No April fools here....

 7:40 am - Tuesday - April 1st - TWW - 41° F, humidity 49%, wind 13 mph out of the west by southwest.....partly cloudy today with a forecast high of 53° F, and a low of 30° F.  On this date in 2017 TLE and I were having coffee at Cafe Dolce in Solvang, CA.....

It's been about a week since I completed the installation of the two new Cloud Energy Lithium batteries, and it was time to remove and replace the old Blue Sky Charge Controller with the new Victron MPPT 100 I 30 Bluetooth enabled charge controller.  The old Blue Sky charge controller is located in the right front corner of the coach next to TLE passenger seat, and that space is not conducive to old 75 year old bodies contorting themselves to fit and work without some difficulty.  Granted, there were only two screws affixing the old charge controller to the wall, and four screws holding the four large gauge wires (two from the solar panels, and two from the battery bay) in place, so how hard could it be?  Well, as it turned out, it was not that difficult at all.   I think TLE spent more time moving stuff out of the way that she stores there when we're stationary, than I spent making the changeover.....

The new Victron charge controller installed

.....one of the reasons I chose Victron is they offer Bluetooth, which enables me to monitor the state of charge from anywhere on the property.  Full charge on the Cloud Energy batteries is considered to be 14.2 volts.....right now (this morning before the sun has fully risen, they are at 13.36 volts with 81 watts of solar input.....that input will rise steadily throughout the morning as the sun rises into the sky to just under 400 watts.....

....the old Blue Sky charge controller was about twice the size of the new Victron.....

.....and for the first time in 13 years the Blue Sky digital monitor has gone 'dark'.....

.....to check the state of charge with the old monitor I had to be in the coach to read the display, now I can check remotely, and that is a big deal for us.  In all it took me 30-40 minutes beginning to end to make the switch, and another 15 minutes to download the Victron Connect app, and set the charge parameters.

TLE and I spent the balance of Monday moving some of our stored clothing (we have garment bags in the trailer with our extra/seasonal clothing) into one of the closets in the 3 bedroom house, and some other stuff from the trailer to the garage.  Our trailer will be much, much lighter when we hit the road in a few weeks.  Counting the weight of all the stuff we have removed from the trailer and Newell, and stored in the garage I would say we are down close to 1,000 pounds.  Just removing those two flooded cell 8d batteries probably saved over 300 pounds, plus we won't be hauling the Bluetti battery bank (three batteries weighing in a just under 300 pounds) back to Likely. We will be taking the Bluetti that powers the trailer, however.  Plus we won't be hauling the pancake compressor, or fireplace with us....they will stay here.  We have access to an air compressor in Likely, if we need one, and we cannot have wood burning firepits there, either, so no point in carrying around that extra weight, right?

Life is good, and that old, familiar 'hitch itch' is beginning to rear its head.  It has been a wonderful winter here at TWW with much accomplished, and still much to be done, but it is time to be moving again.  There is no sense of urgency here at TWW, and we just do what we're able to do each day, and let that suffice.  We're making great progress, and just living life in the moment.

Thanks for stopping by!