Looking for caravanning folk

On Thu, 4 Oct 2007 11:08:06 +0800, "Sandgroper"
wrote in
:

>We live in Western Australia and will soon be doing the big lap. I'd like to
>get advice from other people regarding best times, places, generating power
>etc.
>Cheers, Carmel

Well, as to places, at a start, every place you have never seen
before is a "new place" is it not?

After all, any book, however old, that we have never read before,
is a "new" book.

Any place we have never seen, however old, is a "new" place.

Any information we don't have, from whatever source, is "new
information".

If my last post didn't give you enough info to keep you busy for
awhile, will go on to the next point of "electricity
requirements"

For whatever equipment? IMHO, as a migrant, we both live in one
of the best countries in the world. "Godzone". ["God's own"]

Unless you plan to go to the "Snowy Mountains" in N.S.W. just
what do you expect in power requirements?

If you did, would you want to run a 1 or 2 kilowatt bar heater?

If so, you would have to carry along a rather large power plant
even for this purely resistive load with no power factor.

Were my wife and I were to contemplate a "round Australia" trip
we would get along quite nicely on a 12 volt D.C. supply.

Want to visit a cold area? Rare in Oz, of course! Then wear
warm clothing, or build a fire, if permitted.

Personally, I can't immediately conceive of anything I would
conceivably need in Australia that couldn't be obtained by 12
volt D.C. batteries.

However, were we going on a "round Australia" trip, would be
looking at "deep discharge" automotive batteries, say at
least 300 or 400 amps, in vehicle. A couple of these.

If taking a caravan, a couple here as well. Automatic charge,
switchable discharge.

With 4 such batteries, we would have 1200 amps available
at a nominal 12 volts.

Into a resistive load, volts x amps = watts.

12 x 1200 amps ~ = 14,400 watts.

Theoretical, of course, not actual. There are always some
conversion losses.

However, what are your _real_ needs? Start the vehicle with
jumper leads, or switching? Perhaps 300 or 400 amps at a nominal
12 volts.

But, hey, you have 4 batteries to play with, don't you?

..... And if you cannot start a diesel engine with this on one
fully charged battery these days, you probably have other
problems!

So perhaps call for help on phone or radio? Will take a lot
less power.

What is the fairly obvious lesson from this? Standardise [or
standardize ] on equipment that runs from roughly 11 to
14 volts.

Does it matter if you connect a C.B. or other radio that requires
a nominal 100 milliamps (nominal), depending on the volume
control setting, from a 400 amp, or 40000 milliamp battery?

No, it will take only the current [or amperage] required if the
nominal voltage range is correct. Will work fine.

Suppose you connect a pocket transistor radio that operates at 6
volts, from whatever size battery, across a 12 volt source such
as a car battery? Then you will fry every transistor in it as
well as some other components, and you might as well throw it in
the nearest garbage can.

Suppose it is a pocket transistor radio that runs off a little
rectangular 9 volt transistor battery. Can you run it off
six 1.5 volt cells in series, be they AAA, AA, C, D or even six
400 amp lead/acid wet cells in series. Sure! ... if you get
the polarity right!

Does anyone want to challenge me on this point?

Ah, sometimes I feel like a Rottweiler calling "Here kitty,
kitty,kitty."

....Especially on this group! Do you people want valid
information or not?

Cheers,
Kangaroo16