bus work Archives -

Sold the Bus

March 1, 2015 Drew

I started this blog a couple years ago when I bought an old VW bus. I started out clueless, and bumbling around trying to get the thing to work – after two years – I’ve had a lot of fun with it, and have learned a bunch. I’m still pretty clueless, but owning this bus has certainly impacted my life in a lot of really positive ways!

We’re changing our plans with the camper, and starting to look for a more permanent base for our rambling ways. To help with that, I’ve been closing up some loose ends – the bus is definitely one of those ends.

I took about a week to clean up and beautify the bus. I painted and assembled the front and rear bumpers. Earlier, I bought the front bumper accessories and entire rear bumper assembly from Wolfsburg West, and was pretty happy with how they came together. It took some creative ratcheting with a strap to get the things to fit properly onto the bus, but I think they look really good.

I also did a little tuning to get the engine running decently again, and then, posted the ad. Within 5 minutes I had a call. After about an hour and a half, and a multitude of calls and emails, I had the thing sold – to the guy who called first no less!

He came to pick it up, and away went the bus. Two good years of trial and error, fun times, and a few doses of stress and worry. I never thought I would be someone who would enjoy something like an old air-cooled VW, but now I’m not sure I want to be someone who doesn’t own at least a couple. I’ll have to make do with an old camper right now, but who knows, I could see a nice shiny Bug in my future!

We’re getting back on the road soon – headed west for some new adventures.

Florida, Road Trip

Deep Cycle Battery Installation

January 7, 2015 Drew

We’re back to the camping life after a nice break over the holidays. Today I installed a deep cycle battery in the camper to help us get more off the grid – everything seems to be working too!

We have been saying that we want to do more dry camping (boondocking, dispersed camping, sleeping in the woods like a hobo, whatever you want to call it). However, up until now the trailer hasn’t had a battery set up to let us bring electricity with us.

Our computers only last a few hours – once they die, so does our ability to keep working. We then start drinking too much beer, watching too much nature, and having way too much fun… we can’t be doing that! I did some research, bought a few things, and got a system in place and all hooked up – it was electrifying!

Here is the basic wiring diagram:

I have tried to keep the set up simple – my goal is to be able to charge the laptops a few times, run a little 12V fan, and run a few other small things like a work light or drill if needed. I am not looking to run the fridge, water heater, space heater, or anything else like that. The cost of batteries and electrical components definitely skyrockets as the capacity need grows.

I went with a big size 31 AC Delco Voyager deep-cycle battery. This thing cost about $100, but has an 18 month warranty – and I can take it in anywhere AC Delco is sold (ie. any GM dealership). It has a 210 amp hour reserve, so I can get 105AH before needing to charge it up.

I went with a relatively cheap 400watt inverter from Wal-mart, but opted for a slightly more expensive battery charger. The research I did said that charging these big batteries properly is a huge factor in how long they last. I bought the Deltran Battery Tender Plus. It says it goes through 4 modes of charging, with the last being a maintenance mode. It automatically adjusts for temperature, and that last mode will ensure that I never overcharge the battery.

I also wired in a 12V outlet with inline fuse. My plan is to plug our little Road Pro fan into this thing. If I ever need to swap that out for something else that runs off 12V, I can easily do it without needing to rewire.

I’ll have to post a follow-up on how effective this whole thing actually is, but my math would suggest that we can get about 20 full charges for the laptops (the computers draw 1.5AH, and take around 3 hours to charge), or I could run the fan for like 80 hours (1.3AH). I’m not counting efficiency loss, so reality will probably be worse – but as long as we can go at least a couple days on the battery I’ll be happy!

The battery cost a little over $100 with no core, the inverter was $30, the charger was $45, and the other few odds and ends made the total cost around $200. We average around $25 a night at a campground (or trailer park…), so it will take about 8 nights of sleeping out in the woods to make this worth it.

I’m pretty happy with the installation. It took me a few hours to get everything set up (along with the obligatory two trips to the hardware store). When we want to charge the battery, we just plug the Deltran charger into “shore power”. When we want to charge the laptops, we just flip the switch on the inverter.

Everything seems to be working perfectly – now we just need to get off the grid, and see how long it lasts!

North Carolina, Road Trip, VW

Camper Regroup

November 15, 2014 Drew

Our camper shakedown cruise is officially over! We completed our round-about circle through the backwoods of North and South Carolina, and headed back to do a little house sitting for the in-laws.

It was certainly nice to have a stationary roof over our heads for a little while, but I’m also really happy with how our first bit of camping experience went. All the systems seem to be functioning properly on this thing; we didn’t really have any major mechanical troubles – sweet!

It was fun to do some catching up with the kitties – we’re very thankful that Norm and Carla are taking care of them while we are on the road!

We also got to do some catching up with the bus. You know… that stupid rotting VW bus that started us on this whole wingdinger of a trip!

I mentioned that I had decided to “outsource” the bus work to a shop in Charlotte before we left for Amsterdam. Unfortunately, they didn’t actually have the capacity to do anything either, so the bus just sat outside for a couple months. I would rant more about car shops and how worthless each and every one of them is, but it’s just not really worth it.

The drive back from the shop went really well – the bus fired right up! I almost took a wrong turn down the on-ramp to I-85 which was fun, it was really cold with no windows, but the thing drove beautifully. We made it an hour or so up the road, and it’s now tucked away nicely in the garage – success! (kind of).

I’ve got a camper project list a mile long, but at this point nothing is critical. We’re planning on heading south next – hopefully we’ll find a beach soon!