100F or 38C is not funny!

Today it's not just hot, it's beyond hot. I had aspirations toward installing the final battery cabling under the bus but aside from the weather being a little too warm, I found that while I have the cables, the cable wrap I have is not big enough. The quarter inch wrap is way to small. The three eights wrap is on the small side too but while I could use it, I didn't have enough to complete the task.

My 10A self-resetting breaker still has not arrived from China though my battery connectors have arrived. I'd rather get the whole length of the cable in cable wrap before I go under the bus and while I'm there I want to replace some of the battery connectors currently in use anyway. Not being able to do everything underneath was a deterrent to commencing. 

I finally figured out a way to put cable ties on the cables where the underbody rib is directly over chassis members or the differential. Both of those mean I cannot use my handy Harbor Freight power drill or my handy Harbor Freight battery drill (for which I bought a new battery the other day). It's really simple - I bought an air wrench when I thought I was going to have to work on a pickup truck that had rusty bolts. I realize now that if I put a socket the same size as the hex head as my self-drilling screws, I can use the air wrench as though it were a power driver.

Meanwhile, I bought a toggle switch the other day. I'd intended to use that with the new USB socket I installed in the bus - you remember - the one when I had the accident and snapped the turn signal switch, forcing me to buy and install a new turn signal switch?

I opened the console and found I'd already put a switch in there. The wires from the USB device were hard wired to the power rail though so they will always be on. I moved a wire to the switch, installing a female spade connector and finding out that I was totally out of blue connectors. Never mind, I doubled the wire back and used a yellow. That worked!

In this picture you can see the control console. There are seven switches that Carpenter never installed. From top left to bottom right...

• Sockets - powers some USB sockets to the left of the console.
• CB - powers the CB to the right of the console.
• NAV - powers the new USB socket which in turn powers my GPS speedometer and an as-yet-to-be-obtained GPS navigation unit.
• REV - powers the reversing horn.
• Camera - powers all 3 of the cameras and both of the C-DVR units in order to record everything happening in front or behind.
• MON - powers the monitor so I can see what the reversing cameras can see.
• Horn - currently powers the bus horn. I do intend to find out what's wrong with the horn circuit and remedy it so that I can sound the horn by pressing the horn button on the steering wheel.

As you may have noticed (which was rather astute of you) the labels for the new switches are stick-on labels with sharpie on them. While I could go out and beg or buy a label maker, I really, really don't see the point. Everything I do on this bus is done for me. I have such rotten luck selling anything that I have no doubt that when I have no use for the bus any more I'll be totally unable to sell it and will likely end up giving it to a farmer to use as a chicken house. Thus there is little point in putting fancy (and expensive) features in that might make it salable. The other thing is that I see so many people trying to sell their conversions after a few years (and even see one moldering in a secondhand car merchant's field) the market is probably flooded.

Add to the flooded market all those people that have bought ready-converted buses or spent a small fortune on having them converted. They will be wanting to sell after a few short years. Those will have all the fancy bits that mine does not. They will be selling them for pennies on the dollar. Then throw insurance into the matter. It's almost impossible to get comprehensive insurance not just on a DIY schoolbus conversion but on one that's not been done by (the agent told me) a major company (one that makes motorhomes as a business). So small redneck companies out in the hills stand no chance - whether they make one or a hundred a year - of producing anything insurable. 

It thus makes no sense to spend a ton on a conversion. Better to do it all yourself and have the challenges of doing it and know how to do it again if something goes wrong - somebody steals your bus or it gets written off in a wreck. 

I've been thinking of welding a steel sheet over the lower window in the back door. As the trailer in which they have been stored has a major rat problem, I went to get my welder today. The welder is usable - it just needs to be wiped down after being left in the sun for a while. The helmet - the same. The leathers are probably so well impregnated with rat pee and rat poo that I'll just condemn them. I suspected I might have to so I bought more gloves when I was at Harbor Freight, the other day.

Not having air brakes on the bus means I have no handy air tank to use for power tools. I have been investigating all kinds of ideas. One that looked feasible is to use a tyre inflater to pressurize a 5 gallon portable air tank. If that was mounted under the bus and the inflater powered by solar battery power or from the alternator when the bus was running, that would allow me a wide array of options. It's an idea I'm playing with. For the moment I'll probably use somebody else's air compressor and tank.

I measured the aperture on the back window at 31 5/8" by 15 5/8". With steel sheet cut to that size and held in place with some welding magnets that I bought at Harbor Freight, I could weld the steel flush with the rest of the door, leaving the original window intact and in place.  There was a slight hiccup to the plan though - the steel on the side of the cooker has folds in it where they're unwelcome. Thus it might end up being a case of having to weld two pieces of steel together before welding the steel into place. That would be quite unwelcome but all is not lost. Appliances here fall like flies so there's bound to be another soon.

Meanwhile, Harbor Freight has elected to stop selling the good welding rods. Now they sell a different brand (at a higher price) and don't sell 1/16th rods any more. To do this welding I can't use a 6013 rod as it doesn't adhere to galvanized steel. I would prefer not to use 6011 as it spatters badly even though it is for galvanized steel. I would like to use 7014 as it does the same job as the 6011 but doesn't spatter.

I have tried 3/32nd and 1/8th rods on my welder and it really does not perform well with either. I'm not about to buy a new welder with the little welding that I have left to do on the bus project. I'd rather hunt for rods and have to order online. I went to Lowes and looked but had the usual run around and had to talk to 5 members of staff, none of whom knew anything about welding (despite selling welding equipment), all of whom waved a pack of 1/16th 6013 rods at me. Eventually they rang somebody and told me they couldn't get them. Sounds like they need a different attitude and a different supplier.

Next I went to AirGas where I met a very pleasant fellow who knew exactly what he was talking about. He had a ton of rods and explained that a 7018 is a 7014 that can be used also for overhead welding. Sadly, he had no 1/16th rods but enthused about how smoothly 7018 rods went on.

Checking online, Tractor Supply is alleged to have 7014 rods in 1/16th but we all know how accurate company websites are, don't we? I must remind my readers of the debacle by the car spares store. They said online that I could order a turn signal switch to be paid for and picked up in store. I did just that and never heard another peep from them other than when I rang I spoke to somebody claiming to be the Store Manager who really didn't sound capable of managing a used diaper.

So, I might just have to order online for the welding rods I need. That kinda quashes advancement over the weekend. Of the projects underway...

• The roof vent - I have the bits - I just need a cooler day.
• The underbody wiring - I need to go out to get half inch cable wrap and blue female spade connectors. I'm also waiting for my self-resetting 10A breaker to arrive.
• The controller for the fans. I'm holding off on that right now. I have another box on the way and want to wire the solar input via a switch into place before I work more on the fan controller. I want to test whether I can just run off all existing panels while they're connected to my charge controller or whether I'll need to put a smoothing capacitor in somewhere.
• The bathroom fan. That arrived. I just need to get down to installing it. I'll have to make new brackets to mount it. I just never thought of doing it today.

I think everything else is done. I did think about the air tank a bit further and somebody suggested getting an engine powered air pump. The problem there is secondhand they're about $500. That's pretty costly. Of course, if I was to do that then I'd want really decent air tanks and that would lead me toward installing air brakes.

Honestly, if I get the four or five current project done, I'll regard the bus as being complete. While I could add a 120v AC unit by installing a window AC unit under the floor, ducted to blow into the cabin, I think my fan ventilation is superior. Needless to say though that when I get the last cabling into place I will probably install another Harbor Freight battery but in the battery compartment. When it comes time to replace all three then I might just put a single 100AH battery in the battery compartment alongside the driving batteries.