Tuesday. 1810. Tom Price Caravan Park. Feel like I’m cheating being here, but the common sense approach is to be here. No point driving the 110 kilometres back out bush without the inverter working. So here I am plugged into a power pole in the Caravan Park so I can draw 240 volts of power. The inverter being one of the most important things one can have out bush….. So day not wasted. Plugged in at the library in town and got busy researching quality inverters. Had advice from two mates and ended up running with a Victron number. 800 Watts. A$550. Service of the guys down in Perth excellent at WA Solar. One of the big challenges you have out here is all the crap advice that gets bandied around. There’s so much chaff that it’s incredibly tricky to sift for the wheat. A professional fishing mate of mine who is incredibly switched on suggested Victron and now I’m hoping that it can be here for tomorrow so that I can get back out bush. So that occupied part of my time. Before leaving camp I pulled the inverter apart. The fuses were fine and there was no sign of burn marks from the smoke I saw he other day. I checked the fuse up near the battery and that was cactus. So grabbed another one in town and tried banging that in. Well, it might have been a day late, but I got my very own sky show inside the vehicle. There was more smoke than the Challenger disaster. Yeup. Inverter definitely cactus. Hence the working of the phone this morning to identify and then locate an inverter that could be up here by tomorrow. Days in town come with an opportunity cost potentially. Next stop batteries. My yellow Optima Gel battery under the bonnet is nearing the end of its life. Again, a crap purchase from people that should have known. Relatively durable product but storage capacity only 66 amp hours which is far below what I need for the second battery. I’ve got a third battery now which has been fitted under the vehicle and waiting to be wired in. That’s 120 amp hours. Because everything has to work so hard out here I need both charging capacity, charging speed and also storage capacity. And that’s before you start talking about product quality. The fridge is pulling around 160 amp hours out here at this time of year. Assuming that it’s working 23 hours a day and pulling 7 amps an hour. Throw in around 30 amp hours for lap tops and phone chargers and other gear I have running. That’s about 190 amp hours every 24 hour period. So I run 280 watts of solar panels which bang in about 16 amps an hour for eight hours. The rest of the time I’m moving or parked elsewhere waiting for storms. So I’m banging in around 128 amp hours from the solar and probably 40 to 60 amp hours from the alternator. So what battery to buy……. One that will withstand the extreme heat out here at this time of year in the engine bay. One that will withstand the extreme corrugations out here. One that has high storage capacity. Preferably around 110 to 120 amp hours if possible. Deep cycle obviously. So internet is tricky unless you know where to go, but I did that and got some great material back. Get on the phone and start working the battery suppliers. What a waste of time that can be. Blokes dedicated to selling a product rather than a solution. Spoke to one guy in Melbourne. “Where’s the Pilbara?” he asked. I said: “That’s the place that’s keeping all your lights running.” “Oh, we’ve got coal down here doing that.” Didn’t bother with that line of discussion too much more. Was good to know that he didn’t even know what bloody State it was in. So we talked batteries. I told him my needs. He then proceeded to recommend an Ultimate AGM battery. “How will that go under the bonnet?” I asked. “No worries” he said. “Look mate. I’ve been told that much crap these last few years. I’ll do some research first and get back to you” “No worries”. At which point I get on their website and scope it out and the first thing it says is “Not suitable for fitting under the bonnet”. I wasn’t too annoyed. This has been par for the course these last few years. Everyone has an opinion but most know stuff all. A bit like tyres. Most know absolutely bugger all about what tyres and profiles work in this country. Even the tyre guys up here dont know bugger all. Im pretty confident with the tyres Im running. The Rio guys are only getting 8000 kilometres out here on a set and Im getting 12,000 kilometres in three times rougher country. Were running similar pressures: around 30. But getting the batteries and input charging right is a hugely expensive part of this type of work. But by the end of the day I’d made good progress and am about to start a chunky bit of reading from someone that I trust very much on this stuff. Just wish people would go back to a focus on quality and giving good advice rather than trying to sell crap stuff from China that gives them an income but that lasts ten minutes. The sugar fix that everyone seems to crave these days. Earlier in the day I’d spoken to some very dear friends up here that lost their pet dingo a few days ago. That animal meant the world to them. Was like a child. Was treated better than royalty. It made me sad to hear them so upset. Shattered was perhaps the better word. Those that will know who I am talking about will understand how devastated they are. The first time I’d ever heard my mate cry. One of the old-time tough Pilbara bushman that never shows any sign of weakness. Slight potential for a storm here in town tonight. If so, might head to the top of Mt Nameless and see what’s on offer.
Posted on: Tue, 27 Jan 2015 10:38:56 +0000
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