FedEx Ground -v- USPS

With the holiday shipping season upon us, this post is dedicated to a bizarre series of events I experienced while trying to ship a box of presents to my sister's family in San Diego. Ultimately, the box did make it onto a truck that is headed for California.

It all started after my wife left town. We had found the last of the gifts just before she left. I wrapped them up on Friday night and went scrounging for a box that would fit. Now, I've sold lots of bus parts over the years, and I always have a few empty boxes lying around for when I get around to selling more of the accumulated parts. Friday night, I found an empty Mirror Pond case box that was in perfect shape - no tears, no rips, and never wet. The presents slid in perfectly, so I didn't have to add any paper padding. Now, that's just dumb luck. I've never had that happen before. Anyway, by the time I got through the mayhem of single-parenting, it was 9:PM on Saturday night. FedEx is closed then, so off to the all-night USPS shipping station.

USPS
As you might expect, the Lake Grove postal station is not exactly bubbling with activity at 9:30 on a Saturday night. I didn't have any competition for the machine or drop box, so I ran the box through the process. It cost $12.50 to ship a 5 pound box via general delivery with a tracking number ($.80 extra). The shipping estimate was 6 business days. That's a little close to Christmas, but within tolerances, I figured. Besides, it wasn't going through or to snow country.

On Monday when I got home from work, the box had been left on my doorstep. A handwritten note was taped to it stating "no liquor boxes". Apparently the "P" in USPS stands for "prude". In order for me to use that box, it would either have to be cut at the seams and re-taped so the plain inside was now the outside or I would have to tape brown paper to the box so you couldn't see that it once carried beer. Sensitive much? Fine. So, I cut and taped brown paper all around the box, avoiding the 2" x 3" shipping stamp and the large white address label. It looked pretty ridiculous. This morning, I visited the same Lake Grove station. The empty office that greeted me a few days ago had been replaced with a DMV-like experience. The line of frowny-faced postal customers for the 2 glacial-paced clerks was out the door. I watched for about 15 seconds and concluded that I could pay someone else to ship this box for the amount of wages I'd lose just by standing in the line. So, off to the FedEx office I went.

FedEx
The FedEx shipping center for the south side of Portland is right by the I-5 freeway on ramp where the towns of Tigard, Tualatin and Lake Grove meet. This is the ramp I take to get to work from home, so stopping at FedEx isn't going very far out of my way. The trick is to get there when they're open (8-6 weekdays, not sure about weekends). I took my brown paper ensconced box over to the counter and asked "do you require me to hide the fact that this box once held beer?". He gave me a puzzled look, so I pointed to the brown paper. "We prefer you don't wrap them". Ahh... 30 seconds filling out a form, another 45 seconds getting the box scaled and paid for, and I was out the door. No line. No frowny faces. No glacial pace. The box will arrive by this Saturday, and it cost me $11. The tracking number and guaranteed delivery were free and they recycled my brown paper.

Net net
Simply put, I won't ship anything via USPS again unless there is just no other alternative. It was cheaper and easier to ship via FedEx. I honestly don't know how the Prudal Service will be able to compete in the future. Once consumers realize that FedEx Ground is faster and cheaper, that DMV-like line will disappear.

bus-stuff: if the rain subsides tonight, I'll slide under there with a drill and start working on the radiator mounting. If not, I may do it anyway as I won't have a shot at working on him again until next week otherwise.

tucked in, and ready

Today, I'll briefly touch on where we are with the bus, and the health of the in-laws.

Hapy Hath Moved
With the help of my 11 year old son, Hapy has moved from the driveway to his designated spot alongside the garage. Saturday morning we had a fortunate break in the weather. The cold snap gave way to thaw and the rains that tracked behind the cold hadn't started yet. My son and I took that as an opportunity to get Hapy moved. I picked up a cable winch puller (aka come-along) from Harbor Freight during the week, so we had the tools. With a trucker's chain wrapped around a fencepost and then hooked back on itself as the brace-end, I hooked the cable to the nose-end tow-hook. Moving the bus about 4 feet at a time between re-configurations, we were able to creep the bus across the sidewalk, over a step and up the incline within an hour. My son sat at the wheel, holding it steady or re-directing as needed. He also helped push from behind when the cable puller seemed to be at its max. We were able to hand push the last 5 feet or so. Now, he is out of the wind and 2 steps from the garage side door. I can route heat, light and even music pretty easily. The only thing that's missing is a carport roof. Ah well. At least its level and well-draining. I hope to get drilling on the radiator mounts this week or this weekend. I have some other commitments (it is the Holiday season after all), so getting an hour or so may be difficult.

