Pilgrim Days

[DrDanger]

Originally Posted by Native

The hydronics look cool, er hot.
I am still not convinced I want to go with a heated floor. I do plan to have the bus run in warm weather and may never need it.

We are northern people at heart so we plan to be in colder places rather than warmer places (I hate sweating). If I was going to hang out in Florida or something like that I definitely would have saved a bunch of time and money not worrying about the insulation and heat. Right now my heating system is probably going to cost me about 3 times what I plan to spend on cooling

[DrDanger]

Originally Posted by plfking

Nice work!

And every bus needs a Spiral of Death incorporated somewhere in the build.

Preferably more than one!


I just noticed your screen name so I've got to ask...have you PLFed out of your bus??? To make it realistic you would need to shift it into drive, tie a rope from the bumper to your harness, and jump out while moving to ensure you get the dragging effect.

[DrDanger]

I've got good news and bad news.


The good news is that the boys at Louisville Spray Foam are open for business and wicked fast. I dropped the bus off on Wednesday afternoon and they got it knocked out by 2pm the next day. It looks great from the pictures they sent me. I can't wait to pick it up tomorrow! Let the interior build begin!!!



The bad news is that on the way up there I kept on getting the amber ENGINE light intermittently. It if the first time I've really driven it at any real speed since last summer when I bought it. It gave me trouble overheating on the way up from Florida, but I sprayed out the radiator the other day and that seemed to do the trick. Previously it was getting up to 220F even on short drives over 35mph, but it stayed at 190F the entire hour up to town. The only thing I could correlate the light to was my oil pressure being high. It seemed like if the engine was under strain (i.e. going above 55mph) the oil pressure would climb up to 60psi and then the light would come on. If I let off the accelerator then light would go off immediately. I decided to get off the highway and take side roads the rest of the way. That turned into a nail-biter since the GPS routed me through old town Louisville with narrow streets and low overpasses, but we made it



We've got a hard date to get out of here before too long so I am planning on taking it to a local diesel shop to get this looked at and to give it the ol' once over. I suppose it wouldn't hurt if they got my speedometer working too (not that I am worried about going to fast in this thing).

[Native]

Originally Posted by DrDanger

Correct. I am using 1/2in PEX, but with the thickness of the PEX itself and the aluminum (it is really only as thick as a beverage can) I had to make a bigger trough with with the router. I think 5/8in might work but it is hard to find a 5/8in round router bit and the 3/4in makes a good enough path with a little bit of room. Actually, now that I think about it, the 3/4in path gave me enough wiggle room for the straight metal plates to fit when my routering wasn't exactly straight...


Just be warned, it turns your bus into a life-sized snow globe...https://www.instagram.com/p/B_bGyWeJu3I/

That is a very neat video. The picture is so crisp!


I really like your telescoping router. I just have toget something like that for mine. I have spent so much time trying to guestimate where the bit would tough down.

[Ronnie]

Oil pressure can not get to high, and would not trigger the check engine light. Yes best to have someone look at , ideally that can check the code

[ol trunt]

Oil pressure can get too high and trigger the check engine light. A likely cause is a failed pressure relief valve in the oil pump. Here is a link with more info: https://mechanicbase.com/engine-oil/...essure-causes/.

anecdotally, back in the 1990's when Ford introduced the great little 4.6 V8 in the P71 police cars, the CHP lost the engines in a bunch of new units just after the first oil change. While the specs called for 5W20 oil, the CHP continued to use straight 30 weight oil. The result according to Ford was that the 30 W oil over pressured both cam and rod bearings causing their failure.
Jack

[plfking]

Originally Posted by DrDanger

I just noticed your screen name so I've got to ask...have you PLFed out of your bus???

Not yet.....did it over the side of a pickup once, when I was 11......tore up my knees big-time and got grounded for a month.

That nick was given to me by my skydiving instructors....I had a hard time figuring out when to flare for the first 40 jumps or so. Too low and I hit the ground at about 25 mph.....too high and I came to a stop with 10 feet of air under my feet. If you're dumb enough to jump out of planes, ya gotta be tough too.

Your build has been very entertaining to me....keep up the great work. And stay safe.

[DrDanger]

Originally Posted by Native

That is a very neat video. The picture is so crisp!


I really like your telescoping router. I just have toget something like that for mine. I have spent so much time trying to guestimate where the bit would tough down.

Yeah, I honestly use the telescoping base a lot more than the fixed base. I am partial to Bosch but I'm sure others are good as well.

[DrDanger]

Originally Posted by ol trunt

Oil pressure can get too high and trigger the check engine light. A likely cause is a failed pressure relief valve in the oil pump. Here is a link with more info: https://mechanicbase.com/engine-oil/...essure-causes/.

Thanks. I picked it up on Friday from the spray foam and took it directly to the mechanic. It did ok, but the last few miles of the trip were a bit hillier on some faster roads and the light came on again. I figure this is probably a good opportunity to have them do a full inspection and see what else might need attention/repair.

[Busasaurus]

Hey Doc,
I'm up in Louisville and just embarked. Would you mind me coming down to you to tour and talk shop sometime? Masked and from 6 feet away, of course.

