MyAway build - Updates for space usage & organization

[bve]

Did you finish and forget to update your build thread?

[S. Heisley]

Finished? Don't I wish! No, Burke. I was hoping no one would notice. Shoulda known better! But, thank you for taking the time to ask. The trailer gremlins have been after me again. If you have time, here's the sad "violin" story (the reduced size part) for the last 6 weeks or so:

Event #1: Pressure regulator to the house blew which cause the toilet to blow in two places and the pipes in the walls of two rooms to blow and the guest room shower to run water while it was turned off! Pressure regulator and pipes are now fixed and the walls are re-plastered, ready to be painted. Toilet has a temporary fix on it…can’t find the right parts.
Event #2: Truck battery died. At least that was an easy fix. All it cost was money. Ha! Ha!
Event #3: My back went out.
Event #4: 7 year old refrigerator burned out over Easter. Had to wait 5 days, filling borrowed ice chests with lots of ice until the replacement came.
Event #5‘Frig Replacement is bad....new one coming on 21st of this month.
Event #6: My back went out again.
Event #7: Microwave on the fritz. Nothing else would fit the built-in space. Repairmen had to take it out, disassemble it and replace parts (plural). <Aside: I was surprised to find that all the parts inside that I saw inside the GE microwave were labeled SAMSUNG!>

Other than that and my back is still giving me grief, would somebody please bring over a witch doctor to send these trailer gremlins packing?! They hit me at the same time last year!

....Now, back to your regularly scheduled (but late) program:

I'm working on couple things that aren't done enough for pictures yet:
I put the counter top laminate on and have part of it trimmed but some cold storms came in and you aren't supposed to work on that stuff if it is below 65 degrees. Hopefully, I'll get to the rest of that this weekend, as the weather is improving.
I am currently working on my wiring, splicing wires and running lines. Again, there is nothing worth much in pictures. I've just got to splice in two more lights and I'll be ready to wire the converter. I spent today, looking for breakers for my converter/charger. Nobody seems to have what I need but one electrical store will order the parts for me next week. (They were closing early because the city's Kool April Nites vintage car parade is tonight.) I have one more place that I can check with, tomorrow. I can post my calculations document and wire flow chart. (They’re scanned in and are a little hard to read at the required forum size):





Yes, it’s a bit of overkill; but, as long as it doesn’t kill me or mine, I don’t see the harm in it. All the electrical is in the stationary ceiling areas, except for one 12V outlet which is on the side of the converter cabinet. I bought colored electrical tape and wrap-marked everything according to the color of the converter wire that each wire line will be attached to, as shown in the above flow diagram. Wire splices are being soldered and protected in shrink-wrap sleeves. In most cases, I can get to wire lines via the inset lighting spaces. There are two lights that can’t be gotten to easily and I put those two lights on their own separate line. Where it was possible and reasonable, male/female crimped connectors were used. I have used wire nuts on the three double lights but they are easy to get to and the wire nuts are cover-wrapped in electrical tape that has also been heat shrunk over them.

I have an email out to Best Converter to see if I can test my wiring without hooking a battery up and if so, how to do that. It’s been three days and they haven’t answered back. No answer is a rather rude “Noâ€

[Cliffmeister2000]

Event #7: Microwave on the fritz. Nothing else would fit the built-in space. Repairmen had to take it out, disassemble it and replace parts (plural). <Aside: I was surprised to find that all the parts inside that I saw inside the GE microwave were labeled SAMSUNG!>

I remember reading once that there are only 2 manufacturers of microwave oven these days. Samsung and Gold Star

Trivia factoid:

Samsung means 3 stars in Korean.

Mitsubishi means 3 diamonds in Japanese.

[Shadow Catcher]

Sorry to hear of your difficulties, we have gone through periods like that where a bunch of things went wrong.
To do electrical testing you could use your truck battery or run jumper cables from the battery to your battery terminals in the trailer. I did that in reverse to charge a battery using the Progressive Dynamics charger to desulfate a battery.

[steve smoot]

Sharon,

I just looked at your album, and was surprised to see that you are building one similar to Andrew's Compac design too. Way to go.

I can sure relate to money going every where but on the camper. I had a heart attack, then bypass surgery. We did not have insurance, so there went 60,000. Then the ice storm clean up has cost us $613 so far, not counting the new chain for my saw. Then our three year old frig went out and our three year old dryer went out the next day! That cost me $224. So, my trailer is sitting in the garage waiting for me to find some money...

Steve

[Miriam C.]

So sorry to hear of all that gremlen activity. And very sorry to hear of the back. That can be the worse. Especially if you can't fix it. Let me encourage you to get a MRI if you can. Mine had little to do with my back and boy is it better.

[S. Heisley]

Cliffmeister wrote:

I remember reading once that there are only 2 manufacturers of microwave oven these days. Samsung and Gold Star

Trivia factoid:

Samsung means 3 stars in Korean.

Mitsubishi means 3 diamonds in Japanese.
_________________

Very interesting!

[S. Heisley]

Shadow Catcher:

You're a smarter person than me! I love hearing your suggestions.

Miriam:

Been to a few "docs". Gotta live with the back the way it is but need to fight it a bit more with ice, exercise, etc. I just get lazy or forget...My bad.
.
.
.
.
Life happens. The important thing here is that I'm back on the build! Take that, you Trailer Gremlins!

[S. Heisley]

Steve:

You're on TD/TTT time. You do what you can when you can. Just committing to this build thread keeps me going on it. Gotta watch out for those trailer gremlins, though! They're liable to hit you where it hurts: heart, wallet, home repairs, anywhere they can!

Building a camping trailer can be like playing a live version of Monopoly. You get detoured sometimes but you stay in the game 'til it's done. Good luck on your future trailer!

[bve]

Wow Sharon, that's a spell of bad luck / trailer gremlins. My proposed remedy is to get out there and 'exercise' the gremlins through persistence, which eventually leads to 'camp-able' status to which (from what I have read) will rid you of the gremlins for ever.

Good to see you have been able to get some things taken care of despite the worthiness for pictures, and the challenges you had to deal with.

Hopefully things are improving for you.

[Steve_Cox]

Sharon,

I was doing a little catch-up on your build thread and saw how easy you made it to minimize all your problems, just highlight them and use a smaller font. I like your style Hope the back is getting better.

[S. Heisley]

Thanks, Burke. I'm hanging in there and, soon, all will be better.

Hi, Steve: I like your new avatar! Yes, shrink everything and make it better. That works for most everything but the bank account.

At least I found what I needed for the converter this weekend.....

[S. Heisley]

Hi, trailer-building folks! I’ve made some decent progress this past month. The electrical wiring is done all the way up to the converter. Wiring the converter will probably be my next task.

The counters are on and the faucet, sink, and stove are installed in the Galley counter. (Sorry, saw dust is on the camera lens again.)



Also, the 'middle-of-the-night' potty cabinet is nearly completed. The front hanging portion can catch on the galley cabinet; but, if you know what to do, it lifts perfectly, without catching. I may work on that some more when I have the time…much, much later.

[bbarry]

Lookin' good! I'm glad you were able to get the sink and stove in together on the counter...it looks really sharp!

[aggie79]

Wow Sharon!

Your build really looks professional and beautiful.

Keep pluggin' away.