The beautiful thing about thinking is

That it's absolutely free. In the intervening days between working on the bus and my last entry and subsequently I have come to several realisations.

But first let's return to the exciting events of the other night. No believable news has been forthcoming about events next door. The loud truck has not returned. Some guys in jeans and black tee shirts were seen climbing all over the cabin. Other than that, there has been a complete lack of news. It's one of those things that will forever have to remain a mystery!

I thought about the plumbing system and realised there are two issues. The first is that if the tanks are installed crosswise then there will be a lot of strain placed on the fastenings on acceleration and braking. The second is that breaking fastenings could be disastrous. This has prompted two new lines of thought.

The first line of thought ties in with something else I have read about. Somebody posted that a composting toilet really stinks if urine is introduced to it. Thus, one thought was to reinstall the small handbasin in the bathroom that I removed and plumb it to a tank installed underneath the toilet side of the bathroom. The handbasin is an ideal height to use as a urinal! Having one tank under each side would mean more distance between the ends of the chains used to fasten the tanks and the tyres or the fuel tank. That's a bonus in that a broken chain is less likely to damage a tyre or the fuel tank.

The second line of thought is to put wedges in place so that the tanks can be aligned longtitudanally. Now I have seen people using plywood wedges but to be honest, having seen the hillbilly plywood, I have no intention of using plywood. Perhaps plastic or steel would be a better bet.

A further thought was a method of emptying the dirty water tanks. As I often park on sandy ground, an electrical valve that allows me to empty the tanks without actually getting out to open a valve is very tempting. There are some systems that allow that but they're mostly 24v. 

The important things to complete are the plumbing, the electrical breaker box, the ventillation, the 12v system and the front door unlocking system.

 Just thoughts.

I put it off as long as I could...

Then I crawled or rather rolled under the bus to measure the space available for my battery compartment as being 13.5 inches. Then I set to work.

The first thing was to shovel the sugar I dumped from my abortive sugar blasting attempt away. Scooping it up in a shovel set hoards if wasps that had been clustered thickly over it, buzzing around angrily. Clearly using sugar has hazards!

For the next hour or so, the steel for the compartment was measured and cut. The space needed is only 7x11 inches per battery but the compartment will be 19 inches deep - just in case more space is needed.

The next thing was to balance it all together and I must say, it looks pretty decent. After that came the drilling and bolting...

The plan is initially to have a plywood floor on the compartment as it'll initially solely be a cable compartment. Later, I'll replace the floor with something more suited to batteries.

Looking at the cross members underneath the bus, they seem to largely be closed box section with a few c section beams. That's not very welcome as it looks like I'm going to have to get my box welded onto the bus. On the other hand, having it welded on means that at the same time, a stouter floor could be added, stouter sides and my sections could be tack welded for extra security.

I plugged on until I was overcome by mosquitoes and darkness. Looking at my construction it appears the steel of my angle bracket is not a true 90° as the steel section is slightly wedge shaped. Given this is steel from the bedframes the hillbillies installed, I'm not surprised its not quite right. Nothing they used or did was right. I'll plug on and see if I can at least get the front square. It really doesn't matter too much if the back is angled.

That's what it looked like when I finished work for the day. There are still several bolts to install plus lock nuts. I'll have to go over all the bolts with a wrench later, just to make sure everything is tight. It's looking like the bottom will be held on by between 24 and 32 bolts. The top will be held together by a similar number. I think I can defy 1000lbs of battery to cause that lot to sheer. The extra long bolts will be trimmed after the lock nuts have been installed.

I had a casualty. One of my 4.7mm drill bits broke. Perhaps I should say I broke it. I'd drilled through a metal section and the section moved when I was drilling through the second piece. Needless to say, the drill bit objected. Fortunately I had a spare.

Unless I can get a lot done tomorrow, this underbody compartment looks like it could drag on for a couple more weekends. Having said that, its getting ever closer to completion.

In Tractor Supply yesterday I saw some very interesting U bolts. Those could come in handy for my water tanks. That is, of course, if I can bolt through C or I section rather than box section.

I'm beginning to think that I might have to investigate welding. The same nuts on the bus forums advised against Harbor Freight gasless wire welders but then they never think much of non premium solutions. This is of course typical of forums!

After completing the basic compartment construction, the next stage will be to investigate attaching the compartment underneath the bus. I'm expecting to have to trim some of the girder sections. Honestly, I can't wait to be rid of the hillbilly compartment. Left to my own devices, I'd have simply not put an underbody compartment. If I'd had the bus straight from the depot, there are a few things I'd have done differently. One thing is, rather than simply laying plywood over the central walkway, I'd have removed the central walkway!


As it is, the floor has a slight arch in the centre because of the walkway. As it had to be removed as one section, I couldn't do much about it without ripping up the entire floor. Having said that, I suspect that might have been a better option.

Advances all around

The first thing I did was to try to replace the film on the back window. Clearly I didn't take enough care because the film suddenly started folkding in on itself and sticking to itself. After trying vainly to untangle it in a very hot bus while it became ever more stuck and entangled, I gave in to the inevitable and threw that piece away. The next piece went on brilliantly. I suspect the problem was that rather than preparing it next to the window, I'd prepared it further away and the motion of moving it halfway down the bus had set it swinging into catastrophe. It was amplified by the fact that piece was rather large and hence more prone to problems. My fault and not the fault of the film nor the supplier.

The end result looks excellent as I'm sure you'll agree. I have a feeling though that the water could do with a little more soap. I'll have to attend to that when I do my next windows. The first set of side windows have bubbles. I'm not really sure whether it's worth doing but out of duty, I might. I like to keep my best foot forward.

After the window and a break, I took the cupboard door I made and trimmed off the excess hardboard then sanded the edges. I did think about hinges but today's task was drawers.

