In reply to Dusterbd13 :
April 28 and 29.
In reply to Dusterbd13 :
April 28 and 29.
that's basically a sunday drive in this enduro beast.
Been following since the beginning! Congratulations!
I've been working on it but not shooting pictures so this is going to be a fairly bland looking post.
Yesterday, I spent some time working on the water heater. I rigged it up to the garden hose and pressure tested it. Naturally it spewed water everywhere. The WH was built in the 60s and has been discontinued since the 70s. So scratch one water heater. I'll have to move on to plan B.
I'd love to stick with a tankless water heater so plan B is going to be this.
I've had one of these for years and they work very well. It just happens to be .5" smaller than the cabinet for the existing water heater so I'll be installing it in the next week or so. I think I can do the install from the inside of the bus. That will save me from having to remove the exterior grills and then reseal and paint them.
This afternoon, I moved on to the black water tank. The existing tank was made out of particle board and fiberglass. It had a huge hole in the bottom of it. I got my eldest son to help me remove it. With it out of the way, I can start planning the install of the new tank. That will probably start tomorrow.
I also spent a little time on the 120v circuits. It had receptacles and a breaker panel already installed but the exterior lug assembly was broken. A inspection showed all the wire to be in very good very good condition so I replaced the broken plug and plugged it in. A quick check with the meter shows that entire system to be working. I will have to add a couple of circuits for the A/C units, but other than that, I'm not going to mess with. Good enough for now.
Since the 120v system was working, I lit off the refrigerator. It worked a year or so ago, we will see if it still does.
Things are starting to come together.
That's about it for today, more to come.
The idea of limitless hot water in an RV seems slightly sinful. But so awesome.
This is what the old black tank looked like. It was falling apart as I pulled it out.
In reply to ultraclyde :
The main reason for the tankless is efficiency. Not having to keep a tank hot will save battery power and propane. The tankless has electronic ignition that runs off of a couple of D cells. The tanked systems usually have a pilot light as well as 12v controls.
I'm very curious to hear how you like the tankless in Sanford. I've debated getting one for the Grosh and running it off a propane tank.
I have a whole house natural gas tankless. I had to mess with the programed water temperature a bit before I got it to work correctly. I was used to turning up the hot water to about 140 on a tanked system to make sure I had enough hot water. That temperature did not work well with the tankless. The addition of cold water to reduce the temperature to a non-scalding level reduced the flow through the tankless to a level where it essentially shut off. After I reduced the programed temperature to the level I wanted to come out of the faucet (about 125) the system worked great.
Toyman01 said:I've been working on it but not shooting pictures so this is going to be a fairly bland looking post.
Yesterday, I spent some time working on the water heater. I rigged it up to the garden hose and pressure tested it. Naturally it spewed water everywhere. The WH was built in the 60s and has been discontinued since the 70s. So scratch one water heater. I'll have to move on to plan B.
I'd love to stick with a tankless water heater so plan B is going to be this.
I've had one of these for years and they work very well. It just happens to be .5" smaller than the cabinet for the existing water heater so I'll be installing it in the next week or so. I think I can do the install from the inside of the bus. That will save me from having to remove the exterior grills and then reseal and paint them.
This afternoon, I moved on to the black water tank. The existing tank was made out of particle board and fiberglass. It had a huge hole in the bottom of it. I got my eldest son to help me remove it. With it out of the way, I can start planning the install of the new tank. That will probably start tomorrow.
I also spent a little time on the 120v circuits. It had receptacles and a breaker panel already installed but the exterior lug assembly was broken. A inspection showed all the wire to be in very good very good condition so I replaced the broken plug and plugged it in. A quick check with the meter shows that entire system to be working. I will have to add a couple of circuits for the A/C units, but other than that, I'm not going to mess with. Good enough for now.
Since the 120v system was working, I lit off the refrigerator. It worked a year or so ago, we will see if it still does.
Things are starting to come together.
That's about it for today, more to come.
Do you have a link to that model? If that works well I might have to add that to the service rig, having hot water for cleaning stuff in the field would be great.
This afternoon's project was a thermostat for the front A/C, and tackling the water heater.
The thermostat is the original that came with the A/C. I mounted a box to the back of the step wall and ran the bulb into the return air for the A/C. Simple and it works. All of this will eventually get paint, but probably not before the Lemons race.
