Scammed again!

You've heard me say before about what rubbish these solar cells and wind turbines are on many occasions. I do try every now and then to get this green nonsense to work. Today I pulled out my solar panel and connected a 12v CPU fan to it. I aimed the panel squarely at the sun at the perfect angle and waited. Nothing happened. Unsurprised I connected my 12v CPU fan to a 6v battery and it whirred away nicely, shifting a good quantity of air.

Just to be sure - the panel was sold as 12V 5W and the CPU fan was sold as 12v. It probably only consumes 500MA at most or 10% of the panel's rated output. It is therefore rather strange that the fan does not spin, given the figures. Now a cynic would probably say that the panel manufacturer was grossly exagerating the output of the panel. Yeah... I'll go with that. Having seen it at midday failing to make a 12v indicator panel light bulb glow more than very faintly I'm going to go with the solar panel is a load of rubbish.

Sadly, this is not my first foolish forray into the fantasy world of renewable energy. Years ago I had a small panel and I plugged it into my cellphone to charge my cellphone. As I didn't actually need to use that particular phone, I left the whole lot plugged up on a windowsill for an entire week. After that week, during which the sun shone firercly on the panel, the phone had enough charge in it to run it for 15 minutes. Bear in mind this was an old style flip phone. If I remember correctly it was an Eriksson T15 or something similar. Those were the days when a phone could be charged and left on standby for 10 days before having to recharge it.

It's very tempting to follow the hoohaa about renewable energy but the truth is that electricity generated from the sun and from wind is just nonsense. Looking at the wind turbines available for motorhomes and the solar panels, the electricity generated is truly pitiful and the cost is truly outrageous. In order to run a microwave the theory is that a standard microwave such as the one I tossed out a few weeks ago because it was shot, would need 1100watts to power it. In terms of my pitiful little $15 5W solar panel that can't run a fan or light a bulb, in order to produce 1100W, I'd need 220 panels. Given that the panel is about 12 inches by 8 inches, that's going to cover 146 square feet. That, by the way is probably more space than the entire roof of my bus. It would cost $3,300 too. Even if bigger more economical panels were used then the power produced would still be unlikely to power my microwave.

Looking at things another way, if my panel cannot actually produce its stated capacity but can produce about 10% of it then things look pretty bleak for solar panels. Assuming a whole roof covered with panels producing a fanciful 1100W but an actual 110W then that 110W would have to be produced for 10 hours in order to produce enough power to run the microwave for just 1 hour. Now I bet you're saying that nobody runs a microwave for an hour. Think again! That's a cheap-ass Rival microwave that costs $50 in Walmart. That thing takes 15 minutes to cook a plate of food. There's three meals and maybe a couple of drinks and the entire day's supply of power is gone. No mention of heating water to shower, running lighting or anything else.

So, what is the solution? Well, initially I just won't be wasting my time with electricity unless it's of the battery powered or plugin variety. Speaking of battery powered, I did buy some AA powered phone chargers. There is a possibility of another couple of solutions too. One is to put a 12v battery under the bus, connected to the main batteries when driving so they will charge and disconnected when camping but connected to the house circuits instead. That could be achieved with a simple, ordinary switch on the console. Actually that is probably by far the best solution!

Thinking about the battery under the bus, it would need a massively powerful switch to control the amperage produced by the alternator. Thus a switching relay is likely to be needed. There sure is a lot of electrical work I need to do under the bus besides this!

There are starting batteries available that also have air compressors and USB power connectors. They don't have batteries that are all that worthwile inside. Usually 20AH at most. Those are pretty similar to the uninterruptable power supplies used in most offices. Again, the problem is a miserly battery.

At the moment, electricity is a way off in the future. However I have tried a few things that just haven't worked out. Mostly it has been the solar garbage that has been the hold up. Solar power like wind power really is cloud cuckoo land.

What was I thinking?

That I might actually achieve something today? The first thing I did was to head to the bus to find the tool needed to change the disk on my angle grinder. That was easy enough. I think after hunting through six big, fully loaded cardboard boxes I'd had enough but fortunately it was right in the bottom of the sixth box. Tidying up the other day had the unfortunate effect of concealing the things I need to find!

Having changed the disk - a task of mere seconds as opposed to the hour or so trying to find the tool - I decided to cut some steel for the back door. Just the other end of the property lies a abandoned trailer with an abandoned fridge lying in the yard. That fridge looked to be a very suitable donor!

For some reason, there was an electric cable lying along the length of the yard. Thus, angle grinder in hand I went to the fridge, expectantly. Well, that's where it all went to pot! There was no power to the cable. Undaunted and beginning to swelter from the oppressive spring heat, I traced the cable back and found it wasn't attached to the main cable. I attached it then tried again. Still no power. I unattached the cable and tried the grinder on the main cable. Nothing. I traced the main cable back to its origin which happened to be a pile of leaves. That was odd and there was no visible socket anywhere nearby. I have seen that cable in use though.

Undaunted and no longer in the mood to mess about, I went to the shed and pulled out m'lady's Harbor Freight 800w generator. It was a struggle but I carried it down to the fridge. Reading the instructions it was a case of putting the power switch into the on position, setting the choke and pulling the cord. I pulled and pulled and pulled and pulled some more. Now I know why the electrical cable has been in use. The generator just would not start!

Frustrated and exhausted, I put the generator back in the shed. Sure - it had fuel and I'd followed the instructions. There definitely was compression. It just wouldn't bloody well start. At that point I decided enough had gone wrong to merit not attempting any further work. It was the kind of day when nothing would work out and in my experience, it's better to miss a day than to make mistakes that cost yet more time and or money to fix.

My mind flitted to conversion discussions I'd read when I was a member of those silly bus conversion forums. One fool wanted to change the dual wheels at the back to single wheels just in order to cut down on tyres. The fact that the vehicle had been designed to use dual wheels did not enter into the silly person's head. Another individual wanted to change over to a different type of tyre. Instead of using the standard 10R22.5 he wanted to use something weird. The point is this is a bus. It will always be a bus no matter how it is retitled. The parts will cost exactly what bus parts cost. Yes the tyres are expensive. This is what you get when you buy a bus and people don't understand that. Honestly though, I suspect the vast majority of forum users that claim to have a bus actually do not. I recall one person swearing blind they lived in an old school bus but looking at their photos, they lived in a bus body that had been dismounted off the chassis. It was immobile and thus not a bus any more.

Having thought about things overnight, I have decided to go with the original plan for the drums in having them mounted crosswise. Instead of having a pair of drums under the shower, I decided to go with a single drum on each side. The steel chain I bought will hold 450lbs and since there will be 3 chains holding each barrel, that's 1,350lbs of holding power. I don't think a 125lb tank is going to go aywhere or that any one chain will break. I will still take precautions though!

