Dory transit a new start.

[joeblack5]

Thanks but I can not take credit for that .

Today I checked on Dory about locating a leak but I found this:



School Bus Conversion Resources - joeblack5's Album: not a skoolie - Picture


Did not climb on top since it was raining. So i hope it is only one but could be two.



School Bus Conversion Resources - joeblack5's Album: not a skoolie - Picture


Kids were pretty bummed out, I was kind of relieved that no glass or mirror was broken. The panel protected the structural aluminum beam. If that would have gotten dented then it would have been a major pain to fix that.

School Bus Conversion Resources - joeblack5's Album: not a skoolie - Picture




Funny enough yesterday I checked up on one of our student rentals we have in State College and discovered a clogged sewer line. I felt very fortunate that I noticed it before the whole basement would have filled up with poop. Today I found this branch but i still feel fortunate because this could have been a lot worse.


Later Johan

[Mr4btTahoe]

Be sure to get that panel unhooked and removed ASAP. Would hate for it to arc out and cause a fire the first time full sun hits it again.


At minimum, cover them up to prevent them from making power.


Sorry about the damage but looks pretty minor. Glad it wasn't worse.

[JDOnTheGo]

Sorry to see that Johan - those trees can be evil - stay away!!

[joeblack5]

Thanks all, Our solar system is split in three with separate charge controllers and fuses. Redundancy. Not much chance that something could go wrong there.

Put another same age panel on there.


The pressure is on now that we have decided that we want to be in quartzsite around mid january 2019 and join skoolie palooza.



There is so much work to do, finishing is hard, I admire these people who can actually get done with a project.


it was 40-45F last night in State College, somewhat similar temp as night in southern AZ. So we decide to see if our webasto TSL17 heating was up to the task and it passed. The floor was nice and warm but thanks to Chris I had installed and extra radiator with fan and that saved the night. With Fan on we brought it up to 70 F and maintained. The webasto is still cycling so Dory could use some radiator capacity.

The overall Ah used from 5PM afternoon to 7AM morning was 30AH at 24 volt. Not great , not bad.


Today some more isolation and a first attempt to separate the driver entrance mudroom from the living quarters.


Later Johan

[joeblack5]

Succeeded in separating the "mudroom" driver / entrance part. Made two "door" posts and a lexan window above and on the side. Not completely finished but enough to do a second test. Last night it got a little colder at 42F. The cold draft from the entrance door was completely gone. Inside temperature was nice and toasty. Did not have enough time to finish the insulation improvement job i had in mind.
Pictures to follow.


Struggling a little with my lithium conversion. The 24 Voltage is factory split in 12 and 24 volt with additional help of a battery equalizer. That means that I need even cells sets , so 3 and 3 or 4 and 4. If i charge to a safe 4.0 / 4.1 Volt then that would mean 16 /16.4 Volt

The highest voltage for a floating lead acid at -40F is 2.55Volt/ cell so 15.3 volt. The charging voltage is 2.85Volt/cell ( at -40F) is 17.1 Volt.
For my 24 volt system that would mean that all components are at least rated to 34.2 Volt.

The surepower equalizer 52210 can handle maximum 36 volt without damage and stops operating at 34 Volt. So this all seems to be in specification.


So my plan is to use 4 Nissan Leaf 8volt modules in series for an overall fully charged voltage of 32 volt .
Any other techies out there with comments / ideas?


Thanks J



Later J

[cadillackid]

Originally Posted by joeblack5

Thanks all, Our solar system is split in three with separate charge controllers and fuses. Redundancy. Not much chance that something could go wrong there.

Put another same age panel on there.


The pressure is on now that we have decided that we want to be in quartzsite around mid january 2019 and join skoolie palooza.



There is so much work to do, finishing is hard, I admire these people who can actually get done with a project.


it was 40-45F last night in State College, somewhat similar temp as night in southern AZ. So we decide to see if our webasto TSL17 heating was up to the task and it passed. The floor was nice and warm but thanks to Chris I had installed and extra radiator with fan and that saved the night. With Fan on we brought it up to 70 F and maintained. The webasto is still cycling so Dory could use some radiator capacity.

The overall Ah used from 5PM afternoon to 7AM morning was 30AH at 24 volt. Not great , not bad.


