Home for a bit....some stats and notes

Let's see, I spent 89 days on the road....returning home on day 90.

Boondocked in 3 states: New Mexico, Arizona and Utah.  Didn't camp anywhere where fees were required.

Drove the VRRV for 2586 miles total.

image source: link

Best location: Valley of the Gods, Utah (assuming you get the primo spot I used)

Worst location (in terms of crowds, and noisy ass wipe types): Moab, Utah.

Expenses pie chart below, doesn't include costs involved with getting new tire, new tubes and repair items for Scarlett as not exactly camping related.

Two weeks long stays in one location key to keeping fuel costs down, but of course groceries costs go up.

26 gallons in Fresh Water Tank lasts about two weeks with normal usage, for one person.  This assumes separate 5 gallons for toilet flushing duty.

Propane usage, assuming no extended cold weather, about 1/4 tank per week.  Mostly used for fridge and cooking.

100 Watt Solar Panel enough to recharge battery given an average drain of 10 Amp Hours overnight.  Angling the panel outside of peak solar hours remains key.  Adding second panel would eliminate the need for angling of panel but then you lose flexibility in terms of panel placement when under trees and such.

Cost of camping was $27.49/day out

of which $8.69 for food

The surge in gas prices due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine didn't help things of course.  I still find it ironic that Utah gas prices are an average of 50 cents higher than in the Metro Denver cesspool area.  It's a sad state of affairs that I was happy to find the cheap gas for $4.15/gallon!

Now, time to prep for the next camping trip.....

Review: Tourmaster's Synergy 2.0 Heated Gloves

This week, the folks at motorcyclehouse.com came through with my first item to be reviewed.  It was a pair of Tourmaster Synergy 2.0 Electrically Heated Textiles Gloves with a single heat controller.

Link to information on the gloves.

The fit of the gloves, always an iffy thing when ordering things online, was nice and snug; the way you'd want them to be when buying gloves.  Their sizing chart was accurate at least when it came to my hand size.

The gloves are made in the gauntlet style where they're designed to fit over the ends of your riding jacket sleeves.  The gloves even come with a waterproof  extension sleeve of sorts, extending from the end of textile gauntlet to prevent water from coming in via the gauntlet I think.

The gauntlet style at first caused me some issues as I am used to wearing gloves over which I can zip up the ends of my riding jacket's sleeves.  Once I got over that, all was well.

The wiring harness was easy to hook up to my motorcycle's battery and was color-coded and pretty straightforward for the most part.  It only required a brief glance at the accompanying user manual to figure things out and less than 30 minutes later, my motorcycle was wired up and ready.

The wire harness leading from the rheostat heat controller to the gloves is inserted into the sleeve's of one's riding jacket and I didn't find it too cumbersome, though I still loathe wires for the most part.  Note: These gloves, per the user manual, draw 24 watts of power.  There is a temperature sensor that keeps the glove's temperature consistent.

The gloves are also nicely lined with 40 grams of Thinsulate, and the website says the gloves have 100 grams of Polyfill, making them pretty warm gloves without the power being on.  The heat is provided by flexible steel fibers woven into the glove.

Some things I found out as I tried these gloves over several commutes:

1.  You have to remember to hook up the gloves BEFORE you put either one of them on.

2.  You have to remember to hook up the heat controller to the wires in your jacket and then to the red connector on the motorcycle AFTER you start the motorcycle, otherwise a power surge could damage the heating elements.

3.  Don't forget to unhook the heat controller from the motorcycle when you arrive at your destination or get off the motorcycle enroute.  If you forget, the connectors should come apart, preventing you pulling on the part of the harness that is hooked up to your battery, or worse, pulling the motorcycle itself!

source: LINK

Heating Capacity: B-

All the trial commutes were done on a '86 BMW Airhead R80 with no windshield or hand guards, the gloves fully exposed to the wind.  The alternator on this motorcycle puts out only 280 Watts.

In above freezing temperatures (my commutes never got warmer than 37°F and I didn't turn on the heat when temperatures were above 40°F on the way home from work.  

The gloves felt warm at first, and this was at their Max setting by the way.  They never really felt very hot and by the end of the 45 minute in above freezing wind chills, my hands and fingers were fine but starting to feel the cold slightly.  

In below freezing temperatures, the lowest temperature was 26°F during these trials, the gloves didn't do as well.  Given a wind chill factor that approached 5°F at times, the gloves kept my hands mildly warm at the beginning of the 45 minute commute but towards the end of the ride my hands were starting to get chilled; and my fingertips were beginning to tingle with the cold.

Grade for heat: B-.   I kind of expected the heat put out by the gloves at the max temperature setting to be uncomfortably hot and it never even got close.  Sure, without the heat they put out, my hands would have probably been icicles after only a few minutes but that was my experience.

Fit and Finish: A.

The textile material was nicely crafted and sewn together, nice snug fit and once I got used to the gauntlets, they went on just fine with minimal hassle.

The wiring/connectors are well put together, color-coded for easy identification of function and should be long enough for any type of motorcycle.  They connect together very snugly and securely, requiring a mild pull to pry them apart from each other.

The heat controller comes with a plastic clip to enable you to clip it onto your riding jacket for ease of use and to monitor the red LED that tells you the system is on.  The controller has six settings, with the first being off and sixth being max output.  I only used #6 when riding.  The manual says the gloves should have been putting out 163.4°F of heat, I didn't feel it.  

