Somewhereinusa

[somewhereinusa]

This is just a teaser, I just finished making some really cool LED light fixtures. I don't want to show pics until I get them installed.

[Canned Ham]

If it's even half as cool as that very fine steampunk fancy faucet, I can hardly wait!

[somewhereinusa]

New light fixtures for bathroom, these are just accent lights so I don't stumble over the dog in the middle of the night.

May still be a tad too bright, if so I'll put a dimmer on them.







This is how they are constructed.

[Jolly Roger]

Originally Posted by somewhereinusa

It's been a while, been busy working on my generator, not a lot of pictures. I did get a good deal on a pure sine wave inverter/charger and just got it installed.

It is a bit larger than the old one, but was able to get it in the same spot.



Cables and fuse, batteries are in engine compartment about 3 feet on the other side of wall to the right.



View of the control panel showing that I'm on shore power and batteries are charged.



Still a little dressing of the smaller wires to be done and I still haven't figured out final resting place for the control panel.

Dick

Have you had a chance to use/play with the xantrex equipment?
A couple of questions if you don't mind?
I have a chance to get a dang good deal on 2- xantrex SW 3000w. No controllers and I only want one but if they are worth the money? I will get both?
I can get both for what one cost on flea bay.
The family that has them does pro cleaning services and cleaned a repo-yacht and were told to get everything out and get rid of it. So they did.
Some things they have are high dollar and they know what they are and some things they don't know or care what it is but it looks important and this is some of it and they have left there son who works for me and helps his family on the weekends to get rid of the stuff.
I know what they're worth brand new but it is in the make an offer stage and before I buy I want to make sure they are worth the money?
Thanks y'all for any and all advice.

[Kipin]

Awsome job on the Lights!!

[gbstewart]

as always , great work
gbstewart

[Whiskeyjr]

Could you care to comment on the cost of materials per light? They look fantastic!

[Canned Ham]

Nice little lights. I love these LEDs. It looks like more of those little dip cups? Very clever!

[somewhereinusa]

Jolly Roger, I haven't used it much, but my tests show a 3000 will run both of my soft start AC, it runs microwave and induction cooktops with no problems. Keeps battery bank charged like it should. You will need to purchase the control panel. I would say two for price of one would be a good deal.

Could you care to comment on the cost of materials per light

I can't say per light, the dip cups are from Sams, I think a dollar each or so. The LEDs are ebay, I just ordered some more $ .70 each. 10 Pcs HID White Wedge T10 8 SMD LED Light W5W 168 194 921 168 2825 175 912 12V | eBay

Dick

[somewhereinusa]

Here's a video of the first test run of my genny. It's a bit noisy with no muffler. This will be mounted beside engine in the rear. Click on the picture, it will take you to vid, can't seem to embed video if it's on photobucket.


Here are some pictures.









Close up of pulleys and tensioner



Now to take it all apart, clean and paint and reassemble inside of engine compartment.

Dick

[Robin97396]

That kind of makes it look like you're going all electric. That's a beast of a genny.

[somewhereinusa]

I am pretty much all electric, boiler for heat is diesel.

Alternator is 320A 12V. Not sure if I need that much engine, but I had it. Actually I have two, left over from Onan quiet diesels that failed. Those things are way too expensive to fix WHEN the generator part fails.

I'll never get it as quite as when it was in the Onan box, I'm going to do some studying to see if I can slow it down a bit. Plans are to route exhaust out the roof in rear.

Dick

[somewhereinusa]

My son gave me some heavy duty slides for Christmas a couple of years ago. Not being one to rush into anything, I just finished it up.





Gained some usable space behind it.



Dick

[Carytowncat]

Originally Posted by somewhereinusa

I am pretty much all electric, boiler for heat is diesel.

Alternator is 320A 12V. Not sure if I need that much engine, but I had it. Actually I have two, left over from Onan quiet diesels that failed. Those things are way too expensive to fix WHEN the generator part fails.

