Hello William, i spoke to you some months ago about your radiator and fans.
With the davis craig fans, what model did you use on main radiator, i see you have 4. and with your radiator, also -what size is the cooling area and how many rows, and thickness, as some have differebt size tubes, i am looking at what i am going to do, my radiator cooling area is 1010mm tall, 840mm wide and 4 rows and 75mm thick, i understand it is a larger size than standard when i spoke to COR radiators. when using the AU radiator, was it enough to keep it cool? you told me you have since changed it to a custom made unit. cannot remember why you did??
Thank You Alan Keogh
Hello Alan, are you the one up around Mackay area ?
The main radiator has 4 x 14″ high performance fans, i.e. they have the 16″ fan motors in them.
The AU radiator did not cut it so I had a custom made PWR radiator to replace it, as big as I could fit which was not much bigger than the AU, but way thicker I think 76mm. I put 2 x 16″ Davies Craig fans on it.
A few days ago we came back from a trip to central Qld and sitting on about 105 kph the temp was bang on at 80 deg C, warm afternoon so quite pleased about that.
What I have done is I think sufficient for 95% of situations, remember we are pulling a 4.5 tonne trailer, without that would be good for 100%.
So I have mounted the AU radiator on the trailer and set it to come on above 85 deg C. When that happens 2 motorised ball valves open and allow flow, a DC EWP ensures flow and the standard AU fans come on. When it shuts down the ball valves close thus isolating it from the rest of the system and a turbo timer (to be fitted) will allow the fans to run on for another minute, thus ensuring no coolant loss. 1″ hydraulic fittings allow trailer disconnection when needed.
This is probably not necessary but I don’t like to be restricted to a set engine speed when dragging the trailer up Cunninghams’ Gap for instance, that’s about the only time it would come into play, maybe on a 45 deg day out west, but it is nice to have that backup. I can isolate the PWR if anything happens to it, the original has been reconditioned, has a good core so that should be no problem.
One thing I found on this trip was a problem fuse distribution board, one of those 12 blade fuse holders, started blowing a couple of fuses, and it was getting hot making the fuses loose, seems it could not handle what the fans were pulling through it.
The fans have their own fuses as part of the DC thermo switch setup so I bypassed the fuse block and they are definitely running harder without that resistance.
I am also going to fit 3 of their digital fan controllers, I am not happy with the mechanical switch type, any stray positive contact with the capillary tube takes them out. This will allow more precise temperature control of starting points, they go off if 5 deg below what you set them at.
Each will run 2 fans, second starts 10 secs after first.
In my case one controller will turn on the top row on the original, the bottom row 10 secs later
The next one will turn on one of the 16″, the other one 10 secs later
The third will be overkill for the AU radiator on the trailer, but it is the precise digital setpoints that I am after, not just a knob with no real idea of what the set point actually is.
Hello William, i spoke to you some months ago about your radiator and fans.
With the davis craig fans, what model did you use on main radiator, i see you have 4. and with your radiator, also -what size is the cooling area and how many rows, and thickness, as some have differebt size tubes, i am looking at what i am going to do, my radiator cooling area is 1010mm tall, 840mm wide and 4 rows and 75mm thick, i understand it is a larger size than standard when i spoke to COR radiators. when using the AU radiator, was it enough to keep it cool? you told me you have since changed it to a custom made unit. cannot remember why you did??
Thank You Alan Keogh
Hello Alan, are you the one up around Mackay area ?
The main radiator has 4 x 14″ high performance fans, i.e. they have the 16″ fan motors in them.
The AU radiator did not cut it so I had a custom made PWR radiator to replace it, as big as I could fit which was not much bigger than the AU, but way thicker I think 76mm. I put 2 x 16″ Davies Craig fans on it.
A few days ago we came back from a trip to central Qld and sitting on about 105 kph the temp was bang on at 80 deg C, warm afternoon so quite pleased about that.
What I have done is I think sufficient for 95% of situations, remember we are pulling a 4.5 tonne trailer, without that would be good for 100%.
So I have mounted the AU radiator on the trailer and set it to come on above 85 deg C. When that happens 2 motorised ball valves open and allow flow, a DC EWP ensures flow and the standard AU fans come on. When it shuts down the ball valves close thus isolating it from the rest of the system and a turbo timer (to be fitted) will allow the fans to run on for another minute, thus ensuring no coolant loss. 1″ hydraulic fittings allow trailer disconnection when needed.
This is probably not necessary but I don’t like to be restricted to a set engine speed when dragging the trailer up Cunninghams’ Gap for instance, that’s about the only time it would come into play, maybe on a 45 deg day out west, but it is nice to have that backup. I can isolate the PWR if anything happens to it, the original has been reconditioned, has a good core so that should be no problem.
One thing I found on this trip was a problem fuse distribution board, one of those 12 blade fuse holders, started blowing a couple of fuses, and it was getting hot making the fuses loose, seems it could not handle what the fans were pulling through it.
The fans have their own fuses as part of the DC thermo switch setup so I bypassed the fuse block and they are definitely running harder without that resistance.
I am also going to fit 3 of their digital fan controllers, I am not happy with the mechanical switch type, any stray positive contact with the capillary tube takes them out. This will allow more precise temperature control of starting points, they go off if 5 deg below what you set them at.
Each will run 2 fans, second starts 10 secs after first.
In my case one controller will turn on the top row on the original, the bottom row 10 secs later
The next one will turn on one of the 16″, the other one 10 secs later
The third will be overkill for the AU radiator on the trailer, but it is the precise digital setpoints that I am after, not just a knob with no real idea of what the set point actually is.