Author Topic: The Rope Wagon (all wired up)  (Read 9471 times)

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Offline Asstuna

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Re: The Rope Wagon (time to test the furnace)
« Reply #50 on: December 13, 2015, 12:28:49 pm »
Cleaning up the second post and turning it into a progress index...

Progress at 06-Dec-2015:
  • Ripped out hundreds of pounds of planks, plywood sheets and screws. PO was paranoid about itshay coming loose so he screwed that itshay down real good. We're talking 5 screws per foot where just one would have sufficed. The remodelling process started after BIL drained the deep cycle batteries and then had to get to the controller to reset the system. PO closed everything up progressively, without consideration for operation or maintenance and we ended up having to continually pull plywood sheets and frame rails until we could get to the batteries. After a while it became a case of "while we're here we may as well clean some of this itshay up". As mentioned before, the storage space under the bed was boxed in completely and wouldn't allow a dynamic use of space so all that had to come out too. We've actually re-purposed a lot of stuff and put it back into the van as part of our safety upgrades. Here's the current pile of removed/discarded stuff in my garage:


    The white box is for battery storage... more on that later.
     
  • Batteries are 6V deep cycle Trojan T-105 Plus wired in series to 12V. These are flooded cell lead acid batteries with flip top caps. They were mounted inside a permanently closed wooden box and were completely inaccessible, had no safe hydrogen venting to the outside and had no drip tray for acid splash during charging. Terminals were loose and the 1000W inverter was series wired off the batteries and not the solar controller so they were completely drained the first time BIL hooked up a travel fridge to the system.

    Batteries Stage 1:
    - We put the batteries inside a large plastic container to hold any acid spill. We still didn't have a lid at this point (we discussed the Hindenburg and laughed off the explosion risk).
    - We lowered/re-framed the battery support frame so that they could be accessed/inspected/refilled from the top, re-tensioned terminals and removed the 1000W inverter so we could attempt to charge the batteries fully and see if they'd hold charge. We also topped up every cell as some were down to the plates. Discovered later that we should have done this after a full recharge. FFS. I'll probably be taking the van to Battery World tomorrow to get them tested. Recent solar charging/trickle charging saw the batteries hitting 12.7V so they seem okay.

    After thinking a little bit more about the electrical system we decided to move all the electrical equipment to a cabinet behind the driver's seat. I'll add some more photos later so it makes sense. This meant detaching the solar controller and batteries and coming up with a vented battery box design so that we could store the batteries somewhere close to the operating furnace without turning the van into a hydrogen bomb.

    Batteries Stage 2:
    - came up with a design to best utilize existing material and make the box removable for battery maintenance. Total weight is around 65kg:


    - two plastic battery boxes weren't air tight but they'll be useful as acid spill containment inside the wood box:


    - used some draft seal foam tape for a relatively air tight seal. It doesn't have to contain pressure, just encourage hydrogen to vent outside the vehicle rather than inside:


    - re-used some hoarded bolts and wing nuts to clamp the lid down on the foam tape. They're a touch too short so I counter-bored them in:


    - purchased some 1-1/2" hose fittings to make the vent pipe connections. Blue hose is off-cut bilge hose from Home Depot. Had to grind off the hose barbs to make it fit. Thank God for heat guns:




    - press fit elbow into the lid allows for the vent hose to be removed prior to pulling the battery box out of the wall cabinet:


    - inside block of wood provides more friction for the hose elbow. I've drilled this to prevent leaving a large hydrogen pocket under the lid (hydrogen is the lightest gas). I could have used a smaller piece of wood, but I was already committed to the 2x4:




    - on to the exterior vent... these little doo-dads come in a bag of six. Sometimes you find a single unit in the bottom of the box:


    - 1-1/2" hose fitting to connect to the exterior wall vent. This little guy is a perfect press fit but I'll probably use some silicone or Sikaflex. Also need to cut a hole in the wall of the van and silicone the plastic vent grate into the van body:




    - might need to purchase cable glands to penetrate the 1/8" walls with battery cable. May also ghetto this connection:

