Ready to roll!

Today I went to Day Star Truck and Trailer Repair in Lexington SC. I can honestly say I like this company. I went there and everybody was very helpful, friendly and polite. It is clearly a company run by devout Christians. When I got there they were short staffed and couldn’t do the service that I wanted. The oil and transmission fluid definitely need changing but will probably be OK for my forthcoming trip since they were OK for my trip to and fro from Day Star. That’s 13 miles in each direction. What they did do though was fix the hanging brake. I’d been driving along and not been getting great speed and been having sluggish acceleration. When I arrived, the back tyre was hot, the axel hub was hot too and there was smoke coming from the brakes.

It was costly but then it’s a big vehicle. The mechanic had to have help with my front door lock and a few operational features I’ve installed but only because he wasn’t used to them. I was mildly amused because he was looking for my air gauge until I told him hydraulic brakes. Then when it came time to turn the engine off, he wasn’t used to mechanical fuel cut off. It was mildly amusing to see somebody not being familiar with such an ancient machine when I get to drive ancient machines at work.

I had been going to go for a 3-day break on Edisto Island but that got cancelled by the organizer on Thursday. I was supposed to be there today in the evening and was staying until Sunday night. In the end a few of us that were going to Edisto agreen to go to a national park. I booked for Saturday and Sunday as it wasn’t possible to book for Friday when I booked (on Friday). I’d wanted to see what the truck people said. I’m pretty sure they’d have mentioned anything suspect when they were under the bus, working on the brakes.

I took some fresh photos of the inside. While I was driving (and I did go on some bumpy roads) there were a few things that fell down inside. Those were boxes piled too high and my swivel chair zoomed about. I’ll have to find some way of anchoring it in place during travel. The boxes don’t worry me as I have to go through those boxes anyway as I’m pretty sure most are full of absolute garbage. 

Here’s a nice photo of my batwing doors. Originally the plan was to have batwing doors but I just didn’t feel like going to all the effort of making them. It would have been fun but would have been an awful lot of quite challenging work when I wanted the bus done as soon as possible.

The microwave and fridge stayed in place perfectly. I’m quite impressed with how my building has stood up to bumpy roads etc. I do drive gently however. I’m also very aware that as my bus engine is a slow-revving engine I’m not likely to get any great acceleration out of it.

This is the bathroom. Just about everything one would find in a bathroom is stowed in the sink. I could have worked harder on cleaning but this is a quick camping trip that I’ve not had much time to prepare for to be honest. It was on before I completed the bus. Then it was off and now it’s back on again.

And here - you can see a freshly made bed. No pillow but I tend not to use pillows too much anyway. I always end up below the pillow when I wake up.

You’ve seen plenty pictures of the bus but this is the finalized picture of the one side and back right now. This doesn’t mean something won’t change but it’s pretty well perfect right now.

That’s the other side. They’re pretty much the same except there’s a couple of doors difference. I’m happy with what I see.

In keeping with my sick and twisted sense of humor (I watched too much Playschool when I was small), I have retained the sign I put in, months if not years ago. “Fort Leavenworth, Death Row Express”. Somebody said because I’d chosen to paint the bus grey rather than another color that it looked like a prison bus.

It was pretty hot inside the bus today but the ventilation is off an I have not opened the window to insert the window screen. When I was driving, I had the two internal driver fans going so it wasn’t that bad. I didn’t open the window which I should have. The window, to be honest, needs a squirt of WD40 anyway. Driving wasn’t too bad. It handled well and I was confident driving it. That confidence comes from driving a schoolbus every day.

Operationally I did find the hydraulic brakes aren’t as good as the air brakes at work. They’re certainly not as sensitive. I also find the too high brake pedal to be a severe inconvenience. I’m going to have to have a chat with the International dealer to see what solution they have.

Cleaning!

Today - a magical milestone. I started to clean my bus. The cockpit is now clean with the floor swept and even a beaded seat cover on the driver’s seat. I had to add some extra twine to the headrest attachments as my driver’s seat has no headrest to attach the cover to.

Why a beaded seat cover? Well it’s a vinyl seat and those vinyl seats trap sweat. I drive 3 routes in a school bus every day. I’m behind the wheel for 7.5 hours every day. During the morning run when it’s cool, my back gets hot and my clothes end up sticking to me. The same for my pants - they end up sticking to me too. A beaded cover allows some ventilation under and behind me which reduces trapped perspiration.