By 3pm the sky was still very overcast and grey. The humidity was off the charts and work outside was just unpleasant. It was time to come inside and abandon the day in the hope that tomorrow will be a better day.

I would have put the microwave on the ground since it doesn't now look safe to use and put a few bullets though it, taken a picture and joked about the microwave being "shot" but what with the weather, I just didn't feel like it. My humble appologies - I'll do better next time!

Bang - ouch - grunt - bang - ouch!

That was pretty much how my day went. I spent most of the day underneath the bus, fitting the back on the power inlet. Now I'm using a Nema 5-30 when the recommended connector is the Nema 6-30. Neither has any particular advantage. Both will carry 30A at 120v. It just so happens that I managed to get 6-30 and 5-30 inlets by mistake. The 5-30 connectors were available but the 6-30 were not so I ended up with the solution I have. It's non-standard because the connectors are designed for two live wires as opposed to live and neutral but it works when one is wired live and the other, neutral.

Fighting with 50A cable in the confined space under the bus is not to be recommended. I bumped my head countless times. In the end and after a lot of time, some of which was wasted by having to fetch tools I had not envisaged needing, I managed to put everything together. The cable was too thick to allow me to install a rubber gromet around it. Well, that's not quite true - the cable was so thick and difficult to manover, I didn't manage to install the rubber gromet. I might return to that tomorrow or I might just squirt some silicone sealant in the gaps.
 
I would like to have some sort of guard around the wire but I'm not sure it's going to be that easy to install. Having said that, I can`t imagine anything is going to hit it, where it is.

Today I made use of the old battery compartment I built. I simply tack welded a brace on one side to make it less flexible then tack welded a top on. Now it's a handy support for my redundant 15 gallon barrel. That's going to be used to collect kitchen grease at m'lady's home.
  
At least it's going to have some use. I'm finding that nothing that came with the bus that was attached by the hillbillies was worth keeping. I spent two months working with various attempts at building compartments before I finally decided it wasn't worth the bother.

After welding the compartment remnants together to form something useful, I turned to the gas cylinder. Cutting it open surprised me. The steel was thicker than I'd thought at about 16 gauge and it was rusty inside. Looking at the thickness of the steel, I wasn't surprised that the bullet didn't penetrate both skins. It did prove that the people that hide behind car doors during a gunfight have a point. 9mm will go through the first leaf then the second will stop the bullet. I was quite surprised about that!

As can be seen, the bottom of the cylinder has indentations. This makes the bottom unsuitable for use as a handbasin. The top is similarly unsuitable as it has not just a valve but a pressure release plate. That's all fixable but it's just too much messing about. Better to look elsewhere for my handbasin.

The bullet was surprising. During its entry, it remained complete but seems to have lost its copper jacket at some point. The copper and lead are two entirely separate entities which probably accounts for the double dent on the non-penetrated side. At a guess, I'd say it shed the jacket as it came in through the entry hole.

As you can see, the jacket and the lead core are now separate! I didn't think this would happen.

In terms of what was done today - I put the power inlet into the bus. The main breaker is not yet installed but might be tomorrow. My 20A cables are 30 feet and 20 feet long. The 30 foot long length is just a shade too short to reach the bus. I could move the power socket and really should but I'll leave it where it is. I'll probably get a 40 foot 30A cable and make that up, maybe tomorrow. Tonight it's just too late to go and buy any cabling. 

After dinner, I took my LED lantern and went back to the bus. I didn't leave it plugged in as I have as yet not installed the main breaker box. I'll get to that tomorrow. Instead, I hung my LED lantern up in the bathroom and put up 10 rivnuts with screw eyes. Those will take S hooks and I will hang my shower curtains from them. 

It might be worthwhile to put a further rivnut and screw eye from which to hang the LED lantern. Very handy for showering in the dark! 

Not mentioned so far today, two more of my self-stick blinds have fallen down. Clearly the glue isn't up to much. I need to get some roller blinds to replace them. I might actually put off getting the 30A cable a while. It's not strictly necessary just yet. The main breaker box is far more important!

If I speed on with a trip to the store tomorrow, there's no reason why I can't clean the bus, install the blinds, install the shower curtain and take photos for the retitling process. The shower curtain will take mere minutes to install. The blinds won't take that much longer. Cleaning isn't going to take a huge amount of time either! There's only 210 square feet of bus!

What is that fuzzy plug?

Yesterday I posted a slightly fuzzy photo of my new inlet in the side of the bus. Many of you will not have seen a connector such as that before. There's a reason for that - it's not sold in Lowes (hiss, spit) or Home Depot (cough). It is designated as a Nema 6-30I. 

The Nema designation means that it's an inlet (hence the I) and will handle 30A at 250v. Unlike the normal Nema connectors used in the US (Nema 5-15), this is a twist-lock connector. Now the twist lock means that when the connector is inserted, it can be twisted and locked into place. This has the upside that it won't fall out but the downside that it's easier to damage the inlet etc by simply tripping over the power cord.

On most RVs etc the connector used is the TT30 connector such as the connector I installed in m'lady's front yard. Here we get to the nitty-gritty! Hunting around I could not locate a TT30 inlet for less than $70. Thus I went for a different connector. It makes no realistic difference. It'll work just the same. The only difference is that if I have to replace the cord then I'll have to build my own cord like I have been. I can't use off-the-shelf cords.

The upside of off-the-shelf cords is that they're available at most RV outlets. The downside is that they're sold at huge prices. Cords are available secondhand (probably red hot too) but would you trust a cord of unknown capacity? I won't trust anything electrical or electronic that's secondhand. I've seen too many secondhand electrics and electronics bursting into flames.

A subsidiary upside of having a bespoke connection is that because it's non standard, it's not as desirable to those that would wish to steal cables. Now I'm not thinking of a masked bandit in a black and red striped sweater with a sack labelled "swag" over his shoulder but I am thinking of less scrupulous individuals that "forget" their RV cord and "borrow" somebody else's cord but never return it.

I can see a day when RVs will largely not have cables any more. Look at it like this - at $2.50 a foot for 30A cable - the cables are just ridiculously expensive. The standard RV cable is about 50 feet. That represents about $75 of investment just lying on the ground for somebody else to pick up and walk away with. If they figure they can get a bottle of beer out of it, they figure it's been a good day's work. Heavens I've even heard of people's house air-conditioners being stolen and they weigh up to a ton!

With the rising price of copper and the almost static cost of generators, there's going to be a convergence. It will soon be cheaper to slip a $300 generator under an RV than to put a power cord. I don't really see solar and wind power as being worthwhile.

