Pilgrim Days

[DrDanger]

Originally Posted by cadillackid

many of these inside units have 2 drain pipes in the tray.. only one is typically drilled open to the outside.. several peoiple have alleviated the water drip issues by opening that other hole and having two drain lines. as that way even if your bus is parked tilted the water will drain properly..

Yeah, I saw that. It has been working well so far since I moved the outlet. At this point I don't want to temp fate by messing with it any more

[NOLA]

It looks like they sprayed open cell onto metal. They should have used CLOSED cell foam on metal. I had a warehouse metal sprayed. Open-cell spray foam has an R-value of about R-3.7 per inch, while closed-cell spray foam has an R-value that may be as high as R-6.5 per inch.

[DrDanger]

Originally Posted by NOLA

It looks like they sprayed open cell onto metal. They should have used CLOSED cell foam on metal.

It is closed cell. I think the mix wasn't quite right at the beginning (or end) of the job because I only have problems in a few places in the back. The front is totally fine. I've given up caring because most of it is behind wood now!

[DrDanger]

Built my first drawers ever today. I didn't quite get the side spacing right for the slides, but thankfully I had erred too much in the right direction and was able to fix it with a long shim strip. I am using the Accuride Touch Release slides here so I won't have any drawer handles to trip over/kick. They seem to work pretty well so far, we'll see how they do once they are loaded up and I go around a hard right turn.






Also, I think I have figured out a solution to my water heater venting problem, but this is how I felt the last few days...

[Native]

I *LOVE* your dino-toon!

[DrDanger]

I purchased some used Valence lithium batteries from ebay a while ago and just got the rest of my electrical components so now I am building a small system to do a bench test.

One thing I discovered is that the bolts that go into the battery are not all the same size and also the positive and negative terminal holes are not the same depth. Say whaaaa???
The result is that the positive bolts tighten down well, but the negative bolts bottom out in the hole before the battery cable is tight and secure. This is ok where I have two cable connections (the ends of each series where they are connected in parallel to the other series), but the middle of each series is loose on the negative terminal. I am thinking of either cutting off the end of those bolts or else add a metal washer.

The question I have is if I get metal washers, what material should they be? Stainless steel? Copper? Other???

[Ronnie]

Copper is the best conductivity. However you could likely get away with plain old zinc plated steel.

[HazeltheMooseWagon]

If you use anything except copper you should probably put the washer on top of the lug. Copper washers could go above or under the lug.

[DrDanger]

We are getting ready to move...again...hopefully for the last time while the bus is still under construction. Since we are going all the way from Michigan to Washington we want it to be livable for the week we are going to take driving out there. To that end, I have been working furiously on getting the beds done, getting the Victron inverter/charger working, and installing the range. Here's the update:
Electrical- did a little bench test with the batteries hooked up to the Victron Multiplus inverter/charger...

(wasn't quite sure how the grasshopper was supposed to be installed on top of the inverter...)


...nothing started on fire so I installed the inverter in the bus...

Victron installation instructions dictate a breaker on the incoming AC power. I am not sure if this is really necessary considering that your shore power connection has a breaker feeding it...I don't know...so I installed one anyway.

The Multiplus successfully transfers the AC shore power to my breaker panel so I that is working fine. The next step is to install the batteries in the battery box (under the bus) and connect the cables to the charger.

I started building the platform that will hold my batteries in place.

My plan is to run both cables out the back of the box with cable glands, ground the negative to the chassis of the bus, then run both up into my electrical box under the couch.
I attached all my 12V components to a single board that will be installed near the inverter. I'll run all my negative/grounds in the DC system to the bus bar installed on the shunt. I am still unsure as to whether the ground of the AC system should also be attached to this bus bar to bond it with the chassis. My understanding is that this would prevent the skin (or any other metal component) of the bus from ever becoming electrified. Are there any potential issues with bonding the ground of the AC system and the negative of the DC system?


On to the beds...

[DrDanger]

I have the bunks *mostly* done.
My brother has access to a large CNC router so we cut plywood that I laminated together to create this custom window trim for the bottom bunk. I just hope the dogs appreciate it until another kid comes along several years from now.



