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Old 11-28-2007, 08:49 AM   #21
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Re: Jacuzzi Bus IV

yes, the bus will have 2 alternators. I've wanted to do that on a bus for a while now, just never spent the money. I repaired/replaced the alternator on the last bus at least 3 times. I like the idea of having some redundancy. It's a lot cheaper if you can plan to change the alternator rather than being broke down along side the road, then you're at the mercy of the repair guy.

I have always been kind of opposed to running an ac unit off of an alternator....but that's before the 24 volt idea came along.

The bus already has a newer pair of 8D starting batteries that run off the stock 12 volt alternator.

the new 24 volt 165 amp alternator was $165, but that may have been a special price just for me.....alternator guy seems to appreciate my projects.

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Old 11-28-2007, 12:34 PM   #22
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Re: Jacuzzi Bus IV

i hear you about redundancy. A backup alternator woulda been nice when mine died in the middle of no where last summer in new mexico. then the cheap pos that i had installed in dumas, tx died the next day in kansas. don't buy rebuilt alts from oreilly's.
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Old 11-28-2007, 12:36 PM   #23
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Re: Jacuzzi Bus IV

Man that inverter is pretty cool, where'd you steal that from?
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Old 11-28-2007, 01:55 PM   #24
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Re: Jacuzzi Bus IV

now I have to ask: How easy is it to install a second alternator? How do you go about it, lets say on a 8.3lt cummins rear engine.
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Old 11-28-2007, 02:03 PM   #25
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Re: Jacuzzi Bus IV

So you're going to run a roof AC off the alternator? I'm curious how that is going to turn out. I will definitely need to run my roof A/C while going down the road here in Oklahoma in the summer in a black bus.

Anyways, my next bus will be a TC2000 with the 5.9L engine. I think I'd prefer the 5.9 over the DT466 just for the fuel economy! Both seem to be pretty reliable from what I've read. The DT466 might make more power, but I don't think it gets very good economy.
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Old 11-28-2007, 04:14 PM   #26
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Re: Jacuzzi Bus IV

Quote:
Originally Posted by swinada
now I have to ask: How easy is it to install a second alternator? How do you go about it, lets say on a 8.3lt cummins rear engine.
1. Find suitable spot so that the v-belts line up with existing v-belts.
2. Bend, cut, and weld some steel to make a bracket
3. Mount up alternator and run wiring
4. Buy longer v-belts

Yeah...sounds simple, right? It really isn't that bad to mount a new or different accessory where it doesn't belong. At the same time I gladly paid $30 for a premade bracket to mount a Toyota power steering pump on a 350 Chevy.
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Old 11-28-2007, 08:48 PM   #27
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Re: Jacuzzi Bus IV

yup, it should be that easy to install the 2nd alternator. It's a "1 wire alternator" so the only thing you need to hook up is the power wire. Some alternators require more wires.

The DD in this bus has 2 or 3 spare pulleys running off of the crank.

I think it would be difficult to reliably run an a/c unit with a 12 volt alternator. I don't know the difficulty in finding 24 volt inverters....unless you have a friend named phill who seems to be able to find anything and everything.

Got all moved into the new "shop" today. It's actually a warehouse that some guy has for his business. He just agreed to have me move in and take up space for a price. Heat.....heat comes from giant indoor propane burners, i'm not sure why he doesn't use the furnace that's in the building. We put a smaller propane burning contraption in the bus to save on propane today....but he said he'll buy all the propane, he wants to keep his paint and other supplies above freezing. The place isn't really insulated either....but i'm really excited to have an indoor heated place to work on the bus.





The new jacuzzi is significantly smaller than in previous buses but will work really well with the floorplan we hammered out today.

The jacuzzi is gonna be nearly mid-ship.



you can see the jacuzzi inside the door here...



Gonna have a pair of seats (they're gonna be recovered with thick foam padding, and fuzzy fabric) on either side in front of the jacuzzi



Behind the jacuzzi in the back of the bus is going to be a glass floor....well, i gotta ask the guy at the glass shop what is the better material for walking on: glass, plexi, or lexan. I want it frosted and we'll put cool led's under it. Around the glass floor is gonna be a giant custom built couch that wrap's around on three sides with a "fire pole" in the middle. I'll draw out a floor plan eventually and try to post.

This is our plan today....it might change tomorrow lol
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Old 11-28-2007, 10:35 PM   #28
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Re: Jacuzzi Bus IV

You create some mad ideas. I love watching them turn out.
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Old 11-29-2007, 08:55 AM   #29
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Re: Jacuzzi Bus IV

How did you get the Jacuzzi in this time? Did it fit through the side door?
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Old 11-29-2007, 12:30 PM   #30
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Re: Jacuzzi Bus IV

Quote:
Originally Posted by Steve
How did you get the Jacuzzi in this time? Did it fit through the side door?
MAGIC!

No, this jacuzzi fit through the side door....which is a huge bonus!

Waterproof/resistant seats are practical, but they don't' look cool.
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Old 11-29-2007, 01:28 PM   #31
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Re: Jacuzzi Bus IV

well we wanna see that firepole in action
This one should gross you at least 25G's on e-bay once its done. just make sure you got the right pictures in the listing.
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Old 11-29-2007, 03:36 PM   #32
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Re: Jacuzzi Bus IV

here is the tentative floorplan. Seems simple enough.



