GeoRides.com :: The Quest for Free Energy Transport

Solar Power!

2011-11-17T10:43:00.000-08:00

One thing I was absolutely sure we had to get some experience with was solar for the bus. I watched a lot of youtube videos of "survival bus" type hookups, but everyone I saw used the heavy poly-crystalline type panels which I knew were heavy and possibly prone to cracking. So the search went towards flexible panels, and I was lucky enough to find these amazing strips made by Uni-Solar, for our install we used the PVL-68 which pumped out 68 watts at 12V at peak. This turns out to be about 12 amps of current at max flow! The greatest moment was to know that the 9ft length would fit on the roof of the bus::

Best part about these panels is that they are super-easy to install, because they have a super tar adhesive that you literally just peel back this cover, and they stick like they'll never come off. We made some marks to make sure they were straight, and stuck them on. Total installation time about 30 minutes! Notice the wiring was left open until later...

Next part was getting some decent reserve capacity for the aux batteries. The day before we left I bought another deep cycle marine battery to match the one we had purchased a year before. I had to cut out the spare tire well (not used for the spare on the camp mobile model) so I could align the two deep cycle batts side by side. Crude cutting, but remember I was doing this in a camp site with modest hand tools!

Here are the two batts strapped in as best as possible. 12K miles and they didn't shift much :) I actually mounted these batteries in at a campsite in NY before heading west, so technically we were on the road at that point and limited in craftmanship, material, and time.

Here's a shot of my more or less finished exterior wiring of the panels, using couplers from Win-Solar LLC, which had the best prices. Here we are at an RV park in Wyoming just before it started raining at about noon.

I later locked down the wiring a bit better with zip ties and cleaned up the master fuses for the panels. I'm very satisfied with how the wiring has handled the opening and closing of the pop top, it's found a way to not be crimped or pinched ever, after many campings!

And here is the inner workings of the system: The controller and load distribution. I actually wired this in at Burning man on an idle afternoon because we had great solar energy (being the desert and clear) and needed the fridge to get up and running. Basically it required just making sure the wiring was solid, not crimped or pinched, and fused where it needed to be. You can see in this pic the wires coming from the panels (top left), going into the controller (crimped with smaller gauge wire for connection), a fused output to the batteries for charging (and power) and a fused output to a fuse block where each load could be individually fused. Here also we have a 1200W continuous inverter: With enough battery power we can actually power a microwave or maybe even an air conditioner. Notice the power lead going to the hookup with the fridge connection (top right).

Here is the 15 amp MPPT solar controller I ordered direct from Hong Kong on eBay for $40. So far it's working great and as I understand the MPPT (microprocessor controlled) gives better efficiency compared to analog controllers that are even cheaper. For the 136W array on the roof, this little controller is definitely sufficient. Notice the easy to define hookups for panels, battery, and load. This controller is fine for small loads like the fridge or maybe a lamp array, but is not suited for the inverter which requires a direct connection to the battery.

In terms of usability, generally the usage went as follows: The aux batteries have no connection to the alternator (vehicle charging system) yet because it will require a much more intricate wiring system (relays to switch from solar to alt when ignition is on), so this is to say the solar system as is is totally independent from the starting/charging system of the vehicle. This is to say that the aux deep cycle batteries only received power from the sun (as did the fridge, being the only load hooked up full time). The controller is setup to cut off the power to the load when the battery voltage would drop below 10.5 volts (to preserve the cycle life of the batteries), so this would generally kill the fridge at about 10 PM, after about 3 hours of running purely on the batteries with no solar supplement. By the time we would wake up in the morning (about 10 AM) the fridge was usually on, the solar panels having charged the batteries enough to allow the controller to turn back on the loads. The fridge would then run all day, and the batteries would generally be charged enough for 3 hours of independent 5 amp (?) draw. On cloudy or rainy days the fridge might cycle on and off a few times, but those days were relatively cooler. The sunny days that would heat the cabin to over 90 F were the days that we really needed the fridge, and it performed beautifully. Granted this fridge does not generate ice, but not ever having to change a propane tank and having it run all day regardless of whether the car was being driven was a great success in a first prototype in free energy.

We received a lot of inquires and comments from other RVers who hadn't seen these amorphous solar panels before (fully flexible). For the $200 cost I think they are very exciting, especially for a residential installation. They are easy to install, safe and convenient especially using industry standard quick-connect weatherproof plugs. I'm looking forward to building a larger array that could be used with a grid-tie inverter for a residential setup. COLD DRINKS FROM THE SUN, FREE ENERGY BRA!

