Putt

Van Living Forum

Help Support Van Living Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
How fun!! And Dart looks like he's going to love life on the move.
 
Skuh kuh kuh kuh
Thanks for the no pic on that last post ! :huh:
 
Looks a lot like a bread delivery in the middle of nowhere...


I'll take a carton of Hostess Twinkies please!

:p

(damn, looks like fun was had by all!)
 
nice. beautiful pics. looks like that T-bone was hit with more then the pup. highdesertranger
 
Awesome, thanks for sharing!
Dart is adorable... and boy was that pic and comment funny with Dart and the log!
 
rvpopeye said:
Thanks for the no pic on that last post ! :huh:

Maybe just the audio next time, eh?

AbuelaLoca said:
With scenery like that, I'd want to be out there too!!

Mountains are sort of in blobs in SW Montana, and it tends to be easier to just build roads around them. Gravely Range road is one of the very few SW MT FS roads that actually run along the ridge line of a mountain range here. It's not really much of a ridge line as the Gravelys are a rather humped range with no discrete ridge. The scenery is spectacular with lots of little dips and gullies, many with ponds and snow banks...even in the July heat! Plenty of wild life, but also lots of cattle and sheep. They hire Ecuadorian shepherds who live in covered wagons that get towed from place to place over the summer.

tx2sturgis said:
Looks a lot like a bread delivery in the middle of nowhere...

Really need a "Coffee 10 Cents" sign to hang up.

highdesertranger said:
nice.  beautiful pics.  looks like that T-bone was hit with more then the pup.  highdesertranger

I sure as heck wasn't going to try to take it away from him...unless I want some finger piercings.

dr_nelson said:
Dart is adorable... and boy was that pic and comment funny with Dart and the log!

He's adorable alright, but stubborn as a mule. Serious business maintaining my Alpha position with the little devil. I do love him, though. 


Well then, a little garage time this weekend.

First had to figure out exactly how high the electronics cabinet had to be in order to get in and out of the front dinette seatwithout bumping your head.

IMG_1919-L.jpg


Drew a couple of lines on the floor.  Took two weeks to figure out exactly where they would go.

IMG_1924-L.jpg


Measure 23 times, cut once.

IMG_1939-L.jpg


Aaaaand....basic battery box done. 

IMG_1940-L.jpg


I won't bother trying to explain where everything will go, it'll become obvious as time goes by.

Dart, of course, surveyed the progress.

IMG_1938-L.jpg


He does really well tethered to his bed; seems to ejoy listening to the music and watching me work.

IMG_1934-L.jpg


Pretty hot out yesterday so I'd spritz him with some water from a spray bottle and then he'd just lounge in the breeze.

IMG_1926-L.jpg


Good boy, Dart!
 
This is a Dart Thread! The stepvan build is just a 'filler'!

Moderators!

But really, we dont mind...he sure is cute...   :D
 
Nah. 
Disappointed.gif


He's the only piece of Putt equipment that needs to be trained for two years before hitting the road. 

He ain't right...yet...but he is on topic.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.
 
I did work work on Saturday, so I figured I'd do some more Putting around today.

Basically beefed up the box, and built the battery spacer.

IMG_1941-L.jpg


Room for two more in the future.

IMG_1942-L.jpg


Remember those three panels of plywood I cut too small a while back? Well, this is one of them.

The importance of building this stuff is that it's everything I need to paint before I install the electrics up against the forward wall. So, this coming week, I'll putty, sand, and paint, and next weekend I should be able to start installing the solar system. 



Fine, Brian, no Dart report.  
blbl.gif
 
You know, AL, I thought those walls were going to be great to build into...all those lovely 90 degree angles. Then I figured out some are 88, some are 91.

OTOH, I've now got the special skill of being able to draw a thin, slightly angled line next to a straight edge of the plywood, and then use a belt sander to shave a degree or two off.

