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I would say gas heater and a second fuel tank, 14 gal aint a lot if you are really sucking on it. LED lighting is a good idea, I have always wondered what the factory florescent bulbs draw. The one sure puts out a lot of light.

as for the tubing, remember you have a frame, so it might be over kill. if you want to beef something up, its your jack points. I will probably let my current roo bar go if you are interested, well below list price due to its mileage. I have gotten about 5 emails in thelast 2 months about bars, so I am probably going to do a run real soon. As for spare tires, I have plans for a rear swing out but yet to find the time to do it. If you wanna tag team it one weekend, I would let you build two!

also Kittery Trading post? gimme the hookup man!

as for batteries, the price is rough, bUT a lifepo battery is the ultimate deepcycle battery. and I mean ultimate. You can drain them more than a lead acid, they cost twice as much but will last 3-10 times longer depending. Oh and teh whole weight thing. I have a couple at work to play with and I am kind of in love. As soon as I have another camper, I am building a small pack for an aux rig, and adding cells to it every time i feel the need to spend money. THe great thing is A dead SLA battery takes overnght to recharge. A lifepo battery can be recharged in an hour.

fusername wrote:I would say gas heater and a second fuel tank, 14 gal aint a lot if you are really sucking on it.

What I really need is a good defroster. The center heat tube is non-existant. I've heard of people using a section of PVC. It's a T1 motor, how much heat can I expect to get and push through that big, open space? I've got a remote oil cooler for it, maybe mount that internally with an electric fan? Propane heaters? I know, I know, don't reinvent the wheel but I remember driving my baja in the winter. NOT FUN. Not sure I have the money in the budget for a BN heater, though some of the S-W gas heaters show up on E-gag pretty cheap. As for additional gas, I've been thinking on that as well. I'm guessing the 1776 pushing a big brick isn't going to be returning very high MPG...

LED lighting is a good idea, I have always wondered what the factory florescent bulbs draw. The one sure puts out a lot of light.

Dunno, this is a 70 so I have standard bulbs and they don't put off much light. I'm thinking of a couple of those round LED spaceship-looking things, kinda like touch lamps. That might be an option too.

as for the tubing, remember you have a frame, so it might be over kill. if you want to beef something up, its your jack points. I will probably let my current roo bar go if you are interested, well below list price due to its mileage. I have gotten about 5 emails in thelast 2 months about bars, so I am probably going to do a run real soon. As for spare tires, I have plans for a rear swing out but yet to find the time to do it. If you wanna tag team it one weekend, I would let you build two!

I've already decided to replace the jack points with some box steel. If I do them the same size as a class 3 hitch, that opens up a bunch of possibilities...

As for the roo bar, we should talk:). I want one for Ducky too. I'm definitely on board for working on a swing out, especially if we can incorporate a jerry can mount and\or shovel mount too.

also Kittery Trading post? gimme the hookup man!

That's where Mikey is working right now, I think for about another month. He gets I think 20-30% off except for firearms.

as for batteries, the price is rough, bUT a lifepo battery is the ultimate deepcycle battery. and I mean ultimate. You can drain them more than a lead acid, they cost twice as much but will last 3-10 times longer depending. Oh and teh whole weight thing. I have a couple at work to play with and I am kind of in love. As soon as I have another camper, I am building a small pack for an aux rig, and adding cells to it every time i feel the need to spend money. THe great thing is A dead SLA battery takes overnght to recharge. A lifepo battery can be recharged in an hour.

Not cheap but neither is buying SLA batteries every year either.

yeap. And as for heat, I would say propane all the way! they make some little ones that are bedroom safe. The heater buddy is, although he makes a good bit of water vapor. I mean I guess they alll make water vapor, but I wonder if anyone has solved that problem. either crack a window or some way of condensing the water out in a controlled way, OR a heat exchanger type rig that exhausts the propane outside and just heats air. You could easily mount 4 of the factory propane tanks under the floor and have tons and tons of heat for much cheaper than running a gas heater.

or convert a BN4 or 6 to propane... crap that might be a really good idea.

also that hitch/jack point idea is DEFINATLY getting stolen, just so you know. I had some of those tap lights in my bay, they were great but the glue they came w/ left a lot to be desired, but it i just got the guts to perm mount them, problem solved. Gut em and make em run on 12 v. OR since you are an electronics guy, maybe add a 5 volt rail ot your bus. then you can run all kinds of stuff that is meant for USB and poop. another new idea for my bus.

quick!
http://nh.craigslist.org/pts/3286304801.html

Sneaks wrote: I'm thinking of a couple of those round LED spaceship-looking things, kinda like touch lamps.

