Tom & Shelly's build

[Capebuild]

With the colder weather, I've noticed our hatch struts are not as strong,

One thing I noticed with our struts was the dampness seemed to affect them. When we were in damper climates, the struts seemed to not open the hatch all the way and I'd need to kind of push the hatch up to get it completely opened up. In the drier more arid climates the hatch just slowly sprung open, like it should.

John

[MickinOz]

With the colder weather, I've noticed our hatch struts are not as strong, and occasionally wind even blew the hatch down. I was worried about the struts permanently losing their strength, but experience and the interwebs have tentatively convinced me this is normal. Anyone else have any experience with this? If so, thank you in advance for any insights!

PV=nRT, old mate. There ain't no getting around the Ideal Gas Equation.

Like all Laws there are exceptions, and I'm being a little simplistic maybe, but in general:
With Pressure on one side of the equation and Temperature on the other it is clear that, all else being the same, pressure is proportional to temperature.
Temperature in Kelvins that is.
So on a 70F day, its 294K
On a freezing day 32F, its 273K

294/273 = 1.077. i.e. you have 7.7% more pressure on a 70F day than you do on a 32F day.

[Onajourney]

[/quote]

PV=nRT, old mate. There ain't no getting around the Ideal Gas Equation.

Like all Laws there are exceptions, and I'm being a little simplistic maybe, but in general:
With Pressure on one side of the equation and Temperature on the other it is clear that, all else being the same, pressure is proportional to temperature.
Temperature in Kelvins that is.
So on a 70F day, its 294K
On a freezing day 32F, its 273K

294/273 = 1.077. i.e. you have 7.7% more pressure on a 70F day than you do on a 32F day.[/quote]

Gosh, it's great hanging with such smart folks!

[Tom&Shelly]

Gosh, it's great hanging with such smart folks!

Indeed!

Thank you Mick for pointing out PV = nRT applies here. (Maybe I should have thought of that, but I didn't.)

I'll have to drag out my notes on hatch weight and strut calculations, but it sounds like that explains everything we're experiencing with the hatch. So the struts aren't wearing out (losing gas). But, now, should we accept weak struts on cold nights, or accept very strong struts on hot days?

Tom

[twisted lines]

Get 3

[MickinOz]

My mate is a mechanic. A self employed one man band, not a dealership employee. So he's not doing services on new cars, he sees lots of older cars.
He uses these to ensure he doesn't have the bonnet (hood) falling on his head. I'd probably just get a couple for the cold nights.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0FarSRDER8

[Tom&Shelly]

My mate is a mechanic. A self employed one man band, not a dealership employee. So he's not doing services on new cars, he sees lots of older cars.
He uses these to ensure he doesn't have the bonnet (hood) falling on his head. I'd probably just get a couple for the cold nights.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0FarSRDER8

As the English say: "Brilliant!"

We've actually been using a vice grip to do the same thing for the hatch on our Tacoma camper shell, but this is better. Here is what we found for sale here in the states. Ordered a pair this afternoon and will try them out:

https://www.amazon.com/Support-Caliper-Retaining-Holder-2Packs/dp/B09W91W2RL/ref=sr_1_3?crid=1HKKXRNVJE4S3&keywords=lift%2Bsupport%2Bclamp&qid=1670625654&sprefix=lift%2Bsupport%2Bclamp%2Caps%2C210&sr=8-3&th=1

These also seem to gap spark plugs for some reason.

Shelly also saw another version that stays on the gas strut and has a lever to clamp and unclamp, which is clever, but costs $30 apiece.

Tom

[Tom&Shelly]

Last Summer, running our air conditioner in muggy states, we discovered our drainage system wasn't good enough. The 3/4 inch plywood platform that the AC unit is on is really a frame, with a large part cut out underneath, epoxied, and with a gasket under it. The floor under the AC unit is epoxied, and had a single 3/4 inch hole cut in the back, middle.

Hopefully, I corrected the problem today by sliding the AC unit over and drilling two more holes. Problem was that when we weren't perfectly flat, the water built up underneath and found a way into the rest of the storage compartment. We still expect to have our head just slightly above our feet all the time, so I decided not to drill more holes in the front. Luckily, the sealant worked to keep the water confined to the compartment, and it did not migrate to our mattress on the other side of the bulkhead.



Managed to keep the holes within the wood blocking in the floor, not in the spaces with foam. Tomorrow I'll mix some epoxy and coat the sides of the holes. In a few days, I'll slide the AC unit back, and we should be ready for our Summer trip to the Northwest. I expect we'll see a few times when we want the AC and it is humid enough to test.

After 4 years, I did realize we have a problem with our build



Looks like water has gotten under the walls and into the floor plywood along the edges. I put a coat of epoxy along the bottom, but not along the sides of the floor, as I wanted the PL10 to adhear. Problem was the PL10 expanded, and pushed the wall out. I should have put screws in the sides of the wall at the time, but didn't. I noticed the gap between the wall and floor at the time and tried getting epoxy up there and then using sealant, but that obviously was not good enough. Things seem solid enough for now, but that may be what kills the teardrop eventually. Hoping to get about 10-15 more years out of her. We will see!

I do plan to put a little epoxy in that crack in the corner, and then use some touch up paint. There are more cracks with the lower back, all associated with the water in the floor



With the touch-up paint, I also plan to take care of a few places where rocks jit and damaged our Monsteliner



We had used black Monsteliner on the front baggage door, and that works pretty well. There are a few dings, but that black paint didn't crack. Unlike the black Rustoleum I used (against their advice) on the plywood holding the propane tank on



Oh well, three trips across country and smaller ones to California, Texas, Colorado, South Dakota, and around New Mexico, so I guess some wear and tear and aging are inevitable. Not sure what to do about the floor, so if anyone has ideas, I'll be ineterested in hearing them!

One other thing--if I had it to do over, I would have gone for a better rust protection for the frame than simply paint. Lot's of surface rust that I'll probably deal with in a year or two.

Tom

[bdosborn]

Looks like water has gotten under the walls and into the floor plywood along the edges. I put a coat of epoxy along the bottom, but not along the sides of the floor, as I wanted the PL10 to adhear.

I'd add some more epoxy to the edge of the ply to stop the de-lamination. Then I'd put some aluminum angle trim over the gap and leave it open. That way you won't be trapping moisture in the void, moisture in the future can get out and road dirt won't get in there.
Bruce