Dirty horizontal gymnastics

I got down and dirty today. In fact I got absolutely filthy, rolling around on the ground under the bus. I had sand everywhere - my jeans knees are now dark brown and I even have sand in places where sand should never be!

So, today I got jubilee clips fitted to all the Pex connections under the bus. That’s all four Pex connections so four jubilee clips. The clip that fought me so much yesterday under the sink went in ever so sweetly today. In fact none of the clips dared to put up a fight today!

After that it was time to get down to the day’s work - something I’d planned for completion days ago. I started by repainting the brackets from yesterday but the paint just didn’t set hard. It remained soft. That was a bit of a disappointment so in the end I used a different paint.

The hole to put the solar cable through the floor was easy enough. That went perfectly and the solar cable went down. The problem came when it was time to fit the bigger of the three mounts. There just wasn’t sufficient clearance. In the end, feeling somewhat exasperated I did what I said I wasn’t going to do and simplified matters by mounting the 12v socket in the side of the skirt.                                                                                                                                  

That having been completed, the cables were secured to the skirt with a bolted cable grip. The loose cable was fed back through the floor so it’s all nicely fitted. I’d added an extra cable so that I have four wires in the cable sleeve. That gives me options to do other things without having to make extra holes in the floor in the future.

Then it was time for the water inlet. That was probably the easiest thing to fit. I used far less tubing than I’d anticipated too. No photo of that but the water goes in through a pressure regulator that brings the pressure down to 40psi. It goes up through a half inch pipe to my sink sprayer with a stop valve midway. As I’m planning on jerry cans of water rather than un underbody water tank, this should be far better. I can just use water when I’m connected to a supply for small things like filling kettles, shower supplies etc.

Aside from the cable going from the defunct speed sensor under the body into the transmission housing, that’s about all I have to do that I can think of, under the bus. I’d like to remove that cable but since I’ve already seen wasps out and about, it’s not going to be long before wasp nests become a problem under the bus.

The next thing to do will be my ventilation outlets. That will involve climbing a ladder and all kinds for fun stuff like that. The goal will be to do the ventilation outlets tomorrow. To that end I have a supply of Bondo, some vinyl plank and the remains of my PVC glue.

The internal wiring and fuse box can wait until a wet day. I also have to find enough cable to be able to extend the wires sufficiently. That might mean a trip to the store but I rather hope it does not. After the ventilation outlets I might make some intake screens though I haven’t decided yet.

The next thing will be the keypad entry system. That’s going to be really nice when that’s working. I’ve already identified a couple of places where the keypad can be sited unnnoticed. You would imagine after my rundown of the things to do yesterday that the list was shorter. Sadly, it’s the same length as I remembered I want to put a keyed lock on the battery door and one on the fuel door. No lock is foolproof but they deter the idle thief.

What with it being Friday night, my having had a dirty day and the washing machine having just been repaired, I have a Friday night date with the washing machine! In fact I’ll probably spend the rest of the evening naked under my robe! Oh the small things that give us pleasure in our 50s. 20 or 30 years ago I’d have been out painting the town blue!