Wednesday, June 24, 2015

Thankful For Things I Did Not Know I Needed

Even though I try to live with my eyes open and my heart heavenward I often miss God's near silent working in various situations of life.Thankfully He keeps working faithfully even when I am oblivious. I am very grateful that He does.

God's Help

I knew God helped me with a task I was working on a few weeks ago but I did not realize how important AND timely that task was. God knew.

I quickly realized I was in over my head on my generator project a few weeks ago. The belt, hoses and coolant really needed to be replaced. As I mentioned the hoses turned into an ordeal and I was racing against time to get it completed before pulling out for Oklahoma and Kansas.

There are months that I use the generator very, very little. If I close revival on Friday and drive 2-3 hours  or even 8-10 hours and set up at another church on Saturday there is no need for the generator. We have air conditioning and heat powered by the engine when we are going down the road. Also the inverters provide for our electrical needs from the house batteries while moving.

Since there are times that we have no need for it at all, I end up running the generator once a month for 3 hours going down the road or while stopped to eat in order to keep it exercised, not because we need it. Most experts recommend doing that to keep it in good shape.

What I Did Not Know

Because of that I almost stopped mid project a few weeks ago and just let it go for the moment. I was having such a hard time finding the correct hoses and I figured I would not need the generator on the next trip so I could finish the hoses and coolant later. Sometimes when I am banging my head against the wall the best thing to do is stop. Banging my head against the wall hurts me!

I am so glad I did not stop mid stream. Because of the problem I described in yesterday's post and in the original post I needed the generator on that trip very badly. If the generator had not been available it is very possible that I would have needed to find an RV park nearby and waited for parts to arrive and go through all the diagnostics there instead of Wichita.

That would have been difficult on a time sensitive schedule. I might have been able to limp 275 miles back home but that would have been bad for several reasons. 

1. We would have driven nearly 600 miles and 10-12 hours for nothing. 
2. We would have had to take the car to Oklahoma and Wichita and stay in motels or cancel the revival. This means hardship for Odie, not taking our sound system and not sleeping in my own bed at night.

3. I would not have been able to pick up the new tent section in Miami, Oklahoma. The center pole will not go in the Green Machine even if the tent pieces would. Lol

4. I would not have been able to place the tent trailer in the right position to pick it up when it is time. I would have had to pull the tent trailer later in the summer from here an extra 1000+ miles plus the 600 wasted miles. Not Good.

God Knew

Because the Lord helped me to pull all the generator stuff back together and get it going I was able to run the generator over 30 hours on that trip. That is way more than usual and about 30 hours more than I had any idea I would need. Also, because it had a new belt, new hoses and fresh coolant I was very confident that it was up to the task.

Praise God for helping me more than I knew I needed. When I take the time to look around I see plenty of opportunity to praise God for situations just like that. I am thankful He knows more than I do.

Look for something to be thankful for today. I think you will find it. Thanks for reading.

Davy

Tuesday, June 23, 2015

The BoggsMobile Adventure Continues

This is a continuation of the BoggsMobile's electrical problems that I documented in this post nearly two weeks ago. My house batteries were receiving too much voltage when a warning light came on a few miles west of Effingham, Illinois.

Jeff Rowe from East Tennessee Luxury Coach told me what to do to be able to finish the trip and we drove 680 miles the next three days with no charge from the alternator. With out his help I probably would have been dead in the water until the situation was fixed.

Jeff concluded from the information I gave him that the external voltage regulator was bad. I mentioned I could not purchase one locally so I ordered one from Prevost and it was waiting on me when I arrived in Wichita. I put it on the next day.

Just for information and my future reference the Prevost part number for my voltage regulator is 563439 and the Delco or Detroit number is 10503805​.


It looks quite a bit different from the 20 year old one. I am told the new one is several generations improved and is a much better regulator. We will see if it lasts 20 years+.



I installed it and it did not solve the problem. That was not Jeff's fault because he did not know a crucial piece of information and I did not know it was important. On my conversion the alternator does not connect directly to the batteries. There is a multi-battery isolator installed between the alternat​or and the batteries with another lead going from the isolator to the house batteries.

