Born Free Leap'n Lions RV Club Info & Discussion Forum

I know I should ought to start a new topic, but I enjoy reading all of your notes so much I thought I would stay right here.

A/C while driving: use rooftop and run generator? or just the dash a/c? We are driving to OK and then I am driving alone to NM.

My generator doesn't work so I just run the cab AC.....when it works. It crapped out on me last year and I had to recharge it. Hope it holds for this summer.

In general, we just use the cab air conditioner while driving. It seems to keep the cabin cool enough while driving. If it is still hot when we stop, we run the roof-top air conditioner. Of course, we have never traveled in, say, Arizona in July!

The dash air in my 2003 Ford E350 chassis works just fine when traveling down the road.

Bill

The people at Dodgen informed me that there is absolutely no problem in using the generator while driving down the road, thus using the roof air unit. We have done so only once, when my cab air stopped working during a miserably hot day in the SW, and used the generator and roof air as cooling source until the cab unit was repaired.

Using the dash air is more efficient if everyone is in the front of the motorhome. If you do run the roof air without the dash air, set the dash control to off to reduce the warm air flowing through the climate control system.

We just got back from Mammoth to San Clemente, CA. Driving thru the desert on 395, the temp outside was 96'. The dash air kept even the sleeping area cool on our 2004 BFT. The wife was on the bed taking a nap and had to cover up. I'm impressed with the insulating factor on the Born Free. Can hardly wait to get going again.

This topic reminded me of an experience a couple of years ago that you might file under 'Good to know'. It was 114 degrees on the BF's thermometer and we were going north on I5, climbing that long grade toward Mt. Shasta City; the AC was on and the radiator fan was howling. I was monitoring the oil temp on the Scan Guage and since I was in a hurry to get home I was letting the oil temp dictate our speed. We were hovering around 55 mph with the oil temp at 240 degrees when the AC compressor turned off. When the oil temp went below 240 the AC came back on. The dashboard guage did not indicate a problem and there was no idiot light so I'd take that to mean we were still operating within normal limits. However, what's 'normal' for Ford is well beyond human tolerance The dog house was quite warm as was the floorboards over the exhaust pipes and it was a very hot ride. We have a 2005 diesel and your model may operate differently. It may be helpful to know that under load your AC may temporarily turn off.

We have not yet had a reason to run the generator to power the roof AC. When it gets hot enough, we will without hesitation. Moab this July might be enough to do it. It seems that half of our trips include snow but not necessarily by our preference.

Mike, I appreciate your AC cutoff info at 240 oil temp. Our Ford dashboard temp gauge is pretty much an idiot light in that it never varies from the center position after our diesel is warm. What else do you monitor with your Scan Gauge?

cmeadows wrote: Our Ford dashboard temp gauge is pretty much an idiot light in that it never varies from the center position after our diesel is warm. What else do you monitor with your Scan Gauge?

I'd rather have the idiot light - at least it lights up and get's your attention when you need it.

Our cruise control has a lag between its initial throttle command and the actuation of the throttle. By the time power is applied it's lost too much speed and it often downshifts and floors it to catch-up. This yo-yo operation is interpreted by the 'smart' transmission as increased demand and it goes into aggressive driving mode where it routinely downshifts at 70% load instead of 98-99%. I would estimate the impact of running in passing gear vs OD to be ~3 mpg difference at the same load.

If I let the cruise control have its way in hills and mountains our average is 2-3 mpg less than manual control. I use the scan gauge primarily to monitor power/loading which gives me a relative indication of where the downshift point is on the transmission. As long as I'm not holding back traffic I will allow my speed to slip down to around 45-50 mph before downshifting. And we typically cruise at about 62. This gets us about 12+ mpg overall.

I'll monitor transmission oil temp on mountain roads when there's lots of shifting but the Ford has always operated well within normal. I also use the scan gauge's speedometer when monitoring loading so I don't have to look in 2 different places. And, I often have a monitor set to show me average trip mpg. If we're getting low on fuel and looking for a diesel station I'll monitor the fuel left in the tank. I like the scan gauge - but I'm a techno junkie. It is difficult to set up. (You have to use it's unique hexadecimal machine code.) It would be so much easier if it had a setup pgm that ran on a pc with a usb interface. It is also wildly inaccurate when at maximum demand at highway speeds but I rarely do this and its only for a few seconds when I do (i.e., passing).

Mike

Mike,

Thanks for the Scan Gauge monitoring tips and your logic behind the tips. I agree with your driving style and often shed speed on uphill climbs when I can do so without holding up traffic. I'm moving a scan gauge to the coach for a few weeks and have yet to set it up with the custom diesel settings. So far I've really enjoyed having the tachometer and load percentage displayed. I need to get the transmission fluid, engine oil and coolant temps programmed.