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Speaker 1: You have done? What's more fun than listening to Ron

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Speaker 1: and any in the Car Doctor and getting that car fixed? Right?

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Speaker 1: Eight five five five six zero nine nine zero zero.

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Speaker 1: Give Ron a call? Now back to Ron. Let's let's

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Speaker 1: go over to Ann in Arizona and welcome to the

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Speaker 1: Car Doctor. You're on at eight five five five six

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Speaker 1: zero nine nine zero zero. How can I help?

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Speaker 2: I have a well. I bought a blue Eddy charger

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Speaker 2: one d C D D C charger, poked it up

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Speaker 2: to my van. I love it. Excited that I don't

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Speaker 2: have to sit in the sun for seven hours and bake.

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Speaker 2: Will my solar panels work? But I'm hearing rumblings from

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Speaker 2: not reliable sources that if I sit and idle my

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Speaker 2: vehicle only and not drive it, that it will burn

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Speaker 2: up or ruin the alternator. But that made no sense

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Speaker 2: to me.

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Speaker 1: Well, tell me again, what years this vehicle that we're

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Speaker 1: that you're.

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Speaker 2: Driving twenty twenty three pro Master fifteen hundred cargo van, Okay.

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Speaker 1: And you're trying to power what.

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Speaker 2: My power station and your power van.

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Speaker 1: And your power station runs what?

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Speaker 2: It's all kinds of things. I can make coffee, I

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Speaker 2: can run my pressure cooker. I can you know, charge

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Speaker 2: my case press?

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Speaker 1: So, so is this is this a convert This is

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Speaker 1: a converted van.

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Speaker 2: Well not really just converted. I converted it. But yeah,

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Speaker 2: I live in it. I travel, I vacation in it.

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Speaker 1: Yeah okay, So so in other words, you took a

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Speaker 1: you took a standard twenty three RAM van and you

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Speaker 1: made it into a into a van conversion so you

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Speaker 1: can live in it. Yes, okay. What I'm getting at

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Speaker 1: is and and'ok back up a second. And to use

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Speaker 1: this d C to d C converter, which a d

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Speaker 1: C to d C converter is basically taking electrical energy

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Speaker 1: from the charging system and using it to Usually it's

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Speaker 1: it's it's done to charge on auxiliary battery or some

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Speaker 1: other you know device, but you're using it as a

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Speaker 1: central power point in the vehicle.

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Speaker 2: I am not what I am doing. So I hooked

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Speaker 2: it up really easy, and when you turn on the

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Speaker 2: you turn on your vehicle, it waits like thirty seconds,

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Speaker 2: so it doesn't take any kind of charge from your

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Speaker 2: battery to start your vehicle. Then it kicks in. It's

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Speaker 2: hooked the DC chargers hooked only to my power station.

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Speaker 2: Other than the positive and negative that you hook up

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Speaker 2: to your battery.

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Speaker 1: Okay, and what the and your So what's going to

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Speaker 1: come down to is, first of all, what's what would

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Speaker 1: be the maximum draw of the chart of the power

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Speaker 1: station under under any condition? How much? How much will

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Speaker 1: it actually require to operate everything you've got going on.

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Speaker 2: I'll tell you one thing that you cannot run your charger. One.

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Speaker 2: You cannot be charging your power station and have anything

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Speaker 2: plugged into it. You have to charge it and then

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Speaker 2: turn it off or it goes off naturally with and

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Speaker 2: then you can plug your things in. So there's no

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Speaker 2: crossover there.

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Speaker 1: So why can't you just charge your power station using

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Speaker 1: a cigarette lighter?

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Speaker 2: It's not strong enough. It's actually burnt it out within

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Speaker 2: a few months. And it's only a twelve book so

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Speaker 2: I think it was a cheap Japanese you know, cigarette

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Speaker 2: lighter thing, right.

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Speaker 1: But so, so this power station is just a portable

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Speaker 1: power supply, correct.

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Speaker 2: It is a video man fifteen hundred watt portable. I

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Speaker 2: can take it anywhere, okay.

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Speaker 1: And in order to charge it, you've got to leave

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Speaker 1: the vehicle running.

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Speaker 2: Obviously, either you leave the vehicle running or you charge

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Speaker 2: it with solar panels.

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Speaker 1: And how long does the power station survive. How long

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Speaker 1: will it last?

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Speaker 2: I guess it depends on what you're a number of years?

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Speaker 1: Yeah, no, no, no, no, no? How long before? How

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Speaker 1: long before it has to be recharged? Oh?