As Gary said in his thread, when he shoots for perfect it comes out just okay; when he shoots for okay it comes out crap. I shot for perfect, but the battery box is just okay. Don't think you'd really want one of my custom jobs...unless you think Sikaflex filled gaps look cool.
 
Wouldn't want to get you in trouble, mate. Here's your out:

Having been advised to heavily socialize Schipperkes lest they become anti-social demons, Dart has a regular practice of socialization.

For starters I have three room mates: Sarah, 21, intense and no-baloney real, lived here 2 years, an adopted daughter of sorts; she gets to play the role of human who loves Dart deeply, but is not Dart's master; Dart has someone he really loves, but comes to know it's me he loves most. Tyler, 28, ginger, dreadlocks, wilderness councilor for troubled teens, orangutan, father of a 3yo boy who often sleeps over, you'd have to know the guy; he gets to play the weirdest human around so Dart can even learn to trust unusual people. Tyler roughhouses with Dart and does a great job in the roll. Peter, Zen sparkle-pony from another dimension, I couldn't possibly explain; he gets to play the sensitive human that needs Dart to chill to interact. 

But, this is training from another module...

Weekly canine alarm unit programming report: Social skills with drunks and an unruly mob; unit 3.


IMG_1918-L.jpg


I've posted a couple pix before from Dart at the Crystal while Paul and I play dominos. Here's another. What you can't see from a still is that he's amazingly well behaved for the most part. He jumps into the backpack when I park the van downtown. I carry him in the pack with his little head sticking out the left side as he curiously sniffs the world go by. I go into the Crystal, say hi to the folks, drop the pack with him in it on a bar stool, and order my drink and do the whole wallet and money exchange while Dart sits patiently in the pack looking around. I then take the pack and my drinks over to a table, plonk Dart on a bare bar seat while I get the dominos out and arrange my place setting, then plop the backpack down and plop Dart on top, tehter him up through the slats on the seat back, and Bob's-yer-dang-burn-uncle I'm sitting in the Crystal with my good buddy Paul and my partner Dart just hanging out. Dart usually doesn't make a peep, and just lays down enjoying me rubbing his belly from time to time.

Bonus points: When it comes time to go out to the front sidewalk for a smoke, Dart knows exactly whats happening and politely walks just behind me out the front door. (He really shouldn't be there, but the bar owner doesn't have a problem with Dart. Good boy!) Once out in front with Paul and I sitting on the bench, he'll sniff around a bit, but will usually lie under it in in the shade. If people walk past us, he'll usually come out and be a bit over emphatic in his greeting...but the little dude just melts hearts; I get to talk about Schipperke history often, most folks ask what he is. The mostly think he looks like a little bear cub. 

I know the whole "chick magnet" thing comes up at this point, and O.M.G. he certainly is that, but he's a human magnet all around really. I've tried to observe whether he's more accepting of women than men, but I really think he doesn't discriminate. I think mostly men are not as attracted so they don't want to interact as much, and Dart senses it. The is no doubt, however, that he loves kids and other dogs. I had to get off the bench the other day to physically get a grip on him so he wouldn't jump into a stroller with a giggling one year old in it. And he pulls me hard to every dog in the park on our morning walk.

More bonus points!!!:
On Thursdays we have "Music on Main" here in Bozeman for the summer months. About five blocks of Main St. is shut down to traffic and open containers (special to-go cups from the local bars) are allowed. The place is PACKED!!! Wall to wall humans; thousands of them, it seems. I have taken Dart to the last three of these. Holy Crap! It's fun watching him walk right at me heels in the crowd. and again, "Look at the cute puppy!" was squealed continuously by teen girls in sun dresses. It's bloody ridiculous. I NEVER go to Music on Main; WAY too many people for me. But it's an amazing opportunity to expose Dart to way more humans than even I can handle, and he does marvelously well...as far as I can tell.

Anyway, in terms of Dart being socialized in the critical 8-16 week old time frame, I think I, and Dart, are WINNING! 

