New beginnings - My skoolie build - Page 27

jjhwick119 · 12-16-2018, 05:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by plfking

Was wondering where you'd been. Even though your plans have changed, at least your bus will still be there eventually......and that thru-hike sounds like a once-in-a-lifetime thrill. Enjoy!

I've been kinda down lately to be honest, stuff in life just not lining up right, havent had much motivation to get out to the bus either. Dont really get out much lately. Hasn't been a great fall I guess..things will turn around though.

EastCoastCB · 12-16-2018, 08:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jjhwick119

I've been kinda down lately to be honest, stuff in life just not lining up right, havent had much motivation to get out to the bus either. Dont really get out much lately. Hasn't been a great fall I guess..things will turn around though.

We're all pullin for ya man. You got this.
FWIW I've had a lot of ups and downs this year too.
Sorry to hear about the truck. Folks drive bad here. I've quit swerving since I drive a big ole POS van.
A good friend of mine just lost his car. He didn't have enough insurance and his wife totalled it. He's still making payments on it.

consti2tion · 12-17-2018, 05:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jjhwick119

I've been kinda down lately to be honest, stuff in life just not lining up right, havent had much motivation to get out to the bus either. Dont really get out much lately. Hasn't been a great fall I guess..things will turn around though.

That's rough man. It's a serious pain in the ass when you're without a vehicle. Glad you're not hurt though.

I went through a slump on the bus this summer, just gets exhausting. Who would have thought turning a people mover into a small home would be so frustrating/difficult sometimes?

You have made some great progress on your bus in the short time that you've owned it. Some great work done to it as well man! You'll get back up on your feet again and hit it running!

I need to post some recent pictures of mine. It always motivated me to get out there and work on the bus when I saw new pictures on yours buddy.

jjhwick119 · 12-17-2018, 09:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by consti2tion

That's rough man. It's a serious pain in the ass when you're without a vehicle. Glad you're not hurt though.

I went through a slump on the bus this summer, just gets exhausting. Who would have thought turning a people mover into a small home would be so frustrating/difficult sometimes?

You have made some great progress on your bus in the short time that you've owned it. Some great work done to it as well man! You'll get back up on your feet again and hit it running!

I need to post some recent pictures of mine. It always motivated me to get out there and work on the bus when I saw new pictures on yours buddy.

Nice to here my work motivated others. On that note - do you have flooring picked out? I snagged 6 boxes of this flooring and it appears I will maybe only use 2 so I got extras. Another bus is taking some, but they probably only need 1.5-2 boxes as well

consti2tion · 12-17-2018, 03:13 PM

Well we actually just stained the sanded plywood we put in, didn't want to lose anymore head room. I appreciate it offer though man!

jjhwick119 · 03-03-2019, 07:45 PM

Well, today marks the 1 year anniversary of bus ownership! 1 year ago today I flew 500 miles away to pick up a bus I won at auction and driver her home. It's been a fun ride over the past year and it's a great time to give yall an update!

Here's my second video walkthrough of the bus showing off the progress I've made in 1 year.

What's left?

Buy house batteries and finish the electrical install. Solar panels are mounted and my wiring is ran through the walls and hooked up to outlets, but I still need to wire up the load center / charge controllers / inverter charger.
Also need to install the water tanks / pump / water heater and my shower head.
Finish composting toilet and seat cover since it's a wet bath.
Rebuild cabinets / pantry I mentioned in video
Finishing trim / a little paint
Buy roof vents and led strips and install

https://youtu.be/HT3ybZQNEfM

consti2tion · 03-04-2019, 05:25 AM

Man that’s really coming together!! Even through what you’ve dealt with the last year you have made some great progress! I’m sure you can see the finish line now!

Wkheathjr · 03-04-2019, 01:36 PM

What is the height of your bus on the center and on the side? Mine is 6' on center and 67" on side. I'm 5'9" so it is a bit short for me.. I am thinking of raising roof on mine..

What does your solar setup power to? I am thinking of making my stove and fridge propane alone while everything else on solar system so I can go off grid. I got 7 20# cylinder but also considering horizon propane tank bolted on under the bus.

And nice build so far.. almost at the point of taking off..

jjhwick119 · 03-04-2019, 05:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wkheathjr

What is the height of your bus on the center and on the side? Mine is 6' on center and 67" on side. I'm 5'9" so it is a bit short for me.. I am thinking of raising roof on mine..