Wiping down the windows inside and out is the next task and wiping the mirrors too. That’s not a task for today though. That can be done on a day when I come home from work.

One of the important things was done today. I checked the fluid levels for everything - brakes, washer fluid, power steering fluid, oil and transmission fluid. The transmission fluid was a warm brown. The oil was grey - both in need of replacement. Neither was dark from use - just faded from age. The front tyres have been put on the wrong way around but at least I saw the date code. Some time in 2012. They’ll be OK for at least this year. The backs are a bit older but as they’re duals they can go on for 10 years.

I’m going to have to put some stuff in the spare trailer for the moment but I need to go through my stuff. I know I have a lot of just plain junk and a lot of clothes that don’t fit. Each time I moved house and I’ve moved house 4 times in the past decade, I’ve thrown everything in my drawers into a tote and never opened the tote again - largely because I live pretty much out of a suitcase sized quantity of stuff. I need to whittle down to the stuff I will actually use. I bet there’s a ton of garbage.

A long time ago I bought four packs of CD mailers. Over the years I have used precisely one pack. The remaining three packs have been traveling with me for the past 15 years. Occasionally one will get used and they’re invaluable then but a pain to keep carting around! I have things I use rarely and things I use frequently.

Anyway, at the end of work today (I worked yesterday too) I had most of the bus ready for use. There’s just a bit of work to do in the bedroom area. The sheets definitely need laundering. I used them (both sets) until the day I moved to where I am now and they’ve thus not been washed. They’ve been stored unwashed for the past 4 years. Given that the washing machine where I am is questionable, I might end up having to use a laundromat.

I put a pile of food in the bus ready for my forthcoming trip. I just hope I put enough! I know I need to put toiletaries and to fill up my water containers. I think this weekend looks like being interesting. The downside is according to the weather forecast it will be 84 the entire weekend and raining. That’s fine - it’ll give me some downtime to sort through my boxes and work out what I want to keep and what I want to get rid of.

I’d not really thought of rain. I have an umbrella but not a big umbrella to put up outside, I don’t have an awning either. The bus originally had an awning when it was first converted but when I had it, the awning was gone with just the hardware remaining (which I removed).

Curiouser and curiouser

I tried the lawnmower batter and while it did work, it didn’t give me much power. In fact by the time it hit 12v I had maybe 2 minutes out of my extraction fans. Thus I abandoned the lawnmower battery and went to the store for a Duracell battery. This is a 12v AGM battery and when installed it read 12.7v. I was expecting it to be fully charged and at 13.8v so after connecting it I plugged in both my extra 30w solar panels. That should boost the charge fairly swiftly though it might take a few days if the weather is not great.

I’m a little concerned about the 12.7v rating which invoked the cry of curiouser and curiouser. This battery should have a float voltage of 13.8v. There’s a year’s warranty on it so if it fails to perform then I can have a word with Batteries Plus about it. The Harbor Freight thing just didn’t have any capacity whatsoever.

For giggles when I went to get my battery I took the Harbor Freight battery. Batteries Plus put it on their big test meter and it tested just fine. The capacity however was not tested. Reading around, the only way to test capacity is to use it and see what happens. I know darned well that even using only half of 35AH I would be able to run my 3.92A draw for about 4 hours and 20 minutes. I shall test that next weekend having left the battery to charge for the entire week.

I decided to bite the bullet and take my bus for a service. The oil has been in the sump for almost 4 years. I am going to get the differential oil inspected, the transmission oil inspected, the axel and hub lubricants checked, grease applied to all the grease points and the brake line connectors checked. I don’t think much of the rusty clips that hold the brake lines together. They’ll also put the tyres on the right pressures and check them. I have checked everything and it all seems OK but the oil definitely needs to be changed. While that is being done I’ll get the sump gasket changed. The bus leaked oil when I was going to buy it and I told the guy I wanted the rotten tyres replaced and the oil leak fixed. He did replace the tyres but put coagulant in the oil rather than replacing the sump gasket. It works but it’s not what I’d call an approved method.

Immediately following the service which will be done in the morning I shall drive down to a beach location for a few days holiday. This will be my first ever overnight stay and first ever overnight trip in the bus. I’m looking forward to it but am apprehensive until I get a paid mechanic to check it out and change the suspect oil. They say oil should be changed every 3 months when its in use in small engines. In big engines once a year is fine. Kept sealed in the can oil will keep for 5 years and more as it’s really stable. Once it’s exposed to air, water begins to creep in with condensation. That dilutes the oil a little and reduces its efficacy.

