RVers Are the Best!

[monik7]

Of course we all agree with the title of this post, but I’d like to tell you a story of how I experienced it firsthand yesterday and today. When I arrived at the first CG on my current trip last Sunday, I noticed there was no readout on the controller of my solar system and the panels were not charging the house batteries. I had no hookups at the CG and had planned on having the solar do its job. I could get along without the solar, but as some of you know, I’ve had a couple problems since getting the system. The worst part is I get so upset when something doesn’t work. Story of my life and I can’t seem to get rid of the anxiety these things cause. The main worry was what would happen when I get home and put my rig in storage. Since there’s no electrical there, phantom draw would deplete and damage the batteries (a problem I had last fall when one solar panel died). Yesterday I arrived at Valley of the Rogue State Park in southern Oregon. As luck would have it, my site is right next to one of the Camp Hosts. After hooking up and still worried about what to do about the solar, I went over and asked the host if he knew of an RV repair service or RV solar installer in the vicinity. Immediately he and his friend who was there suggested why didn’t I ask the other Camp Host, Bill, just across the drive because he had installed his own solar system in his Class A. They immediately got on the phone and called Bill and within a couple minutes he was standing beside me. He came over to my rig and after looking around, he proclaimed it looked like a fuse had melted the plastic tubular protection that was surrounding it. He checked everything with a meter. The solar power was coming down but nothing was going to the batteries. He guaranteed me if he went to the local Napa store and got a replacement of better design, my system would be up and working. So this morning he got the replacement and came over with his tools to solder it in place. Immediately the control panel lit up and the solar was charging the batteries. Hallelujah! Instant anxiety disappearance. As a thank you I talked him into letting me take him out for dinner tomorrow night.

Such is my verification that RVers are the best! I plan to pay it forward in an appropriate fashion soon.
Sandi

[Bethers]

Wonderful!

[OregonLuvr]

Glad you got all fixed up. I always think RV'ers are the best. Always try to be so helpful or informative. I am now camping up at Rising River in Roseburg, Waiting to hook up with Laura on Saturday and then we will head over to the coast on Monday. Cant wait to see you again.

[JudyJB]

I agree 100% about campers being the best! I have gotten emergency help a dozen times, even when I did not ask for it. I am lucky to have a son who lives in Napa because he provides me with a couple of bottles of "emergency wine" every time I visit him. (He gets a lot of his wine from auctions and his father-in-law who used to work for Gallo and still has access to the employee's wine room, so they get good wine very cheaply.)

Anyway, I wrap the bottles up in bubble wrap and stick them in a drawer so they don't get too hot while I am traveling. When someone does something nice for me, I pull out a bottle and wrap it in tissue paper as a thank-you.

About four years ago, I was on a hike in the desert down a canyon. The trail was mostly washed out, so I was hopping from rock to rock, except one time my "hop" was mostly a slide, and I ended up sitting in a dead bush with an even deader cactus in it. As I was sitting there trying to figure out how to get out without getting more thorns, am older couple walked past. The husband pulled me up, and the wife pulled out two-inch spines from my rear end through my shorts. They were tent camping and traveling on a motorcycle. Mostly, they were eating stuff that did not take up much space, like peanut butter sandwiches and cheese, so I left them half a loaf of homemade banana nut bread at their campsite just before I pulled out.

Unfortunately, I forgot to have them take photos of me in the cactus to record the event.

[avalen]

What a nice story!!

[monik7]

Sheila made an important comment about this fuse issue in my other thread about Avenue of the Giants.
************************************
snowball wrote:
Really pretty Sandi...glad you are out and about and that the solar is working
you might ask him if he can hazard a guess as why it melted that would have me
concerned...enjoy your trip
sheila
*******************************************
There was a clear plastic cylinder the width of a finger that held the fuse inside. It was not one of those flat fuses. He thinks the cylinder was perhaps one to be used with a 20 amp fuse. However, the fuse was 30 amp so probably the difference damaged the outside cylinder. It was melted in such a way that the fuse could no longer be taken out if it had to be replaced for some reason. The replacement he got at Napa was a completely different design with no plastic cylinder on the outside and held a standard 30 amp flat fuse. At least that’s what I understood from his explanation. If it’s true, that means Solar Bill’s made the mistake that caused the overheating of that cylinder. Guess I’ll never really know for sure.

This is a picture of the damaged outside cylinder. The fuse is inside. The melted part is to the left of the yellow part. He said normally the fuse could be taken out of the end but couldn’t because it was deformed by heat.

This is the replacement.

Sandi