The "Maaco Neighbors"

2011-11-15T21:33:00.000-08:00

I have to call this post appropriately after what we overheard one afternoon on the Carter/Elizabeth Ave beach "Hey did you guys get a look at our Maaco Neighbors?" which at first I thought the guy was joking, but in fact was discussing with his friends and didn't know we were in earshot. The block was obviously appalled that anyone would restore an old clunker in the driveway, a job better left to a pro autobody shop like Maaco. Well truth is, the body work and the paint job (see below) was definitely the defining moment of the bus project, it was a huge undertaking by Ariana for the body (Bondo) work, and the paint solidified the "love" for the bus. The "powderpuff blue" was certainly the eye catcher in our travels and broke the ice that we were not your average grunge hippie, but instead something more along the lines of resourceful, modern, tech-savvy hipsters (dare I say). And for this, we received a lot of support (and granted there were always a few on our block that were supportive of our ambition). Please, you see!

Here's Ari fixing up our sliding door that we removed. I was so happy to see Ari run with the body work project. Every morning in July/August I woke up to the buzzing scowl of the orbital sander. Ari said the rust was overwhelming because every time she thought it was gone she would find more: "Endless Rust!"

So to give you an idea of how short on time we were to get the bus road worthy, here's my dad visiting essentially the week before we left, and here we are taping up the bus for a, yes, "Maaco Neighbor" paintjob. In the driveway.

A quality taping job though is the key to a clean look. Glad we spent some time here to make it right, especially in the two-tone line.

So here we are with the first coat of 50-50 Rustoleum white gloss with mineral spirits. The foam rollers (normally used for doors and cabinets) surprised us all. With the right light touch and search for drips, the top of the bus took on a kind of egg-shell stucco look, but actually amazingly smooth. Forget any hesitation you might have had about doing a Rustoleum/Spirits paint job, it can really transform a car, and be the right price ($100 with supplies).

So here's the blue that we decided on. Notice the gallon is Gloss White. The awesome paint tech at Lowes asked us what color we wanted from the palette and said he could "fake it". Well I say incredible, and even more amazing to know they can basically mix any color in Rustoleum paint, which can protect just about anything.

Check out our album of around the USA and Canada for "finished" product. Given the shortage of time (this shot above was 2 days before departure) we only had enough time to do 3 coats on the top white, and two blue on the bottom. we were lucky with the weather for those 2 days of painting. We plan to finish up the remaining paint we have with some coats again later (next Spring?).

(Needed) Tinkering

2011-11-13T18:29:00.000-08:00

There's an interesting suggestion in the Haynes manual in the fuel injection part of the guide that says "Needless Tinkering should be avoided." Well I consider this section some important fixes (call it tinkering) that I made on other parts of the bus. Little upgrades and fixes can go a long way. Please, you see:

So the original stock glovebox was made out of some sort of paper material, which of course was toast when we got the van. We ordered a replacement (made in Taiwan) that was luckily made out of plastic. Well initial installation proved not so easy and the plastic cracked in two places (see black duct tape). It wasn't until many months later on some idle morning that I finally muscled this silly plastic shell in there. And since the metal band that originally held the glovebox up, replaced with some string lying around. Viola!

On our trip around the USA/Canada, there was a lot more than just the reg and insurance, so I consider this a great success... if it can handle miscellaneous electronics, Ariana's personal health and makeup cabinet, numerous maps and AAA books, plus the sun visor, it's amazing how important a glove box is. Only thing, this was pre-era on having a light inside it when the door opens, yeah, no a big problem.

Here's a good one: Spent the afternoon chasing vacuum leaks, and decided to follow some pics I've seen of Ratwell's VW engine, and clamped all the intake-plenum connections.

Here (horrors) you can see the aux air regulator unscrewed from the engine and hanging upside down (center right) because the stock elbow had numerous holes in it. No local parts place has anything similar (I've since found this part on other VW sites), but for the time being I had to tilt it up to match the vacuum connection. I've since learned that this valve allows more air into the engine to raise the RPM when cold to get it to operating temp as fast as possible. I'm not sure if this valve is computer controlled (has a harness) or is heat controlled by its direct connection to the engine and the harness is for feedback. When in doubt, go stock, which means, later I'll have to tack the elbow on an order.

