New owner of Vintage Bus 1980

[Hoffman]

Freds,
Very cool work you've done. I've thought of some similar changes but don't have the guts to dive in.
I must point out the spelling of "Refridgerator". Love it.

Awesome work sir!

[PrevostNewbie]

LOL, Fred, that's how i spell it too, are you from New England?

[Gil_J]

Wow...did I say wow? Of course I did...wow!

[freds]

LOL, Fred, that's how i spell it too, are you from New England?

No Seattle, hey what ever gets me by spell check...

Thanks guys for the feedback...

PS. Did it by myself mostly. Had a bud help during the final mechanical reassembly before the foam hardened.

[freds]

Ok a minor detour into the weeds from my basic make it functional route.

After getting the dishwasher and microwave installed the wood trim around it looked a bit out of place and I happened across a list of home improvements that had as one of it's items stainless steel wall paper to recover your appliances.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...e?ie=UTF8&th=1



So at first glance it looks like I have custom stainless steel trim to finish out my appliance column.

However it didn't stick too well to wood; as I just wrapped it and didn't do any surface treatment, thinking it would work better on metal. Stainless steel shouldn't have a bubble here and there!!!

But hey it was only ten bucks and a bit of time!

[PrevostNewbie]

Looks great!

[freds]

I haven’t posted much lately, been pushing towards getting ready to travel this month. Lots of little systems that have been started but are not finished, so no final result to post even though it’s going well. Just sticking to critical path items.

Anyway, this post is about my first Moochdocking test with items that just arrived from amazon yesterday.

As part of my DIY hydronic design, I used two RV style water heaters to hold and warm the glycol for the system.

When being used with electricity these two heaters are wired on each side of the 50AMP service plug (same for the air conditioners).

So anyway, the expected shore power scenarios are:

1. Single 120V extension cord.
2. Two 120V Extension cords to different circuits.
3. Single 120V 30AMP connection.
4. Dual 120V 30AMP connection, with 30AMP extension cord to unused camp site.
5. True 50 AMP RV service

I found the Two 120V Extension cords to different circuits solution from watching the following YouTube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80ZucqclD80

The parts that I ordered to do this are:

1 EA https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1
2 EA https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

30AMP extension cords not ordered, but considering:

https://www.amazon.com/Camco-Extensi...e%2C217&sr=1-4

https://www.amazon.com/Camco-Extensi...e%2C217&sr=1-3

I really, really like the combiner cord as my first use was after dark!!! Each input leg has an LED to show that it is being fed power. The NEAM 14-50 female end had two LED's which I used as a mini flashlight to find the mating plug in one of my equipment bays.

So anyway back to some take a way’s on my hydronic system:

1. Diesel boiler runs at full power until the input temperature caches up with the output. At which point it throttles back. So, I will add an automation to detect this and automatically turn it off until the relight point is reached.

Running toward peek temperature:



After the peak:




2. The maximum temperature that the water heaters will heat to electrically is 140 degrees with no adjustment controls.


3. When running on extension cords you don’t really want to draw more than 1800 watts peaks.
The water heater's I selected pull about 1500 watts when energized. Not sure I can keep the bus warm on 3000 watts in colder temperatures, so hey another automation control option to kick the diesel boiler on when it can’t keep up.

4. My previously posted solar simulator to charge via shore power must be controlled to get under the maximum peak draw. So, if a water heater on the same circuit is energized then the power draw needs to be turned down. So, I will have the automation logic automatically turn the power draw down if the hydronic output temperature is below 150 degrees and the heater circuits might kick in.


So anyway last night I ran the diesel boiler until it reached peak (no temperature control on the interior zones yet) and then turned on both water/glycol heaters with heat distribution to all zones and left the bus Moochdocking from two 120V outlets on separate circuits.

Here are the results (note the switch over was around 8PM):



As you can see it fairly much held it's own, though it only got down to around 43 degrees last night. Just need to decide the criteria to decide when to kick in the diesel boiler assist for the automation logic.

[PrevostNewbie]

Good Stuff Fred, once i get my bus in good shape I plan on pulling out my Country Coach ECC and replacing it with a PLC control.

[freds]

Good Stuff Fred, once i get my bus in good shape I plan on pulling out my Country Coach ECC and replacing it with a PLC control.

I am very much in love with Node Red. The graphics that I have been showing are great, but unless I limit the data points it tends to overwhelm a raspberry pi 4. However using a MQTT broker as the interchange; it is easy to split the functionality. So I may move the GUI code portion to a PC virtual machine.

[freds]

I have not posted in a while. The last month has been very busy for me in the run up to attending my first bus rally in Quartzite AZ. With the Covid chaos I wanted to attend a small rally and do a shake down first trip (three months) to decide if I am going to do this full time before I move out of my main domicile.

Anyway, given that I am a major tinker I had a project that is bleeding edge for inclusion in the bus which necessitate spending two and half weeks learning FreeCAD and coming up with the design and then another week assembling the mechanical portions and installing into one of my bays before departing, more on that project later.

All this precluded a leisurely departure for the five-day rally and I just made it for the last day of the bus conversion get together. I met a lot of people who was interested in the things that I was doing to my bus, either that or I was simply fresh meat after they had spent the previous four days with each other LOL!!!

I did not really get see other people’s buses as I was basically fried with all the rushing to make it and I will have to say this trip was about a month too early for me, given that my bus was still basically a construction zone. I.E. Clearing boxes of stuff off the bed each evening to be able to sleep.

I also missed the big tent event in Quartzite.

The route that I took from Seattle to Quartzite was a bit weird in that I took I-5 to Portland OR and then back roads direct which was mostly two-lane roads. Saw one patrol car in my entire trip.

I have seen discussion on the loneliest highway in Nevada and I would have to say that this route must have been the second loneliest highway as I went multiple times for at least 45 minutes before seeing someone coming from the other direction.

Probably not the wisest routing choice for my first long trip. But I have driven the route from Seattle down I-5 to the bay area, numerous times and I am a bit sick of it.



The bus did great on this trip and crossed multiple 6000-foot summits without any overheating problems which was a major topic at the rally. It only used one quart of oil for the trip, most of which I think is on the back of the bus from Detroit Diesel leaks.

The only mechanical failure was a broken zip tie where one of my air horns had gotten crunched in the past by a previous owner.



However, you do know that you are out in the boonies when there is a single four hole-er rest stop servicing both sides of the road and it includes a horse exercise area!!!



Other than being rushed it was a great trip, unwinding after the rally and helping another busnut with an electrical problem, while cleaning up things in my bus that I wasn't able to do before leaving. Finishing plumbing so the shower works, etc.