The Poet Creek Express - Foamie Hybrid

[KCStudly]

KC, we’ve found all the supposedly low tack painters tapes become affixed after a few days ... That and over a fresh finish , can be a problem ...

I need to hit the areas on the rear of the bulkhead with some more stain to see if I can get them a little darker, then touch it all up with some more poly.

Part of me wants to just skip the poly part because most of the touched up spots of stain are nearly invisible and will be hidden, but the smart side of my brain knows that sealing out the moisture (inside of the cabin from respiration, perspiration and tracked in moisture... wet clothes, coats, etc.) can still be an issue.

Kudzu, thank you for the sentiment. Very nice of you.

One trick to try is removing it by heating it with a hair dryer first ... the slight heating loosens the adhesive ...

Oooooooo, that sounds like it definitely has promise!!! I will try that! Thanks, dude.

I spoke too soon on the chunker. Every year about this time things start brewing. Guys get ideas on how we might do better. One idea is to try the compounding method we tested last year, but go to the trouble of extending the scutula and scapus (move the winch back further) so that we can get closer to our std. pull back point with the arms. This adds complication because we can only go so far back w/o having to dig a hole in the field in order to tip the machine up to the proper launch angle. The farmer doesn't like people to dig big holes in his field; there isn't much top soil and his equipment doesn't like them. Therefore we are limited by the rules to a relatively small hole, and we must fill it back in when we are done.

Anyway, that's not at all what we worked on today. The axles under the ballista are Dexter temporary axles intended for only 3k miles of service, such as for mobile homes or delivering modular homes, and the brakes have something like 12k miles on them. They are worn out and are not serviceable; they are permanently riveted with the actuator arm to the mounting plate that is welded to the axle tube with no backing plate, per se. So we went up to Dave's and pulled apart the third axle (a spare) that was bought back with the two that are under the machine and has been stored outside in the elements for many years. We spent a good deal of time hosing the pivot points with penetrating oil, drifting the shoes and actuator arms to free them, de-rusting, cleaning and repacking the bearings (although they were like new with still good grease... BTW, popping the inner seals off by putting the drum/hub unit back on the spindle and reinstalling the nut and washer after removing the outer bearing cone really does work well without any noticeable trauma to the seal... although they did not go back in very snuggly), freeing up the frozen safety rim lug bolts, and extracting the one that snapped off in the drum.

We got that as far as we could and took it over to team capt. Eric's house where the machine is, but did not have enough time left to get it swapped in. Next time.

Suffice to say, I did not work on the camper today. Tomorrow.

Thanks for watching.

[GPW]

It is getting to be that Pumpkin time of year ....

[KCStudly]

Where am I? Oh yeah, locating the lower cabinet floor ledger on the cabin side of the bulkhead so that I can drill into the wire way for the red light wire (located at the back of the cabin at our feet).

So I figured out the fastener system for the ledgers. I couldn’t find finish screws in the shorter 1-1/4 inch length needed, so I’m going with #6 FH screws with square drive sockets. The square drive sockets will allow me to turn the screw heads down so that they will fit inside the panel groove.

Because the lower cabinet frame butts up to the underside of the upper cabinet floor I wanted to have the upper cabinet frame in place to verify some as built dimensions. When I compared the bottom of the groove in the upper frame to the floor vs. the height of the lower cabinet frame, I was able to make a set of spacers to aid in setting the lower ledger level at the exact height needed (the green sticks in this pic).


I just put a couple of screws thru the ledger for now. Not visible is the small wire hole drilled in the lower middle of the ledger where the red light wire will come thru. I used this as a drill guide and a piece of tape on the drill bit (so I wouldn’t go too deep and poke thru the back of the bulkhead) to drill into the hidden wire way in the bulkhead.

Then I pulled that all down so that it would be out of the way while I wire the bulkhead up (in hindsight, probably not the most efficient sequence of work).

This is where I ran into trouble removing the tape. It doesn’t look too bad from here.


But when you look a little closer it gets ugly fast. This is the street side wall adjacent to the lower ledger (note the screw hole).


Here is the worst of it on the curb side galley bulkhead.




There were several other smaller spots, but the repairs are well under way and when I get back to a happy place with it I will post more pics.

In the meantime I started fishing a length of plastic twine (sniped from the loading zone kiosk at the big orange) thru the bulkhead to use as a fish tape. Here it is entering the small hole that I drilled thru the cabinet ledger.


Then I pulled a loop of it out at the fan hole wire access hole, then on to the access at the turn where it snakes around the lower left edge of the bulkhead down in the corner.


I had to open up the hole behind the ledger in order to get the SPT-1 zip cord to make the turn down into the bulkhead, but it will be well hidden. Note the temporary knot tied loosely in the wire to keep it from accidentally being pulled back into the wall.


