Hello dedicated readers,
At least the two or three of you that are left. ;-)
It's been a while since I created a substantive update to the thread. The main reason is that I've been spending that time working on the truck rather than posting about it. But it's past time for an update. I think I'll have to break this up into a couple updates over the next few days. The first one is below.
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Progress Update:
Sheds and Sinks
I've actually accomplished quite a lot since my last update. Not really sure what to include this time because there seems to be many things. A lot of those are small though and unimpressive or downright boring.
Of the larger more noticeable things, the first one that I'll mention is my shed. For those who have been reading the thread, you know that the last two feet of the box before the roll up door has been reserved for a shed for storage of tools and similar things. With the exception of organizing crap on pegboards, the shed is finished, because the back wall is finally finished, complete with a custom-built door.
I thought it wise to take a picture before I populated the pegboard and inadvertently created a new website called comestealmyshit.com. Here is a photo to give you an idea what the shed looks like in its current state:
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Although I had finished most of the kitchen, a few things remained. One of those was a functioning foot pump system to get water reliably up into the faucet. As a reminder, it is a very simple system. It involves a sink, some tubing, two jerry cans sitting side by side, and a foot pump. One of the cans holds potable water which is pumped up into the sink and then drains right back down into the other can which holds gray water.
The 1st challenge that I encountered was that the pump itself leaked. I thought I had that fixed, but no. I had to end up replacing it. The grumpy pump company rep did eventually send me a new one for free. Leak gone.
The 2nd challenge was that my hoses needed to be replaced to remove the chemical taste caused by the simple cheap clear vinyl tubing. I replaced that with the food grade type braided tubing. Chemical taste gone.
The 3rd challenge was difficulties with the intake tube at the bottom of the potable water jerry can. In my prototype, I weighted down the vinyl tubing with a bunch of large zinc hex nuts to ensure that the system would draw water all the way to the bottom of the can. That worked okay, but it was not ideal because the hose kinked too much and sometimes the bottom of the hose still came up off the bottom of the jerry can. I fixed that problem by creating a large PVC “drinking straw”. I cut the very bottom of the straw at a slight angle to ensure that water can always get up the straw. Now the straw or intake tube remains firmly in the jerry can, all the way to the bottom, and kinks are now impossible.
The 4th and final challenge was that the tubing, despite its type, was not arranged very well. It was pulling on the pump connectors unnecessarily and didn't facilitate changing out empty jerry cans. I have now fixed that as well by redesigning the hose system. In the photo below, it looks a little steampunk, but it works well. The gold connector in the down tube was just to give me two female endings. The black connector under it is a quick disconnect that I found in Walmart in the Garden section. That piece I really like because it makes getting the jerry cans in and out much easier.
Below is a photo of the Belly of the Beast, or the under-sink part of the system:
I really have to say that I like the simplicity of this water system. Beats the heck out of the relative complication of electric pumps and installing water lines all over the place. And when I touch that foot pump, I have water instantaneously and have learned to be able to control the flow exactly. I'm quite happy with it.
And finally an updated photo of what the kitchen looks like now:
As always, comments and questions are welcomed.
Tom
