The day started with my squirting more foam insulation into the left hand flasher bay at the front. That went reasonably well. I'll have to buy more foam but now that I know it's cheapest in Walmart, I can stop off in Walmart on Monday.
As usual I put my solar panel to work, charging the bus battery. I'd forgotten to switch the charge controller off yesterday so I hope it hasn't depleted the battery. As luck would have it, the postman delivered my plug in voltage meter. I plugged that into my cigarette lighter socket after replacing the fuse. Replacing the fuse was a simple matter of releasing and tipping the switch panel forward then switching the fuse out.
The back of the bus still gets pretty hot but I feel the insulation is delaying the heating process. I can regard that as a success though I would like to inject yet more foam. I have a feeling though that I might need to raise my game a little and use a bigger foam injector.
In an attempt to remove detritus from the bus, I removed the redundant 8 way flashers and flasher control, putting them in a cardboard box to go in the shed. I have no possible use for them so after listing them on Craigslist, I also listed them on eBay starting st 99 cents with local collection or buyer arranges shipping/collection. As it was a free listing, I don't lose out if it just doesn't sell. Honestly, I cannot imagine anybody would want them though I suppose there might be some that would.
Looking at my Harbor Freight riveter, it seems the jaws of the bit that grips the rivet seem to have jammed. I have no idea how to fix this. I soldiered on using Herculean effort and a hand riveter. Thus, today I have two cargo tie downs - one pair on each side of the rear door. This means that the top box won't shift. That's a huge step forward!
As can be seen from the photo, the jaws seem to be very misaligned. That was compounded by some of the nuts holding the whole device together, coming loose. Harbor Freight can be hit and miss. This, I'm afraid is not one of their hits.
So, with the cargo tie downs in place, I have security bars to add to the folding door windows, the hole in the floor to fix and insulation to complete. Then there're extra solar panels as well as a thorough cleaning. I'd like also to add a main breaker box - basically to protect my cables.
It was 100F inside the bus today which made work rather challenging. I thought about the portable air conditioners. I'd looked them up last night and found some that would fit in existing cupboards. It's interesting but not, I feel, something I will pursue imminently.
Amazingly, there were mosquitos out in force despite the heat. I don't know how many times I was bitten, working outside the bus. I cut a foot square sheet of plywood to put over the hole in the bedroom floor. Next I'll have to mark where to cut the existing plywood on the bus floor to make room for the new piece. It overlaps the hole sufficiently that it should not bend. I'll fill under the hole and fill the gap between bottom and top sheets too. It's going to be solid.
As an afterthought, I tried my cigarette lighter socket volt meter in my car (which has been idle for several days) and got 12.2 - 12.3 volts. That makes me feel good about the bus batteries! Thinking about power, my little CPU fans were whizzing around earlier. Clearly sometimes they have surplus power. I don't want to add complications though. Having said that, with the pending closure of Radio Shack, perhaps I could see my way to buying a battery. The problem is that Radio Shark is so darned expensive that even with 40% discount, the goods are still higher than elsewhere!
Talking about expense, I popped into the dollar store today, expecting to see a pair of D cells for $1. They were out! Clearly a popular item.
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