the wait is over

[Hvbuzz]

Your right though, would work like a giant potatoe gun.

[Hvbuzz]

I finally got most of my plumbing finished up. I have a working toilet and shower. The one vavle not hooked to anything, is for future water tanks on the roof. Not going to happen this year though.



City water input on the outside of the bus.


Dump valve installed on my carwash black tank.


Black tank finished

[Hvbuzz]

I made a reciever carrier couple years ago to haul my snowblower on the back of my pickup. Works good on the back of the bus to haul the generator. My plans are to eventually mount generator under the bus, but I really want to use the bus now. So that will wait. I did however make a kennal for the generator so it doesn't run away on me.

Before


Now

[ol trunt]

That makes sense. Now all you need is a gernade with a trip wire----but I digress. Your holding tank installation looks good and as it is close to the axle you won't have to worry about high centering.

[browncrown]

I envy your welding skills. Your generator kennel looks great...i'm sure it won't be able to run away

[chev49]

"Behind every great welder is a great grinder..."

[Locutus]

Make sure you weld some tabs next to the ends of your hinges so that thieves don't tap the hinge pins out. Also weld the hinges to the kennel frame. At the hitch receiver, use a locking hitch pin.

[Hvbuzz]

Check, check, and check

Bolt/hinge pin welded in one bushing


Tab to keep kennel from sliding out the hinge pins when closed


Mounted on bus. I have a locking hitch pin too.


Thanks for the comments guys! Sometimes its easy to over look things and is nice to catch them early.

[ol trunt]

How about a couple of reflectors at tail light height on the cage? Just a thought.

[Bullwhacker007]

WOW nice.
Question?
One your black tank of doom; the "let her rip" valve sticking out yelling "knock me off?
Have you thought about "protection around it in case your wheel goes to pieces or kicks up something and nails it?
Kinda be a major eeewwwww if that happened.

[Hvbuzz]

I really like the reflecter idea. I hadn't thought about that. Thanks!

It will be a bad day all around, if one of those tires come apart.

[Tango]

I have to second the idea of some kind of guard protecting the waste valve. It is mighty exposed and if it caught on something might just take part of the tank with it. I'd be less worried about the tire than ordinary road debris. Even a simple half hoop of steel flat iron looped around it & tacked to the lower rail would provide some deflection/protection. Mine is tucked up above the body line and well out of the way and out of sight inside a hatch. And BTW...there are kids who take relish in yanking those valves open just to watch the fun that follows, so I wanted mine hidden away.

[Hvbuzz]

Just got back from a 1350 mile round trip with the family. All in all a great trip! The bus preformed perfectly. We live right by Des Moines, Ia and traveled north to Minneapolis to visit the wifes family then made our way north west into North Dakota to visit my family. For the most part I drove the bus around the 65 mph. At times I would travel around 70mph, but it seemed to run alittle warm. Never got over 212* but seems to warm for me, but outside air temps where hovering around 100 at that point too. I was really trying to get things done on the bus before we left, but getting the generator mounted under the bus didn't happen. So I left it on the hitch carrier. I was thinking this would work fine running down the road to power the rooftop AC. But I was wrong. It bounced to much that the generator would kick out. So at times it was a pretty hot time. First on my list now is to get genny mounted permantly under bus some where near the front. Really not to many pics of anything exciting, but thought I would share some of the family along the way. I think most are crappy cell phone pics.

















Farming in North Dakota

[bus-bro]

That's sure one heck of a tractor! Congrats on the successful road trip.

[Hvbuzz]

Its been quite awhile since working on the bus. We were busy using it, rather then working on it. I've only had it out once so far this year. But have been working on finishing up a couple things.

Got a 30 gallon barrel mounted and top side plumbed, for a gray water tank, just for our kitchen sink.



Then I have also been working on mounting the genny up under the bus. I found last year it would not run generate while going down the road when it was mounted on my rear reciever hitch platform. The bouncing was to much and it would not work. So I'm hoping up front will end in better results. I was pretty worried if I would have enough ground clearance, but after working on it under the bus I realize that it is still higher then the muffler and the front steps. So hopefully it will work. Since having it up next to the floor I am also working on setting it up to run off of a couple boat gas tanks. At six gallons apiece, this little genny should last me a full weekend pretty easy. The downside to the yamaha compaired to the honda is it has no fuel pump, so I'm also trying to add a small electric pump to feed fuel to it, rather then gravity feed.







Removing rear wheels




My ramp to get the heavy thing up there. It will also be the tray for holding the gas tanks


To the left of the genny I hope to put some coach batteries. The nice thing is the generator also puts out 12V DC, so I plan on charging them with it.


Some of the parts on adding the extra tanks


I'm adding a quick fuel disconnect to the genny too.

[somewhereinusa]

I'm not telling you what to do, Just some things for you to think about.

