Trouble

[ulaff]

This Is the post for my money pit she's a 1980 Ford B700 with a Thomas body powered by a 370v2 with a 4 spd and a 2 spd rear. We have her gutted and most of the windows covered .And have managed to get most of the major components for the conversion out of the $300 donor camper.This conversion is gonna be fast and nasty so don't expect a wonderlodge.

[ulaff]

Here are a few more pics, mostly surface rust and a few more rivets to cover the lower back glass I also rebuilt the carb (napa wanted $65 for a kit but i managed to get one for $38 at autozone) and replaced an exhaust manifold gasket and also tried to grease the front end but no luck.
The weather man's calling for rain here thru Thursday so the next few days are going to be mostly insulating , sheeting and drinking beer on the inside ,but not necessarily in that order

[paul iossi]

try jacking up the front axle and having someone turn the steering wheel lock to lock while you put grease to the kingpins, it also might help to replace the grease fittings and clean out the grease pasages with a wire or drillbit.

[ulaff]

Sorry for the delay in updates, We had a run of the flu and it put everything in the house in chaos. But despite everything we march on and have managed to do the floor ,insulate and sheet the walls and get the majority of the 120v electrical installed ( All four outlets) This bus will be mostly 12v but my fridge is 120 @ 1.5 amps and i added the other 3 just in case lol .I am planning on a 260 watt solar system so I think that should cover the fridge and the minimal 12v usage we need (not sure how big of a battery bank I need so any suggestions are welcome ) . This is my third conversion the first was a 66 international 70 pass that me and my father converted for Elk hunting and I later took on dead tour ,Now parked in Colorado as a hunting camp after the tranny took a crap on me. It was set up all gas, lights ,fridge etc.The 2nd was a 1978 4905 gmc that I built about 8 years ago For my welding Business she was set up as an all electric coach with a 12 kw gen set 24v to 240v inverters etc etc we just couldn't afford to keep her on the road anymore That one was literally a house on wheels. We bought this last one because (A) It was cheaper to maintain (B) We could take it off road (D) After the 4905 i was tired of Dealing with curved walls, 6mpg and not being able to maneuver a parking lot smaller than a Super Wally world . We named this one Trouble she is a 1980 ford b700 with a Thomas body (41 adults = 60 children ?) is titled as a 1980 ford b700 (No Thomas title) and with the 19200 gvwr cost me a whopping $98 a year to insure.I know she's ugly but she's MILSPEC and has undercoating everywhere so no rust inside . no new pics yet But I hope to get some tomorrow after I get my awning mounted .

[ulaff]

Thanks those numbers are pretty much what i had come up with also.I picked up a Zantrex Truecharge 40 for $100 at one of the local wholesale Barns, and I am hoping to find a decent deal on one of those fancy 2kw inverter gen sets .The bus is a gasser with a 100 gallon tank so what I am hoping to do is add a fitting at about the 1/4 tank level to run to the genset. So the final numbers on my electrical system would wind up being 2X130 watts solar panels ,420 amphHr batt bank and too back that up with the Truecharge 40 and the 2kw inverter genset.
The only thing that's worrying me with that setup Is the 30k btu camper furnace that's going in although we don't plan on having to use it. I've always figured better safe than sorry, and i havn't been able to figure out how much juice the blower is going to draw.But if the darn thing runs more than a half hour in the morning were to far north .

[Redbear]

i havn't been able to figure out how much juice the blower is going to draw.

We get about 2 nights of heat in 30-40°F weather with an RV furnace cycling on and off in a poorly insulated camper. The days were 55-70°F. That was the point where a single deep cycle battery (like a marine trolling motor size) is discharged down to 40% power remaining. We could get about 3 nights out of a Blue Rhino barbecue tank, but the battery gives out first. We once tried to get 3 cold nights, but I remember waking up in the middle of the night to the fan sounding funny, and measuring only 8.5 volts. If I recall the battery size is about 70 AH, or 840 watt-hours at 12 volts. So figure somewhere between 200 and 250 watt-hours per night for the furnace. Sorry I don't have a more accurate measurement.

A lot of people planning to boondock use catalytic heaters with no fan, but if you already have the furnace on hand that's different. If I were building today, I would get a catalytic heater if I were not able to put in a hot water system.

[Sojakai]

Dont forget, if needed, you Can use the oven as a heater. (Learned from my Grandmother)

Just heat it up to temp, turn it off and open the door for a quick dump of heat, or leave it on on a lower setting for continued heat. If you put a tinfoil snake in the door to hold it open (<Elton Brown, too many cooking shows...), you can put a fan on top of the stove to blow the heat around better. Works best with Gas Ovens, but you can use electric, but it gets kinda pricey.

[ulaff]

Well we're back we managed to log 4800 miles in the ole gal over the summer. She's still not finished but we manage lol. the only problems we've had was an improperly built tranny and i managed to replace it for $100 , we had an np435 and i found a t19 to go back in it's place the shifter was shorter and further back but i think i like that better
.The fuel system started giving us alot of trouble in Mo ( imho this was caused by the ethanol they put in gas now) i had to replace all of the rubber fuel line and both fuel pumps and the carb is needing replaced , I think i'll be installing a 500 Holley for peace of mind instead of trying to fix the one that is on atm . That being said running 65-70 hwy and what was posted on local roads we averaged 6.24 mpg on every tank of gas ( as per gps ) and a 1/2 quart of oil the whole trip . The only other prob we had was a tire blew coming back into NC and taking out the valves on my Gray and black tanks but it was worth it to teach the !@#$ who was tailgating me a lesson. Hoping to get a few things done over the next couple weeks and get back out on the road