Follow Our Progress
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November 5th
2003
Things have been really busy the past couple of days. The Jeep
finally made it back from the shop yesterday afternoon. The shop
had a heck of a time with the slave cylinder - apparently they lost a
couple of them before deciding to throw in an entirely new assembly all
together. It feels a bit different, but so far it shifts and all
of the clattering is gone, so I think we may be over the Jeep problems
for the most part...
Yesterday we managed to find the part we needed for the gas regulator
connection and got the rest of the supplies together to concentrate on
getting the forced air heating system up and running.
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Today we started out by hooking up the two new propane tanks to
the regulator and getting the gas to the inside of the bus
through the floor.
It took me a couple of tries to get the pipe flared just
right, and I kinked the copper pipe in a couple of places before
I got the hang of it.
I am not entirely sure if the tanks I got will fit under the
bus... For now they are along the side of the bus under a
tarp, but the copper pipe is run through the floor above the
place where I plan to eventually store the tanks.
I may have jumped on the bargain price for the tanks a little
early. If I can't make them fit I will have to sell or
trade them in for the sideways style instead. I think I
made a friend at the place that sold me the part for the
regulator, so if it comes down to it, he would probably give me
a good trade in deal on the two tanks if I explain my situation
to him.
I'll get a better measurement and know for sure next time we
start the bus and I can get back under there to check.
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The second step to installing the heater was picking a good
location to install it. We did some testing and the
exhaust gets really hot, so I didn't think running through the
wall and the pink foam insulation would be a good plan, so we
opted to run it through one of the panels where the air intake
for the bus heating system is located. There's no
insulation in the wall there and 2 sheets of metal, so the only
thing that is flammable in that location is the plywood paneling
itself. I don't think it will ever get hot enough to start
the paneling on fire (and it was through the paneling in the
trailer when I pulled it out) so I think it will be safe.
We'll monitor it for a while of course while we put the heater
through hell.
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The wiring was pretty interesting... I forgot my volt
meter (along with the camera again this morning), so other than
a small very basic diagram on the bottom of the converter for
the blower motor, I had to do some educated guessing.
The 110V part was a snap. The wire going into the unit
was the standard Romex style house wire, so I wired that up to a
plug adaptor so I could plug it in the same place where the
refrigerator plugs in.
Emily hung out in front of one of the heater vents while I
cleaned up things a bit.
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The rest of it was process of elimination using the
diagram. I was able to figure out all but 2 blue
wires... I realized that they must be for the thermostat
switch, and sure enough after I got it all wired together the
switch worked perfectly.
It made things so nice to be able to just set the thermostat
at 70 degrees and have the heater cick on and start blowing hot
air.
I have to admit that it took us something like an hour to get
the pilot lit the first time. I finally figured out that
the igniter wire was too far from the pilot. I turned the igniter
wire around to get it closer to the pilot and "poof"
we had the pilot lit... The rest of it was hands off...
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I hooked up some duct to one side of the vent and ran it all the
way to the back of the bus through the hallway. The unit
puts out enough heat and air that even after going through 25
feet of flexible duct, it was still nice and warm.
Once the duct is run through the bathroom walls to the back,
the distance will be considerably shorter, so I think the heater
will work out pretty well.
Even with one of the windows cracked open in the front of the
bus (and a pretty badly covered escape hatch in the ceiling in
the back of the bus), it got up to 65 within about 10 minutes or
so. When we got to the bus the temperature was below the
lowest reading on the thermostat which is 45 degrees.
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We cut the very first holes in the side of the bus, and to be honest,
it wasn't that scary, so I think I am over being afraid of cutting more
of them for the rest of the appliances. That being said, the next
hole in the bus is going to be for the stove pipe for the
fireplace. Now that the heater is in, Becky and I are dying to
finish the fireplace and start burning off some of the scrap lumber that
seems to be piled up everywhere.
I wanted to hang out at the bus a bit longer, but Becky had plans for
the evening, so that's about all we managed to get done today. The
heater makes the bus feel so much more like a home. We'll be able
to work in the warm bus from now on. I don't know how long the gas
will last, but I plan to use the heater every day while we are working
on the bus, so I guess we'll find out soon enough. |
