2nd Road Test Trip - ice climbing in Ouray ! - Feb'23

A high five to the 1st person who spots the climber !

1st winter trip for the Transit. Lake City Colorado, Beer Garden area

Another great trip, this time in Winter to test the beast further. And a fantastic break from the last 4 months spent on the new battery / BMS / shower / heating systems... 😅

So how did each element fare ?

 

the Ford Transit

 

No problem starting the engine after a -6°F (-21°C) night at 8.000' (2400m), without even using the engine block heater.

 

And very good traction in the snow, despite being only RWD. 100s of pounds of battery / bed / electricals on the rear axle help a bunch, I suppose.

However, AWD (all wheel drive) is essential to drive on the barely snowplowed Camp Bird Mine road above Ouray that leads to the climbs in the mountains. Don't have that $5000 option in this van... Santa Claus are you listening ? 😁

The 3.5L PFDI V6 had a hard time though at 10.000' with 5% grade and a van loaded with climbing gear and buckets of candy (muscle power!).

The 10 speed gearbox is poorly set up for that. 7 speeds are spent just getting up to 40mph, and there's only a 250rpm difference between 9th and 10th at 60mph. Good for hauling cargo in town, but not optimal for trips in the hills. And that's with the 4.1 rear axle ratio. Thank heavens it's not the 3.73 model... Fortunately we're in no hurry on the road, beats any day in the office 😂

Of course, the Ecoboost 3.5L Twin-turbo Intercooled V6 would have fared much better. But I can't imagine the gas guzzling, maintenance and reliability nose dive... No thanks, I'm with Paul Junior on this one ! 

 

The bad ? The louder-under-load noise from one of the cylinder valves that I was hoping would disappear after the break-in period. Will have to check each valve's play to find the culprit. What the hell, Ford, your factory can't nail that out of the gate in this day & age ? 😠

the new Camper Van Amenities

Well, how to say that without egg on my face ?

Yeah, everything went flawlessly except for... the new build additions 😅

 

But first, on a positive note, being able to lock the sliding door only halfway open was great ! In sub freezing outdoor temps, limiting the massive warm air loss when the door is open while putting boots on and grabbing backpacks or gear made a big difference.

[insert pic]

Also, the shower system worked great. It was an absolute treat getting a hot shower after a day on the ice ! The whole sliding / collapsing concept worked wonders. And the Camplux 1.3 gallon 110v 1400W water heater was surprisingly speedy, heating cold water up to scalding hot in under 5'.

However, draining the pan took ages. Will have to improve that. Might radically change the location of the whole drain pipe / pump circuit, as surmized in the shower build post

Ok, but how about space heating, and dancing all day in our underwear ?

Well, how about half frozen bananas / food cans / drinks ? I.e. anything semi liquid in the drawers nearest the cold floor... Hopefully, switching to a gasoline heater will change that.

 

A temporary 110V 1400W heater was used to get enough oomph, as found out in the 12V Space Heater post. Concretely, after a 2°F (-16°C) night without heat, it took an hour to get from 35°F (1°C) to ~63°F (17°C). Not too bad, but that burns through ~15% of the 18KWh battery's capacity, as reported by the Victron Lynxshunt.

So, turning on the heater just in the morning and in the evening for 1 hour consumes 30% on very cold days. Worse, maintaining 68°F (20°C) all day, and 50°F (10°C) all night, would likely gobble up 40%. The 18KWh battery would be done for in 2 to 3 days... 4-ish when paired with the 10KWh 'Summer' battery.

Despite the careful insulation and the no-stack-effect-leaks build philosophy, the capacity draw is more than I had intuited.

What happened ??? Well, a couple of things probably:

• More than 1400W is actually drawn from the battery when running the heater, due to additional losses that become non negligeable when pulling ~100A on the 12V side: inverter, cables, fuses, shunt, BMS, battery cell's internal resistance
  

• But, most of all, I remember discarding some of my napkin math that hinted that 12,000BTU (3700W) was needed to get 70°F (20°C) in an 11 x 6 x 6' van space with an R value of 2 in -5°F (-20°C) weather. Instead, my guts told me that since a 1000W heater can heat a huge room at my house in -15°F weather, a tiny van space should be a no brainer. Math be damned. Right ? Well, a room is not exposed to the weather on all 6 faces...
  

Math wins over guts. Any day. All the time. Should have internalized that by now. What, with all these faceplants...

 

And that's when it hit me, how flawed the premise for this all-electric build was !

I had not run the math for various energy strategies against the initial goal to lower my carbon footprint from living in a van. Had jumped straight to an all-electric build, without estimating 'how much gas is needed to lug around a 360lbs 18KWh pack ?'.

Well, the 1100 miles Ouray trip yielded ~19mpg (12.4L/100km) [need a last refill to confirm], i.e. 58gal (220L). Since 360lbs is ~4.5% of the van's weight, and taking into account the hilly terrain & average speed, it probably contributed a couple of % to the consumption. That'd be over 1 gallon (3.8L). For 2-ish days of heat in very cold weather.

Now, a 7000BTU (2KW) webasto-like gasoline heater running non-stop at full power consumes less than a gallon of fuel in 24 hours. Which would likely translate to 4 to 5 days of comfortable heat in very cold weather.

Yeah, no brainer... Not only would long cold winter trips become possible, but also with more comfortable temps, and less fossil fuel use in the end thanks to the massive weight gain. Oh, and the van would be nimbler in the hills !

Schweine aus der Hölle, what a dingbat...

So, now looking for a high altitude ~2KW gasoline heater. Well, not many of those out there outside of the Webasto at $1500, and the Espar + Transit kit at $2100. Hmmm, the $150 chinese diesel heaters look tempting... Might have to modify them a bit though (pump & settings) to handle gasoline and high altitude.

Oh well, more posts coming I guess 😂

the Trip !!!

Come on, who cares about your abysmal failures... how did the TRIP actually go ?

That's how:

Morning snow on the Great Sand Dunes

Great Sand Dunes, Colorado

Beer Garden climbing area, Lake City, CO

Blue Mesa Reservoir, CO

Deep South section, Ouray Ice Park

Had a blast ! Should have built a camper van 20 years ago 😂

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>>> next post:  High Altitude Gasoline Heater for Camper Vans ?

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