     
  • My neighbour is getting some free storage boxes from his son's work. Stacked on top of each other these fit perfectly under the bed. We re-framed the bed so that we could still support the bed and keep a decent amount of open storage below it without compromising box access. Looks like we can fit 8-10 boxes, depending on layout:

     
  • BIL is going to run the furnace off a 20lb propane bottle. We decided to store the bottle inside the van inside its own enclosure. This box does need to be air tight and needs to vent down outside the cabin. This was, by far, my most elaborate box as it's also painted inside and designed within millimetres of the size of a 20lb bottle. It needs to be easy access for re-fills and compact enough to fit inside the cabin as a seat. It hasn't been fastened to the floor yet and I still have to pick up the copper tubing, flare fittings, regulator and Primus hose (propane will also supply the Primus cooker). Also need to drill and seal the vent tube.

    Loose propane storage box:


    Bolt heads are recessed so it can double as a seat


    Sealed and lugged to hold the bottle in place:


    Picked up the gas fittings yesterday and attempted a partial install. Primus hose on the left and low pressure regulator on the right. Need to cut and seal holes for tubing and the Primus hose:


    Regulator came with some cast lugs on the body. Decided to use these to fabricate a bracket to fix it in place inside the box to take the load of the copper tubing (reduce the risk of breaking the seal on the box wall penetration:


    Ready for final install. I'm going to attempt this today but it's new territory for me so I'm procrastinating a bit:


     
  • Furnace was supplied loose in a box with the sale of the van. We hummed and hawed about where we were going to install it and eventually put it in the originally planned location inside the same cabinet as the electrical and battery box. The furnace was missing the front grate and the outside exhaust grate. Buying these off eBay was expensive but still cheaper than Calgary RV suppliers (who told us to save money via eBay anyway). This RV furnace is 16000 BTU and retails for $900 here in Calgary (woah). Looks like this:


    Front grate came with two massive dents in it. Shipping box was intact so we're guessing someone was trying to rip off the shipping insurance. I told him to put up a fuss about it and get a new one shipped but I'm pretty sure he gave up after I straightened it out so that it looked as new. Before:



    After (Tuna is now panelbeaterer):


    3/8" flare connection on the furnace (Tuna is now gasfitterer):


    Ended up having to cut wads of spray foam insulation sway from the inside wall of the van just to get the furnace body close to the van wall. The installed furnace depth is around 21" and we only had a touch less than 22" to the bare wall. It took us a couple of days to get the astardbay thing fitted, including the exterior wall penetration. There was also rock wool insulation close to the exhaust outlet which needed to be sealed in... It turns out that the furnace needs to be installed in its own enclosure because it pulls air from the front grate and draws it into the blower at the back. If we'd left the insulation unsealed it could have been pulled into the blower suction. I ended up using a shortbread cookie tin to fabricate a sheet metal barrier between the insulation and the furnace enclosure Tuna is now sheet metal workerer). Some aluminum duct tape to close the air gaps and it looks pretty damn awesome:


    Cutting a hole in the outside of someone else's van can be a pretty daunting experience. Luckily for me I got it right first attempt. We discovered that the sloping van wall meant the perpendicular exhaust vent was going to jut out a bit:


    Bought a flaring tool and tube bender to help run tubing from the propane bottle to the furnace. We need to tee off the Primus hose before the regulator as Primus cookers runs off full bottle pressure. Going to use a 10' hose so he can cook off the back door, side door or inside the van. I'm going to fabricate some framing which he can hook pretty well anywhere to support the cooker. The gas bottle box is located dead centre of the driver's side wall and 10' hose should be enough.
     