In Law Health
Unfortunately, even after a week long visit, my wife doesn't have much in new information. We can confirm that her mother has some form of lung cancer, but we don't know what kind. They will be running a scope to see what they can see next week. Marianne hasn't been very forthcoming about her condition so far, so we are skeptical that we will get straight answers from her. We figure my wife will have to go back down there, but we are't really sure when or for how long yet.
Her brother Tom, however, has been undergoing radiation treatment for the cancer they found in his spine. He is getting some kind of care review tomorrow when he should learn how effective the radiation therapy has been. I haven't heard anything about his liver (where the doctors believe the cancer started), so I'm not sure what the treatment plan is. His prognosis is not terribly good, though.

Support System
I have discovered a few things this week with my wife away.
First, I have some amazing kids. I didn't realize just how far removed I am from their daily lives and rhythms until I'm directing all the traffic. Having been deeply embedded with them this week, I have really connected with them, especially my younger son, in a way that I really hope remains and even continues to strengthen. This picture to the right was taken during a trip to the Portland Fire Boats as a part of his Cub Scout Den field trip. That red thing is a boat-mounted water cannon from 1946. The boat is still commissioned and used on large dock/pier fires.
Second, we have some pretty great friends. When we discovered that my wife had to bail out of town, our friends lined up to watch the boys for a couple of hours each afternoon. We have had meals dropped off, cards, calls of concern and more offers to help than I have managed to count. To all of these helpers and well-wishers, I offer my most sincere thanks. If I didn't taken you up on an offer, it was helpful to just hear the words that you were there, and you were thinking of how you could lighten the load.
Last, my wife is pretty great. Heading down to visit her sick mother and brother required a vat of compassion and willingness to put up with conflict that I can't really imagine. The emotional toll of visiting hospitals, and watching her mother's energy slowly drain while negotiating with doctors, forms and insurance folks must have been incredible. Fortunately, she is coming home to a clean house with the laundry done and a fridge full of food. I hope she will be able to decompress and relax before the holidaze hits and the return trip needs to be taken.

That's it for today. I'll update the post with a picture of Hapy in his new home. I didn't take any while we were working. It was still kinda cold, and I didn't want to lose my helper. The picture at the top was from before he was moved.

pictures:
top - Hapy with his coat on, before he was moved alongside the garage
bottom - 8 year old son visiting the 1946 Portland Fire Boat

holding pattern taking hold

First, my Thanksgiving was great. I hope yours was as well. Today's post covers some highlights of that trip, a bus update and looking forward.

Thanksgiving
My family has a rare opportunity to use a friend's vacation home in Sun River, and we took some other friends with us. There was snow on the ground outside the house the whole time we were there, so the kids spent just about every waking minute outside. This left me and Mark able to watch the Lions and Dallas games as well as all that college football on Friday.
We hit Mt. Bachelor on Saturday. Although the folks back in Portland and the people we met in Sun River were saying the crowds would be unbearable, I thought it was unbelievably easy. The workers on the mountain said it was a busy day, but I don't remember waiting in a line for anything for more than a few minutes. The snow was dry and fast. I played with my younger son on the inner tube slope while my older got his first runs of the season on his snowboard. Good times.

Bus Update
On the bus front, though, there has been no progress. I was able to hit the hardware store for a bunch of washers and nuts, but I haven't had any time to focus on fabrication. Besides that, we are in the midst of a cold snap, bringing the overnight lows down into the teens and the daytime highs around freezing. Once the wind chill is added in, the temps drop down another 15 to 20 degrees. Not exactly the kind of weather I like to spend under the bus. Instead, I have spent the last 2 days clearing English Ivy and raking up the leaves in my yard. I like having the leaves gone before snow hits, and there was talk of snow for early this week. Yikes. I was able to get all of the other yard tasks completed, though, so I can move the bus once I either borrow or buy a come-along so I can pull him up the incline. I hope to do that next weekend.

Outlook
My wife leaves to visit her mom and brother on Wednesday. With her departure, our Christmas becomes very uncertain. We don't know how serious either of their respective conditions are because they haven't been terribly verbose with their descriptions. Maybe they don't know either. Regardless, my wife will probably be extending her stay, and we are planning for a just-before-Christmas return at best. The kids and I will busy ourselves with Christmas decorating and such, but it won't be the same. I don't sleep very well when she's not around, so I'll probably have nights to work on the bus if the temperatures would cooperate.