I had one of that brand mounted on my semi. Even with air ride suspension I had to shut off the fuel when not running, If I didn't it would be flooded.
Yamaha said it was the fuel sloshing in the fuel bowl .
In less than a year a fuel line inside the housing failed and I had a major fire. I was able to get it out of the mount I had built, but I got burned and also did some damage to the truck
sitting beside me.
Even though carbon monoxide is heavier than air, trucks sitting beside me at a truckstop that had exhaust pointing out to the side would make me sick because their "stink" would come
up under my cab and get inside.
I do like the ramp for loading the genny.

[ol trunt]

Somewhere makes a valid point. I have a Yamaha genny like yours mounted mid way under my bus and I have had the float stick a couple of times which causes fuel to spill out into the case. If you open the case you will find an overflow tube comming from the outboard side of the carb. I extended this tube out the bottom of the genny case so that over flow will not collect inside the case--resulting in a fire. I have also observed that over flow seems to happen mostly on start up after a prolonged period of non use. I took the carb apart to find out why and it seems the float drop is too great (not adjustable as designed) and rather than pivoting on its pin, the float "tries"to go straight up and jams. Possibly devising a way to limit float drop would cure this problem. I did away with the gravity feed tank and went to a remote 8 gal tank with a low pressure elect pump (3#). I have run the genny about 20 hrs now and all seems to be well. As an added safety precaution I installed a thermocouple (doubly redundant) that shuts down both the fuel pump and the genny if the temp in the case exceeds 200 degrees F. Because my genny is in a box I also installed a Pisces brand temperature activated fire extinguisher just in case. The extinguisher is specifically for hydrocarbon fires and is the sort used in boat bilge/engine rooms.

Like you, I had planned to use the the 12v capability of the genny to charge the house batteries but because it isn't a controlled charger, it would end up overcharging the genny battery while also only fast charging the house batteries which isn't the best way to go. I wired up an Intel 4500 converter that plugs into the genny 120v plug instead. Jack

The fire extinguisher mounts upside down over the genny.

[ol trunt]

I tried to edit the last post but it didn't work--McMaster and Carr sell 5/8" flexable exhaust tube that fits over the exhaust pipe of our Yamaha gennys and allows redirecting of the exhaust out from under the bus. It is inexpensive and easy to work with. Jack

[Hvbuzz]

I want to thank both of you for imput. It is well recieved. I ran it all last year on the car trailer, and never had one issue. I hooked the fuel lines back up today, and wouldn't you know it, the float stuck and spilled the gas into the case. I had no idea there was a problem with that. So that leads me to a couple more questions. Jack, the tube you were referring to, is that the breather tube for the air cleaner? That is where the gas ran down. Also, where did you hookup your hot fuel pump wire? Now I'm not really sure where I want it. Even keyed doesn't seem like a good position. Would the 12v output of the genny work? If the generator were to die or run out of gas the pump would then shut off to. I really like your thermocoupler switch, but I have no idea on how about to go that way. Last, would that fire extinguisher work horizontally?

[ol trunt]

Hey Hvbuzz, Now you can see why Somewhere dislikes the Yamaha. I'm still in love with it but not without safety backups! You are right, it does look like the gas is running out the black air intake hose (and it can if the overflow drain hose is pluged) but that is not what I am talking about. The tube you are looking for is about 3/16" diameter and is white plastic. It is on the oposite side of the control panel deep in the case coming from the float bowl area. You will probably have to remove the blue colored covers and probably the gas tank--just a bunch of 10 mm bolts and you can't hurt anything. That being said you can hurt yourself if you find one of the 3 capacitors on the circuit board. The shock is something you will remember though not REALLY dangerous to most--so stay away from them and keep on tearing stuff off unitl you can find the overflow tube. After you have located it and drilled a hole in the floor pan of your genny, go to Lowes or Home Depot and buy enough similar tubing to get the overflow out of the genny case. Although I haven't done it yet, I may remove the float bowl and blop in a wad of fuel proof "epoxy"--just enough to lift the float and encourage it to rock on its pivot rather than jamb. When I do this sort of thing I like to test using mineral spirits as a test liquid as it is way less flamable than gas.

I don't see any reason not to use the 12v genny output to run your pump other than you may have to jump the pump if you run out of fuel (until the float bowl refills).

I am using a normally open thermocouple to kill the spark should the genny over heat (mine @200 degrees F). I have it attached to the engine case right at the base of the cylinder deep below the fuel tank. It over heating occurs, the spark is shorted out and the thing quits. Since my genny is in a slide out drawer, I moved all the controls panel and all and built them into the counter. While I was doing this I figured out what the off/on/start switch does. In the off position the switch shorts out the spark. In the on position the switch makes no electrical contact whatsoever and in the start position the switch engages the starter relay. Once I figured that out I just ran the lead from my thermocoule(s) to the ground wire at the switch. If the genny over heats the thermocoupe closes to ground, shorts the spark and stops.

The fire extinguisher will work in any position but the best spray pattern is achieved if the thing is verticle. I think I have seen units with a 90 degree head which might solve the problem.

Good luck with this and feel free to ask more questions. Jack