Investigating solar power, to produce the 10A at 120v needed to power a microwave directly, I'd need 1200W of power. Solar panels are $1 per watt wich does not mean that I'd need $1200 of panels. Because of the poor light at times I'd most likely need $2500 of panels just to run the microwave directly at midday. 

Batteries seem like a good idea but the cheapest deep cycle battery gives 100ah of power which is a misnomer because you're only supposed to take a maximum of 55% out of a battery before the battery gets damaged. Thus a $90 100AH battery is about $2 per amp hour or 17c per watt hour. 

In order to run a microwave for 15 minutes (thinking about the lowest power microwave in Walmart that takes 15 minutes to cook a plate from frozen and which coincidentally rusts to bits in 2 years), 300 watt hours of power would be needed at 10A. Now those two factors are very important. Remembering the 10% power loss from using an inverter (and ignoring the $300 cost of a 2KW inverter), 100A at 12v would be needed for 15 minutes. Most 12v batteries can't discharge more than 20A for more than a few seconds without getting dangerously hot. To be safe, think about 10A. This means 10 batteries in parallel, each weighing 50lbs would be needed to power a microwave. That's 500lbs of battery.

How much would a system cost that could power a microwave? Well, $900 in batteries, $1200 in solar panels, $300 inverter plus whatever I haven't thought of. That's a minimum of $2400. Of course if you went for lithium batteries, you'd need less batteries and be carrying less weight but be paying 20 times more for the batteries. EG a 300ah lithium battery is about $3500 and has a maximum constant discharge of about 50A.

So, the cheapest form of cooking power is a plug-in for electrical operation. The cheapest plug is a Nema 6-30. But cheaper even than carrying a generator is a portable gas cooker with butane tanks just like you'd use for camping! 

Unexpected achievements and a bad Kahr.

Today was, I had thought, going to be a day of zero progress on the bus. How wrong I was. I did most of the things I intended to do for tomorrow!

Work, which was scheduled for today, was to have been a full day of training but that was truncated at 1pm when two of the trainers were indisposed. Thus, being sent home early, I popped into Lowes (hiss, spit) for some plumbing pieces (of which more at a later date) and headed home.

Arriving home at 3pm, there were 3 good hours of daylight left so they got put to use. Last night I had been thinking about a handbasin for the bus. I considered the end of a small gas cylinder. I'd noticed there was such a cylinder on the junk pile. Thus, out of an abundance of caution, I placed it on the ground, ready to ensure it was empty. The cylinder said "helium" on it but it could well have been refilled with propane. Labels don't always mean what they say!

Not wanting to cut into a cylinder that might have propane in it, I decided on remote ventillation so I grabbed my (somewhat disappointing Kahr PM9) and fired a single shot from about 25 yards away. The shot did not immediately appear to have hit the cylinder to I aimed for another shot whereupon I discovered the blasted thing had jammed. Racking the slide, I found it kept jamming. In the end I put it away. That Kahr PM9 has been nothing but trouble since I bought it. I wish to Heavens I'd gone for a revolver rather than that stupid thing. Revolvers never jam! I would hate to be surprised by a bad guy when carying a PM9. I am pretty sure the PM9 would be more effective simply hurled at the bad guy. In terms of penetration the PM9 managed to get through one side of the (very thin) steel then totally failed to make an exit hole. I can hear the bullet rattling around inside. I'm going out on a limb and going to say that I just don't think the PM9 would penetrate a bad guy's shirt!

Putting the cylinder out of the way for the moment - the plan is to cut the top off to turn it into a handbasin - I proceeded onto today's work. I'll have to see if I can weld something this thin. That might present a significant challenge!

Today the plan was to complete welding the patch over the hole in the side of the bus cut by the hillbillies. That took me all of the remaining daylight. It was just a laborious process of building up steel and filling gaps until eventually the result was pretty good. It looked rough from the outside but it'll do.

I put the power socket cover over the area where it'll be fitted and sprayed with orange paint. Then I pulled out my angle grinder but instead of a cutting disk, I put a grinding disk. This worked surprisingly quickly and ground the excess welds flat to the point the socket cover fitted without rocking. It did reveal two small holes in the welding where the welding has not really filled the gap. These holes are minimal. I had thought 6011 rods would penetrate and fill holes but oh well. 

Next, the whole lot got cleaned up with a wire brush then painted with brown undercoat. This bus does not have to look perfect - it just has to work well. The undercoat went on well enough. Tomorrow I'll put undercoat on the back of the plate then paint the front with grey paint. But before I do that, I'll make the holes for the socket cover. With any luck - if the paint inside is dry in time, I might put a second coat inside and then install the remains of the underbody electrics. The main breaker inside will be installed at a later date. Some have asked why I'm putting a main breaker box. The answer is simple - the main breaker is there to protect the cable from overloading. Currently I have a 20A cable but I'll also make up a 30A cable and might get a 10A cable too. The reason for this is twofold. Firstly different sites offer different facilities and secondly, the heavier rated cables cost more per foot. If I can park close to a power point I can use my heavier cables and get more power. There is another thing in that the heavy cables being more expensive are more prone to theft.

What a day!

Two entries - would you even believe it? Yes - today has been exceedingly eventful. What with no electricity in the morning followed by intermittant electricity, I am much more inclined toward gas as well as my 120v plugin.

After breakfast/lunch/whatevertheheckitwas, I left to go to work. Arriving, I found the normal rooms locked up and the lights out. Then I found the boss. Apparently he'd tried to let me know that work had been cancelled for today but his letting me know had been to ring my phone and leave no message. That wasn't particularly helpful but anyway as nothing could be achieved at work, I turned around and headed back home, stopping off at the barbers on my way. It had been a couple of months since my last haircut!

Arriving home, after checking out the microwave I set to, working on welding the final patch over the hillbilly cable compartment disaster area. It took a while to trim the steel to shape and I deliberately undercut it this time in order to avoid the warping problems I had last time. 

Welding with 6011E 1/16th rods used a lot of rods and I had major problems - as before with burn through. In the end and because I ran out of 1/16th rods I turned to 3/32 rods. What a difference - these were and this is extremely counter-intuitive much easier to weld with. I began to fill the gaps where I'd undercut the steel but before I had quite finished, the daylight escaped on me. Had I had another couple of hours of daylight, I'm sure I would have finished the task.

Using the 1/16th rods I never had a problem with the welder shutting down to cool down. With the 3/32, rods I'd manage about two rods before the welder would overheat and need to cool. It has a 20% duty cycle. If I'd spent more on the welder I would not have the problem. On the other hand, I am happy that I didn't pay for more than I need.

