The Four Season Prime

[REDD]

Still got snow here as well,-12c yesterday, startin' to warm up, yee haw!

[taskswap]

Yeah, it's not as cold here in CT/USA but we got 2" of new snow last night. One last ha-ha from Old Man Winter. Makes it hard to work outside - I don't really mind the cold that much but it's way easier to work when it's warm.

[nat_ster]

Lol, thanks for looking folks.

Lighting in my shed.

At first we used my tool flashlights that produce 120 lumans each. The 12 and 20 volt Dewalt lights would last 4 to 12 hours. However they did not spread the light well due to the narrow beam reflector.

Then we switched to the small indoor oil lanterns. They gave amazing light, around 500 lumans, at a cost of $10 each at home hardware.
Expensive Paraffin based lamp oil would not clime the wick properly and resulted in low light, and a burned up wick in a short time.
So we changed to using just strait kerosine. It works vary vary well at a low cost. Under $1 a day for light, running one lamp 12 hours a day. As long as the wick height is set correctly, there is almost no smell at all.
The lamp.



However, even with my shed not being air tight, the lamp was still polluting our indoor air.

So I had the idea to use a LED MR16 12 volt household bulb, running of the 12 volt plug on my Milwaukee M18 heated jacket controller. The Jacket controller also has a USB port for charging my cell phone.

The MR16 12 volt LED bulb at 130 lumans. They are over $15 each normal cost.







The Milwaukee M18 electric jacket controller wired to run my two light bulbs.



You can see the switch on the back of the controller to turn it on and off. You can also see the USB port.



I cut one of the extension wires from my jacket, and wired it into some scrap light gauge wire.



The MR16 bulb on.



You can see the two bulbs hanging from the ceiling on the left side. My wife is reading by the light.



Camera Flash off.



Showing the light pattern on the floor. From the 6 foot ceiling, the beam on the floor is 2.5 feet in diameter.



The M18 battery's I'm using are 3 amp hours. Milwaukee now makes a 4 and a 5 amp hour battery. I get 4 hours of light per amp hour with 2 bulbs running 3 watts each.

Nat

[nat_ster]

When we were using the oil lamp, it had to stay high for safety and to get the light over the bed where my wife likes to read. To help spread the light to the floor, I hung a closet door mirror I got from a job site. It worked so well, I never hung the other three.



I have many many battery powered lights. We are never without some form of light.
A few of my collection.



This rubber made tote is our end table by the bed and the chair I sit in in front of the stove. It works well.



I drag the ashes out of my stove onto the steel floor to cool before raking them down a hole in the floor. The shed is on a skid I made, sitting on wood blocks 2.5 feet in the air.



I keep all my garbage in a pile to flair or start fires in the morning.



Nat

[SassyLass]

Cool info about your lights. The ash-chute is brilliant. I've only ever seen that once before. My grandparents had one in their house. It took 50 years to fill. We know this because when we finally emptied it (dozens of wheelbarrows full) We found cigarette packs and unburned newspapers with dates on them. It was like an archeological dig in layers of ash. It filled the entire chimney space in the basement - about a 3' square, floor to ceiling -the opening was in the floor of the fireplace on the main floor.

I've been meaning to ask about that electric jacket of yours. This answers the "What is the power source" question. How do you recharge the controller and how long does it take? (Ac/dc/solar/usb?) How long does the jacket stay warm on a single charge? Can you get back-up chargers for the jacket (or for camp lights as the case may be? Lol)

I have fallen in love with a warming throw I got for a gift. A warming jacket sounds marvelous, especially for freezing camping trips and these bitter winters!

[taskswap]

Don't throw those oil lamps out, tho. Around here we call them "hurricane lamps" because they're the only light available after a hurricane wipes out the power for a week. But they'll burn anything, including diesel, fry oil, whatever. Yeah, they don't smell good doing it but in an emergency they can't be beat.

I personally love the look of them (big part of my childhood) and we bring one when we travel. They're almost as good as Coleman lanterns but there's no mantle (the wick lasts a long time) and the light is yellower so it attracts fewer bugs. We use them to play Yahztee on the picnic table at night when we're traveling. Big family tradition. Throw a little Citronella in there with the rest of the oil and you don't need bug candles.

[proconsul100]

looks really good. i need to get a couple of oil lamps as well

[nat_ster]

My Milwaukee heated jacket runs off both the 12 volt and the 18 volt tool battery's that run all my drills, the big impact I twisted the bumper bolts off with, saws, angle grinder, ect. The 18 volt and the 12 volt both use different controllers to run the jacket.
Battery's charge using the tool battery charger. I have one that uses the cigaret lighter socket in the car and 120 volt AC. I charge battery's everyday at the job sites, and in the car on the way to work.
My charger.
Milwaukee 2710-20 M18? Lithium-Ion AC/DC Wall and Vehicle Charger - JCCayer.com

The three amp hour battery's take around 30 min to charge. The big 5 amp hour take 90 min to charge.