The original water heater is pretty cool looking. Very retro. At a guess the water coil froze at some point and cracked it.
The name was appropriate though.
Pulling the WH cabinet did leave quite a hole in the wall.
Lucky for me, the new water heater fits in the old cabinet like it was made for it.
I'll have to stop and pick up some fittings, but I hope to get this install tomorrow afternoon.
More to come.
Fits like a glove! And it's even made to vent that type of heater, nice.
Water heater is in.
Everything is plumbed in except for the water pump and tank. That will happen tomorrow.
While I was working inside, I had the A/C running. After an hour or so I suddenly realized what I was smelling and pulled the cover off the breaker box. About 4" of insulation had burned off the wire on one of the breakers sometime in the past, and that breaker was smoking hot. Needless to say, the 120V system is going to need some work after all. There is a new breaker on the way and some wire will be getting changed. No pictures of that. I'll try to shoot some tomorrow.
And good news, while the refrigerator was running, I tossed a couple of water bottles in the freezer to see what would happen. It actually makes ice. 
Damn. Close call on that breaker. If that one failed, I'd just gut the whole thing and redo it
Alright.
We now have hot and cold running water. The water heater works perfectly!
The tank plumbing is not pretty, but it works and doesn't leak anymore. Pex is easy to work with, and fast, but it sure is hard to make it look nice. I'm thinking about pulling to top off of the bed base so I can get the plumbing done right but that's not going to happen before the Lemons race.
The backdrop of the stove has been bothering me since I bought it. It's just painted steel, and I knew it was going to be a pain in the butt to keep clean. Not exactly high on the priority list but...
While I was working on the water system today, I walked past the SS front from a dishwasher I had just put in the scrap pile. It wasn't quite big enough but it's close enough.
Anyone want to see what that last swallow of Johnny Walker tastes like? I think it will be staying there until someone drinks it.
Part of getting the water heater fire off was getting the propane system back together. I did away with the built in tank so I have hooked up a 20# bottle for now. We have gas again.
I also lit off the refrigerator to see if it would make ice out of fire.
The rest of the day was spent doing a thorough cleaning. Top to bottom, stem to stern. To say it was nasty is a understatement. Every surface was covered with dust. All the cabinets were emptied, vacuumed, and wiped down with Pine-Sol. All the parts for the build are now stored in the shop. The next thing to go in these cabinets will be the supplies needed for living in it.
My lovely wife spent part of today working on the curtains for it. They look pretty good from the exterior, but this might be a little over the top.
looks great, its really come a long way. Good luck on your trip.
The Haulin' Arse Hacienda is looking pretty darn swank. Maybe you need to add an interior layer to the curtains so they are red from the outside but you don't have to look at it...
I need one of those! 
In reply to ultraclyde :
We have discussed doing that to the curtains.
This afternoon, I finally installed the last of the clearance lights on the front. It's officially lit up like a Christmas tree.
I also ran into a issue with the refrigerator. It would light on propane, but it wouldn't stay lite and it didn't seem to be cooling very well. This afternoon, I pulled the exterior vent and did some troubleshooting on the burner. The flame was pretty weak and it wouldn't keep the thermocouple up to temp. So I pulled the burner and cleaned it, and then adjusted the regulator on it some. Problem solved. After an hour of running it is forming ice crystals on the cooling plates.
More to come.
Today's project was a cover for the gargantua hole I cut in the side for the A/C system.
What we started with is this. It works, but pretty it isn't.
What we ended up with is this.
I don't like it. At all. I don't like to boxiness, I don't like the latches, I pretty much don't like anything about it other than it covers the hole. It will do for now.
It's being painted. I may hate it less then but I doubt it.
You could paint it something interesting, like say Sandford in a cool hotrod-esc font with the Planet Express paint scheme in the background. I would probably change the latches unless they are under tension because i would think they would rattle
In reply to Antihero :
The latches are under a good bit of tension. But the rest of SanFord isn't exactly built for quiet comfort, so you probably couldn't hear them even if they did rattle.
I like the idea for the A/C cover.
Something like this maybe? But in SanFord's colors.
Toyman01 said:In reply to Antihero :
The latches are under a good bit of tension. But the rest of SanFord isn't exactly built for quiet comfort, so you probably couldn't hear them even if they did rattle.
I like the idea for the A/C cover.
Something like this maybe? But in SanFord's colors.
Hell yeah!
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