Beware the forums!

On school bus conversion forums it seems people are largely in way over their little heads with bus conversions. Thus they come up with idiotic ideas that are universally applauded by the clueless morons on the forums. All I can say is God help anybody that puts faith in anything posted on a forum.

The whole air I get from forums is that they think owning a bus will be cheap. Not so, I'm afraid. Most busses take two types of tyre - steering tyres and driving tyres. Both cost about the same. Really bargain basement tyres start at $230 and go up to $600 each. Remember there are two steering tyres and four driving tyres. Replacing all six could well cost $3,600. Needless to say, I used to read plaintive whines from people that wanted to use different sized tyres or even switch to single wheels from duals. These are the people that shouldn't be anywhere near a bus because they don't have a clue.

As far as tyres go, the reality is you can use retreads. The school districts use retreads and the law does allow this. The sole restriction is that the front tyres must not be retreads.

One of the pet theories everybody seems to come up with is that light weight means more fuel economy. The fact is that massive reductions in weight will result only in trivial reductions of fuel consumption. Of course nobody considers the implications of weight reduction because none of the bus converters have largely driven anything other than a car with front wheel braking. That is, of course assuming forum users are actually old enough to have driven a car!

The safety problem caused by weight reduction is increased braking distance. The heavier the load, the more the back tyres are pressed into the road and the better the braking. This is why it makes sense to put the heavy stuff like waste tanks, water tanks and house batteries behind the rear wheels.

Another of the stupid things people on forums advise is replacing the standard bus doors. My question is why. I made my standard doors lock and unlock and made them more secure without any difficulty. One of the things that they do or claim to do is to replace the door with a great big plank or house door that has none of the visibility. Heaven knows if that'd ever pass an inspection!

Really and truly everybody converting a bus needs to take a CDL class as most do t have a clue about what they bought! A CDL class will also teach how to inspect a bus. That's something everybody buying a bus needs to know. My bus had an illegal weld on a chassis cross member as an example. I've reduced that weld now back to just the cross member but I might give thought to replacing the damaged cross member.

Well,mtgsts all I have time for tonight. I have to be up at 4am, ready to drive busses at 6am.

Bloody electronics

Windows is the epitome of electronics... Yesterday it worked, today it didn't. Electronics are just like Microsoft's increasingly ghastly and increasingly obsolete operating system (of which I am not the world's greatest fan). Of course, I speak of my solar charge controller.

As can be seen, the panels are wired in parallel, putting power into the charge controller. The charge controller puts power into a battery and also into my two CPU fans. Those are currently roaring away at their full 12 volts. The battery came from Radio Shack in their going out of business sale.

I should have bought more wire in the Radio Shack going out of business sale but thought I'd leave it until the next week. Sadly, that turned out to be too late because by the time I returned, several weeks later, there was just tumbleweed blowing around where they had been.

Today I took a quick trip to Lowes (hiss, spit) to get myself some wire and some more metal bar to out over the upper windows of the front door. I did see other things I could use too but as it is unlikely that I will even get as far as the front door, today, I didn't get them.

The battery is a gel cell. I will probably mount that under the bus at some point just in order to avoid a battery fire, should the battery catch fire. Interestingly, my solar controller says it'll work with lithium cells as well as lead acid. That might well be a route worth trying but again, under the bus and shielded such that a fire won't cause problems.

At 5ah, there's not much power in the battery but there should be sufficient in order to operate my fans. Interestingly, the controller will cut the fans off until the battery has sufficient power to run them. There's a cut off point and a cut on point. I gather they can be adjusted manually. That sounds really promising!

I looked at the manual and found an interesting setting. If it's set to 24 hours, the fans come on when it's light and go off when it's dark. I like that. There's a time delay setting that delays fan start until so many hours have passed. The instructions are bloody appalling. Even wearing glasses I can't read the teeny text. I had to find my jeweler's loupes in order to read it all.

I'm sure you can read it easily by simply enlarging the page. For me, that wasn't so easy as I had not scanned the images into my tablet. Needless to say, having set the battery to gel cell and the time delay, I decided to leave the other settings pretty much alone. I might tinker with them at another point.

One of the interesting things about this charger is that it has a pair of USB charging ports. Those might come in useful at some point.

While working on the wiring (which was extremely simple) I used one of the snap off blade knives. I'd bought it years ago but had never used it. Under very gentle pressure while cutting the web joining a figure 8 cable, the thing just disintegrated. Fortunately I didn't cut myself but I will be sticking to craft knives in the future.

I have no idea when I bought this knife. I vaguely remember buying it because I couldn't find my craft knife. I have no idea where I bought it either though I do know it must have been at least 6 years ago.

