NEW PROJECTS AND GOODIES IN THE PIPELINE……
Note from Steven Gibbs, Director: Look, this is not a sales pitch on any of the gear I am telling you about here, but I have had a few people ask that new gear coming down the pipeline might be posted for peoples own planning purposes, so here goes... And I will update postings from time to time.... Only in terms of helpful information....
LED Lights: We have been playing with LED lights during all of 2004, are building a new 22' Show Van due out in Feb-March 05, with all flush mounted swivel eye lights in the Halogen format only with bright white LED's and they only burn a measured .055 amps.... Theoretically we can run 15 of them for only about 3/4 of an amp total.... A major power savings. We are going to see just how they actually work to determine amounts and placement of the lights and then if satisfactory we will offer them in Production... What has held us back was the quality of the light, and the blue tinge is now replaced by brilliant white and the price has come down to affordability…
Own new Show van will have two large LED truck backup lights under the awning as well, for awning lights. No more worries about turning them off at night, as they burn so little power. They are currently very expensive, and I will be the first to trial them for future optional equipment. Hopefully the price will come down soon and make them more affordable. Currently they are a bit expensive at about $150 installed. Our new van will also test a new bar or strip LED lighting system… Should be interesting. We are going to try and develop a retrofit capability for those that want to convert over for the power savings. The power savings difference with normal usage in a larger van, can be about equal to the power used by the refrigeration, it is quite significant.
Diesel Hot water service and combo unit with forced air heating: This is just in the pipeline now, from the Webasto heater people, and it will be a combined diesel water heater and forced air heater in one unit. We will hopefully have the first one operational by March and be able to give some reports on it… . STAY TUNED…..
Vacu-Flush Toilet: There are some serious advantages to this unit besides just the China bowl. The vacuum- flush system means that there is far less odour in the ensuite as there are no chemicals and the holding tank is mounted elsewhere. It does not work with all layouts, due to a limit on the run of the waste line to the canister, but we have it available now.
Air Bag Suspension: Not that our normal suspension is not up to the task, it has stood the test of time and evolved to be extremely reliable for eight years now.... But, due to requests, we have developed a full load sharing independent with air bags....
The Load Sharing Full Air-Bag Independent Suspension with heavy duty 1.2T airbags and heavy duty shocks, is now available, and may be desirable to some for these reasons:
1) Adjustable ride to suit different road conditions.
2) Less weight, a savings of about 50 kilos….
3) Side to side levelling with ball valves.
4) Ability to lower height to store in a shed.
5) Additional air compressor on board, with 20' lead to pump up tyres..
New Solar Regulator:
We now have what is probably the best of all of the Solar Regulators we have ever seen, in the new 40 amp one we have had developed. It is much more friendly in operation, with LED lights in a variety of categories of information, and a rolling 5 sec readout of everything, and an audible alarm....
Ours has it in a simple format of 5 sec rolling readout:
· Amps in from solar,
· Load out from batteries,
· Battery voltage,
· and LED lights for "Load off"
· Critical Alarm,
· Boost enable,
· Solar Charging,
· System run,
· Battery conditions "High voltage, Battery normal, Battery medium, Battery low, and Battery Low disconnect.. "
Ours also has all of the new solar technology like PWM Pulse width modulation, where it stores up small trickle charges to pulse in higher values to the batteries where the small trickle would normally get wasted by the resistance in the batteries at very low amperage.. Also programming selection for type of batteries, Load on/off, and alarm reset. It is a top bit of gear.
New Batteries Available: The newest technology Hybrid AGM with German A-200 Gel
The Absorbed Glass Matt (AGM) batteries are the latest technology. They, like the German Gel Cells, also take the Solar input about 10% better than the normal deep cycle batteries. The reason is the normal deep cycle batteries have such heavy plates (so they don’t crash on the corrugation), which takes the 240 Mains charging alright but burns too much of the soft solar charge to excite the plates enough to begin accepting a charge… This is called “warming the plates” and means that the thinner the plates, the easier the charge is accepted and the less that is wasted… But if the normal deep cycle batteries had the thin plates with the liquid electrolyte, they would fracture and fall to bits on the rough tracks.. The German Gel Cells can have many thinner plates because they are packed with Gel, and the Absorbed Glass Matt Batteries are padded with the AGM. Now, the latest Technology is using the German A-200 Gel in the AGM batteries. We have imported these now, German A-200 Gel in a Hybrid AGM, and our initial tests have been very impressive. They have taken extreme abuse in our tests, and held up well. We have them in Stock now, in 100 Amp Hour sealed Hybrid AGM with German A-200 Gel.
New single independent suspension 16’ option:
We now have a single suspension, for a 16’ van so that the wheel boxes do not interfere with a very nice island bed layout… It works well, for those with smaller Tow Vehicles that do not have the capability to tow a larger van, as it took an 18’ minimum to get the island bed layout done well with our Tandem Independent Load-Sharing suspension.. Now it can be done in 16’. We still do not recommend the single suspension, for the six reasons posted on our Website at www.
bushtracker.com which involve off-road superior ability, better brakes, and better on road highway safety, in the Tandem form…. However, for some with the smaller Tow Vehicles, the island bed layout is more important, and here it is! 16’ with an island bed, front cargo holds, and full ensuite!
