Wanderlodge Gurus - The Member Funded Wanderlodge Forum - Technologies

RV Cooktop/Heater Combo that runs on diesel fuel. Made in Finland...

Sat, 20 Aug 2016 23:33:31 +0000

https://www.scanmarineusa.com/products/stoves
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XgrcYmQ0cRA
http://www.wallas.fi/index.php?id=117

I'm just curious....
Does anyone have experience with these products in a RV setup or Marine environment?

I saw these on a Expedition Portal - Forum "Build -Thread."
A truck camper builder in Red Deer, Alberta is using them in his campers.
The build is very high quality and this cooktop/heater product
is very interesting. They are made in Finland & use very little fuel.

Camera.. Throw it...Follow me.

Sun, 14 Feb 2016 15:55:22 +0000

And I thought a dash cam on my Roomba was cool

https://www.youtube.com/embed/4vGcH0Bk3hg?rel=0

SpaceX Falcon 9 Launch and Landing

Tue, 22 Dec 2015 16:43:13 +0000

This is exciting stuff:

Detroit Diesel

Sat, 31 Oct 2015 23:32:57 +0000

Hello Everyone!

My name is Brian Stanton. I am the Sales and Marketing Manager for American Fleet Inc. We are a Detroit Diesel Engine Specialist located in Springfield Missouri. We have been in the bus engine re-manufacturing business for over 35 years. We are a entertainer and charter bus repair facility that only works on buses! Our mechanics have been with the company for more than 20 years and are "seasoned" bus mechanics that know there way around a bus engine.

We build the engines (with Genuine Detroit Diesel parts) at our facility and ship nation wide. We also offer installations at our facility as well. We offer towing if a trusted mechanic is not available in your area.

We build each engine to your engine serial number and ship 3-4 days once we receive your order. We are saving our clients an average of $8,000.00 to $10,000.00 per engine versus any local Detroit Diesel authorized shop. We also carry Detroit 2 cycle engines as well.

Please checkout out our website link below, and visit us on Face Book for pictures from our daily builds for coach and charter bus companies that come to us for installation. If anyone has questions, please feel free to contact me at your earliest convenience.

Thanks
Brian Stanton
American Fleet Inc.
417.865.4420
417.234.7334 (cell)
http://www.americanfleetinc.com

eMachineShop

Fri, 04 Sep 2015 15:19:11 +0000

This is pretty cool: www.emachineshop.com. You can download their free CAD software, design your part, place your order, and receive your custom made doodad in the mail. Has anyone here tried it? NFI

Tesla's Powerwall

Tue, 05 May 2015 17:33:13 +0000

The Tesla Powerwall is a nifty package but unfortunately it's not as well suited to our buses as I was hoping. It's rated at 10kWh which equates to 833 Ah at 12V at a price of $3500 which looks good, but the continuous power output is only 2kW. (A paltry discharge rate of C/5). Not nearly enough for my two 4000W Xantrex inverters. I'd need four Powerwall's to satisfy my bus's needs. Two is reasonable, but four? It's a very nice form factor which would fit beautifully in my basement bays, even two would easily fit, but four? And, four really kills the price point. It appears Tesla has surrounded it's hi-tech Li-Ion battery pack with sufficient electronics to choke the power delivery. Their rationale is most likely to prolong battery lifetime and cycles. Pretty much they want to meet their 10 year warranty.

Tesla Powerwall Specs.JPG (Size: 79.63 KB / Downloads: 1002)

Solowheel

Sun, 05 Apr 2015 23:04:59 +0000

Had Easter brunch at the Biltmore Estate today. Some of the guests were scooting around on these things:

RUNFLATS--need a sample wheel

Sat, 07 Mar 2015 03:35:36 +0000

Hi.
I have researched a runflat system that not only holds the tire on the rim like a Tyron system, but almost maintains the rolling diameter in the event of a blowout.
By preventing the drop to the rim, control should be significantly better especially for IFS. I can explain if requested.
The attachment has the information.
I will order the system but the company needs a Alcoa wheel to design the custom runflat. Then the system will be available for all 365’s
Obviously, I do not want a spare wheel.
Can anyone help find a wheel?? Short term loan or damaged?

Please let me know.
Thank you,
Ross MacKillop
2006 Bluebird Wanderlodge 450 LXi
rmackillop@gmail.com

http://www.rodgard.com/mobility.htm#

Lithium Iron Phosphate (LiFePO4) Batteries

Thu, 18 Dec 2014 15:59:50 +0000

I've long stayed away from Li+ batteries because of the cell balancing issues, the cost, and the risk of thermal runaway and fire. I'm now revisiting the idea and I see that a technology that's been out for a handful of years has incrementally improved Li+ battery performance. Lithium Iron Phospate, LiFePO4, batteries are thermally stable, they don't seem to require complex and dangerous balancing circuitry; however, in lieu of balance circuitry programmable smart chargers may be required. LiFePO4 batteries can safely and reliably handle 5C of current delivery or charge, they don't require charge voltage temperature correction, power densities are around 2X's an AGM, they offer 80% DOD versus AGM's 50%, virtually no Puekert loss (virtually no voltage sag at discharge), and they can be cycled multiple thousand times offering a longer effective lifetime. The list goes on. There's no question that Li+ is an improvement over lead acid.

The problem I have is... They still suck! For instance, the Li+ specific energy measured in Mega Joules per Kilogram of battery weight is in the 0.30 to 0.80 MJ/kg range. The specific energy of a log of firewood is 16 MJ/kg! Yikes!