As I suspected, I never had time to work on the security bars. I have them ready to work on tomorrow between the two halves of my split shift. I'll probably cut them to size then spray them on one side. That should pretty much take up my free time.

This is bullshit!

With great enthusiasm, I rushed to the mailbox this afternoon to take delivery of my new solar charge controller. I connected my two solar panels in parallel and connected the charge controller. Nothing! No lights lit up. The display remained blank. I disconnected the panels and connected a battery to the battery connections. Still nothing. I disconnected the battery, reconnected the panels and connected a CPU fan to the load connections. Still nothing. It appears I've bought another lemon. I reconnected my solar panels to my CPU fans and they buzzed away merrily. Well, perhaps not that merrily but they did spin and shift some air. Quite how much air, I don't know as I haven't measured it lately.

Next, I connected the batteries my 5 watt panel had been charging over about 2 days with the panel in direct sunlight. They powered a small CPU fan for an hour or so before giving up. I'm not surprised nor astounded. I have come to expect to be consistently underwhelmed by this solar baloney. My experience of solar products echoes my experience of LED lighting units. They work about 60% of the time and don't last anywhere near as long as they're supposed to. In fact, just like LEDs, the cost of solar is higher than conventional alternatives.

For decades I have tried to get somethething worthwhile out of electronics (solar, tablets, phones, computers, LED lighting) and have come to the conclusion that most of it is just plain old bullshit. Phones that cost $250+ and don't last more than 3 years, tablets that don't last more than 3 months, laptops that become obsolete and unusably slow in 18 months, desktops that become unusably slow in about 18 months, cameras that cost an arm and a leg for something that doesn't produce a storable negative that'd outlast funky digital media by generations, LED lights that last a couple of months at best as opposed to the decades claimed. Then there's this "wonderful" internet. Don't let me get started on that!

Oops... Too late... I search for something online and what comes up is usually worthless trash. I get so many forums, blogs, personal websites, social media garbage etc coming up. That's where instead of reading facts about a subject, fools will read people's opinions posing as fact. The internet reminds me very much of the graffiti I saw on the back of a Swansea University bathroom door "call this a library, I'd get more information from a freshly squeezed turd" though I'd suggest replacing the word library with the word Internet.

That brings me on nicely to forums. I tore one apart for the baloney posing as fact over driving licenses. As those that read this blog regularly will realize, I know a good bit about licenses, particularly those relating to busses. I also know a good bit about DIY and bus mechanics. I have a CDL B with P and S endorsements. Occasionally I glance at forums and am usually amazed at the bad advice being handed out. It seems somebody reads something on one forum then spouts it as gospel truth elsewhere without ever referring to primary sources. It's like claiming the moon is made of cheese while ignoring the information from NASA and other bodies about it's actual makeup.

So, I now have a solar controller that doesn't work, attached to the inside of the bus. I'm probably just going to leave it there. I'm not going to throw good money after bad, trying to replace it. I'm not going to buy more solar panels. I'm not going to try to recoup value from the money already blown on electronic components. I'm just going to leave my solar panels powering my fans. I'm going to build a little box for my 12v battery and put a small mains/car charger into it and create thusly a portable power unit that will charge my cellphone and or tablet.

The next stage with the bus is cleaning and sorting out the inside. The bedroom still has high humidity which makes me wonder about leaks. I think a sensible step will be to put silicone seal on all the roof seams that I've not yet hit with silicone seal. Maybe combine that with aluminum tape.

Lunchbreaks!

I like my lunchbreaks. They currently last from 08:45 until 13:15. That allows me to get a ton of stuff done on the bus.

Today started with my sweeping the floor of the bus down the stairs and into a cardboard box which I then went through retrieving useful things like nuts, bolts, screws and rivets. Having retrieved all my worthwhile bits, the rest including the copious quantities of sand were carefully disposed of into a nearby waste receptacle.

Next I spent positively ages, probably about an hour adjusting my new wing mirror. Bring a truck mirror, there were 4 degrees of adjustment top and bottom which meant I could attain perfection. That's why it took so long!

The new mirror was missing the amber reflector that I'd stuck on the old mirror. Peeling the old one carefully off revealed that it was held on by double sided adhesive tape. I found a few pieces from when I'd been making pitiful amounts of money from selling advertising space on an LED sign I used to carry on the back of my car. I'd used the tape to secure the sign to my back window. Sadly, there wasn't enough tape but I remembered I have some silicone caulk.

Bearing in mind the air was moist, I don't think the silicone will stick all that well but in the event it does, I will be happy. I had a go at gluing the reflector on the mirror in order to add that extra little but of visibility.