When chasing a strange hiccup intermittent at cruise, which later turned out to be a junky BWD (PepBoys) coil, I found the connection to the cylinder head temp sensor was about to break (or at least giving incorrect resistance). This part is so important that without a connection, the engine will not run (due to as I understand a full rich condition). Happy it came out with not too much aluminum from the head yest I shant be able to screw in the new one:

Ain't she a beauty... I think I ordered one that is compatible, but I wish I had read Ratwell's article before I part searched, since there is much variation in how it will affect the fuel mixture.

Since my (now RIP) Eagle Summit burned through two Engine Control Modules, I thought I'd check the condition of the capacitors and other of the bus ECU. These cost about $500 rebuilt, but luckily everyone says that are mighty robust (and usually the "last suspect") in fuel injection diagnosis. Here's my part number: 0280000178 and 039906021B and my bus is a 1979 VW Camp Mobile Federal 2.0.

Looks OK for a 30-year-old circuit board (they don't make 'em like they used to)...

In chasing a rich condition when trying to pass NJ emissions, I found injectors for $25 each (reman) on RockAuto.com, so I decided wouldn't hurt, especially if the coils were on their way out, or the spray pattern was not a "perfect cone". Above are the old ones. It's amazing how relatively easy it is to pull the injectors (and change them) on this bus, took about an hour. Of course this rich condition was related to incorrect valve adjustment which I could see with compression differentiation, but thought I had hydraulic valves (until I had an oil leak and pulled the covers). It's amazing how the hydrocarbon emissions dropped to 100ppm when I pulled the harness on that one cylinder... problem was compression though.

Here's a little pic of one of the new injectors installed and the fuel rail open. I also ordered new o-rings which gave some leak peace of mind. See also in this pic the tap for the fuel pressure gauge.

Spare to the Front!

2011-11-09T22:39:00.000-08:00

While many people identify the VW bus with the spare tire on the front, I'm not convinced this was stock VW engineering, because for the transporter model (van only) the spare went behind or near the last row of seats and you can see the wheel well on any T2 there. For the Westfalia (CampMobile) edition, they didn't get too creative, only turning that tire area into a closet to hang clothes with a mirror and put the spare, get this, up front essentially behind the driver seat in the cooking stove cabinet. I don't know about you, but I don't like to have my food and spare tire hanging out together.

So we always knew that putting the tire on the front would be the only option to reclaiming some of our food storage space (we now use it for all canned goods), and of course attempting to show off the classic look that many expect from the VW bus (even if VW never intended the tire to be on the front).

How we did it: Yeah it's crude, but we did it from 4-6PM on a Sunday - who's got time to do it any other way?

So Joe and I discussed that the best way to make a mounting point would be to get some thick plywood. Trick would be to get three mounting bolts in the right orientation for the tire lug nut holes, but then mount that to the body. If I were to do this part over again, I would have put washers behind the heads of the carriage bolts shown here, I think they are pulling through the wood after some removal and mounting of the spare, but they do prove not to spin because of the square portion under the head which grips into the wood nicely. If we were better craftsmen we might have used a compass to cut the wood in a perfect circle with a jigsaw instead of eyeballing it with a skill saw.

Tire and mounting board ready to find a spot on the front body...

OK so here we drilled some holes through the wood and into the front body and put the toggle bolts in there to maintain the position as we drilled more holes. We had the tire mounted to the board temporarily when we did this so that we could position the mount so that the tire would rest primarily on the front bumper. See the last pic in this series to see how the tire rests...

Three bolts in the center and one at each corner. The toggle bolts are just in temporarily to keep the position while drilling the other holes.

Here's the crude but had-to-be-done part (I). We removed the wood to see the holes drilled, and then made them much bigger with bigger drill bits so that the anchors could fit through. Many of the holes went into the vents, and into the cabin, but we wanted a strong anchor over aesthetics at this point. Notice also the wood shims to compensate for the curved front body.

Before tightening the mounting board down, I sprayed some expanding foam in and around all the anchor holes in an effort to seal any wind that would enter through the vent or cabin holes. Crude yes, but some peace of mind.

Mounting board fulling pulled in and rock solid.

Spare now securely mounted to the front. Much of the weigh rests on the front bumper. Notice how the first three aligning holes match the available space on the tire (to find proper position for mounting board).