By the time I had to stop due to darkness, I'd welded about 75% of the edges. I applied some black bumper spray since my Rustoleum anti-rust spray and my Rustoleum self-etching primer sprays didn't want to work and since I didn't want to use a paintbrush. 

As can be seen, I haven't finished welding the bottom left now the lower left side. My welds aren't pretty but they do work. I'll be glad when this operation is completed!

As mentioned before, I looked at the microwave. I pulled it out and wire-brushed the rusty parts inside. The more rust I removed, the more I found. The paint just peeled up and revealed yet more rust. It really wasn't very impressive for a microwave that I purchased in November of 2011 and used until May of 2014 then stored in a dry location! I don't think 30 months is a good life for a microwave!

Anyway, I kept working on the rust with steel brush and scraped the paint away with a plastic paint scraper. After a while I noticed that the rust wasn't surface rust. It was rusted through in places. How on earth is this possible? There was so much rust that repairing the microwave just seems pointless. Certainly I can deal with rust. Looking at the holes in the bottom of the roller recess, it just seems to me that the microwave is beyond repair.

Sadly, I took the microwave out of the bus. I'll have to replace it with something else. So, for the moment it's sitting on the ground awaiting disposal or recycling.

I had hoped at least to get the electrical inlet hole made but still, I have made progress. Indeed maybe I might have made faster progress had I used 3/32 rods from the start. I didn't know that at the time for I am but a self-taught amateur welder.

 

My first meal

Today, just as dawn was breaking and the cock was crowing there was a power cut in m'lady's household. That, for her means no water, no light and no cooking. The water is pumped via an electric pump from a 100 feet deep well. Cooking is electric as if everything else.

Thus, to the rescue came my little Coleman gas cooker. It made tea and cooked breakfast. I notice the gas cylinder is lighter now so I'd imagine an 8.8oz cylinder might last a week. That's really not too bad though I might be well advised to look for a better gas cooker and a way of slinging a gas tank underneath the bus. 

Actually while in the land of Nod last night I was thinking about improvements. I suspect a 12v 100ah deep cycle battery will be all I will reasonably need. That could be charged from the alternator and feed into the starting circuit when the bus batteries are low.

Thoughts aremulling around in my head most of the time. Right now, the immediate tasks are to get the shower curtain installed, insert drawer partitions, complete my 120v power inlet and hang some waste-water tanks together with a release faucet.

This weekend looked like being a great weekend to do this but I have to work on Saturday so I shall be unable to work any day bar Sunday. Sunday - with luck - should see the welding on the side of the bus done and the power inlet installed. 

More welding excitement

Reading about welding last night, I found the difference between 6011 and 6013 rods is that 6011 is a penetrating steel that will flow into crevices and 6013 is a rod that will just lie on the surface. As it happens, I'm out of 6013 rods so I went to work on welding two of the pieces of roller shutter assembley together. While doing so, I noted that the 1/16 rod was much easer to work with than the 3/32. I think 3/32 might be a bit much for my welder. It took quite a while to weld the two pieces of steel together which was fine. I must say though that the bitter cold outside was more challenging than the welding.

The biggest problems when welding today were that the two pieces of steel moved slightly in relation to each other. That meant that it was slightly skewed. No matter - it should work just fine as it is. In fact, if there's anything I've built that's geometrically perfect, I'd probably faint! The other problem was that one of the pieces of steel warped while I was welding it.
The warping wasn't expected. The movement of the parts was something I hoped wouldn't happen. I'd wondered whether I should drill and rivet the two pieces together first but decided to wedge it with a brick. Clearly I rocked the whole lot at some point and movement occured.

The next stage was to trim the excess steel off and straighten the bent steel. The angle grinder made quick work of trimming off most of the excess.  Straightening the warped steel was straightforward too - I just pulled out Mohammed's screwdriver and whacked it back into shape.
Having done that, I'd had enough of the bone-chilling wind howling around me and the daylight - such as it was - which wasn't that good due to low hanging and ominous clouds began to fade. Apparently sleet is forecast. I hurriedly sanded where the paint had come off the steel due to welding, brushed the slag off the welds and slapped rust-killing primer on the metalwork. Interestingly, I'd sprayed some clean steel with Rustoleum zinc paint a week ago and it's now rusty. Typical bloody Rustoleum. I really wish I could find paint locally that's not utter garbage. I did idly try some paint with a rather suspicious name of "Miracle" a few days ago. The only miracle was that it was cheaper than Rustoleum. Let's just say it achieved a surface peel in 5 days as opposed to several months for Rustoleum.

Inside the bus I put up the two blackout blinds in the bedroom. One went on crookedly but it works. The other went on quite well and looks pretty good. It's more a privacy thing than anything else.
Following that I put the final white blind up and then on a window that it wasn't possible to put a blind on, I cut a shower curtain and stuck that up with self-adhesive velcro. I'll have to see how all this self-adhesive stuff lasts. I suspect not very long but only time will tell.
Tomorrow I want to try to complete my breaker box compartment and to replace the old cable compartment totally. Before that though, I need to experiment welding thin steel. I really hate that thehillbillies put in that dreadful cable compartment. In fact, I don't think anything they did with the bus was worthwhile. I'm wondering if they simply gave up and sold it when they discovered how half-assed their workmanship had been. 

The big thing is that after I have put the shower curtains up, everything else I do will simply be upgrades. I'll have to order some more 8-24 rivnuts and some 8-24 screw eyes. I did think about self-adhesive stuff but I'm pretty sure all this self-adhesive stuff will fail in the summer heat. I will probably replace the blinds with roller blinds and the shower curtain over the one window with a section cut from a roller blind that's screwed to the framework. I"ll have to wait and see though. 

Even the cable compartment will be an upgrade. The existing compartment is rotted. The new compartment will not rot. Underneath the new compartment I can install the holder for the new power inlet. I bought that the other day. Despite the fact the bottom inch will be visible, it shouldn't be that noticeable. I really didn't want anything hanging below the skirt but I don't think anybody will really notice one or two small things.

A rainy day

I blundered today. When I went out to the bus, it was dry. While I was inside, it began to rain. I had hoped to derust the other side of my steel plates then to paint them ready for welding tomorrow since tomorrow is alleged to be going to be a dry day. We all know the weather forecasters speak with forked tongues though!

While I was in the bus, I sat down and completed my second 20A cable. The one terminates in a NEMA 6-30R which will plug straight into the NEMA 6-30C when the battery compartment is completed. Construction in failing light was not easy but was completed fairly swiftly. I have to say it doesn't look at all bad. It was confusing that the hot/cold pins had no markings other than X and Y which meant I had to look it up to see which wire should go where. I'll doubtless get the same issue when I wire the NEMA 6-30C.