I also was able to pull this and the case fan wires down and around to the front side of the bulkhead. However, when I went to fish the twine down from the top of the bulkhead (for the hatch wiring) to this same junction point at the bottom of the bulkhead, I wasn’t able to get it to pass by these wires and out of the access hole. I may need to pull one or more of them back out (with twine attached) in order to get all of the wires to lay down nice and play right together.

Once I get all of these, and the street side rear side marker light wires into the cabin, everything else should go relatively easy. The street side bulkhead thru way is the "grand central station" where the most wires go thru. I tried to keep the passage ways as small as I could so as not to take too much of the structural strength away from the wood, but if I had it to do over again I would have made this area more open, or just planned on a larger access cover from the beginning.

Oh well, I will muddle thru and make it work in the end. No worries.

[GPW]

KC , those are just “beauty marks “ ... a little touch up and buffing and no one will ever notice ... and we’ll never tell eh ! ...

[KCStudly]

Pulled more wires tonight but I'm not sure that I made forward progress; had to pull some back out in order to fish the twine thru a merging zone. At least I was able to pull twine back thru with the wires so getting those back in place later shouldn't be too difficult.

I'll break the big bundle of 6 wires that goes up to the hatch into pairs of 3 and see if that makes it easier to pull thru my tight spot. If not then I can try pulling them thru one at a time, pulling a wire and another twine for the next wire each time.

You gotta do what you gotta do. If that fails I can try a little pulling lube, but I am reluctant to slobber it all over.

Last ditch resort, I can open a little bigger window in the rear of the bulkhead skin (behind the cooler under the counter) and patch it back up later, but I really don't think that will be necessary. There is room, I just have to keep fishing until they all play nice.

[GPW]

Dry wire lubricant .... baby powder ...

[KCStudly]

Finally got the wires thru grand central!

I tried several different ways to pull the wires thru this tricky area (this way/that way, all one bundle/smaller groups, etc.), was getting pretty frustrated and it was hot and humid; I was struggling and starting to lose my cool, so to speak.

In the end I cut a small access slot from the lower edge of the bulkhead up and over to the start of the vertical chase running up the left side of the bulkhead (about 3 inches long, will be hidden by the ice chest). That was all I needed to get everything to lay down nice and relatively easy.

There are a few things that I could have done differently inside the bulkhead to have avoided this, or I could have just planned the access this way to begin with, adding some small blocks to screw a cover to. No worries. I can make a cover with a tab that hooks under the panel on the field side of the slot, and get a couple of screws into the left side vertical rail to anchor it (pic's later).

The rest of the wiring should be a cake walk from here.

I worked pretty late on it (about 3-1/2 hrs) and then, like a dope, got all but to my neighborhood before I realized that I had left my work boots at the shop (I had changed into shorts and sandals in an attempt to beat the heat). No bueno. Steel toes; I need those for work tomorrow. 40 min. round trip put me back home after 9 pm. Ouch.

That's okay, tho. Tomorrow is another day and I will make more forward progress.

[KCStudly]

More pulling wires. The street side from the galley back is now roughed in including the rear side marker light, the case fan and the red light.

I also managed to get the pull tape (polyester(?) twine) through from the hatch actuator lower bracket locations on the rear of the bulkhead down thru to the switch location on the curb side under the galley counter (had to drill an extra hole at a junction point, but will cover easily with a trim plug... under the counter).

The only other wire pair on the curb side rear is the side marker light, and that will go easily.

I'll show pics once everything is roughed in; it will make more sense that way to show it all at once... unless you want to see pics of wires laying in a big mass all over the cabin floor.

[GPW]

"unless you want to see pics of wires laying in a big mass all over the cabin floor. “ .... Well, SURE !!!

[KCStudly]

Okay, I have been knocking some hours down during the weekday nights, about 3 hrs per night for 4 nights.

Here’s one for GPW. Pile-O-Wires.


Most of them are running into the cabin street side rear (far right corner in previous pic).


There are ten (10) wires running to that side: brown, white, yellow and green are the trailer 4-wire standard; red and black for the galley light bar to be mounted under the hatch; pink and white for the case fan circuit; and black/black with white stripe 2 conductor SPT-1 zip cord for the red light. You can just see the zip cord hanging out of the front of the bulkhead, to the left of the fan hole in the previous pic. The Wiremold chase will be slipped over this bundle and screwed to the toe board, and the wires will be laid neatly inside.

Here is the back of the bulkhead, galley street side, where that bundle of wires comes through at the bottom (“Grand Central”).


The 4 trailer and galley light wires turn and go up the inside of the bulkhead where they will connect to the hatch with an Amphenol brand weather tight 6-pin connector.

On the lower right you can see the fan wires roughed in. Above that is the left side hatch actuator wires (with more poly damage where I drilled the wire hole out larger).