Check the awesome VW tire cover Ariana made by cutting vinyl to make the VW symbol in later posts!

Start and Alt!

2011-11-09T22:00:00.000-08:00

Even though it's been a while since the last post, and the actual state of the van is far beyond what's on the blog, I will continue to update my documentation in sequential order as best I can. While these posts may be a bit glassed over, please comment or email your questions if you want some more in depth description of what we were doing!

In this weekend project we removed both the starter and the alternator and replaced them with rebuild models. I am very wary, especially of the alternator, as being serious potential defects after prolonged highway and rapid use. I was able to get rebuild parts from AutoZone.com for $49 each (after core). This is very affordable relatively and proved convenient for the core return and also promos ($15 gift card).

Besides the potential for a failed alternator or seized starter, it's very important to know that your starting and charging system is rock solid. If you have corrosion (as found) on any of the terminals from the starter and alternator, they will work harder than they have to, can overheat, and fail. Yes this was a preemtive repair, but provided peace of mind, especially when we would later put reasonable loads on the system (ceramic heater, subwoofer system, aux battery charging).

Please, You See!

So here's a shot of the B+ terminal on the old alternator when removing it. Rusted to all hell, surprised it didn't snap the terminal off when loosening. Rust like this would cause high resistance making the alternator not provide proper voltage, or low charging current.

Another shot from "undaneath"

So here we're comparing the rebuilt one to the original. I found that the output shaft of the new one was a little longer, so I had to shim the pulley out with some washers so it could be properly clamped with the nut.

Here's a shot of the interior of the old alternator, totally rusted out. While alternators are brushless, I did find that there was some scraping when the shaft was turned, this may have been built up rust, or bad bearings. Either way $50 it's piece of mind. I've had 3 alternators go on different cars over the years, and it's quite possibly the worst experience, suddenly the car is running on a dead battery and the fuel injection system doesn't like that much :)

The position of the B+ terminal was in a slighly different place on the rebuilt alt, which meant it was going to rub on the ground metal of the engine baffles. No good. Cut a piece of rubber hose to shield it. May it never rub through (or melt) XX

Nice to see that the fielding control harness fit OK. I also took the opportunity to run an additional ground for the casing in case we had poor connection at the flange mounts. Yeah 14 gauge wire is too small, but it's just an extra current path...

New alternator in, and belt tightened!

Keepin' it Kool

2011-08-15T19:41:00.000-07:00

So it's been a while since I've been able to update the blog mainly because we've been rushing to get everything ready, but I hoped in the week leading up to our departure I'd try and post some of the sequences we've recorded in photo format.

The First is an installation of a more modern "thermoelectric" fridge which uses much less power. We'd like to run the fridge 24/7 and given the owners manual for the stock fridge says it can only be run for 4 hours before the aux battery is drained, I think this one will last a little longer (and on our first test it did great - 24 hours!)

Here's some shots of taking out the old ammonia absorbsion fridge that came stock with the campmobile model:

So here's What the stock fridge looked like. Nice fake wood paneling and the entire left area was used for the ammonia piping and things.

So here's me removing first the city power distribution boxes. The bus has a cool switch that will automatically switch the fridge power over to the 12v coming from a transformer if you are on city power. Given the only accessory the bus is meant to run on the aux battery is the fridge, it might be cool to use the 12v transformer to power all the other 12v items we'll have if we are on city power. Much rewiring to do I think.

So here's the bucket seat totally removed. Was nice to vacuum up all the junk that had accumulated under the wood.

Here's the fridge and cooling compartment with lids removed. I later found I didn't need to do this, and instead should have focused on removing the entire black metal frame (see later).

Believe it or not the fridge cabinet removes pretty easily with a few hold down bolts, all comes out as one unit. Found an old joint holder on the floor underneath! Just our luck when going into canada the dogs come after our van!

Here's the fridge cabinet with the upper frame removed and the fridge taken out.

Here's the fridge. You can see how small it is, how much space is taken up by the cooling fin, and how much space is lost in the cabinet next to. I ended up selling this on ebay for $70 + crate shipping :)

We sawed out the bottom of the cabinet, discovered all the mouse pee, and fumigated this thing.

Here we are doing some more rustoleum spray painting. I also improved some of the insulation.

Had to cut off the top hinge to send away with the old fridge. Also to make room for the new one.

Best of all I found a way to put the transformer in the cabinet which will give a lot more room in the bench seat storage. I think the ventilation is equal more or less.