Meanwhile, since the lottery is now up to $900,000,000, m'lady wanted a ticket so I headed to the store and bought two tickets. I don't so much believe I stand a chance of winning but I'd love to see somebody win $1,000,000,000 and be a billionairre for a day - before the IRS takes 50% and the state takes their 20%, leaving them with probably $400,000,000. It'd be hard but I'm sure that by economising they could just about live on that money! For myself, I"d be happy with any amount

When I went out I planned to stop off at a place where barrels were on sale. Oops... I was in thick traffic and missed the turning so I carried on to Lowes (hiss, spit). There, I realised I'd forgotten the piece of tubing I'd cut to take to Lowes for sizing! Still, I had a look at various plumbing bits. Then I looked at hooks from which I could hang my bucket. Looking at them, they would have had a difficult job coping with the lip inside the skirt on the bus. I passed on buying a hook. That was fortunate as it so happened.

On the way back home, I passed the sign where used barrels were on offer. The actual place was a long way down a lane. Down the end of the lane was a downtrodden looking mobile home. In the yard, a big dog barked noisily while some 15 gallon barrels stood to attention. The fellow must have seen me arrive and opened the door as I approached. He was very pleasant and didn't have change for my $20 so rather then buying two of his $8 apiece 15 gallon drums, I bought 3 with my $24.  They had contained some kind of brownish liquid wax. That was slopping about inside the drums so I made very sure the caps were screwed on firmly in order to avoid spills. Clearly the fellow worked where such barrels were used. I'm very happy with my barrels. I suppose I could put 3 grey water tanks or two grey and a black just in case I decide to put a flush toilet some day.

30 or 45 gallons of waste water is a very attractive idea because that puts me squarely into boondocking territory. I can carry fresh water in jerry cans and to be honest the risk of tampering with fresh water supplies accessible from the outside is low but nice not to have. Indeed, with the waste water, a faucet could empty that into a bucket or a hosepipe.

Looking around the bus today, I noticed a tag from a conversion company. I've never noticed it before but it looks like it was Tennessee hillbillies that did the conversion. Clearly some kind of professional hillbilly conversion.

Now that I have the barrels, all kinds of possibilities open up for plumbing. Of course, the things I would have liked to have done didn't get done. The path is there to go way better than just a bucket.

Rainy day at the Chicken Ranch!

No - not that kind of chicken ranch - the kind that actually has chickens that lay eggs! It's pouring down rain like there's no tomorrow. Indeed, after my hot shower this morning, I've had several cold showers since that made my hot shower seem somewhat arid in comparison.

Being a rainy day, I went shopping after my voluntary work this morning. Stopping off in a few places, I found that the Geek Squad won't work on tablets. I was, fortunately, referred to The SmartPhone Medic. Arriving there I found that they couldn't tell me anything because the boss was away. That begged the question as to why the place was even open and staffed since the staff seem so purposeless.

The next stop was *spit* Lowes where I got some copper tubing to make the base for the coil for my magnet. While there, I looked at the price of cables. $1.15 per foot for 20A and $1.89 per foot for 30A. Needless to say, since I want to set up for both 20A and 30A I bought 20A cable. Now, I don't really see a true requirement for 30A though internally the bus is wired for 50A. I figure a microwave will draw 10-12 amps and a fridge - if I install one - will draw 2-7A.  That's 19A and I can always unplug something if I need to use more amperage. Now I bought 30 feet of 20A cable. That worked out at $34.50 whereas a 30A cable the same length would have been $56.70 - that's appreciably more. I also got a 20A double pole breaker just so I won't accidentally overload the cable if I end up plugging into a 100A, 50A or 30A supply. 30 feet should do for most things. If I need longer cable then 20A is going to save me a bundle. Ready made 20A cable of 25 feet was $80 which I thought excessive! Admittedly I had to buy a 15A plug and 15A socket so theoretically I'll be overloading them. The truth is though that they're made the same as a 20A but with the live pin angled differently. I needed 20A cable in order to supply the welder. If I need more cable - say another 30 feet then the savings with 20A over 30A are much larger.

The general plan is to be able to use 20A and 30A. That's way off in the future though. Right now the plan is to get the bus operational as a motorhome. There's welding to do but that'll have to wait until a dry day. Putting the cable together is a breeze that can be done in approximately 20 minutes. Initially I'll put a 15A socket on one end but after I've got everything done, I'll switch that to one of my Nema 5-30/6-30 connectors.

The big battle is to get things done enough that the bus is operational. Then I can get it retitled as a motor home. Speaking of retitling, today I took advantage of the deluge to visit the DMV to get the retitling papers. As I suspected, nobody wanted to get wet so I popped in to ask which forms I needed. The reeptionist pointed to a seat and told me somebody would be out to help and within a minute or so, a very helpful lady arrived, asked what I needed, zoomed off and returned with some papers. It was all very civilised and very quick.

Once I have the cable/battery compartment completed and a battery installed powering USB and 12V devices, I"ll be ready to retitle. There'll be a lot of tidying and rearranging to be done inside plus installation of roller blinds or drapes as well as the shower curtains but it's all getting tantalisingly close!

Interesting!

I looked today more closely at my tyres. It seems that somebody has put 11R 22.5 on the back but 10R 22.5 on the front. Checking the inormation panel inside, both front and back rims are identical. Thus, both sets of tyres should be identical. This is very odd. I'll bet the guy that sold me the bus just got a mate to throw on the cheapest tyres that would vaguely fit.

Indeed, looking at the tyre sizing chart, it seems that I probably have 20x7.50 rims though I thought the panel had 20x70 written on it. The rims might not be original anyway. Looking again at the chart, there's a surprising degree of tolerance between tyre sizes. It sounds bizarre that I can fit a 9r22.5, 10r22.5 or 11r22.5 on the same set of rims. 

I didn't get anything actually done on the bus today. What with grey, depressing weather that was also pretty cold and Christmas shopping to boot, as well as a headache caused by the noxious perfumes inflicted upon the public by stores I really didn't feel like doing anything much. Indeed, I intended to buy a big bag of sugar to use for sugar blasting. Being Christmas and therefore sugar buzz time, there were no big bags of sugar left.

The new bathroom vanity top still needs to be painted but its a bit cold to be doing paintwork at the moment. Not just to be outside doing the painting but because the paint just won't dry very well in these temperatures. A look inside the hillbilly cable compartment showed it to have cobwebs. That's not welcome to the international President of the arachnophobes club!

Thinking more toward power options it looks costly whichever way I go. Solar panels are desirable though I'm wondering whether a wind option might be more economical. It would be tiresome to keep erecting and dismantling but would potentially offer more power while maintaining the non motorhome external appearance of my bus due to its removability. 

