October 8th
2003
Today has turned out to be a pretty good one despite a very late
start working on the bus. We were late getting out of bed and got
Erika to school right at the bell. In the race to get everyone out
the door, we managed to leave without the digital camera, so there are
no pictures of the day's work to share.
Our first stop after dropping Erika off at school was the bank to get
some cash. We had a lot of things to take care of...
I stopped by the auto parts store to pick up the clutch master
cylinder that I had ordered for the Jeep. There was some
confusion about the deposit that I had put on the part and I ended up
having to pay the price of the part plus the "deposit" that I
had given them which they called a "freight charge".
Apparently the money I had given them as a deposit to order the part for
me was actually just the freight charge... Funny how my deposit
($10.00 and a number that the clerk and I had simply agreed upon at the
time as a decent percentage of the cost of the part) turned out to be
the total of the freight charge... Apparently I am just prone to
"misunderstandings" these days.
After picking up the part for the Jeep we made our way to the RV
supply store. I love that store. The guy that works
there is so helpful and he showed me the adaptor that I needed to make
my 30 amp plug work with a standard 15 amp outlet. Things are
looking up.
If you ever come through Oregon on I-5, make sure that you check out
Northwest RV Supply Inc. just outside of Eugene Oregon. It's a
strange store - a little of everything everywhere, but I have not been
able to find any other place that has the parts I need at a price that
nobody else can touch. Honestly, I would highly recommend stopping
in if you are in the area. You will not be disappointed.
We were so excited about having the adaptor for the 30 amp cord that
we headed straight for the bus... We had meant to stop at the home
improvement store to pick up some lights that we saw earlier, but forgot
in the excitement of having the elusive part. After we hooked up
the electrical panel for the bus and tested out the plugs in the back of
the bus, Becky headed off to find us some inexpensive light fixtures so
we could brighten up the interior of the bus and see the results of our
hard work on the electrical.
I worked on figuring out the 12 V DC portion of the bus wiring.
It's a bit more complicated than the 110 V because I intend to use the
control panel from the trailer. It has the tank level indicators,
battery status and pump power switch. That makes a lot of extra
wiring for me. Several leads go to each tank (fresh, gray and
black), additional ones go to the pump, and none of them are
labeled... It's going to be a bit of an adventure. I'm not
sure how much value will be added by the extra work - perhaps I should
by a new panel that includes the wiring diagram? I'll give it a
shot and if it becomes too much of a pain, I'll buy a new panel.
Becky returned with the lights and about 1/2 way through wiring the
first one, she had to go an pick up Erika from the bus stop after
school. We really did get started late... When she returned, she
had Erika, Emily, the TV, VCR and a couple of videos for the girls to
watch. It was fun to turn on the lights in the back of the bus and
set up the movies for the girls. Within 15 minutes we had Tedd's
boys in the back of the bus watching movies too. Becky and I just
sat in the front of the bus and smiled for awhile...
It was getting late, so we decided to get at least one more task done
for the day. We tinted one of the windows in the front of the
bus. It's beginning to get quite dark in there with the overcast
skies and window tinting. It will be nice when I have the entire bus
wired up and lighted. |
