I was feeling grotty!

Today started in a fairly lackluster way with my being slow to move. Then during the day I was plagued by an upset stomach. Thinking critically about it, I’d bet that was down to yesterday. I spent most of yesterday helping to replace a badly rotted floor in an unused trailer. I bet that I was breathing in mold, mildew and other nasties.

In the picture you can see mold on the wall and the floor that’s rotted. In fact there was more rotted floor going right across the trailer. Needless to say, it was an all day job!

So, today I took it fairly easy. Yesterday my replacement USB charger arrived but as I had no more of the cute Radio Shack square red push-button switches I opted to use a paddle switch for the voltmeter. That meant I was short of a switch for something else. As the accessory socket with USB charger insert had no light on it and since I had an illuminated switch, it made sense just to have the illuminated switch working the cigarette-lighter USB socket combination. I opted not to use the duel voltage USB socket that I’d bought. Well, perhaps not this time. There might be a future use for it.

Today my extra 1A fuses arrived so I spent quite a few minutes working through my fuse boxes, replacing overlarge fuses with 1A. I need some 4A fuses but I don’t currently have any. I’m not sure they make them so 5A has to suffice.

I spent quite a while working on the inside of my box. I totally lacked right-angled connectors so at one point I just had to pull out the soldering iron. Needless to say I got interrupted twice by the call of the throne.

Once that was completed I had to install it which is where I suddenly had to rush off to the car parts store because I had run out of - of all things - blue male connectors (like the one on the red lead at the bottom of the photo). Infuriatingly I needed just two for this project. I’ll need more for the digital code lock for the front door though so now I’m good.

While I was at the auto-parts store I asked about a cam lock for the fuel door and a locking paddle latch for the battery door. They didn’t have anything but one of their displays looked old enough to be priced in Confederate money.  Their suggestion was to try an RV parts store. That might be highly priced but it’s worth a shot.

Assuming I add no further circuits inside the bus, the projects remaining are:
1. Door code lock
2. Battery door lock
3. Fuel door lock
4. Tidying wiring for the keyed door lock and the solar input.

I had a think about the air vents and have another potential solution. That involves using a gravity flapper and a hood. I think to be honest I’m probably going to have to pull my vent tubing out and redo the vents. That was why I returned the vinyl plank I’d bought and didn’t proceed further than trying things. I had a feeling I was going to have to redo it fairly extensively.

I’m rather glad I’ve got a light over the desk in the front of the bus. It means when I clear construction debris and materials, I’ll be able to move my swivel chair to the galley and sit there to blog or whatever. Speaking of the galley however, I realised there’s another task or rather two. The first is to make some method of holding the microwave down and the other to put a bar in front of the fridge so that it doesn’t slip out of its hidy hole.

This bus has come a long way since my first panicked look at the newly emptied interior. I remember looking at that and wondering what I’d let myself in for. Meanwhile in my conversation with the fellow in the car parts store, I found that his dad had converted several busses over the years and that 3 years was about how long it normally took single-handed. Maybe I should have used both hands? No - scrub that - this is a family oriented blog!

Oops. Out of essentials!

The first thing I wanted to do today was to install my digital door code lock. I picked out a site for it that looked ideal in fact a couple of sites but then found that the 8-32 bolts I was going to use were unusable due to the size of the bolt head. I needed countersunk screw type heads not hexagon heads. That was, I assure you, quite a disappointment.

Putting the door code lock to one side I looked again at my purple box. By adjusting the cigarette lighter USB charger portion I was able to slip a switch in beside and have some room to spare. That was excellent. It was not the kind of switch I desired so I hunted in my parts box. I didn’t find the switch I was after but I did find one that was suitable. As the USB charger has no LED on it, I opted for an illuminated switch - just to draw attention to the USB charger being on. It all looked quite fetching. More so after I attached my lamp fixture to the top of the box in order to make it an all-in one unit.

Looking around for cable wrap, I found I just didn’t have enough. I’d had ample a few days ago but that was before doing a shed load of wiring. Clearly as I needed cable wrap, 8-32 bolts, 8-32 stop nuts and some earth wire (white), it was time to go to the store. There were things I should have bought but didn’t such as a right-angled female spade connectors and so on as they’d not made it to my list. They didn’t even make it to my list when I had to return to the store a few hours later for floorboards for a trailer that’s being repaired.

So, having got the bits I needed, I attached the box to the wall, putting cable wrap through. Now the cable wrap was 3/8 whereas what I needed was really 1/4 but beggars can’t be choosers. Besides I’d have had to drive to Harbor Freight for the right cable wrap when Lowes (hiss, spit) was less than a quarter of the distance.

That was about as far as today allowed given that other things are happening around me that are pretty disconcerting. The two red wires are positive and the two white wires are negative. The negative will just go to the bus body. The two positive will go to the USB charger and the light but as one cable is 14 gauge and one is 16 gauge a bit further back, the 14 gauge will go to the USB charger and the 16 gauge will go to the light. Speaking of lights, I should have bought more LED bulbs.

I’ve still got the connections to make inside the box - plenty connectors to crimp into place and plenty connections to make on the back of the unit. I might have to resort to soldering some connections without having any right angle connectors.

The wiring went from the box through the wall and down the inside of the shower wall to the cabling already installed. It’s not yet completed but with a little effort tomorrow, it can be. If I get to it tomorrow I might even manage to mount my code lock keypad. That would be truly wonderful!

And finally, for all my non-USA based readers, here are two photos from the outside of a Lowes store. Just so that you know what they look like.

It’s a great big builder supplies store that has everything from palates of wood and concrete blocks to tools and garden supplies. Typically - as with most US stores - it takes up the same space as Wembley stadium. It can take 10 minutes to walk from one side to the other of the store.