To get the bench seat back in, we had to shave a little off the edge (here's Joe). This is because the new fridge protruded a bit from the wall unlike the old one. No problem!

New Fridge is in, and bench seat back. Fridge opens towards you (a little awkward but OK).

More room, less power, cooler drinks!

Ari insisted we panel the cover with faux wood vinyl from china - Great.

Here's a link to the fridge we bought:

Front End!

2011-05-14T21:17:00.000-07:00

The greatest trial in the trip to Norfolk (and every trip on the I-195 to work) was the excessive play in the steering box that caused there to be a sort of "free zone" of a good 60-degrees of the steering wheel before moving the wheels.. this of course meant, you are pushing against in one direction with a heavy sidewind, a tractor trailer comes by and suddenly you're swerving left without being able to immediately compensate. Made driving over 50 MPH somewhat hairy.

Not anymore!

It's great that most front end parts are still made for these buses and really weren't that expensive. We got tie rods for about $20 each, and center drag link, most expensive (but important) a brand-new TRW steering box for $200. Still, comparable to some older domestic parts :)

As for any job, it's good to know when to ask for help (and we'll need it to get ready for the eventual mega trip). We involved Uncle Freddy up in Warwick, NY to lead the installation of the front end parts. I bought 4 ball joints for about $50 on Ebay and we were hoping to put these in as well, but we learned there's some special tools needed (more on this later...)

Here Freddy and I are dropping the spindles out, this means removing the calipers, the ball joint nuts, and using a pickle fork to shock the sockets out... (easy when you have a pro to work with!)

So here's the ball joints ready to be pressed. Unfortunately, this was not so easy...

The problem is that VW made the flange of the ball joint flush with the trailer arm mating face which means there is no land for the ball joint receiver tube to lay on! There is perhaps a special tool that mates only with the divot, allowing the ball joint to press through. No one sells this tool, and this guy in this youtube video says he's using a custom made receiver tube. Maybe with some better research I could find one. Other options are grinding down the flange of the ball joint (all the way around, and it would take hours), or heating the trailing arms cherry red and beating the things out with a sledge (would need some acetylene for that). So after some time scratching our heads, we moved on to the steering box. The ball joints are not loose (and are super heavy duty), the boots are just torn. I'll just grease them up before we leave and keep the Bjoints on hand for another time.

Here's the old steering box. Notice inconvenient electrical wires hanging down.

Freddy had to use some heat to get the pitman arm off the old steering box in order to remove it from the car and in the process had to sacrifice some electrical wires... Add 45 min to splice wires back together :)

Freddy prepping the new steering box :) Notice new damper on top.

Meanwhile I replaced both right and left tie rods. We used the sleeved style on both sides to aid in toe adjustment without having to drop the front skidplate to adjust the center link. Notice also a new steering shock/damper (keeps the bus going straight even after hitting a bump).

New box in! Notice our spray insulation (more to come I think) passed the fire test :)

Nice to have a lift in your garage, right?

Phase Two: Alignment

So it was a little tricky to install tie rods when you can't immediately do an alignment. I was able to measure to old ones to the new one, but upon installation found that the wheels were obviously out of sync, and actually was able to acheive a drivable alignment just BY EYE with the truck on the lift (at Freddy's). Luckily Tuesdays are "work on your own car night" so I was able to put it on the alignment rack at work the next day.

And this is what every tech loves to see... straight up camber and toe. The camber (the inward and outward tilt of the wheels, shown in the middle row) is adjustable by loosening the ball join nuts and rotating the cam on the upper ball joint. So I guess it was good we took the spindles off.. making these adjustments was a breeze because everything was already lubed and broken free... The top measurement is caster, and as long as they are both equal (which they are) there's no prob. I also had to load the specs of a 1980 vanagon, since our machine doesn't have specs for earlier, and so this means it's looking at specs for a T3 style, camber and toe though are pretty much the same no matter what car you load...

These, however, are the specs for the rear. It was always obvious to me that the rear camber was sitting out of whack (tires leaning in), surely we'll get some premature wear if this isn't taken care of. The specs show minor tow problems, but definitely camber issues.

Luckily I work with some smart guys and our head tech suggested that the torsion tubes that maintain the rear ride height had sagged, causing these screwed readings. So we jacked the rear (lifting directly from the engine here) to see what would happen...

