Quoted:
Last night a buddy came over and we got all the edge trim out of the bus, so now I can start painting the floors with a sealer, but before I do that, I need to actually weld in fresh metal to the spots I cut out all the rot. I'll probably start welding tonight.

Sorry, no pictures, I'll take some later.


I have a bunch of 1/2" (R-2.5) polystyrene "GreenGuard" foam sheets, because when I did my garage/shop, somehow I bought 2x what I needed for the shop. Now, I have about 2.5x what I need for the bus project already on-hand. The question here is: Do I double up the 1/2" and then put the 15/32 plywood subfloor on top, or do I bring all the extra 1/2" foam sheets back to lowes, buy 1" sheets, and install that? The 1/2" sheets are about $14/ea and the 1" sheets are about $24/ea, so that means I can avoid $4/ea by returning and buying 1"... In theory at least. The lowes is a 15 minute drive each way, and then I've gotta load, unload, wait in line, explain, deal with lowes, find the 1" stuff, load, unload, then cut and install.

If I go through all of that, is it even really worth it? I figure it'd take me at least an hour, to save 32 bucks?


In other news, I received my shipment of solar cells and the solar charge controller/inverter/AC Charger. I've got 4x 250w 60-cell solar panels and a 3000VA inverter, capable of charging the 24v 200Ah battery bank at 80a (if I had enough solar to do that), but it will also allow me to charge via AC and divert AC directly to the AC output on the device. So, this allows me to use the generator to charge the battery bank and run the appliances on the bus. Think of it like a commercial UPS but with a solar input. It seems like these are the way people are going with off-grid systems, and the tech is pretty mature, so we'll see if it's worth the $700 for the all-in-one.

Here's their marketing picture-sheet.
https://i1.wp.com/watts247.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/PIP-LV2424MSD1-scaled.jpg

The panels are used from a commercial farm, but still have output meeting their rating. I was shocked to see how much power they actually put out when turned upside down in the sun. I still might buy 4 more and add more to the array, just to get a little more life out of the 200Ah battery bank, before adding another pair of batteries.


So, on the agenda this week:
1. Weld floor patches
2. Paint/seal floor
3. Insulate and put subfloor down
4. Measure and mark out the floorplan with tape.

Quoted:
Sorry updates have been slow. I've been working like a dog the past couple weeks, and we've really just used the bus as a portable toilet when we go out and do things for a whole day. So, like, going to a day-long festival, going out shopping and doing things with the kiddo, etc.

https://i.imgur.com/9b0cEPi.png
https://i.imgur.com/lDcsunn.png

I put up another wall and panel, and got some lighting installed, I still have to put in the 3" LED flush-mount lights. The LED strips are controlled with an RF remote, and there's another strip going in the bathroom, and I'll have a separately controlled one in my daughter's bunk.

https://i.imgur.com/eQJY293.png
https://i.imgur.com/gvDSScW.png
https://i.imgur.com/rJm507b.png

I finally finished tinting all the windows, and it makes a pretty big difference in how the bus looks and how it "feels" inside. We bought some fabric to make curtains out of, and that'll further change the feel (and sound) inside.

Speaking of sound... I got tired of people ignoring the horn when I use it to tell them "Please don't pull out in front of me, this won't be a payday, I have good insurance, a dash cam, and telemetry on this bus." and I'm also tired of people not feeling bad after they pull out in front of me and slam on the brakes, only to see how quickly a vehicle designed to be 10,000lbs heavier can stop on a dime. So...
https://i.imgur.com/tYn2l6c.png
Sound here:
https://imgur.com/wqMQnFd