Month: April 2016

Today was a big day.  I now have all the side panels on and all the windows.

First the right rear. Here’s with all the insulation and the lower wiring.At this point I realize I had no more inline connectors.  I bought more locally.  These are marine grade but don’t have the adhesive heat shrink.  Fortunately I had some, so I added at the back.

The actual connection of course has the dielectric grease, so they should be safely water-tight.  And of course there should never be any water there anyway. Here’s with the right rear panels complete.

I tested all the external lights, and they work. Note that this meets the modern requirements.  It has the three ID lights across the top, and the marker lights front and back because it’s over 80 inches wide. I have the side reflectors but haven’t put them on yet. I haven’t seen at night.  Will be interesting to see how bright it all is. Here’s with the center panels off and the lower insulation on.
No wiring here. The center hole is for the lower refrigerator vent.  The lower right is for the heater.  Next is with the lower center panel on and the upper insulation and wiring.
Here we have the upper panel on. I haven’t cut the upper vent hole in the skin panel yet, but as you can see the hole is in the wall and insulation. When I bought the trailer there was an electric refrigerator, and a lower vent but no upper.  A bit strange. I’m going to use the old vent as the new upper vent.  There’s advantage in being able to access the rear of the refrigerator around the controls and to clean that area, but the upper seems less important to me.

There are six wires going into the hole on the upper left in that picture:

• Bedroom lights and USB charger
• Bathroom lights
• Kitchen lights and USB charger
• Water pump
• Living room lights
• Dedicated charger in living room.  That’s in case somebody wants to use something that draws more than a couple amps.

Each of the USB chargers is actually two USB ports and a cigarette lighter receptacle.  All the wires are 14 gauge marine wire, so voltage drop should be very small.  The distribution panel and controls with be just inside the rear door, where there’s a closet.
Here’s with that upper panel on. I’ve removed the front door so I can work on it. The lower refrigerator vent is in, as you can see, but I haven’t cut the upper vent hole or the holes for the heater.  Which would be just left of the door.
And the front window on.

Next I will probably work on doors.

 

 

 

 

Just two pictures today.  I’ve been working on windows. I take them apart, clean the parts, polish the exterior surfaces, and assemble with new stainless steel screws, new neoprene weatherstripping, and new bronze screen.

There is a problem with the window latch retainers (that’s what I call them.  I have no idea what the manufacturer called them.  They were made of aluminum.  Given the date they were made, probably some grade with very little alloy.  They are quite fragile.  

The two on the left are the originals.  As you can see, the far left one broke at the screw hole.  Somebody put a big dollop of epoxy on it, which does nothing.  The second one had a standard fatigue failure at the bend. That’s common.  So I needed two replacements, but I made five.  I used the aluminum available at my local hardware store, which is almost certainly 6061-T6.  That’s an excellent all-purpose aluminum and should hold up a lot better than the originals did. Mine are not as nicely made as the originals, but I’m not ashamed. The tools I had were a drill, tin snips, file, multi-tool, and high speed rotary tool.

I put on all the left side windows.

I ran out of weatherstripping at the last window.  So I have another half hour or so to complete the last one. I also disassembled the external storage access door, which goes in the right rear.  I replaced all the wood and I’m halfway through painting it.  I polished all the aluminum pieces, and it two days (including time for paint to dry) I should be able to install that. Otherwise it’s side panels- I still have four more to complete on the right side.

This is going to be a long post. I appear to have lost a post from several days ago.  By “lost” I’m pretty sure it was actually “failed to save and publish”.  Basically I’ve been completing the side panels. First the lower center left.  The last post shows that ready for the panel.  Note that on the side panel screws where there isn’t any butyl tape I’ve been putting some silicon on the screw before I torque it.  Like this:

 

 

Then I did the left rear, upper and lower.  Then the right front, upper and lower. Then the left front, upper and lower. 

Every panel of course has the polyiso insulation.  For the side I haven’t been using a lot of aluminum tape.  I don’t think the roof needed as much as I used, but the sides really shouldn’t.  But I have been using it as an aid to retaining the wires.  Most of the panels have at least a few wires running through them.  Here, for example, is the right front.  That wire is for the right front marker light.

 

Note the connectors. Each corner panel (eight total) and the rear lower panel has at least one light.  To be able to remove the panel if necessary there have to be connectors. Underneath the tape on the lower right are a couple of three-way crimp connectors.  So that blue wire comes from the front of the trailer and continues up the right. Here’s the upper right front.

Here we have the three-way crimp connectors with a wire going over the roof to the left side lights, the connectors so the panel can be removed, and a white wire.  That will bring power from the wall sconce light just inside the front door, which will be connected to the main panel (which isn’t there yet but will be off to the left in this picture), and runs to the other front lights. Also I like the idea of dielectric grease wherever there’s an open electrical connection.  I found this stuff in my local hardware store. It pushes the grease down into the socket, as you can just see in the terminals and the bulb socket.  I’ve done that for each of the connections and each of the bulbs.

 

Here’s the left front with insulation on.

I didn’t get photos of the center upper with insulation and without the panel, but that has be far the most electrical connections.  Something like eight or nine lights, the thermostat, water pump wire, and two USB/cigarette lighter socket charging stations.  Here we are with all the left side panels in place.

This side still needs windows, and some work at the bottom.  For some reason which I can’t understand, a previous owner put dozens of nails in at random locations near the bottom. In some cases I can easily hide them.  This is the bottom right front.