See what lifting the rear 6 inches does to our readings! This basically means we need to research solving the "sagging rear" problem, if it means replacing the torsion tube spring, or installing coil-over shocks (rear shocks that have motorcycle-style adjustable springs. I've read some people using the coilshocks caused too much pressure to be applied to the shock bolts and sheared them off their mounting points (because they're not designed to handle extreme weight of the car). Maybe a healthy equilibrium could save our rear tires (especially with 1000 pounds of junk we're probably going to add to this thing)...

The rear as it stands now (partially covering the rear wheels)... the first picture of the van on the alignment rack above is with it lifted to ideal level). Again, this is a pretty involved thing to try and fix and we may leave it to down the road (but I'd mark this as a priority if we have time)...

CLOSING

As for the next posts. I need to install the heater valves since right now the heat from the engine is being forced to the front (so no matter what you are graced with fumes and heat). I bought new heater cables, but need to weld the heater valves to the manifolds (or figure out a way to have them be well secured). We're also gearing up for a solar panel installation, which I would say is a very high priority because if we are going to park in the desert for a week, we're going to need electric without running the alternator. Speaking of alternators, I bought a new one and also a new starter and bushing from autozone ($49 each!) and hope to blog post those installations. A ton to do, but I've got faith in this bus, it was built for the negligent hippie or camper family, so beyond changing the oil, I'm hoping for reasonable dependability :)

600 Miles to Norfolk and Back

2011-04-09T09:58:00.000-07:00

So we left Point Pleasant NJ on Sunday and came back the next week. Trip entailed about 287+ miles each way, the Cape May-Lewes Ferry both ways, and well a lot of adjustments to a steering box that I will change out ASAP (excessive steering slop).

All in all a successful trip and really puts some confidence in the van. Was most worried about the alternator given we would be pulling some amps with music and inverters, but output stayed at a healthy 14V the whole time, would be nice to hookup an AMP inductive pickup just to know exactly how much is going through the lines. Plan on replacing the starter and alt (upgrade to 70A) just as preemptive repair (possibly carry the old one as a spare and ditch the core).

Some narrative on the trip!

Alex made me go with him to a Diner the day before we left, just had to include this since he missed this kind of breakfast after 6 months in Europe...

Here's what's under the bench seat among other things: Jackstands, wratching toe strap, jack, battery charger, extension cord, oil, starter fluid, etc. Also brought a hefty collection of tools, as well as the little two-stroke harbor freight generator (all in mind for an alternator failure)... but who knows other things could have failed. Got a deal on some Castrol Syntec with a Bosch Filter so was pretty confident on giving this baby the best oil I could afford :)

The crew before departure: Gio, Ariana, and bro Alex (Point Beach, NJ)

Leave it to Alex to start snapping photos at the first red light! The Horror!

Iphone Sally...

And girlfriend Lizzy via Skype for iPhone

Made it to the Ferry! Was really nice to relax inside in the back and watch a movie with the electric heater going... Great weather

Alex at the helm on the DEL-MAR-VA

Chesapeake Bay-Bridge Tunnel, one of the great engineering feats of the US (let's put America back to work building more of these kinds of projects!).

Pulling in to Nansemond on the Bay! Iphone TomTom, DVOM checking volts, aux-only Radio, new tach!!

The Van sleeps :)

Week later, back on the road again... trying to make the 4:15 ferry!

Lots of tankers...

So the bus handled the trip as any simplistic machine would. We do have an issue with fumes coming from the heat-exchanger system, which is not so great. I think I'll try and make a decent sealing system to keep it closed unless absolutely necessary. It does provide some welcomed heat, however, when it gets cold (better than any electric option).

The steering system is as I found it to be on my I-195 commute to work, very sloppy over 50. No vibration, and it drives straight, but a new front end with gear box (new TRW) is a very needed install. Hope to get this done soon with help of "Uncle Freddy". Stay tuned for that!

Beyond this point, we're looking towards comfort and aesthetics, and also the solar system. We need to have a way to charge the batteries when we're parked for a week in the desert, so a solar system is high on the priority list. Also other things like a instant hot water heater (take a shower), large fresh water storage tank, are definitely on the list.

So far it's nice to know that if it can handle 600 miles, it probably could handle 2000 miles :). We're going to need to re-register it as an RV soon...

Until the next post :)

Last Minute Preparations for First Long Trip - Tach and Wind!

