Happy Earth Day! Posted on 04/22/08 In the last two visits to PA, I haven't really done anything which was both photo-worthy and conveniently photographed. That is to say, the things I've done have been either too boring to take a picture of, or too inconvenient. The fact is, in the last few weeks I've really only done a bunch of coordination (and some little things to make the place ready for the contractors). Horrel-Neiderhiser completed the installation of the new high efficiency furnace and all of the ductwork, and will be testing that on thursday. Amerigas came and moved the propane tank from the front of the house to the south side where it won't be so prominent. And I found and hired a local contractor to install the last few pieces of sheetrock I hadn't gotten around to finishing, and then tape and mud the entire house. He tells me he'll be done by the end of next week or so. When I haven't been answering questions or talking to contractors, I've been busy cleaning up with the leaf blower, cutting down rotted trees, or picking up deadfall (lots and lots of deadfall). Oh, and I also cleaned out the shed and straightened and reinstalled the Fiamma bike rack on the back of the Westy. Last year sometime I accidentally tapped the dumpster at Speedgoat while I was parking and the rack popped off like a grape. So there's a lot going on, but I'm not the one doing most of it. The next time I'm up there I'll shoot some photos of the new furnace in the little alcove I built for it off of the master closet, as well as, with any luck, all of the completed spackling. Next on the to do list? Paint the whole house. In lieu of construction shots here are are some pictures of flowers I shot outside the house this morning.   Permalink   Share i've been remiss... Posted on 09/15/06 Sorry, I've been slacking since I got back from Burning Man. I'll try to relate some stories when i get the chance, but in the meantime, all I can say is wow. It was an amazing experience. Some people get a big spirtiual high from it, make life long connections and whatnot... but for me, it was just being there, enjoying the art, seeing the people. Simply amazing and I can only tell you that you need to go, at least once in your life. How did everything work? Well, the shower enclosure worked okay, but not great. Any little wind would blow the (cold, wet) curtains against you, which was uncomfortable. Also, the first time i took a shower we hadn't pinned the two curtains together, so it was a bit of a free show for nearby camps. Then again, it was Burning Man, and a lot of camps set their showers up in full display of the road, with no curtains at all, so my modesty was more of the exception than the rule. The frame itself seemed to work, although if i keep it I might drill the connections for zip ties. I just didn't feel it was stout enough. Also regarding the shower, the evaporation pond did its job, but not spectacularly. After my first shower we had some dust kick up, actually a full-on dust storm. Well, the water that was still in the evap pond became mud. Yeah, this evaporated eventually, but I ended up bringing a lot of playa home in the black plastic bundle, and throwing it away. Next year I'm definitely looking into a water treatment option. once the water is treated it can be used for any number of things; swamp coolers, misters, dust reduction... even more showers if your treatment system is good enough. The solar panel did its job, I guess. Here it is mounted up on top of the westy in the front luggage rack. I took along a VOM, but since I have every little real experience in using it, I have no idea how to know if the system was working. I assume it did, because I used the deep cycle quite a bit over the course of the week to charge the camera and run the laptop, and it didn't seem to lose power. I guess I need to talk to someone about how to really measure these things. Eventually it would be nice to have this thing mounted permanently to a set of bars on top of the Westy because carrying it around is a complete pain. Then, as long as I park with the rear end facing south, the panel should be nicely placed when i pop the top. Finally, I've posted a boatload of photos from Burning Man here.   Permalink   Share Shower Enclosure Posted on 08/13/06 Nothing refreshes like a nice shower, and even though I'll be in the desert for a week, I plan to enjoy daily showers at Burning Man. Because I'm not the most exhibitionist person on the planet, I wanted a little privacy for my showers. After thinking though a whole raft of freestanding designs, I finally came up with this design which mounts just below the westy's rear hatch. A pair of padded clamps grab the hatch struts, and the outer end is hooked to the hatch with some lengths of electrical wire. The frame itself is made of 1/2" CPVC plumbing pipe and fittings. The fittings and the pipe fit well enough together that no glue is needed. I bought two cloth shower curtains which will easily wrap around the three exposed sides of the enclosure. I need to pick up some very cheap, very lightweight curatin hooks if I can, although the removable wire ties i'm using below will probably work too. If I have time between now and the trip, I'd like to hem a few inches off the bottom of the shower curtains, but it's not critical. I'm not sure if I'll need to do anything about the fourth side, which is already covered by the westy. Speaking of that, the other advantage of this enclosure is that you can sit on the westy bumper to wash your feet. Of course the whole thing breaks down to and takes up almost no space in the westy, just some tubes and fittings.   Permalink   Share Candy Canes Posted on 08/08/06 I read somewhere that regular tent stakes are useless at Burning Man. The wind will just lift up your tent and blow it away. Well, between the shower enclosure and the Kelty shelter, I'll need a few stakes. Using some instructions I found online, I made these. They're two-foot lengths of 3/8" rebar, with hooks heated and bent into the end. I made twelve and probably didn't get into a groove until the fifth one. Heat, bend a ninety degree hook, then move the heat to a spot about an inch up the hook from your first spot. Once that's good and red, complete the bend. Gives a nice hook. the first ones I did were to sharp since I made the entire bend in the same spot. They'll work though.   