Progressing again

Now that work has put up the shutters for the next two weeks, I can apply myself fully to working on the bus. Yesterday though I made a slight detour on my way to work to Walmart as my new tablet has arrived. Honestly, only one word sums this budget tablet up - fantastic! Sure, it won't let me run a couple of the apps I used to but it's thus far way faster than my Nexus 7, cost just about half the price and came with a keyboard case. The color even matches the galley in my bus.
  
Unlike my Nexus, it takes a SD card which means I won't lose locally saved files unlike my Nexus. It charges from the same micro USB charging port which I consider to be a great step backwards. Pin power connecters are far more robust. 

Speaking of my Nexus, when out shopping at 2am yesterday I noticed a company called "Digital Doc" in my local Walmart. Sadly it was closed but today I visited it. Given that such computer, tablet and phone repair places spring up quickly, flourish for a while then vanish suddenly - usually with a sack load of other people's equipment - I figured I'd best use it as quickly as possible before it vanishes. 

Arriving at the desk this morning, I asked about reflashing my Nexus and was told by the minimum wage yokel working there that they didn't do this. Now that's really strange since their website indicates that they do. Given then I had to stand in front of her and attract her attention from her mobile phone in order to talk to her and how after telling me the business didn't actually do what they claim to do and since she then failed to answer me with a suggestion as to an alternative business (or to acknowledge the question at all) I followed my golden rule. If somebody in the company with a geekish business is useless then they all are, and allowed my feet to give them a vote of confidence by allowing my feet to carry me out of their store. I don't see a long future for that outfit!

Returning to the bus, I had another go at welding. I'm not highly satisfied with what I did but then the weather was so cold I really didn't want to stay out welding. In fact, I didn't really want to start! I definitely need to get the compressor out and try to clean up the bits I need to weld with soda blasts. Now that I've worked on the blasting head, it might work better. For a bit of fun I welded two pieces of scrap steel together. M`lady's sister's daughter's boyfriend has threatened to test some of my welds to destruction so I figured I could safely let him loose on that!

Looking at the hillbilly cable compartment, it seems I have indeed correctly measured the size of the box I'm building. The next step after completing the welding will be to install the new compartment. Unlike the hillbilly compartment, my compartment will have a floor that will allow drainage. Indeed, I might even use a steel mesh rather than a solid floor.

I have various ideas about the battery power setup. Initially, since my power budget is minimal, I'll probably just have a small battery. All it has to operate is fans, lights and chargers. In fact, my 5A solar panel could end up mounted on the roof to charge the battery. That might provide 2.5A for 5 hours a day or about 15AH so the battery could be really small.

The goal at the moment is to get the bus ready to be examined in the reregistration process. 

Research is interesting!

It seems that super capacitor technology hasn't been fully embraced yet. Having said that, there are portable car starting units that are built from super capacitors.

Browsing around, it seems several people are claiming to have successfully replaced their car batteries with super capacitors. There are reports that alternators die fairly swiftly yet these reports have a pretty even chance of being true or false.

The actual circuitry for the super capacitor is very simple. The capacitors are wired in parallel. The interesting thing is that the individual capacitors act very differently from the way a battery would, adding to the complexity of the task. Each capacitor holds a charge of around 2.7 volts. As the charge reduces so does the voltage but at a greater extent than a battery.

There have been attempts to blend lithium batteries with super capacitors but the results are as yet unknown. Thus far it looks as though my power solution has to be along the following lines:
1. A lithium battery - if the manufacturers website is right about the high amperage output. The limiting factor is the high cost.
2. A super capacitor solution though this is a bit of a mystery at the moment and looks ominously like it'll be expensive.
3. A standard battery solution using an $80 marine battery. This would not power the microwave or the fridge but cooking could be achieved using gas when mains power is unavailable.
4. A standard battery solution using the same $80 marine battery but backed up by a generator that's run every time more than a couple of amps is needed.
5. A further solution could be a hybrid super capacitor and battery solution though this is an unknown.
6. For a final solution, sufficient batteries to provide sufficient amperage to power a microwave though this could be heavy and expensive.

Whichever way the solution ends up going, its going to be interesting!

posted from Bloggeroid

Danger, danger danger!

This is why air conditioner engineers make extremely bad electricians! Look at the bare wire to the right. It looks like an earth wire but its connected to the right side neutral bus. Interestingly the live and neutral wires going to the air conditioner unit are both live. It looks like the cheapass that installed the air conditioning unit used 3 wire cable instead of 4 wire, running the two live lines through the live and neutral wires and the neutral through the non insulated earth wire. The result is shocking wiring. I am informed that the incompetents that installed this may well have been a South Carolina firm called Kabiner or something similar. I am apparently the first person in 5 years to open that breaker box! Let's just say I'm very glad I inspected, used a voltmeter and rubber gloves. Thus kind of horrendously dangerous electrical workmanship is far too common in South Carolina!

I still have to cover my conduit with soil but my 30A socket works. It's all correctly wired and working. Sadly, I couldn't bury my cables due to the fact nobody else has which would make putting a shovel in the ground somewhat hazardous. Dish Network for example, laid cable that looks like stitching with alternating above ground and slightly buried cable. The old phone conduit is largely underground but above ground in other places. There are various loops of cable of various types poking out of the ground, hence my decision to lay my conduit on the surface and cover it over. It is most definitely not the recommended solution but the only alternative would have been an aerial cable which would have had to be armored against squirrels.

The end result was a working socket. I tested it with a TT30 to 10-15 adaptor and a fan. Tomorrow, the big test when I plug my welder in. For now though, the electric cable that has been running under m'ladys front door for the past few months is now gone.

I'd been stressing over doing the wiring because I had to look everything up. Normally, I go by what was done before but what had been done before was so horrendously dangerous, it couldn't be used as a guide. As I said, normally I'd bury the conduit but what with it being a low to no traffic area being in a nook by the end of m'ladys trailer, I'm not afraid of foot traffic over the cables.

Ouch!

Yes. I might have to lie down in a darkened room for a few weeks. I went shopping and it was expensive! My 10-2 electric cable was double what the price of 12-2 cable would have been. Still, I now have a cable suitable for outdoor use and capable of carrying 30 Amps.

While I was out I picked up some plastic tubing and connectors. Not so much as to keep the cable dry underground but more to protect it from an errant shovel.

Next on the list was bolts to make an electromagnet but while I was in the store, I picked up some "super strong" magnets instead that I thought I'd try with the existing Chinese electromagnets. And of course a sledgehammer.

Needless to say, when I tested the super strong magnets against each other, they repelled nicely. Putting them on the electro magnets did nothing. Whether the current was forward or reverse, the electro magnet did not repel the super strong magnet. It's all really rather odd and seemingly defies the laws of physics.