Meanwhile, I had taken a mug out of a cardboard box a week ago and it was slimy inside. I checked another and that was slimy too. It seems something had slimed all over a few things in that box. I'm glad most of my stuff is in plastic totes and impervious to critters. I'll have to check and rehome everything that's in cardboard boxes after cleaning it. I'll chuck the cardboard boxes.

And so the lunch break ends with my having to return to work. I have such a lovely day from 04:00 when I rise to 05:45 when I start work. I finish work for the day at 16:45 so it's about a 12 hour day with a gap in the middle.

The good thing

One of the good things about working as a school bus driver is that I get from 08:15 until 13:15 to myself. That gives me time in the day to do things.

Today I took the mirror that arrived yesterday and installed it. I got the vertical angle wrong but that's just a matter of adjusting the bottom bracket bolt. It was a matter of minutes to install using 1/2 inch and 9/16 inch spanners and a pair of pliers. It also involved an obligatory tumble down the front steps of the bus. I'm going to blame the sand that's built up there over the last few days for that!

The mirror didn't look like it had a 5/16 thread on the eBay photo but it did so I'm happy about that. My next task will be to locate a new orange reflector to put on the outer edge of the mirror.

Subsequent to my eBay purchase, I did find the mirror cheaper elsewhere but only marginally. I must say that the sellers packaging was superb. It arrived undamaged in the post.

Yet to arrive in the post is my solar charge controller. That's coming from Canada. I still have the broken one that arrived from China. I have no idea whether it really works though. As I've probably said, the mounting was broken so I contacted the seller who ignored me. Then I contacted eBay and the seller promised to ship a replacement. That never arrived so after a month, I notified eBay who promptly issued a refund. Subsequent to that, it still didn't arrive so I'm going to declare that Chinese seller doesn't care about honesty. Unless I can't get something from closer to home I'm unlikely to order from China.

Small steps

Yesterday I passed the CDL test and today I picked up my brand new driving license. I now have a license that says I can drive a bus with passengers and can also drive a Schoolbus. It doesn't matter a jot now that my own bus is 1,500lbs heavier than I can drive on a car license because I can drive big, heavy busses now.

As far as the test was concerned, I'd already passed the one test. Yesterday's test was in three parts. The first was whether I could identify and check all the major components of a bus. That involved rolling underneath the bus and touching the air brake cylinder, the push rod and the slack adjuster amongst a great many other things.

The second test involved driving through an alley made of cones then reversing back through that alley. It also involved reversing through an offset cone alley before finally parking in a bay made of cones. That was all pretty easy as long as the mirrors were used.

The third and final test involved driving on public roads. I did left and right turns, crossed railway tracks and junctions and drove on the interstate. I was asked about what the speed limit was and what my speed was. I also had to make safe lane changes. That was all pretty easy stuff to be honest.

Thus I am now a professional driver. I really couldn't care less about the label though. I'd rather be recognized as a safe driver.

In other news, my eBay wing mirror arrived. It's in pristine condition and had it not been fir the rain, I'd have installed it today. That was $25 well spent though it'd have been nice not to have to spend the money!

The mirrors, the mirrors

 Well, that's what happened to my mirror. The problem was the swivels were rusted solid and the body was plastic. Thus when I tried moving the mirror into place, it flexed and the glass didn't with the above result. I had a huge fight to remove the nuts in order to remove the mirror.

The mirror I bought on eBay the other day should fit. I can't see threads on the top and bottom so it might need new brackets. I'll just have to wait and see. It might be possible to make my own though.

As can be seen here, the bolt comes straight out of the bottom of the mirror. It looks to be a 1/4 by 20 bolt. I'd had major problems trying to undo it yesterday but today I bought a set of combination scanners and got it undone.

I had a fancy to put a different mirror system. In the end I decided for reasons of cost to stay with what I have. One of the convex and one cross view mirror do need work. Either replacement or polishing but I'm not sure which yet. The one mirror that was cockeyed, I did manage to straighten. Fortunately the swivels on that weren't rusted solid or I'd be looking at a another new mirror.

For the first time in several months I started my bus. Not just that but I moved it. Having taken bus driving classes, I was much more confident of moving it. Indeed, using the mirrors I did manage to turn the bus around. Even so, I had to get out and look a couple of times. I can't say I did my turnabout in three points because it wasn't. It was more like 9 as the bus is big and the space is not clearly marked.

The rev counter was playing its usual trick of being intermittent. I have a feeling that the problem is the hillbilly wiring. Other than that, everything seemed to work just fine.