Permalink   Share Solar Charge Controller Posted on 08/01/06 The solar charge controller showed up today. Unfortunately the panel hasn't shown up. I have some time though. Based on the size of this, I think what I might do is to attach it to a piece of plywood with a handle, and attach the panel to the other side. Then I'll run a wire from the output of the charge controller to a male lighter plug. I'll run some wires from the battery to the back of the westy, and install a lighter socket back there. I can use that socket to draw power form the battery, OR to charge the battery. N'est ce pas? I think it'll work.   Permalink   Share Finishing the Insulation Posted on 07/31/06 I finished up the insulating panels for the Westy on Sunday. I had grandiose plans of sewing some kind of screened thing for the front windows which would allow me to keep them open while providing shade. I did something like that last year for the BMW. Alas, I just don't have the time. Instead i just cut out some more panels. I also cut a second set of each to go with the ones KB cut last weekend for the Westy she and her sister are renting. I designed these so that I could sleep in the car with the windows open, the screens keep the bugs out and the awnings keep the rain out. The top and sides are held on with elastic, and a strip of magnet holds the bottom edge of the screen. It worked, but obviously, it's still not the same as having a Westy, is it? No. Anyway, I gave these to Mike when he bought the car. I can't see him actually camping in the car, but you never know. Oh, I took these photos prior to installing a piece of wire which stretched the awning open and away from the window. Looking at the photos again, I'd definitely like to make something like this for the Westy so I could leave the front windows open when camping. I don't have time to do it before Burning Man. Maybe next year. I'd make some changes though. First, I'd make them in white. and the awnings would need to be adjustable somehow. they should also intgrated in some way with the reflective solar insulation I've already completed. On another note, some of the solar power stuff for the Westy should be here tomorrow. I'll get photos up ASAP.   Permalink   Share Solar for the Westy Posted on 07/20/06 I need to keep the deep cycle charged for a week at Burning Man, and I really don't want to buy a generator. Solar or wind is the way to go. Since I don't have time to build a wind turbine, or even bolt some kind of mounting tower for an AirX to the side of the Westy, I ordered a 50 Watt GE solar panel and a Sunguard 4 charge controller from a place called the Sun Cowboy. I'm still not sure if I'm going to mount the panel to the Westy, or just build a small rack that will hold it next to the van. Ideally it'll be on the roof, but that space is reserved for a roof rack, and since the panel would need to mount to the rack, and the rack isn't there yet... well, you get the idea. Stay tuned.   Permalink   Share Insulating the Westy Posted on 07/10/06 With all that glass, the Syncro is essentially a big solar oven out in the desert. To avoid slowly roasting myself at Burning Man this summer, I needed to make some insulating panels to keep the Westy cool during the day. The insulation is like bubble wrap made of reflective mylar and I bought a few rolls of it from Lowes. All I had to do was make some templates out of newspaper and cut out the pieces. Since they ended up just slightly too big, they pop into the windows, fit tightly, and hold themselves there without any kind of clips. I did all of the non-functional windows this weekend. Rear, rear sides and windshield. I still want to put some thought into the sliding windows and the front doors. I also made insulating panels for the pop-up roof and the skylight. All this work made me start really thinking about the work I need to do to the Westy before Burning Man. Not too much really... I need to pick up a solar shower, and an inflatable kiddie pool, and get some kind of shower-stall worked out. I'd like to rig up a solar charger for the battery and mount it to the roof. The goal will be to park the van facing north so that the solar charger will be pointed south on the popped-up roof. Still haven't worked all that out. I'm sure there's some other stuff too, but I haven't thought that far yet.   Permalink   Share LED There Be Light Posted on 06/13/06 If you've talked to me much, you know that I'm completely smitten by the potential of LEDs, especially in a mobile application like the Westy. They throw a fair amount of light, use almost no power, and last forever. A few weeks ago I converted the incandescent cabin light in the Westy to LED. I bought three small light bars, each consisting of three high-power, surface-mount LEDs. I simply removed the existing light sockets and replaced them with these light bars. I think the result is workable, but it definitely isn't the final solution. I used it while camping this past weekend and it simply doesn't produce as much light as I want. I'm probably going to solder up my own light bars, with ten or twelve LEDs in each and use them to replace these. that would also allow me to use the new warm-white LEDs, which produce a nicer light than these do.   Permalink   Share Q Holder For The Westy Posted on 06/05/06 Every time I use my cell phone in the car I think it would be nice ot have a place to put it where it could charge and I could see it at the same time. I finally got some time to throw something together this past weekend. First I made a cardboard template with short tabs to hold the Q and some longer ones which could be bent into place to affix the holder to the dashboard. I test fit the template, and then cut it out of some sheetmetal. Once everything was bent into shape I sprayed it black and then covered the inside with self-adhesive felt. The holder was affixed to the dash with the strong double-sided tape we use to affix the headbadges to the Asylums at the shop.   Permalink   Share