In three places there was a nail hole within about a quarter-inch of a standard structural screw. I bought some aluminum circles off the web, and with some butyl tape they don’t really attract attention.  In one place there’s an “extra” hole, but it’s almost in line with the others. Put in a screw and it looks normal.

In some places there are over a dozen extra holes in random locations.  For those I’ll get a four inch wide panel and double over the existing holes.  Done right it should look fine.

I’ve made some nice progress in the last few days.  First I completed the trailer lights in back. The originally had round Bargman lights right and left with a licence plate light in the center.  There was a lot of corrosion around the lights, and when I was handling one of them the electrical parts just fell apart. So I went with the modern lights I could get locally.  So this is what they looked like:

Not beautiful.  Note also that the license plate light is integral with the left taillight, so there was a hole in the center.  So I needed some aluminum sheet to cover the holes.

 

To get these in place with a lot of disassembly I slit below the wire holes. For the left one I had to actually make the center part removable.

And heres what it looks like when completed.

Next I worked on the central floor beam.  This runs from front to back.  I attached all the clips to the floor. The last three feet or so slant up, so I waited to assemble that in place.  Here are some photos.
The I did the framing on the left, in the kitchen. There is a hole at the bottom for the water heater, and another above it for the water inlet.  

I made a shelf so the water heater sits at the right level.

 I needed to cut a hole in the wall between the kitchen cabinet and the bathroom.  The water tank will sit just over the wheel well.  You can see it in the background of the picture above. The water tank, heater, pump, and accumulator will take up almost all of the cabinet. While I was working in this area I added some reinforcement to the cabinet.  Like the one on the right side, it was assembled using those corrugated fasteners, which had rusted badly.

I also replaced the faucet. Once I put in the wheel well and the water tank I’ll never again have this good access. I like Moen faucets and that’s what they had locally.

With new hoses of course. Then I attached the wheel well.  I had to be a bit clever with the attachments.  The inside attachment is just like the right.  The right side exterior and angle clips, but for the left side that doesn’t work. For the left side I used straps.

Also there were a few screw holes that were getting loose.  I drilled those out with a brad point bit and glued in dowel pins.

Then later cut the dowels flush. The joint between the center lower exterior panel and the front wasn’t at a 2×2, so I added another vertical to give the joint support.

Then all was ready for the insulation.

That’s all for now. The next step will be to clean and polish the exterior aluminum panel (this is the largest one on the trailer by far) and put it on. From now on, when I attach an exterior panel it should be for the last time.  Well, last time for this rebuild.

Since the last post I’ve completed the frame-to-trailer-sidewall reassembly.  All the rotten structural wood is gone.  There’s a little bad wood on the ceiling still, but really it’s now all reassembly and appearance. No more demolition and repair.

First I made sure the frame was solidly strapped to the supports.  Those look like this now.

Then I redid the left sidewall-to-frame-and-floor attachment.  Now the frame attachment looks like this:

Nicely aligned.  Before the sidewalls were too wide by a half inch.

I completed the framing on the right side.  The hole about in the center of the picture is at the bottom of the refrigerator cabinet section.  That hole will allow a dometic access/cooling hatch.  The square hole just left of the front door is for the new furnace.  I still need to make the holes through the skin for those.  That will come later.

I’ve been using a lot of clips made from aluminum angle.  I hate the original corrugated fasteners, but where they were holding well I’ve left them.  Where needed I’ve added a clip. Like this.

In front of the right wheel well I didn’t like the wood. The bolt hole was enlarged at the top and the wood was soft.  So I let in a new piece of douglas fir and backed up with an overlap.

There were some metal plates used on the main cabinet.  This is on the right side of the trailer interior, between the two doors.

 

Originally the cabinet was put together with hundreds of nails and a bunch of those corrugated fasteners. Now I know the tiniest bit about real woodworking. I hate having metal plates to hold the cabinet together, but I don’t have skills and equipment to rebuild it efficiently, and I don’t have time to rebuild it inefficiently.  So I just moved those to the inside. Here’s what the inside behind those plates looked like before.

Actually the whole cabinet was starting to come apart, since I pulled it away from the floor.  So pulled the sides together

and I added more backing plates and corner reinforcement. Adds

I mentioned before that I had a local welder make me new wheel wells out of 1/8″ aluminum.  A bit pricey, but strong and should last for the next millenium. They look like this:

 

 

 

I had to remove a little material from the corners where the axle attaches. There are three clips on the inside (long one in the middle and two small on the ends), and three on the outside.

There’s a clip at the top attaching the wheel well to the vertical 2×2, and another at the left side.  At the right I trimmed the floor beams back about 3/4 inch farther than I should have, so I added a section of aluminum angle to support that side clip properly. This is all very solid now.  After this I put the insulation on this section of the right side, but I forgot to take a picture. I’ll do that later. I put the skin panel back on temporarily. The cutout in the skin matches the cutout in the wheel well, and I can enlarge both if I feel it necessary.

This picture shows the cutouts around the axle attachment.

 

 

From the inside there’s space around the well.  This picture is looking down from inside the cabinet.

Later I’ll close that up with a epoxy coated exterior plywood and caulk it so it’s water tight. Note that the aluminum of the wheel well, even at the cutouts, is below the floor.  So no spray from the wheels can hit the floor directly.