Confused? Good.​


When I mentioned that to Jeff he knew exactly what the problem was. It had to be the multi-battery isolator.

When I checked the voltage I had 37 volts coming from the alternator, 37 volts going to the house batteries but only 24 volts going to the chassis batteries. Since 24 is not enough the voltage regulator was doing its job and telling the alternator that more power was needed. The alternator was cranking out more power but that power was not getting through the isolator so the house batteries were getting too much and the chassis batteries too little.​

That was on a Monday I did not have to roll till Saturday. Jeff got an isolator to me and it was a simple install Friday morning. I do have a "24 Volt Emergency Alternator D​isconnect" that cuts the connection between the isolator and the house batteries so with it off and the chassis batteries off the isolator has no voltage. 


The change out was easy. I labeled the leads, took pictures, removed the leads, taped the ends and tied them up out of the way.​ The isolator was fastened to the floor with two bolts with nuts underneath. Both bolts broke on the first turn which I half way expected. (I feel like I am going to break after not moving for 20 minutes and these bolts had not moved in 20 years.) I sent Kelly Jo to the lumberyard for bolts while I finished.


After the new one was bolted in I cleaned the leads and hooked it all back up.​


It was 30 minutes start to finish including Kelly Jo's trip to the lumberyard. It took longer to get my tools out and put them back than to do the job.

The really good news is that it worked. My friend in Tennessee, Jeff Rowe at East Tennesse Luxury Coach pulled my fat out of the fire again! Thanks much, friend.

Thank the Lord for surrounding me with good people that have the knowledge and skills I need to survive my Bus Induced Psychosis.

Davy​

Monday, June 22, 2015

Weekend Wound UP and Weport June 22, 2015



This was one of the first things I saw Friday morning. It is a multi-battery isolator and it is the latest part replacement on the BoggsMobile. I will tell you more about it in a later post. For those that are curious it did seem to cure the problems. Thank the Lord!

We had a great service to finish revival Friday night with at least two people rededicating their lives to the Lord. We sure had a great time of revival at Bethany Revival Center this week and we appreciate all of their hospitality. You can see pictures from revival HERE and we also have several more pictures from Friday at the end of this post.

We bid farewell to our friends Saturday morning, cranked the BoggsMobile and pointed toward the east. I stopped at the Flying J in Emporia, Kansas to top off a few tires, empty the holding tanks and to check on the electrical repairs that I made. We stopped for fuel at Quick Trip in St. Peters, Missouri and a couple other times for a quick break and that was about it.

We pulled into the Flying J in Effingham, Illinois Saturday evening after 539 miles of pretty smooth sailing. It was supposed to be 99 in Wichita so I was afraid it would be a hot day of driving but it was in the 70's when we left early morning and it stayed in the mid 80's as we crossed Missouri in the heat of the day. It was a beautiful drive.

After we were settled we unhooked the car and drove about a mile to the Ryan's here which is also a familiar stop for us. We were all beat when we got back so we cranked the generator and went to bed before dark. I was asleep by 9:00.

Unfortunately I only stayed asleep until 2:00 AM. When I woke up, I knew that I was finished. I laid there until 3:00 and then I got up and worked on several computer and bookkeeping projects as quietly as I could. About 7:00 I stretched out on the couch and dozed until 9:00.

The weather was good again for driving and we were parked in the barn by a little after 4:00 PM.






It was after 5:00 before I was finished hooking up and putting stuff away. I cleaned up and ate a quick bite before walking over to Dodds for service Sunday night.

My parents came over after church for a few minutes and visited. It was good to see Dad on Father's Day.

That pretty much wraps up our weekend. Thanks for reading.

Davy

Pictures from Friday in Wichita.






















It was nice to have our good friend Terry Cummins with us Friday night. It is always great to see him. He works all over the world so we never know where he may drop in.



Kelly and Odie made it to Braum's Friday night without their phones and the space on my phone was full.. Thankfully a few other were willing to share their pictures with us.





Bro. Joe Diminico brought us a bottle of wonderful Torciano olive oil straight from the "old country." Mama Mia! Thanks, Bro. Joe!



Sis. Jenny Small took these next several and sent them to us. Thanks Sis. Jenny.