Day 10378

The past two days have been spent wiring the solar panels into the bus's electrical system. My primary references for this job were HandyBob's blog (this man is a wealth of knowledge; all the flakes of gold are buried in his entertaining rants about the solar industry,) and the manual for the TS-45 charge controller.

Here's how I did it...

The quick fix to the solar panel struts bowing out was to lock-wire them across (I did not have 6-8 wraps per inch, because it's a bus.) Now when the weight of the solar panels is on the struts, at the summer angles, the struts won't push through the angle mounts. It's not perfect, but it should work fine... until a wire snaps. 

As a quick aside, I may have learned the hard way that deep cycle batteries shouldn't be used to crank over a diesel;

I'm trying to breath life back into them with a trickle charge. This might be an expensive lesson...

With the panels mounted and mobile, I started wiring from the top down.

I used 6 gauge cable to wire each array of 3 panels, down to the bus roof.

The cable was clamped on the way to keep them from getting pinched, and slack was left on the roof to give me room to work later.

The two positive leads and two negative leads meet a positive and negative 4 gauge cable at the rooftop.

I have a fuse block on order, but in the short term I wired in a fuse to the hot leads, and taped the crap out of them to make sure everything works.

I was left pondering where and how I could punch a hole in the roof to send the 4 gauge cables through...

I had two of the cool little water-tight junctions left over from the panels, which the cable would fit through, but I didn't have a 13/16" holesaw. What I did have was a 3/4" holesaw and a round file.

With interior panels removed, I found a spot above the driver side window where there was no insulation; just layers of steel. I drilled some pilots holes, then hit it with the holesaw (energy to power the drill was provided by the inverter, from the batteries.) Then the file (energy to power me came from duck-egg french toast and a bowl of oatmeal.)

With the junctions installed, I pushed the cable through, and gave it a protective coating of spiral wrap.

Inside the bus, I mounted the Tristar TS-45 charge controller on the front-face of the electrical panel for easy access. The two wires go under the panel, and mount into the negative shunt (so the Trimetric can monitor solar panel output) and the positive stud. 

I routed the 4 gauge wires from the roof down the conduit behind the driver side window, and up into the charge controller.

Face-plate back on. The TS-45 is pretty-much the Bus's Flux Capacitor.

Everything is now wired... double-checked my work... The panels are still pointed north-east, and it's after noon on the longest day of the year (how appropriate) ... let's turn on the Trimetric and see if the panels are making power...

The panels are charging the batteries at 2.8 amps! I'd say that's pretty good considering they aren't even looking at the sun...

The bus now has wood or propane powered cook surfaces, wood or diesel heat, and diesel or solar electricity. 

Next project? A shelf.

Day 10376

Some much-needed leave was taken from work this week, in order to decompress and work on the projects I've had on the back-burner for months.

First up is the bus's solar panels. Some kind of phantom load is draining the batteries (two fresh ones, at that) so having panels operational will be a huge help in the field. As mentioned months ago, these six Siemens SP75 Panels will provide sufficient amperage to recharge the big bank of T105 batteries. Currently the bus has two "normal" diesel truck batteries; so the system will have no trouble keeping that smaller bank charged.

On the roof, I pondered for a while what the best way to mount the panels would be. I already had the base of the panels mounted on the edge of the roof; I wanted to finish building a set up that would allow me to change the angle of the panel to track the seasonal sun, but at the same time avoid perforated angle monstrosities. I wanted a design that could withstand strong northern winds when the panels are angled high in the winter, and easy to move every few months.

Before I get into the nitty gritty of "how" I did this, I'll give you, dear reader, the "why." Summer days are longer than winter days. In the summer, the sun rises in the northeast, climbs high in the southern sky, then sets in the northwest. In the winter, the sun rises in the southeast, stays low in the southern sky, and sets in the southwest. To capture the most amount of sun on any given day, the panels should be aimed true south, at the highest angle the sun reaches. This is where it gets cool; you know how the Earth rotates on it's axis about 23 degrees (hence seasons?) The angle of the sun at noon is just the latitude line you are on, plus or minus 23 degrees for the season. For me, I planned on the bus being up North; 45' Latitude gives me about 68 degrees in the summer, and 22 degrees in the winter. I need to make a mount for my panels so that I can move them between 22 degrees from vertical on the winter solstice, to 45 degrees on the spring equinox, down to 68 degrees on the summer solstice, then back down to 45 degrees for the autumn equinox.

The panels were already wired in groups of three, which I kept together for the install on the roof. Panels 1 & 2 feed into 3, which has the output wires. Likewise, panels 5 & 6 feed into panel 4. With aluminum scrap I mounted the tops of panels 1, 2 & 3, and panels 4, 5 & 6, together. Now I have two banks of three panels. Not only is lifting three at a time much easier than lifting all six, but I could take one bank "down" for maintenance while the other one keeps collecting rays at half power.

