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Old 08-14-2016, 08:03 PM   #81
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Join Date: Dec 2015
Location: pa
Posts: 2,498
Year: 98
Coachwork: 1. Corbeil & 2. Thomas
Chassis: 1 ford 1998 e350 4x4 7.3 2 mercedes 2004
Engine: 7.3 powerstroke & MBE906
Elf Bus E350 Corbeil fridge and airbag storage

Good evening Folks,

Today I took the 12 volt fridge back out. The compressor got pretty warm and I wanted to get more insulation around the fridge. It is WAECO and uses a Danfoss 12 /24 VDC compressor.

The bus is slightly less wide on top , or better the standing frame post are bent at about the bottom of the window.
So the space behind the fridge is tapered. I had some tapered flat roof insulation. Two tapered pieces together gave the right angle and thickness so that not space would be left. Lucky me.
For the fridge cabinet I had allowed 2" insulation on each side and 1/2" on the bottom so that went in as well.

The compressor during startup from outside temperature would overheat during the initial cool down and cut out.
Figured that some extra cooling would be good for long levity and installed a 24 VDC fan that is nice and quiet at 12 volt. Power draw about 3 Watt. It runs non stop and it keeps the compressor and condenser nice and cool.


http://www.skoolie.net/forums/member...ture13905.html

I also flipped the door hinges around so that it all gets a little more convenient.

In my search for storage space I pulled the lid from the passenger side airbag of. The airbag was gone and it seems a nice space to make paper work storage.


http://www.skoolie.net/forums/member...ture13906.html

Finally i installed a 19" lcd monitor to be used as TV and movie screen.
It used to be a high end Samsung. ( 10yrs ago) I used it because it has a 12 volt DC power input.

I had some thoughts how to avoid vibration to the screen and used rubber cable grommets as vibration dampers. We will see how it holds up. ( picture tomorow)

Later J

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Old 08-19-2016, 04:07 PM   #82
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Engine: 7.3 powerstroke & MBE906
Elf Bus E350 fule mileage powerstroke diesel

Just came back from a little trip and found a missing diesel receipt so now I have some fuel info:

Date Start Stop Trip Fuel Gallon Average remarks.

04/05/16 139614 139851 237 19.84 11.94 pull mercedes
04/23/16 139851 140249 398 28.612 13.9 highway 60/65
07/17/16 140249 140654 405 30.160 13.4 highway 65
07/24/16 140654 141035 381 29.192 13.05 local
08/17/16 140035 141320 285 21.847 13.04 local
08/19/16 141320 141660 340 24.967 13.06 trip 55/60


So not all to bad with a rear 4.10 and 265/75/16 tires.
The high speed 60-65 mileage does not make sense but then may be I did not fill properly.

Any how a 13 MPG seems can be had.
May be with 255/85/16 tires 14mpg?

Later J

later J
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Old 08-19-2016, 06:36 PM   #83
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Elf Bus E350 Corbeil drinking and gray water

Just before we made a trip to Lake Erie I set up our drinking and gray water system. Keeping it as KISS as possible.
Had some thin clear tanks and set one up as gravity feed. Locked it in with a bungie. Easy to take out , refill or replace if required.

http://www.skoolie.net/forums/member...ture14007.html

Then below the sink is a bucket and next to the bucket storage for a second filled drinking water tank and a larger hand wash tank, just
tap water.


http://www.skoolie.net/forums/member...ture14008.html

The fridges performed well on our trip. The Waeco stayed frozen during the 5 hour trip with 4 ice packs that put in the freezer compartment.
The bottom freezer was plugged in a 12 volt lighter plug and worked nice.

I used bungie cords to keep everything in place while driving. Seems to work well .
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Old 08-19-2016, 06:43 PM   #84
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that looks great!.. te passenger airbag is removed or never installed on commercial chassis cutaway .. teres no seat so no sensor and could be dasngerous if someone were up near tere...

-Christopher
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Old 08-20-2016, 01:09 PM   #85
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Elf Bus E350 Corbeil built cost

There is another thread about cost and I thought I will post first what our cost are so far.