2011-03-28T13:11:00.000-07:00

It's the saturday before departing for the 300 mile trek from Point Pleasant Beach NJ to Norfolk VA. I've got my brother Alex (just in from Europe) helping me to limit some of the high-speed wind drafts, and install a "remember to shift" tachometer (I had the music blasting once and tried to merge onto the interstate in 3rd gear, accelerator pedal started pushing back at me).

Buzz out the rust on front vent..

Lights off..

Before...

Unfortunately can find the after shott, but Al removed also the vents and painted everything black. We also used some tape to make a better seal for the duct flaps and even temporary covered the entire front vent to prevent any air from coming in (which blasts up through the fresh air ducts on the dash). Not anymore! (until it gets warmer...)

Tach!

Here's Alex cutting the stock bracket (for a clock?) to fit the $40 tach I picked up at work.

Meanwhile I ran one wire to the rear of the car for the negative pickup. Fun hiding it...

Night time at test drive OK :)

I am hoping to also have a volt level gauge, Oil Pressure, and Oil Temp (SunPro makes one that could fit under the radio). However, on inspecting the package I'm not sure the sensor wires can be extended to the rear. Have to read up on how others installed these vital gauges. Until then!

Bumper and Heat!

2011-03-28T12:55:00.000-07:00

The last weekend before the big trip to Norfolk, we obviously needed to attach the bumper (which was held on before with some vice grips). I also wanted to see if we could get some of the hot air cycling through the heat exchanger to be pumped to the front.

[thanks Atwell]

This "CampMobile" version of the bus came with the optional gas heater. I was very wary of keeping it in the system from the get go seeing how much rust was on it, and wanted to avoid a "plugin and see if it works" attempt. Well I removed it one night when it was on the lift, which was a good thing... busting open a duct line out came mouse nestings, pencils, a battery, and some old coins, probably not good stuff to have in a red-hot gasoline-fed heater box (imagine the black smoke pouring into the cabin).

[Thanks Frank]

So instead we're going for the stock design of the van system (or close to it) for non-Camp Mobile versions. This system consists of basically just using the engine fan and a supplementary blower to rush air over the manifold heat exchangers and bring it to the front of the van. Conclusions later in this post...

First, The Bumper!

When we were reinforcing the engine cradle Uncle Chris had bought some bolts to hang the bumper from, but unfortunately I found these too short, so I got some carriage bolts (extra long). Note that the welded short bolt is not for the bumper as I later found out, there should be another hole closer to the rear which I had to drill in this case because that metal is our reinforcement.

This is cool. This is a trick I learned from installing hitches on trucks at work. If you wrap some wire around the threads on the bolt, you can feed the wire through the hole and pull the bolt through. Works like a charm, but had to find some wire first...

Here's the rear tire that was on Joe's Jeep Liberty in the house fire... Lots of steel belts to use!

Anyway here's a shot of the new carriage bolts holding up the bumper. I left Chris' shorty bolt since I think in the future I will cut and weld some more of that angle metal and bolt it below all three bolts. We'd like to eventually have the option to tow a little trailer so that's a project down the road. For now I'm OK with the bumper as is (as long as no idiot tow truck thinks it's a tow point).

Heat!
As said before we're going for a return to non-campmobile stock heat more or less. For simplicity sake I decided to bypass the rear heat vent as well as the driver's floor vents and just see how it performed with full pressure to the dash vents (defrost?).

More casserole dish fabricating (from the junk lying around the house fire). Here we're making a cover for the heat exchanger to engine block air duct.

More or less...

Before running any new ducts, I really wanted to try and take care of some of the rust that formed on the underbody here. Yes it was painted, but was not sprayed with undercoat as other parts of the van were, probably because of the high heat generated from the gas heater. Anyway, some wire brush sanding...

Idea is to slow the rust at least (sprayed with rubberized undercoating...)

Here is the inlet duct for the defroster (front of van). Idea is to improve heat but also work on the "tin can" condition of the van. Insulation should help heat, sound, we'll see. Experimented with some expanding foam, and well as long as it is applied slowly it sticks to the rubber undercoating no prob. I guess I'd like to coat a lot of the van with this stuff. Been told it shouldn't absorb water over time, and there's a version that is fire-resistant (worth the extra $3 a can?)

The Home Depot HVAC duct department has 3" or 4" sizes, this 4" adapter fit snugly over the stock pipe after some wraps of tape (guess aluminum foil or something would have been a bit better than electrical tape).

