Tom & Shelly's build

[Tom&Shelly]

retirement.

Tom

Ahh What

Thank you! To be perfectly honest, I have to go back to work in August, but plan to put in my papers to retire at the end of the year. Three and a half months to teach the folks I work with everything they need to know, and particularly the unique skills that I, alone, have learned and developed over the past forty years. (So what do I do with the remaining 12 weeks? )

Tom

[Tom&Shelly]

In the past week, I glued blocking around the hatch ribs (1/2" plywood), and custom cut and installed blocking for the tail lights, license plate holder, dome light, and hatch handle:



After doing all of that, I realized that I'd installed two of the ribs slightly cock-eyed! How could I be so stupid? (What, me worry?)

The rib holding all the blocking is 3/4" low on one side, as is the one above it. The third one is straight. To answer my own rhetorical question, I think I measured from the bottom for the two cock-eyed ribs and measured from the wrong place. Since I custom fit all the blocking, I never noticed.

I think it will be okay. Since this is a Benroy, the lower cock-eyed rib is on the flat vertical part of the hatch, so it shouldn't matter. The other cockeyed rib might, but we'll try skinning the inside this weekend, and if it looks okay, we'll leave it alone. I could cut it out and replace, but will need some more blocking which would add weight. If we get away with it, after skinning, it won't show.

We did get the air compressor Shelly inherited from her Dad working, and tested our 23 gauge pin nailer. Looks like it will work fine, so my plan is to cut 1/8" Baltic birch and use it to skin the inside of the hatch (as well as the outside eventually). I wanted access to the wiring for the lights, and so we plan to glue (with PL Premium) the inside skin to the curved part of the hatch. The lower part, between the bottom and the first rib, we plan to screw on, and so it will be removable. If you look close, I glued a 3/4" by 3/4" strip of poplar above the rib, to hold the edge of the upper skin, while the lower one screws to the rib. After I finally measured and realized my mistake, I glued a second 3/4" by 3/4" strip above that one, so we can cut the access panel straight across.

These are the tail/brake/backup/turn signal lights we plan to use:



Right after noticing my cock-eyed ribs, I realized we have a problem with these as far as splitting the right turn/brake and left turn/brake wires from the TV into separate brake and turn signals. Found a device that does that on E-Trailer, but the specs say it's for incandescent bulbs only. I posted some questions on the electrical folder about that.

I still need to make a bracket for the center stop light, by the way. Not sure how we'll do that, but a 45 degree cut with the table saw is likely in the future. A block of wood with a pleasing shape protected with epoxy, along with an epoxy fillit to the fiber glassed outer skin is a likely possibility.

Shelly was afraid that if we center the license plate, someone might someday scrape their hands on the edge of the plate reaching for the handle. Two solutions came to mind: the first was a license plate frame that reads: "We have a retirement plan, we plan to camp", the other solution was simply to move the plate to one side. This is the license plate holder we have



The California plate is simply for fitting. I've lived in half a dozen states, and have plates from most hanging in the shop. As an aside: Shelly was an elementary/middle school teacher in New Mexico, and they don't teach kids cursive writing here anymore. So evidently, they wouldn't know this is a California plate!

Tom

[Tom&Shelly]

If we build the 2 wire to 3 wire tail light converter into the hatch, we'll need six wires into the hatch:

- Right turn/brake light
- Left turn/brake light
- Running lights/license plat light
- Back up lights
- Dome light
- Ground

Of course, the dome light is on a separate electrical system, but I'll tie the grounds together.

So, we went to Surplus City in Albuquerque yesterday and found these:




Think they're called "TRW connectors". They come in several styles and pin counts. Since we plan to have most of our electrical wires terminate in a box built into the galley, I may use the panel mounted male connector in the box and plug the wire from the hatch into that. (BTW, this is for 12 volts. Do not use the male side of a plug for the power side of a high voltage application!)

Found this cable with 6 18 gauge wires, which should work fine for the low current draws of the LED lights and short lengths of the teardrop:



Here is the dome light we plan to use in the galley.



Same style as the one we plan for the cabin. The two sides make more sense in there, perhaps, but we don't see how a two side light would be a bad thing; although we would likely always turn on both sides. We thought about how to put it close to the galley side of the hatch, but I realized how much easier it would be to mount it on the flat end of the hatch, and convinced Shelly that the way we (tent) camp, and likely will trailer camp, will be to set up our aluminum folding table and Coleman stove off to one side or back of the galley/hatch area, and placing the dome light here would light the whole area. We will probably also install strip lights above the galley counter for lighting there.

So the hatch



has blocking to mount the tail/turn/backup lights on either end. (Enough meat there so the catty-whompus strut doesn't matter.) On the left are two sticks to mount the license plate holder. The flat board with the hole in it, in the middle, will be the mount for the dome light. The two vertical sticks are the mounting for the hatch handle. (By the way, since ordering that, some of our pop-up ads are for insurance for the boat they presume we own. We're moving up in the predatory ad world!)

Anyway, hope I didn't add too much weight with all that blocking. Should be sturdy though.

Tom

[tony.latham]

I think I measured from the bottom for the two cock-eyed ribs and measured from the wrong place.

shhhhhhhh!!!

Quiet, dude.

T

[pchast]

Tom,

Tying grounds together normally requires a larger ground wire....
What size do you plan for the length?

[Tom&Shelly]

Tom,

Tying grounds together normally requires a larger ground wire....
What size do you plan for the length?

It's a good point, but 18 gauge will work fine for the ground.

