Just Call Me Bobert

[RamRod4]

Had my 6th gear done a few weeks ago. All remote. No need to send off your tcm. PM me for the contact info if you’d like.

 

[RamRod4]

That was my approach as well. Just not enough oomph in my cordless drill.

This why the pros use a mag drill haha. Problem is that no one just has a mag drill in their toolbox at home.

 

[Dbacks2k4]

When it rains it pours

As my mother would say, when it rains it pours.

First, the bad news...

Got the new OEM IRP ordered from International and drove up to downtown Phoenix to get it today. I learned how to drive in this city and I sure don't miss the traffic lol

Got it installed and my rough start completely went away and was idling smooth after it hiccuped for a few minutes to get the air out. Feeling pumped I went for a short test drive, and the sputtering started half a mile down the road. Ugh, so IRP pigtail wasn't the source of *that* problem. ServiceMaxx still shows no DTCs. There is a large metallic sliding "clank" noise that comes at key on and key off, last time I heard that noise on a 7.6 it was a failing turbo, but we also had a VGT Under Duty Cycle code with it. ICP pressures still look good at idle, but I'm not able to watch the numbers while driving down the road when its misbehaving. I sent off a few questions and screen shots to my mechanic, see what he thinks. Worst case I can get an appointment at AAA Bus in a couple weeks to have them diagnose if needed.

In other news my car was supposed to be done yesterday, he called this morning, still working on it, maybe tomorrow. Short staffed, and as a fellow small business owner I can feel his pain. So guess that works out in that he's busy since I can't exactly get the bus to him anyway for the air line and receiver install. He seemed pretty glad that we would be scheduling that part out for another time.

So looks like I'll be paying for another month of storage and going home with just my car tomorrow. I have a few things at home I need to get back for, so will make another trip out here in a few weeks. I'd rather make a couple extra trips and do things right than rush through something and have problems out in the middle of nowhere.

Enough complaining, here's what's going well...

Tuesday night I went down to Tucson to meet up with some old work friends for margaritas and dinner. I went to the UofA for a couple years after high school in Phoenix, before moving back to Iowa, and I'd forgotten just how scenic the drive down 79 is from the East Valley to Tucson if you don't take the I-10. The "from the car" photos don't do the views justice but here they are anyway

Last night I met up with some high school friends at Joe's BBQ in Gilbert. Another fantastic evening with good food and good friends. It's things like this that make me completely ok with buying a bus that needs attention out of state. At least being in Arizona I have things I can do and people to go see whereas I'd be bored out my mind sitting in a hotel in Texas or Florida.

 

[Dbacks2k4]

A little bummed I'm still in limbo on when I can get back to Arizona to get my bus running right to bring home. But in the meantime I've got another party bus I need to get done, so took the holiday weekend to get my shop cleaned up and built some organization shelves and work table. The shop was a complete disaster with parts and tools everywhere so it's taking some time (I'm still working on it) to get stuff cleaned up and put away. I don't like to clean up until the end of a project, and since my projects tend to overlap and go on forever that can mean a long while. My ADHD and OCD are often fighting one another, lol

First up, a storage table for parts and material. Stocked right now with party bus supplies - stereo equipment, lights, flooring, and seat material. Once this next party bus is done this will have RV parts.

Up next another storage shelf. I had one before, added a second and am contemplating a third. These are narrow, only 14" deep and on the side of the shop that doesn't have much side space. They work great for paint, fluids, cleaning supplies, rags, and other mechanical odds and ends.

And finally, my work table. I'd built this quite a while ago, designed to be chest height for building seat cushions. Originally, it was about 9 inches taller, which after I got it built I realized was a bit too tall. Thus, it had become the defacto storage table, until I built the new one above. Once emptied, I cut about 11 inches off the legs and attached some casters.

I spent Sunday babysitting my niece who lives about an hour away from me. I spotted this guy on I-80 between Davenport and Iowa City. Wonder if you're a member of this site? I noticed after I passed him that he had something on the front display board, but the sun was setting so I couldn't make it out in my rearview mirror. Love the camo green

 

[RamRod4]

Awesome shop! Puts my little 30x30 to shame.

I 100% can understand the cleanup struggle. I hate having a messy workspace but I also tend to clean up after a project and, well…I always have new projects popping up. Eventually it gets to the point where my OCD overrules the ADD and I go on a cleaning/organizational spree haha

 

[Dbacks2k4]

Awesome shop! Puts my little 30x30 to shame.

Thanks - the shop is nice but pricey since we rent. If it wasn't for the party bus business I wouldn't have it at all. We may be downgrading this summer anyway - we originally got it to be able to build party buses throughout the winter since this one is heated and has plumbing. Once the white bus in the above photos is done, we'll be done building party buses for a while. It's nice because it's about 10 minutes from my house, though.