I'll never get it as quite as when it was in the Onan box, I'm going to do some studying to see if I can slow it down a bit. Plans are to route exhaust out the roof in rear.

Dick

A friend and i were just chatting about generator noise and he mentioned a time he put a super long exhaust on a generator and ran it all the way out the rear of the bus and could barely hear it.

I have a brand new CBR 600 stainless muffler i might try to duct tape to my generator exhaust when i get one

[TAOLIK]

This seems like a good time for me to

1. admire your son's present to you.

2. vocalize my admiration of your bus. I'm a huge fan!

I love your innovative style and build. I totally copied your technique for skinning the bus, and I intend to copy how you made your led light fixtures. I'm a huge fan, I hope you're enjoying your great work!

[sojourner]

Great job on the tool box. I bought some HDslides years ago. Now I know what to do with them. Thanks ����.

[somewhereinusa]

As you know the basements on skoolies is very low in the middle, I hadn't really used it for much except catching dirt. I built a sled to store some rarely used tools and firewood.





Had some of these roller thingys that I bought a long time ago and made some simple plywood guides. The stuff stored in front of it is things I always take out when camping.



Dick

[somewhereinusa]

I got my generator install pretty much done. It's a 20HP Kubota running a 320A 12V DC alternator. I ran both AC for about a half hour until overtemp shutdown. With no load it runs steady 194° The two temp gauges on my control panel are upper-engine temp, lower-top of radiator for fan control. Right now I have overtemp at 219° F, but can't really find any spec on what would be too hot. Ambient air temp is 89° F. Biggest problem is it's too loud. Inside in the rear is 57db, I can get that down with some better sound deadener. But outside in rear it's 77db, not sure what to do about that. I think the alternator itself is a bit noisy, I'll have to take the belt off to check that. There is also a low oil pressure shutdown.

Here's a video of it running

https://youtu.be/SncTm6bmgbI

My chart says that a busy city street is 80db, is it really that loud in there?

Dick

[BusFiend]

Remember that decibels are a logarithmic scale. 80dB is almost twice as loud as 77 dB. 77 is certainly not quiet, however. :-/

[ol trunt]

Hey Dick. Nice job on the installation of your genny. It is very straight forward and "simple" as it should be.

I think you can reduce the dB's without too much trouble. The high pitched whine of the alternator can easily be silenced with a couple of inches of dense closed cell foam rubber. The lower pitch racket of the engine will require the same amount of a dense material ( a 1/4 inch of lead would also do the trick). I've had good luck using "horse stall mat" which is made of solid rubber. While not as good as lead it is a darn sight lighter and less costly. Outside my bus in a campground during the day, no one even realizes my 3K genny is running. Unfortunately, it ads to the interior about the same amount of noise as the water pump--go figger?

I wish someone would post something about the upper temp at which to run a genny. Like you I haven't found a thing. I finally settled for the temp many engine oil mfgs's seem to recite regarding oil break down which is often around 205 degrees F--some a bit more, some a bit less. Like you, I have two temp monitors, one for air temp and secondary fan (not water cooled) and the other for engine oil temp. The EOT shuts the engine down at 194 degrees F &/- and so far I haven't had an engine over temp shut down. I installed 3 replicates of the EOT sensors just to be on the safe side. Any one of them can shut the engine down. The stupid genny cost about a third of what I paid for the whole bus so I want to be as sure as I can that I don't burn the thing up!

Noise: inside, 63 dB, outside and next to the genny box, 59 dB. At the exhaust pipe which is on the opposite side of the bus and about ten feet back, no sound above ambient which isn't much of a surprise. Twenty feet away from the bus with the genny running you'd have to be listening for the noise to hear it.

I'm a bit paranoid about generators in general. In particular, I recognize their great fire hazard and have done what I can to protect myself. Besides the EOT, I have shut downs related to the failure of either the pusher or puller fan. Should either fail, the engine is shut down and the electric fuel pump is shut down as well. Still, I won't run the genny when I am asleep or when I am not in the immediate area. Jack