Wednesday, January 29, 2014

A Few BoggsMobile Projects


The extremely cold weather always brings problems on the BoggsMobile. Cold temperatures bring fresh water leaks, coolant leaks and air leaks galore. I have been working on the coolant and fresh water leaks the last few weeks when the weather cooperated.

This is the bay on the BoggsMobile that houses the Aquahot. I have written about the Aquahot before. It is diesel fired and heats our domestic water, heats coolant for heat exchanges that heat the inside of the bus and the plumbing bay. It also can heat the engine coolant to warm the engine on cold days. The Aquahot unit is just beyond the yellow coolant jugs in the picture below.


I lay up in there to work on leaks, electrical problems and to add coolant to the Aquahot system. Although is is pretty hot up there in the summer time is felt pretty good yesterday when it was 10 degrees out where my feet were.


This valve is on the line from the boiler to the circulation pumps. The three circulation pumps push heated coolant to the heat exchangers. The valve has been leaking and the leak has been getting worse.


This is a close up of the valve.


I tightened the packing two weeks ago and slowed the leak down quite a bit. I tightened it more this week and it is really doing good now. The valve will eventually have to be replaced and it will be a bear to change. I am so glad to have the leak stopped for at least a while. I really need that heat in my bays when the temperatures are in the single digits and the wind is blowing.

The fresh water system often leaks when it really gets cold too. I had double clamped every fitting that I could and had stopped the leaks temporarily. They always flare up again as the extreme cold moves in. 

Bro. Jimmie Radcliffe had some time last week while we were in Bristow and he took on the project of replacing hose with Pex water lines. The old stuff is the clear mesh hose in the background.



I took off all the water lines from the manifold and then removed the manifold.





In just a few minutes Bro. Jimmie had the old lines removed and the new 1/2" Pex lines installed. Perfect! No leaks so far.





After he was finished the water manifold was re-installed and the cover was back in place. 



Thanks Bro. Jimmie for a job well done!

I also removed this panel in another bay the same day. 





Behind the panel is the fresh water hose reel. The hose has been breaking as it ages and I am down to about 15' of water hose now. It is 18 years old so it has had a pretty long life. I needed to get the Model # so I could price a new one. I will finish that up at a later date.



I have several more projects that need attention but I am tackling the ones that I can when I have the time and the weather cooperates. There is one consolation in all of this. At least I am not pastoring a church!

Davy