I'll post more when there's something to post about. I'd like to either get the radiator mounted or the bus moved or get the shrouding constructed or some combination of those 3 things before Christmas. In theory, there is time. It is converting that to practice that always seems to trip me.

Radiator mounting planned

I was fortunate to get a couple of hours on Sunday with limited distraction, so I rolled under the bus between showers and I believe i have a plan for mounting the radiator under the bus. I ran out to Lowes, got a bunch of hardware, and started what I believe to be the final run on the brackets before installing this beast. Most of today's post will deal with that. I have no further news about Tom or Marianne. My wife will be traveling to visit with them in a few weeks, so she'll dig up what's really going on when she's there.

Concerns
One of my lingering concerns about mounting a radidator under the bus is that it will be subjected to road debris abuse. Beyond just simple plastic bags, and gravel, there can be large obstacles in the road. I've seen mattresses, sheet rock, lumber, a ladder, etc, all in the last year on the Oregon highways. Add to that the ice and snow that we got last winter, where my Jetta was getting high-centered by the mid-road snow pack, and I think the concerns are justifiable. I have looked at many designs by different people, and they seem to fall into 2 categories: avoidance and strength.

Avoidance
The under-mount radiator designs that follow this pattern are purposely placed as flat as possible, and as close to the floor of the bus as possible. These achieve some degree of safety because the debris can't really get to them. The downside of this design is that the air can't get there naturally either so any cooling is done exclusively by fans. This puts considerable pressure on the system working correctly, leaving little margin for error for a failed fan. Some kind of fan monitoring should be used to indicate when the fans are on / off at the dashboard so the driver can know when the fan(s) has failed.

Strength
The under-mount radiator designs that follow this pattern are angled to catch the air, and have a cage of sorts around the radiator. This cage deflects debris from getting to the radiator, in theory. I would think that there is the possibility of high-centering or having the entire thing ripped off by passing debris, if the debris is something like a tree stump or some other non-movable object. These do have the benefit of naturally grabbing some air on its way by, so they can operate with some success if a fan(s) fails.

Flexibility
This is the pattern that I'm going to try. It is a take on the strength pattern, but allows for travel within the mounting so that the radiator mount can partially absorb, and partially avoid debris. This pattern should allow for natural air passage and the use of fans like the "strength" pattern, but with the ability to move up and down if a tree stump or other immovable object is traversed.

Implementation
First, I made the bracket relatively simply - it is just a simple "c" wrapping each of the 4 mount points on the radiator. These "c" wrappers then tied into one of 3 brackets - one for the front and 1 for each of the 2 rear. The front is a basic square tube the should assist in the strength of the front bracket while partially obstructing the temperature sensor from direct contact by flying debris. I covered this in previous postings.

To these brackets, I have attached eye-hooks. These eye hooks will connect, through chain, to eye-hooks that are connected to the cross-members under the belly of the bus (the point at the cross-member will be re-enforced with some extra steel). This chain will add the flexibility to move. To prevent the radiator from bouncing up into the floor of the bus, I will add a rubber travel-stop (think snubber from the front end). I will be able to vary the depth of the angle of the front end by adding or removing chain links. I have selected chain and single-links that can handle up to 450 pounds. Anything less seemed too thin and anything more seemed excessive.

Protection
Across the front bracket, I will attach a larger round pipe (like a 16" stretch of fencepost). This will serve as a bumper that will absorb the initial contact with the immovable object and cause the front lip to bounce up - at least that's the theory. Behind the post, I'll put in a security screen style grid to prevent larger rocks from getting past and into the radiator area.

Shrouding
Last, surrounding the floating radiator, I will put a small cowling / shroud. This will help guide the air to the radiator and keep the rad-heated air from recirculating when at a dead stop. This shroud won't be more than a half-dozen inches tall. If it were much taller, it would prevent the movement that the chain is allowing. If I can figure out a clever way, I'll curve the shroud so it rounds off at the top. This would allow the shroud to be taller. Regardless, it needs to be removable so I can get to the chain for maintenance.

That's it for today. I was able to get started on the eye-hooks, but I ran out of bolt-nuts, and daylight. I need to stop at the hardward store for lock washers and nuts. I doubt I'll have much more time before Thanksgiving to work on Hapy. I may not get any time on him for another week, actually, so, I won't post until after the holiday. Happy Thanksgiving, and thanks for reading.

