We made a trip to Sol Duc Hot Springs on the Olympic Penisula this weekend. It was clear and cold with frost at night and a perfect occasion to test the Propex heater I just installed (bought last year in the group purchase). We were all snug in bed and asleep when a beeping alarm brought us to our senses. I installed a CO alarm and a gas alarm to detect propane leaks when I installed the heater. Panic attack! What's beeping? Should we evacuate? Confusion reigned until I came down from the top bunk and determined that the beeping was coming from the inverter, which was detecting a low-voltage condition. Shut it off, beeping stopped and we went back to sleep. Sometime later, I have no idea how long, more beeping woke us up. This time, both the CO and the gas alarm were beeping to indicate a low-voltage condition. Since the 12V supply for the alarms was wired into the feed for the heater, I had to pull the fuse on the heater and we were without heat for the rest of the night and morning. I do have an aux battery, but it's either tired and weak and/or wasn't fully charged. I'm going to install a small trickle charger and maybe an additional aux battery so this situation doesn't happen again. Mark McCulley 87 syncro Westfalia |
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