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.
I didn’t get much sleep the night before my group of friends and I went to pick up the truck. After waiting more than a month since wining the auction I was itching to see my truck. John, Christina, Kathi, Daniel, and I woke up and started our drive to Portsmouth Virginia at 8am on July 28th, 2009.
After around 4 hours on the road we reached the military base and headed to the DRMO area. On our way to the sign-in station we passed by the storage yard and we got our first distant look at the truck. Even standing relatively isolated in the yard it looked impressive. As luck would have it we arrived at the beginning of the lunch break for the personnel. After some time we were able to sign in and go back to get the truck. My heart fluttered as we made our final approach. “Oh S*@&” I thought to myself, “What have I gotten myself into?” Read more…
In high school I gained an interest in alternative building materials and designs. I began investigating what people could (and are) building with whatever they had on hand. I was looking into everything from re-purposed shipping containers to dirt with concrete reinforcement. After some time I stumbled across people living full time out of their RVs. This further led me to people who would convert old Greyhound buses into RVs and travel the country. After some more time I found people who were “preparing for the zombie apocalypse” and had “bug out vehicles.” Some were just econo vans loaded with food, tools, and some tents, but others were more elaborate. I found a posting of someone who was using a “Deuce and a Half” for his bug out truck. The offroading ability of 6×6 drive intrigued me, as did the multifuel engine. “A diesel engine that can run off of gasoline? Wow.” Read more…
We have made a lot of visible progress in the past few weeks. John and I have put in new flooring, paint, carpet, a fridge, chairs, etc. We still have to make the new battery and wiring system, but John as been working on the new design. Sadly I didn’t take as many pictures during this part of the renovation, so you’ll have to imagine the hours and hours of work that went into this.
After removing all of the desks and rotten wood (as seen in the previous update) we began installing the new wood. We painted all of the boards before we laid them in place so that they would last longer and receive less wear and tear. In the high traffic areas (the middle and forward “L” shape) we also put down 5/8th” composite board so as to add even more protection and strength to the floor. After measuring, cutting, painting and bolting the boards down we screwed a carpet into place.
After getting the fridge, carpet, and couch installed John and I took a break.
One of the few pictures I have with the new floor boards exposed. After this we repainted all of the original floorboards as well.
There were several things that I wanted to work on during spring break: Moving out the desks, painting, replacing the bad floorboards, changing the consumables, getting the 24v lights working, etc. Although we didn’t finish everything (I didn’t expect us to) we made huge amounts of progress. I don’t have many pictures of pulling the desks out, so you’ll have to watch the video if you want to see that. Getting all of the rusted bolts out for that was almost impossible, so Trey just took a saws all to it and we bought new bolts.
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.
Every now and then I surf over to Verizon’s FiOS page to see what their latest speeds and rates are. It turns out that they have upped their speeds yet again, this time to either 50 mbs down / 25 mbs up or to a symmetrical 35mbs up/down. I love high upload speeds so I decided to upgrade from my 20/20 plan. The cool part is that this new plan is actually around $15 a month cheaper than my previous plan that was half the speed. Now I can run my Tor node at the same speed as my old plan and still have bandwidth to burn. Verizon may be doing some questionable things as a corporation by selling off their rural DSL lines, but I must say that I’ve never had a problem with my FiOS connection since after it was installed.
I plan to use the truck primarily as a mobile computer networking center with the additional use of functioning as emergency relief. The idea for the networking setup is to be able to drive just about anywhere and instantly have a computer network setup to play video games with a bunch of people. Using some Linux scripting, a custom router, a portable server, and my cell phone it is even capable of having an internet connection. Eventually John and I plan to have all of the internet acquisition function automatically and add the ability to be a mean War Driving machine.
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.
My area is suffering from snow and high winds, so power may not be very reliable at the moment. Although I am using my Deuce and a Half as a backup power system it can take some time to switch things over from regular house wiring to backup power. If the site goes down it is either in the process of having the power source switched or my internet connection has been physically separated.
