The Black Plague II (The new Jacuzzi Bus) - Page 4

lapeer20m · 07-23-2005, 07:26 PM

I am planning to sell the black plague II sometime after burningman. Perhaps not till next spring, i'm not sure.

Next i'd like to upgrade to a tour bus of some sort. I think there's enough space in the undercarrage storage boxes to allow the jacuzzi to be flush with the floor. Kind of like an in ground pool.

After i sell that bus (i guess it would be the black plague III) I'd like to use that money for a down payment on a house.

lapeer20m · 07-23-2005, 07:38 PM

I got more stuff finished today. Installed 20 super bright LED's under the bus for some ground effex lighting. 10 are red, 10 are blue. I have the option to use either color or both. The red ones are 8,000 mcd, blue are 4,500 mcd's.

I also installed a sony XPLODE stereo, and a couple of 15" subwoofers. Monday after delivering the old bus, I will pick up my 110 volt DJ stereo equipment. Found an old peavey powered amp and a couple peavey cabinet speakers on ebay for cheap.

She's coming together quite well.....I have to wait till tuesday when i go back to work to post photo's. My computers cdrom has died.

Hopefully i'll get my hydraulic cylinders and the rest of the steel on wednessday, and make some good headway on that project. It's possible that i can have the jacuzzi moving up and down by next weekend.....but i won't hold my breath! As far as the bus is concerned, that really is a monumental project

The new signs are in. 3 are "Caution, jacuzzi inside excess water may be present", and there's also a new liscense plate that reads "The Black Plague II"

What a productive week!!!!!

lapeer20m · 07-26-2005, 09:43 PM

Finally ordered myself a Honda EU200i generator. It will ship tomorrow, I would immagine it'll be here by the weekend, early next week by the latest. I'm really really excited! I've wanted one of these prettty much since i purchased my bus.

Also brought home my new (used) peavey power mixer and a pair of peavey cabinet speakers. WOW!!! it's only rated @ 300 watts, but this really really rocks! I'm very impressed. Got all three pieces on ebay for $187.00. I am pretty sure that car audio really overrates how many watts they actually put out. Because the 300 watts from this dj setup seems to make more noise (and higher quality) than any 1000 watt car amp i've ever heard. Just my opinion, I'm not a big audio guy.

captainkf · 07-27-2005, 07:07 AM

Yes, Car audio does generally overate what it can produce. The claim 1000 watts refers to 4 ohm briged (1 channel) whereas pro audio refer's to 8 ohms per channel. This equals higher quality sound at a higher level which equals good! Congradulations on the sale of your "old" bus. -Richard

lapeer20m · 07-28-2005, 09:06 PM

new honda geni will be here tomorrow...

bought a new xm satelite radio yesterday

finally got the hydraulic cylinders and the rest of the steel today

didn't get much done on the bus though.....some other bus guy, ron morrison. He's the guy who was on the first post in the original vegetable oil conversion thread........I did some welding for him on his bus, then my old lincoln arc welder puked out. It's prob. older than i am. I went and bought that new lincoln wire feed welder i've been wanting. That things pretty cool....never used one before today.

I work tomorrow for 24 hours....but hopefully saturday i'll get the remainder of the ceiling off, and the cylinders at least tack welded to the frame and finish fabricating the rest of the special jacuzzi platform. Sunday at the earliest i think i could see the jacuzzi move up and down.

forgot to grab my camera....haven't been to my house in a few days. Eventually i have some good photo's to post.

busone · 07-28-2005, 09:16 PM

sounds like you have made some real progress. How is Ron? I remember way back when he was on the other group until hitler threw him off. I broke my **&^^* wrist so it is a pain to type .

lapeer20m · 07-29-2005, 05:15 AM

Ron's doing good. he had been in a bad motorcycle accident last fall/early winter. That put him in a wheel chair for a while.

He's the guy that many of us should be jealous of....He's a full time bus dweller.

lapeer20m · 07-31-2005, 12:16 PM

new bus photo's are here finally.

Here are a couple shots of the cylinders being mounted to the bus. They're about 6 feet long when closed. Sure is a lot easier to draw out ideas on paper than it is to do the actual work! It takes about all i have just to tilt one of the cylinder from a laying to a standing positon.

I'm still hopeful that later today, or tomorrow i can get the jacuzzi to move up and down.

lapeer20m · 07-31-2005, 12:19 PM

Here is my new generator! this thing is awsome. I can't believe how quiet it is, and it only weighs about as much as 5 gallons of gasoline. They say it'll run up to 15 hours on 1.1 gallons of fuel @ 1/4 load. I am conducting a test today, running my 40 amp battery charger until the batts get full, then i'll plug in a 500 watt halogen. I started the test at 12:30 (noon thirty)

A quick look at my new speakers and powered amp. This stuff really rocks too (had to buy a new inverter though, I cannot run it off of a 700w inverter.)

lapeer20m · 07-31-2005, 09:43 PM

well, after my batteries got full, i decided not to run a halogen, but rather to run the stereo off of the geni, and the power tools. I used a millwaki (i can't spell) sawz-all, circular saw, and a mikita angle grinder. I did overload the geni only once. The circular saw was getting kinda bound up going through 2 layers of plywood and the metal floor of the bus. I think the saw is rated @ 13amps.

