4 Curious Georges' 2001 Saf-T-Liner

[o1marc]

Originally Posted by david.dgeorge07

I will post more when I get a chance.

A few random thoughts on doing different. I should have purchased all the screws and hardware somewhere less expensive than ace. Ended up being like $100 in stinking screws washers, and nuts. Also, getting the panel in place and then drilling both the lexan and steel at once would have helped a lot with registration. I marked with a template but bits drift a little and it adds up. So far they are working great but I am nervous about scratches and about the impact this will have on insulation. I'm planning on thermal covers but haven't made them yet.


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Fastener hardware is cheaper at TSC, they sell by the pound and not the part, so it's WAY cheaper. As for your insulation in the skylights I would cut blocks of 2" rigid foam to push up into the cavity to block light and insulate at the same time. I love that idea for sky lights and will use it myself. It the lexan is curved to the right contour I would silicone them down with weight on top to squish them tight and then come back after it's dry to drill and rivet or screw them down. Self tapping screws would work without needing a nut and washer on the other side.

[o1marc]

Originally Posted by Rusty

Well, it's not a runner....can't fix on site....is $1000 tow away....and would be another full-sized bus in my driveway. Might just put the Mrs. over the edge.

I'm still going to put in a low bid, guy wants gone b4 Winter.

I found one like that locally, $1k obo, It runs good, looks good, but needs a tranny. I might consider it for a 2nd or 3rd build.

[o1marc]

Originally Posted by david.dgeorge07

We'll see how it goes with the blue for now. It is only the last six feet and it is a bedroom that will be used primarily at night when the sun isn't a factor. I've got the foam sprayers coming tomorrow to give a quote on spraying closed cell two part foam, which the guy says will give me r-26. I can always repaint it white easily if need be. I'm not sure now many gallons. I mixed the colors myself (none of which look right in pictures so far but I'm really pleased in person) so I mixed extra for future fixes. Probably 2 quarts black, 1.5 gallons white, 3 quarts light blue, and 2 quarts dark blue. Now if I can just figure out why my turn signals don't work anymore after reinstalling them that would be great!


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Check that they are properly grounded, you may have covered some ground spots with paint.

Well as you can tell by now, I have just read your whole thread, quite informational.
I like you spray insulation and it gives me faith that I might lean towards that after deciding after see every other spray job that was sprayed on so thick it expanded past usable depth and hours had to be spent shaving it back down. Yours doesn't look like they filled the whole cavity. How thick is it. Yours has the advantage of having plenty of room left for electrical wiring. I've picked up some more ideas from your build.Great build.

[Robin97396]

Space, not only for electrical wiring but for a thermal break.

That foam trimming sounds vaguely familiar for some reason. I was saying some very bad words about the spray foam guy.

[o1marc]

What did the professional spray foam job cost? I figured the cost of rigid insulation in a 40'er would be between $750-$900

[Robin97396]

It was $800 to have the guy spray it. That means all prep and masking were on me. It took several days to mask everything off properly and close to that much time to clean up after. It only took the guy about 1.5 hours to spray it.

My spray guy way overfilled all the cavities causing me to do several weeks worth of trimming.

[o1marc]

Originally Posted by Robin97396

It was $800 to have the guy spray it. That means all prep and masking were on me. It took several days to mask everything off properly and close to that much time to clean up after. It only took the guy about 1.5 hours to spray it.

My spray guy way overfilled all the cavities causing me to do several weeks worth of trimming.

I don't want what you got, I wanna know what david paid to do it right.

[david.dgeorge07]

Originally Posted by o1marc

Check that they are properly grounded, you may have covered some ground spots with paint.

Well as you can tell by now, I have just read your whole thread, quite informational.
I like you spray insulation and it gives me faith that I might lean towards that after deciding after see every other spray job that was sprayed on so thick it expanded past usable depth and hours had to be spent shaving it back down. Yours doesn't look like they filled the whole cavity. How thick is it. Yours has the advantage of having plenty of room left for electrical wiring. I've picked up some more ideas from your build.Great build.

Foam was $1175 out the door. That was with me doing a lot of masking prep and whatever trimming I decided I needed to do beyond what they did. 36’ bus. Included wheel wells and rear engine cover.


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[david.dgeorge07]

Working on 12v electrical tonight. Oem battery box is below the floor in this shot. Underneath is a breaker and a 140 amp voltage sensitive relay that opens either direction in charge situations and closes under drain, and a 250 amp breaker. As you can see, two more breakers up here, one that allows me to manually isolate starter batteries and another that protects toward the load of my inverter and house 12v system. That portion isn't wired yet...


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[david.dgeorge07]

Originally Posted by o1marc

Check that they are properly grounded, you may have covered some ground spots with paint.

