Thanks to toban for the great shot of camp and The Ghost under the stars!
The Ghost at Alvord 2014
Alvord Desert – Night Picture
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Snow day!
The ghost gets to huddle down in the sub freezing temps and put on a snow blanket.
Fortunately all drained of water and hopefully surviving.
More updates soon!
The Ghost enjoying a snow day!
Blast from the Past -Therm-O-Matic Pamphlet
Although most of this system has been changed/removed/modified on The Ghost, I thought the documentation from the day is fairly interesting memorabilia. The control panel with “Therm-O-Matic” is still up at the drivers position and turns on/off the blower for the heating unit. The vents above the front headsign have been blocked off and the front foot vents have been removed.
These heat channels where the air flowed above the windows were the favorite hiding grounds for the rats/mice that inhabited the bus throughout it’s past. I have removed them through the galley in preparation for proper galley shelves. This has also been removed in the bedroom area as the engine heat supplied ventilation channels are not needed back there. I still ponder the idea of removing the factory ceiling mounted heater core in favor for some more headroom in the drivers position. We’ll see if I ever cross that bridge.
Alvord Trip Photos
I wanted to throw up some photos from our Alvord Desert trip over Memorial weekend. Bob and Merran invited us and any folks that wanted to join down for their usual landsailing/camping trip out on the playa. Emily had been to this area prior but no landsailing or camping out on the open playa. This would be my first visit to this area of Oregon for a campout.
We departed Milwaukie at a leisurely pace, leaving Thursday AM rather than Wednesday PM late. Some minor murphy moments with the grey water tank and some finishing touches on the various systems meant a good bright-and-early departure would be better advised. I tidied up the temporary 24V system (directly charged from the solar panels) and connected the converter to 12V (which we would later end up using to power the bus for our entire trip home!). A quick load check of all roof items meant we were good to depart. The trip down was mostly uneventful. We stopped an fueled the coach near Burns, OR after having a nice stop by some local county law enforcement, concerned that we were trafficking large quantities of drugs. Their search turned up nil (of course) and after learning of my Search and Rescue affiliation, realized they were barking up the wrong tree. My 65MPH in a 55MPH zone was not even mentioned once they made it clear it was their probable cause for stopping us. We parted ways on good terms, with a warning that the wind on the upcoming roads would present a challenge.
We hit the playa an hour and change before dark, right about as the sun disappeared behind the steens mountains. Kelly arrived in his newly acquired school bus just before us and we made a caravan down to the playa with Bob and Merran leading the way.
The solar panels gave us enough power that combined with a proper sized inverter from Eric, and some cables from Kelly, we ran the ice machine, radio, and lights without worry.
Some photos (credit to Kelly for a couple of his!):
Ghost playa ridin’!
Setting up camp on the Alvord 2013!
Setting up Camp just before Dark!
Camp all set up!
Kelly’s Picture of The Ghost
- Kelly’s photo of the landsailers
- Jessica on the roof!
Angel taking a dust nap
Windsock Custom Mount on The Ghost
The trip home was uneventful, but not without an interesting twist. Our dual-field regulator for the 100A generator original to The Ghost decided that 16.5V was better than the factory 14.2V charge rate. This, being extremely hard on batteries, led to me to disable the regulator for the entire drive home. We departed in the late morning/early afternoon, stopped by fields for a milkshake and a hamburger, and continued on. We stopped in Bend along the way to enjoy a campground for the evening and to break up the trip. We decompressed, watched some programs on the laptop, played with Marley, and got to talk with some folks in the campground. A nice solar powered showerhouse gave us some much needed cleaning, although the light electrocution from the shower console was not appreciated. We departed in the morning (with a nice solar charge on the 12V starting batteries) and headed home.
Bend Campground
Bend Campground
Bend Campground
Bend Campground
Ghost barely fits in the no-hookups tent site!
Marley peeks around the corner
Solar Panels Installed
Hello again!
In the mad-rush to get things finished for a trip out the Alvord Desert this week, I was able to get the front rack of The Ghost finished and some new solar panels mounted. I scored a sweet deal on craigslist for some 60-cell (28-32V nominal) These are 250W 5’5″ x 3’3″, aluminium frame panels constructed for home power installation. I built under-supporting frames to help bear vibration load since the frames are not designed for mobile applications.
I started by extending the existing rack I built last year farther forward to support the panels. I constructed it out of materials and in such a way that it is actually rated to support humans. The wind load of the panels could be quite substantial in high winds or at high speeds.
Beginning to build the support rack
Rooftop View Tack Welded
Once the rack was finished, I welded some extra support pieces onto the spreaders to support the panels in their odd locations. I had to choose this odd layout to allow the roof vent to open (power vent lid) and also not hang over the side of the coach too far or cover the horn/antennas/etc. This configuration allows me to see the edge of the panel in my drivers side mirror and is still inboard of the two air-conditioning units.
Solar panels in their proper locations preparing to mount.
The panels are mounted at four points each using 8 self-tapping screws into the main frame members. The other side of these brackets are welded to the rack-frame of the coach. This seems to be providing a very stout level of connection and hopefully will give the panels the longest life.
The two panels are connected in parallel and directly feed a 20A 12/24V charge controller. This power is then fed into the temporary 24V sealed lead acid battery bank which is either used directly (for 24V appliances and later the large inverter) or indirectly though a 24V to 12V 360W converter. With this amount of solar combined with our desired eventual inverter/battery bank, we could actually run a small amount of solar powered air-conditioning for the morning hours while we wanted to sleep at events like BurningMan, etc. Realistically in Oregon the amount of power generated is not significant in comparison to the cost of power from a utility, however in the desert or off-grid this starts to be a large win. My intention is to eventually augment the DC power system with a 24V 150A+ alternator/propane generator combination. I have a ~30gal propane tank slated to be installed into the coach as well which will supply fuel to the stove/oven as well as the generator.
Check back soon for more updates!