Responding as all things must to the laws of physics; my battery died a horrible death this weekend. Naturally, it had to happen miles from civilization, a few days after I threw away a set of jumper cables, having swapped my good ones to my wife’s van and not yet replaced them . . . A cautionary tale, this – perhaps in confirmation of Diane Keaton’s remark about her Lexus being too quiet, I nearly stranded myself because my RX is to quiet . . . and I’m a dummy.
Our location in deep South Texas was on a customer of my client’s drilling rig. I’ve spent a good deal of my adult life on these locations, and am fully aware that NOTHING occurs on schedule, so I drove down early Saturday morning to set up shop and wait for the product I was there to shoot to go to work. Well late Saturday, we were put off 24 hours – as usual, the job dictates the schedule, and other issues had to be dealt with before the job that we were there to cover would begin. I drove to a motel some fifty miles away to await developments.
Dawn Sunday morning, I drove back, parked the car next to the toolpusher’s trailer, checked in, and prepared my gear. I took a couple of test shots, both with video and digital still cameras, verified everything was working, and replaced cameras and lenses back in the car out of the blowing dust. I hooked up several battery chargers, my laptop, a small photo printer, and checked everything again before putting on a CD, reclining the driver’s seat and settling in to relax. The rumble and vibration of the rig’s big Cat diesel generators soon lulled me to sleep.
The morning after, I return to the scene of the crime.
A change in the note of the engines woke me up a couple hours later. Noting that my cue was coming, I shut off the RX, laced up my boots, screwed my hat down tight, grabbed my cameras, and went to work. Later, well after dark, I walked back across the location, completely pooped, loaded up the car, changed my filthy clothes, and hopped in the driver’s seat. I twisted the key and nothing happened. T-t-t-t-t-t - - - t-t-t-t-t-t. The clock said 1:00 . . . Uh, oh. Not a good sign.
No jumpers, and miles from civilization, with a dead battery. Probably for the first time in thirty years, I’d killed a battery on location. Fortunately, one of the rig hands had a good set of jumpers and happily gave me a boost. On the way to the hotel I had a good long time to mull over what I had done. I’d hooked up all of that electrical gear to the inverter, but during the extended period of inactivity I started the engine several times to run the AC – made necessary not by the outside temperature that was quite pleasant, but because of the blowing dust I had to keep the windows tightly sealed. I never noticed the last time I started the engine that it did not catch – you can’t hear anything over the thunder of the diesels, and the slight vibration I felt was courtesy of Caterpillar rather than Lexus. Failing to confirm that the engine was running, I fell asleep, and the inverter proceeded to do its job – while draining my battery dry.
Stupid? Yes, but I learned something – confirm the engine is running with the tach and warning lights before corking off. Secondly, shut down the inverter before going to sleep to prevent leaving the ignition on and discharging the battery completely. So now a new battery is on my shopping list. It’s been my experience that a electrical deep knee bend like this practically guarantees failure within six months.
I'm an idiot.
Our location in deep South Texas was on a customer of my client’s drilling rig. I’ve spent a good deal of my adult life on these locations, and am fully aware that NOTHING occurs on schedule, so I drove down early Saturday morning to set up shop and wait for the product I was there to shoot to go to work. Well late Saturday, we were put off 24 hours – as usual, the job dictates the schedule, and other issues had to be dealt with before the job that we were there to cover would begin. I drove to a motel some fifty miles away to await developments.
Dawn Sunday morning, I drove back, parked the car next to the toolpusher’s trailer, checked in, and prepared my gear. I took a couple of test shots, both with video and digital still cameras, verified everything was working, and replaced cameras and lenses back in the car out of the blowing dust. I hooked up several battery chargers, my laptop, a small photo printer, and checked everything again before putting on a CD, reclining the driver’s seat and settling in to relax. The rumble and vibration of the rig’s big Cat diesel generators soon lulled me to sleep.
The morning after, I return to the scene of the crime.
A change in the note of the engines woke me up a couple hours later. Noting that my cue was coming, I shut off the RX, laced up my boots, screwed my hat down tight, grabbed my cameras, and went to work. Later, well after dark, I walked back across the location, completely pooped, loaded up the car, changed my filthy clothes, and hopped in the driver’s seat. I twisted the key and nothing happened. T-t-t-t-t-t - - - t-t-t-t-t-t. The clock said 1:00 . . . Uh, oh. Not a good sign.
No jumpers, and miles from civilization, with a dead battery. Probably for the first time in thirty years, I’d killed a battery on location. Fortunately, one of the rig hands had a good set of jumpers and happily gave me a boost. On the way to the hotel I had a good long time to mull over what I had done. I’d hooked up all of that electrical gear to the inverter, but during the extended period of inactivity I started the engine several times to run the AC – made necessary not by the outside temperature that was quite pleasant, but because of the blowing dust I had to keep the windows tightly sealed. I never noticed the last time I started the engine that it did not catch – you can’t hear anything over the thunder of the diesels, and the slight vibration I felt was courtesy of Caterpillar rather than Lexus. Failing to confirm that the engine was running, I fell asleep, and the inverter proceeded to do its job – while draining my battery dry.
Stupid? Yes, but I learned something – confirm the engine is running with the tach and warning lights before corking off. Secondly, shut down the inverter before going to sleep to prevent leaving the ignition on and discharging the battery completely. So now a new battery is on my shopping list. It’s been my experience that a electrical deep knee bend like this practically guarantees failure within six months.
I'm an idiot.
Lexus Fanatic
good read, good lesson to be learned
i just went out to buy a set of good cables last week
and yeah, those inverters are quite inefficient
i just went out to buy a set of good cables last week
and yeah, those inverters are quite inefficient