I have a ton of work to do tomorrow and next weekend in order to make the bus ready for the trip the weekend after. Basically the bus is ready. It just needs construction supplies removed and a good cleaning. It also needs me to put things in drawers where they should be and put other things away safely. It’s a lot of work!

Lawnmower Man 2 - The Final Solution

Today was not a good day to be under the bus. Not because it was Friday or Friday the 13th. It was the 13th but most definitely Monday and not Friday. That being said, work under the bus was quite unpleasant as I was being attacked by full squadrons of mosquitoes.

It took quite a while but I managed to install the battery connector - the red thing. That’s two interconnecting plugs with screw holes allowing one or both to be screwed into place. Needless to say one side is bolted to my steel bracket (top of the picture). That used to be the bottom of a bus seat so it’s quite sturdy.

The battery - as can be seen is a cheap lawnmower battery. That still has plenty life left in it. Now the only thing I might redo up there is to slip some plastic sleeving over the cables from the battery to the connector. I didn’t think of it at the time. I was too keen to be out of there and away from the mosquitoes.

Drilling the four bolt holes for the bracket took forever and I had to keep switching drill bits as the drill bits heated up. That and spraying WD40 to lubricate the drill. Needless to say my front is covered with oil splatter and my back and sides are covered with sand. My skin is covered with mosquito bites so I must look quite frightful.

Having done all the connections I slipped inside the bus and switched the battery on. I had to reprogram the controller to have a maximum charge of 12.8v, a charging program for flooded batteries and a maximum discharge of 12.4v. Now I’ll have to see how long that 0.4v lasts me.

While I was down there, I noticed the welds on my battery bracket are showing signs of rust. That’s very disappointing considering there was no rust present when I welded them and that as soon as the welds had all cooled I’d slapped rust-killing primer and then when that had dried, white protective paint on top. I can only assume the rods weren’t that great. I know what you’re going to say... Harbor Freight. Yes - it’s true - my rods came from Harbor Freight. I’ve not noticed a problem with rust from rods before though. Now you see why I paint everything that I put under the bus, white!

Other than that I haven’t done anything else with the bus. I have an idea about a second solar input that’ll be capable of handling higher amperages. 30A is the limit for the charge controller which frankly is quite enough. I doubt I’ll ever be likely to need quite that much power.

Tomorrow or soon - whenever I have time - I’ll test my new (secondhand) battery. By my guesstimation, I reckon that since my Harbor Freight Deep Cycle Dodo was 35AH and many similar batteries are around 30-35AH, this battery is about the same. Assuming the lower end of 30AH and being about to take a starting battery down to 75% only then a quick back of a tax bill calculation shows that I probably have 7.5AH to play with. That means around two hours of just my extraction fans running. We shall see though. Anything over 30 minutes is better than the Harbor Freight battery. That surely has to have been leftover from April 1st!

Lawnmower Man

There once was a book by Stephen King called Lawnmower Man. I saw the film and it was OK. I tried reading another Stephen King book but it was rather a ghastly book so I never bothered with his stuff again. But... Lawnmower Man came to mind because I replaced the battery under the bus with a lawnmower battery.

 This was the original battery. As can be seen from the little blue sticker on the back left, it was manufactured in July 2017 (if it’s a genuine sticker). Actually, I wouldn’t put it past somebody buying a new battery and putting the old one in the box and transferring the date sticker. Anyway, it never had any heavy use and was installed in probably October when there was no real need for ventilation. It was kept solar charged but by March or April when ventilation was needed, it was clear that there was something amis. By May I’d decided the battery had a problem. Today I finally got around to replacing it.

The new battery is dated September 2016. It has been used in a riding lawnmower until I replaced the battery with a new battery about 3 months ago after which it sat in the wind and rain. The old battery had the wires bolted to it under the bus. The new battery I’ve put a battery connector clip. This means that connecting and disconnecting is a simple matter of pulling a plug. Then I have to release the battery from its mount and remove the battery. No bolting on connections while under the bus. So much easier. The connection can be bolted on in plain sight before the battery even goes under the bus.

As I’d not drilled the holes for the clamp that holds the battery down, I did that too. I like my simple design of battery bracket. All it is is two pieces of steel angle on each end, welded and a steel flat welded as a connector with holes drilled to attach the clamps. The clamps themselves are just turnbuckles and cable connectors.

