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.