Bus $ 3700
Travel to get it 900 miles $ 300
Dolly rent $ 50
Steel bus roof for windows $ 30 junkyard
Swivel seat base $ 300
Waeco 12 volt fridge $ 150 used
12 volt freezer $ 500 used
Microwave dumpster
Stainless Sink dumpster
Bed frame and wood dumpster
Stainless frame storage 1 $ 200
Stainless Frame storage 2&3 $ 350
Stainless Battery box $ 25
Insulation 2 sheets $ 64 Home depot
construction glue and foam $ 45
Stainless scews nut & loctite $ 35 Mc master
escape hatch junkyard $ 30 junkyard


To be installed but paid for:

4 solar panels 300 watt $ 480 e-bay
cost to get them 200 miles $ 25
Aluminum solar frame material $ 200 fab shop
3500 Watt sine inverter
from junkyard verizon truck $ 50 junkyard
Battery switch junkyard $ 10 junkyard
cable / fuse box junkyard $ 20 junkyard

To buy charge controllers

I will update items I forgot.

Later J
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Old 08-27-2016, 03:15 PM   #86
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Elf Bus e350 Corbeil Solar Rack

Howdy Folks, It is pretty hot here in State College,PA but we are fortunate not having the weather disasters that other states encounter at the moment.
Started on the roof rack that is supposed to hold the solar panels.
I bought 3 pieces 300 watt mono crystalline panel 65" wide x 39" long 24 volt. They were inexpensive... $ 129 / piece but do not have an aluminum frame. I wanted to stay as low as possible so the 2" loss of the frame was good with me. Either way the price was right.

So I started with an U channel frame and want to lay the panel on top and then hold it down with an L bracket all the way around. I will get a rubber gasket in U shape that will protect the solar panel from dircet contact with the aluminum.


http://www.skoolie.net/forums/member...ture14074.html

The racking has for now 4 Stainless steel brackets that bolt it to the frame members with a 8MM SS bolt. I ran out of material and the plan is that ther will be 7 brackets on each side of the bus.
I want to mount a 1/2" rubber block between brackets and the aluminum roof and use an adhesive sealant between the rubber block and the roof as well.

I will have one panel behind the hatch and two panels in front of the hatch. I am very curious how much heat load this will take of the bus roof.


Later J
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Old 09-01-2016, 07:05 PM   #87
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Elf Bus e350 Corbeil mpg

Had to make a quick trip to Cincinnati and back. about 750 miles. About 50 miles downtown driving. 50-55 mph at night and 55-60 daytime
Average 14.5MPG
Anybody know if a 3.55 is available for these rear axles? Assume it is dana 70.
later J
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Old 11-16-2016, 08:44 PM   #88
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Engine: 7.3 powerstroke & MBE906
It has been a while, busy, busy. The solar rack is almost completed . I used stainless M8 thru bolts. On the inside I mounted little pieces of angle iron to hang future cabinets off. On the outside I use stainless eye nuts to hang random camping stuff.

Found a nice sun awning at a the local junkyard. It need some serious mods to fit but I think it will work.

The I started on the first little cargo door that accesses under the rear bed. I will put a picture up tomorrow.

later J
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Old 11-17-2016, 07:27 PM   #89
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Engine: 7.3 powerstroke & MBE906
Elf Bus e350 Corbeil awning

So I found this 15 ft awning at the local scrapyard. Surprisingly the fabric is good and it has a flexible Stainless cover that winds around and protects the fabric when the awning is rolled up.


http://www.skoolie.net/forums/member...ture14653.html

I wanted to mount it as high as possible to clear the entry doors. Decided to mount it against the solar racking that I put up. I imagine it has the advantage that heat under the awning can escape under the solar panels and so the roof should stay a little cooler. Needed to get pretty creative with the rear awning arm that has to follow the curve of the roof.
The front one is even in front of the front door post. The top mirror bracket tube was in the way so i moved it 2" towards the driver side.

Some of the previous pictures have disappeared out of the posts? The thumbnails are in the album even the links. do not understand??

later J
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Old 11-18-2016, 04:07 PM   #90
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Great score on the awning...and I really like the roll up cover. Any idea what brand it is?
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Old 11-18-2016, 07:19 PM   #91
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Hi Tango,

The awning is a Carter super shade. The cover has not name but it is essential a corrugated thin stainless with a aluminum profile rivetted to each side. I think the corrugated part is mainly required to give it more stability along the axis. It probably helps a little with rolling more smoothly.

The front side shown in the picture is the easy side. The rear is along the bus side and I had to negotiate the curve of the roof. So I cut the aluminum and re-welded it. Have not tested but as soon as it is working I will post a picture.

Later j
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Old 11-18-2016, 11:35 PM   #92
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Thanks Joe. I'm trying to find an 8' version to fit my Shorty and really like what you have there.
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Old 12-10-2016, 06:08 PM   #93
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Elf Bus e350 Corbeil webasto

Howdy folks,
Finally back on the job. Made a little work trip to West Jefferson NC and stayed a couple of night at the local walmart.
It was windy 35 F and without heat I had to bundle up pretty good, two sleeping bags.

