Jeremy's conversion project

[orangepeel91]

Add me to the group that is totally jealous of your suspension. I have a Bluebird TC 2000 the same size as your bus. I too have air brakes but spring suspension. It did pretty well for an empty bus with springs but air ride is soooo much more comfortable.

[swaflyer]

Originally Posted by browncrown

Love the workbench counter! You're making great progress and the bus is looking good

Thanks, considered buying cabinets from HD, building my own and I was keeping an eye on craigslist. Glad I went with this cabinet. I might get a few more matching small ones for closet/utility space.

There was some conflict on color choices. I was pushing for the green. Now everyone agrees we made the right choice,

Originally Posted by Tango

Killer Cabinets!!! --- And a great looking little heater/stove. It's all coming together really nicely, keep the pix coming.

Thanks! The stove was a pain to take cross-country but it's going to be worth it.

Originally Posted by orangepeel91

Add me to the group that is totally jealous of your suspension. I have a Bluebird TC 2000 the same size as your bus. I too have air brakes but spring suspension. It did pretty well for an empty bus with springs but air ride is soooo much more comfortable.

I think our busses are a really nice size. And, not to rub it in but it really does drive like a dream. It's a smoother ride than my car.

[swaflyer]

I'm using salvage doors for the bedroom walls and the bedroom door. I really like how this is coming out. I was planning on painting them but now that I have them up I like the colors and the worn look. Maybe I should just sand them some more and put a coat of lacquer on them. If I do that I'll color match a quart to paint the new wood on the sides and top and then sand a bit to give it a matching distressed look before the lacquer.


I'm tiring to see if I can work out a way to adapt this salvage hardware to work.

[browncrown]

It never ceases to amaze me the ideas people come up with on this forum...the bedroom wall and doors are FANTASTIC!!!

[ol trunt]

That wall is by far the best I have seen this side of "Rolling Homes" and that is saying a lot. Leave the original finish and by all means adapt the old hardware--the effect will be exceptional!

[dburt]

Your project is turning out very nicely- I like your ideas and the execution of your plan! Keep up the good work, I'm looking forward to your progress!

[swaflyer]

Finally put the dinette in. I built it a full year before we even bought the bus (I was excited). It isn't attached yet but I cut out the bottom of one to fit over the wheel well which was the plan from the beginning. They will open from the top and the side for storage and/or utility. I built doors for the side too just waiting for the paint to dry before I install them. I haven't made the table top yet but it will drop to convert to a bed. I might break out the sewing machine tomorrow to make the cushions. And maybe some curtains. Also tint guy is coming tomorrow to do all but the windshield. Had to make the appointment a full month ahead- he must be good.

[swaflyer]

After tint and pressure wash yesterday.

[proconsul100]

your hard work is paying off, your bus looking good

[swaflyer]

So, I've looked around and am trying to fumble my way through designing my electrical system. I have read in several places that 6v golf car batteries are the way to go for house batteries. I was thinking about getting 6 of these Trojan T105 run in pairs to make a 12v system. Is this a bad idea? I want plenty of storage so I can run off solar (probably about 500 watts) with no generator. Fridge, stove, water heater on propane.

[BUBB]