As I now have to mount a socket under the bus I had cut some steel and drilled two holes to bolt the socket and some holes to bolt through the underbus ribs. It turned out quite well. Looking under the bus I’m going to have to be careful as to where I put the bracket and I’m probably going to have to re-route some cables. Not a huge task - just time consuming.

I’d looked at my connectors and wondered if a flat bar would be better so I could mount the battery socket horizontally. As it turned out it looks like my original angle was a far better idea. Now there’s a reason why this is painted green and not white like everything else.

I have a Nissan Xterra as my daily driver. I’ve had it for 12 years and each year I need to respray where the paint has fallen off. Nissan did a terrible job with their clearcoat and it’s a known fault. I’ve been complaining for 12 years about it but Nissan doesn’t give a rat’s arse. As soon as they have your money, they care nothing about you. So, today I went and sprayed some more bare metal where the paint, primer and clearcoat had fallen off. When I finished, the almost full paint can refused to disgorge any more white paint. The nozzle had clogged. No spare nozzle I have seemed to make it work so the clog must be inside the can. This left me with cans of various colors including green so I ended up choosing green and spraying my flat bar, green.

The battery I had saved from the lawnmower was far lighter than the battery I took out from under the bus. Checking the fluid levels, all the cells were full. I’ll have to reprogram my charge controller as this battery has a full charge of 12.8v and a 75% charge of 12.4v. I’m not supposed to go below 75% on a starting battery. This is a starting battery which to replace will cost a massive $21 from Walmart. That’s way better than that Harbor Freight $70 battery. If I have to replace it every 4 months then it’s still going to work out $7 cheaper than the Harbor Freight nightmare.

Had the Harbor Freight battery been any good, I’d have just grinned and bore it, connecting cables under the bus each time the battery needed replacement as it shouldn’t have needed to be replaced for 5 years. As I expect to have to replace the lawnmower battery perhaps every two years or maybe more frequently - depending how badly I misuse it, I needed to install battery connectors.

Today I put the battery connector on the battery and onto the underbus cables. I still have to make the connections, install the bracket and so on. I just ran out of time. I started the day not feeling too well. I’ve not felt well for quite a while. Thinking about it - as there’s a rat on the loose that just refuses to get into a nicely prepared trap, I’m wondering if my ailments are related to bugs the rat spreads around? With luck, tonight will be the night the rat decides to fall in the trap.

A day out

Today I just went out for a few hours. I wasn’t doing much but I sure was busy. Aside from running some errands I picked up a hot glue gun and a small folding table. One of the errands was to a local school district. The district that wanted me to drive for them but which dilly-dallied from February til June. Anyway, it looks like I’ll be driving for them this year. Whether I drive for them all year depends upon what other opportunities present themselves.

In an email my dad said to me “Driving can house and feed you while you update and look around but it's not going to be more than a hand-to-mouth existence. and not going to give you a pension pot.    It's not likely to give you any stimulating social contact either.” That’s about right. Driving is a hand to mouth existence. It’s better than McDonalds which is employment funded by the Welfare system but not much better. In fact I wonder if McDonalds workers aren’t better off since they get their rent paid and they get food stamps so any cash they earn can be spent on whatever they want.

When I made my connector that fits on the battery, I was unhappy that the wires were just held in place by solder. I know it’s a lot of solder but even so I was unhappy. Thus today I bought a hot glue gun and filled the back of the connector up with hot glue so the cable is more firmly anchored. Hot glue gets used a lot in industry. It’s used to cover electric components that have to be firmly attached to the circuit board for example.

I trimmed the piece of angle iron that I cut the other day (which I might not have mentioned) and drilled a couple of holes in it. These holes will anchor the other connector that the connector I just hot glued will connect to. The angle will be bolted to the underside of the bus. This will make changing batteries much easier. I wish I’d thought of this before! There’s definitely a spell under the bus coming in the future.

That’s the piece that bolts under the bus. Imagine it the other way up. I still need to drill the bolt holes and paint it white but there it is in all its glory.

While I was in the bus today I looked at putting the rear solar input together. I wanted to mount it mostly on the back panel but it looks like I’m going to have to mount it on the ceiling. There is space on the back panel but in a fit of exhuberance I put spray foam behind that panel which makes drilling tricky as wires can’t move out of the way of my drill. I tried digging it out but it was such slow, laborious work I gave up. Note to self - no more spray foam unless I want to use the can to make a work of art!

Oh the fun you can have with a spray foam can that won’t let the foam out until it’s shot with a .22 rifle. The foam comes out then, for sure!