So now back home back on my webasto coolant heater. This is thermotop C 5.2 KW. Found a pretty decent spot between the skirt AC condensor box and the rear wheel. Took a fan out to see the coils and drilled the mounting holes. Then I cut one coolant line and plumbed the webasto in so that the outlet of the webasto goes directly in the under seat radiator.

Found several shutoff valves in the engine compartment to disable the rear heating system. No clue why because the heat delivered to the the under seat heater gets distributed with a fan, not much heat without a fan. Probably going to take those valves out unless someone on the forum has a good argument to keep them.
I want the heat to reach the dash heater as well and it looks like that is all plumbed in parallel to the engine.
Probably want to install a motorized valve to take the engine out of the loop so that I am not heating the engine all the time. With that valve I still can only circulate the remaining heat of the engine and or preheat the engine if desired.

It is hard to see but i saw only one vent valve on the fuel tank. Anybody knows how many are on the e350 diesel tanks. Mine is mounted behind the rear axle. I hope there are two so that I can use the other for the fuel pickup.

This was a cold windy day in PA and I was working outside on a piece of cardboard. It took 6 hours sofar with the need to stop and warm up. I am still cold but took a couple of stiff drinks to heat up.

Later j
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Old 12-10-2016, 06:16 PM   #94
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Ain't it funny how an adult beverage with ice in it can actually warm a body up?
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Old 12-10-2016, 06:33 PM   #95
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: smile: 11
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Old 12-17-2016, 01:58 PM   #96
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webasto thermotop heater fan modification

Ah finally the cold let up a little bit. Just before I had installed a 5 Kw Webasto thermotop coolant heater. I like KW ratings , it is much easier to compare and calculate with electricity then BTU. Fortunately the germans already put it in ISO so 5 KW.

Hooked everything up and it fired up at first try. I temporarily removed a vent valve from the tan and modified one that I had laying around for the 5MM Nylon fuel pickup tube. Will see what to do about the non functional vent. Does the filler cap has a vent also?

anyhow some difficulty getting the first air out but after I sorted that it worked good. The webasto cycled because I had not turned the fan on behind the heater cores. Did some current checks and beach blower motor takes 2.5 Amp low and 4.5 Amp medium. The medium Fan setting already makes to much noise to be comfortable and even the low setting on the fan below the seat is to noisy. The low setting on the dash fan is so low that hardly heat comes out or a lot get lost because of all the flaps and channels.


http://www.skoolie.net/forums/member...ture14750.html

With both Fans on low the bus gained heat from 31 F to 72 F in two hours. The webasto sets itself on low setting..
The now 5 amp total fan current is way to much to keep running for an extended time at night and as I mentioned way to noisy as well
I started with modifying the dash heating
Took the cover of the under dashboard heater core and made a hole for a computer Fan 12 volt at 0.4 Amp.


http://www.skoolie.net/forums/member...ture14751.html

This Fan is much quieter and draws much less power. It also directs the heat where it is needed. I have to make a cover or slide flap behind it to have the normal fan do its job as defroster. Also need to find a way of opening and or closing the re-circulation vacuum flap without having engine vacuum. The temperature measurements were taking with interior circulation.

I am going to replace the under the seat heater with something much bigger so that I can minimize the Fan speed and bring enough heat in the interior. Off to the junk yard.

Later J
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Old 12-17-2016, 02:08 PM   #97
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Rated Cap: 7 Row Handicap
how did you fuel it in? are you instering a new pickup tube? I have one of these to install in my DEV bus.. I was thinking of just inserting another tube into the tank where the sender unit goes in.. placed above the original pickup so i cant run the bus out of diesel if I accidentilly left the heater on...

Bus heaters are pretty big.. but even the big-bus underseat heaters tend to be noisy as they use a fan instead of a Blower.. if you can fab something up to use a Blower instead of a fan you'll have ore airflow and quieter operation..

other thing is measure the coolant temp you are circulating.. too big of a fan wont necessarily bring you more heat it may drop that coolant temp way down as you can easily overrun the capacity of the heater with a bus coil-unit..
-Christopher
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Old 12-17-2016, 02:36 PM   #98
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Engine: 7.3 powerstroke & MBE906
Hi Ckid,

this is webasto TSL 17, I used a couple of these in my diesel veggie oil conversion to preheat the engine and wvo so that I could easily start in winter on wvo. Note that they will get damaged if you run them on veggie oil.

on high they are 5 kw and 3.8 Amp 0.16 Gal/hour
on low they are 2.5 KW at 2.6 Amp 0.08 Gal/hour

I was able to pull one of the vent valves that is on top of the fuel tank.
I had a unit laying around and cut the valve part out, drilled a hole and stuck the fuel line thru. The vent valve itself can just be twisted in. It has an O-ring seal. Just before the webasto fuel pump I installed a filter to avoid junk from the bottom to clog up the pump.
May be later I will add a real fuel pickup but i do not want to drop the tank. May be access the tank thru the floor from above? May be later?

