An unscheduled stop

While Dwayne was driving this afternoon, the inverters started giving an error message - one indicated "Hi Bat" and the other "Lo Bat" (or, that is what I thought I read). I got them both turned off, and Dwayne found an exit ramp. We also saw that the voltage on the engine and coach batteries was higher than it should be.

Blurry picture taken while still traveling (Dwayne was driving!) - shows DC Volts for Coach and Engine to be quite high. The Alternator Amps had been at about 100 (1/3 of the way from the center 0 to the 300 on the right) the whole day - it looks like it was still at about that value in this picture.

We found a nice place to stop (a business that was closed for the weekend but had a nice gravel parking area), called Jimmy, did some debugging, and decided on a way forward. Dwayne and I tried adjusting the charging output of the regulator but could not determine that we were having success (it kept on giving the same reading when we measured the voltage from the alternator post to the negative post on the battery), so we decided to remove the regulator relay.

A nice place to stop if you have to work on the bus on a Saturday afternoon! The only thing that would have made it nicer is if we had pulled in from the other side so we would have been working in sunshine.

We have essentially been traveling without a working alternator since we got the bus, using the coach batteries to start if the engine batteries weren't charged enough, so we're proceeding in that way.

The blessing I am seeing in this so far: there is SUCH an array of gauges and switches on the dash of the bus - from the beginning, I have been overwhelmed with knowing what to look at and what values are ok and which ones are a concern. The problems we had with the air pressure a few weeks ago have made me cognizant of that gauge and its meaning and what values are ok and not. Now I am better aware of the "Alternator Amps", "DC Volts Coach", and "DC Volts Engine". I'm thankful to have the opportunity to learn about each along the way - though I have to admit I would be happy to learn without there being problems associated!!! Experience is a great teacher, though!