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Topic: New Owner of 1979 Lazy Daze - Looking for owners manual (Read 6 times) previous topic - next topic
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New Owner of 1979 Lazy Daze - Looking for owners manual
Yahoo Message Number: 127149
Hey everyone! I just purchased a 1979 22' Lazy Daze. It looks like there is a lot of great info here. The 79 needs a little work so I just wanted to see if anyone had an owners manual that they wouldn't mind copying. I'm totally new to the RV world and am not really sure how everything works so I'm just looking for some insight on the basic operation of the power system. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks, Kyle
Re: New Owner of 1979 Lazy Daze - Looking for owners manual
Reply #1 –
Yahoo Message Number: 127176
I sent to Kyle a scanned Manual from my 1992 Mid-Bath.
 If anyone else would like a copy, just email me directly and I'll send the pdf document back. HillFamily55 at earthlink. net (remove the spaces).

It is 94 pages, so I wouldn't print until you're ready.

Hope that helps,

Tessa in TX (going digital) '92 MB- Ciao Baby!
Re: New Owner of 1979 Lazy Daze - Looking for owners manual
Reply #2 –
Yahoo Message Number: 127178
Kyle.. I forgot to pop you a note yesterday but I'd love to see some pics of your new rig.. I've got an '85 and would be interested in comparing what changed in those 6 years..

Make sure your rig is water tight.. Hopefully it was taken care of better than ours which had some termites and dry-rot due to water leaks.  I've got most of it under control at this point but more work to do..
Re: New Owner of 1979 Lazy Daze - Looking for owners manual
Reply #3 –
Yahoo Message Number: 127188
Quote
Kyle.. I forgot to pop you a note yesterday but I'd love to see some pics of your new rig.. I've got an '85 and would be interested in comparing what changed in those 6 years..

Make sure your rig is water tight.. Hopefully it was taken care of better than ours which had some termites and dry-rot due to water leaks.  I've got most of it under control at this point but more work to do..
I'll get some pictures of it today. There are a few spots that I noticed that will need to be repaired where the water got in but I don't think it will be too bad. Another question I had was what type of house batteries should I use? I understand that it comes with 2 6 volt batteries. Do I need to use 2 6 volt batteries or can I use a single 12 volt battery? Maybe a deep cycle car battery? Just want to make sure I get the correct ones.
 And thank you everyone who has helped with the manual. Its been a huge help!
Re: New Owner of 1979 Lazy Daze - Looking for owners manual
Reply #4 –
Yahoo Message Number: 127189
Quote
I'll get some pictures of it today. There are a few spots that I noticed that will need to be repaired where the water got in but I don't think it will be too bad. Another question I had was what type of house batteries should I use? I understand that it comes with 2 6 volt batteries. Do I need to use 2 6 volt batteries or can I use a single 12 volt battery? Maybe a deep cycle car battery? Just want to make sure I get the correct ones.
Since our '83 only came with one 12V coach battery, it seems unlikely an older rig would have had the 6V pair. You would need to locate yours and see what it is and determine if there is room for an upgrade. If there is room for a pair of golf cart batteries, that would be the desirable approach.

Steve
2004 FL
2013 Honda Fit
Re: New Owner of 1979 Lazy Daze - Looking for owners manual
Reply #5 –
Yahoo Message Number: 127192
Quote
I'll get some pictures of it today. There are a few spots that I noticed that will need to be repaired where the water got in but I don't think it will be too bad. Another question I had was what type of house batteries should I use? I understand that it comes with 2 6 volt batteries. Do I need to use 2 6 volt batteries or can I use a single 12 volt battery? Maybe a deep cycle car battery? Just want to make sure I get the correct ones.

Since our '83 only came with one 12V coach battery, it seems unlikely an older rig would have had the 6V pair. You would need to locate yours and see what it is and determine if there is room for an upgrade. If there is room for a pair of golf cart batteries, that would be the desirable approach.

Steve
Hi Steve,
 My problem is the LD didn't have a battery installed when I got it so I don't know what it originally came with. Judging from the wiring connections it looks like it was a single battery but the connections are too small for a standard car battery. Do coach batteries have different connections than car batteries? What are the benefits of having two golf cart batteries vs. a single coach battery?
Re: New Owner of 1979 Lazy Daze - Looking for owners manual
Reply #6 –
Yahoo Message Number: 127194
Quote
On 07.12.2011 12:17, tailgunnermedia wrote: "  My problem is the LD didn't have a battery installed when I got it so I don't know what it originally came with. Judging from the wiring connections it looks like it was a single battery but the connections are too small for a standard car battery. Do coach batteries have different connections than car batteries? What are the benefits of having two golf cart batteries vs. a single coach battery?"

