Things done and things not done.

As I had to do a course at work for half a day I used the second half and went shopping. First off there was Harbor Freight. They had more cable wrap, a pair of cheap ratcheting crimpers for the spade connectors I use. This is important since I damaged a muscle in my right arm. Sad to say I didn't get it from punching anybody's daylights out. I have no idea what happened. It just means I cannot apply the force needed to crimp with a traditional crimper. 

After Harbor Freight I stopped in at Northern Tool. There awaited me quite a surprise. In fact a delightful surprise. I managed to get my favorite 7014 welding rods. Now I can get on with cutting some steel to weld over the bottom back window. I can also get on with welding the steel ankle I bought later from Tractor Supply into a battery holder for my 3rd 35AH battery.

Originally I planned to have just one battery but that didn't really work out. Now I have two and it really makes a huge difference. Three will probably be the ideal. It's not a capacity problem but a discharge rate problem. I cant get enough power out of the single battery in the time permitted. What would have saved me money would have been if I'd gone lithium in the beginning but this whole thing has been a learning progress.

That's the current state of the cockpit - wires to be installed under the bus for the new battery, a 5W solar panel used for testing things, tools and supplies galore. You can even see the new roof vent though I'll definitely need a dry day to install that. I need dry days for the underbody wiring, the welding and the roof vent.

A small thing done today was to complete the wiring for the external solar panel switch. Needless to say I had to pull out my meter to work out which was on and which was off. The switch needs some double-sided sticky stuff to stick it firmly to the ceiling but it's fine otherwise. 

The shower fan finally got installed. The wiring remains to be completed. I just didn't feel like doing it when I'd put the fan in place. That required some soldering since the crimped connections weren't conducting electricity as they should have. That's the problem with the toy wires these CPU fans use. Unlike the bigger fan, this 90mm fan does move air at the base of the shower. I can feel it. That means there's good circulation and it should be good for drying clothes put on a rack in the shower.

No spectacular progress today. Nothing is quite completed yet. Still the same things need doing:

• The sheet metal on the back door needs a dry day.
• The underbody wiring needs a dry day and access to the compressor for the final bit. I'm still waiting for my 10A breaker,
• The roof vent needs to be switched out. I have some epoxy putty and rivets as well as the new event. Since I rebuilt the long handle riveter, that works. My short hand riveter now needs to be rebuilt. The roof vent also needs a dry day.
• The solar switch just needs a piece of double-sided padded tape. I've used all that I have and just need to find more.
• The shower fan needs the wiring to be completed and the switch installed. I have all the bits.

One of the other things I got the other day at Harbor Freight was a metal detector. I can see a fault with the Harbor Freight one in that the telescoping section doesn't work well. It was bought though so that I can check the ground where I want to move the bus to for nails etc. Those things vanish into the sand then surface unexpectedly. Before I move the bus to a new parking spot, I'll put down some tarp or something so that I can suppress grass growth and hence rust.