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Wind Vane

I need to know the wind direction. I can not cook with the stove if the wind is coming into the right side of the RV. That is where the stove vent is located. I would like to change that stupid design, and move the vent to the roof. There it would not matter what direction the wind was coming from. But that is a different story.

Tassels not very fluffy as they lay on my RV sink.

Also, I like to place the RV broadside to lake winds, with stabilizers up, to feel the rocking motion. I will never be able to explain that one, so I will just say that I want to know the wind direction, and leave it at that.

Helicopter String

Many helicopters have a wind tassel in the front plexiglass. It is used to measure Slip, or the forward direction compared to the helicopters Yaw orientation. Actually "SideSlip" works too. All gliders also have them. A Tassel String is superior to an electronic instrument on slow aircraft. Which is called a SlipBall, if you are interested. But it does not measure exactly the same thing, and has nothing in common in operation. The String is cheap and very very effective, and more intuitive.

My RV does not fly, but never the less, I am trying to use them on my RV to show wind direction. I do not know if anyone has ever done that before. What RVers do all the time, and it is obnoxious, is to erect a pole outside, and place a flag on it. Very in your face, and disrespectful.

Tassels on the SkyLight.

My first idea was with these tassels. These particular ones are heavy nylon string. Gold Leaf or spider web would be lighter, but impractical. Fluffy cotton may have worked, as well as yarn. But, so far, it has not worked well at all. Gentle breezes will not affect the tassels. They just kinda flop and lay there. And in the rain, forget it. Their usual position is straight back, after traveling the roads. The problem is that they stay there. I have to have a stiff breeze coming off a big lake or the ocean to make these things work. At these places they work good, although there is some tangling. The plus is that they are highly visible from inside. But that is not plus enough.


Another idea is to use this WindVane. The requirement is that it must be small and light to be mounted on the plastic skylight.

A bolt is tapped with threads into plastic and wood on the bottom of a wooden dowel, and gives the false illusion that I am going to drill a hole into my skylight. But no, another identical bolt is merely part of the mount on the skylight. I want to be as "iffy" as I can on the permanence of this installation.


The mount is just siliconed unto the skylight. I took careful measurements to find the center. Also, the vertical alignment is not perfectly up and down. That is critical on this cheap type vane. The bearing is a pin bearing which is normally forgiving of vertical, but not this one!

Also, the shorter the vane, the more frisky it is. This one can flutter 30 degrees back and forth. But if I want to see it in the skylight, then the vane must be short and small.

Also, the shorter the vane, the more it is subject to turbulence. And there is plenty of turbulence up on my RV roof. But if I use the bathroom a lot, then I can get more of a "Sitting" Average. Otherwise, I will have to use either a viscous damper, or a magnetic induction damper. This little red vane is a cheap toy for a sail boat, and can not be modified with an induction damper.


I am a little bit worried...
The vane at this length has a large bending moment; It is tall. The skylight is thin and flexible. If the skylight flexes at all, then it will Fatigue Crack. If this thing cracks my skylight, I will be mad, it will be too late to cut the length shorter. At this height the vane is a little higher than the airconditioner, and about the same height as my Cell Booster Antenna, but I can go lower before it is too late. But then that would not be good Hind Sight.

Another concern, that should not be a concern, according to the sail boat literature of this WindVane, is the high wind speeds encountered when going down the road in an RV. You should not be out sailing with 60 mile an hour wind speeds, or I guess that is 52 knots. In any case, my legal RV speed on land is 55 MPH plus about 5. But I could easily have a 20 MPH head wind or gust, making the combined speed 80 MPH! Do boats operate under different constraints than RVs?

The tassels will be OK; Helicopters have double that kind of wind speed. I should not forget tassels.


A view from inside the RV, inside the bathroom looking up through the skylight. The skylight is not very clear, but good enough.

I have some tassels hooked up at the same time, as you can see. I sure love how visible they are. I can not seem to give up on them. Perhaps both together would work: one for mild hurricanes, or if I and the RV become airborn, or if the RV ends up floating out to sea. ...And one for mild gentle breezes on a romantic shore. Now, the latter is the domain of an RV! If only I can borrow technology from planes and boats.

Mylar and Feather Tassle

Got this setup from the 99 Cent Store. Mylar is very light and responsive. And two nylon ribbons with a feather. Crazy looking, but it just might work.


Moved the Wind Vane.
It does not have to be dead center in the skylight anyway. Tassles might, but it doesn't. Now, another reason: the visibility of the vane is better from a seated position.

Both Tassles and a Wind Vane

Moved the Vane off the skylight, and placed it a couple feet toward the back. Visibility is actually better.

View from Inside bathroom.

Visibility is better inside the RV.


But to test the new tassle out we must go somewhere... Linda says we can test it at the coast. That is OK; To test this out this good, we will have to go a long way. She is right. Fort Bragg is exactly 200 miles away, and Linda says it is the best testing spot. Good girl! Good Engineer. Sounds good to me. So, she needs a few clothes thrown in, and of course, the little Woofer. I have already refilled the 60 gallon fresh water tank to 25%. Gotta travel light on the water, but still have enough to Boondock at unexpected places. All set there. I figured that I might need to test this, so I have already put 40lbs air in the back air bags on the van. All set there. Linda says four days is a good time frame to test not only my pretty tassles, but also the Wind Vane. Sounds good to me. I will make an Engineer out of Linda yet. Dang! She is already packed, and way ahead of me.