Well as you can tell by now, I have just read your whole thread, quite informational.
I like you spray insulation and it gives me faith that I might lean towards that after deciding after see every other spray job that was sprayed on so thick it expanded past usable depth and hours had to be spent shaving it back down. Yours doesn't look like they filled the whole cavity. How thick is it. Yours has the advantage of having plenty of room left for electrical wiring. I've picked up some more ideas from your build.Great build.

My foam is about 1.5" in the ceiling and 2.5 to 3" in the walls. The foam job isn't perfect but it's better than I probably could have done.

Glad you enjoyed and got some value!




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[david.dgeorge07]

Conduit down to the battery box.



Conduit coming into the battery box from above.

Now the two gauge wire has been run. In addition to the conduit I put the wire inside of vinyl tubing to help give additional vibration protection. These lines will be caring a lot of amps and I don’t want to start a fire. That’s why I put breakers on both ends of the system as well. The blue light shows that my charger is working and charging not only my house batteries but my starter batteries.



The battery box does not have walls yet so it is not isolating the compartment from the rest of the bus like it will eventually but it is at least roughed in. It is generally how the inverter/charger will fit on top of the box as well.

I currently only have two deep cycle AGM house batteries but I built the enclosure to be able to hold four.


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[Twigg]

That's a nice looking inverter there

[david.dgeorge07]

Originally Posted by Twigg

That's a nice looking inverter there

Thanks! So far I like it! Hopefully will have at least one functional circuit installed in the bus tomorrow fed from a 30 amp line from it!


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[david.dgeorge07]

More work in progress...


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[cadillackid]

how many watt inverter on 2 Gauge wire? seems like a big inverter for small wire.. I guess your distance is a lot less than mine,, I put my inverter near the back of the bus so i had about 22 feet of wire... I had to run 2/0 wire for my 1500 watt inverter.. (and the charge wire to the house batteries which are next to the inverter).. that gave me very little voltage drop from the main bus system (I charge with my 200 amp alt.) ..
-Christopher

[david.dgeorge07]

I calculated the load. It is a 2500 watt inverter. Total wire length is only a few feet - around 6 I think including both directions. I did the math on it using one of those online guides. Hopefully it is correct!


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[M1031A1]

David,

My apologies, I must have missed it somewhere, but how much load are you putting on the inverter?

My inverter is a 45 amp (read VERY expensive) inverter and I'm only putting on, at most, 20 amps. It's just enough to power my A/C and refrigerator as I'm driving down the road with my wife using her computer all at the same time with an anticipated start-up draw if all three power up at the same time (worst case scenario). I prefer to use slightly less than half power at any time to save my investment, and to prevent the possibility of electrical fire.

Just concerned, nothing more....

M

[Twigg]

Originally Posted by david.dgeorge07

I calculated the load. It is a 2500 watt inverter. Total wire length is only a few feet - around 6 I think including both directions. I did the math on it using one of those online guides. Hopefully it is correct!


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A 2500W inverter is more than enough for any anticipated loads other than big AC units.

I'll probably go with the AIMS 2000W Inveter/Charger. That's more than enough power and cost is a factor. Smaller than 2kW and the charger part can't deliver the charge rate I want.

I guess if you want to use an induction stove and a microwave at the same time, you might need bigger but they get very expensive, very fast.

[david.dgeorge07]

Originally Posted by M1031A1

David,

My apologies, I must have missed it somewhere, but how much load are you putting on the inverter?

My inverter is a 45 amp (read VERY expensive) inverter and I'm only putting on, at most, 20 amps. It's just enough to power my A/C and refrigerator as I'm driving down the road with my wife using her computer all at the same time with an anticipated start-up draw if all three power up at the same time (worst case scenario). I prefer to use slightly less than half power at any time to save my investment, and to prevent the possibility of electrical fire.

Just concerned, nothing more....

M

So your inverter is around 4000 W? I plan to put 15 to 1600 W on the inverter which seems like a reasonable load for 2500 W inverter. The inverter can produce up to 7000 W for30seconds. It’s built with solid-state technology and large capacitors. I’m running 30 amp service to my main electrical panel because my shore power will come through my inverter as well. It’s an automatic transfer switch with a 30 A breaker. So shore power will come through the inlet directly to the inverter/charger from there to my service panel that will supply 120 V to the bus.

What kind of an alternator are you running?


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[david.dgeorge07]

Originally Posted by Twigg

A 2500W inverter is more than enough for any anticipated loads other than big AC units.

I'll probably go with the AIMS 2000W Inveter/Charger. That's more than enough power and cost is a factor. Smaller than 2kW and the charger part can't deliver the charge rate I want.

I guess if you want to use an induction stove and a microwave at the same time, you might need bigger but they get very expensive, very fast.

Are you looking at their blue inverters? I poked around and found that they have a line that is painted green which has the same components as-the blue ones but with fewer bells and whistles The one that I got does everything I need and more and was less expensive then the lower wattage unit in the blue series. They also make a much lower cost series that didn’t seem to do the things I needed it too.


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