1983 PT35 Project - modernification / restomod

[badandy]

Here's the plate that goes over the slide out step well cover. 1/4" steel, feels like about 75 lbs. Stiff though! The subfloor is coming out around it and it's mounting directly to the steel floor. The window motor is also mounting to the steel floor directly. I wanted to keep it as as low as possible, so the actual step is 1/4" 6061 (which they cut too small) with some kind of flooring over it, probably the same stuff as the rest of the bus. The slides are 3/4" high, so with flooring should be about 1.5" high. Will I get it done before we leave for PM ??????

[badandy]

So I finally got the floor and stepwell done and got the stepwell cover about 80% done. The cover turned out pretty nice, but I still have to get the electric stuff installed and trim it out, but I just ran out of time. I'm happy with how the floor turned out. I'm spent, wasted, I pulled two all-nighters trying to get this all done. We're leaving for Pine Mountain tomorrow.

Pitchers, self-explanatory:

[badandy]

Well we made it Pine Mountain and got home last night after wandering around on the way back. This was our longest RV trip so far, 2 weeks, so we learned a lot.

I had a fuel system problem. Last year I removed the Racor because it was beyond fixing and a mess to maintain, honestly. I replaced it with a pair of spin-on filters, but it was always pulling pretty high vacuum, no problems with it though. Well it got bad last week, so bad that was running all the way at the top of red on the Racor vacuum gauge (confirmed accurate). I replaced both filters with new and it didn't get better at all. I replaced them both with 140 micron steel screen filters and it got worse! This resulted in it losing prime at idle speeds and very hard starting in the morning, so I had to deal with it. On the last few days we were camped out at a fiend's place and had some time to mess around and ended up poking a wire through everything in the tank and the supply line and found nothing going on there. Blew air into the line and into the tank, nothing obvious. So I removed the prefilters completely, but was able to keep the Racor gauge connected. I still have the one 20 micron filter before the pump on the engine and the 10 micron after the pump, so no worries there. Driving all day yesterday it stuck right to 4 on the gauge at 2100rpm, 3 at idle. It seems like that's still a little high for a wide open fuel line to me but it started and ran perfectly so????

The on-demand water heater and recirc pump worked perfectly. We used the LP furnaces almost every day, including while driving up north. Having lots of inverter was nice - we camped out at a Kroger the first night and I was able to run the block heater all night long, make a pizza in the convection oven, coffee in the morning, and keep the 12v batts charged up (no DC/DC on this trip for anything). I'm starting to think that as long as the GC2's are healthy it's not too bad efficiency-wise to just run the charger with the inverter to power all the 12v stuff. We did it a lot on this trip. After PM we only hooked up to 120@15 a few times to charge up overnight. Never started the gen once.

[Gatorgrl]

Nice floor. What is it?

[badandy]

Coretec Plus XL-E. They are 9" wide planks and I'm really happy with how it looks and feels. The planks have a cork layer on the bottom and I glued it all down. You should have come over to look at it, but nobody else walked up the hill to our site on Saturday for a tour!

[DW SD]

Did you get a couch?
Glad you exercised the batteries a bit. That’s a cool setup. Did you get your solar squared away too?
I like the linear electric ram for the step we’ll cover.

When will you put in a slide?
Seems like the next logical upgrade!!!

[badandy]

Solar is not installed yet, I have had too many other projects going on. What I drew up will orient the whole array all day long in all 3 axes for 100% max power (1200w), but it's a larger project than I have time for right now. I could just cop out and install some panels flat, but that's no fun.

Slide-out, no! My ideal configuration would be like a 1988 WB-35 with an 8V92. haha.

[DW SD]

WB would be cool. Section it lengthwise and add 12” instead of 6”. Who will measure?


Wow 3 axes on solar? That sounds cool and a lot of work.

8V would make a nice setup in 35’. Would be great to have an 8V with a modern trans.

[badandy]

Originally Posted by DW SD

WB would be cool. Section it lengthwise and add 12” instead of 6”. Who will measure?


Wow 3 axes on solar? That sounds cool and a lot of work.

8V would make a nice setup in 35’. Would be great to have an 8V with a modern trans.

The 3 axis stuff is all custom fabrication, but it's really simple stuff. I just have to sit down and draw it all up and get the parts lasered out. It uses automotive 12v gear motors to move the whole thing so they are fixable on the road. If something fails it will sink down flat and it can be locked then for travel.

35' works out perfectly so far - it's just right for the COE and state park campgrounds we've been enjoying. I like the thought of an 8V92 with twins and about 650hp, but I think a little more fuel and a few more RPM would keep me happy with the 6V. That would let me pull the hills faster since I'm always riding the gov on the interstate anyways.

[badandy]

Update time, I guess? I have finished up the PCB for version 2 of the WanderPi board. I needed more "stuff" on it than I initially planned for, so I added lots to this. I don't anticipate doing this again unless I messed something up on this, which I'll know in a week or two.

I added a high speed CAN, single wire CAN, and 1-wire. I added more inputs and outputs. I also added a spot to solder on an RFM69HCW for some RF hackage Using this device I will be able to communicate with a multitude of wireless devices out there. I can use it to control Somfy shade motors and stuff like that. I told my wife we can control everyone's dogs' shock collars in the campground and she wasn't amused. I also added a thing to turn the power to the inverter remote control off so I can have full control if needed. The CAN stuff is for my own little modules that I'm working on. All the new tank sensors, BMS for the lithium, BMS for the lead acids, and a couple of other small things are all CAN. The Midnite Solar Kid is RS232 so I'll just use a USB adapter to talk to that. I manged to make it a little smaller than the first one, too.

Or if you skipped all that reading here's some pictures