  • Rear shelving (behind the TV) was a stoner disaster. We ended up completely rebuilding it and pop riveting some brackets to the van body to add strength.
    BIL had never seen pop rivets before so he pretty well jizzed his pants when I let him do his own rivets. Actually, while I'm at it, he's never seen nor used half the tools in my arsenal so I got to hear "I uckfaying love your tools" more than a few times. To mention a few specifically:
    - Dremel oscillating Multi-Max, with cutting blades and flexible scrapers
    - regular Dremel
    - 4" sanding wheel on a grinder (he really liked this one, especially the smell of scorched plywood)
    - mitre saw
    - those amazing pop rivets
    - the drill bits I looted from my Dad's garage after he died
    - aluminum duct tape. We now call it "space tape". Because exploding space shuttle.
     
  • One cold night while we're having a beer celebrating our progress inside the van we noticed that there was a huge cold draft coming from the driver's cabin. We're unable to insulate the door because it's double paneled aluminum and I decided I'm not cutting it open in the hope that I can insulate it. However, we're able to insulate the rest of the aluminum divider wall with rigid foam and reflective bubble wrap... and that aluminum duct tape which BIL is so in love with. We ended up putting the reflective bubble wrap on the outside rather than inside because it's prettier than the pink rigid foam #spaceshuttle:

     
  • Lastly, the cold was also coming up from the side door access step. We ended up trimming it out with left over wood and insulated it with rigid foam, reflective bubble wrap and a decent layer of 3/8" plywood. Progress photo:

     
Okay, we're now up to date and moving on to future plans. I have no uckfaying idea what I'm doing when it comes to electrical so I need WSC help for this. See new posts for details.

Offline Asstuna

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Re: The Rope Wagon (time to test the furnace)
« Reply #51 on: December 13, 2015, 12:34:03 pm »
Progress at 07-Dec-2015:
  • Electrical panel will be located inside the shallow wall cabinet.
    Need to rip out some of the insulation and idiot wood:

     
  • Cleaned up the power board at the back of the van. Black cable is shore AC power. We're thinking about getting an automatic AC switch so the AC is drawn from shore until it's disconnected, after which AC is supplied by the inverter. We want to stay off the batteries as long as possible:


    It's still a bit too messy for my taste (mmm... those jizz rivets in the top corner):

     
  • Batteries Stage 3:

    Remove idiot wood (Tuna is now carpenterer... without a reciprocating saw):


    Find a screw using my saw blade. Lose a bit of my itshay:


    Test fit the battery box. It's too tall and you can't install/remove the vent when it's in place. FML:


    Cuss a bit. Cuss a lot. Look at options. Option 1, remove idiot shelf from under the drawer above the box. Don't need a shelf, just rails. This will also provide space for the vent hose/van wall penetration:


    Option 2, remove the floor beam to reduce the box height. Don't like this idea as it's holding the finishing trim. Look's like we'll come back to this one and solve it later:

     
  • Tidy up the (live) PV cables. We're relocating electrical from under the bed into the cabinet. There's no switch in the circuit from the solar panels and we'll be adding one (for safety reasons) before the relocated solar controller. We've also cut the supply route by about 15' so we should have reduced some voltage loss in the 10AWG PV cable:



     

Offline Asstuna

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Re: The Rope Wagon (time to test the furnace)
« Reply #52 on: December 13, 2015, 12:34:28 pm »
Progress at 08-Dec-2015:
  • Install the gas piping.
    I started in this area of the shallow wall cabinet:


    Start with a plan of how to get the tubing in around the furnace:


    Loosely follow the plan, realize that it's going to take some real uckfaying effort to get the tube bent in this tight space without collapsing the bore. uckfay up a couple of bends and nearly give up in disgust (ah, uckyfay, it's only 6 Psi after the regulator). Consider racing out to buy a union to make life easier. Push on regardless. End result looks roughly according to plan:


    Take time out to cut a hole for the battery box vent. I'd rather do this now than risk chopping a hole in my freshly routed tubing:


    Start assembling the bottle box piping. This is dope. No really, this is dope, pipe dope, not "dopey uckyfay" dope:


    Primus hose installed and clamped/sealed into place:


    Propane dump tube is 3/4" PEX pipe siliconed into place. There just happened to be holes in the van floor directly under the bottle box:


    Finished/installed propane bottle box. Ready for leak testing the connections:


    Tuna is now a pipe support expert. Actually, he really is:


    Work bench looks like a nightmare:

     
  • Thanks 05LGT for the lug nut.
     

