Belafonte Reboot....Ambulance to 4x4 Camper Conversion

[patoz]

Tom, I'm hoping to do a little work on mine later on this week, and I'll look and see how the block heater get's it's power. Mine is just like yours but it's 1993 model, however it should be wired the same way. Someone 'liberated' the inverter before I bought it, so I won't be able to tell much from that end.

 

[flightcancled]

Tom are there structural supports in that door or did you bolt to the skin? And yeah, it's total heaven.

My cab's AC setup is similar. To my knowledge a cable runs from the shore power plug under my seat where it hits a junction box.

Up- Battery maintainer
Left- Block heater
Bottom right- AC in
Top right- back of the inverter.

A line in the front of the inverter connects to a cable which runs to the cab outlets. The inverter also has connections to the batteries and a little grey data wire which is the signal wire.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[tgreening]

I put the steps as close to the door framing as I could get them and still get a nut/washer on the bolt. Other than that, no support in there to speak of. I had bought some aluminum backing materila to use in place of washers that I could cut big inorder to spread the load. Turns out though that being close to the door frame, plus the thickness of the door skin, is plenty strong. I could detect zero flex when I stand on a single step, and unfortunately I'm not as skinny as I used to be. I don't envision them seeing a lot of use either so I'm not concerned.

I'm going to try getting my bench skinned today. I bought a bunch of that grey stuff the cover speaker enclosures with and some spray adhesive to give it a go. I managed to pull the bench last night before the rain got too serious but then called it a day. Hopefully I can post pictures of that tonight.

Can't wait for my wheels/tires to get here! Which reminds me. I have to shoot Chris a msg and ask about his lift. I'm going the 6" route and I need to find out if it levels things out in the process. My rear end sits high (ambo, mine is headed south) and I don't like it. It appears like 6" up front and about 4" in the rear would do the trick. I'd rather do that and then add bags to rear for load leveling.

 

[tgreening]

On the block heater issue. I have assumed there is a short in the element somewhere since the gfi stops popping if I pull the plug right at the block. For giggles I took a risk and plugged in an extension cord right to the block heater cord (brand new). I assumed what I would get would be a rapidly warming set of cords and/or a popped breaker at the panel in my basement. Nothing, nada. Didn't warm up one bit, which puzzled me.

What exactly trips a gfi outlet? It's there to protect against a short to ground correct?

 

[java]

On the block heater issue. I have assumed there is a short in the element somewhere since the gfi stops popping if I pull the plug right at the block. For giggles I took a risk and plugged in an extension cord right to the block heater cord (brand new). I assumed what I would get would be a rapidly warming set of cords and/or a popped breaker at the panel in my basement. Nothing, nada. Didn't warm up one bit, which puzzled me.

What exactly trips a gfi outlet? It's there to protect against a short to ground correct?

Exactly. GFCI measures the difference in charge between ground and neutral, should never have any charge on the ground, ie a short somewhere. They are extremely picky.... Someone may have tied ground to neutral somewhere, or the ground is not connected (my guess) which will cause he GFCI to trip since it cant get a measurement.

 

[rlrenz]

If you need carpet or Tolex (heavy vinyl) to cover a console, you can get the perfect stuff from Reliable Hardware (http://www.reliablehardware.com/). Gray or black carpet runs $6.50 per running yard (4 ft wide) while Tolex runs $16 per yard (54" wide). They sell anything you might need to make road cases for a band - I've bought from them to make storage cases for some of my equipment - it winds up being a whale of a lot cheaper than buying a ready made, and fantastically cheaper than buying a custom made case. Their web site has UTube videos that show how to apply the carpet.

 

[frig84]

As far as supporting the fold down bed platform, you could use some sort of a short folding leg to bridge the gap between the bottom of bed and the top of your existing bench tops on either side of the chairs. Not sure if my two cents hepls any.

 

[frig84]

On the heating element, if it is blown it could be shorting through the coolant in the block an tripping the GFI if the ground for the AC side of your electrical uses the frame for the ground shielding.

 

[tgreening]

Tried my hand at auto upholstery today and I'm afraid McKayla Maroney would not be impressed.

This part was easy!

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Lookin good so far.

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Doing all the pockets took wayyy longer than expected. My inexperience I'm sure was a major factor. I had a hard time figuring out what should be layered in what order.

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I still have to do a bit more but I ran out of sticky stuff, and couldn't wait to see what it would look like, so I popped it back in. A couple of pockets, one lid and a couple of hinges and I should be good to go. That mat could be a real pain in the ******** to cut. I used a utility knife with fresh blades and some portions would cut like butter while others wanted to just rip and tear. Not sure what was up with that, but I wouldn't doubt it was because I didn't know what I was doing.

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Tomorrow I should finish up and have it bolted back down. A few cup holders in the lids should finish things up, at least for now, but I might want to run some power to the center console so they can plug in their game consoles and what-not. As long as it holds up I'll be happy with it. Time will tell.

It was more expensive than I figured. I spent $50 on the covering but I bought way more than I'm going to need. The 3M spray adhesive added about another $54 to the project. Not giving that stuff away because I only bought 3 cans.

Now I just have to figure out what to do with the leftover material.

And now my seats look ugly in comparison.

 

[tgreening]

On the heating element, if it is blown it could be shorting through the coolant in the block an tripping the GFI if the ground for the AC side of your electrical uses the frame for the ground shielding.

Define blown if you could. If it's anything like the ones I've looked up online that element looks like it could take about a 1000 amps before burning up. If it burned through then what you said makes sense, at least to me, but I can't picture how the element could "blow" enough to cause current to seek a path through the coolant. I had planned on putting a meter on it to see if that sheds any light but haven't gotten around to it while working on my bench.

 

[Abitibi]

Looking good! Don't forget the drink holders!

 

[patoz]

Now I just have to figure out what to do with the leftover material.

You can send it to me, because I'm going to need some of the same thing. Just kidding, but what kind of material is that or what is it called?

 

[tgreening]

You can send it to me, because I'm going to need some of the same thing. Just kidding, but what kind of material is that or what is it called?

It's the stuff stereo shops use for covering speaker enclosures, which is where I bought it. I had thought about, and probably should have asked them to just cover it, but I'm impatient and didn't want to make an appointment for 2 weeks down the road.

 

[patoz]

Ha, you sound like me! Thanks for the info...

 

[rlrenz]

Define blown if you could. If it's anything like the ones I've looked up online that element looks like it could take about a 1000 amps before burning up. If it burned through then what you said makes sense, at least to me, but I can't picture how the element could "blow" enough to cause current to seek a path through the coolant. I had planned on putting a meter on it to see if that sheds any light but haven't gotten around to it while working on my bench.

When you look at the heating element, you are seeing the outer sheath/housing. The actual element is inside the sheath, and is insulated from the sheath.