Pictures:
top - the rear brackets with the eye-hooks attached. The long eye-hooks will go into the thick cross member in front of the transaxle
bottom - the front bracket with the long eye-hooks attached. These will be connected via a chain to one of the shorter cross members (which will be re-enforced / backed with some steel at the mount point)

rad brackets continue

There's not much to add this time. I didn't get much time on the project these last few days, but I was able ot get a little bit further on the radiator bracket. I also have an update on my son's H1N1.

Radiator Bracket I finished the last of the 4 separate brackets. It went together like its twin on the front. After that, I put a bit of square-tubing across the front. After taking some measurements, and messing around with Google Sketchup, I have a working model of the underside of the bus. From this, I can conclude that I will have about 5-1/2" above the frame rail to play with. If I don't want more than 5 inches of drop on the front end, that gives less than 9 inches (after removing the thickness of the radiator) of possible exposure to air flow. I'll be getting under the bus this weekend, time and weather permitting. I hope to first figure out what to mount the front end to. Then, I'll start considering how I'll do that. I have a few ideas....

Front End Tie-In Ideas
First, there's the obvious bar across the beams and a couple of vertical-ish bars coming from the front of the radiator up to that cross-bar. Figure I tie-in some kind of rubber bit to absorb the vibration and torque-action on the body.
Second, I could put shorter vertical-ish bars up from the rad and connect to a cross bar (or eye-loops) with a short stretch of cable. This would make the pitch variable, so I could experiment a little.

Where Go Fans?
I could put fans under the radiator in a pull configuration. This seems to be the common thinking for best cooling, but wouldn't any water that passes through the radiator potentially get into the motor? I'm thinking that any time the fans would be in that condition, they would probably be turning on with some regularity, but its still something to think about.
Maybe the fans go on top in a push configuration. Then, any road debris could bounce up and damage a fan. Of course, if the fans weren't there, that debris would have damaged the radiator, so there will have to be some kind of security screening to protect the top of the radiator anyway.

Shroud Cowl
The picture that I linked in an earlier posting didn't have any shrouding at all. I don't know where his bus lives, so maybe it doesn't get very hot. I think I want at least some cowling on the sides and rear to prevent rad-heated air to re-flow through. In both of the design options above there would be a vertical-ish riser at the front on both corners. I'd need something at the rear to tie into. I'll have to give that some thought. Maybe it would just be a matter of careful cutting and I could re-use the shroud mount point that I'm using for the brackets.

Cedar's H1N1
Well, Cedar finished his battle with the flu and was back at school today. He came bounding downstairs all dressed and ready to roll after over-sleeping for a school day. He made it to school only 30 minutes after the late bell. Thanks for your words of concern. We have no updates on Marianne or Tom. I'll post as we learn what's going on.

pictures:
top - front rad bracket before attaching to radiator. That's a 12" ruler for perspective.
top middle - view along bracket from water sensor end of radiator.
bottom middle - bracket at water temp sensor. Note the sensor maintenance is not affected.
bottom - full view of radiator with front and rear brackets attached.

small progress is better than none

As I look through the last year of postings, I seem to say something about not getting much done an awful lot. It makes me think that I have a hard time moving from "goal oriented" to "process oriented". I really do believe this project is all about the learning and the doing, and that the driving the bus part is just the dessert. At least, that's how I think about it when I'm actually doing something on it. When I haven't touched it in a week, I focus on the "I haven't done anything since...". I guess you can take the goal away as long as you're still in the process. Today's posting covers some small progress, a little planning, a Busaru update and a personal note. No pictures, but I'm having issues with my new phone.

Small Progress
I did manage to get the final bracket completed for the front of the radiator. I still have to cut the square tubing, and attach it to the bracket. Then, I'll be rolling back under the bus (please, no rain) to think about how I'll tie it into the bus. Like I said in a previous post, it should be easy to bolt in the rear end. The front end, however, doesn't have an obvious mount point. I'm hopeful a solution will come to me when I'm lying on my back under the bus.

A little planning
While I'm under the bus looking for a mount point, I need to think about the routing of coolant lines. I need to run lines from the engine bay to the radiator, and from the engine bay past the radiator to the front beam - where the cabin heater will be. Last, there's the thought of getting an air line from under the rear seat up to the cabin heater for recirculation. Now, I don't plan to put anything like that in now, but I don't want to design without that in mind. Otherwise, I may not be able to get air from there. Considering that is one of the coldest places in a VW Bus (yes, there's a story here), I'd like very much to make that my "cold air return".

Busaru
The Busaru was sold, so if you were thinking about it, you're too late. Too bad for me, the buyer also took the winter tires and the diesel heater :( I'm glad the former owner was able to get his old project to someone that would finish it out, though. Dave put a lot of time and effort into that bus. I sincerely hope he is able to work through his difficulties and find another project soon.

