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Overlander · 10-10-2006, 09:14 PM

Last year when my wife and I went on vacation we took our Jeep wrangler and both motorcycles with us in an 22ft enclosed trailer pulled behind our motorhome. We had no problems until we got into the mountains in North Carolina , then we had overheating issues . As I was sitting on the side of the road waiting for the temp. to come back down I thought"there's got to be a better way".

I thought about it off and on since then and finally came up with a solution. Went to Lowes spent about 70 bucks and came home with the parts consisting of an electric irrigation valve a 120/24volt transformer,some tubing ,toggle switch ,wire and a couple of shrub sprinkler heads. I tied into the back of the faucet that I have in the hookup bay for a water source connected my valve inline then ran the tubing back to the radiator which is on the side. Ran tubing above and below the radiator to approx. half way and attached my shrub heads. Plugged the transformer into and outlet then ran wires up to the dash and installed my toggle switch.

We went on vacation the first week of October 2006(same vehicle setup). When we got the mountains and started climbing, the water temp. started going up . When the temp. rose to almost 200 I flipped the switch on and let it run for about 45 seconds then shut it off . Within a minute the temp. was down to 185! The rest of the way up and over the mountains I turned it on and off as needed and never had to stop and let motor cool down.

I just thought I'd share the idea in case someone else had the same problem.

Overlander · 10-10-2006, 09:14 PM

Last year when my wife and I went on vacation we took our Jeep wrangler and both motorcycles with us in an 22ft enclosed trailer pulled behind our motorhome. We had no problems until we got into the mountains in North Carolina , then we had overheating issues . As I was sitting on the side of the road waiting for the temp. to come back down I thought"there's got to be a better way".

I thought about it off and on since then and finally came up with a solution. Went to Lowes spent about 70 bucks and came home with the parts consisting of an electric irrigation valve a 120/24volt transformer,some tubing ,toggle switch ,wire and a couple of shrub sprinkler heads. I tied into the back of the faucet that I have in the hookup bay for a water source connected my valve inline then ran the tubing back to the radiator which is on the side. Ran tubing above and below the radiator to approx. half way and attached my shrub heads. Plugged the transformer into and outlet then ran wires up to the dash and installed my toggle switch.

We went on vacation the first week of October 2006(same vehicle setup). When we got the mountains and started climbing, the water temp. started going up . When the temp. rose to almost 200 I flipped the switch on and let it run for about 45 seconds then shut it off . Within a minute the temp. was down to 185! The rest of the way up and over the mountains I turned it on and off as needed and never had to stop and let motor cool down.

I just thought I'd share the idea in case someone else had the same problem.

Fossilhog · 10-10-2006, 10:03 PM

Got some photos of that for us? I was wondering about an electric auxillary fan in front of my maze of coolers in the front....

DavidMc · 10-10-2006, 10:43 PM

I remember my mother pumping on the garden-sprayer (old metal version, years ago) to cool down the engine [applying the same technique - an extended hose out to the spray head in front of the radiator].

The only consideration is the mineral content in the water -- over time you may build up scale that reduces the effectiveness of the radiator.

On my website, I have a story of using drip-system misters to cool the trailer - similar problem.

Lorna · 10-11-2006, 11:16 AM

That is a common method folks use for their bus conversions. Our Eagle's radiator is located on the side of the bus so there's not a tremendous amount of airflow when traveling slow. Most use filtered/bottled water.

Ed-Deb · 10-16-2006, 06:04 AM

I have been contemplating the overheat issue after experiencing an OH this summer while climbing a mountain pass.

I was thinking of plumbing a small radiator up front with one or two electric fans. I would think the extra coolant to fill this system plus the travel to and from plus the added radiator would improve cooling.

Unfortunately, I have not gotten beyond thinking about it. Has anyone else done this to their MH?

Would it be possible to put a valve on the cab heater line and run the fluid into a radiator and then back during the summer?

Ed

Bob (WA0MQE) · 10-17-2006, 03:30 AM

I wished I could remember where I saw it, but there was a company that made a cooler similar to what was described in this thread. It used the water from your onboard water tank and a 12-volt pump plus a hose that ran to the front of the radiator. It too had misters that sprayed the water over the front side of the radiator. The water was filtered due to the onboard fresh water filtering system.

Maybe someone else will remember where and who it was.

Joe-K · 10-17-2006, 03:40 AM

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Ed-Deb:

Would it be possible to put a valve on the cab heater line and run the fluid into a radiator and then back during the summer?

Ed </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

That actually sounds like feasible solution to add more cooling capacity. I'm not sure what the water flow volume is through the heater core, but diverting that flow through an additional radiator with a high volume fan surely would dissipate a good bit of heat.

Many owners manuals for automobiles used to suggest that during periods of high engine heat to turn on the automotive heater with the blower on high to increase the engine cooling. Your idea accomplishes the same thing without dumping the heat into the passenger compartment.

Overlander · 10-17-2006, 05:22 AM

wa0mqe:
I set mine up to use the onboard water pump.
I wanted to use a 12 volt valve but the few that I could find were very expesive ,that's why I went with a 24 volt irrigation valve and transformer. To run this I just have to make sure that the pump is turned on and either use the inverter or generator for 110 volt power. If it's hot out I have the generator running anyway to run the roof a/c's

RustyJC · 10-17-2006, 05:41 AM

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by DavidMc:
The only consideration is the mineral content in the water -- over time you may build up scale that reduces the effectiveness of the radiator. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>There's one more consideration. Over time, the dust that's being pulled through the radiator when the water spray is being used will pack the fins with a nice layer of mud.

Rusty