I See the Light ....

Some while ago I mentioned my over-enthusiasm in selecting a water pump had resulted in one which cycled on and off about every 2 seconds, fast enough to ensure it would probably not last over any extended time. My friend Sich has kindly donated a pressure tank, which he does not need in his system, to see if that can help solve the problem. I find that this sort of re-arrangement does my head in. I tend to be a bit obsessive compulsive about trying to get things neat and "proper" some times and when there are a number of conflicting requirements it leads to a great deal of (SOMETIMES) useless anguish. My lessons learned on the generator saga however have encouraged me not to ignore the little things as they all seem to add up to more than the sum of the parts. In the case of plumbing there are always things like pipe friction involving length, diameter, bend turbulence etc. etc. etc.... which will cause these low pressure systems to not perform very well at the best of times. Then when you have to squeeze it all into small spaces involving twists and turns and try to match each manufacturer's fittings to each other it can cause great angst.
Never the less this re-arrangement has seemed to turn out OK and the cycling frequency has been greatly reduced so I am going to live with it for a while.


















While I was at it I decided to try and improve another aspect of convenience. I intend to do nearly all cooking outside - BBQ, wok or frying pan on the BBQ burner - inside the smells just never go away and I have never found a satisfactory range hood for a camper (or a house for that matter!). When you do this there is always the matter of cleaning up. Similarly if you ever need to just rinse something off before stowing it away it is a real inconvenience to be going backward and forward inside and out for water in a bucket etc.. It would be nice to have a tap convenient to the outside. So while I was at it I added another couple of fittings into the system and installed a mixing tap and shower hose just inside the compartment. I could have bought a standard "outside shower set" but they are really flimsy and then just give you the problem of securing them so no vandal can just turn on a tap and drain away all your water. (Yes I have heard of it happening!)
Now I have the convenience of an outside shower and hot and cold running water for cleaning up etc..


















With the carpets in it was time to clean up the last of the inside . . .
The bed frame is just about the last of it and I had decided that some more light was needed over the table for reading, eating and working etc. so that needed attending to as well.
A few bits needed priming and painting and I decided it was easier to do this in place than pull it all out and then scratch it all again putting it back in. It was interesting to note that while Sich and I were bringing the truck back across Australia we dropped in at Jacana Motor Homes who are probably the biggest builder of bus based motorhomes in Australia and they did all their finishing painting in place inside the bus after everything else had been completed! Sounds like a nightmare to me but they seem to make it work and they have a very good reputation.


















After that is was just a matter of carpeting the ply base on top


















and also underneath and putting all the trim bits back in place. Also visible are the two LED light bars underneath. These can be turned on their longitudinal axis for directing the light and consume something like .2watts and they are quite effective in this small area.


















As the bed rises and falls taking the lights with them I also needed to get some power to them. This was solved using a "cigarette lighter" adapter which had a coiled cord - cutting it off and soldering the wire ends to the lights and providing a couple of fittings to take the "strain" of stretching the cord.























Now I think it's back outside again.
Testing the plumbing I of course turned on the hot water system. It worked fine but this time I noticed the fibreglass just above the flue outlet seemed to get very hot. It was probably the same as last time but I never noticed it then. It is probably OK but I think over time it will discolour the fibreglass and maybe even cause it to break up. I think it just needs a simple deflector to let the heat disperse before it reaches the fibreglass. I have some spare stainless sheeting in the corner so that's where I am headed. . .