Offline Asstuna

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Re: The Rope Wagon (time to test the furnace)
« Reply #53 on: December 13, 2015, 12:34:54 pm »
Progress at 11-Dec-2015:
  • Electrical
    No time like the present... CanehdianJ is too busy Lotusing in winter #becauseLotus so we had to come up with our own plan. I will get him to check my work because #explodingspaceshuttle. Rough AutoCAD schematic:


    After mark-up and discussion with experts (Tuna is now Auto Electricianer):


    I'd already dimensioned the available space and purloined all the electrical equipment, wires and connectors so it was a matter of laying it out to see if it worked. Start with major components:


    Used some madtyte Jutes MSPaint skillz to get rid of the black spaces in my photo so my inkjet printer doesn't have a meltdown when I try print up some sketch templates. Hand sketch a wiring diagram:


    Start drilling and screwing the raised panel holding the solar controller, solar panel switch and battery switch. Front holes:


    Back holes:


    Found a resettable 30A fuse for the deep cycle battery circuit. It has blade connectors and was designed to be installed in a face panel. Scavenged up an old Ikea bracket from my box of scraps and started bending it to suit the fuse:


    Only had blade connectors in 10AWG so made some short sections of cable to transition to 6AWG. Added some stick tape for friction (on the blank side not the printed side because that would be stupid, right? #letsnotgothere) and she isn't moving. Finished product ready to inline:


    Wear gloves when holding the metal job piece whilst drilling kiddies. For a superficial wound this little astardbay bled a lot:


    Oh yes, coming together nicely and all ready to be installed... complete with blood smears. Proceed to hang around, like a spare prick at a wedding, waiting for BIL to bring the mobile job site:


    Installation progress photo:


    Another one:


    Aaaand we're almost done. Just need to hook up the furnace:


    Complete with furnace/thermostat wiring. By now it's late, cold and we're starting to get quite drunk because Tuna started drinking at noon:

     
  • Batteries Stage 4
    Finished off the bottom level of the cabinet so the battery box sits nice and tight and won't move around during crazy evasive driving maneuvers (although, I'd consider taking on a moose with the amount of weight behind me).


    Ended up removing the elbow off the vent hose because it was making the hose routing too complicated. Added a 1-1/2" hose union (after grinding the barbs off) and now we can vent straight up to the van exterior. I'm procrastinating and still need to cut that round hole in the shell.

     
  • Vinyl the rear window to hide the ugliness.

    No, not this ugliness (he'll kill me when he sees this):


    This:


    Remove quite a few unnecessary sheets of loosely applied/cracked/foam insulated plywood, along with several useless wooden posts and eventually we can get to the inside of the window. Progress photo, not showing hundreds of panel pins sticking out of the support frames (ffffuuuuuhhh... the amount of times we stabbed ourselves on these little bastards):


    Tuna is now window tinterer:



     
  • KABOOM, I mean FURNACE
    Before we leak tested the gas fitting connections we hooked up the bottle and fired up the furnace #becausedrinking. The thermostat is still sitting in BIL's Amazon.ca shopping cart and not in transit as was originally thought so we just loosely wired the switch into the ON position and test fired the furnace... kaff kaff. The manual warned us that some stuff was going to burn off during the initial fire up but we didn't expect the cloud of carcinogens we drunkenly breathed in for five minutes straight before one of us thought to open the door and window for smoke ventilation. We also don't have the CO/propane monitor hooked up. Whoops.

    No photos #becausedrinking.

    Anyway, we now have heat which isn't reliant upon shore power. uckfay yeah.
     

Offline darthekai

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Re: The Rope Wagon (time to test the furnace)
« Reply #54 on: December 13, 2015, 01:01:14 pm »
Your productivity kind of makes me think loosing my job might actually not be so bad for my life in general.
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Offline canehdianJ

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Re: The Rope Wagon (time to test the furnace)
« Reply #55 on: December 13, 2015, 01:36:38 pm »
diagram looks good.  good jerb.  i dont see anything to worry about there

Offline GrantC

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Re: The Rope Wagon (time to test the furnace)
« Reply #56 on: December 13, 2015, 02:29:54 pm »
Yay, updates!