To keep a clean, low-drag appearance, I used 1/4" steel rod, bent in a vise, to prop up the panels. At the ends, and center point of the rod, I slid on 3/8" OD spacers. I mounted a perforated angle mounting foot at the center bushing of the rod. At the very ends of the rods I drilled holes for cotter pins to keep the rods bent "out" where they meet the perforated angle on the panels. It turns out I didn't think that one through, though, as the heavy panels do a good job compressing this springy rod, making it sit at the bend, not at the bushing. Reality wasn't agreeing with my design! I think I have a fix for it, stay tuned...

I cut a fresh piece of perforated angle into 2' chunks, then used the remaining perforated angle "feet" I had crafted months ago, to mount the chunk tangent to the bus roof. That one sentence summarizes hours of work sketching, observing, and playing with the parts I had available. I doubled up the mounting feet, as the loads are not just "down" on this piece, but in, out and up, depending on what "season" the panel is mounted in. The feet were all mounted by drilling starter holes in the roof, applying a liberal amount of RTV, then screwing in sheet metal screws.

By removing the two bolts, the angled foot of the bent rod can be adjusted up and down the length of the track, giving me something like 12 degrees "full out" to about 75 degrees "full in." In theory, I could adjust this as often as I want to in order to keep the panels facing the sun.

Both banks in the full out position, gathering some non-existent eastern sunlight! Given the shape of the parent's yard, I don't think I'll really be able to test this system until I drive it up North and park it in a field, with the panels facing South.

I love the asymmetric look of the roof, with the chimney. If you like asymmetric, utilitarian vehicles, you might be a helicopter mechanic...

Aft bank in the full down position. I was trying to get the front bank down as well, but the support rods were pushing past the bushings, as mentioned earlier. I think I can fix that by keeping tension on them with a line of lockwire.

Tomorrow, I think I will continue this project with the solar panels-to-bus wiring, the installation of the Tristar charge controller, and the repair of the "DC battery bus" after I inadvertently pulled out a plug. 

I will leave you with Day 10374's project; removing the old engine oil filter from the F350. It's all that I accomplished that day. It was brutal.

Day 10366

Another step of "the Plan" was crossed off this month. I made an offer on the land described in the last post, and after some negotiation, it was accepted. Having closed, I am now the proud owner of some 20+ acres of old dairy pasture and mixed forest.

My search criteria didn't seem complicated; I wanted more than 10 acres of land, and I wanted it for less than $100,000. I wanted a water source, a variety of wood, and some fields would be nice. The workable parcel ought to be close to family up North, or close to work down South. A compromise would make for a long commute over the next few years and lack of family nearby (less than ideal.) Ultimately, I decided to trust my gut and buy up North in the mountains and hills, and not in the South, which is growing busier and more congested by the year. I must have toured two dozen properties over the past few years... possibly more that I've forgotten.

The biggest thing I learned was that there is a reason that cheap land is cheap. Fifteen minutes on Google can save two or three hours of driving, burning gas, and hiking through the woods. The terrain feature on Google Maps saved me from ascending many cheap cliffside properties, and helped in identifying such infrastructure as highways, high-voltage transmission lines, waste treatment plants, snowmobile trails, and even power substations. Ultimately, I did find land that was cheap for a reason, but for a reason I would be able to tolerate for the price!

I figure that the more workable land I get for my dollar will save me, later. On a 5 acre plot, I would not have enough trees to build a home, and heat it with wood from the lot. With 10 acres of land that becomes more realistic. Being patient and finding enough land would save me down the road in buying outside resources.

My search parameters changed as I learned how to search for property, through trial and error. One plot in Canterbury had everything I was looking for, but I learned that the rules for buying land were different from those of home-buying. I couldn't afford the $150,000 land purchase without a significantly larger down payment than an equally priced home, which would take a few more years of saving. I lowered my "maximum price" to $100,000. Not only was this a better financial decision, but it trimmed my list of candidates down to something more reasonable. I also found a map from 2009 with every town's property tax rates, which, even if it is slightly outdated, provided a handy guide for which towns I didn't want to pay to live in!

I'm thankful that one of my pilots was my realtor; someone that understood my slightly unorthodox needs, and was patient through the search. He was happy to send in my offers which included owner financing. Sadly, the former owner did not accept my offer, and a bank will be making the thousands or dollars that he could have made. Now the name of my game will be paying off the mortgage as fast as possible to pay the bank as few of my dollars as I can.

