacturers marketing arm. I found a 10kwh pack advertised by those people for $6,600. My all up price, including freight, logistics, money conversion from AUD to USD and GST, let's just say, not near that much.
They claim 16 x 220Ah cells, but 10kwh/49.6v 3.1v nom. per cell) = 200Ah, if they B/S at that basic level, the rest becomes very suspect.
I see the same graph with no load or time parameters is on this site as well, but more likely all these sites are the same person. He has operated under a lot of names, I won't elaborate further.

A bit of info about sodium ion cell development in Australia https://sparctechnologies.com.au/sparc-batteries/
Interestly, although they also dabble in Graphene, they don't use it as the Anode material, but rather hard carbon.
I understand CATL put a lot of money into developing a graphene anode, but I'm led to believe they chose hard carbon as their chosen material .... cost might be a factor, that one is an unknown.

T1 Terry

[native pepper]

Native Pepper, be interested in upir 35v wind turbine experiment
Was looking at buying one and putting the
DC power after the turbine regulator into a 12v solar regulator
Have two 100 /50 victrons sitting in my solar cabinet waiting for solar to come . I did try a a 12v but did not generate voltage high enough for lithium charging
Still spinning but doing nothing
I like the vertical ones as less noise and vibration
I already have the pole etc so bolt her on and see how it goes
My biggest problem is the money at the moment, just spent 3 grand on madam Ruby for a operation

They're 24v wind generators, a bloke not far from us tried one of those vertical ones and got rid of it after 1 year as it didn't perform and was useless. Didn't set out to have 3 small ones, but at least they work and provide a constant supply when we have wind which is very often. Got the 400w one for $100 still in the box on gumtree one 250w from my ex boat and the other an ebay one which have had for over a decade.

Even thought about taking the boat one when travelling on putting it on a pole on the bus when windy, but never needed to so didn't get round to it.

[native pepper]

Direct import from the manufacturers marketing arm. I found a 10kwh pack advertised by those people for $6,600. My all up price, including freight, logistics, money conversion from AUD to USD and GST, let's just say, not near that much.
They claim 16 x 220Ah cells, but 10kwh/49.6v 3.1v nom. per cell) = 200Ah, if they B/S at that basic level, the rest becomes very suspect.
I see the same graph with no load or time parameters is on this site as well, but more likely all these sites are the same person. He has operated under a lot of names, I won't elaborate further.

A bit of info about sodium ion cell development in Australia https://sparctechnologies.com.au/sparc-batteries/
Interestly, although they also dabble in Graphene, they don't use it as the Anode material, but rather hard carbon.
I understand CATL put a lot of money into developing a graphene anode, but I'm led to believe they chose hard carbon as their chosen material .... cost might be a factor, that one is an unknown.

T1 Terry

Agree, cost is probably he factor as carbon is much more available without the processing needed for graphene. There's a lot of false claims about modern batteries and cells, which believe is down to the really slack legislation which allows advertisers to make ridiculous claims and nothing is done about it.

There's a blackout in our area since last night I'm told, very strong winds and loads of rain, having batteries for back up or off grid in this day and age, seems to me to be the most logical and energy safe way to go.

[T1 Terry]

Today was a big day, actually fixed the roller trays in the seat swivels, bolted the swivel legs to the floor, and fitted the captain's chairs back in. Took the cover off the driver seat to see what the condition of the actual seats are .... no holes, but that fake leather vinyl was all sticky and dirty looking, tried for a few hrs to clean it .... the cover will go back on tomorrow
Probably look at getting them recovered in the New Yr not sure if we should go real leather, a better quality Faux Leather, or material ..... or just quality lambswool seat covers ..... 1st world problems
Going to organise with a rego checking stn in Balranald, to do a rego check next week if possible. Hard to find heavy vehicle checking stations that still do LPG inspections.