...

oh.

 >:(

Offline Asstuna

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Re: The Rope Wagon (thermostat installed, we're going hot)
« Reply #57 on: December 13, 2015, 06:23:13 pm »
Progress at 13-Dec-2015:

  • Install the thermostat.
    We started in this general area:


    Started with a plan:


    Wired in the thermostat, tested it and forgot the finished picture so here's a ittshay progress photo:

     
  • Here's that photo of the vertical vent off the battery box:

     
  • Started the 120V system by assembling some parts. Dropped into Bucar's RV dealership in Balzac (is it just me, or does a town called "ball sack" make you snigger?) and picked up an AC auto transfer relay. We'll wire it so that shore power is priority and inverter cuts in when shore is lost. Ideally, this will be a planned event so that BIL doesn't have to think too carefully about which AC source he's using. He'll get shore when he's plugged in and inverter AC when he's totally off the grid. I'm concerned about the possibility of shore power dropping and auto switching to inverter power when he has the small (1500W) electric fan going. I have no idea what this is going to do to his inverter. Also picked up a cheap two circuit breaker panel from Home Depot. Too bad I can't use my spare 20A breaker and I need to buy a 15A breaker:


    The auto transfer relay box is pretty damn deep and doesn't fit behind the cabinet frame post. We test fit the breaker panel behind the post but the wiring is going to be out of sequence and zig-zagging back and forth and TUNA REALLY DISLIKES MESSY WIRING:


    Without a diagram, the wiring/boxes will picture as breaker<-auto transfer<-inverter (arrows showing cable route). Hopefully I can bring the shore AC cable up from under the chassis and sneak it through the left side of the cabinet with the rest of the vertical cables... perhaps with some spacing between the AC and DC circuits. Here's a pic showing the best box layout, crammed into the left side of the cabinet:


    We solved our spacing issue by finding a jigsaw. Now the auto transfer box can sit behind the frame post and the lid can be removed without drama:


    I still need to pick up some bits and pieces before we're ready to close the door on the electrical system. I strongly suspect the single orange extension lead running inside the wall panels to the back of the van is light duty/16AWG and thus only good for 13A. I can't risk a fire as it's behind the wall so if I can't confirm it's 14AWG I'll need to check the other (hopefully a medium duty - 14AWG) extension lead which is hanging off the underside of the chassis. If that also fails to conform I have a brand new 25' long 14AWG extension lead about to be cut into service. I'm going to gang the two receptacles on the one 15A circuit (one inside the living cabin and one in the rear door area... it's going to look a little less ghetto than an extension lead appearing out of the floor boards.
     
  • Apparently there's a gas leak. We tested and tightened some leaks this morning, but BIL tells me there's an odour in the propane box when you open it. FFS. At least it drains out safely.
     

Offline Cagare

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Re: The Rope Wagon (thermostat installed, we're going hot)
« Reply #58 on: December 13, 2015, 08:15:40 pm »
Did you use the right pipe dope?  Did it have ptfe in it?  Also, make sure to put pipe dope on the flare part of the connection.  It will act as a gasket. 

Also, if the propane tank is overfull or overheats it will vent pressure as the tanks have a built in relief valve.

Offline RockThePylon

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Re: The Rope Wagon (electricity, gas, what can go wrong?)
« Reply #59 on: December 13, 2015, 09:50:28 pm »
This always bugs me. DC to ac to DC again.
I wish computer manufacturers made DC to DC power supplies more available (a cord with a voltage limiter in it)

That reminded me of something I forgot... Losses! Google says that inverter is 85% efficient (Peak, which is usually around 50% of rated load).