The amount of interest I'm paying, the rates of the loan, and the terms of the loan are another rant entirely. My goal here is to pay off the land quickly, and return to a debt-free status while still having enough cash on hand to buy and build as needed. I find the banking system doesn't like to deal with a land purchase of this size. I asked my bank of choice for a 10-year fixed rate loan, and they wouldn't do it (good credit, money down; won't do it.) And yet, as long as you secure a loan with no prepayment penalty, a 20-yr loan can easily be made into a 10-yr (or even a 6-yr!) by paying against the principal. You just don't tell the bank that you're going to do that. I don't feel like I should have to hoodwink a bank in order to get a reasonable loan. The former owner was seeing traps in owner-financing, despite the assurances of both realtors, and the bank wants their interest. Trust is hard to come by.

What a lame post, huh? No pictures.

This is my buddy Gavin's new tractor, a beautiful 1971 Massey Ferguson MF-20 Industrial Loader (we think!) It was generously handed down to him by his grandfather, David, who gave us a tour of the family's farm in the White Mountains. In the coming weeks Gavin and I will do the maintenance to get it running again, and trailer it to Gavin's house.

I finally got the solar panels mounted on the roof of the bus, after five months of waiting for a day off without rain in the forecast. Wanting a nice even line, and a low profile, I used a square to measure 18" from the "rail" of the bus roof, and drilled the holes for each mount one at a time, as I mounted the panels.

Once all the mounting feet were in place (as pictured,) I loosened all of them, applied a liberal amount of RTV, and then snugged all of them to the bus skin. The panels are installed in their proper order, now they need a mechanism to hold them upright, and to be wired into the bus's battery system.

Projects are on hold at the moment, as I'm out of country with the Unit on mission for a few weeks. I think it's about time to burn some leave, at work. 

Day 10326

Spring is here for good; the snow and the ice have melted, and the grass is turning green. As the Woolly Mammoths migrate into Canada, and the glaciers recede, spring meltwaters have started flowing down mountains into the watershed. One of these seasonal streams is flowing over one of my friend's driveways. As a new home-owner, he was less than excited to see that this is what spring brings. We talked through our options, and decided the best, easiest, most cost effective fix would be to remove the damaged drainage culvert, and leave it open.

Nakahla and I loaded up my dad's backhoe, and we departed early for the mountains. Mark lives on quite a slope, so I parked my poor half-ton truck at the bottom, unloaded the Kubota, and drove it up the rest of the way. Mark's neighbors were glad to have an alarm clock chugging up the hill at 8am on a Saturday, I'm sure. Nakahla went in to help Jess with their kids, and Mark and I surveyed the damages, made note of what was working and what wasn't, and made a rough plan for what we'd be doing. When we wrapped the chain around the first piece of 18" culvert with the tractor, I thought I was going to be coming up here for the next month to finish the project. "What have I gotten myself into?" I asked... aloud. "I'm going to be doing a lot of work on your barn!" Mark replied.

Mark's yard had one culvert flowing from the upper driveway, under 30' of yard, and under a lower driveway. We found that the upper driveway's drain was still flowing, just clogged at the inlet, which we cleared. The middle drain had separated and water wasn't flowing through it anymore, which is fine because the lower driveway's drain was collapsed anyway! We dug up the middle and bottom sections, replaced the broken bottom with the intact middle, and crafted a streambed in the middle section of driveway. To keep the lower pipe from clogging we made a small pond full of larger rocks to discourage things from flowing through.

In hindsight, we should have diverted the flow as best we could at the top, and worked from the bottom of the property up. Instead, we were working in the water most of the time. On the flip side, the water flowed where it wanted to go, and softened up the earth around it, making it easier to work. We were able to make small diversions while we worked, anyway. Amazingly, we got the project done in one weekend. Jess and Nakahla kept us fed, Mark's kids kept us entertained, the weather cooperated, and now I have an indentured servant for my next project.

At home, I reattached the backhoe to the Case tractor. It has been sitting plumbed for a few weeks, just waiting for free time and warm weather to coincide. I started the machine up, and back it up to within 6" of the backhoe. I dug the bucket into the ground, and used the dump pistons to push the tractor forward and back, while adjusting the backhoe swivel pedals left and right, to line up on the backhoe boom. I was off the machine for this, so I had large split logs under the main wheels to keep it from rolling. This went really slow, and required a bit of patience, to get two several-ton pieces of steel to line up within 1/2". Once they were close enough, I used the Hi-lift jack to lift the backhoe boom. With luck, and my dad offering a second set of hands, the pin went in without much effort. I then reinstalled my zip-tie color-coordinated hydraulic lines, and pinned the boom cylinder to the swivel tower. I reversed the pressure/relief lines on both the stick and the bucket cylinders so that pulling the levers toward you brings everything in, and pushing them away runs it all out.

A handsome dog.

If you don't have a backhoe, that whole paragraph probably sounded like Chinese. If you do have a backhoe, it probably sounded like Chinese, too. End result? I have a backhoe again. And it doesn't leak from the valve spools. I finished up the project by putting snap-rings on pins, changing the hydraulic filter, and pressure washing the greasy spots. Also, the pressure washer started after a dozen pulls, on old gasoline, after sitting for six months; when does that ever happen?