He's a good kid, stubborn as a mule, but, with patience on my part, I think he'll be a right good dog.

Extra side bonus: I'm pretty good with a soldering iron, unfortunately I don't get the chance to use it much. With Dart, however, I have had to re-solder three cables he's managed to chew through. I've decided it's my problem, and I have to do a better job puppy proofing. Another example? 

Didn't really know that egg cartons in the kitchen re-cycling cubby could be so damned entertaining. 

I could go on, but I think this is ample evidence that two years of dog training before hitting the road was a damned good idea.


Bonus pic: This, one second before a Peter Pan maneuver dangling from the bar seat.

IMG_1917-L.jpg
 
The Daily Dart!


Yeah we needed our 'fix'.

:D 

Putts said:
I think mostly men are not as attracted so they don't want to interact as much, and Dart senses it.


Careful...you'll get us both in trouble for pointing out the human gender differences again!

:p 

On another note, I have been contemplating getting a dog...not sure yet.

I have an acquaintance in another city nearby who has 4 dogs and he (and his male partner) wants to find a home for a 4 year old, fairly large, male, Fawn Chihuahua.

I met the dog 2 weeks ago, and they told me he is very mellow and timid, and he was that, in spades. The dog let me hold him for as long as I wanted, but he was never comfortable and kept his eyes glued to his owners.

I'd hate to take him from his family, but on the other hand, with me, he would get ALL of the attention. I told the owners the ONLY way I would accept the offer is if they agreed to take him back if the dog was not able to adjust or seemed to not be doing well...whatever. They said yeah, no problem. I told them I'd think about it...

So now the 'ball is in my court'...

BTW....his name is ....Howie.

:D 

OMG no WONDER he's a mess...


Oh...yeah.... the battery spacers....what kind of wood is that again?

:p
 
Follow your heart, Brian. That's the ticket.

Say, you going to Sturgis? It's next week, right?
 
Welp...didn't get quite as far as I'd liked over the weekend, but progress has been made. I forgot I needed to build my battery flue in the electronics wall.

You may remember from this post that I have two air handling systems in Putt. My rearward Fantastic Fan vents the cabin living space, blowing air out the top and sucking air in through my window just as you would expect. But my forward Fantastic Fan Pulls outside air in through the rear garage and circulates it through the wall and false ceiling space to be exhausted. The purpose of this system is to prevent Putt from hot-boxing in the sun as all the interior air heated by the exterior skin and roof is exhausted and continuously replaced with fresh ambient temperature air. Putts interior should always remain at shade temperature. That's the theory anyway, we'll see how it works in practice.

At any rate, I also need a way to vent the battery chamber and provide cooling air for the electronics. What I'll be building into the electronics compartment are ways for air to vent up into the ceiling so that the forward Fantastic Fan can can exhaust it. The incoming air will be drawn from the cabin air, which will have the best temperature control. 

So, my battery box will have a small inlet vent hole drilled in it (haven't done that yet), and needs to have an exhaust vent up to the ceiling. I could just have the back of the battery box vent up through the wall past all the electronics, but I really don't want to expose that stuff the the acidic vapors from the battery, so the battery box has to have a separate flue. 

IMG_1945-L.jpg


Here you can see a tall thin box I built for the battery flue. (The angled piece is just a scrap to hold it in place while I take a pic.) The hole for air intake will be on the front of the box. Air goes up the flue to above the false ceiling. From there it vents into the false ceiling space and gets sucked out of the forward Fantastic Fan. The fan is just out of frame above the top left of the picture.

Couple more pix.

Here's the primed inside of the flue.
IMG_1947-L.jpg


I owe a beer to whoever it was in this thread that told about Kreg tools.
IMG_1948-L.jpg


Painted the wall behind the battery flue.

IMG_1955-L.jpg


Sikaflexed the edges of the flue and installed it.