Our '85 has two 6v batteries that are a little smaller than the 12V vehicle battery.. The cables on ours are fairly heavy duty and the two batteries sit in a wood tray with a single hold-down to ensure they don't move.  I believe two 6v batteries can provide more usable current than a single 12V battery if you can pull that off -- at least that's what I recall..
Re: New Owner of 1979 Lazy Daze - Looking for owners manual
Reply #7 –
Yahoo Message Number: 127199
Quote
My problem is the LD didn't have a battery installed when I got it so I don't know what it originally came with. Judging from the wiring connections it looks like it was a single battery but the connections are too small for a standard car battery. Do coach batteries have different connections than car batteries? What are the benefits of having two golf cart batteries vs. a single coach battery?
The starting battery needs to supply up to several hundred amps of current for a very short period of time. That is the reason for the very large gauge cables. The coach battery typically supplies much lower currents, unless powering a large inverter, so LD uses much smaller gauge - typically 8 or 6 gauge. If you upgrade alternator, converter, and intend to run high-current appliances such as large inverters, then you should likewise upgrade the wiring.
 The standard battery for your application would probably be a group 27 deep-cycle/marine battery of about 105 A-hr full charge, designed to run a trolling motor. These typically do not well tolerate a true deep discharge, but will last many years if used conservatively. I.e., do not discharge often below 70% of full charge, recharge fully as soon as possible, and keep the electrolyte level up. Many on this group accomplish this using solar panels, which can top off the batteries daily in sunny weather. To handle longer periods without sun, or longer stretches between charging sessions, you might see if you have space to locate a pair of 6V batteries in series, which will give you about 220 A-hr of full charge.
 Since a high percentage of electrical consumption is for lighting, a good way to conserve battery use these days is to replace the incandescent bulbs in your cabin fixtures with LED bulbs.

Steve

Steve
2004 FL
2013 Honda Fit
Re: New Owner of 1979 Lazy Daze - Looking for owners manual
Reply #8 –
Yahoo Message Number: 127200
Quote
Kyle.. I forgot to pop you a note yesterday but I'd love to see some pics of your new rig.. I've got an '85 and would be interested in comparing what changed in those 6 years..

Make sure your rig is water tight.. Hopefully it was taken care of better than ours which had some termites and dry-rot due to water leaks.  I've got most of it under control at this point but more work to do..
I added some pictures to the photo gallery.

Album is called 1979 Front Lounge
Re: New Owner of 1979 Lazy Daze - Looking for owners manual
Reply #9 –
Yahoo Message Number: 127203
The 1979 LD came with a single 12V coach battery--mounted, I believe under the hood opposite the starting (engine) battery. That battery is typically rated at about 100 amp-hours. Since discharging your coach battery below 50% will seriously short is lifespan, that means you have about 50 Ah of usable capacity. That's enough to power your interior lights and radio for a night or two with careful use, but not much more.
 Starting in 1984, LD started installing a pair of 225 Ah 6V batteries (wired in series to produce 12V), more than doubling the usable capacity of the battery system. These were installed in an exterior storage compartment, since there wasn't room for them under the hood.
 These Trojan T105 deep cycle "golf cart" batteries were standard in Lazy Dazes for twenty five years; they are robust and very cost-effective. In 2010 Lazy Daze switched to sealed, zero-maintenance AGM batteries.
 If you're going to stay with a single battery in the under-hood location, then as Steve said, you may have no choice but to use a "hybrid" starting/deep cycle battery... which is not really a deep-cycle battery, but may be as close as you can get in that particular size.

Andy Baird http://www.andybaird.com/travels/
Andy Baird
2021 Ford Ranger towing 2019 Airstream 19CB
Previously: 1985 LD Twin/King "Gertie"; 2003 LD Midbath "Skylark"
Re: New Owner of 1979 Lazy Daze - Looking for owners manual
Reply #10 –
Yahoo Message Number: 127204
Great info! My battery is actually located in a compartment at the rear on the driver side. Sounds like two 6 volt batteries is the way to go. I'll have to look into getting some.

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
 
Re: New Owner of 1979 Lazy Daze - Looking for owners manual
Reply #11 –
Yahoo Message Number: 127207
Quote
Great info! My battery is actually located in a compartment at the rear on the driver side. Sounds like two 6 volt batteries is the way to go. I'll have to look into getting some.
You will need at least 11" vertical door clearance to squeeze the 6V batteries into the compartment. The compartment will need to be at least 16" X 12" to fit both, and you will need hardware to secure them. Don't forget too that you will either need a lot more vertical clearance to access the water ports on top, or frequent removal for checks and maintenance will be needed. Possibly you could construct some access port from the cabin side of the compartment to allow this.

Steve
2004 FL
2013 Honda Fit