Needless to say, when the total topped $100 I needed to go for a lie down! The electric cable was the most expensive part. Thinking about it though, with the way my motorhome is set up, I could get away with just 20 or even 15 amps. I could have put a 20A outlet in the yard and saved the $30 on cable but had to spend $20 on a lower rated breaker for the bus. Given the saving would have only been overall $10 I went with the bigger cable.

I had a look at solar panels and lithium batteries online. Then I sat and did some calculations. My maths for my microwave is wrong. I'd been reckoning on needing to use it 3 times a day and to cook a plate full of food from frozen which takes 15 minutes. As there will be only a cooler in the bus and not a freezer, nothing will be frozen. Thus, it will likely take only 5 minutes per plate.

5 minutes per plate is around 8 amp hours. Given the microwave will pull less than 100A then a smaller lithium battery should do. They can put out 100A continuously without breaking a sweat. Still, even a 30A lion battery is ludicrously expensive at around $200-$300. The low weight is very tempting as is the long life.

Thinking about power, I really don't need much. The cooler can be kept cool overnight using freezer blocks and powered straight from solar panels as can ventilation. It's only cooking that needs battery power. That and charging cellphone batteries. I could probably be very happy with 40AH.

Looking at solar panels, it seems an expensive way of doing things. It seems to be $2 per watt for solar. Given that a 40Ah battery would contain 480 watt hours and that would be about what is used in a day, I'd need to generate about 500wh. That means two or possibly 3 solar panels to be able to use the microwave three times daily. That's an expenditure of $600 on solar panels plus $300+ on batteries. Add in other stuff such as charge controllers and inverters and the cost would top $1,000!

Going back to minimal power usage, if the cooler was powered solely from solar panels then a smaller lead acid deep cycle battery would do all my cellphone etc charging. Thus, I could potentially get away with just a 20ah battery. Cooking would have to be done with gas and there'd have to be a battery powered extraction fan to eliminate the steam.

Again, solar power looks like being way too costly. I'm wondering again about wind power. Now that I have a welder, it shouldn't be hard to put together a wind turbine, even if it only runs a bicycle dynamo. That should still provide ample power to charge such small batteries.

Thinking more about the microwave, since a $3,500 lithium battery would hold 300ah, that would probably keep my minimal 30-40ah daily going for at least a week. Plugging in once a week would eliminate the need for solar panels.

Now, given 5 hours of half sun per day, the power needed to fill a 300ah battery would be 3,600Wh which would be 1,500 Watts of solar panel or 15 panels at a cost of $3,000. Basically, the perfect electrical system would be around $7,000. Now you can appreciate why I put a plugin for the microwave! Look at the prices of lithium batteries.

So, to recap, I'm probably not going to use much in the way of battery power since batteries and generation are expensive. I'll probably get more solar panels but rig them to hang inside the cockpit where they'll be protected and will afford added privacy.

Walmart had a sale

In that sale there was a roll of foam bedroll for $8. Very useful stuff! I bought a roll and will use it to make a honeycomb to put in my drawers in order to protect my crockery. I prefer real crockery as its easier to get clean than plastic crockery - particularly when its handwashed!

Meanwhile, a tragedy struck a couple of days ago. My old Sonicare toothbrush died. The batteries in them degrade over time until they finally just won't hold a charge. As they're sealed unit batteries, nothing can be done. It's quite frustrating and I really didn't feel like spending $100 on a brand new unit. I liked the small head and the way it really worked.

The problem with the old unit was that the charger ran solely from mains voltage. That would have meant a big battery and an inverter in the bus. I'm not a fan of inverters as they waste power.

Bravo! It seems there's a Sonicare battery operated tooithbrush for $10. I got one. I'd been wondering how I was going to work around my toothbrush needing mains power. It takes two AA rechargeable batteries. Now those can be charged from solar power!

By now you'll have noticed two things. The first is that the sink unit isn't very clean. The second is the water dispenser. Underneath the sink is a bucket - just like the one destined for the bus. Yes, I do live in a low rent place!

Since batteries are expensive, the plan is to make a compartment that will carry two batteries. I might put a single battery just so that I can charge my phone etc overnight. As much as possible will be manual. This will be a low power consumption motorhome.

An interesting day!

The primary goal of heading out today was to get my car serviced, which happened this week. Now I don't have to worry about it all. Sure, they were on about rotating tyres and the age of my battery and radiator flushes. My tyres rotate quite well as I drive down the road and anything else gets done when needed. In other words, the battery gets replaced when it stops starting right away.

Speaking of batteries, two of my purchases arrived today. The first was a 5A solar panel and the second was my enamelled copper wire. I'd have got on with making electro magnets had I not completely forgotten to purchase appropriate bolts.

With this wire, I should be able to make far better electro magnets than the Chinese supplied and make sure they work with my setup! I could have saved a lot of time by doing this from the start.

The solar panel is 12v, 5A and is intended for use as a battery keeper. A quick test using a 12v panel lamp proved the panel works well even out of direct light. Note that the panel is sitting on a shaded step on the bus with the lamp connected. The plan is to put a cigarette lighter socket plug on it, put the panel on the dashboard where sun will shine on it and to plug it into the electrical system. That should slowly trickle charge the battery and ensure it doesn't go flat.

Another thing I got was a 70A welder. Looking at the reviews, it seems most of the complaints come from people that can't read. Looking on the sides of the welding rod boxes, amp ranges are specified. A rod for 25-45A will work well as long as the power is turned down. A rod for 45-90A will work well. A rod for 90-135A will not work. I was pretty careful to read what it said on the boxes!

Now the next issue is the welder needs a 20A power supply. That doesn't exist right now. It will have to be installed on a separate pole outside. Fortunately I have a suitable box. The first task though was to hack my way through a jungle to get to the box.

Having reached the pole, I investigated the box. It's going to be "interesting" wiring it up with a potential 200A running through it all. Fortunately there are spaces where breakers have been removed and there's a hole in the bottom of the box. There's plenty conduit taken from the hillbilly installation that can be used.

As the conduit is a bit of a funky shape, there will need to be a separate pole for the new outlet. Clearly I'd have to buy more electric cable. It's all doable though it might be next weekend before I get started. Right now I have several projects all needing extra parts or preparation work. It's a little frustrating!

To add to the frustration, my multimeter has indeed died. It seems the needle is sticking. I have no idea why as it has been stored dry, never abused and not used a great deal! It worked a few months ago. Clearly I need to replace it as its now unreliable even if I did get it to work again.

