Not a skoolie

[joeblack5]

Probably a two cylinder 15 HP would be better but I do not want the weight or the space.
I am pretty sure the AC of a transit bus with 4ft doors is over designed for my current use.
I also want to eliminate the second alternator, again weight and space.
I am replacing the fl lights with RGB led. I hope that will reduce the required power a little. Also the high power setting on AC fan is to noisy and I will disconnect the wires for that setting.
Will see with a clamp on dc Amp meter how much the alternator has to deliver and if it is in the range of one alternator.

The robin has electric start. Probably leave the AC clutch in place to allow the robin to get up to speed and temperature.
Would be nice to be able to tap in the AC computer and have it modulate the motor rpm. but if not I probably can find the AC high pressure switch and use that so that I do not engage the clutch with high head pressure.

Later J

[cadillackid]

the high pressure switch is usually a binary switch and only opens if the pressure is REALLY high! as in damge-the-compressor high..

you can disconnect the indoor fan high speed (not sure why you would though.. just dont turn it on.. and still keep it in case you do want it).. but dont mess with the condensor fan speeds or you will waste the compressor..

ive no ideas how you system is designed, to know if it cycles the compressor in a normal operating mode or if its designed to be fully TxV operational where the TxV closes down to near nil when the coils are cold enough..

only way to knoqw is run it in marginal weather and observe how it operates before you tear it apart.. get familiar with the number of wires on the low and high pressure switches as well..

cycling clutch systems will want to cycle back in before the system fully equalizes which means head pressure on the hig hside of the system above standing.. if you dont allow it to do so, you will have wild temperature and humidity swings inside the bus.

in both my busses the compressor is desiogned to cycle anytime you reach inside setpoint... even with TxV's on them.
-Christopher

[joeblack5]

Thanks Chris, This is a thermo king lrt-I 1004 with a X430 compressor. I have not been able to find a wiring diagram yet but it has a serious circuit board,... It will select high speed during initial startup to cool the bus down fast. The brushless fan motors have integrated speed control with control wires for low, medium and high. I figure just pull the high speed spade connectors off. ( evaporater side only)

later J

[cadillackid]

if you pull those off and it calls for high fan then you'll have no fan... so it can never make temperature enough then to select a lower speed... surprised you cant force it down.. most of the TK's have a nice programmable elecgtronic controller on them.

this is the sheet that gives you what you need to spin your compressor..
https://www.transarctic.com/media/ma...uYgcRDJx7F.pdf

looks to me like your minimum to get good cooling is to push 7 HP at that compressor.. and belt it down... you'll never spin it at engine rotor speed.. it takes a max of 19 HP to get full capacity and a pretty fast RPM... but you womnt need full capacity.. id spin it at about 1000-1200 RPM compressor speed and see how you do.. with medium indoor fan speed im guessing you'll do just fine in an insulated bus..

the other book I found shows where medium fan speed is 1300 CFM and high speed is 3200 CFM.. alas why its a LOT noisier on high speed..

Love those rooftop TK systems... i wish thats what i had.. most trasit busses run those.. and newer skoolies do too.. I just fixed on recently..
-Christopher

[joeblack5]

Yeah good thinking, thanks, I will add a diodes and connect the high to the medium speed tab. it has a nice controller on it and that might be possible but I do not have the operators manual.
I like to avoid the AC to go in high power mode , do not want to over stress the Robin diesel.

Later J

[cadillackid]

your best bet is just to plan on the robin at a set RPM and then pulley ubnderdrive the compressor to get the max capacity you want.. if you look at those charts you can see what its design horsepower pull is for BTU output.

in physiucs performing work is what ultimately requires power.. so even if its blasted hot in the bus.. if you only spin thje compressor so fast you are only going to move so much heat (perform so much work) you just wont get very cold air if it kicked into high mode or its blasted hot in the bus.. think of your normal car at idle.. and the A/C on a hot-sun-soak cool down sitting in a parking lot vs starting it and taking off where the compressor is spinning faster..

what model and where did you get your robin?
-Christopher

[joeblack5]

The robin came from a broken genset. it is the DY27 and actually 5.5 HP
, so less then my previous mentioned 7 HP . So I will play with the reduction ratio and see what I can get out of it and if that is acceptable.

I estimate that it will get about 30000 BTU nominal to 35000 BTU max out of it. Time and the experiment will tell.

Later J

[cadillackid]

I gotta find me one of those!!
-Christopher

[Rusty]

I have a little Lombardini 2-cyl diesel out of a small asphalt roller, but it's 24 HP, so kinda big for your application. They were in Simplicity tractors, as well.


