Getting better

 Hello everyone,

It’s been two weeks since the surgery and I’m improving everyday. Don’t quite feel like a spring chicken yet, but maybe by spring I will!

Well, as far as the the van starter deal goes, went out when the weather warmed up and the damn thing cranked right up! Not sure what that’s all about but, I decided to not replace it for now.

I finally finished the complete installation of the battery isolator setup and it tests out fine.

I made up a cover for it so I can still see the fuses. Had a hard time finding a convenient “key on” power supply, but that damn van has about 5 different fuse blocks on it! Bought an “add a circuit” setup so both sides are fused and it seems to be fine.

I have to work on the extra chair mount setup this week and then I think we’re going to christen the van by going and seeing our youngest son next weekend.

Well, I think that’s all for now.

Talk to you soon, 

TVI

Recovering

 Hell everyone,

Well, just like the title says I’ve spent the last week or so recovering from my double hernia surgery. First few days were pretty painful, but the last few have been better everyday. Still pretty tender but, able to move around smoother each day. Pretty good, I think, for being sixty seven years old!

Haven’t done much, but I did get the solenoid mounted for the battery isolator. Made up the short cables for the fuses and mounted the cables and the fuse blocks. 

Last week the temps dipped into the negatives over night and the wife went out to start the van and it was a no go! Yesterday, I tested the battery and charged everything up and it appears the starter went out of it. At the moment, I’m not in any shape to change the starter, so I’m trying to figure out if my son is capable of changing it or, if I’ll have to have it towed to town and have it replaced.

I’ll have to come up with an answer fairly quickly, because I’ll need to test the isolator setup and make sure it’s all charging correctly.

The shop is a disaster, so I need to clean it up and put things away this week too.

Well, decisions, decisions! I think that’s it for now.

Talk to you soon,

TVI

Making progress

 Hello everyone,

The camper van thing is moving along. Made some serious progress this past week, in between doctor visits. The end of this week I’m having hernia surgery, and then, hopefully, no more doctors for a while.

I finished up the first wall and shelf unit and got it mounted in the van. 

I built the next wall and added the storage baskets etc.. I also put in the inverter and mounted it to the second wall.

Plus, I built the battery box and put it in place.

So, all that’s left to do is install and wire the battery isolator and it all should be ready for a shakedown run. There’s still more to do to make it finished but, all in do time.

I probably won’t get much more done this week, I have to run up north to the ear doctor today and then the surgery on Friday. I’m not sure how well I’ll bounce back from that at 67 years old, but we’ll see.

I think that’s all for now.

Talk to you soon,

             TVI

Back to a normal pace

 Hello everyone,

Starting to get back to normal around here. Other than a couple of doctors visits, the schedule is normalizing.

Started out doing a little work on a hand held gas leaf blower that my wife’s friend gave me. It didn’t run so I finally got around to looking at it. Turns out the coil is bad, so I took all the plastic off it and scrapped the engine. Then I had an old chain saw that hadn’t run in forever and I played with it for awhile, it also had more problems than were worth fixing so I scrapped it too. 

All the parts for the van electrical system came in and we sat down and figured out how we wanted it mounted. We bought most of the wood to do the shelves and that, so, that’s this week’s project.

The heart of the electrical system, besides the giant battery, is a 3000 watt inverter. Mostly only worried about coffee and my wife’s hairdryer but, I bought bigger in case we needed a heater or a small air conditioner.

Overnight on Saturday and into Sunday we probably got 8”- 10” of snow. Very wet and heavy snow. So I got up Sunday morning and plowed the driveway and cleaned up a path from the barn.

So, winter in the Midwest never ceases to amaze me. We’ve had a pretty decent winter up until now, and hopefully this was the worst of it.

Well, I think that’s all for now.

Talk to you soon, 

TVI