Follow Our Progress

December 31st 2003

Happy new year to everyone!  We're expecting our friends Dave & Ellen to drop by and celebrate with us tonight, but we haven't heard from them yet, so for now we're just hanging out playing on the computers.

	We made a few "minor" purchases today <rolling my eyes>... We started out by picking up 4 T-105 batteries for our first battery bank.  I know that we'll need 8 of them for all of our power needs, but they only had 4 of them in stock when I dropped in.  I'll pick up the rest later.
	The second purchase of the day was a 2000 Watt inverter/charger and remote.
	Here's the loot that we delivered to the bus: 2000 Watt inverter remote control/monitoring panel for the inverter disaster fuse assembly 40ft of 2 gauge welding cable for all of the connections 24 solder connectors AC/DC circuit panel (see below)
	I wired the bus using the tiny circuit panel that came with the travel trailer we gutted.  Now that we're looking at solar power and are trying to get off the grid in the long run, I needed a panel large enough for us to work with...  It was a bit of an investment, but there's enough room to expand, the DC circuits can be taken care of and I can keep things clutter free... I've been working out our electrical needs on a separate web page.  It's a bit of a mess still, but it might be worth taking a look at, so click here to take a look...

Not only did we go shopping and spend a small fortune, but we managed to get both the water and gas hooked back up to the bus.  The water and gas tanks had to be taken out for the trip to the DMV.  

The water tank and pump had to be re-installed for us to be able to use the bathroom again.  

The gas hook up was a special treat.  We got to try out the new forced air heater - it puts out MUCH more hot air than the one we took out of the trailer.  We also fired up the refrigerator for a few minutes.  It works perfectly, so we'll have refrigeration during our trip to Quartzsite and back!

My friend Alan has offered to help install the DC power system this Saturday.  I've got my work cut out for me to get everything together and prepared for it.

We also made a few appointments around town...  Tuesday of next week the bus gets a hitch to tow the Jeep.  Wednesday, the Jeep gets a tow bar installed on the front so we can hook it to the bus.  Also on Wednesday, I have an appointment to take the bus in to have someone help me wire the battery bank up to the bus alternator so while we're driving the bus it can be charging the house batteries.

There's still a ton of things to get done before our trip, but I think we're going to make it.  We have to make it...