Here are some manufacturers of Diesels:

List of Diesel Engine Manufacturers

ABC
ACME
ADIM
AEC
Ailsa Craig
Akasaka
Alco
Allen
Allis Chalmers
Allison
Alpha
Alstom
AMC
Andoria
Arrow
Audi
AVL
B & W
Baudouin
Bazan
Bedford
Belarus
Bergen
Beta Marine
Blackstone
BMC
BMW
Bolnes
Briggs & Stratton Vanguard
Brons
Buda
Bugatti Marine
Bukh
Burmeister & Wain
C M D
Case
Caterpillar
Changfa
Changtong
Chevrolet
Chrysler
Citroen
Clark
Cleveland
Coltec
Continental
Cooper
CRM
Cummins
Daedong
Daewoo
DAF
Daihatsu
Daimler
DaimlerChrysler
DEK
Detroit
Deutz
Deutz / Sykes Pump
DGRA
Dimin
DMR
Dorman
ELGI
EMD
Enfield
Enterprise
Fageol Leyland
Fairbanks Morse
Farymann
Federal Mogul
Fiat
FNM
Foden
Ford
Foton
FP
Gardner
GDF
GE Jenbacher
General Electric
General Motors
GMT
Guascor
Hanomag
Hanshin
Hatz
Hedemora
Henschel
Hercules
Hino
Hitachi
Holeby
Honda
Hupeh
Hyundai
International
Iseki
Isotta Fraschini
Isuzu
Iveco
JCB
JICEC
Jinan
John Deere
Kahlenberg
Kelvin
Kilo-Pak
Kingfisher
Kirloskar
Kohler
Kolomna
Komatsu
Kubota
Lamborghini
Land Rover
Launtop
Lehman
Leyland
Liebherr
Lille Crepelle
Lister
Lister-Petter
Lomatec
Lombardini
Lovol
Lugger
Mack
MaK
MAN
MAN B&W
Manises
MarineDiesel USA
MAZDA
Mercedes
Mercruiser
Mercury
Merlin
Mermaid Northeast
Mieler
Mirrlees
Mitsubishi
Mitsui
Motorenwerke-Wurzen
MTU
Murphy
MWM
Nanni
Napier Deltic
Navistar
New Holland
Niigata
NISSAN
Norpro
Northern Lights
Olympian
Onan
Paccar
Pancar
Paxman
Pegaso
Perkins
Petter
Peugeot
Pielstick
Polar Nohab
Poyaud
Prakash
Punsun
Renault
Renault Marine
Robin
Rolls Royce
ROMAN
Rover
RTA
Ruggerini
RUMO
Russell Newbery (RN)
Ruston
Saab
Sabb
Sachs
Same
Scania
Seatek
Sisu
SKL
Skoda Motory
Smit Bolnes
Sole
Steyr
Stork Werkspoor
Sulzer
Super Star
Tata
Tatra
Thorneycroft
Thüringer Motoren Werke TMW
Toyota
Tricircle
Ulstein Bergen
Universal
Ursus
UTB
Vauxhall
Vetus
Vidhata
VM
Volkswagen
Volvo
Volvo Penta
Volvo/VW
Wartsila
Watermota
Waukesha
Weichai
Westerbeke
Whisper Watt
White Motor Corp
Wisconsin
Wiseman Power
Witte
Xinhuan
Yamaha
YAMZ
YANGDONG
Yanmar
Z.F
Zetor
ZSL

[joeblack5]

A water cooled unit would have been nicer but they are also heavier.
Now if I could get some reversing valves in the AC system so that it would become a heat pump..... hm that would be cool , I mean hot.
excuse the nerdy talk.
Other viable low horse power diesel engine are made by yanmar. I have a couple of changfa's and clones but they are cast iron and heavy.

later J

[john61ct]

Within the context of light gas motors, Robin/Subaru have a great rep for longevity, actually Fuji Heavy Industries.

I have a quiet little suitcase gennie, no problems, see them on eBay for ~$600.

Lots of their bare motors go for peanuts now, off logsplitters, garbage pumps, pressure washers, even brand new for under $400.

I believe the company is unfortunately in the process of winding down that side of the business, maybe shopping for a buyer?

[Brasquatch]

Hey there man, I hail from PA as well, were a few hours east in Hazleton. The bus is looking good man! Is that hitch just a piece of heavy duty angle iron bolted there? I also have a rear engine with the skid plated in case of a dip, so I cant hang a hitch low, looing for alternatives to flat tow a mid sized car. Thanks man, and keep up the good work!

[spenceronehalf]

awesome! have fun with it and keep us updated!

[Tango]

Met a guy in Corpus Christi many years back who had built a houseboat out of a seagoing barge. Very cool actually. Especially the two palm trees growing up out of the deck. But what amazed me most were the three, nearly 100 year old single cylinder Perkins that he used as his main propulsion power. They were tiny, cobby little things with massive flywheels but they had taken him around the world a couple of times.

A good diesel is hard to keep down.