5 KW is plenty for a bus like mine. I need to increase my heat exchanger so that I can reduce the airflow. I have no space for all around baseboard ( fan less) Not sure how ( BTU or KW) large the under seat heater cores are that actually hang from the seat bottom. Making another fan is no problem. I do not think that this bus size will pull the heater temp down since its a mini. The junk yard has two under seat heaters. May be the two cores can fit in one housing ?

Will see.

Later J
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Old 12-17-2016, 03:47 PM   #99
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Join Date: Dec 2015
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Posts: 2,498
Year: 98
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Chassis: 1 ford 1998 e350 4x4 7.3 2 mercedes 2004
Engine: 7.3 powerstroke & MBE906
Elf Bus E350 Corbeil II inverter

In the mean time I have taken my inverter out of or ambulance camper conversion and started to find a spot in the Elfbus.
I already had relocated the second battery box form the passenger side to the driver side so that the high power wiring to the inverter could be as short and efficient as possible.

http://www.skoolie.net/forums/member...ture14752.html

I increased the battery size upfront to a semi size 31 I believe. I had to modify the battery box because this 31 battery is higher then the normal 65 size for econoline vans.
The second shared house starter battery is connected thru a 250 Amp 3 way switch that is going to be mounted on the B pillar next to the driver. This switch connects the inverter to
a House battery
b starter battery
c both of them together
d disconnect.
It normally connects the batteries in parallel ( for winter starting and engine charging)
The inverter is connected via a 150 amp breaker. The inverter is only used for the microwave and induction stove.
It is an old fashioned pure sine wave with a large transformer.

A second master switch connect the house battery to the 12 volt house system that feeds a switch / fuse panel for the interior lights, fans ,12v compressor fridge, 12v stirling freezer , webasto heater and entertainment stuff. I need to add a volt meter/ current meter and AH meter to stay well informed.

Later J


Later J
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Old 12-22-2016, 07:04 PM   #100
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Join Date: Dec 2015
Location: pa
Posts: 2,498
Year: 98
Coachwork: 1. Corbeil & 2. Thomas
Chassis: 1 ford 1998 e350 4x4 7.3 2 mercedes 2004
Engine: 7.3 powerstroke & MBE906
Elf Bus E350 Corbeil II solar rack

Again a little warmer today. The heater coil in the Elf bus is 16000 BTU .A couple of days ago I found a 50000 BTU unit that hangs below the seat but leaves the floor open. It uses 1" hose. I took the Fan of and started mounting a large diameter computer fan with yes blue LED lights in it. Got to stay with times I guess.
Did not want to really dive into the coolant lines under the bus to upgrade the heater coil today and did some small stuff.
When I took the Stop sign of the side of the bus it left a rectangular hole with some wiring. A that moment I decided that I could re-purpose that for an outlet. The hole is slightly larger then an outlet so I had to make a filler plate. Had a small piece of stainless and while i was at the junk yard I liberated a water proof outlet cover from a wrecked Verizon Boom truck.

http://www.skoolie.net/forums/member...ture14755.html.

The school bus at the same yard had rectangular windows in the doors. I figured that the rubber profile would work well to protect my frameless solar panels. The door frames were busted and one glass was splintered, so it was easy to get the rubber out.

This is a detail of my solar rack in the works. It will hold 3 panels 300 watt each.

http://www.skoolie.net/forums/member...ture14754.html

The panels are going to be sandwiched in between the U channel of the frame and and L bracket that is crewed against the U channel.
Before the final mounting I will paint the roof white and add a 1" thick aluminum foil faced foam to the roof of the bus. ( only under the solar panels)

The SS brackets with 5/16 rubber plate are mounted on top of the roof rafters . M8 stainless bolt goes all the way thru. Used SS eye nuts as fasteners so that they can double to hang other stuff while boon docking ( solar show bags)

Also found a piece of 1/8" lexan that I need to cut to become an interior window for upper window in the rear escape door. I will glue fridge door magnet strip against it and "click" it against the steel interior skin of the door. I hope that will reduce the heat loss thru the glass part of the door. The lower window part is under the bed and outside the heated controlled area.

Later J
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