Today some more isolation and a first attempt to separate the driver entrance mudroom from the living quarters.


Later Johan

great to know the little webasto can heat a decent space.. I still have my brand new one in a box to install before fall.. Oops! missed that one.. but my plan for it is to pipe and valve it so I can eventually use it to warm my engine when needed but also as a heat source with just the bus heaters in my shortie for napping or pre-warming before a trip. sounds like the TSL-17 is up to that task.. great stuff!
-Christopher

[PNW_Steve]

Welcome to the club. We had the front end of the E450 Thomas hit by a tree.

[joeblack5]

Steve, that sucks, any photo's?


later J

[PNW_Steve]

Originally Posted by joeblack5

Steve, that sucks, any photo's?


later J

I posted pics when it happened. I am not finding them now. It dented the fender, hood & roof. Damaged two mirrors.

Thank goodness for good insurance

[joeblack5]

Back to the grind, time is running out. Wanted to improve the insulation a little after i found condense on the thermal breaks.
Dory is almost all aluminum and had 2" original aluminized foam sheet insulation. i have improved on that on several area's with an additional 2" or 1-1/2" .
Here I took the original HVAC duct out to clean up wiring and gain storage space.

School Bus Conversion Resources - joeblack5's Album: not a skoolie - Picture
I will add a 3/4" nailer to the aluminum brackets and TG to cover it up. The remaining ( small) air duct will go only to the driver.
Progress is made but it is very slow.


Later J

[joeblack5]

Evening folks, just a couple of words about finishing in time pressure and trying to let my stress go. All of the engineering and manufacturing goes slower then I want and seeing our departure or better starting date of DEC 28 come closer is scary. Decided to drop the lithium conversion and instead attempt to get the pony diesel online. Really need to install the angle brackets for additional solar and to hold the spare tire on the roof. The other thing is the awning I want the awning over the entrance door but to do that I need to move the side mirror out of the way, so another bracket or plate.


Although not great but i figure that I can hook the water tank and additional solar panels up on the road when time is coming to a standstill.



Later Johan

[Brewerbob]

Originally Posted by joeblack5

Today it was my lucky day... went to the surplus store and bought a like new sundanzer 165 refrigerator 12/24 volt for $35 + tax. Got to love these universities.

Why is there a 12/24v fridge??? 120v sure but an RV fridge isn't school kids I wouldn't think.

Originally Posted by joeblack5

it was 40-45F last night in State College, somewhat similar temp as night in southern AZ. So we decide to see if our webasto TSL17 heating was up to the task and it passed. The floor was nice and warm but thanks to Chris I had installed and extra radiator with fan and that saved the night. With Fan on we brought it up to 70 F and maintained. The webasto is still cycling so Dory could use some radiator capacity.

That Webasto come from the surplus too?

The overall Ah used from 5PM afternoon to 7AM morning was 30AH at 24 volt. Not great , not bad.

That's the power it took to spin all the fans and pumps for the Webasto?

Originally Posted by cadillackid

great to know the little webasto can heat a decent space.. I still have my brand new one in a box to install before fall.. Oops! missed that one.. but my plan for it is to pipe and valve it so I can eventually use it to warm my engine when needed but also as a heat source with just the bus heaters in my shortie for napping or pre-warming before a trip. sounds like the TSL-17 is up to that task.. great stuff!
-Christopher

You know you need to give that plan up. You're never going to get to it. My recommendation would be to go to the nearest post office and mail it to me.

Originally Posted by joeblack5

Evening folks, just a couple of words about finishing in time pressure and trying to let my stress go. All of the engineering and manufacturing goes slower then I want and seeing our departure or better starting date of DEC 28 come closer is scary.

I have no deadline and therefore not much stress but I feel you on everything taking way longer than 1) I thought it would and 2) way longer than it should even without knowing what the hell it is I'm doing.

Really need to install the angle brackets for additional solar and to hold the spare tire on the roof.

Have you completely flipped your lid? I've not taken a wheel off the skoolie yet much less had a lat but I assume it is a hell of a lot of work under the best conditions. Why would you want to make it harder by fetching the spare from the roof. And how the hell did it get there in the first place???

[joeblack5]

Sorry I am on the road with our small bus Elfie. Work .



Haha, "flipped my lid", I thought you were doing that with scalping your bus.


