| Author | Message | ||
| Jim (Jim_in_california)
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Folks...I think it's time I introduced myself. http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2004/11/10/financial1831EST0118.DTL I'm that Jim. And my cut of the settlement will be somewhere between $76,000 and $160,000, with about $110k-$120k likely. The money is already paid to the state by Diebold and is sitting in escrow; the final court hearing on how much of that $2.6mil I get is Feb. 22nd and the state might want to settle before that. I've been considering a certain old Crown: http://mogsrus.com/crown.htm I'd turn this old bus into a mobile media and political activism center. I'm a member of the board of directors of Black Box Voting, a non-profit political reform group dealing with electronic voting troubles. "Black Box" refers to a computerized voting machine that does stuff inside nobody else knows about but the company that made it, a very bad thing. The old Crown would become known as "The White Box". ------------- I've been tallying up the major parts costs and starting a budget. What I've got so far doesn't include flooring, cabinetry, plumbing/electrical labor, etc. Have a look: http://www.equalccw.com/postalpartslist.doc Comments REAL welcome. One way I'll be saving money is by not re-painting (at least for now) and other than the rear door, not doing "body modifications" beyond bare minimum and relying on the existing insulation (which I'm assured should be very good). One of the things I *really* like about this whole concept is that the rig itself will be VERY "stealth". It won't LOOK like there's a lot of expensive stuff inside. In fact, I'm considering putting a couple of long wood boards on edge the length of the roof, a foot tall and spaced about 4ft apart, rounded at each end of the roof. The idea is that they'd act as "armor" for the AC units and fold-down sat dish between them from tree branches and the like, and also hide them from prying eyes. Painted white, there'd be no way to tell what's going on up there. | ||
| TWODOGS (Twodogs)
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yeah..........sure | ||
| Tim Strommen (Tim_strommen)
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Ah, I'm confused (looking at the floorplan you've laid out) where you intend to conduct the media/activism part of the bus? I would think you'd want to reduce the size of the Workshop, to facilitate more room for media "pow-wows", etc. Another question I have is why you seem to be leaning towards the Solar power... If I read your personality correctly from the news article, I'd think you'd have some form of computer (or just general "technology") onboard. I wouldn't think that a system like that would do much more than offset lighting demands at night, to a battery bank durring the day. I would be the first to recommend a DC powerplant (try www.polarpowerinc.com or something similar like a Leece-Nevile alternator). And in order to get power while stationary and not running a genny, an inverter/charger (like a Tripplite APS 2424 or larger) which is basically a big UPS, could be plugged into a 30 or higher amp outlet (campsite) to chare and run your setup without interruption or high-voltage switching (this is the meathod I chose...) On the subject of energy efficiency, I noticed you are also leaning towards an instant-hot water heater. Since you are apparently a CA resident, how about pulling up the california department of energy website and grabbing their energy star listing? I've found a bunch of good leads as to which equipment I have been after. Okay, I'm probably sounding kinda negative, but why the screen door to the bedroom/workshop? I just keep remebering the PG&E demo in my Boy Scouts Troop meeting where they ran unleaded gas fumes in a 4 foot cubed mock house and it found a "pilot light" (a small candle) and blew the unholy $#!T out of the model (I hope Ian doesn't yank my login/post over the censored whoopsy-dasy). Were I to be building a workshop, I'd want the ventiltion to be separated from the rest of the vehicle. PLUS, being a Californian and an activist I'm sure you're familiar with the CO issue... Just further thoughts. Sorry if I made you second guess anything. Personally I hate new ideas being offered as I'm installing something because I have to stop tear everything out and look at how well it would work with everything else I want to do (sounds kinda like what's happening with the SF Bay Bridge huh?). Cheers! Tim | ||
| truthhunter@shaw.ca
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Well done! With that kind of earning effort and inovation you deserve a used MCI (that is already converted) and is ready for a bit of exploratory rolling; with any cash left over from your purchase You can tarvel the country telling everyone your story about how you "earned this great bus"; while educating, inspiring, motivating and alerting others to these serious social/political problems. Wall paper the side of the bus with newspaper clipings and clear vinly to allow you to write off the bus and travel expenises as a "bussiness expense" for your important movement. If you stop and take time to build your crown first , by the time your ready to roll the story will have witherd from everyones conveinent memories and lost all momentum. Remember Newtons second law of gravity? If the majority realy care about their democarcy they will join in , support & donate contributions to your proposed democratic watch dog/reform movment. If the majority do not care to make the effort after