What did you do with your Bus today

[NoGas]

Originally Posted by Angrybird

... I mounted the TV in front of one of the side windows...

I would’ve moved the couch out a couple inches and mounted the TV on a lift behind the couch. Lots of new SOB’s do it that way nowadays. Nearly 5 years ago I used a Nexus lift when I upgraded to a 40” bedroom TV. TV prices have certainly gone down since then! Find details here: https://youtu.be/cWllG7dtHJU.

[Angrybird]

Originally Posted by NoGas

I would’ve moved the couch out a couple inches and mounted the TV on a lift behind the couch. Lots of new SOB’s do it that way nowadays. Nearly 5 years ago I used a Nexus lift when I upgraded to a 40” bedroom TV. TV prices have certainly gone down since then! Find details here: https://youtu.be/cWllG7dtHJU.

The Aqua Hot heat exchanger is beneath that couch and I didn't want to loose any floor space. I was thinking of removing the pass side couch and installing a desk and then a lift was something I would have done. Right now it looks great and is in a great location. On to the next project....

[Angrybird]

While we're on the subject of TVs couple weeks back I upgraded my bedroom TV. I remove the old TV from the cabinet, made a new mirror covered cabinet door and mounted TV above the valance. Perfect place and angle for viewing right from bed. The power cord has been routed beneath the valance and into the cabinet.

[Angrybird]

While I'm on a roll today I might as well post this too... lol
Another one of my recent upgrades was to build a cabinet for my TV and soundbar in the first Bay on the passenger side. I covered it in a dark gray speaker carpet. The second Bay had a little bit of extra space next to the Zip Dee chair rack, in which I've installed a refrigerator

[NoGas]

Joe - when I got the bus 5 years ago, I wish I’d started my own M380 Upgrades & Modifications thread and then put everything into that one thread. Had I done that it would've been easy finding it all on the WOG. As it is, I’m now in the process of searching for & saving 5+ years of posts offline. Not only would it be useful for me & everyone else, when it comes time to sell (way down the road hopefully) the new owner would have a one-stop-shop for everything that’s been done to the coach.

[JMorton]

While on a trip to Las Vegas last summer, the blower motor for the generator radiator quit working. When we got to Las Vegas, I figured that it might be the motor run capacitor so I located a local motor shop and got a replacement cap. That fixed the problem for about a day. I believe the heat ( ~ 110 f ) and age caused the motor to draw excessive current and blow the capacitor. We limped home - driving at night as much as we could since we have no working dash air and it was quite hot.


When I got home, I decided to not just replace the motor and capacitor, but to get the radiator serviced, replace the hoses and generally try to clean things up.



I apologize for the lack of a "before" picture of the compartment, but the pictures of various sub-assemblies should give you a good sense of the condition of the system.


I pulled the blower / shroud / radiator out, and then the control box and battery tray. The blower case, battery tray and control box chassis were all rusty in places and looked pretty bad. In addition, the control box connector body was broken, as was the shell of the mating connector which was tie-wrapped to the box to hold the connectors together.


I disassembled the control box, taking pictures so I would have a chance of putting it back together in a fashion that would work and sand-blasted the 2 parts of the box, as well as the battery tray and the blower housing. ( This project justified a shiny new eastwood blast cabinet and puma air-compressor! ). After several coats of primer and paint, I re-assembled the control box with the exception of the connector. I got new connector bodies (both parts) from Amazon along with the pin removal tools - the little one was under $20, but the big one for the power pin was over $200! - I figure that there are a LOT of those plastic AMP connectors in the bus so the tools are a good investment. I moved the wires one at a time from the old connector body to the new one and then finished assembling the control box.


I also painted the inside of the cabinet with grey marine bilge paint after as much soda blasting, sanding and general cleaning as I could stand.


I took the radiator to San Leandro radiator for cleaning / evaluation and ended up with a re-core.



I will continue the saga in another post with more pictures.