My other shop is a converted cattle shed. Much more economical, but it's an hour away from home. I may wind up doing my conversion over there if we downsize the local shop. Downside is no heat

(Stupid maxxforce - glad that bus is gone!!)

 

[musigenesis]

I'm sure you know all about this, but the difference between traveling an hour to work on your bus vs. ten minutes is enormous.

 

[Jolly Roger bus 223]

at least he has a shop big enough to fit a bus and tools and benches and room to walk around?
i have plenty of room to walk around my buses in a wind open gravel driveway and front yard.
but thats about it.
oh and i have tools and tailgates for benches.
but like i told my kids when they were growing up is if we can fix it in this driveway then you will have no problem in the grass on the side of the road when something else happens.

 

[RamRod4]

Thanks - the shop is nice but pricey since we rent. If it wasn't for the party bus business I wouldn't have it at all. We may be downgrading this summer anyway - we originally got it to be able to build party buses throughout the winter since this one is heated and has plumbing. Once the white bus in the above photos is done, we'll be done building party buses for a while. It's nice because it's about 10 minutes from my house, though.

My other shop is a converted cattle shed. Much more economical, but it's an hour away from home. I may wind up doing my conversion over there if we downsize the local shop. Downside is no heat

(Stupid maxxforce - glad that bus is gone!!)

An hour drive to work on the bus would be a deal breaker for me haha. On the bright side, you can fit your bus completely through the door opening. My dad and I built my shop a few months before the bus was even a thought in our minds.

 

[Dbacks2k4]

An hour drive to work on the bus would be a deal breaker for me haha.

Definitely not ideal. But my sister and niece live over there so I'm in town several days a week as is, plus I obviously run party buses over there. Much easier to run down for an hour each weekend closer to home but I could live out of my popup camper in the long-distance shop a few days at a time in order to make progress...

 

[Dbacks2k4]

Revised power plan

Got my power budget pretty well down at this point and have come up with the following:

This represents "worst case" with just about everything running with a few exceptions... if it's so hot I need both A/Cs going full blast, its cold sandwiches for dinner and I'm not cooking, ha ha! The stove/oven is LP so could still cook if I wanted to though. Doesn't include diesel heaters or the washing machine - laundry can wait until a cooler day.

Based on that I'm designing the battery bank around 20 kWh and a solar setup of 5000 watts. I am not doing a DC-DC charger off the alternator and am not planning on a generator. My only power source will be solar or shore power (when I can).

I was initially planning on going with Victron equipment but I'm now leaning towards the Signature Solar EG4 6500EX which is a rack-mount all-in-one inverter/charger/MPPT. It has a 3 year warranty bumped up to 5 when paired with EG4 batteries. The largest Victron inverter charger is 3000W at 24v or 48v for about $1300, and that's before you buy MPPTs. The EG4 goes to 6500W at 48v with a 8000W/500VOC max MPPT (dual inputs, solves my split-solar design connection issue of needing two separate Victron MPPTs) - all at a much cheaper price point of $1300.

There's a third party monitoring platform called Solar Assistant that runs on Raspberry Pi for $182 which is also significantly cheaper than the Victron platform, albeit not quite as "fancy."

For batteries I was originally looking at some junk off Amazon just to start the planning process. I then looked at BigBattery much closer, but have now also settled on EG4's LL series 48v server-rack battery. They're 4.8kWh (100aH at 48v), runs $1700 each, and I think 4 should work. That's about $0.35/wH which is cheaper than $0.42/wH on the BigBattery 24v boxes and $0.51/wH on the BigBattery 48v boxes. Both have a 10-year warranty. EG4 also has a newer LifePower series battery that's cheaper at $1500 but is limited to a 5-year warranty. I'm also liking the idea of server rack modularity for where I plan to install this gear in the bus as well as uniform sizes if I ever upgrade or replace gear down the road. Plus my bus really should have a server rack... after all, I do IT infrastructure for a living

I'm still doing some architecting on the solar panels. The plan is still to have a dual setup of permanently mounted flexible panels on the roof and some portable suitcase-style conventional panels for outside placement when needed.

The online "experts" seem to recommend between 2:1 and 5:1 ratios for solar to battery. They all seem to say "you need 200-400W of solar for every 100aH of battery!" Drives me crazy when people use aH instead of wH. Math was not my strong suit in college lol
Anyway, so I've got 400Ah at 48V which would translate to their 12v equations as 1600aH. By their math that should mean 3200-8000W of solar. My 5000W plan seems to be centerline.
I just have to figure out where in my build I'm going to store those suitcase panels for travel

So far the leaders:

• Some 200W Chinese monocrystalline flexible panels for the roof off Amazon that at least have good reviews. They're 4 ft by 1 ft in size and I think I can get 18 of them on the roof pretty easy at $125 each.
  (AND)
• Solarever 370W monos from Signature Solar for the portables (I'll have to fabricate them into suitcases). They're 5.5 ft by 3.5 ft and if I do 2 pairs (4 panels) at $216 each.
  (OR)
• Some used panels from San Tan Solar to turn into suitcases.