I have no space for a spare tire under or inside. We are going to be on the road a lot, Murphys law will cause a flat if I would not have a spare. So I am going to take one and also a spare injector , filters, fuel pump , alternator, bunch of hoses s, belts, ducttape and so on.


I changed the tires on this bus by myself so I know I can do it.


For all the other things , yes , big on surplus, junkyards, auctions and so.


regarding the AH use..... Yes, fans for sucking air thru a heater core and pumps circulating water thru the floor. Also included the car stereo being on all night long and some LED lights. With a larger flat panel radiator I probably could turn the fans of and that would save me about 8 Ah and make less noise.


It is getting dark, need to go log some miles.



Later J

[Brewerbob]

Originally Posted by joeblack5

Haha, "flipped my lid", I thought you were doing that with scalping your bus.

After spending the entire weekend working on getting the front put back together (and not succeeding), I am more than a little inclined to agree with that statement.

I have no space for a spare tire under or inside. We are going to be on the road a lot, Murphys law will cause a flat if I would not have a spare. So I am going to take one and also a spare injector , filters, fuel pump , alternator, bunch of hoses s, belts, ducttape and so on.

I'm all for the spares. But an SUV tire 12 feet in the car isn't easy and those look like Matchbox wheels compared to a bus tire. How are you getting it up there?

I changed the tires on this bus by myself so I know I can do it.

I have jack stands and a 12 ton jack. Just haven't tried it yet. I don't have a spare wheel or tire (yet) but I will before hitting the road.

[Tango]

Lot'sa folks consider having duallies as driving around with a pair of spares mounted and don't pack another.


Me...I hung one under the rear anyway.

[cadillackid]

I would def Carey a spare if I were going jnto less travelled areas of wilderness but since I run a lot of interstates or state routes I consider truckdown dot com my spare.

And of course like everyone always says having good tires inflated properly hopefully helps to prevent flats..
Christopher

[Brewerbob]

Originally Posted by cadillackid

I would def carry a spare if I were going into less traveled areas of wilderness but since I run a lot of interstates or state routes I consider truckdown dot com my spare.
Christopher

I've no idea who they are but I have to imagine that any roadside service is going to cost you a large fortune. If you have your own spare and just use the roadside service to have it swapped might drop it to a small fortune.

Originally Posted by Tango

Me...I hung one under the rear anyway.

Like under the pickup bed on the little trucks? Regardless, how do you lift it? It's gotta be 150lbs with wheel and rubber. I might could build a swing arm like a Jeep and mount it over the engine cover.

[Tango]

Made a little carrier to go up under the rear like this...



And yes...that sucker is heavy so...



...I added a chain crank from an old Toyota pickup to hoist it up & down.





Looks like this when up. My antique frame is narrower than my tire so it fits partially under where a rear deck covers it.

[Brewerbob]

FANCY!!! I likes it. Spring loaded fork or does the chain go thru the wheel and lift both?

Where am I looking? Looks like it's sticking out of the side of the bus. Looks to be sticking out past whatever edge that is.

[cadillackid]

Originally Posted by Brewerbob

I've no idea who they are but I have to imagine that any roadside service is going to cost you a large fortune. If you have your own spare and just use the roadside service to have it swapped might drop it to a small fortune.



Like under the pickup bed on the little trucks? Regardless, how do you lift it? It's gotta be 150lbs with wheel and rubber. I might could build a swing arm like a Jeep and mount it over the engine cover.

its a referral.. you find roadside services in your area.. and they arent generally a lot more than getting into a tire shop..


a blown tire along a screamin freeway... trying to hike around a 150-200 lb 11R22.5 tire and rim.. getting the assembly up on the hub doesnt seem nearly as tough as getting the assmbly from where you store it over to the hub.. if its up on the roof how in the heck do you safely get it down.. and get the busted one up there..



seems the way might be to hoist it up underneath the bus similar to the way a pickup truck does it.. then you could drop it down onto a dolly to move it around.. probably not possible in an RE or low floor bus.. maybe construct something that allows it to live on the front bumper upright (havent measure to see if its too high and blocks the windshield)..



for a roof mount you could probably construct some type of hoisting system.. but will said system function when its been frozen with snow..



maybe go old school like the model A and have the extra wheel on the side of the bus...



-Christopher