So, to supply 1000watts, it would draw ~100A @ 12volts. So, if you expect to use that inverter for what it's worth... Minimum 4AWG from the battery to the inverter, and make the run from the batteries as short as possible. If it's longer than a couple feet, I'd opt for 2AWG. Or just roll with it and see if it gets melty. Or maybe the inverter will just beep and cut out all the time from the voltage drop.

Did you use the right pipe dope?  Did it have ptfe in it?  Also, make sure to put pipe dope on the flare part of the connection.  It will act as a gasket. 

Pipe dope should be used like Loctite. More is better.
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Offline seat safety switch

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Re: The Rope Wagon (thermostat installed, we're going hot)
« Reply #60 on: December 13, 2015, 10:23:03 pm »
What, you couldn't afford a Nest?

Offline darthekai

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Re: The Rope Wagon (thermostat installed, we're going hot)
« Reply #61 on: December 13, 2015, 11:04:43 pm »
Did you use the right pipe dope?  Did it have ptfe in it?  Also, make sure to put pipe dope on the flare part of the connection.  It will act as a gasket. 

Also, if the propane tank is overfull or overheats it will vent pressure as the tanks have a built in relief valve.
Hm I was told explicitly that you should absolutely never ever put dope or tape anywhere near a flared fitting.

However I am not a gas fitter.

Cagare, I didn't think you were either.. But can never be sure.
Any real fitters here?
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Offline Rathburn

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Re: The Rope Wagon (thermostat installed, we're going hot)
« Reply #62 on: December 13, 2015, 11:21:48 pm »
Cagare, I didn't think you were either.. But can never be sure.

That guy's fit more pipe inside than he knows what to do with.
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Offline Cagare

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Re: The Rope Wagon (thermostat installed, we're going hot)
« Reply #63 on: December 14, 2015, 05:41:35 am »
Brother-in-law is a pipe fitter and I was just installing gas fittings for a dryer this weekend.  Basically repeating what he told me.


That guy's fit more pipe inside than he knows what to do with.

FTMFW

Offline Asstuna

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Re: The Rope Wagon (thermostat installed, we're going hot)
« Reply #64 on: December 19, 2015, 05:56:11 pm »
Did you use the right pipe dope?  Did it have ptfe in it?  Also, make sure to put pipe dope on the flare part of the connection.  It will act as a gasket. 

Also, if the propane tank is overfull or overheats it will vent pressure as the tanks have a built in relief valve.
The tank is exposed to winter temperatures so it wasn't venting. It may have been the regulator venting for whatever reason. Used PTFE dope on the flare fitting threads (sparingly, as flare fittings don't usually get dope), but I may attempt putting some on the flare face.

Hm I was told explicitly that you should absolutely never ever put dope or tape anywhere near a flared fitting.
Some say yes, some say no. I figure if you're not making a mess it can't hurt to fill threads with dope.

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Re: The Rope Wagon (thermostat installed, we're going hot)
« Reply #65 on: December 19, 2015, 07:31:47 pm »
it can't hurt to fill threads with dope.
So that's why you post so much.

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Re: The Rope Wagon (thermostat installed, we're going hot)
« Reply #66 on: December 20, 2015, 04:22:29 pm »
<+  Hurrbie> becuase ultimasshole

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Re: The Rope Wagon (more insulation, getting hotter)
« Reply #67 on: December 20, 2015, 08:25:44 pm »
Progress at 18-Dec-2015:
  • Started installing 3/8" thick draft foam strips on the divider door. Looks like they're too thick and the door no longer closes completely... 1/4" thick would be perfect, but that's not available at Home Depot, so 1/8" thick might have to do. Not really happy with this and will look for other options. Picture of the work area:


    End result, 1/8" thick tape:

     
  • Door snake installed, looking down into the side door step:

     
  • Insulated and panelled the overhead compartment. There was a noticeable difference in temperature once the cold stopped seeping through this area.