they have been motivated to try and discouver the truth, then they do not want a democracy. Doesn't the motto say buy/by/bi the people-for the people? When you run low on cash and feel that your job is done and your conscience is satisfied you can sell the MCI Conversion and spend the proceeds on creating your own crown conversion conversion. It is often far too much for most people to "babysit the masses" and do real stuff like Coach Converting.It would amount to working at the same time as doing puplic awareness and motivationaleducation(these activities are at opposite ends of the realality spectrum ). On a simmilar social activist note : In the earlier recent Ukraine election (not the more recent re-election) they were using DISAPEARING INK to mark the ballots at some of the polling stations, in others stations they had a unusal 98 % voter turnout with a resounding 83% vote for the same questionally elected president (published government facts)! Perhaps it may be past time for a reserection of the old forum democracy system, that way they would have to rig each and ever issue or bill that passed; way too much effort to be totally corrrupt the system. Spend you trip telling your story and if the My appologies to the busin folk for soiling this fine forum of facts with something as phoney as "DEMOCTRATIC" political news (can live without it/can't live with it), but my dogs are just ignoring me tonight and I had to get it said! | ||
| Jim (Jim_in_california)
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Tim: typically, when we're in a given city doing public records act stuff or similar, we've only got a crew of two or three. I didn't show it, but I'm thinking there can be a second bunk bed over the forward bed, that can be lifted up during the day...basically hangs off the ceiling. We use laptops a LOT. So this layout isn't bad for up to three people (with laptops), a good printer, a scanner and a rooftop internet connection. I'm not settled on a workshop length. It can run anywhere from 8ft to 10ft. The sliding door at the front of the workshop is BOTH a sealed heavy glass sliding door and a screen door. On separate tracks. With the glass open and screen closed, you could throw the back door open and get a good breeze going through but NOT use the shop for anything involving fumes, and it would be best to have it clear of bikes too. Here's the type of sliding door I had in mind: http://www.lowes.com/lkn?action=productDetail&productId=149980-40446-47839 It's basically typical of a house's sliding back door to a patio. I like it a lot because by not swinging, it works even if things are pretty crammed, and as an "energy sealed" door it ought work very well at "fume control". ------------ As to energy: running laptop computers, careful lights selection and a 12vDC fridge, I think we can do pretty well even on a modest solar setup, if that's being used to stretch battery life with the genset for recharging. And that solar "starter kit" would allow at least three more 80watt panels with no additional wiring (the charger between the panels and batteries supports 36amps) or $1,000 nets a pair of 120watt. And that big flat roof has enough space. The point is to get data collected, scanned and uploaded to the 'net, fast. Also note that if space turns into a problem, one advantage of the onboard garage is that the tow hitch is still wide open. If we need a bigger crew for some reason, dragging a lighter-grade 20ft travel trailer along is an option. But there's usually just two or three of us in any given location. | ||
| Jim (Jim_in_california)
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Turns out the whole sliding door thing won't work. The entire range where I'd put it has wheelwells in the way. Ooops. A bit of "back to the drawing board" floorplan showed a way to shrink the garage a bit and get a wider rear bed in: http://www.equalccw.com/postalpartslist2.doc ...or as a graphic on it's own: http://www.equalccw.com/goingpostal4.gif This, I'm REAL happy with. There's some complications, like the toilet is on a wheelwell and therefore needs it's own platform. But the wheelwells are rounded, so by putting it at the far back end there'll still be enough clearance for the drain trap - and the black/gray tank can and should start right behind the right axle so it's an easy drop. (The washer can go backwards a bit, the workbench runs across the top of it anyways.) The upsides including having all water sources/drains on a single side of the rig. As to the bed, I realized that while I have an 80" long bed right now, I'm always scooted down because I'm used to dangling my feet over the edge! Hence the 6" gap between the bottom of the bed and a closet. | ||
| Tim Strommen (Tim_strommen)
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Okay Jim those are good answers, Sorry to read that the sliding door thing didn't work, I was kind of interested to see how that would end up. Laptops are real "boogers" when it comes to power consuption, so I'd still probably limit the solar power as to "coach only" functions (refer, lighting maybe some 12 volt fans, etc.) A typical "energy efficient" laptop draws about 65-80 watts, and the newer gamer laptops can draw over 120 watts. This would probably mean that you'd be running the genny whilst using the laptops (even if your driving...) unless you make plans to power all that load (I just remind myself that it gets dark.) One avenue you may want to look at is laptop power packs from Targus, which can opperate from 120 VAC or 12 volt car power and airplane power (for those trips when the bus breaks down and you have to "park" it for a few days.) This will probably save you the extra power conversion, and the associated power draw of ~15-20%. For the printer thing I'd recommend that you stick to bubble jets (ink jets) they can draw as littel as 1 watt while at idle and don't typically draw over 15 watts when printing. PLUS, most of them run from dc power (many at 12 or 9 volts) so some form of power filter and no conversion would better your system run time. I'd recommend that if you have chance, see if your county has a Mobile Emergency Management Unit or a SWAT unit. Most times they have added gear like what you aim to install, and they don't mind showing off how they spent a lot of tax payer money doing it (politicians....). Cheers, Tim | ||
