Dory transit a new start.

[joeblack5]

Got some new toys. The full cab as truck for in the woods. Pretty mushy where I need to go so I need more ground clearance.. The open one to build a camper on. First need to get them running lol.

[Native]

Boys and our toys!

[joeblack5]

Sorry for the double post, ... This belongs in this thread



We have large windows in Dory and got some free used lexan. So we started making double pane windows on the inside.
Got some "duck" self adhesive foam 3/4 wide 1/2 thick from Wally. Also 10 ft 2" x1/4 white vinyl dense foam core lattice strips from lowes.

Feels a lot warmer to the touch.. here is a pic from a finished and unfinished window. Early in the morning after I pulled the double cell blinds up. The condensation is half up the window that has not been doubled yet.

We are here next to a creek and we're sleeping with 4 people and two dogs. Floor heat was on . Outside about 40 f and inside 62 f.

Johan
Attached Thumbnails

[BeNimble]

Nice to have more insulation and still get the light into the bus!

[joeblack5]

Thank you, Nimble. We really like these large windows. Reminds us together with the high ceilings and upper storage bins of train coaches.
Here is another detail shot from a corner with the foam installed. We left the anti stick cover on. No real good reason but it is easy enough to take it off. Just to confirm..this is foam sticks only one one side.
The space between the inner and outer is about 3/4" to 7/8". Next time I will take some pictures with a FLIR camera

[joeblack5]

Lithium batteries for Dory and Elfbus..
Just ordered 32 batteries total 24 for Dory and 8 for Elfie.
These are Lishen 272 AH lithium phosphate.

I added 16 for a friend a4 as spares.
So total was 52 batteries at $73 each,freight $716, $92 alibaba trade assurance fee.
Total $4604 then another 2.95% credit card fee.


For Dory at 24 Volt that will be 3 strings in parallel 816Ah or 19.5 Kwh


Johan

[Native]

That comes out to $0.109 per watt-hour. That is an interesting number in that in our area, power from the electric company is $0.135 per watt-hour ... and all you get is the electricity.


Of course, the $0.109 per watt-hour figure does not include solar arrays, mounting system, charge controllers, battery monitors, inverters, wiring, etc.

[cadillackid]

that lexan ought to really help! I was playing with the idea of interior "storms" inside my DEV bus. and its amazing how just a second layer seems to help, even not being completely sealed..

[joeblack5]

Hi Native... I hope you mean KWh instead of Watt hour.

Working in the mean time on an heat exchanger that can heat our recirculating shower water with use of the webasto hot water boiler.
So I cut the uv water filter in pieces and added another stainless shell .

Trying to figure out shower thermostat so that the shower water temperature is less depending on water flow and webasto temperature.

Attached is the first section of the heat exchanger / uv filter combo.

[Native]

Uh, right .... $0.135/Kwh ... oops.

[joeblack5]

Today we "excersized" bus life. Mainly if att tethering was good enough for the kids to remote study.

A while ago I had bought a traffic sign solar trailer with 10 pretty new 8D batteries and 6 x 75 watt solar panels on an hydraulic cylinder.

The idea was to have a mobile solar plant for use at camp or Dory.

Here we are unloading the traffic sign part from the forklift.

Johan

[Native]

LOL ... are you going to mount the sign on the back of Dory so you can message the driver that wants to follow too closely?


Seriously though ... getting an old road sign for a solar setup is a stroke of genious!

[joeblack5]

It was last year's equipment auction. They had 6 if them . Should have bought 3.. oh well.

So yesterday we took the control box and hydraulic pump and 12 volt charger out. The we build a frame from unistrut that came from the same auction. I have 6 more same solar panels that came from the Bulan and will make a rack on the other side. Need to look for an actuator to lift it up.
What is nice that the trailer has brakes and outriggers . But with 10 pieces 8D batteries it is probably hard to flip over.

The panels and batteries were all in parallel. It did not use a MPPT controller. We changed it to 24 volt and for the solar panels 2 string of 3 in series.

Now to hook it up to Dory...it sits about 200 ft away from Dory. Not sure if I want to convert to 120 vac at the trailer and use a battery charger at Dory to convert back.

Later we had a nice fire going with food... A good day.

Johan

[cadillackid]

I always wondered what was in the guts of these sign trailers.. the large amount of batteries is why they seem to last so long even in cloudy winter weather..



cool stuff!!

[joeblack5]

Removed the last little bit of stuff out of box. Needed to get rid of so that I can add 2 more 8D batteries to get to 10 total.. going to 5 parallel in the back and 5 parallel in the front . That gives the least amount of wiring.
Mounted a left over (used) electrical box to the front to house two inverters and the charge controller.

[joeblack5]

So I got further with my shower heat exchanger uv sterilizer combo.
I also wanted to connect a second loop of the floor heating in the bedroom. To make life a lot easier we made a second access hole from the bathroom to the webasto heater and that was worth it.

The second hand incinolet...incinerating toilet came in..with help of member alpine44 and another friend of mine. Thank you both..
It seems all to fit well together..working now on a more efficient burner design.

Then I bought another higher capacity shower circulation pump. I probably going to remove the shower pan and weld another elbow so that the water also can drain from the front incase the bus is parked with the nose down.

Johan

[musigenesis]

That toilet looks hardcore. I'm not going the incinerating toilet route myself, but it would be fun to build a DIY human-litter box that at least looks like that.

[joeblack5]

Thanks. Yes originally I had selected some ss prison toilet but to convert that to incinerating is tough. I would like to weld a urine diverter in this one so that I am not wasting energy on evaporating pee.
Did some experiments with a " dog" poop in a old steel oil filter shell and insulated stranded wire induction loop of an old indu toon cook stove. At 800 watt it took 20 minutes with a lid on it.. at some moment the poop catches on fire . According to some government research, there is more energy in poop then it takes to get it to the burning point....no surprise for the true composting toilet folks....

Johan

[cadillackid]

Urine diverted sounds like a great idea .. isn’t urine what often causes the most damage to components in any system as well? Ie if you looks at how nasty urinals got quickly that used to have metal drains. Not to mention I’m guessing the odor stays down if you aren’t evaporating urine.

[joeblack5]

This toilet has a build in fan that sucks the smells..vapors..smoke and vents them to the outside ....
I believe you can use the crapper a couple of times before you have to start the incinerator.. I like the design... Nice for on the road or when you have a lot of power available.. while boondocking the 6" deep hole is going to be the only green and beneficial way to go.

I would agree with you on the urine... The salts and minerals do a number on a lot of materials.

Johan