On a personal note
We learned this week that my wife's brother Tom has cancer. We don't know what kind, or what his treatment options are, but we appreciate your positive thoughts for him. Just a few days before that, we had learned that my wife's mother Marianne has a lump in her lung and that my wife's estranged father had passed away. Meanwhile, her neice Becky gave birth to her first boy (she has a young girl). Through all that, my wife has managed to keep her class schedule, and everything else much more together than most would have. It has really been too much to process for all of us, so I don't have a nice pearl to tie it all together with yet. It will be a few days before we know more about either Tom's or Marianne's condition or treatment options.
Update: I just learned that my younger son, Cedar, has contracted H1N1. When it rains it pours.

That's about all I have today. I should have some time early this week to get that cross bar on the radiator. Whether I have a dry opportunity with ample lighting is another question. Maybe I'll find that pearl along the way.

bracketing the radiator

This past Sunday, after giving the garage a quick-cleaning, I started working on the brackets for the radiator. I've spent some time researching hoses, so I'll put some of that output up here. Last, Hal is starting up his own 'water-cooled engine into a bus' project. I'll hit some of the high notes on that plan.

Radiator Brackets
I looked at the Jetta radiator that I plan to use, and decided that the best plan of attack was to use the rubber-ish holes that originally held the fan shroud in place. On this particular radiator, the shroud mounting holes are on both sides of the radiator, so I was able to fabricate "C" shaped brackets using angle braces from Ace Hardware and some flat-bar stock I have lying around.

I rolled under the bus at a point when the pouring rain slowed to a sprinkle, and took a quick survey. I should be able to attach the rear end of the radiator to the cross beam just in front of the transaxle. So, I riveted some 1/8" rivets through the angle braces and into 1/8" holed drilled into the flat-bar. I made sure I cut the flat-bar long enough to rise above the radiator and the water inlet/outlet. I haven't decided how the coolant will integrate, but I don't want my cutting the bar too short to factor into it. I should be able to bore a hole in the bar and in the beam for a thick bolt. Then, I moved to the front-end of the radiator.

The front end will be facing the on-coming air, so the brackets need to be a little different. I cut the flat-bar much shorter (3-1/2" long) and flipped the top angle brace to reduce the air interference. I had to cut a bit off the angle brace to make it fit, but the result was a small "c" shape before riveting the flat-bar. My plan is to weld / rivet some square-bar across the top of the front end of the radiator and then tie in uprights at the sides. This should provide a strong attachment point for a deflector as well as maximize the available air-flow. I should also note that the square-bar should help protect the temperature sensor from debris. The placement of this sensor definitely influenced this design.

I still have another front bracket to fabricate and I have to think through how the front end of the radiator will physically attach to the bus. Hopefully, I'll get a break in the rain when I get to that point.

Hose Research
I've spent a great deal of time trying to find a reasonably priced solution for getting the coolant from the engine to the radiator and back again. Between Goodyear, Ryder Trucks, and McMaster-Carr, I couldn't find a good source. Hal found this hose at Gates, and I think we may have a winner, if I can figure out a way of buying it retail for a reasonable price. Once we get the radiator in place, we'll know how much we need, and then I'll start peppering them with emails for product.

Hal's Waterleaker
Speaking of Hal, he's starting up his own water leaking engine into a bus project. He acquired a 1.8L gas-burner for nearly scrap-metal prices. He's still going through the engine looking for badness, but he's been able to replace most of the issues very easily. He chose a 2000 Astro Van radiator, and that may become a problem with the inlet/outlet sizing, but otherwise, I think he will have a smoother path than we've had with Hapy.
Hal's new adventure hasn't dimmed his interest nor progress with Hapy, though. He stopped by on Sunday to pick up some tools for his bus, and to grab the dog bone. He'll be working on the dog bone mount at his place where he has fancy shop tools. Hopefully, we'll have some remarkable progress in the coming weeks on that end.

So, this next week is pretty busy. I do hope to have that last front bracket finished, and the square-bar integrated so I can start thinking about how the front will be supported. I'm not sure if I'll actually have any time with the bus this weekend, but I'll certainly try.

Pictures:
top - one of the rear brackets before attaching to the radiator
middle - one of the rear brackets attached. Note the coolant inlet/outlet clearance
bottom - starting the front brackets. You can see the cut-down of the angle braces. That's the temperature sensor pointing down.