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Sort of fixed the air conditioning raining inside. Seems the left hand side drain is blocked. Not enough room for me and my fat gut to get on the roof and take the top off because we are parked under a gable roof ..... so I releveled the Winnie so it leans to the right and forward .... problem solved Just gotta put all the inside bits back after cleaning them and the carpet squares back in after washing them and putting them out to dry.

The blinking alternator light was caused by the mains still being plugged in, the engine running closing the contactor between the two batteries and the alternator voltage regulator having a hissy fit because it couldn't control the voltage .... it sorted itself as soon as I unplugged from the mains.

It was way too hot inside to do any of the other fixes, so they will have to be tomorrow jobs ......

T1 Terry

Wel, I am impressed with how well this 6.8ltr V10 goes. To be able to overtake a B double starting at 80km/h behind the rear trailer and doing 120km/h as I cleared the prime mover, effortlessly, 10 tonne, 30 ft long and the frontal aero of a block of flats, it accelerated like a slightly under powered car, not like the truck that it actually is .... fuel economy is tolerable considering the performance, I'm happy with it

T1 Terry

A photo for Dottie

This is the wiring masterpiece associated with the Winnie batteries.
I'm impressed by the number of ring terminals and heavy cable lugs that can be installed using just a battery terminal bolt

I'm still mystified why the installer would think that covering this mess with split conduit would make it look better, but that seems to be the way factory installs go .....

First battery install will be the 600Ah I removed from a customer's A Van last weekend. Both the customer and the expert in this stuff said the battery was stuffed ..... I'm a little ignorant .... well, maybe a lot igorant, and don't really believe the opinion of these experts, so I'll have to be proven wrong ......

More photos and dialog in the next chapter

T1 Terry

That looks pretty standard for the factory Winnebago wiring of the day. Ours is pretty similar except its all mounted on a Kwikee battery slide out tray.

Needles in the eyes today, so further progress will have to wait until tomorrow and it being a bit cooler as well. I bolted all the positives together so it's running the house off the inverter battery charging side, powered from the mains.

You are right about the "Standard Practice" for just about every factory RV builder, there was a battery isolator switch in there as well, for two of the cables, but both cables on the one terminal anyway, so that got removed very early on to avoid shorting to the body, it was just floating on the ends of the cables, not even cable tied to anything

T1 Terry

More photos for Dottie 'cause she wanted to know the stages of the upgrades:

This is version 3 of the cheapy window shades from Temu on the passenger side bedroom awning.
Version 1 the arms disconnected and the whole thing ended up on the roof.
Version 2 the wind ripped the roller ends out of the body and the rollers out of their brackets
Version 3 has the arms cut down and pivot positioned at the half way point so fully rolled up, the arms will fit under the roller. Bungie cord from Bunnings cut to length to create a flexible tie down under the side bin lid .... this one has remained in place for a few mths now, so no more alterations needed till the permanent awning goes up. This is the version 5 at least of cheapie awning from Temu on the passenger side front.
Version 1 had thicker hard rubber insert in the roller end of the awning and threaded into the sail track .... first good wind and it was no longer in the sail track
Version 2 had rope threaded through the awning and through the sail track. This sort of solved the awning pulling out of the sail track, but the wind caused the rope to walk its way out of the sail track over a 24 hr period and end up in a heap at the windscreen end
Version 3 and 4 sort of worked, but anchoring down and moving the arm pivot points and arm lengths resulted in not much shade over the battery box area .... and that was the reason for putting it up in the first place
Version 5 had the shade cloth added and this worked to a degree, certainly reduce the heat inside to the point the air con could cope. This is version .. lost count actually, of the original awning on the Winnie on the driver side front
The original design was useless in the wind and had to be rolled up. The wind just about always comes from that direction, so alterations were required.
Version 2 had the arm pivot point moved up to about the halfway point between the roller and the awning fully extended. This helped with the wind trying to rip the thing off the side, added a series of ropes and then the bungie cords gave it a bit of flex .... till it snapped the end of one of the arms. Once repaired, the wind could stretch the awning fabric enough for the awning arm to fold down against the side of the body ... so another support arm was added, pool noodles over the inner arms to create a wave in the awning so it didn't become a sail, then the shade cloth completed it to a satisfactory, if not rather ugly, operating condition. By this time, how it looked wasn't part of the aim, so anchoring the shade cloth at the front was just bungie cord tied to the bullbar
This is the next step. An 18 ft awning on the passenger side and 20 ft awning on the driver side. The plan is for the awning arms to come up about centre of the front windows and extend the mirrors out to maintain rear mirror vision. There are cameras up each side that provide a better view of just what is where in relation to the Winnie body, so the mirrors are really just to meet legal requirements

Just be careful about the width. Don't go over size. $$$$

jon_d wrote: ↑Sat Jan 25, 2025 8:13 pm Just be careful about the width. Don't go over size. $$$$

I just pulled the bits out of the box for the 18 ft unit The roller is in 3 parts, threading 18 ft of awning fabric through the roller and through the sail track will be interesting to say the least ..... I might bring the 20 ft unit to Taggerty and get the gathered community to help install it ... sort of like a Hamish barn raising

T1 Terry

I'm talking about the allowable vehicle width.

Thank you Terry, now for the inside pics please.