Odds and Ends (The sequel)
The list of “To Do” items keep growing as fast as I can knock it down. I took the truck into the local dealer to have the two outstanding recalls serviced. Something to do with the shift linkage and replacing a critical bolt. Both were done for free. While I had it in the shop I had them do a basic service, fluids and filters, etc. During the service they told me that my serpentine accessory belt was showing some cracks, so I had it replaced.
I replaced the two front tires. The rear tires are in good shape, so now I have good rubber all around. The stealth camper is fully travel worthy.
In some of my around town driving I went over a driveway threshold at a slight angle. The resulting side to side swaying motion was enough to throw the contents of my freezer against the inside of the door, and from their all over the floor. I have now added door latches for both the freezer and refrigerator. They are very simple, easily operated with one hand, don’t prevent the doors from closing on their own, and almost invisible.
I bought 6 of those little LED puck lights with 3 AAA batteries inside. I put one each on the ceiling of each of my 5 underbed storage bays. The batteries won’t last long, but I won’t be leaving the lights on for long either.
I mounted the 6th puck light on the wall behind my water supply buckets. I then made a couple of “ring floats” out of some new grey garden hose that was left over from the build. They float inside the buckets and allow me to easily see the water level through the translucent bucket when I turn on the back light.
Thus far, it seems a 5 gallon bucket of water lasts me about a week. That’s a week where I mostly have use of the facilities at work though. I expect full time living in the truck would require about twice that. I have learned to use very little water by mostly drinking it. It takes mere teaspoons of water to wash dishes, just lot of paper towels. Personal hygiene takes a bit more but not as much as you might think, especially if I have access to running water at work.
I drove the truck to a friends house which took me up and down some very steep but short hills. Nothing moved or fell out of any cupboards. I still haven’t pounded down a washboard gravel road for miles on end, but so far everything is working.
I spent 4 out of 5 nights away from home in the truck last week. 3 of those nights were near work, and the 4th was in the back yard of the truck repair place. The latter was not so great because I had big trucks rolling in and out all night, but at least no one rousted me. I had internet even at the truck yard. It seems I was close enough to the local light rail to pick up their free public Wi-Fi. It wasn’t enough bandwidth to watch a movie, but at least I could surf the net.
Even after 4 nights away from home, I have yet to put a serious dent in my battery capacity. I ran my generator for a half hour after 2 nights, but it was almost immediately pushing only 40A into the batteries, which is half of the chargers rated capacity. The implication being that the batteries were not down far enough to take the full rated current.
Two of the mirror panels I put on my refrigerator have developed ugly blemishes in the pattern of the glue I mounted them with. It seems I didn’t let the water based vinyl floor adhesive dry enough before I mounted them and it is corroding the silver finish on the back. Fortunately 2 of the 4 panels I put up are just fine. I will give the whole thing time to stabilize and then replace the two bad panels. At least now I know what to be careful of.
I cleaned out the ash bin for the toilet. I say ash, but it’s more like hard black gravel. There was only about a cup of it. I made a tool for scraping it off the bottom of the fire box. It is as “clean” and odorless as charcoal. It’s a minor inconvenience and reinforces the idea that the incinerating toilet is only to be used when there is no better alternative. For the moment, there almost always is.
At this point I would not recommend the EcoJohn for any other RV application. It is a necessary part of my overall design because of the low current draw but it also has many negatives. Of all the parts of the Stealth Camper design, it is the thing I am least happy with. It is also, however, the only viable choice for this application. An Incinolet would have been cheaper and might possibly work better (I can’t personally compare the two) but it would have required a much more robust electrical system. Knowing what I know now, I could have gone with a bigger generator with an auto-start function, a much bigger inverter, etc. The end result would have been much less efficient, and also less stealthy, but it might have been a better overall choice.
I can and will make the EcoJohn work. I am still learning the best ways to use it. I will try not to gross you out with the details, but there are some things I can tell you. The auger for moving waste into the firebox is a messy and very imperfect system. The paper liners that they sell with the toilet are a joke. They just wrap around the auger and trap the waste so it never gets to the firebox. Toilet paper does the same thing. Cleaning the auger is next to impossible not to mention disgusting. The good news is that it doesn’t smell, or at least not like raw sewage. If I run the exhaust fan while it is burning it will backdraft and smoke up the entire truck. If I run the exhaust fan when the toilet is dead cold it smells faintly of burnt cookies, or something close to marijuana. I have learned to run my exhaust fan blowing air into the truck instead. Then it doesn’t smell at all, at least not inside the truck. Outside, my neighbors probably think I am a pot head.
I don’t use the paper bowl liners, or toilet paper either. Baby bottom wipes are the much better choice, for personal hygiene, but they don’t go into the toilet. Fortunately, whatever anti-bacterial formula they use seems to keep them from smelling as well. I have given up on keeping the auger clean, but the toilet bowl is easily cleaned. I have a spray bottle with water and a bit of rubbing alcohol that serves to wash it down after use. Fortunately, the toilet seems to work well for urine and liquids in general. It quickly boils them off to nothing. On cold mornings there is a very visible plume of steam coming from the flue.
To be continued…
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