05-25-2018, 11:29 PM
2004 or so, maybe 5.
I was several hours south of the border in Baja parked on a bluff over a big beach and pretty good surfbreak on its day.
I basically had no emergency fund, and I was there for 5 weeks. I knew I had enough gas to get back to San Diego , as long as I did not drive to the nearest town more than twice, for supplies.
My knowledge of batteries and DC electricity was quite poor back then. I had two mismatched parallelled marine batteries in poor condition as a house bank, and an engine starting battery.
I was using some powertools, a 5 amp jig saw and a 5.5 amp planer, building a hollow wood surfboard. My entertainment, was AM radio, and occassionally I would splurge and fire up the laptop and run its music collection through my stereo speakers. I had no LEDs lights, I did not want to fire up the engine to charge, fearful of using the much needed gas to get back to the USA.
I had a 5 watt harbor freight solar panel that I would connect to my Ciggy plug. No diode, would often forget to unplug it at night.
I was about 3.5 weeks into it when I was running low on Water. A town run was imminent. I fired up the laptop and stereo while packing up camp, and the low voltage alarm on the inverter started screaming.
I was into the music, some other departing surfers came over with the last of the some warm beer that had to be finished for the deposit on the bottles, music got turned up louder, and to stop my screaming inverter, powering my 120 watt(max) sony Vaio, I turned my battery switch to BOTH, parallelling my engine battery with my depleted house bank.
All was well. I finally got everything packed up and tied down and was by that time alone in the general area.
Jump in driver's seat, and the engine fired right up with 3 depleted batteries sharing their cranking amps. My dashboard Ammeter gauge however, rose significantly higher than I had ever seen before. I had and still have a lifetime warranty on the alternator, and this was a recently replaced remanufactured alternator replaced right before I crossed the border, and it did not like being asked to feed 3 heavily depeted batteries.
NOt sure exactly what happened, but as I watch the Ammeter needle abnormally high, I rolled down the electric windows, and this was the proverbial straw. The ammeter went to the other side of center, indicating the batteries were being discharged.
My harbor fright voltmeter indicated 11.1 volts with the engine running, 11.3 volts with it off. Shitballs.
3 basically dead batteries, no charging system, about 65 dollars cash, and in another country, and a very poor understanding of my alternator and charging system, all I really knew was it was not working.
To shorten this story, I got to the nearest town, and got all three batteries recharged to some unkown degree, and was going to try and see if I could make the ~240 miles back to the USA where I could get another alternator under warranty from Kragen autoparts.
I was 10 miles into the trip, closely watching a voltmeter and forseeing being stalled somewhere en route with 40$ in my pocket, when suddenly it started charging again.
I was getting 14.9v or 13.7v with engine running.
Since I still had 40$ left in my pocket and about a 50 mile surplus of gas to get back to SanDiego, I got 13 more gallons of drinking water, drove back to my previous parking spot set up my tarp shelter on the side of my Van and finished building the surfboard staying close to 3 more weeks.
The next weekend when more surfers arrived in camp, I came up to them with fresh barred surf perch fillets, begging for red meat, chicken, a can of Spam, anything not seafood related. I made it back to San Diego fine with some 15 dollars left.
2 to 3 years later I had 130 watts of solar, and a compressor fridge and 3 new batteries, and an MP3 player for tunes rather than a huge wasteful laptop. I had rebuilt much of my van interior and everything was with Baja in mind
That trip showed me how little I actually knew about batteries and their charging, and how lucky I got cutting everything that close, fund and knowledge wise.
When iI returned to Baja after one 14 month absence, when I did the interior rebuild with solar and a fridge, I found that crystal meth had found its way into the small fishing villages near my spot, that my Mexican friends had become addicts, thieves and liars, and my regular spot no longer felt safe amd joyful.
I saw some ugly things, was forced into the presence of dangerous, sketchy people, and after making a few promises to 'help' them the next day, I packed up camp in the dark and left.
I have not returned.
I miss that land, and the good people who reside there, and cry for the good people turned bad by an evil drug that ruined their lives, and countless others.
