Down and dirty again!

Today being Black Friday, I’m not joining the headlong rush of morons to the stores. From what I’ve seen, nothing that’s “on sale” on Black Friday is without issue. I bought 4 LED light bulbs in Lowes (hiss, spit) Black Friday sale one year and only one of them lasted more than 6 months. Similarly the stuff I see “on sale” on Black Friday is usually end of line and about 3 - 6 weeks after Black Friday will be reduced to below the Black Friday price as they get rid of the final remnants of the stock. So, no - I’m not falling for the Black Friday scam. In any case, stuff I normally buy like fruit, veggies and bread is never ever on sale.

So, the first thing I did today was to crawl under the bus. I measured the channel section ribs at 7 3/4 inches between the inside faces and 10 3/4 inches on the outside faces. Measuring my battery holder bottom (the only part I’ve built), I found that it would fit quite nicely with verticals welded on the outsides of the channels and would fit lengthwise with each end supported from the channel.

Eventually after quite a bit more procrastinating, I went back under the bus and measured where my cable was likely to go. Looking at the cable I found one pair of wires was plenty long enough but the other was woefully short. That basically means I need to buy more wire. While I could join the short length to another length, I’m feeling more that I’d be better to pull it out and put two long lengths in place instead. Having said that, that would be putting off til another day what I can do today.

Looking at what I want to install which is a USB charging socket and possibly a voltmeter then connecting to my existing bedroom fan and to a pair of potential lights (one for the bedroom, above my desk and one for the bathroom, above the toilet), I realized the lights could go to the joined wire since they’re not likely to exceed 1 amp. Assuming I went down the brimstone path and put LED lighting then I gather 8 watts is likely all I’d need which works out at 750mA.

Right now I am definitely not feeling in the getting under the bus and working mood! Still, I looked at the battery holder and decided the best place to situate that is probably not behind the differential on account of the large number of cables I have going between the main chassis beams behind the differential. Thus the best place is likely to be behind the driver-side rear wheel.

Checking under the bus, I found my battery hanger fits pretty nicely under the C section ribs through which I can pass bolts. The hanger I’ve made is way too heavy though and will have to be remade using lighter steel. I really don’t need it as heavy as it is. That’s a job for another day and I’m really glad I don’t have to weld it under there.

Meanwhile I passed the cable through the hole in the floor and sealed it with silicone goop, from both sides. The short cable ends a few feet past the differential so that’s a nice, easy place to work to extend it. It’s a blue twin cable that I probably got in Radio Shack’s going out of business sale. No chance of getting another identical cable, sadly.

By the time I knocked off for the day having done a pitiful amount of work (I did say how much I hate going under the bus, didn’t I), I’d run out of steel cable clamps and had run out of longer self-drilling screws. I was pretty short on the plastic cable clamps too. That means that tomorrow I’ll probably have to do a quick run to Harbor Freight and Home Depot before streaking back to complete or to attempt to complete the underbody wiring. While I’m out I might also visit Tractor Supply since their steel seems much more reasonably priced than Lowes (hiss, spit) or Home Depot. One thing is for sure - I have my underbody wiring well under control. Once the battery is in place and wired, there is no reason whatsoever why I can’t do the interior wiring in rain, sleet, snow, thunder, lightning or a zombie invasion.

As far as I know, I will have to go under the bus to complete my current cable installation, to install my 12v battery and wires and to install the wiring and plumbing for the shower, hot water heater and 120v supply to the hot water heater. Once that is all completed, I cannot imagine needing to go underneath other than for routine maintainance and inspections. I cannot tell you how glad I will be to be free of needing to go under the bus. The other thing I need to do is to retask  the wire to the current battery and use it to power my keypad door unlocker. That way, if I forget or lose my keys, I can still get into the bus. I’m more likely to leave the keys in the bus and lock myself out!

As far as the USB charger power is concerned, I’ve got a couple of nice looking USB hubs that would do the job. One needs to be installed into a box however. If I do that, I can include a pushbutton to power an LED display of the battery voltage and a switch to switch the hub on or off. It has an irksome blue light which I really don’t need to have in the bedroom when I’m trying to sleep!

I’ve been working on this project since probably January of 2015 though I bought the bus in November of 2014 then it was used as a moving van and storage shed for a couple of months. I’d say February of 2015 I started conversion in earnest. That’s gone in spurts - sometimes I’ve done a lot. Sometimes I’ve not touched it for weeks through work, not feeling like it, the weather or illness. I can tell you this though - I shall be so glad when I have Completed the bus to a point where I feel I can retitle it as a motorhome.