Tucson tortoise: Edit for photos

[noseoil]

Thanks everyone. This would never have been possible without the help & generous input from everyone here. It was a great trip, a bit long on the driving part, but well worth the visit with people & getting to see other builds in person for a change. I'll be plugging away at it again this weekend & will post progress pictures. Thinking I may get the stove installed, but will have to see how it goes. Thanks again. tim

[McGuffin]

Hey Tim,

What are you going to do with all your free time ...?



Larry

[noseoil]

Larry, here's where the "free time" is going now. I mentioned that I had a "few" things to do still, so here's today's work. I ran a ground from the inverter & ground strip to the frame per Rick's input from last weekend. No problems with faults, just being careful. The 110 volt, 12 volt & inverter are all grounded now, or earthed, as those who speak proper English would say.

The alarm system was never wired completely, so I spent part of the day working on trimming it out. It's all working now, but I have one thing to fix. I ran all the magnetic switches as "normally closed" in the doors, tongue box & hatch. WRONG! they should have been normally open, so an open door would ground the system & trigger an alarm. On Monday I'll go to an electronics store to buy a solid state relay to reverse the circuit & fix the problem. The spare tire is now alarmed & working since it's a (-) ground pin switch, the blinking LED is working & shows up in the port holes, the valet switch is functioning properly. The siren sounds when the spare is moved now.

Here's a shot of some of the alarm wiring & the gas pipe in the back behind the stove. The gas bottle sits in the A frame up front. I won't hook up the gas line until I have the alarm 100% set & working. I still need to test the line & fittings again, but it should be OK once things are hooked up.


I had a couple of hoses made at a local place which works on hydraulic & LPG lines near work. This is the back of the stove. The line is just looped into the back for safe keeping, but it shows the regulator & the line attached at the back of the stove & how it will sit when the stove is installed for good. The line has a loop in it since the stove tracks out about a foot to run. I got some Teflon & made rub strips on the galley floor, so the stove can't hop up & down on rough roads. Hopefully this will help keep the fasteners tight over time & prevent problems later on when using it. You can see them under the stove in the galley shot.


And finally, here's what the galley will look like when things are in place for good.


As you can see, the doors & drawer heads aren't made yet & installed. The inner skin for the hatch still needs to be put in, but I'm waiting to do the stereo & test it out prior to skinning the hatch. Want to make sure the speaker wires are right, as it would be a PITA to have to strip the hatch once it's skinned & trimmed out. The skin will be removable, but I'm not going there until I'm sure everything is working properly.

So Larry, does this answer your question? My "free time" isn't quite free just yet. Propane, stereo, TV & entertainment system, stereo, doors & drawers inside, curtains, etc. etc. etc. are still left to do....

[Atomic77]

As someone else on here says, (maybe KC?) You're never really done... Great work man, looking forward to being at this stage someday!

[KCStudly]

Michael, Everyone says that. I can't help but see how it must be true, so I may have said it a few times, too.

Still, I agree, I can't wait to get to that 95/ct done and campable stage. For now we are living vicariously thru Noseoil's success!

[dales133]

X eleventy

[Vedette]

What size is your propane hard line and how did you come up with that size?
brian

[dales133]

What size is your propane hard line and how did you come up with that size?
brian

I think 3/8 is the standard here brian.
Yes we still do some stuff in cave man measurements.
Btw i wish i could borrow you for a week on mine!

[noseoil]

Thanks again guys.

Brian, I just used 1/2" black pipe for the main line under the frame, stubbed out front & back. This was done due to availability of parts, fittings, clamps & hangers, plus it's what I've worked with in the past on houses. I know it's way-overkill in dimension, but I figured it would be robust enough to take the occasional hunk of road debris, rocks & gravel and still not get damaged. With the QD "T" fitting at the back, I wanted to have plenty of gas flow if necessary for a fire place or other cooker and still be able to use the galley stove at the same time. Originally, I thought I was going to be able to use a standard regulator with the normal 11" water column output for my stove. Part way through the build I started reading about other people who had issues with running my type of stove with low pressure lines. It won't work! Brad had a write-up on his build journal about the problem & his solution to the low pressure fix.

viewtopic.php?f=50&t=58223&start=615

In retrospect, 3/8" copper would have been easier & cheaper to use with flare fittings, but I wanted the harder steel pipe. Not sure how much flow there would be with the 3/8" copper if I started adding more stuff on the line while running with the T fitting.

What can I say, I'm a construction worker.

[Vedette]

Thanks!
I was thinking 3/8" copper (just because of weight consciousness on my build) but now I can wait for others to chime in with their suggestions and thoughts.
I do want to be able to plug in our Outland Fire Bowl.
Good Roads
Brian & Sandi

[noseoil]

More finishing stuff today, odds & ends. Worked on the stove & propane installation. The 1/2" line was roughed in already, so just the trim-out was all we needed to do. Here's the tongue & 10# bottle with variable regulator. No leaks anywhere! Did the soapy water test on all connections & no bubbles were growing. I had tested it last year, but no reason to be complacent about gas under pressure.


Here's the stove with the locks in place. It's up & running, but I still need to do a "test" on something. Cookies, perhaps per Cap'n Telescope's stove trials? Too tired today, but soon....


I got some stainless steel bathroom stall latches. Made a couple of diamond plate escutcheons for the floor & drilled the floor to accept the sliding tongue. Worked out OK & keeps the stove in place when moving down the road. They just slide up & down, friction fit only & gravity holds everything in place. As long as there's gravity, we should be good. The stove is on full extension drawer guides. I may swap them out for a longer set in the future, but the 12" ones are good for now.


Also installed the TV, Blu-Ray player & a sound bar. Here's a shot of the inside with the tv & a movie running. I had mapped out all of this last year & incorporated it into the cabinets, so it all fits well enough. The solar system is doing a good job with the battery & charging chores. This is all running off the inverter now, no shore power. Didn't measure a load, but best guess is that it might be drawing about 4.5 amps with all three things going. Not sure about the inverter load (1000 watt), but I guess about an amp there as well (about 10% maybe?), so not too worried about power consumption. With the 100 amp hour battery we should be good for a movie or two at night if it's raining. Still need to look into a hard drive to store movies on for travel, but that's later. For now it was a good day of work.


The list is growing, but it's growing shorter now! Time to think about doors & drawer heads soon, but there's no hurry on that one. As always, thanks for looking & for all the help along the way.

[KCStudly]

First class!

[OP827]

No bubbles - no troubles and your trailer build shows a very fine workmanship!

[felixx]

this is awesome

[dales133]

Sharp!
Nice problem solving and wxecution ma man