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Speaker 2: It depends on what you're running? Right? For example, this

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Speaker 2: morning I was using my instant pot and it took

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Speaker 2: twenty percent of the you know, no big deal.

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Speaker 1: Right, And so your question revolves around whenever that power

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Speaker 1: station runs down, can you sit in the woods idling

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Speaker 1: for extended periods of time without damaging anything?

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Speaker 2: Correct? And I hadn't. Even the Blue Eddy people and

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Speaker 2: the Dodge people I talked to say it's not going

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Speaker 2: to but they were real iffy about it. So the

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Speaker 2: question that my friends are saying, no, you can't just

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Speaker 2: idle your vehicle. You have to drive it otherwise it's

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Speaker 2: going to affect the alternator. But that made no sense.

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Speaker 1: Well, okay, so and let me say this. If we're

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Speaker 1: going to have excess of idling on this vehicle, because

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Speaker 1: there's a couple of concerns here in now, I got

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Speaker 1: what we're trying to do. If there's excessive idling, all right,

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Speaker 1: you've got to be very diligent about your other maintenance

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Speaker 1: oil changes, making sure the cooling system is working properly

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Speaker 1: as the vehicle ages, and you know several other factors.

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Speaker 1: Just stay on top of your maintenance. Extended idling. You know,

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Speaker 1: there's a reason on emergency vehicles, police cars, ambulances, firefighting equipment.

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Speaker 1: If you looked around under the hood, the cooling system hoses,

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Speaker 1: for example, are a different color. They're green or they're red,

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Speaker 1: depending upon the manufacturer. You know, that's because of the

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Speaker 1: high heat conditions that idling under the hood creates. So

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Speaker 1: you know, not just not just the alternator, but everything

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Speaker 1: else has to be taken into account. Okay, So that

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Speaker 1: being said, what I would do is take it to

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Speaker 1: your well. I guess you don't have a local, trusted

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Speaker 1: mechanic because you're traveling all around the country. I would

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Speaker 1: take it to a shop that understands electricity. And I

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Speaker 1: say it like that because not all of them do.

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Speaker 1: And I would plug in your power station, leave the

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Speaker 1: vehicle at idle, and do a draw test how much

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Speaker 1: how much current is being pulled out of the alternator

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Speaker 1: while you're sitting there idling for an extended period of time.

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Speaker 1: And they could they can do that test using either

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Speaker 1: a clamp on amp meter, an inline meter. Let's find

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Speaker 1: out what's and and that's that's where I come back

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Speaker 1: to what's the maximum this unit's gonna draw? All right,

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Speaker 1: And then we can sit and say, all right, if

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Speaker 1: it's drawing. If it's a fifty amp unit and it's

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Speaker 1: drawing forty four amps, but it's pulling a smaller portion

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Speaker 1: of that out of the alternator, but the alternator is

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Speaker 1: one hundred amps and it's only pulling thirty that's a third.

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Speaker 1: I'm not overly concerned about that. If it's if it's

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Speaker 1: one hundred amp unit and the alternator is rated at

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Speaker 1: one hundred amps and it's pulling ninety five, yeah, you're

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Speaker 1: going to shorten the life of your alternator because you're you're, you're,

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Speaker 1: you're ninety five percent peak power most of the time

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Speaker 1: sitting there at idle, and then you've got to worry

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Speaker 1: about how hot that alternator is going to get. The

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Speaker 1: other thing that comes into play here is modern vehicles

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Speaker 1: have smart charging systems. They react to electrical load, so

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Speaker 1: the computer turns the alternator on and off based on demand.

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Speaker 1: So that's a plus in your favor. It's got very precise,

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Speaker 1: very good control. But until we know how much is

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Speaker 1: being extracted out of the alternator, until we measure it

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Speaker 1: against what's the alternator's rated output, it's a hard question

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Speaker 1: to answer safely. Does that make sense?

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Speaker 2: Total sense? And thank you so much. I think I'll

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Speaker 2: err on the side of caution and only do the

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Speaker 2: charge you want.

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Speaker 1: I'm driving, yeah, and there I don't see an issue.

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Speaker 1: And maybe when you get it serviced one day, it

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Speaker 1: wouldn't hurt to know, Hey, how much does this unit

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Speaker 1: actually draw? And then at least you know what you're

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Speaker 1: up against and maybe you can change things around. Enjoy

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Speaker 1: your adventures on the road and have a great time

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Speaker 1: and be safe. I'm on an aid in the guard doctor,

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Speaker 1: I'll be back right after this. Don't go away and