I built the bunk wall to have sliding partitions in order to allow us to put the kids into bed from our bed (they are both too little to climb up themselves).

It it a bit hard to see there, but you can see the passages a little better in this shot.

I finished the trim around the back window, covered the line set from the mini-split AC, and put the wall planks up as well.

I installed some brackets to hold up a piece of 3/4in plywood that is the bunk platform for each bunk. I still have to install the front board that will keep the mattress from sliding out, but other than that the bunks are pretty much done.

[DrDanger]

Winter has descended in the PNW and it is time to get serious about getting my hydronic heat system working.
I won't rehash what has already been discussed here: https://www.skoolie.net/forums/f51/h...tml#post416627


I was having trouble finding an auxiliary port on my fuel tank so I took a look under my floor through the access panel. This is what I can see looking at the top of my tank

I think it might be an option for my fuel pick up line. As you can see I am still in the process of removing many layers of dirt and grime, but the plug looks like it has a square socket rather than a hex socket or head. I guess I'll see if my ratchet will fit in there to remove it.


If it works then I'll drop my fuel pick up tube in there, run the line to my dosing pump, and then to the Webasto.

[cadillackid]

One of my busses had a similar plug, it was brass which is somewhat soft, stuck a ratchet in it and lightly tapped with a hammer as opposed to just honking down on it. Used an adapter fitting I got at Home Depot and done. My pickup is such that when I get below about 1/4 tank the heater would stop. With the tiny tanks my busses have this gives me enough to go get fuel . ( I don’t boondock in bfe).

Don’t forget to angle the pump , it really does make a difference . Mine are at about 45 degrees pointing upward

[DrDanger]

Originally Posted by cadillackid

Don’t forget to angle the pump , it really does make a difference . Mine are at about 45 degrees pointing upward

Hmmm, the Webasto installation manual is pretty adamant about mounting the pump horizontally (they put it in ALL CAPS, used an exclamation point, and even put in a diagram that shows "zero degrees" orientation from horizontal). Maybe you have a different model. Mine is a Thermo Top C circa 2019.

[cadillackid]

interesting.. I have 2 heaters.. one is a VVKB branded unit.. and the other is a webasto TSL-17



both use the same clickety-clack (jet tronic?) style pump.. I had issues with loss of prime or flame outs till I followed the recommendations of various Youtubers and the instructions of my VVKB book..



maybe I should calrify fuel pump and not water pump is what im talking of.. and it may be that the 2019 models use different pumps that are designed horizontal.. my TSL-17 I bouhgt in 2016 and my VVKB is chinese so likely not the latest greatest tech

[Maligator.]

laughing MAO at the dino-toon!

[DrDanger]

Originally Posted by cadillackid

both use the same clickety-clack (jet tronic?) style pump.. I had issues with loss of prime or flame outs till I followed the recommendations of various Youtubers and the instructions of my VVKB book..

I think the pump is a DP30. I'll keep it in mind if I end up having problems.

[DrDanger]

I started putting my new toy together

I have most of the pieces put together but I've still got a few things to work out:
1. Wiring the DP30 fuel pump. This is sold without the plug wired to allow you to trim to length. The problem is I am not sure how to wire it (which wire connects to which terminal on the pump). I did a bit of googling, but the best answer I could come up with is this pigtail that shows the blue wire (signal wire from the Webasto). Would it matter if I hooked it up backwards? (i.e. would it damage the pump?)
...

[DrDanger]

2. Square wrench for fuel tank auxiliary port. I believe I have narrowed it down to being an 8mm square male socket. My scientific method for determining this was trying to use my 1/4in and 3/8in socket wrenches and finding that it was somewhere in between the two. I'll order one from Amazon unless I can find some other way to get that plug out.

3. I need to install the mounting studs in the body of the Webasto, but they have a male torx end to them. I need a female torx driver set to mount them...but since I am not going to pay $15 for a tool I will use for exactly 2.7 minutes in my entire life, I will need to find another way. I am thinking I should be able to install two nuts tightened together and use a regular socket to drive the stud on that way. Thoughts?

[s2mikon]

2 nuts locked together will work. Polarity of pump won't matter. It is just an electromagnet.

[s2mikon]

Have you tried a 12 point wrench on them yet. Sometimes it works.