200 miles to test a three dollar tassle... That has to be a record, even for me.


While traveling to Fort Bragg, we went through a very heavy thunderstorm. The downpours of rain and hail were intense. They lasted all the way South from Chico to Colusa, until we turned West to Clear Lake. The wet tassels stuck to the skylight like glue. The stupid things were not going to work. After arriving in Fort Bragg, I could see the tassels were not going to work. They were totally tangled.


But that is OK. There are other wonderful things to think about. I got my heat lamp to heat the bathroom. Actually, it is to heat something more specific...


The heat lamp heats the pot. Feels good. A man must choose his priorities...


But at the moment, there is a wonderful ocean outside, and Linda says we are going somewhere wonderful to eat. She has her purse. She does not seem to be talking about testing anymore.


After 5 days of testing, the wind vane "flew" away. It is gone. It was a "Little Hawk" by a company in Japan. A disreputable company because they said they were going to charge me $25 on the web site, but on the email recept showed $27.00 with no tax, free shipping. One day after the vane left, the price for the exact same thing is $17.00. The little plastic vane is worth about $0.50 so there is huge wiggle room on price. I do not know if it is Amazon or the Japanese company that is floating the price. The price varies on Amazon according to your current profile, shopping habits, time of day, etc. We have returned to the Haggling System of third rate countries. But it is with an electronic twist that leaves out opinions from the buyer, and it is not a democratic notion. And this one-way haggling system is more effective than its counterpart of centuries ago. It is "strong-arm" powerful. I am sure that if a company qualifies to join Amazon Prime, they can ride piggy back on Amazon's powerful customer profiling program. The company can not possibly know what their product will sell for, from moment to moment. And can not know what the price will be for an individual customer. It is all automated. Profiling may be like a big automated machine, but the target is a living breathing person; a sacred thing of unalienable rights. ...And it is "strong-arm" powerful.

So, the tassels can not work due to functionality.
And the vane does not work due to physical construction.

I am not done yet, I would like to go back to this price thing...
Ya, I am bummed that my money flew away, but there is a principal here:
Progress in Engineering is hampered by financial parasitic losses. In this specific case the act is profiling, or the act of optimizing "the take" or "advantage" from one human against another. It is a form of discrimination that is not on the books yet, or the targeting of a person for financial gain. This is not the same thing as advertizing to a select audience! Not at all! It is good business to understand and tailor to your audience. In fact, you can have multiple select audiences. That is great!

I think I have discovered something no one else has iterated. I will make an axiom: "Progress in physical engineering is inversely proportional to Social Engineering." I admit, the connotation here is that people have no altruistic qualities. But there is a good side; the good side is that humans can make things.


Bought a new vane...
...that the Little Woofer likes.

Or no. Could it be... She is jealous of the red thing, and wants in my lap.


It is better constructed, and price seems very stable and legitiment. It has a small nut on a shaft out in front that is used to manually balance. That is OK, it adjusts well.

Two design problems are immediatly obvious: One is that side winds will lift the tail. This presents vertical torque, upsetting the balance . Bad design. The other is high mass to vertical tail area. The other little wind vane that flew away had this problem solved.

I have placed the shaft inside a sacrificial rubber tube, that should either bend or break.


I am going to climb back on the roof and tie the shaft with string. If the vane does fly loose, it should still be lying somewhere on the roof, tethered by the string.

The roof is so blinding that I have to use sunglasses. I can feel the reflected heat in my face. And the aluminum burns my hands and knees.

But I do need to coat the red nylon string with something. The sun is going to eat it alive.

In case you are interested...
I have placed copper wires, that you can still see, under the aluminum when I was EMP proofing the trailer. It is difficult to do.


I have seen other RVs that have the totally clear skylight. I do not know why Keystone choose to have a translucent plastic. There are no RV manufacturers that have it all correct. That would be asking too much.

Linda sure got a lot of shopping in, during the last trip, but I am afraid we will have to go again to test this one out too. I am afraid to let her know because the next testing place may be 500 miles away.


This vane is badly designed because of too much mass. There is too much momentum, and the vane just spins around and around. This is not going to work very well. You do not want to add friction to counter the momentum because you will lose low wind speeds. There are only two ways to dampen momentum:

The first is Magnetic Induction. This solution is exactly perfect; no friction at low wind speeds and high friction at impulse gusts from side directions.
i have thought of using a small DC motor for berings, and shorting out the windings. The second is Viscous Friction. There is less friction at low speeds, and more at high speeds.

The problem is what liquid can be used without loss or contamination?
Liquids are difficult to deal with. So I thought of Silicon Paste. It does not spill, or evaporate.
So I made a loose bushing out of string, encased by carpenters glue, hot glue, and caulking. The inside of the bushing has liberal amounts of Silicone Paste. It is not a liquid, so I am stuck with some resistance at slow speeds. But I want the project done, and this seems to work. To compensate for the no liquid condition, I am driving with flexible arms. For the first few degrees left or right, there is little resistance.


Here is the best design of all, just cut the arms! At first, you might think the vane could travel plus and minus 180 degrees. But no, because the sides are sloped about 45 degrees, I end up with about 90 degrees, plus and minus 45 degrees, before the friction choller engages. Besides... I like to visually see the vane "wiggle" in the free corridor. Wow! I have been testing it in the back yard. Works supper!