Let’s see where we are with things still needing to be done...
1. Complete wiring for my purple box.
2. Install front door unlocker codepad.
3. Install lock on fuel door.
4. Install lock on battery door.
5. Replace bad breaker in console.

That’s about it. There are a couple of bits of wiring to tidy but they hardly merit having individual tasks assigned to them. The battery door and fuel door look like being tasks that’ll take a while.

Water and electricity - what a mix!

Today was a broken up day with several service people calling for different reasons. Clearly not a good day to go to the school district to drop off an application! Thus I went to work on the bus during periods between callers (sometimes two callers simultaneously).

The first thing done was to connect the 12v socket to the 12v supply. That just needed a foot or so of cable. Not having any 12 gauge left I made it work with 10 gauge as I had a foot or so of 10 gauge left over. That was followed by deciding to use a 3A fuse in the fuse box. That seemed to power the shower pump pretty well when I tried it.

That shower pump came from Amazon where it’s listed as an Automobile Shower Set. I have to say it pumps very well and unlike my D cell powered shower, needs no priming. There is a leak where the hose goes into the plastic piece that screws into the handset but there’s nothing I can do about that and honestly, it’s very minor. The part that screwed together leaked like crazy until I applied some plumbers sealant to it.

Of course when it came to the actual handbasin that’s where things went belly up. Water leaked from the tailpipe. I sorted that out by removing the P trap and tightening the nut on the tailpipe. That worked pretty well but as I forgot to tighten the P trap properly, my feet got wet again. So, having tightened the P trap properly there was a very slight drip left.

Where the clear Pex hose connects to the PVC I’ve used a garden hose pipe swivel. That seems to leak. I’ll have to replace the connector. Maybe I’ll just get a 1 inch threaded to threaded connector and glue the daylight out of it. That should sort out the drip.

After that my attention turned to the lighting. I had one light switch remaining and my only assembled light bracket with G4 bulb mount had been painted purple for use in the galley. Thus I got another bracket and sprayed it pink to match the bedroom. After that had dried it was a case of mounting it and putting the switch in place. I wish my electrics looked more elegant but they work and they’re safely done. As I’m now totally out of 1A fuses I had to use a 2A fuse. Actually I should buy a ton more 1A fuses and some 2A and 3A fuses.

The light works quite well though there’s no room to put a light shade on it. On the other hand, that light just illuminates the closet and clothing rack area so looking pretty and being kind on the eyes isn’t so important. My desk lights are more important for that as I like to sit and work at my desks.

Because I thought of a light to go in the back closet I ordered some more G4 bulb mounts. I had to order from China because the price for 10 from China was the same as the price of 1 supplied in the USA. Given that that one came from City of Industry California, it’s a fair bet that it’s just arrived on the boat from The People’s Republic or as I call it The Profiteer’s Republic.

Lifting the hood of the bus I found at least one potential site for my digital door unlocker. I’m not keen to drill through the firewall but I suppose if needs must then I will. There are already plenty holes for cables and pipes that have been capped with plastic caps. That’s probably going to be my very next task.

On order are two more switches. One for the back closet light and one for the light over the desk in the galley. I’ve put the USB charging thingy on the back burner for now. I need a different project box. Buying boxes at random seems not to work very well. It’s so hard on eBay to select the right box when half of them are measured in millimeters and the other half in inches. If Radio Shack was still open, I could probably have found exactly what I needed even though I’d have had to mortgage the country to buy it.

While the switches are on their way and there being nothing much else to do on the list I’ll have a go at the digital code unlocker for the front door. I can probably fit the unit just below the engine air filter. Whether I can get in there with the drill is another matter entirely! I’ll have to run the power cable all the way behind the console too. That’ll be just so much fun!

While I was in the bus, I used the new shower pump to spray water on my hands and used the bar of soap in the bathroom of the bus to wash my hands. It was so nice to be able to do that! I think moving away from D cells to a 12v battery was a good idea though I still don’t like to be so reliant upon a single battery.

The last thing I did was to make a fused connector preparatory to connecting my solar input to my bridge rectifier. That just takes a single fuse. I’ll have to work out which fuse to use dependent upon the solar panel in use externally. As I don’t have one, there’s no current need to put a fuse. It’s easy to know which fuse though - divide the wattage of the panel by 12 and that gives me the fuse size so a 100W panel would need just over 8A so a 10A fuse. A 60W panel would need a 5A fuse and so on.

I still haven’t contacted Carolina International but thinking about it, since this bus is a Carpenter and Carpenter made the bodywork, it’s unlikely Carolina International would have anything to do with the battery or fuel doors. I’ll just have to go to Grainger with my measurements. Of course I could always fit any latch and just cut the hole bigger or weld shims to the existing hole to make it smaller. I have no idea how to remove the lock from the battery door though. That is a total mystery!

Speaking of mysteries - where did the daylight go? I look outside the bus and it’s dark. Somebody stole my daylight! I blame the French - they’ll steal anything. They’d steal air if they could work out how to put it in a bottle!

There you go - a view out of the window. See that Frenchman stealing the daylight - just beside the first pine tree? It’s the one in the dark suit with the dark gloves and dark balaclava - not the girl in fishnets with the miniskirt who’s out hunting possums with her 12 gauge.

Don’t believe me that I’m inside my bs/motorhome? Here’s another photo. I actually love sitting in here. It’s tobacco-free, quiet and peaceful. Most of all - I built it all. I’m actually rather proud of having done absolutely everything on this bus all by my little old self. This is something that not many people would have the patience nor the willingness to learn new skills to do.