So, tomorrow will be more going out and about. I have forms to fill and drug tests to be performed plus my Dept of Transport medical - all in order to prove that I’m fit to drive a bus! Well, it’s income and not bad income either. It’s not wonderful. I’m not going to be rich but I’m not going to be sleeping under a railway bridge either.

The plan is the same - to install the back solar input, including rectifier, switch and fuse. To change the battery under the bus including installing an easier way of switching batteries. Once that’s all done I will concentrate on working on the bus. I need to sort out the buzzing relay in the console, check to see if I can lower the brake pedal about an inch and might hunt out a new driving seat. The one I have tips forward a little. There’s also the matter of the loose wire dangling from the transmission. That’s something the hillbillies installed.

The little table I bought will go with one of my folding chairs (which is currently in a shed). Thinking ahead to the September trip I figured I could set the little table and chair outside and use the table for my gas cooker or to hold drinks etc while I sit in my chair and enjoy the vacation.

The battle of wounded knee.

Today my knee is still swollen and painful. I can bend from the waist but bending the knee is still uncomfortable. It really needs a day or two of absolute rest but it’s unlikely to get that so recovery is likely to be very slow.

I tested the battery again today and found it had settled at 12.69v. That’s not terrible. It’s not 12.8v but it’s not 12.6v either. It’s about what I’d expect from a year old lawnmower battery. They only last two years which is a darned sight longer than a Harbor Freight deep cycle battery. Actually I’ve begun to question the savings from Harbor Freight. The fact their prices rise and fall faster than a whores drawers complicates matters but I’ve found Walmart’s prices while not beating them tend to be so close that the ease of returns at Walmart beats the price of Harbor Freight after gas has been added into the mix.

Looking at the top of the lawnmower battery, it’s different from the top of the Harbor Freight battery. Thus I needed a new top bracket for the battery. I went outside and cut some steel. I decided for simplicity two pieces of angle iron - one to grip the battery and the other to raise a flat bar up to above the level of the battery vents. Cutting was quick enough with my Walmart angle grinder (remember my 3rd Harbor Freight grinder or was it the 4th, committed suicide immediately after the previous one). In fact I’ve not had a Harbor Freight grinder that didn’t die on me though the 2nd lasted me the longest. Needless to say I burned my fingers on a piece of steel I’d cut some moments before and thought would have cooled.

That was what the bracket would look like when completed. I looked toward welding but then the sky clouded over and thunder began to roll. It looked like we were in for a storm so I put aside my plans of welding for the day.

20 minutes later, the sun was shining as brightly as if it had never been overcast. Thunder still rolled in the distance so I made haste to get my welding done before the clouds and rain came back. The wending went fairly quickly though I think I used more welding rods than I would have expected. I tend to over-weld. I weld each and every surface where two pieces of metal join. In fact my welds are quietly likely well over specified. I could clean them up with an angle grinder to make them look pretty and professional but I don’t care all that much about how they look as long as they function. Quite frankly making them look pretty is just a waste of grinding disks and my time.

I sprayed it with anti-rust primer then after that had dried, in the failing light I sprayed the final coat of white paint. I like all the stuff I build to be primed with rust-killing primer then painted white to show up rust. I still have to drill two holes in the cross bar to attach it to the turnbuckles but that’s a job for another day.

I finished the last of the three wires into my 12v 50a connectors today. The other needs to be done under the bus. So far it’s looking pretty good. I’m quite happy with progress. As I’ve said, my knee is still poorly. I made the mistake of getting down on it one time today and immediately felt the pain. Needless to say I did not attempt to get on my knee again for the rest of the day.

I had a go at charging the old Nexus and found it wouldn’t even power up. As I’ve probably said before, second hand electronics aren’t worth buying at any price. I’d clearly bought somebody else’s problem and was lucky to get 14 months out of it before it died. That pretty much puts the tin hat on writing code using my old Nexus. As far as my old RCA tablet goes, the USB charging port is dead. The physical keyboard barely registers too. Sadly, those two are totally beyond redemption. I’ll have to seek out something different if I want to do any coding. I’m not buying an old secondhand anything though as that’s just money thrown away.

So, tomorrow I head to commence the paperwork to start a new job. That’s welcome. I’d imagine by about Christmas (assuming I stay that long) I should be able to afford a tidy laptop to code on. Meanwhile I’ll look at some C++ books to remind myself what it’s all about.