What does your solar setup power to? I am thinking of making my stove and fridge propane alone while everything else on solar system so I can go off grid. I got 7 20# cylinder but also considering horizon propane tank bolted on under the bus.

And nice build so far.. almost at the point of taking off..

Actual height measurements are closer to beginning of the thread, but it was 77" height from factory (high headroom model). This was a must since I'm 6'3" and didn't want to do a roof raise. Right now I can walk down the middle without issue with slight room still over my head.

The solar will be powering the fridge (120v), outlets, tv, and a mini split AC on good sun days (possible microwave at some point to reheat leftovers). I'm using propane for the oven and water heater. Will also have 12volt lights / water pump. Plan is for 12x batteries wired at 24 volt for the battery bank.

jjhwick119 · 01-12-2020, 05:10 PM

Alrighty, long time no see! My progress on the bus has definitely taken longer than originally intended, and has slowed down quite a bit, but just because I haven't been on here doesn't mean I gave up, for anyone who used to follow my build and has wondered. I've been keeping on, just haven't made it on here for awhile.

While slow, progress has still been made. I finished up all the flooring, ripped out my old cabinet/closet crap and rebuilt them, making it smaller to give a larger opening from the kitchen to the bedroom/bathroom area (more open feel to it). Had to replace a couple ceiling peices because of that, and finally filled in the curves of the ceiling and got everything painted. Tested out the lights on the newly painted ceiling, and realized that I want something brighter with less of a blue tint to it. Will likely be getting 24v led strips in a more preferrable color. I also got the trim peices on above the windows which conceal the LED light strips.

The interior is more or less done at this point. I have to put trim peices along the floors, corners, etc. which I have laying around jsut haven't put them on it. I will need to mount my shower head and knobs and finish up the composting toilet and bathroom area. Gotta finish the paint on the outside too.

The last big things needed are to do the electrical and plumbing. I need to buy the batteries to be used, but I already have the 24v inverter / charger and solar charge controllers. I have my water tanks / heater / pump, just to install it all.

And now the time for the photo dump of my progress, unseen for the last year

EastCoastCB · 01-12-2020, 05:14 PM

Hell yeah man. Good to see some updates.

jjhwick119 · 01-12-2020, 05:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by EastCoastCB

Hell yeah man. Good to see some updates.

Thanks! I'm gonna try and remember to come on here more again. I swear I had better motivation when I was always on here looking at everyones builds and what people had going on.

I've been using a couple FB groups which I think kept me off of here, probably just because of the convenience of having a quick easy share button on the phone.

jjhwick119 · 01-16-2020, 03:43 PM

Going to be a big month for the bus. Got a bunch of supplies order this week to start this weekend.

What's shown up - Maxxair vent / fan, new 24v LED strips, some wiring, some roof pass throughs for the solar panels, small odds and ends.

Whats coming by Saturday - 9x Nissan leaf lithium modules to finally get my electrical / solar setup up and going.

Very soon, there will be no more need for the generator. Going to hook up 4 panels (980 watts) currently, 24v battery bank. Next big purchase will be the AC, and I will probably buy more batteries after I get AC as well. In the end I could end up with 18 total leaf modules, but will be testing to see if that many are needed.

Should have more updates sunday / monday. All my parts will be here by Saturday, I'm off work sunday/monday, and we got good weather those days.
RV vent/fan will be first, and I'll be routing the solar wires through the roof right by the vent and everything runs back to the same spot. Wiring for LED interior lights ran to the back and prepped, will test new LEDS first night to make sure they're what I want, should get most off that stuff done sunday, then work on wiring up batteries / inverter charger / charge controllers / all that fun crap on monday.

jjhwick119 · 01-23-2020, 01:09 PM

No major update.
I did get everything about 90% wired. I stopped short because I ran out light so I wouldnt be able to test even if I did finish, and I didnt have all my fuses/breakers.

Got all those order now, so they'll be arriving tomorrow and this upcoming Sunday I'll have probably 1-2 hours making the final connections before everything is up and ready to go.

Not much, but took a couple pics while out there.

Also, is there any reason I cant mount my inverter / charger right to the floor? Most I see are wall mounted but I'd much rather mount it on the floor

chiggins · 01-23-2020, 01:19 PM

Do you know what kind of watt-hour you'll get out of those batteries?