The new 16 inch drawer runner was installed fairly quickly then the base of the drawer. I did have an idea of retarding one of the drawers because it protrudes too far but I never got to that.

The two bottom drawers sides and backs were large and could not be built using 1x4 which was rather a good thing seeing as how my remaining piece of 2x4 is about 8 inches long! Thus they had to be cut from plywood. I'm slowly working my way through my plywood supply. The question now is whether I use the large piece of plywood as a bedroom table and use scraps for the drawer fronts or build drawer fronts and find something else for the bedroom table.

Building the drawer backs and sides was not easy as I don't have a jig. My solution was to pre cut all the pieces then to pre drill some holes then glue everything and while the tackiness of the glue held everything together, completed drilling the holes, inserting screws as I went. It all seemed to work quite well.

I'll be the first to say I'm not a carpenter and that my carpentry displays this but even the most cynical skeptic has to admit that I've taken on a massive project and that I'm achieving my goals.

Tomorrow will be all about mounting cabinet doors, making drawer fronts and attaching them. Indeed, this might evev take a few days!

Shopping, shopping and more shopping

Yesterday being Tuesday, I went to the store on my way back from my Tuesday voluntary work. I got some plywood and a few other bits. The plywood was horribly expensive at $25 a sheet but should make lighter drawers than my first drawer.

I also bought some paint. For the bathroom, Line Passion which is about the most vivid green in existence. For the front, Tranquil Aqua. Sherwin Williams had an app for my phone that matches colors. While it matched the hue perfectly, the color was several shades too dark. As I have the paint now, I can't do anything but use it. I don't regard the exact match as being that important to be honest.

Today I went to start work and found I was out of 2.5 inch drywall screws. I tried other screws but the heads just stripped. 3 inch drywall screws were too long and my normal 1.5 inch drywall screws were not long enough. That meant that either drawers had to wait or I had to go to Lowe's.

Since I had two options, one of which was painting, I had no option other than go to Lowe's. My paint marked clothes have been drenched in sweat and I don't want to get paint on anything else. Clothes aren't free!

While I was at Lowe's, I looked at various things. I looked at electrics for the 110v system which will be primarily just the microwave and fridge. I considered using battery powered led lighting and think that'll probably work well. There were some interesting LED lights in Lowe's but they looked devilishly expensive. I decided to look for those online instead.

I got some better hinges for my toilet. They should fit better. Of course I got my screws and while I was there, looked for spacers. I know my drawer runners won't be perfectly parallel without them. It turned out plastic spacers were costly while ordinary steel washers came cheaply in bulk packs. No prizes for guessing which I bought.

So, when I got back, I set back to work building drawers. Needless to say, I cut my plywood a little on the large side and have to trim it down. The rails were pretty well mounted with the new screws and washers.

Needless to say, it was 106F in the bus so in short order, sweat was running into my eyes. That was not my only problem. A more pressing issue was that as I'd piled everything into the dinette when I worked on the bathroom, I'm having to clamber over things to work. Hardly a good working environment.

Tomorrow and for possibly the next few days I'll be working on drawers. After that I'll probably build the bedroom table and the partition rail. Then the closet chain followed by a painting marathon. Somewhere I'll also squeeze in building my saloon doors between the dinette and bathroom.

Internal construction is rapidly drawing to a close. I can't wait to complete the project! Ooh and in exciting news, my lift off hinges arrived - all the way from Wolverhampton in the UK.

I have two cupboard doors that need to be opened more fully than the surrounding woodwork will permit. One of my design flaws. (What designing did you actually do - editor). To be honest, I have a tendency to plan vaguely then build. It's worked pretty well so far!

I did a lot in the toilet!

Not because I had a dicky tummy though. I spent yesterday getting supplies and cutting wood for my bus toilet. Today I started construction.

The late start didn't help for it was a full 3pm before I started. I had been so excited about the closeness to the end of major construction that I didn't find it easy to get off last night. Indeed it was almost midday before I woke! Then I had to tend the wolf pack while m'lady went to the doctor.

It was another day of 115f in the bus and my first problem was my 1\4 inch drill was not long enough to go edgewise through my 2x4. Thus was addressed by drilling half inch recesses in the wood to make allowance for the heads of my lag screws. Between that and putting the top and bottom of the toilet frame together, I was busy.

I need to cut another cross member between the poo bucket and the cat lit bucket but that's a task for another day. I should also put some form of bar in behind the poo bucket to stop it sliding back. That's something that needs to be in place to catch descending goodies.

Having run out of lag screws I found I needed four more and if I install the other two supports then I'd need another 8 on top. I have a feeling that I've over engineered the toilet to the point it'd hold an elephant. That's fine though. The last thing I want to do is to fall into a pot of freshly steaming nastiness or even worse, stale, whiffy nastiness.

I bought some plywood yesterday with the intent to make a top for the toilet. This will hinge forward to allow access to Hersheys Pot of Gold. This might be necessary if I have to put a lid on the pot between uses. Cutting two holes, the first was easy - its the hole from which to scoop cat lit. Thanks for the idea, Eric! That was easy to cut - I simply lowered my circular saw in place and cut the square then finished the corners with a straight saw. The oval hole is trickier. I started by cutting a square out then started using a jigsaw. Oh boy, that took forever and the light went well before I finished. It looks like I'll be working on the toilet for a couple more days!

The plywood will hinge forward. I'll put a back, sides and a front on the toilet. There will be a hinged lid on the access to the cat lit. I'll have to wait a week or two before painting as the wood is rather wet still. There is no bottom because I want easy access to clean inside and to clean spills off the floor. I probably won't bolt it down. It's heavy enough that it likely won't slide much. If necessary, I'll find some way of bolting it in place with easily removable bolts.