Would also like to add remote keyless doors open/close, also going to add remote kneeling/raising, big stereo, crazy uv lights ect ect. She should be pretty pimped out when she's finished.
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Old 11-29-2007, 05:17 PM   #33
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Re: Jacuzzi Bus IV

Wow, you are making great progress, seems like I was just watching that bus on Ebay last week.

I have a lead on a pair of installed but un-used Dou-them Rooftop ACs and was pondering how I would power them on the road. The 12 volt conversion route seems pretty sketchy, Let us know how the 24 volt set up works when you get it going. AC here in Austin is not an option in the summer.

Has anyone seen these at Harbor Frieght
10,000 WATTS PEAK/7200 WATTS RATED BELT-DRIVEN GENERATOR HEAD

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/D ... mber=45416

I was thinking one for each AC unit and one for the house, but HF stuff does not inspire much confidence. I think I would want to shroud and fan cool them

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Old 11-29-2007, 05:30 PM   #34
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Re: Jacuzzi Bus IV

Quote:
Originally Posted by Xtevan
Wow, you are making great progress, seems like I was just watching that bus on Ebay last week.

I have a lead on a pair of installed but un-used Dou-them Rooftop ACs and was pondering how I would power them on the road. The 12 volt conversion route seems pretty sketchy, Let us know how the 24 volt set up works when you get it going. AC here in Austin is not an option in the summer.

Has anyone seen these at Harbor Frieght
10,000 WATTS PEAK/7200 WATTS RATED BELT-DRIVEN GENERATOR HEAD

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/D ... mber=45416

I was thinking one for each AC unit and one for the house, but HF stuff does not inspire much confidence. I think I would want to shroud and fan cool them

Xtevan
What do you plan to turn those generator heads with? You'd probably need a 12 hp engine for each unit. It would be near impossible to use the bus engine to turn a geni at exactly 3,600 rpm. If you create a mechanism to turn the geni at 3x engine speed it becomes 3x more difficult to maintain 3,600 rpm with the geni.

I just picked up a vw diesel golf for $400....something like that might be a good match for a pair of 10kw geni's.
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Old 11-30-2007, 09:06 AM   #35
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Re: Jacuzzi Bus IV

Quote:
Originally Posted by lapeer20m
If you create a mechanism to turn the geni at 3x engine speed it becomes 3x more difficult to maintain 3,600 rpm with the geni.
The transmission in my bus has a PTO out the side it would be neat to be use something like that to turn a generator.
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Old 11-30-2007, 09:31 AM   #36
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Re: Jacuzzi Bus IV

it would be neat. Here's what i see is the problem. It's a 3,600 rpm generator head and requires 10-12 hp. Turning your bus engine at 3600 rpm while parked to run run the geni wouldn't be fuel efficient since the engine probably produces at least 150 hp and that speed isn't even possible with most diesels, don't know how fast your gas engine turns.

The logical solution is to "gear up" the generator. If you could turn your bus engine at 1200 rpm and gear up the geni 3x you could run your engine at a much slower speed while still turning the generator at it's required speed. The problem of speed control becomes very important. If you had a controller that would keep the engine within a speed range of 3% of your target ie: 1200 rpm the geared up generator would be affected by up to 9% which would be considered unacceptable.

I'm not saying it can't be done, just that it would be tricky and prob not that efficient..... One advantage of having a liquid cooled engine turn a geni is that you can use the heat from the engine to keep humans warm....or to heat a jacuzzi. If you weren't going to vary the load on the geni you could have a manual adjustment for the throttle and probably make it work. The problem is if you're running your running something like an a/c and you've set the motor to spin 1200 rpm and the a/c unit shuts off the engine/geni would speed up significantly creating higher voltage and more importantly more than 60 hz.

Our fire dept has a hydraulic geni that runs of the vehicles engine. The hydraulic pump/motor and related items allow the generator to spin at a constant speed even when the truck engine speed varies significantly. I looked into one of those and they're like $10,000.

How about a big pto winch instead???? lol
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Old 11-30-2007, 09:39 AM   #37
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Re: Jacuzzi Bus IV

Quote:
Originally Posted by lapeer20m
it would be neat. Here's what i see is the problem. It's a 3,600 rpm generator head and requires 10-12 hp. Turning your bus engine at 3600 rpm while parked to run run the geni wouldn't be fuel efficient since the engine probably produces at least 150 hp and that speed isn't even possible with most diesels, don't know how fast your gas engine turns.
I don't think the speed is an issue you just change your pulley sizes to get to the correct speed. A lot of buses have a fast idle cable so the engine speed can be set from the cab. You could park, set your engine speed and engage the PTO to run the generator for power and use the water for heat.
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Old 11-30-2007, 11:04 AM   #38
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Re: Jacuzzi Bus IV

it would be a cool setup.
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Old 11-30-2007, 12:05 PM   #39
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Re: Jacuzzi Bus IV

what steve said. use motorcycle sprockets and chain. 3:1 would probably be good as 1200 rpm is a good speed to spin a diesel. But, spinning a 200+ hp diesel to power a 12 hp gennie seems a bit inefficient, also it would mean that power generation while underway would be impossible as the engine speed is gonna change quite a bit.

I think your solution is either a beefy DC generator or an A/C generator with seperate motor.
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Old 11-30-2007, 12:23 PM   #40
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Re: Jacuzzi Bus IV

The problem I have with separate motors besides having to find a place to put them and fuel them is that they are so noisy, when my bus is idling you cant tell it is running without looking at the tach.
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