My heated jacket runs for 10 hours on a 3 amp hour battery. It would replace your throw.
The battery's.
Milwaukee 2702-22 M18? XC High Capacity LITHIUM-ION Battery(2 Pack) - JCCayer.com

When I lived in the old house last year before I moved, I had to wear my jacket all winter when in my room to keep the radiant cold from destroying my body. The only time I removed it was when I was going to bed. I had a 120 volt AC blanket for the bed to overcome the chill from the walls.

My jacket is now three winters old. I wear it everyday, all winter long. No matter what I'm doing.
My jacket.
Milwaukee 2394-M M12? Cordless Black Heated Jacket Only - Medium - (Jacket Only) - JCCayer.com

I got my wife a Dewalt heated hoodie, and it was broken in less than a month. Dewalt has gone to ****.

The pics show the controller and the battery together. The battery separates from the controller to charge and use in other tools.

The 12 volt battery that some places sell with the jacket is a joke. It only lasts 1 hour. It is not able to push enough voltage to make good heat. This is why I run the M18 rather than the M12 the jacket came with.
The controller I had to buy separately.
http://www.jccayer.com/Milwaukee-49-...-Source/p/5208

With my charger, I could charge my battery's using solar. It will take 12 to 20 volts on the DC input.


I won't throw my oil lamps away. I keep them for backup.

My wife and I also like the nice yellow light. Gives a nice warm feeling to the shed. She also likes it for reading.

They were hard to find here. The only place that had them was home hardware.
http://www.homehardware.ca/en/rec/in...kmx/R-I4360907

Thanks for looking.

Nat

[Stu & Filo. T]

I'm amazed & just want to say your very blessed to have a woman that seems to understand what your after & stays with you while your building this

[Stu & Filo. T]

Oh and I just saw that now she's yor wife, when did you tie the knot??

[SassyLass]

Thank you for the jacket info Nat! I have saved all the info in my "to purchase someday" list. I tend to 'run cold', and you are right, this would absolutely replace my throw! This will be a priority purchase in my list. I especially like the fact that the batteries will serve double duty to sufficiently power good hand tools, which you have demonstrated repeatedly. Thanks again!

[nat_ster]

Originally Posted by allwthrrider

I'm amazed & just want to say your very blessed to have a woman that seems to understand what your after & stays with you while your building this

I sure am.

3 years ago I was renovating a house 1 hour from where I lived with my ex wife and kids. I was taking my 3 man crew to Tim Horton's everyday for lunch. Shayleen worked at that Tim Horton's but was dressed in her street clothes, waiting for her shift to start.

Two days in a row she smiled at me and tried to make eye contact. Being divorced only 11 months before, I wanted nothing to do with woman. I just wanted to work, and try to keep seeing my kids.

My old friend I was working with pushed me over to her table. The same table I'm sitting at now typing this. We spoke for 15 min, then I had to run back to work. Shayleen started texting me that night after work, and 3 days later I started staying with her at her place every night. We were inseparable.

We lived in the upstairs bedroom of her step dads house paying rent for 2 great years. I stopped working out of town, and we never spent a night apart.

Then her mother (Bi Polar, a drunk, pill popper, ect) had a mental episode last spring, and we moved out of the house. In a booming community with no housing, there was no where to move. It was right in the beginning of my money making season, and I had no time to look for a place. So we moved into a hotel for the summer at $3400 a month.

Months before moving out of the house, I asked her if she wanted to live in town, with a big house, and a big pile of debt. Or if she wanted to follow me on a life of basics, full of adventure, living in a small home on wheels. Latter we would pay cash for some land, and build a house in a hill.

For two years we had lived in a bedroom only 16 feet by 9 feet. It was all we really needed.

She chose the life of no debt, and full of adventure.

Fall came and the work days of landscaping were getting short, and coming to a seasonal end. We were no longer able to afford the $3400 a month for the hotel, combined with $5000 a month payment against my passed marriage debt. Paying all this was crippling the bus build, leaving little money to buy material.

Poor Shayleen also helped me pay back the $210,000 debt from my passed marriage.

Before moving into the shed, I asked shayleen what her requirements were for living in there. She said "a comfy bed, and it has to be warm."

She is quite happy in my shed. We are far warmer and more happy in the shed than we were living in the cold upstairs room of her step dads house. Life is better now without the drama of some woman that will not stay on her mental meds.

Originally Posted by allwthrrider

Oh and I just saw that now she's yor wife, when did you tie the knot??

In Canadian law, we were common law after 6 months of living in the same room. However for legality's shayleen and I went to the Justis of the peace and paid $125 for a marriage certificate. Neither Shaleen nor I have any family we want in our lives, so we only had two close friends attend as witnesses.