I've got something like that under my cabinets, but it wasn't anywhere near THIS expensive 7 yrs ago...
http://www.homedepot.com/Lighting-Fans- ... reId=10051

Mine have 9 tiny LED's in each puck, they put out out a blue-ish white light.

fusername wrote:yeap. And as for heat, I would say propane all the way! they make some little ones that are bedroom safe. The heater buddy is, although he makes a good bit of water vapor. I mean I guess they alll make water vapor, but I wonder if anyone has solved that problem. either crack a window or some way of condensing the water out in a controlled way, OR a heat exchanger type rig that exhausts the propane outside and just heats air. You could easily mount 4 of the factory propane tanks under the floor and have tons and tons of heat for much cheaper than running a gas heater.

I was looking at the Heater Buddy just the other day. Didn't even think about running them off factory propane tanks. I might have to invest in both ('70 didn't have propane:( )

Gut em and make em run on 12 v. OR since you are an electronics guy, maybe add a 5 volt rail ot your bus. then you can run all kinds of stuff that is meant for USB and poop. another new idea for my bus.

That's an idea. Wouldn't be too much work to plop a PC power supply in there some place, would give me multiple 5v and 12v leads. Nice.

winifredevw wrote:

Sneaks wrote: I'm thinking of a couple of those round LED spaceship-looking things, kinda like touch lamps.

I've got something like that under my cabinets, but it wasn't anywhere near THIS expensive 7 yrs ago...
http://www.homedepot.com/Lighting-Fans- ... reId=10051

Mine have 9 tiny LED's in each puck, they put out out a blue-ish white light.

I'm thinking some cheap ones from Walmart to play with.

I had those (did i say this already?) And it was like 9 for 3. They were a lot brighter than they were stickey, need to be screwed in but offer fantastic lighting.

dealextreme.com is the place for getting cheap chinese LED lighting.
(or pretty much anything cheap electronics wise)

Went to Tractor Supply today, picked up some paint and other stuff. I got:

- 4 LED interior lights (1.6V)
- 8' of 2" box channel
- 2 100w floods and 2 55w floods. 100s for the front, 55 for the back.
- 2 10,000 BTU Heater Buddys (propane)
- 6000lb dead, 12000lb rolling winch (on clearance for $169!!!!)
- couple of snatch blocks, 10,000lb hooks, 12,000 strap, 20' of 10,000lb chain
- Gallon of black implement paint, reducer and hardener.
- 25gal collapsible water bladder (nylon reinforced)
- 4x6 sheet of 3/8" nylon\poly for skid plates
- Pick axe
- 12v 200gph portable pump

Decided I love the implement paint I put on my '79 bay so much that I'm going to do this one with it too. The body is very straight so all black is the color of choice:). Total bill for day was $600 and change, I didn't think that was too bad considering the winch was listed at $400 regular price. And that included 100lbs of dogfood to get through the next two weeks.

Are the LED lights battery powered? Cause you could daisy chain them, put in a 6v regulator, and boom, battery powered leds. The reg would make them draw twice thier rated amps, but i bet all 4 are still drawing less than one bulb.

Also score on that winch, next time get two! Hopefully it doesnt grenade on the first pull. I am still scared to invest in a winch, but snatchblocks seems smart.

fusername wrote:Are the LED lights battery powered? Cause you could daisy chain them, put in a 6v regulator, and boom, battery powered leds. The reg would make them draw twice thier rated amps, but i bet all 4 are still drawing less than one bulb.

I was thinking of this but then they run off button batteries. My thought is to wire them so they can operate either way. I figure if I run them through a switch first, I can isolate what power source they use so in the case of no juice from the bus electrical system (say, dead battery, battery disconnected for some reason) I can switch over to the button battery and still have light.

fusername wrote:Also score on that winch, next time get two! Hopefully it doesnt grenade on the first pull. I am still scared to invest in a winch, but snatchblocks seems smart.

I'll find out soon. Going to use it this coming weekend to move cars around. Want to pull this bus outta the back yard to get it ready for paint and need to move the Mustang into that building I have out back so it will be out of the elements again. I could drive the Mustang in the building but would need about 50' ramps so it wouldn't high center. You've seen how low that thing is:). Another thing about the winch is it's set up to be mounted a variety of different ways including a class 3 receiver. Making the jack points all 2" box will give me 2 winch points per side if needed.

I'm a big believer in working smarter, not harder. Snatch blocks are awesome as long as you are not in a hurry. Just a single block ups the mechanical capacity dead from 6000 to 12000lbs. Should help lessen the strain on the winch.

you can be in arush and do the opposite. Put the snatch block on the winch and a second wire from anchor to block to load. you get half the pulling power at twice the speed. good for flat rolling. I found some HEAVY but kinda short wire that is joining my recovery bag. about 25 feet, near an inch in diameter steel cable, gonna try and look up the capacity of such a thing once I actually measure it. has braided eyes at both ends.

you better hurry up, presidential election is just over a month away

Herbie is right, I have been getting busy on mine so it's all ready when the SHTF.