I finally shut off the geni about 10pm. That's 9.5 hours. I drained the fuel into a ~1pt bottle. That was the perfect fit for the amount of fuel left over. I am very very impressed!

I cut off the rest of the ceiling over the jacuzi today. Now there's about a 10 or 12 foot hole in the roof. Basically, there is no ceiling from the front of the wheel wells back. I got the 3rd (and last) cylinder into place. All three cylinders are just tacked in place, still awaiting their final bracketry.

Still didn't get the jacuzzi to go up today.......Almost certianly tomorrow!!! Keep your fingers crossed.

I did get all the pipe fittings and hoses to make the cylinders do their thing, also found an old air compressor 110 volt from a garage sale. I think i may use this at least initially to run the cylinders.

lapeer20m · 08-01-2005, 09:39 PM

Eureka!

Tonight i finally got the jacuzzi to move up and down. The job is far from finished, but it works!

This first photo is the jacuzzi all the way up....this caused it to not go back down properly........so the rest of the photo's have the jacuzzi a little lower.

Jacuzzi in the up position.....

Jacuzzi in the down position....

.
There is a really big hole in the roof! I'm not exactly certian how i'm going to remedy that yet......

Griff · 08-02-2005, 04:00 AM

That is WAY COOL!

All ya need to add now is one of those "clapper" devices. CLAP up! CLAP down!

NICE WORK! Can't wait to see the end result!

Eric von Kleist · 08-02-2005, 11:13 AM

That's just impressive as heck!

Quote:

There is a really big hole in the roof! I'm not exactly certian how i'm going to remedy that yet......

Corrugated sheetmetal roofing panels about 10 feet long? They take rounded contours very well. Each one is about 2 feet wide (after overlapping the edges). If you had them on a frame that split down the center of the bus, you could link them mechanically to the jacuzzi so that they would spread open as it rose. They wouldn't be strong enough to walk on, though, but they would be easy to pop-rivet to a frame of some kind. Plus, they're cheap.

Griff · 08-02-2005, 12:04 PM

I don't know how you cut the roof, but if it was / is one piece, maybe you could build a frame that attaches it to the jacuzzi frame so it would just move straight up with the jacuzzi and act as a shade for it. Of course you'd have to configure a seal to go around it, but that would be simple compared to what you've already done.

Or you could try the Monster Garage approach the way they cut it in half and had the halves fold out?

By the way, have you procured your '2001 A Space Odyssey' sound track yet (to go along with the sound system & monolithic jacuzzi)?

lapeer20m · 08-02-2005, 01:24 PM

the man burns in 32 Days !!!!

I leave aug 23 for the trip.....that's exactly 3 weeks from today. there is so much to be done, but i'm confident the bus will be ready. She might not be 100 % finished (is a skoolie ever finished?) but she'll definately be ready for 10 days of fun and frollick in the desert.

lapeer20m · 08-04-2005, 09:13 PM

well......i'm frustrated today!

Just can't seem to get the hydraulic cylinders to all move at the same rate. the two in the back only have to lift half as much each as the one cylinder in the front. This makes the cylinders in the back go up first, twisting my custom made jacuzzi frame. It is impressive to watch 3"X1/4" channel iron get twisted like a wet noodle.

I tried straight air, then i tried air over hydraulic, then tried straight hydraulic, and none yeild satisfactory results.

I tried using multiple pressure regulators in the air system. That did make things much closer, but still not perfect.

Saturday when i get home from work, i think i'll try putting some proportioning valves into the hydraulic system and see how that works.

this portion of the project is sucking the life outtta me !!!

Griff · 08-04-2005, 09:20 PM

Are they all three moving at different rates, or just the pair moving at a different rate than the single?

BTW - GOOD ANSWER on the proportioning valves!

Rick78EFI460 · 08-04-2005, 10:26 PM

Automotive hoists use a set of cables to balance the cylinders, if one starts moving too fast it takes more of the load. Using a set of pulleys and cables can complicate things , but it prevents the twisting.

Kirbystud · 08-05-2005, 07:48 AM

I would use a inline orifice and you can drill them out untill you get the right flow to all your cyl. You can also get orifice that will orifice the flow on the way up and will free flow down. Plus they are chep to work with. also are you going to have some locks on all four legs once it is up???

lapeer20m · 08-05-2005, 09:31 AM

There's only three leggs....which is what's causing my problem. I think if there were four of them things would be much more even.

Yes, i plan to have a manual lockout mechanism when the jacuzzi is at full extention.

Instead of expirementing with different size orifices, i think i will try adjustable proportioner valves. Basically the valve should be just like an infinately adjustable orifice. (from closed to wide open)

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