I'm guessing the vast majority of the time I'm not going to be running A/C full blast so really won't need the extra solar generating capacity all the time.
By my math,

So yeah, I think I'm waaaaay over-built - but better to have and not need than need and not have? Seems like a pretty robust power setup for $13k. Yes, I know I can run a generator cheaper. I just hate generator noise and smell.

So question for the experts...
Am I underpowered on solar?
Do I have some fuzzy math in there somewhere?
What am I overlooking?

 

[DeMac]

Efficiency Losses

Any calculations accounting for curved panel efficiency, wire resistance, thermal loss, inverter efficiency loss, battery degradation, array missmatch, shading, or system power usage? You can expect 20% (or more) system efficiency loss.

Actual panel output depends on angle, season & location. If the irradiance is 335kW/m2, I could expect only about 35 watts output from a flexible 100 watt panel.

More efficient panels will better utilize the expense invested into the other components.

 

[Alt1]

I very much appreciate the detailed power plan post along with battery and charge controller considerations. The chart is helpful for estimations for those of us looking to use similar items.

I had just begun looking into the EG4 setup and it certainly looks appealing. I read elsewhere that there may be some concerns with mounting on a mobile platform. I'm not sure how valid these were, but it may be worth considering some dampening with a server rack setup.

Also, since the EG4 batteries are designed to work with the EG4 all-in-one wall mount there are some capabilities or settings that only work with both connected to each other. For that reason, I wouldnt consider any other batteries if you were set on going with the 6500EX.

I'll certainly be watching to see what you decide on. Thanks!

 

[Dbacks2k4]

I had just begun looking into the EG4 setup and it certainly looks appealing. I read elsewhere that there may be some concerns with mounting on a mobile platform. I'm not sure how valid these were, but it may be worth considering some dampening with a server rack setup.

I share that concern as well. The dampeners are a good idea.

I'm considering doing the pair of 6500s in split phase 220 and going with a larger dual head mini split. I really don't need 220 for anything else but that would save some undercarriage apace. However since the minis are also not designed for mobile I like the idea of having completely separate redundant units... So many decisions!!

 

[Dbacks2k4]

It's been a couple of long and frustrating weeks. I had another post going about my ongoing engine issues.
https://www.skoolie.net/forums/f37/dt466e-sputter-losing-power-while-driving-39487.html

Being 1600 miles away, and even when Arizona, having limited access to tools and ability to work on the bus in the heat has been getting at me. Sitting in hotels at the mercy of third parties and not being able to accomplish anything is maddening for me.

I finally got an appointment at AAA bus in Phoenix for last Thursday. I drove back down to Arizona last Monday. Of course I picked up covid again on Sunday before leaving which made for a miserable trip. I got to the bus weds night in the 114 degree heat to get it outside the gates of the storage lot. Thursday morning at 4am I got out there and tried a few suggestions from the other thread, no avail. Drove it to downtown Phoenix for the appointment, aaa wasn't able to do anything and sent me to the dealer. They told me they couldn't get me in for at least a week. I left the bus there and came home Saturday afternoon arriving home late last night.

Despite the long search to get this bus I was almost to the point of putting it on Craigslist, taking the loss, and starting over. Two good things there - at my lowest point I 1) still wanted to build a bus and 2) did not give into my "fight or flight" instinct to bail.

On advice of a friend he suggested looking into shipping options. I figured that would be outrageously priced but got a call from a broker today who had a cancellation and would give me a discounted rate if they could load first thing tomorrow morning.

Ironically enough when I called the dealer to let them know the truck will be there in the morning they'd actually gotten the bus in the shop and started diagnostics. They quoted me a ridiculous price to replace the egr valve which I'm not entirely convinced is the root problem....

Two hours of calls later, deposits are wired, contracts signed, and at long last the bus is on its way home where my trusted mechanic friend and I can work on it in my own shop. I'm convinced now that doing an overhaul on this bus is in my best interest. It's at the right age and mileage, but this whole experience is a great lesson in why I want minimal issues on the road with issues beyond my limited abilities and without a proper shop.

Plus at least while we're doing engine work I can also be doing conversion work.

 

[kazetsukai]

To comment on your energy budget- Seems like your mini split figures are on the low end. Really think you'll run them for 4 hours a day?


The overall figures however look reasonable. With two splits running all day, laptops on 24/7, residential fridge, stuff charging... I'm about breaking even if I generate at least 24kWh a day. I have 3000W on the roof and 1800W lying on the ground flat I eventually hope to mount as an awning.