3-inch HVAC aluminum duct can easily cinch down on the 2 3/4" front inlet.

25' of duct cost about $13, had some problems feeding it through the stock hole (had to sort of twist it). I was actually pretty impressed with the amount of abuse it could handle and not tear, and given the cost and wide availability I'm not really worried about it tearing (we later put the massive skid plate up for the mid section of the van).

Just used some heavy wire to hang the duct where needed.

Because we were one week away from a road trip and the heater cables hadn't arrived (and it was getting late in the day), I just used some of this duct (had an extra 15') to connect the heat exchangers to the in-pipes. This is usually where the heater valves go. Since we will want heat for the next few months (and not cool air), I'll have time later to install the valves and solid pipes (where it's hot). This pure aluminum duct pipe seems to have no prob with high temps of heat exchanger boxes.

Joe had previously welded some flexible exhaust pipe onto the stock valves. This actually fits perfectly also into the heater boxes, but will require some welding, or some other seal that will make the manifolds easier to remove if necessary.

Here's a shot at work of the newly painted skid plate covering the central area of the duct.

We had disassembled the auxiliary blower motor and lubricated it once before to get it running again without pulling massive amps, so I also decided to over the inlet with some screen (as you guessed, from the house)...

Also cut some more trays up for some sheet metal patching.

Holes under the bench seat...

No more... Maybe I'll caulk it from the other side when I feel like it (and yeah, black anti-rust paint is all I got right now :)

Conclusions!
Well as I guessed when I first saw how the stock heating system was setup using an air intake right above the motor (but also directly from the cooling fan), the air that comes out of the ducts smells a little like, well, engine. I'm pretty confident that the heat exchangers are not internally leaking exhaust fumes and that the exhaust pipe is beyond the intake enough to not circulate CO into the cabin. If possible I'd really like to make some sort of fresh cold air intake to both the engine fan and the aux fan, but might be impossible or not improve the smell much.

At high engine RPM and with the aux fan running you get about as much flow out of the defrost front vents as a modern car on maybe med setting. It's not a rush of air by no means but you can feel it coming out and it definitely does help. I'm also impressed at how fast you can get hot air, the manifold/heat exchanger boxes heat up pretty fast so you do get warm air faster than a coolant-driven heater core.

We bought a 300-watt 12V electric heater for eventually using it at night off of our deep cycle batteries and may go totally electric heat for normal use (because my girlfriend complains about the smell). As for now, heat with some smell is better than nothing. I think I would have considered hooking up the smaller pipe that feeds the driver floor as our feet get pretty cold given all the holes around the pedals and other drafts.

Warmin' up!

Getting ready for "first" maiden voyage

2011-03-14T21:55:00.000-07:00

So this is the first blog post about the van. Right now we're getting ready to make a "maiden voyage" from the Jersey Shore to Norfolk, VA in a few weeks. Basically my main concern, as remedied in this post, was some bad rusting out of the rear frame, which held the cradle for the motor, just didn't want severe strain on the bell housing bolts on the trip. So this was a big move, and big thanks to Joe and Chris Mirabile for making it happen. A beautiful Saturday in March...

This is just the bus on the lift at work, we get to work on our cars once a week for a few hours, so it's enough time to see what needs to be done, but the big stuff can only happen on days off when we have lots of free time.

So here you can see the rotted out frame that was holding the engine cradle. Complete hole when looking from other side...

Here's the piece of channel that Joe found for us, and Chris made some ideas as to how to cut. Notice little tab to be cut out to allow crimp to maintain, also fold out piece to wrap around bumper frame (later bolted).

The two former millwrights, Chris, right, prepares drill. (notice house fire remains in background)

"le Weld"

Shot of finished product with new hardware to hold up engine cradle. Notice fold to bumper frame.

Next day did some rustoleum painting and rubber undercoating. Aesthetics are second to reliability!

Since we removed the manifolds (heater boxes) took the liberty to paint the pushrod tubes, got a little on head (who cares)

Took advantage of having manifolds out to do a little welding and painting. Use flame proof paint on pipes.

cleaned up the exhaust as well (inevitably will rust every month)

Utilization of the day: using an old cake dish to patch a heater pipe and make a bracket (see below)

There's still a lot to do, but reinforcing the frame was very important, and I'm happy to take care of some of the rust in those areas. We'll see what's next!