Sunday, October 18, 2015

The shower sucked!

Again today I moved the bus. It wasn't quite where I wanted it and its still not exactly in the right place but it's good enough. It started though not as easily as yesterday. Clearly I need to put a battery maintaining solar panel in place.

Next I slipped under the bus and loosened the shower pipe nut. Tomorrow I might slip under again to check whether there's any leakage from my plumbing work.

Having loosened the pipe, I went into the bus and took the drain out of my shower pan before adjusting the hole in the floor to better accommodate the nut on the bottom of the shower pan and then adjusted the underside of the pan. There were ridges where the pan would have a waterproof washer. I smoothed those out then reassembled, adding copious quantities of plumbers glue.

Finally the shower base was all tightened down. Some say my $18 rubber shower base won't last long. People fail to realize none of this has to last a long time. It can all be upgraded when finances allow. Right now I'm having to do everything all at once and that's taking all my budget.

Next I tried the battery powered shower unit. It seemed to work well enough though there were two issues. First it didn't lift the water very high. That could be the alkaline batteries. Perhaps it'll work better with rechargeable. Secondly the Chenglish instructions aren't that great.

To get the pump to work I had to pump a manual pump on the bottom of the head unit in order to prime the pump. That should tell you right there that it's not a top quality unit. The good stuff self primes. It's just a weak motor - possibly an impeller.

Having said all that, it worked quite well. It did lift the water about three feet. The reviews of the unit are poor but I really think that for $20 or thereabouts, its not bad. The pump unit can always be replaced with something more powerful. As I said earlier, I'm doing all the construction over about a year. Even though I'm not now paying much rent, $9 an hour doesn't pay for much especially when it's part time. Sadly, that's all I can get at the moment. That's the basic reason for the bus - cheaper accommodation and I can drive to where the work is. Clearly there's none anywhere near Columbia, South Carolina as none is advertised.

This is the key switch I ordered. It arrived a few days ago. This is a high security ignition switch from a Harley Davidson. It has to be switched on then off rather than being the momentary action switch I'd wanted. On the other hand, its not beyond the realm of possibility to make the magnet into a momentary action device. Needless to say, the magnet is now speeding its way from China with the urgency of a retarded snail!

Meanwhile, I have two tasks I can complete. The first is finishing the cleaning then the decor of the bus. There is, of course, the battery compartment. I might investigate how much it would cost to have the brackets welded. That way I can get a couple of dozen 1\4 x 20 nuts and bolts and be done.

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