Over Easter, I toured another property up North. It had come up in my search online, and I had discarded it, but Nakahla had sent it to me again for a second look. More than ten acres, fields and woods, a stream, convenient to the highway and close to family, for a price I could afford. I thought it was under a set of transmission lines, but on second look I realized the pictures weren't matching up with the pin on Google maps.

Happy dog.

View to the North.

A bunch of nice Birch trees.

I walked it with my Dad, who approved. I came back later with my Mum and Grandfather, who both approved. Zeke liked it. I liked it! The bus will fit! I emailed my realtor and put in an offer. We'll see how this plays out.

These epic posts, with weeks of work condensed into one write-up, sure make it seem like I accomplished quite a bit in a short amount of time. I can tell you that it feels like I'm dragging my feet, and not able to work on anything when I want to!

Next up is the mounts for the solar panels on the bus roof, some small welds on my dad's tractor and mine, and an oil change on the welder. Once I have everything else in order, I'll start the big project of the dump bed install on the F350.

If the land purchase goes through, I will start getting equipment up North.

Thanks for reading! Feel free to leave a comment or send me an email.

Day 10292

The thaw is coming. The first trees are starting to bud, after a series of snowstorms brought us a second winter. My cabin fever will soon be cured by sunlight and 40 degree weather.

Over the past few weeks I have been working primarily on the backhoe, making a lot of progress on the warm days.

On a cold, sunny day, I took a torch and penetrating oil down to my stuck swivel piston bearing on the old backhoe tower. I knocked the 500lbs of steel off the blocks for easier access, and heated it for several minutes with a gas torch. Using a densely packed snowball, I cooled the bearing. After a few sequences of heating and cooling, I was getting half a turn out of the bolts to pull the bearing out. Once it started going, the stubborn bearing came out relatively easily.

Zeke was less than interested in being a sled dog, so I ended up pulling the heavy, greasy piston up to the backhoe for installation.

 Going for a walk out back was fine, though.

After a lot of cleaning, I got most of the dirt/grease/hydraulic fluid mix out of the tower. I lubricated the bearings with red axle grease (nothing special about it, just something to keep water out) and installed them with fresh bolts and lockwashers. The hydraulic lines to the swing cylinders and stabilizers were all pressure washed, and any with defects (coating worn through to metal fibers) were replaced. 

With the swing and stabilizers pinned and plumbed, as well as the engine oil changed, I cranked the machine over and tested those parts of the system. I made it a point of not touching the middle three sticks on the control tower, as they were just open ports that would have sprayed brown, murky hydraulic fluid at me!

Continuing on, I replaced all the lines leading to the backhoe, and started removing the leaky loader dump pistons so they can be repacked. I'm having trouble with the hardware, which is all (3/4 of the bolts) stuck. Now that my backhoe is repacked and leak free, the loader will be doing the leaking! The Gremlins have migrated. An old Royal Air Force trick was to place first class postage stamps on their airframes; the Gremlins would eat those instead of control wires or fuel lines. I'll have to find out what construction equipment Gremlins like to eat.

Meanwhile, on the F350...

I have to pull some Apollo 13 White-team fix to get a metal fuel tank fuel sending unit to fit a plastic fuel tank. Maybe if I do an orbital sling shot I can get the new unit into the old tank... or use a Sawzall and a lot of sealing compound...

I did get a package for the F350 last week, too.

I bit the bullet on a dump hoist for the F350. It's a Pierce 5-ton electric/hydraulic lift. Not only are they amde in the great state of Texas (with a pump that appears to be from Michigan,) but they've posted install videos on YouTube. Very helpful.

Once the backhoe rolls out of the shop, and the imminent threat of winter storms is past, I'll drop off the plow and roll the F350 into the shop for a dump kit install. I'll also be wiring in soem LED brakelights, and beefing up the existing pintle plate. Still on the search for a flatbed for the one ton.

Nakahla and I went to the Colonial craft show in Portsmouth this weekend. In addition to muskets, ceramics, and tin cookware, was this impressive model of a timber frame house in Rollinsford, with all the pieces labeled.

My dad gave me chainsaw lessons this weekend as well. I'm not too comfortable using the chainsaw yet, but getting better every time. Like any good training event, everything that could go wrong did go wrong. Pictured above is his pinched chain, and my pinched handsaw blade, both detached from their motors and handles to cut our losses. The tree settled onto one, then the other trying to free the first one. We managed to free up both using a wedge and an axe to fell the tree. The chainsaw was undamaged, and we continued with some scrawnier trees! My sawblade was severely wounded in the altercation. Flawless.

Lastly, I toured a property up north with my grandfather. Plenty of room, great location, stream going through it, a spot where I could drive the bus in, and it's in my price range. We'll see where this goes.