[DrDanger]

Originally Posted by DrDanger

Thanks. I picked it up on Friday from the spray foam and took it directly to the mechanic. It did ok, but the last few miles of the trip were a bit hillier on some faster roads and the light came on again. I figure this is probably a good opportunity to have them do a full inspection and see what else might need attention/repair.

Good news from the Diesel Docs (Precision Diesel in Shepherdsville, KY), she's got a clean bill of health (mostly). The code that is causing the amber engine light is "VGT under duty cycle". This means that at high load (the only time the light comes on) the turbo is not producing as much boost as the computer is calling for. The impact is a reduction in power (not that I have noticed, after all I'm not expecting to set land speed records), but doesn't mean my engine was about to blow up. It could be the computer on the turbo, the VGT actuator, or the turbo itself. Any way you look at it it spells big money, so for the time being I will live with it as is. They looked over the rest of the truck and the only other thing they found was a small leak on the transmission pan but said it wasn't something that had to be done right now as long as I keep an eye on fluid levels. I also had them flush the coolant since I had added Stop Leak or some such thing when I had overheating problems last summer. Lastly they installed a new speed sensor to try to get the speedometer to work but it looks like the instrument cluster itself is malfunctioning so I guess I'll live without that as well ($1300 new...)


I am usually never happy about parting with my money to a mechanic, but I feel like these guys were fair, thorough, and honest. They said if I ever break down or have a problem to troubleshoot to call them and they will talk me through it.

[Native]

They sure sound like decent folks!

[Busasaurus]

That's kinda good news! And I might have to visit them if I have troubles with The Busasaurus *knocks on wood*

[DrDanger]

Here is the good work that they boys at Louisville Spray Foam did for me.


They charged me $1841 which included all prep (covering floor, windows, etc.), 2 inches of foam X ~30ft long, trimming, and clean up. By my calculations it would have cost me around $1200 to buy the DIY kits for the same amount of foam. Then I'd also have to buy the tyvek suit, plastic sheeting, tape, etc. I'm not sure I would have saved too much money doing it myself, plus I would have had to have waited for some hot weather to get it to cure well. Also, I don't think I would have done as good of a job as they did. And lastly, as my wife pointed out, it would have taken me four times as long to actually get it done

[Busasaurus]

Did they do the underside?

[DrDanger]

Let me just say that I have a whole new perspective on the big class A motorhomes pulling brand new pickup trucks behind them. Those people either have way more money than I do, or way more debt.

Getting my F150 prepped to be towed behind the bus has not been cheap. Admittedly it has been cheaper than buying a manual transmission car and prepping that since we already own the truck. So here is my set up so far, starting at the bus:

- random 2in bolt on receiver from Amazon
- Roadmaster 10in drop hitch
- Ready Brake supplemental braking system (much cheaper that other systems, purely mechanical, relatively easy to install)
- Roadmaster Blackhawk II towbar (got it cheap used)
- Roadmaster base plate on truck
- Ready Brake Brake-Away emergency brake system (required in Canada and many states)
- Hopkins plug in wiring kit for turn/brake lights

I am still waiting on a few parts to arrive for the wiring, but here it is (before I got the drop hitch)




I decided that with the drop hitch and the Ready Brake that the tow bar was sticking too far out back (I am worried about how much leverage that is putting on my bumper and homemade receiver mount). I read that a lot of RV folks cut them down and drill a new hole so that is what I've decided to do. I should be able to get it all hooked up Saturday so I'll let you all know how it goes.

[DrDanger]

Originally Posted by Busasaurus

Did they do the underside?

No. I already have 2in of XPS foam so it wouldn't help much. If I hadn't decided to do radiant heat in the floor I definitely would have looked at spraying the floor from underneath.

[musigenesis]

That might be the best-looking spray foam job I've ever seen on a bus.

I didn't understand your comments completely - is the insulation on your floor spray foam or XPS foam board (or both)?

[musigenesis]

Originally Posted by Busasaurus

Did they do the underside?

People seem to talk about doing this a lot, but nobody ever seems to actually do it - I think for good reasons. Leaving aside the problems with thermal bridging (you would have a steel floor connected to the rest of the bus but inside your insulated living space), I think if you spent ten minutes crawling around underneath your bus you would start to see the problems inherent in trying to do this.

You would need to fully clean the underside of your bus (or take your chances on the foam adhering to whatever's down there) including the impossible-to-access parts like above the fuel tank, then spray foam everything (including the impossible-to-access parts), and then somehow keep it protected from road debris.

[DrDanger]

Originally Posted by musigenesis

That might be the best-looking spray foam job I've ever seen on a bus.

I didn't understand your comments completely - is the insulation on your floor spray foam or XPS foam board (or both)?

XPS foam board on the floor, closed cell spray foam on the walls and ceiling. They filled the void between outer skin and chair rail with foam as well. I still need to put some hard foam over the chair rail since they couldn't spray exactly 3/4in thick. The last bit of insulation will be pink batts in the front and back since there is a lot of wiring for the lights that I may need to get at in the future.