We brought Setesh with us this year to the Jimmy Buffett concert in Bristow VA. We gave countless tours of the truck and had a blast! Everyone walking by stopped to take a look. We’ll be back again next year with even more things for the truck.
This is a video from a few weeks ago. We had been working on the engine of the truck off and on for some time before this. We changed the fluids, filters, and belts. It took us a long time to change the air compressor belt because the pulley was stuck tight in place. Eventually I had to use a propane torch to heat the metal until it glowed. After that I was able to break it free.
The engine started beautify after sitting for over a month. I really love how dependable these trucks can be.
Disclaimer: Normally I take very good care of my truck, running it at least once a week.
We got a lot of work done over the course of the week. We removed all of the shelves, workbenches, and drawers from the box and began to clean the interior. We had to sand down the rust, clean off the mold, and lay new wood. We also started to paint the inside gray (instead of the old green color).The benches in the box were rather rusted where they made contact with the floor, so for many of the bolts it was easier to just use a Saws-all to cut them out. I have also made a small modification to the 24v light wiring in the box so that we can turn them on even when the truck is running 120v power. In addition to all of this, we also changed the fluids, belts, and filters in the engine.
During the testing of the UPS system I drained the batteries rather low. To recharge the batteries I can either run the Diesel engine of the truck and use the alternator or I can use a smart charger that uses mains power. The battery bank is rated at 345 Amp hours at 24 Volts which takes several hours to charge. The alternator on the truck seems to output an average in the neighborhood of 50 amps at 28 volts while the car charger can only output 15 Amps at 14 volts.
Sorry for the shaky camera work, I didn’t have any of my usual weights or stands with me.
We got somewhere in the neighborhood of 22 inches this past weekend (the “Snowpocalypse” according to the media) which effectively immobilized all of the vehicles on my street… except for my Deuce. The snow plows don’t usually come down my road until well after the storms so I decided to take maters into my own hands. Using the 18,000lbs of the truck I compacted the snow to a much more manageable 2 inches so that other cars and trucks could drive again.
Throughout the course of the day John and I also helped pull/push/winch a car to safety and helped a lady in another part of the neighborhood get to work. We also had a lot of fun in the process.
This weekend John and I installed the raceway on the driver’s side of the box. The network cables are now neatly tucked behind the metal raceway. Unfortunately, either the windows or the power strip that came with the truck was installed crooked, so it looks a little off. We also took a look at the driver’s side door henge which is bent and preventing the door from closing completely. John ran a new power cable from the network box to the main breaker box, but since we didn’t have enough raceway we had to just let the cable hang in place. Hopefully next weekend we will have more materials and be able to tidy it up.
Not the most interesting video, but some people requested that I post what video I had of the most recent LAN party. The game of choice was Warcraft III with DoTA, Castle Fight, Line Tower Wars, and Battle Tanks. There were about 12 people (depending on what specific time). We had 5 people in the Deuce and a Half and another 5 people in my computer room.
This weekend John and I worked wiring the 120v electrical system for the M185a3. Over the span of two days we were able to wire and test the electrical umbilical connections, about half of the Ethernet cables, and install the network box. More videos will be posted as progress is made.
I’ve decided to start posting some videos of the progress John and I are making on the deuce and a half. This video glosses over the progress we have made so far. Over the coming weeks I’ll be posting more videos showing specific sub-projects, such as setting up the network box, installing a seccondary breaker pannel, charging the battery bank, and other various things.