[sdwarf36]

Originally Posted by Brasquatch

Hey there man, I hail from PA as well, were a few hours east in Hazleton. The bus is looking good man! Is that hitch just a piece of heavy duty angle iron bolted there? I also have a rear engine with the skid plated in case of a dip, so I cant hang a hitch low, looing for alternatives to flat tow a mid sized car. Thanks man, and keep up the good work!

Bra-You familiar with Weatherly? I come out there and run the hillclimb.

[Brasquatch]

Originally Posted by sdwarf36

Bra-You familiar with Weatherly? I come out there and run the hillclimb.

Hell yeah! It's only a few minutes away! I try to catch it at least one day out of the 4. What do you run?

[joeblack5]

Dory is down at the moment.
We installed a new 24 / 12 battery equalizer and a new starter and tested the engine. All fine, noticed a abs and tranny light coming on. Bus would not move. Shut engine down since it was late and decided to read up on it a little.
Came back a week later. Both batteries dead.
Did and still do not understand why.

Dory has a main shutoff that disconnects both batteries , the 24 and 12 volt circuit. Some fire suppression safety equipment stays on. Not sure about the draw.

As a shortcut I had wired the solar into the fuse panel box so if I would use the main shutoff then the solar would not maintain the battery.
I knew that was a mistake and I should have ran a new wire directly to the battery but ....eh,,,, ehh... I did not.

After the batteries were dead I rewired the solar directly to the battery o have the solar recharge. There is no power where the bus is stored.
Here my second lesson showed up.
The next day the batteries were at 7 volt, 14 volt for two in series.
The charge controllers auto select the battery voltage so they assumed 12 volt.

rewired one battery to solar. Next day other battery to solar . Now both had some charge. Then I put them back in series and reconnected the solar. Success. Charging commenced.

Day three I charged the bus all seemed OK started fine .. but after 20 seconds the abs lights and tranny light and check engine light came on. I glance by chance on the mppt display ..37 Volt.. 37 VOLT, what the .....

Shut engine of. Voltage back to 25 volts.

Now I assume that the voltage regulator is damaged as in full on.

There are two alternator with different regulators.
prestolite leece neville regulator # 8rl3013b for AC system
prestolite leece neville regulator # 8rl3107 on engine.

Anyone has more info on the difference between these?
The engine one only has the battery terminal wire going to it.
The AC unit seem to have a sense wire.

I did not do further testing but assume one of then died and draws full field current all the time.
I hope my warning lights stay of after the high voltage issue is resolved.
Bought two 8rl3013a on fleabay but have not confirmed that the regulator is the problem.

I have now rewired a 2 strings into 2 x12 volt setups to avoid and compensate for a different discharge of each battery in the 24 volt system.

Later J

[cadillackid]

a failed diode in the bridge will definitely cause battery drain.. unusual to see the regulator full on though if a diode failed.. what would turn the regulator full on is if for some reaosn the 24 volt alternator is only seeing 12 volts.. make sure that the solar charge controller didnt somehow end up in the circuit with the alternator and causes a voltage drop on that sense line..

when the key is on and engine off you should be able to check the voltage at that sense wire.. and also the main wire on the other alternator.. just to make sure they match Battery voltage...

-Christopher

[joeblack5]

Yes, you are right, not sure what is happening. I wondered about that too, but the engine alternator does not have a sense wire. The AC alternator has a sense wire but I think it is a separate circuit. The AC was off. An added data point is that the engien alternator was pretty hot and the Ac alternator cold. ( AC was turned off).
I am busy next week in Wilmington NC , installing an EzEddy system at GE. After that i will get to it.

I was thinking regulator failure leaving the field full on all the time. The field would be 5 -8 Amp? That would outdo the solar .

Later J

[joeblack5]

Well after a lot of reading about alternators it seems that 8sc leece neville alternator is a horrible design.
It does not have the integrated field diodes. As a result it always draws about 10 amp field current if field transistor burns out.

Not sure what engineer dreamed this construction but I need to correct this.

Got another regulator and it works except that the field stays on after you turn of the vehicle so after two to three days your battery is empty. I am not even sure why on earth would one make a design like that.


It turned out the original regulator was indeed shorted out resulting it not regulating and so overcharge would and did occur. I hope it did not damage any of the other electronics because it would suck if Thomas allowed an alternator design that could wipe out your allison control and abs control module.

The regulator is potted with resin and sand. I took it apart for curiosity but leece -neville made sure that it would be very hard to mess with their crappy design. I hate these proprietary design safeguards. probably could have been fixed for $2.50 as they do in Mexico.

So i am going to add a diode trio and then go with an external regulator that is not potted. Probably add a shorting relay that blows the alternator fuse when voltage gets above 30 Volts.

This crap is holding me up big time

Later J