Some tests:

Using the motorcycle's onboard battery, engine NOT running, ambient temperature 58°F in garage.

Low after 5min 80°F
High after 5min 95°F

Using a 180 Amp Hour Marine Deep Cycle Battery:

Low after 5min 86°F
High after 5min 105°F

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Hooked up the system to my 2011 URAL Patrol sidecar rig with its 700 watt capacity alternator and went for a ride with the ambient outside temperature of 52°F.  Note: My URAL has a full windshield which  blocks most of the wind chill from the gloves.

Low after 5min 85°F
High after 5min 95-100°F (barely).  

This to me was evidence that the temperature sensor was indeed regulating the heat output as the manual states that in the High mode, temperatures can reach 163.4°F, but the sensor prevents that.  I am guessing here, but I don't think the sensor will permit the heat to exceed much above 100°F.

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The gloves came with a tag stating they used Rainguard technology, using a waterproof yet breathable barrier to keep a rider's hands dry.  To test this, I submerged my gloved right hand in water up to the wrist, for fifteen minutes, my hands remained dry.  Water was absorbed as I could wring it out of the glove, but the water didn't reach my hand.

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As stated before, I rode with the gloves turned on, in ambient temperatures well above freezing (52°F) and while my hands felt warm, they never overheated or sweated.  I guess that's proof that the waterproof barrier allows excess heat to exit, as claimed by the product literature.

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Overall, these gloves should be a nice option for folks who ride in mildly cold weather and don't mind dealing with wires while getting on and off their motorcycle.  Tourmaster, per the user manual, warranties their stuff with a limited warranty for three years.

Based on my personal experience, these gloves probably won't be enough when riding in below freezing temperatures for long periods of time, but then again, there's so few of us known to do this.  I'll add to this review next time there's snow riding to be done in sub-freezing temperatures while on the URAL sidecar rig.

Total Loss Ignition System installed.

Took me about an hour or so once I collected all the stuff and tools. Easy.

I bought yesterday a 125 Amp Hour Marine Deep Cycle Battery at Walmart, a pair of battery cables and a plastic storage box; got out of there for less than $120. Not too bad.

Assuming the figure I've read online of a Ural normally using 8 amps/hr, I should have with a fully charged battery about 15 hrs of riding time in terms of range before I have to recharge. Since I plan to run with the headlight on (it's the law here), we'll see what actual ranges come out to.

Cleaned up trunk, ready for install

Here's the marine battery in the plastic box I bought for it, all wired up

A closeup of the exit point of the battery cables to the motorcycle's small battery

View of motorcycle's regular battery, hooked up inline with the marine battery

Here's what you'll see when in traveling mode

Battery box with cover on, note the vents for battery gases

Yeah, it takes up some room in the trunk but the peace of mind I am hoping it'll give me in terms of not having to deal with another failed alternator should make it worth it. The battery weights 68lbs so it's ballast with a useful function!

The box is anchored to the bottom of the sidecar with a couple of steel bolts with locknuts and washers to help spread the load.

Now, to wait for the new timing gears to get here so I can put them on and reassemble the engine parts I took out.

Update: Researching the matter still, but have decided for now to isolate the smaller battery to prevent it from being "deep cycled" along with the large battery. It'll be the onboard "spare" which gets me perhaps 20 Amp/Hrs or maybe 2 hrs of riding time w/ headlight, probably 1 with headlight on.

Shopping for voltmeter to monitor the battery as well. Thinking also of wiring a switch into headlight circuit so I can cut off headlight when running low on juice.

Update: Small Battery isolated. It'll be the onboard spare. Just have to rig up some quick disconnects so I can isolate either battery easily.

Update: A very informative link to an article written by Ed Paynter who has been running a TLES system for over two years and over 35,000 Km! LINK

Update: 22FEB10:  Today I bought a second 125 amp/hr battery, same as the first one and hooked it up in parallel to the first battery.  Why you ask?  Because I've learned a few things using my TLES system.  Yeah, the 125 amp/hr will do what I want but to get the range I want, I have to drain it down to 10.5 which is full discharge.  This is bad even for a deep cycle battery, which turns out you're not supposed to discharge below 20% which correlates to 11.6 volts!  See chart below:

I ran my power usage requirements and desired range/operating hrs by the folks at a couple of places who sell deep cycle batteries and the consensus was I should be running a 255 amp/hr battery based on these requirements:

8 amps/hr usage (headlight on), and run it for a max of 12 hours run time.  I did not factor in amps consumed by the electric starter since it's hard to quantify without an ammeter.  Suffice to say, I use kickstart whenever possible (which means after the fifth kick or if I am in a hurry).

By hooking up a second 125 amp/hr battery in parallel, I retain 12 volts for the system and about 250 amp/hr of capacity.  I've tracked usage with the headlamp on and gotten about 200 miles range and drained the battery down to 10.8 volts.  I am hoping for about 400 miles and still be at 11.6 volts or above with two batteries.  We shall see.

My new TLES setup, yep, lost a lot of space in the trunk.  But can still fit all my tools!  I foresee a large ammo can bolted onto the side of the sidecar in my future though, for more lockable storage if the above arrangement works out as I hope.