Originally Posted by SassyLass

Thank you for the jacket info Nat! I have saved all the info in my "to purchase someday" list. I tend to 'run cold', and you are right, this would absolutely replace my throw! This will be a priority purchase in my list. I especially like the fact that the batteries will serve double duty to sufficiently power good hand tools, which you have demonstrated repeatedly. Thanks again!

Your welcome.

We live in a age of some sweet tools.

Nat

[nat_ster]

Most house blue prints are around 12 pages. It includes over lays of the framing, plumbing, foundation, electrical ect.

Here is a updated layout of the living space. Later I will add electrical, plumbing, heating, ect layouts.



Nat

[nat_ster]

I may have found a starter battery bank for the bus. It would also improve our current quality of life.

It can push 1000 CCA burst. Enough to start the bus if needed.

I would get the 100 AH.

LiFePO4 Prismatic Battery, Charger and BMS Package: 24V, Choose from: 40Ah, 60Ah, or 100Ah (w/ Can) - UN38.3 Passed (DGR)

Later I can add this to charge from solar.

Solar / DC Charge Controller (60A Rate) for 12V/24V SLA / LFP Battery with LCD Display

With the fall of our Canadian dollar due to oil prices, I will be happy to get that into Canada for under $2500.

Nat

[PDBreske]

Glad to see you're considering the Iron-Phosphate-type lithium batteries. Here's another option, although these don't come with a charger:

12V 100Ah Lithium Ion battery

[nat_ster]

Originally Posted by PDBreske

Glad to see you're considering the Iron-Phosphate-type lithium batteries. Here's another option, although these don't come with a charger:

12V 100Ah Lithium Ion battery

The price has come down a fair bit since I looked 3 years ago. I was also happy to see the wind and solar charge controllers meant for that battery chemistry.

I like that battery. I wish shipping and the poor exchange rate wouldn't drive the price up so much.

Originally Posted by boojiewoojie

Cool. Hey, I've enjoyed your build progress - still waiting to see how you're gonna do your windshield...

Windshield is coming soon. I just have to get all the metal work done first. I don't want any spark hitting my new glass.

I have done a bit more research. At one time we were going to use a gasket to install the windshield like bluebird originally did.

However, most high end coaches Glue the windshields in with the black windshield glue.

Pro's to gasket.

Takes one fifth of the time and money on labor to swap out a broken one.

Cons

They leak water.

They allow to much flex in the body.

They leak air.

High initial Cost. The gasket is around $4 a foot. I would need 48 feet x 4 = $192
3 tubes of glue will do the same at a cost of $60

Now that I have decided to glue the new windshield in, I no longer need the glass shop to install it. This means I save more $$$

Cost of replacement is not a concern for me as this rig will not move enough for it to matter.

So I have sent quote requests off to 5 glass shops for the size pieces I need. Best price will win.

Nat

[nat_ster]

The snow melted at the bus shop exposing a bunch of scrap wood that ha been pushed into a pile with the snow. So I took a pickup load home.

Tossed off the truck.







Combine a skill saw, drill and a few screws.







One dunage block almost done.



Adding a few more to stiffen up the top and bottom.



Nearly done at 36 inches high.





Still a fair bit of wood left.



So I built a second.



Now there is nothing but thin 1 inch kindling wood left for my stove.



I hammer in a few short pieces to stiffen them up more at the top and bottom.



Top



Bottom



I add a few 2x6 and 2x8 on the bottom to prevent them from sinking into the soft ground. I'm working in a swamp.



Nat

[nat_ster]

Then I use them to block the front of my bus 41 inches in the air.



Look ma, no wheels on the ground.



I used my 4 new 15,000 pound trailer jacks to lift the bus. They are the jacks that will permanently bolt to the bus as stabilizers.



Standing by the rear tire looking forward.



The bus is still cross strapped to my shed to keep it from falling over while jacking. Front was cross chained to a tree and the tractor on the other side.



As I lifted the bus, I blocked the springs, and pounded boards under the tires to help stabilize it, and prevent how far it could fall if it got away on me.





Nat

[family wagon]

I lost track of why the bus needs to be lifted. Better view of the surroundings? (kidding!) Or was it extra clearance for installing a larger fuel tank? I remember you dropped an old tank off that bus not so long ago.

In a few of your photos I've noticed the Black & Decker battery charger in the back corner of the bus. I have one just like it, and I love it! When I bought mine two years ago I was surprised how difficult it was to find a high-amperage battery charger. The 40-amp output on that thing is great.

[Hank's P-O-S]

Not much to say. Mine could be used on school bus service compaired to this.
I love your build and look forward to new posts. I like the more pictures than words thing, I never do well at English.