The energy density, measure in MJ/liter, is around 1 to 2.5. The energy density of diesel fuel is 36 MJ/L! It takes 36 times the volume to deliver the same energy! Double Yikes!

We can applaud Tesla for making huge but incremental (if that makes sense) strides in battery technology, but their latest battery innovations in the Tesla S improved battery specific energy from 0.436 to 0.475 MJ/kg over that in the Tesla Roadster! And, they're making headlines over this improvement. Still a factor of 33 less than a log of wood!

I know they make it work in the cars and they are fabulous, but this slow pace of battery development isn't anything to hoot and holler about, and taking the risk and expense of going from bad (AGM's) to slightly better than bad (LiFePO4) just isn't worth it for me. We need a quantum jump in battery technological development, not incremental evolutionary steps with pain at every junction.

Sad Day: Minecraft sold out to Microsoft

Thu, 11 Sep 2014 01:04:54 +0000

Sad... unless your name is Markus "Notch" Persson!

If you have young children or grandchildren chances are you know something about minecraft. It's a game that was created by Mojang about 3 years ago. It was an independent (Indie) effort with a lot of community support, feedback, and suggestions on how to improve it and make it better. My 3rd grade son was soon hooked as were most of his classmates. He has a minecraft server running on a pc and often hosts his friends in minecraft play. Minecraft is a building block game. Players build elaborate buildings and cities and populate them with people, pets, and more. It uses low resolution video but it's rich in ore's, minerals, and a host of building materials. It has a component called "red dust" which is like electricity. Gamers can build articulating red-dust powered circuits like elevators and cannons. There's a wealth of mods, plugins, videos, and texture packs available, much of it community driven. It offers a lot of creativity. Well, today Mohang announced an agreement with Microsoft for the purchase of minecraft. Minecraft as we know it is dead; long live minecraft!

Diesel from Natural Gas

Tue, 01 Jul 2014 14:28:11 +0000

We'll see it someday in the US; today there are only five plants operating globally. In any case, looks like there will be plenty of economical diesel fuel for our buses for a long time:

http://www.world-gtl.com/index.html
http://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.cfm?id=15071

ALERT: Check Those Blue Ox Towbars !

Mon, 24 Mar 2014 14:51:42 +0000

All:

For everybody using the Blue Ox Tow Bar System, especially the aluminum ones, check them.

Coming into Waycross, Georgia last week, my 20 yo aluminum Blue Ox suffered a broken left arm. My toad, a 2001 Honda CRV "attempted" to pass me on the right. I was inside the city limits moving in traffic at about 30-35 MPH. The toad never separated but did cause minor damage to the right bottom rear of my rear coach bumper. I was able to pull over into a large parking lot. The broken arm was snapped half into with the stump dragging on the pavement.

I had to leave my Toad in Waycross and drove on to Perry, Georgia. So happened the FMCA Rally was going on there and Blue Ox had a team there. Called them and within two hours they brought me a brand new steel one.

The techs recommended replacement or rebuild on their products ever 8-10 years and periodic maintenance every 6 to 12 months.

As reliable as Blue Ox tow bars are, we become complacent and take them for granted. The techs did suggest that for big coaches and toads, don't use the aluminum product.

THEY WILL BREAK AND ON THE HIGHWAY AT HIGHWAY SPEEDS, ONE'S TOAD MAY SEPARATE AND CAUSE DAMAGE, INJURIES AND FATALITIES.

DON'T LET THIS HAPPEN TO YOU!

Rhubarb Battery

Fri, 10 Jan 2014 01:00:42 +0000

Rhubarb Flow Battery for Renewable Energy Storage.

CLASS®, or Compressible Liquid Adaptive Suspension System

Thu, 14 Nov 2013 17:31:21 +0000

These guys offer a twist on ping tanks (auxilliary reservoirs). They tune the suspension resonant frequency and damping in real time by proportionally altering a rate valve between the suspension and the ping tank. The other twist is the use of a "compressible liquid". Seems a little light on details... It reminds me of the old Citroen hydropneumatic suspension, but that design used nitrogen pressurized spheres for progressive compressibility. No such gas in this system.

CLASS®, or Compressible Liquid Adaptive Suspension System

Cambridge Crude

Mon, 04 Nov 2013 01:06:34 +0000

MIT's Semi Solid Flow Cell Batteries: Cambridge Crude.

Excerpt:

Another potential advantage is that in vehicle applications, such a system would permit the possibility of simply “refueling” the battery by pumping out the liquid slurry and pumping in a fresh, fully charged replacement, or by swapping out the tanks like tires at a pit stop, while still preserving the option of simply recharging the existing material when time permits.

The new semi-solid flow batteries pioneered by Chiang and colleagues overcome this limitation, providing a 10-fold improvement in energy density over present liquid flow-batteries, and lower-cost manufacturing than conventional lithium-ion batteries. Because the material has such a high energy density, it does not need to be pumped rapidly to deliver its power. “It kind of oozes,” Chiang says. Because the suspensions look and flow like black goo and could end up used in place of petroleum for transportation, Carter says, “We call it ‘Cambridge crude.’”

Yury Gogotsi, Distinguished University Professor at Drexel University and director of Drexel’s Nanotechnology Institute, says, “The demonstration of a semi-solid lithium-ion battery is a major breakthrough that shows that slurry-type active materials can be used for storing electrical energy.” This advance, he says, “has tremendous importance for the future of energy production and storage.”