IMG_1956-L.jpg


One of these days I'll get good at installing pieces of plywood with Sikaflex on the edges and not make a mess. But it's not today. :(


Today steaks were grilled. 

IMG_1953-L.jpg


Dart seemed too busy on other things to QA my Sikaflex work...I guess that means I get a pass.
 
RobndaHood said:
Very nice work.

Thanks, mate. However, it's ham-handed, 3/4", ply paste-it-together, crappy Lego stuff. But hey, I try to make it entertaining...might give some other numb-nuts crazy ideas with pictures following. It's over built by a factor of five, and promise of other like-minded, out-of-the-box thinkers is tantalizing. Glad you're enjoying it.
 
Alllllllll-rightythen.

My goodness it feels good to start screwing $1000+ of electrics into Putt.

"He's alive!!!" I keep saying in my head over and over.

Okay, for this particular exercise, I'm focused on getting 110VAC to a plug outlet above my kitchen counter. That's all that's required for the commercial-to-RV inspection. All the 12VDC fusing, switching, and distribution will come when I can build the electronics cupboard above. Got some cool plans there, but you'll have to wait for pix so I don't have to write 1000 words to try to describe it. So I'll just focus on the bare bones system to get the solar hooked up and juice to the inverter for 110VAC.

Drum roll, please.

IMG_1958-L.jpg


First thing to know: There will be a door on this cabinet eventually. I put the Morningstar CC on a spacer and will put a cutout in the door so that the CC and display are visible and accessible without opening the door. The front dinette seat will be mounted on top of the battery box in front of it, so I'll have to remove the seat to access the cabinet. The seat will be on a quick release system so I won't have to unbolt things, but it'll still be a bit of trouble to get into the cabinet. There's some goofy ideas with the seat....but I'll save that surprise for later too.

The nice thing about putting the CC on a stand off is that I can also run wires up the wall behind it.

IMG_1960-L.jpg


The main 12VDC bus bars at the bottom of the wall are nice and close to the batteries; I'll need about 18" cables to reach them, and a one footer to tie the batts in series. I've got 1Awg cables in my shopping cart at Genuine Dealz...is that still the recommended source for batt cables? Does that size sound adequate for an eventual 4x100W panel, 4x6Vfla 215AH batts, and 1000W inverter system? No microwave or AC, but more computers and radios than most. Will be carrying a genny for fast charging when needed.

After I put the system on the wall, I started imagining working on stuff in there. Geebus, don't want to be swinging a wrench and weld it between the posts of the bus bars. Of course, any time I be swinging a wrench in there I'll be taking the negative terminal off the battery, but stuff happens. I might could accidentally drop a screw driver in there or something. So I built a little wall between the two buss bars to prevent accidental shorts. 

IMG_1959-L.jpg
 

I suppose I could still short it out if I dropped a chain in there....but hey, if I'm that stupid I'd deserve the archy-sparky.

To my eyes the only thing that might be suspect so far is that the MRBF fuses are mounted to the bus bars instead of the batteries. Unfortunately, mounting them to the batts increases the height of the batts by 2" and I ain't got room for that. A little risky I suppose. On the other hand, I know the risks and am scared.....er, respectful of the consequences of a screw up. As long as I don't decide to start working on the electrics after three whiskys and a puff I think I'll be okay.

Other notes:

I made sure to leave room for a shunt near the negative bus bar that will eventually go in.

The battery monitor will eventually be mounted in the vertical side wall above and to the left of the CC to make it accessible. 

Same with the inverter remote on/off button.

House/starter battery switching and batt solenoid will be mounted at the base of that vertical wall next to the positive bus bar. Batt bank switch will be accessible on the outside of the wall.

Anyone have a good suggestion for a PV panel switch? Seems to me a battery bank switch is the way to go, but maybe I'm missing something.

Anyone see anything stupid? (Note: I'm not in any of the pix, so don't go there.)  :)
 
Top