An investigation into the brake line

Having already tried to separate the flexible hose from the rigid hose below, finding it not easy and breaking the rigid hose in the process, today brought a fresh look at the thing. At the top where a rigid hose comes out of the brake booster there is a clear nut. Down below on section of rigid hose after the flexible hose there is another nut securing it to a rectangular box.

Given that $68 would seem to be very expensive for a piece of plastic hose tubing just 12 inches long and given how the junction between rigid and flexible hose seems not easy to separate I'm leaning toward thinking that the entire hose is made of three factory fused sections - solid-flexible-solid. That would make much more sense. 

Looking at the other hose - the one that goes to the rear brakes, there seems to be a section that is patched together with Lowes plumbing fittings and some very non-standard rubber brake hose. I'm betting it was those hillbillies that put that together. I ordered the new connection on Friday and it should be at the nearby International store on Monday. I'll likely pick it up a couple of days later. Then and only then will I know whether my theory is 100% correct. If it is, I'll order a line for the patched side.

Here's a video of the lines showing clearly the broken connector. I'd sprayed everything with PB Blaster ready for disassembly next weekend.  It can take 24 hours to penetrate.

When I pick up the brake line, if it's as I suspect, I'll order the other brake line. I'll also pick up some brake fluid. I'm pretty sure it's not the same brake fluid that cars use. 

Meanwhile, I checked the battery level on the bus. Earlier today the charge controller had turned the power off despite it being reasonably bright yesterday and today. After most of the day had gone, I disconnected the battery and let the system sit for a couple of hours. Returning to the bus I reconnected the battery briefly and found the resting voltage was 11.7v and the charge controller reckoned the battery was at 28%. 

Looking at the battery photos, the Duracell was made in May 2018 which would make sense because the photo was August of 2018. The Harbor Freight battery was dated July 2017 and the first picture of it was December 2017. It would seem therefore that both batteries are between 2 and 3 years old and probably just about ripe to shuffle off this mortal coil.

I have been dissatisfied with the performance of these lead-acid batteries from almost the beginning. Thus as it is now time to buy a new battery, I bought on eBay a lithium battery. I'll have to test it for a few weeks first then build a new battery hanger for it. It cost $149 plus tax and shipping but then on the other hand, the Harbor Freight battery without a coupon would be $72 and the Duracell would be $100. The lithium battery was really not that much more. 

In terms of power output, a single battery wasn't sufficient to power my 4amps of extraction fans without the voltage dropping dramatically. Two batteries was far better but even so the voltage dropped steeply. This leads me to believe I was exceeding the rate of discharge for my $170 of lead-acid deep cycle batteries. The new lithium battery should deliver according to the specifications sheet, 30A. There is no way with everything switched on that I could possibly reach even 10A of discharge so I should be quite safe there.

The charge controller throws a wobbly when I try to draw more than a couple of amps from it. I wonder whether that has to do more with the awful lead-acid batteries? Fortunately my controller will handle lithium batteries. Thus I'll try it with my new setup before I use the power supply legs to power a relay. It might be that it'll just behave itself when I'm using stronger power supply. I'll have to wait and see. The new battery should arrive in about ten days. 

Yesterday I had a go at spraying the bus with Mold Armor. I'd bought some to get mold off something and had sprayed my car in a test area and found it exceedingly effective. I'd emptied the container doing that and then had to buy more. Well, I finished the car then started on the bus.

It's rather hard to see from the two photos but the dirty bus above became the clean bus below. A lot of black mold was killed off. Some green mold was removed too. Pictures from the other side would have been more spectacular but I was more interested in cleaning the bus than documenting it.

It is noticeable that the window tint film has faded dramatically since it was first applied. I'm sad about that but it's probably still quite effective when the blinds are up. The blinds are white. I'd have loved black blinds but nobody seems to make them or at least make them and make them affordable. Perhaps I should buy a roll of black vinyl and make my own?