I was several hours south of the border in Baja parked on a bluff over a big beach and pretty good surfbreak on its day.
I basically had no emergency fund, and I was there for 5 weeks. I knew I had enough gas to get back to San Diego , as long as I did not drive to the nearest town more than twice, for supplies.
My knowledge of batteries and DC electricity was quite poor back then. I had two mismatched parallelled marine batteries in poor condition as a house bank, and an engine starting battery.
I was using some powertools, a 5 amp jig saw and a 5.5 amp planer, building a hollow wood surfboard. My entertainment, was AM radio, and occassionally I would splurge and fire up the laptop and run its music collection through my stereo speakers. I had no LEDs lights, I did not want to fire up the engine to charge, fearful of using the much needed gas to get back to the USA.
I had a 5 watt harbor freight solar panel that I would connect to my Ciggy plug. No diode, would often forget to unplug it at night.
I was about 3.5 weeks into it when I was running low on Water. A town run was imminent. I fired up the laptop and stereo while packing up camp, and the low voltage alarm on the inverter started screaming.
I was into the music, some other departing surfers came over with the last of the some warm beer that had to be finished for the deposit on the bottles, music got turned up louder, and to stop my screaming inverter, powering my 120 watt(max) sony Vaio, I turned my battery switch to BOTH, parallelling my engine battery with my depleted house bank.
All was well. I finally got everything packed up and tied down and was by that time alone in the general area.
Jump in driver's seat, and the engine fired right up with 3 depleted batteries sharing their cranking amps. My dashboard Ammeter gauge however, rose significantly higher than I had ever seen before. I had and still have a lifetime warranty on the alternator, and this was a recently replaced remanufactured alternator replaced right before I crossed the border, and it did not like being asked to feed 3 heavily depeted batteries.
NOt sure exactly what happened, but as I watch the Ammeter needle abnormally high, I rolled down the electric windows, and this was the proverbial straw. The ammeter went to the other side of center, indicating the batteries were being discharged.
My harbor fright voltmeter indicated 11.1 volts with the engine running, 11.3 volts with it off. Shitballs.
3 basically dead batteries, no charging system, about 65 dollars cash, and in another country, and a very poor understanding of my alternator and charging system, all I really knew was it was not working.
To shorten this story, I got to the nearest town, and got all three batteries recharged to some unkown degree, and was going to try and see if I could make the ~240 miles back to the USA where I could get another alternator under warranty from Kragen autoparts.
I was 10 miles into the trip, closely watching a voltmeter and forseeing being stalled somewhere en route with 40$ in my pocket, when suddenly it started charging again.
I was getting 14.9v or 13.7v with engine running.
Since I still had 40$ left in my pocket and about a 50 mile surplus of gas to get back to SanDiego, I got 13 more gallons of drinking water, drove back to my previous parking spot set up my tarp shelter on the side of my Van and finished building the surfboard staying close to 3 more weeks.
The next weekend when more surfers arrived in camp, I came up to them with fresh barred surf perch fillets, begging for red meat, chicken, a can of Spam, anything not seafood related. I made it back to San Diego fine with some 15 dollars left.
2 to 3 years later I had 130 watts of solar, and a compressor fridge and 3 new batteries, and an MP3 player for tunes rather than a huge wasteful laptop. I had rebuilt much of my van interior and everything was with Baja in mind
That trip showed me how little I actually knew about batteries and their charging, and how lucky I got cutting everything that close, fund and knowledge wise.
When iI returned to Baja after one 14 month absence, when I did the interior rebuild with solar and a fridge, I found that crystal meth had found its way into the small fishing villages near my spot, that my Mexican friends had become addicts, thieves and liars, and my regular spot no longer felt safe amd joyful.
I saw some ugly things, was forced into the presence of dangerous, sketchy people, and after making a few promises to 'help' them the next day, I packed up camp in the dark and left.
I have not returned.
I miss that land, and the good people who reside there, and cry for the good people turned bad by an evil drug that ruined their lives, and countless others.
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