 

[Dbacks2k4]

The 4 hours a day came from 12 hours a day at 33% duty cycle I believe. I'll double check those figures though!

 

[kazetsukai]

Right now / at night the two are pulling about 500W combined. Keeping this rig cool under the sun they'll each do 800W-1100W until they reach the desired temperature. Two is not necessarily 200% the energy usage... we had only one until recently, which couldn't keep up with the heat. After installing the second unit it is slap-in-your face cold in here, but I'd say my energy usage only increased by 50%, since instead of one unit pegged at 1000W, I have two that ramp up and down as needed.


Never actually measured the daily usage though, currently writing an app for that.

 

[Dbacks2k4]

Well, the bus is here. I got the call Thurs afternoon that they were half an hour out. When I pulled up to my shop I couldn't hardly believe they hauled it on an F350. Holy crap! I haven't kept up with the GVWR on Ford's one-ton duallies lately, but he had to have been close to maxxed out!!

The crappy part is that the guy's trailer ramps were way too short. Fine for loading cars or tractors, but it was pretty obvious this guy had never hauled something like this before. They wound up having to use a wrecker to lift the bus onto the trailer in Arizona (which I got billed for) and we had to play some games with a slope between 2 driveways in order to get it off the trailer without bottoming out. It also took a full hour and a half to unload, no thanks to the stuck EGR valve which kept stalling out the engine every 19 and a half seconds.

But anyway its here and ready to work on. I still have that party bus in my shop to get done before I can do much with it (or at least before I allow myself to begin ha ha) but my mechanic friend did a brief look over it while he was here the other day working on a party bus. He thinks it looks in good shape other than a small oil leak on the front main cover. I think on every bus that we acquired for the fleet there was a UVC harness leak that we wound up fixing, but this one isn't leaking there so looks like the UVC's been done at some point recently, which adds credibility to the fact the school district did maintain this thing pretty well.

We're going to send off an oil sample for an analysis before deciding whether or not to do the overhaul. He thinks I may be jumping the gun there and doesn't think it should need it until at least 400k, it's at 260k on the odo. We are definitely going to tear it down for a full re-seal though... I've seen first hand what a decade and a half of Arizona dry rot can do.... but still better than rust He agreed with my plan to also replace some of the parts that are pretty common failures... There will be a long parts list eventually once we go through it in more detail.

Ask of the community - any recommendations for where to go for the oil analysis? Thanks in advance.

 

[Dbacks2k4]

I swore up and down I wasn't going to start a YouTube channel, but I did...

TSLABUS Adventures

I found myself sitting at my shop this morning with 45 minutes to kill before a doctor's appointment, just enough time to get into trouble and not enough to do anything productive without getting dirty or greasy. Two different friends have been nagging at me to document my process so they can build a bus too. I will probably regret this later

Not too many updates lately. I'm still working on that party bus which is kicking my rear end.

I did get the bus pulled into the shop from the back storage lot. We're going to be losing this shop at the end of August, so I have until then to get the EGR system "fixed" so its drivable. It died 17 times getting it into the building ha ha... that valve being stuck open just kills it. I was afraid I was going to drain the batteries too far down cranking the starter over that many times.

I took advantage of Prime Day to order a pretty good batch of parts. I also found a pretty good deal on a pair of Maxxair fans on eBay last week, so those are in as well. The fresh water tanks (2x100 gal) are ordered and en-route, but I still have to take a couple more measurements before I can shop for the grey/black/recirc tanks.

I'm trying to get all the parts in I need for right now in order to do all the components up to spray foam, which includes anything going in or out of the bus... roof hatches, water inlets, electrical inlets, etc. So almost everything, ha ha.

Last weekend I palyed with a couple new tablets I ordered off Amazon. Samsung A7 Lite (8.7") and an A8 (10.5"). Got a basic app-set loaded on them and positioned them around the dash. I initially thought the A8 was going to be too big but I'm actually liking it a bit better. I think there will be 5 or 6 on the dash when done, so maybe A8s on each side (Bluefire, Google Maps, music, TSD fuel app, cameras, and maybe another one for what I'm not yet sure) and three A7s in the middle?

I also spent some time tonight going through solar panel options online. I took some roof measurements and am trying to decide what to do up there. Original plan was to go with flexible panels, against almost everyone's advice. I'm starting to lean towards conventionals up there. I really hate the look of buses with a big flat thing on top overhanging the sides (solar or decks) so if I go with panels up there I want 6-foot max width which limits the panel options. I cut down a piece of scrap plywood I had laying around the shop and 6-foot is the width I can live with asthetically. Most are 6'6" to 7'2" long and they're all about 3'6" wide so not like I can put two side by side length-wise. I found a couple options that may work, but I now need to input all the data into my power calculator to figure out my parallel string configuration, make sure that's going to work with the MPPT on the EG4, etc.

One of these days I'll build something instead of just plan!!