The dome light is the largest current draw at 630 mA. That's less than 10 feet to the trailer battery. The signal lights are about 150 mA apiece for the twelve to fifteen feet to the junction box at the front of the trailer. Worst case (open the hatch and turn the dome light on while the TV's backup lights are on--never mind the safety issue with that) and we're looking at less than two amps. Should be okay.

Tom

[Tom&Shelly]

Didn't do too much today. Put some scrap on the hatch to prevent racking,



took the hatch off, and cut the 1/8 inch Baltic birch to skin the inside. I was all ready to glue and nail it, but Shelly suggested we put some weights on it and let it sit for a day to try and take the form a little first.

So we'll crew for our friends' balloon in the morning (so early that you sane people wouldn't get up unless there were fish involved!), pick up a free flashlight at Harbor Fright, come back and take a "balloon nap", and then glue it down.

Think I see why we are taking so long to build this thing, but we're having fun.

Tom

[Tom&Shelly]

We glued the skin to the inside of the hatch this afternoon



The 23 gauge nails didn't hold quite as well as anticipated, and we had to supplement them with some clamping. Led to a few tense moments as we scrambled to find blocks to get over the gussets. We ended up using TB III, as Shelly was afraid the expansion of the PL Premium would push the wood out from around the nails.

We didn't want the hatch skin to go all the way to the bottom. I took it off before taking the pictures, but had a strip screwed in as a guide for the lower part of the skin. Tomorrow, I'll trim some more 1/8 inch Baltic birch and make an access panel for the lower part of the hatch.

Here is a close-up of the insets (in the lower right corner of the hatch) for the rubber D ring seals. I cut notches in the gussets so the horizontal seal will meet up with the edge seals. The edge seals will compress against a quarter inch thick lip in the galley. The horizontal seal will simply press against the edge of the floor, and will be held tight by the hatch gas struts and the hasps we'll use to keep the hatch secure while traveling. (And, the inset for the horizontal seal is designed to be 1/8" different from the side insets.)



Our hatch handle came in the other day



Just as advertised! Flat head 10-32 machine screws fit just right. I'll buy some stainless steel 3/4" screws and some T nuts, and will counter drill the bracing just enough to bury the T nuts below the access panel.

Tom

[swoody126]

Tom, you can get stainless steel T-nuts too

sw

[noseoil]

I used screws on the inside of the hatch, not nails or pins for the inner skin, in case I needed to access wiring. Glad I did, as I had to do a "small" repair to my wiring, when I fixed a seep under the hinge due to sequencing issues (mine, not the design...). Note to self, don't remove the last hinge screw with the 100# gas struts still attached (without a tie-down) to keep the hatch from shooting down once that last screw is removed! Had a heck of a time getting it fixed & had left my phone in the galley, so trouble calling out for help... Had the 3rd tail light, both stereo speakers, back-up lights, dome light & ground plate all wired into the hatch. Good practice looking for a pulled wire.

I used these to run my wiring harness through the spars, still working well. Check Ace hardware in the plumbing section for their "flexible conduit" in the copper bending tools section. Didn't know those tubing benders could stretch that far when the struts unloaded & started pulling wiring apart.

[Tom&Shelly]

Tom, you can get stainless steel T-nuts too

sw

Thank you SW. Found them on Amazon. Buying either 50 or 100 (can't remember), along with a similar number of stainless 10-32 screws, when I need four, so I'll have a lifetime supply!

Tom

[Tom&Shelly]

Note to self, don't remove the last hinge screw with the 100# gas struts still attached (without a tie-down) to keep the hatch from shooting down once that last screw is removed! Had a heck of a time getting it fixed & had left my phone in the galley, so trouble calling out for help... Had the 3rd tail light, both stereo speakers, back-up lights, dome light & ground plate all wired into the hatch. Good practice looking for a pulled wire.

Yikes! good safety tip!

Found some rubber tubing in the Hardware store this afternoon: 5/16" ID, 7/16" OD. The 6 conductor cable slips right in, so we'll put that in the part of the hatch we can't access easily, so we'll be able to pull more wire if necessary. If that works well, we may use the tubing in the camper ceiling as well.

Tom

[Tom&Shelly]

Made the mount for the third brake light today



Needed to be just a bit bigger than two-by, but I had some scrap wood in the pile from some pallet, or something. There's some good pine under those ugly surfaces! It's just a little piece, but it was a lot of fun to make. Used the miter (chop) saw, table saw, band saw, router with 1/8" round-over bit, and drill press. Just about every power tool in our shop.

Finished by early afternoon, glued some blocking for it to the hatch, then went to the hardware store and found some clear tubing to use as a conduit. Before gluing it in and putting on the outer skin, think I'll put a few coats of varnish on the inside of the hatch, where it will be covered by the outer skin, just for water protection in case water ever gets in somehow. I have a big can of suspect varnish that gave me the only bad job I ever remember getting; but here it won't show.

Tom

[tony.latham]

Used the miter (chop) saw, table saw, band saw, router with 1/8" round-over bit, and drill press.

T

[twisted lines]

Tom, you can get stainless steel T-nuts too

sw

Thank you SW. Found them on Amazon. Buying either 50 or 100 (can't remember), along with a similar number of stainless 10-32 screws, when I need four, so I'll have a lifetime supply!

Tom

While using stainless to stainless its a good Idea to use a tiny bit of anti seize so the thread don't gaul it is very common and can make for a bad day if you want to take thing's apart.

My day job use to be working with very specialised stainless stuff, one of them had a thousand dollar bolt.