The 105's are good, all the trojans are probably similarly good, I just picked up 4 trojan 1275's, they are 150ah each, a little more power than the 105's but the same footprint, I looked at several different sizes, in the end I divided the AH capacity of each battery by its final cost delivered so I could find the cheapest,
I decided on 12v instead off 6v because if you break a 6v more than a year after you purchased it you will probably need to replace its paired 6v and since I only have 4 now I didnt want to have to replace half my bank in the case that one breaks.
I have read that many like the 6v because they have thicker lead plates than any 12v, the weight evens out with the same AH capacity but still the individual plates on a 6v are thicker than on any 12v.
The battery capacity you have mentioned is probably fine but you still need to do the math, your 500 watts seems low by at least half but if you have access to a generator or shore power then it wont matter much unless you are boondocking for months at a time.
Where ever you put them make sure you can easily check the water,
Remember that you only want to drain half a batteries power before you recharge it so a battery with 100ah of power can only be drained down 50ah, if you drain more it severely lessens its lifespan, draining 30 or 20 percent between charges is even better,
Also remember that if something draws one Ah AC it will need 10 Ah dc to run it , and this does not include the inefficiencies in the system.
Lets say the fridge uses 5 amps to run, it will take at least double that to start it so make sure your inverter has at least twice the rated capacity as any device you want to run.
Depending upon who you talk to a general rule is to have 100-150 watt of solar panel for every 100Ah of battery capacity, this is a very general rule.
Usually you would look at each device you want to power, figure its DC power requirements needed on a daily basis, then you get at least twice as much battery as you need since you can only use half the battery between charges, then you add at least 10% for the inefficiencies, then you figure out how much solar you need to supply that much power to the batteries assuming only 4-5 hours of good sun each day, the farther to the north you live you may want even more,

[Scooternj]

Originally Posted by swaflyer

Also tint guy is coming tomorrow to do all but the windshield. Had to make the appointment a full month ahead- he must be good.

How much did the tint guy charge for the bus?

[swaflyer]

Originally Posted by Scooternj

How much did the tint guy charge for the bus?

He initially said about $300 over the phone which I thought was a smoking deal. I figured he would want to charge more when he had a look at the bus. When he finished he said $550 which surprised me but I still think it was a pretty good deal. It's 50 windows.

[swaflyer]

Originally Posted by BUBB

The 105's are good, all the trojans are probably similarly good, I just picked up 4 trojan 1275's, they are 150ah each, a little more power than the 105's but the same footprint, I looked at several different sizes, in the end I divided the AH capacity of each battery by its final cost delivered so I could find the cheapest,
I decided on 12v instead off 6v because if you break a 6v more than a year after you purchased it you will probably need to replace its paired 6v and since I only have 4 now I didnt want to have to replace half my bank in the case that one breaks...

Bubb,
Thank you so much for the information. I'm kinda flying blind here and I want to make sure I'm not buy the wrong (expensive) equipment. Your input really helps.
-Jeremy

[Locutus]

Before designing and building your electrical system, read this blog in its entirety:

http://handybobsolar.wordpress.com/

Trojan batteries are good, but these may be even better, if you believe Handy Bob:

https://www.crownbattery.com/

The CR260's are probably the best bet for an RV bus conversion, typically a set of 4 set up in series/parallel for 12 volts DC. (They're 6 volts each).

[BUBB]

Look at dmsolar.com for panels, this is where I purchased mine from,
24v or higher is more efficient when you have long cable runs but in a bus the inefficiencies wont matter as much as a home system since your cable runs are relatively short,
To make sure you dont purchase the wrong stuff you really want to work backwards, look at each device you want to run and then calculate an average daily load for that device, then do it for all the devices, from there you can see how much of a battery bank you need, then you can decide how much solar wattage you will need,
From here you can then start pricing your system, you can price 12v vs 6v batteries, you can see if it makes sense to get 12v or 24v panels, or if you want to hook 12v panels up to provice 24v or 48v power,
If you go 12v you can use a a normal pwm charge controller, if you decide to use an mppt charge controller you can have either 12/24/48v panels and then the controller can turn that voltage into voltage you need for you batteries. The mppt charge controller (regardless of voltage) will increase your system efficiency by 5-20 percent and handybob can explain this better than I can,
For instance you can have you panels hooked up as 24v and then the mppt controller can then turn it into 12v to charge you batteries if you choose to have them hooked up as 12v,
This is one way to increase the efficiency, 12v panels charging 12v batteries will need thicker and more expensive wires to prevent power loss during the transfer of power. But with the mppt you can use thinner wires since it can take 24v or 48v solar input and then charge your batteries that are hooked up as 12v.
Mppt controllers are at least twice the price of similar amp capacitied pwm controllers.
Before you decide to go with a full 24v or 48v system you will want to price the items you will need to purchase.
You will save a lot of power using DC powered appliances since their is a power loss when you need to use an inverter so if you can price DC powered appliances.
That handybob web site is a great place, read it twice and take notes.