It's probably had a reasonable innings since I bought it about a decade ago. I remember buying an inexpensive meter. EBay came up trumps. $4.99 got me a replacement with a digital display, shipped from Texas. I'm not in a great hurry for it so I can afford to wait a week. There's plenty else I can do without a meter.

My latest plan is to continue on with eliminating the handbasin in the bathroom, turning the vanity top into a straight countertop. That makes far more sense to me. I can use the counter for a gas cooker or for a plastic bowl to do my washing etc.

The Power Budget

The reason I'm putting in a 120V plugin is because solar and battery power are so horribly expensive. The reason I'm going with a bucket and Jerry can approach to water is based on cost also.

In my eagerness to proceed, I've forgotten my underlying principle of low cost. I've also allowed myself to be trapped by the hillbillies into following their ideas and plans. The electrical box the hillbillies put in was ludicrously large for just a cable compartment! It looks kinda sensible to use it for batteries.

The microwave would use 1200w at 120v. That's 10 amps! Without even considering the losses from using an inverter, running the microwave for 15 minutes would burn up a lot of power. Converting 1200w at 120v to 12v would be 100 amps. Given that a full battery holds just 105 amps, discharging it in 15 minutes would probably melt it!

While it would be possible to provide 100A at 12v, it could take quite a few batteries. Certainly more than the planned two! Thus, where the battery compartment is planned probably isn't the best location.

The big door put in by the hillbillies is a huge red herring, in my opinion. Far better to rivet the hillbilly battery door closed, make a smaller compartment and door for the 120v supply.

As far as electricity generation, solar panels seem quite pricey. As the roof is curved, flexible panels make the most sense. At $200 for a 100w panel, solar isn't cheap!

In terms of other power usage, I'd be charging my phone, batteries for my lanterns etc. No heavy usage save for possibly a fridge. If it was a Peltier fridge then the usage would be 5AH or 60W.

Although I don't like gas, it looks like being the sole solution for cooking unless the bus is plugged into a power supply. Refrigeration, small battery charging, ventilation etc could all be run straight off solar with a cool block in the fridge to maintain coolness at night. Perhaps a small 6v battery to maintain cellphone charging capability at night.

Looking up NiMH cells, it looks that once one goes beyond AA and AAA cells, prices rocket. That is rather frustrating!

Looking in another direction, generators have a place. A well installed 1800W generator could charge a single battery while providing power for a microwave. The trick there is to set the generator for remote start and remote stop.

Whichever electrical solution there is, looks like being several hundred dollars. The cheapest is gas and no electricity. There is, of course, no reason at all why gas couldn't be the initial solution then electricity later.

Meanwhile, I'm reconsidering welding. It might be fun to have a go at some welding.

The new plan

Today I went onto the bus and fixed some warped hardboard which had warped due to the water ingress from the leaking roof last month. The door between the cockpit and the galley needed adjustment too. That had been badly warped but now it works correctly.

Thinking about the battery carrier problem, I realised I might have been overreacting. Thus, today I went ahead and got some more tools from Harbor Freight. I'd been in need of a better rivet gun and of some deep sockets so I picked those up. A welder was not on my list this time.

The rivets should have a sheer strength of 900lbs which means plain rivets should work. I'll have to see if the bolt holes are too big. If they are then I'll use 1/4x20 bolts instead. Otherwise, I'll try rivets.

Meanwhile, I'm looking into two other things. The first is super capacitors and the second is thermo electric generators. In order to power a microwave for 20 minutes, I'd need 1200w at 110v. Given the losses from an inverter of around 15%, the power supply at 12v would have to provide 12,650W. Given that my favourite battery would provide 500CCA, I'd need a bank of at least 14 in order not to overload any of the batteries. That would cost at least $1,000, weigh at least 700lbs and take way more space than there is space available.

Super capacitors can provide a lot of power quickly. They're not as energy dense as batteries but the idea is that if they could provide a 20 minute burst of power, they could be backed by just one lead acid battery. The task now is to find a super capacitor setup that can provide sufficient power.

As far as thermoelectric power generation is concerned, I have a feeling that like most non gasoline powered generators, its going to be expensive or worthless in terms of power generated. The two methods under current investigation are Stirling generators and Peltier generators. Stirling generators use magnets and coils together with a closed air system. Peltier generators use heat difference to generate power.

Caulked

Today before work, I completed caulking around the shower base. That's not going to be moving anywhere on its own now. The next thing will be to install the underfloor waste tanks or at the very least, a way of emptying the waste. The waste pipe definitely needs another nut to hold it down but that has to be applied from under the bus. I don't actually have that nut either. Since Lowe's does respond to their twitter account, I sent them a tweet to try to get if not another nut, at least the specifications so I can order one online.

Lowes did eventually respond with the ultimate answer that they weren't going to help. Meanwhile I diud track down the real manufacturer, Danco and explained that due to a constructional oddity I needed a second nut. As of now I'm awaiting their response. Worst case scenario, I have to buy a complete second outlet just to get the nut!

The handbasin since it looks like its going to be used, needs to be fastened down, somehow. The proper mountings never came with it so I will probably have to get creative. It's one of the reasons I don't like that handbasin.

Since I'm waiting on plumbing parts, I'll probably work on rebuilding the battery/cable compartment. Unlike the hillbillies, I'll build it with real angle iron of which I have a large supply. Alternatively I could use aluminium which would be lighter though I'd have to buy the aluminum. Either way, I need to buy nuts and bolts. Ideally I'd rivet it but don't have a supply of strong enough rivets nor an appropriate rivet gun.

My Nema 5-30 inlet arrived today. My next task is to fit it where it can be used. To do that, I need to rebuild the cable compartment. I really wish the hillbillies hadn't made such a massive compartment. It really wasn't necessary. Really and truly, I don't need that compartment. I'd rivet the blessed thing shut given half a chance! Sadly though, I need some kind of access hatch to access my main breaker. I do wonder about cutting the door in half and putting a half-sized compartment instead. One that contains just the breaker box. The cable I can store elsewhere. As far as a house battery is concerned, I can put that in anytime and it really doesn't need a special compartment. If the compartment housed solely the breaker and Nema 5-30 socket then it need not be built strongly. In fact it could just be there to protect the contents from water!

Installing batteries is another issue entirely. Speaking of which, I noted the fridge I removed from the bus was made by Avanti. Looking at Walmart's website a search for Avanti threw up a so-called superconductor fridge for $120ish that runs off 120v AC or 12v DC. Current consumption was high at 83 watts but that's because it probably runs off a heater element. That looks interesting and something that could be fun off a pair of batteries.

I'm still waiting for my drawer bolts to arrive. They should be here anytime now. That'll complete the galley area. The bathroom plumbing and every underbody facility are my main battlegrounds now.