| Jim (Jim_in_california)
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Interesting re: power on the laptops. Wasn't aware that the draw was getting up that high. Still, one option I was already thinking about was two gensets of *differing* sizes, that 3.2k Suzuki most of the time and one of the little 1,000watters (about $700) for nighttime computer use, as they use a VERY small amount of gas and are just as quiet. And it could drive at least two laptops, the satcom system and even a laser printer all at the same time. | ||
| Vin Prew (Billybonz)
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Jim, I would suggest looking into a Mini ITX based computer. They are very small, powerful and can run off 12vdc. I have one I use in my car with a sequencer that puts the computer into stand by when ever the key is switch to off. The advantage this system has is with a 12v ATX power supply, there is no loss converting 120vac back to 12vdc. Also some Mini ITX motherboards don't need any fans, they are passive cooled so no fans to waste power and very quiet. You can look here for more info http://www.mini-itx.com/hardware/intro.asp I do not own or work for this site, just a good source of information regarding ITX motherboards. Vin 1973 GMC T6H4523A | ||
| s'Coolbus nut Rating: N/A |
Jim Better not put the toilet on the wheelwell - even if you build it's own platform. Remember, the toilet must drop straight down into the black tank. Your rear wheels / axle take up most of the space down there in that area! Of course you may be planning on a marine macerator type of toilet that will pump the waste to wherever you need. good luck Mark 75 gillig s'Coolbus | ||
| Jim (Jim_in_california)
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I'm aware of the marine macerator toilet and am holding that in reserve as an option. The *other* option, and my current drawing tools can't really show it well, is to "back that toilet into the corner" so that it's mounted "diagonally", with the rear at the bottom-left corner of that stall area. The reason being, I suspect I can get the trap aligned *just* behind the wheelwell, clearing it by an inch or to and dropping it into the very front of the black tank mounted on the right rear area of the bus "longways" (sorta counter-balancing the fresh tank under the main bed). The FRONT of the toilet would still be over the wheelwell, but not the back. This would of course depend on the exact position of the wheelwell, which I don't have yet. I've made a foot scale to match the pics I have and done measurements accurate to maybe 4" - 6". If I can't do that trick "skirting the edge of the wheelwell" then yeah, I'm looking at $500 for a marine macerator throne. Sigh. | ||
| Tim Strommen (Tim_strommen)
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Laser printers are pretty aren't they? My only comment on those is (take for example my home setup) my HP Laserjet 4050TN while at idle draws 7 watts (measured using a watt meter). However.... when at peak draw my printer draws about 1500 watts!! (this is enough to make the lights on my 15 Amp office circuit DIM). Running a laser printer would be "neat", but in a mobile setup far less than practical. I also agree with Vin, I'm using a VIA M10000 in my truck, and I've been trying to get my hands on a VIA Nano-ITX board (not easy even if you live three miles from VIA). But do your homework on your hardware, it is an investment. Don't skimp on things like memory... Anyway, good luck with the project, and if you're looking to do some low voltage lighting I'd recommend using LEDs (probably from www.lumileds.com, formerly Agilent/HP, and I swear by them). I used one (1) watt LED in a friend's dome light, and you could see the floor in a well-lit parking lot through his limo-tinted windows. The Luxeons produce enough light to be sloppy in your LED retrofits (but don't stare at them...) Cheers Tim | ||
| Jim (Jim_in_california)
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Well the good news is that I don't do a LOT of printing. But when I need it, I need it good. Sooo...I think by turning it on only when needed, and doing a lot of stuff with an inkjet, I can get by. Esp. as I'm now leaning more towards dual Honda 2000 gensets; the cabling for parallel use DOES seem to allow solo operation even when dual-cabled and one genset off, which is contrary to the Honda manual. I'll be looking at that issue in more detail. | ||
| FAST FRED Rating: N/A |
Since there are so many ways of building a coach perhaps catagories like Cooking , Heat Air Cond , Water supply and Waste ect should be made first . Then you can list the choices , and match the choices with your current "wants" list. AS everything is related some choices would be "better" than others to get to your goal. FAST FRED |