    Here's a close-up showing the barely visible pink foam, silver bubble wrap and 1/4" plywood. This has now been finished off with a trimming lip (next photo):



     
  • Finally got around to finishing the step. The middle of the vertical piece has a support beam so you can kick the snow off your boots. Might need to seal the wood to prevent swelling as the snow melts:

     
  • Started planning the interior redesign so BIL can haz table inside:


    Only concern with this design is that the 2, 3, 4, 5 seat cushions need to have board backing so they can span from the seat base to the support beam. This section of the bed will see most weight as this is where you're going to sit/get into bed. We'll see what else we come up with:

     

Offline Asstuna

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Re: The Rope Wagon (BZZZT, uckfay! live electricity)
« Reply #68 on: December 28, 2015, 08:49:18 pm »
Progress at 28-Dec-2015:

  • Bought a cheap 14 AWG extension lead so I could start the AC wiring inside the electrical cabinet. In the below image you can see the partially wired auto AC transfer switch box behind the cabinet pillar and the breaker box next to it. I drilled out the plastic knock-out holes 3/8" so I could thread the cable through and get away with not using any 4040's. The male connector on the blue extension lead will plug into the inverter and supply alternate AC power. I still have to route the shore AC up into the cabinet. I want to tidy up the wiring inside the switch box so that the excess wiring doesn't rest on the switch.


    Close up of the guts of the breaker box so PD can take a look and tell me if I wired it correctly (bzzzt, ow, uckfay):


    Re-purposed an old Ikea bracket (yet another one) as a ground plate. Used a bit of heat (in a bloody vise this time) and a convinciner to re-shape the bracket. Drill, Dremel, grinder and some hoarded nuts/bolts/washers and here we go:

     
  • Get distracted, start having a crack at chopping out the interior wall panel to install the battery box vent. Careful measurement of the hole (i.e. eyeballed and freehand):


    Found an old hole saw which I used to install some door handles, which just so happens to be the exact size I need to cut through the van wall. Start cutting my way through the ply:


    Remove the insulation and... oh, for uckfays sake:


    Can't drill through the reinforcement so I had to move the hole. Zero uckfays given at this stage - couldn't get the hole saw started so I used my Dremel saw thingy:

     
  • Get distracted once more and start looking at installing the ground plate. All I need is an exposed piece of metal... Ooh, I know just the place:


    Finished hooking up the inverter and breaker box grounds. But I've just realized I've forgotten the transfer switch ground wire:

     
  • Started installing the first receptacle. I better have a closer look at the angle before I fasten it as it looks really uckfaying crooked right now:

     

Offline RedndWhite

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Re: The Rope Wagon (BZZZT, uckfay! live electricity)
« Reply #69 on: December 28, 2015, 10:32:08 pm »
Still looks straighter than the sti exhaust ;)

It's impressive; the sheer level of detail and design. Looks great, Tuna.
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Offline Rathburn

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Re: The Rope Wagon (BZZZT, uckfay! live electricity)
« Reply #70 on: January 01, 2016, 12:41:08 pm »
Still looks straighter than the sti exhaust ;)

Looks straighter than the crooked-assay stance on that Focus you drive.
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Offline seat safety switch

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Re: The Rope Wagon (BZZZT, uckfay! live electricity)
« Reply #71 on: January 01, 2016, 03:56:23 pm »
I feel like this is a project that is finally worthy of Tuna's level of finickiness.

Offline kijho

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Re: The Rope Wagon (BZZZT, uckfay! live electricity)
« Reply #72 on: January 01, 2016, 04:16:18 pm »
Best project

Offline Asstuna

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Re: The Rope Wagon (BZZZT, uckfay! live electricity)
« Reply #73 on: January 01, 2016, 06:37:00 pm »
I feel like this is a project that is finally worthy of Tuna's level of finickiness.
I love working on this thing. It's incredibly satisfying and quite a learning process.

Offline BradM

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Re: The Rope Wagon (all we need is a miracle, no, an electrician)
« Reply #74 on: January 01, 2016, 07:20:51 pm »
I know very little about building a van like this but what is with all the plywood? is 1/2" really needed?  How much does this thing weigh?  Also batt insulation in the walls?  Or is it a fiber board?
Anyway cool project makes you think twice about how much work/components are in a campervan.