[JMorton]

I got new hoses - shopping the gates catalog to find ones that were close to what I needed. Once I had gates part numbers they were easy to buy on amazon. The original plumbing used several short 90 degree sections tying together longer hoses. I bought hoses that were too long with a 90 in one end and got new aluminum junctions that let me clamp the hoses together. I was able to simplify the hoses down to two pieces of hose each for the inlet and outlet of the radiator, which were each clamped to the 10 foot long sections running to the generator engine. I wrote the part number and date of replacement on each hose, though it ended up getting rubbed off in spots - I will also note the parts used and date in Shadow's service logbook.


I put the battery into a plastic case to prevent leaks from corroding the metal battery tray. I will probably replace the battery with an AGM type in the future ( a major battery / power system rework is looming on the next year project list! )


The blower motor was replaced with a generic replacement which featured 3 speeds and is reversable. I wired the high and low speed lines to a toggle switch that I installed in the capacitor box. In cool weather, I can slow the blower down and make it a little quieter. The box that the capacitor is in is too small for my liking, I will be looking for a larger box so I can work on it without using too many of my special mechanic's words.

[ChrisRasman]

Originally Posted by JMorton

I got new hoses - shopping the gates catalog to find ones that were close to what I needed. Once I had gates part numbers they were easy to buy on amazon. The original plumbing used several short 90 degree sections tying together longer hoses. I bought hoses that were too long with a 90 in one end and got new aluminum junctions that let me clamp the hoses together. I was able to simplify the hoses down to two pieces of hose each for the inlet and outlet of the radiator, which were each clamped to the 10 foot long sections running to the generator engine. I wrote the part number and date of replacement on each hose, though it ended up getting rubbed off in spots - I will also note the parts used and date in Shadow's service logbook.


I put the battery into a plastic case to prevent leaks from corroding the metal battery tray. I will probably replace the battery with an AGM type in the future ( a major battery / power system rework is looming on the next year project list! )


The blower motor was replaced with a generic replacement which featured 3 speeds and is reversable. I wired the high and low speed lines to a toggle switch that I installed in the capacitor box. In cool weather, I can slow the blower down and make it a little quieter. The box that the capacitor is in is too small for my liking, I will be looking for a larger box so I can work on it without using too many of my special mechanic's words.

special mechanic's words :-) I was in the Navy. We have some spectacular special worlds for mechanical things that don't go right. Bad thing is kid one (oldest) picked them up. Kid 2, not so much.

Good work. Going to last another generation at least after your done.

[Prof_T]

Took the bus out yesterday and filled up with 150 gallons of diesel. Using the TSD logistics fuel card program paid. $2.046 per gallon. That's about $.75 per gallon less than we paid in December.

[Randy Dupree]

Originally Posted by JMorton

I got new hoses - shopping the gates catalog to find ones that were close to what I needed. Once I had gates part numbers they were easy to buy on amazon. The original plumbing used several short 90 degree sections tying together longer hoses. I bought hoses that were too long with a 90 in one end and got new aluminum junctions that let me clamp the hoses together. I was able to simplify the hoses down to two pieces of hose each for the inlet and outlet of the radiator, which were each clamped to the 10 foot long sections running to the generator engine. I wrote the part number and date of replacement on each hose, though it ended up getting rubbed off in spots - I will also note the parts used and date in Shadow's service logbook.


I put the battery into a plastic case to prevent leaks from corroding the metal battery tray. I will probably replace the battery with an AGM type in the future ( a major battery / power system rework is looming on the next year project list! )


The blower motor was replaced with a generic replacement which featured 3 speeds and is reversable. I wired the high and low speed lines to a toggle switch that I installed in the capacitor box. In cool weather, I can slow the blower down and make it a little quieter. The box that the capacitor is in is too small for my liking, I will be looking for a larger box so I can work on it without using too many of my special mechanic's words.

Very nice work!
Thansk for the pics and thanks for posting.