Ninjakitty · 01-23-2020, 01:40 PM

I mounted my inverter on the floor. It is raised up on 2x2 for airflow. one 2x2 for each side.

jjhwick119 · 01-23-2020, 02:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by chiggins

Do you know what kind of watt-hour you'll get out of those batteries?

To be honest, no I don't. I was going to go with golf cart batts, and kinda last minute found these leaf modules for 50 each and said screw it I'm going to go lithium. I started with 9 based on what someone else was said they were powering with 6 in their bus and less solar than mine. This also isn't my finished battery bank. This was to start and it will be at least doubled to 18 modules. I was originally going to do 24, but ill test things with 18 and see if I need more for running AC. 4 more solar panels will be hooked up and another charge controller added once I'm ready for AC

Edit - part of why I just don't know is these are used and not at 100% capacity. There is no label and I don't have the proper setup to properly test them and see what they're at. And because I'm lazy and didn't do the math based on their normal ratings.

jjhwick119 · 01-24-2020, 08:28 PM

Several boxes of goodies showed up today!
All my breakers, fuses, fuse block, bus bars, toggle switches for lights, more ring terminals, and large crimpers.
I already soldered most of my ring terminals on the wires, but I've got a few more connections and figured I'd crimp too for good measure since I was soldering in the cold with a torch.
One last item arriving tomorrow is a full motion wall tv mount for a cheap 40" I picked up on black friday.

Finishing up the wiring all on sunday to finally put the done stamp on electrical and start putting my solar panels to use! No more generator for working on the bus!

For anyone reading this that also has a full motion wall mount tv, curious if you do anything to secure it while driving so it doesnt pop out if you hit bumps while driving.

Also got a 30amp shore plug to put in. Wondering what the correct wire is to use for that. I have some 6awg 2+1 I think it's called that has that skinny ground like my 110 outlet wiring, but wasn't sure if that was fine or if I should something with 3 wires in it instead of that skinny ground

jjhwick119 · 01-28-2020, 03:44 PM

I got everything wired up, but my inverter isn't turning on. It powers up, I have 24v going to it, but its displaying an ac abnormal message, which apparently means the ac input isn't qualified (the manual only states this, does not go any further to explain what it means or how to troubleshoot) but I cant figure out what that means.

The solar side is hooked up though, batteries charging up well. I got my lights installed, 1 strip in bedroom, and 1 on each side in the front on 2 different switches to have just 1 side or both lit up. Got the switches installed for the lights, and got my tv installed and mounted too. Just gotta figure out why my 120 side isn't working.

Also, my bad luck with cars has struck again. My transmission finally took a dump on me last night on the way home from the bus, right after I emptied my savings account to get my electrical system all finished. Really crappy, but sadly I've come to accept that things just always tend to go wrong and I keep getting hit with setbacks. My day job is deliveries, which I cant do without a car, and I cant save money for a car because I need it for my job. Pretty sweet weekend for me. I'll figure something out though, i have to. Total number of vehicles lost during my build is 2, total cars I've owned in that time is 3, and soon to become 4 once i can get another one.

In the meantime, anyone see anything wrong with my wiring or might know why my inverter charger is not switching on the inverter side and why I'm getting AC abnormal?
3000w sungoldpower inverter/charger, similar to aims
100a load center
I disconnected the output wires too to see if they were shorting it somehow but no change
Not getting any error beeps or lights for a fault so I'm leaning towards some setting I'm not aware of and couldn't find in the manual or the inverter is just broken, which would suck because I bought it over a year ago and just now installed it.
Theres also a tiny green light that flashes on the outlet plug on the inverter, couldn't find any reference to what that was in the manual. Test/reset buttons did nothing

EDIT -- For anyone wondering the difference between 12v and 24v LED strips, the pictures on this page higher up (blueish) are the 12v bright white LEDS, and these are the new 24V ones. WAAAAAAAY better!!!!

jjhwick119 · 02-03-2020, 06:12 PM

Got the electrical up and working! Enjoying the first movie in the bus on a rainy day. I still need to wire in my 24v to 12v converter and 12v fuse box for those loads, but it's almost there! After this, just have the plumbing left to make her livable! Then some trim work, a bit more paint, and shes ready to go! Going to be an exciting year and there shouldnt be any reason I dont get to hit the road in 2020.

Decided I'm not going to replace my car and find a job closer to home to ride a bicycle to so I can save more and not waste money on insurance and gas (adds up from doing deliveries all week). If all goes well I hope to be living on the bus come summer time and getting out of Texas!

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