[Locutus]

I'd be wary of buying anything Xantrex brand. They moved their manufacturing to China several years ago and incidents of problems have reportedly gone way up since then. Now if you want a reliable, "bombproof" USA-built inverter/charger, go with Magnum. They're headquartered practically right across the street from the Everett, WA Boeing plant.

http://magnumenergy.com/

A good online retailer that includes Magnum in their lineup is http://www.donrowe.com/Default.asp

[dburt]

For the cost of the system that Nat references, I would opt for a good diesel gen-set instead. They work on cloudy days, at night, in the snow, etc. And good diesel gen-sets can run really quiet, and fairly cheap for the miserly amount of fuel they would consume. A person could still have a bank of storage batteries and inverter, but just charge them via the gen-set.

[JDecker]

Swaflyer,

Looking at your needs, I think the 6kW inverter is overkill. The largest demands you have are a coffee maker(1200w), microwave(2000w) and refrigerator(600w). (Source: http://www.donrowe.com/usage-chart-a/259.htm) I picked the highest numbers; realistically, you probably won't have the absolute highest power electronics on your skoolie.

On the odd chance that they were all running at once, and even if you had another 1kW of TV and a bunch of chargers running(total 4800w), the 4kW version (http://www.wholesalesolar.com/produc...rexxw4024.html) has enough overhead to keep up for the 5 minutes the microwave is on. If you want to add AC, that's a whole different story.

Getting down to 4kW also lets you move down to 24V, which I find to be an attractive middle ground for a bus, for several reasons:
* Compared to 12V, current and wiring losses are halved.
* Compared to 48V, 24V electrical accessories(to include LED bulbs) are much more widely available.
* Compared to 48V, you'll probably be able to run all of your solar panels in parallel. This means you'll lose only a single panel's output if one is partially obstructed(by a leaf, telephone pole, etc.), instead of both it and the panel in series with it to give good 48V output.

For solar panels, I keep an eye on wholesale solar... as low as $1.15 or so a watt for smaller than pallet size orders, don't know how their shipping runs. Haven't ordered from them, just like their website. I can't say much about batteries, I plan on long lasting LiFePO4's... but they're expensive and the chemistry is pretty new and not yet well supported.

Electrical systems can get pricey pretty quickly. What IS your budget? Are you planning on including a generator, and how often do you wan to run and fuel it?

Your system looks pretty much like what I've spec'd for myself, except a little bit big. At the 4kW size, Xantrex also offers the new RE model, have you seen it? No 220V output, but it does offer line/generator assist, where you can draw XXX amps(user adjustable) from a power pedestal or generator, and the inverter will add up to 4 kW of assistance.

I'm torn because I'd like to be able to run a good 200-250 amp welder on 220 without a generator running, but the line assist seems awesome for normalizing marginal power pedestals, or the odd extension-cord-through-a-friend's-bedroom-window trick.

Dburt,

I agree $15k would buy a pretty nice 6kW genset and a lot of diesel, but solar, while more expensive, does eliminate the logistics of fueling. Noise may also be a factor... Personally, I'd rather run a generator as infrequently as possible.

Joe Decker

[Locutus]

I wouldn't plan on running air conditioning off battery power, no matter what size inverter you end up with. You would need a truly massive battery bank to keep up with the current loads and amp hour draw down, and then there's charging to consider for back filling that energy requirement. You couldn't fit enough solar panels on your bus roof to keep up. No, if you run A/C, you'll need shore power or a generator.