Bus Projects: Dual Desk & Air Filters

We feel satiated after completing a lot of projects while at St. George RV Resort.

Interior Remodeling

The manager of the park introduced us to their new woodworking skilled maintenance man to see about building our dual desk unit. We didn’t think it’d be possible to build something quick enough for us to get back on the road within a week – and were thrilled with the quote, the time frame and David’s easy-going attitude.

So the first step was deciding what we wanted. We got Ben & Karen’s input on configuration – we came up with the shape.

As soon as we came up with the shape, David went right to work and was back two nights later with the desk unit pretty much completed.

We were immediately thrilled with the desk unit.

We also had an idea about a fold out table that would be in place of the old cabinet (which is now the support structure for the middle of the desk unit). This was a more complicated project to figure out, as we had a lot of ideas on how versatile we wanted it to be.

We wanted something that could fold away, leaving plenty of room for yoga & workout space.

And then we wanted it to fold out to become a bit of extra desk space and/or surface space for the passenger chair, without being in the way.

We came up with a fold out support arm to help hold up the weight of the table.

And then we wanted the table to fold out once again.

This space will be for crafting projects, gaming or as a dining table when needed. As the couch pulls out to the width of a single bed, it meets up pretty nicely – while still leaving room to pass by.

The back of the desk was designed to be about an inch away from the windows, leaving plenty of room for routing cables. And all the while, David built in ample structural support so that the whole unit will be solid while underway.

We’re really happy with how this all came out!  Next up is getting another desk chair and two large monitors.

See the white stripe going up between the blinds?  That’s a new holder for our inverter control panel, with the wires running up the inside and then into the battery bay below.

While the project was more minor from a wood working stance, this is a huge improvement to our new lithium battery & inverter system. (I forced Chris to sit down the other evening and write – he has most of the post with all of our research on lithium ion written. We hope to have it online soon.. promise!)

Engine Maintenance

In-between all the interior projects – we decided to tackle some engine maintenance.  We easily changed out the compressor air filter, which was a cruddy mess.

And then we moved on to the air intake filter.  Originally the GM 4106 came with oil based air filters, but a previous owner had switched it out to a paper canister by EcoLite.  And while this is a good change in theory, it was done in what ‘bus yoda’ calls a ‘cobbled up mess’.

The project ended up taking us substantially longer than it should have, namely because of a green hose – which is what we assume to be sewer line. It’s rigid, and has grown even more so over the years.

After removing the old filter from the top of the engine, we had to pry it off.

But getting the new filter back into the engine was more of a challenge. No matter what we did, it would not remount to the intake connection. The hose was too rigid to make the awkward turn at the top of the engine and we can only assume the previous owner put in the filter mounts AFTER the filter was in, and it was blocking the path.

A quick consultation with yoda, and he said it was safe to use aluminum dryer venting wrapped in aluminum tape (which we could get locally) as a temporary fix so that we could ‘boogie on’. But ideally we should replace it with something more substantial.

It was obviously a good thing we changed out the filter. In the process, we installed a filter minder that will help us keep tabs on the status of the new filter, and when it should be changed next.

We fired up the engine, and to our amazement the bus aired up in a snap. It had been getting to a point that it took 5-8 minutes to reach a safe air pressure.  Work well done, and obviously long overdue!

And wouldn’t you know it?  Just as soon as we shut the engine door and switched tasks to packing up – we found a piece of rigid rubber hose in our spare parts bay that looked like it was meant to replace that pesky green sewer line. D’oh!

Onward to where?

With major projects completed, we are mostly packed up to head out this morning – despite the park’s flattering request we stay another week and present more talks.  We’ll return here for sure in the future – we’ve thoroughly enjoyed our stay, and we couldn’t ask for better park hosts and new friends

As us nomads are great at doing, we delayed deciding our route until the last minute… and even added a new twist!

We’ve decided that we really want to attend the Bus Conversion Magazine Rally in Chattanooga, TN. It’s just too good of an opportunity to pass up to get in on some workshops that could really aid our bus knowledge, and connect with other bus nuts.

We’re aiming to get to Salida, CO to visit with friends this weekend.  From there, we’ll meander eastward with a quick stop in St. Louis.  Then we’ll make the final trek into Chattanooga aiming to arrive for the start of the workshops on October 10th.  It’ll be a quicker trip than we’d like, but we think it’ll be worth it.

If you’re along the route, please do let us know – we always love making time to meet folks!

After the rally ends, we’ll need to double back to St. Louis to complete dealing with the stuff we stored in Chris’ parent’s basement after we moved out of the Oliver. His folks start their snowbird journey south soon after.