Thought about transferring the rego to SA, but there are no pensioner discounts for heavy vehicles in SA, in NSW, rego is free for pensioners, and a concession discount on the CTP insurance, so makes sense to keep it registered it in NSW.
We no longer actually have a house address in SA, we live in a motorhome and pay rent to stay on an industrial block with a cement slab and water/sewer connected

T1 Terry

[T1 Terry]

Booked the rego inspection for next Wed, just hoping the boss man will be available as he is the only one with an LPG ticket and is a heavy vehicle inspector ...... I wonder how a heavy vehicle EV will go as far as finding an inspection station ...... Might be good for a Google search

T1 Terry

[supersparky]

Terry, have you got the Winnie ready to head off to Balranald? Have you had a bit of a road test yet? If yes, how did the Triton perform under load?

[T1 Terry]

Terry, have you got the Winnie ready to head off to Balranald? Have you had a bit of a road test yet? If yes, how did the Triton perform under load?

Sort of ready, still need to pack stuff away or find somewhere for it to wait for our return. I'm not going to put the sodium ion cells in yet, don't want to add something that might trigger an "anti-anything I don't understand" reaction. That means I'll have to buy battery clamps for these two near dead Full River AGM batteries so they are anchored down to keep the man happy. I think I'll take the damaged window awning off, so that doesn't get knocked because it doesn't close fully. Gotta make an anchor system for the 2 x 9kg gas bottles .... check all the lights work and check the lenses for cracks and glue them together if needed ... and maybe pour some tint inside them if they are faded ..... and hopefully the bin door that the fibreglass has started to break away doesn't get knocked back .... maybe I should repair that as well.

The 2 big LPG tanks are still within the 10 yr inspection requirement, 10/15 is the stamp date, so hopefully they will be good enough, even though that doesn't cover till 20/11/25 when the rego runs out again ..... I want to get the 50 ltr tank re-inspected and fit that to give me room to install the outside unit for the new air cond system.

As far as going for a drive, it is unregistered at the moment and SA has really strict rules about requiring an unregistered vehicle permit no matter what, including going for mechanical repair or inspection, so that will have to wait till tomorrow, the longest permit is for 3 days and the inspection isn't till Wed 11am ..... I'll have to check if Balranald is on SA time or NSW time, don't want to be 1/2 hr late. Even if it runs like a pig, as long as it gets me there and back, it will give me time sort out what the next step will be .... but it starts smooth and sounds good ... a few tappet rattles, but they don't count for rego and can't be heard by me with the engine cover on, so they don't exist Exhaust sounds like a 2 into 1 V exhaust note, no idea what a 2 into 1 V10 exhaust note is supposed to sound like, I doubt the inspector will either, so that should be fine ...... doesn't stop that mild panic feeling, but I get that every time I see a heavy vehicle inspection stn or Police car .... just this one has been building for a mth or so

T1 Terry

[supersparky]

I'm pretty sure Balranald runs on NSW time. I'll put a up a pic later of the restraint used on our 2x9kg gas bottles. It's simple as.

[T1 Terry]

We made it to the Balranald caravan park, Winnie drove great, chalk and cheese compared to the trip over when we bought it. Had one brief bit of concern on the last run into Balranald from Tooleybuc following Margaret in Prius, a slight vibration and just felt different .... looked at the tacho and it was up around the 3,000rpm mark, tried lifting off the throttle thinking it needed to change up a gear, no, wasn't that, checked I hadn't locked out o/drive, no that was fine, lift the sunnies so I can see what the speedo read, between 120 and 125km/h .... yeah, that'll cause it ..... decided to let Margaret drive off into the distance I was only at around 1/2 throttle and it does wind out to 5,000 rpm .... not real keen in being in the driver's seat when it was WRO ... even less keen being in the passenger seat

Filled up the LPG at Mannum, $275 for 250 ltr, filled up the unleaded fuel tank at Ouyen, 248ltrs ..... $440 , so we will be driving on LPG most of the time, petrol for when the LPG runs out to get to the next LPG bowser .... just glad I don't have to pump diesel into it, that would have been $550 for the same amount of fuel, it doesn't use twice as much LPG as the Fuso used diesel over the same distance, it would always eat up $250 worth at that servo just outside Balranald.

No idea where the bloke I bought from came up with the 4km/ltr on LPG .... although he might have driven a bit slower than I do I got a bit over 2km/ltr, so around 50 cents/km in fuel

T1 Terry