At least 4 inches of rain fell today

After I unplugged the drain holes in the roof vent 4 inches of rain would have had water pouring inside the bus. There was none - aside from the persistent drip over the instrument panel. Even the wall that usually feels moist didn't feel too bad. I might have cracked the wet problem.

I'd been outside to work on the bus. I'd started to put together a switch to turn the power from the external rear solar input on and off. The default (which is manual) is supposed to be "off" just in case somebody accidentally plugs in something of too high voltage. It was the usual comedy of errors but I overcame them all to end up with this.

The holes in the plastic case take #6 bolts so I'll have to see if I can find my #6 rivnuts. With that mounted in place and all in cable sheathing, it should all be quite presentable. I'm putting the plan to put a voltage switch on the extraction fans on hold for now. The new plan with the new simpler switch is to try installing a 3rd battery so the simple switch will be all I'll need.

After that I started to put wires into my new battery connectors. That went well enough for the first three wires. As the wires are 8 gauge I had to use a butane torch to melt the solder and heat the wire. An ordinary soldering iron is not hot enough! So, having got the ends of the wires tinned and the cups on the ends of the connectors full of solder, it was time to solder the wires in. That was pretty easy - just hold the end in pliers, dunk the tinned end of the wire into the solder in the cup and wait for the solder to solidify - that took several minutes for each connection.

Having done 3 wires out of the four, the Heavens opened. It rained cats and dogs and a few camels and baboons too. By the time it ended, the trash cans I'd left open in the yard to dry had at least 4 inches and possibly more water in them. That did not dry out the nasty trashcans and didn't dry out the massive maggots in the trashcans either.

As the ground is sandy, water drains readily. I was able to head out to complete my 4th connection. That means I now have connectors ready to connect to a battery and a cable I can connect into the battery system. I have 3 spare connectors. My plan with them is to make spares for my existing connectors. 

At the moment there is a wasp nest under the bus. I can't see clearly where it is though. At one time they were building a nest by the fuel tank. I took care of that with some PB Blaster. Now I have proper wasp and hornet spray but they're building their nest elsewhere. I'm suspecting it's somewhere over the transmission so I might just have to start the engine and run it for 20 minutes or so just to get it hot enough to drive them away.

Under the bus I want to install my new battery cables. I'm still waiting on a self-resetting breaker from China. I might just break down and buy one locally though since I saw the car parts store sells them. I want also to install the wires for the solar battery charger for the main driving batteries. Finally, I want to use the air compressor in conjunction with my air socket wrench to put cable ties where I can't currently install them.

Inside the bus I need to finish the switch and cabling from the solar input to the charge controller and finish installing the bathroom fan. On top of the bus I need to replace the vent. Other than that there are a couple of things I can do to tidy up internal electrics but that's pretty much it.

There is an idea I had for installing hot water via an instant 120v water heater and an idea I had for installing a 5K BTU AC unit powered by plugin electricity but both are plugin ideas that I'm not currently going to pursue. I keep thinking about installing a bigger gas cooktop but I'm not really all that sure I want to go that far when I can just use my portable butane cooker on a folding table outside. Another idea I had involved using a Harbor Freight tarp and connecting it somehow to the bus and stakes screwed into the ground. Or perhaps just an umbrella that screws into the ground.