Here’s an in progress shot of Grand Central after I opened up the access slot. In hindsight I might have been able to get away with just an extra hole (where the pull tape is coming out), which would have been a lot easier to cover with a trim plug.

(Need to stick some colored putty over that staple hole, too.)

And here it is with most everything tucked into place. I still need to splice the white and brown wires that continue onto the left rear marker light, so those are left out with a little slack for now.


Here is the street side rear marker light location roughed in. I had to redrill the hole through the mounting block, running the same size bit in and laying the drill over to angle the hole rearward, making it easier to draw the wires thru.


Here’s a close up of the hatch wire bundle at the top of the bulkhead (street side rear).


The middle and curb side rear of the bulkhead. Here you can see the left actuator wires (with damage around the hole) and case fan again, plus the right actuator wires. The actuator wires are 12 ga. In the corner near the backside of the hatch actuator switch penetration you can see where the leads to the actuator come out. To the left of this is an extra access hole that I had to drill due to poor planning of the wire routes. It is under the counter and will get a simple trim plug.


Here’s how I spliced the hatch actuator wires before pulling the splices back into the wall in a staggered pattern. First strip a small patch of insulation in the “run” and on the end of the splice wire. Next wrap the end of the splice wire around the bare wire on the run. Solder using the big fat iron (get in and get out with the heat), then shrink wrap. One shown soldered, one shown shrunk.


Here’s a close up of the damage around the wire hole. I decided to tape over the hole to protect the finish while I drilled the hole out larger; thought it would help prevent splintering. Instead it allowed the tape to lift the poly at the edge of the hole peeling it back with the tape. Pic shows it sanded back fair with 220 grit. Need to hit it with some stain and will be doing more poly touchup later.

Incidentally, I did not use tape when drilling out the second hole, and it came out fine w/o any damage to speak of.

Here’s a closer shot of the back of the hatch actuator switch location. If you look closely you can see one of the curb side rear marker light wires (the white one) running thru the access hole at the bottom. The power leads for the actuators will pull thru this location, tucking back into the bulkhead and running up to the switch.


Back in the cabin on the curb side it is a lot less busy; just these rear marker light wires and the actuator power yet to come.


I’m going to run 10 ga up to the actuator switch from the tongue box battery, that way if I ever decide to add a second battery in the galley I can just tap into these wires without having to pull more.

Wrapping it up for the evening, here are the curb side rear marker light wires roughed in on the outside.


Man I’m tired…

…and now to bed.

[KCStudly]

p.s. Doing the bulkhead wiring before the cabinets was the right call. I haven't hit my head on a cabinet yet!

Also, just noticed that last post was the 1300th for this thread on Friday the 13th, Sept. 13, 2013. Deja vu.

[GPW]

KC, Thanks !!! that’s a LOT of wires !!! You’ll be ready for ANYTHING!!!

[KCStudly]

Geep, yeah, I thought I had kept my electrical system pretty simple. Just a few LED lights, right? Well putting all of the wires hidden up in the walls, even though the toeboard chases are surface mount, sure is taking some time. Then there's the hatch actuators and switch, and the bulkhead fan, and the red toe light, and the foot porch lights, and the trailer lights on board, and, and, and... suddenly a simple system ain't so simple.

Full 8 hr day at the shop today. So many details throughout the build that it feels like I hardly make any progress sometimes. People ask me when I think I will be done and I truly have no way of being able to predict that. Everything takes time. A little bit here, a little bit there, a whole lot on this, a whole lot on that; schtufff adds up and it’s not done yet.

I did give another tour today. Friend of Chris’ from Jersey. Blonde. She had to touch and squeeze the foam wall. I cringed a little thinking about GPW’s amazon foam crusher and all of the time I have spent with spackle and sandpaper trying to eliminate defects. No harm no foul. Her comment, “It’s nice, but I would never sleep in it.” I suppose many people have the same reaction to these small little campers.

I started by pulling the two 10 ga wires around the curb side of the bulkhead. Try as I might, I just couldn’t get those two big wires to make the turn up inside the bulkhead. Tried one at a time and various methods of securing the pull twine to the wires, but without success. My fall back plan is to use a piece of the Wiremold chase and just surface mount that in the corner running up to the cover that will go over the back of the switch. Here is the rough-in.


Next I solder spliced the street side rear marker light wires and tucked those into Grand Central. Made a cardboard template, and from that a stainless steel cover plate, all seen here.


After tweaking the keeper tab a little and screwing it into the side rail of the bulkhead with a couple of No. 6 flat head screws, I was pretty happy with the result.


Then I went around with some brown spot putty filling in staple holes. There is one in each of the four corners of the panels in the middle of the bulkhead. Really hard to see in the pic, which is a good thing!


Spent a little time training all of the loose wires in the cabin so that I wouldn’t be walking on them, and so that they wouldn’t be pinched under the edges of the plywood as I walked on it.

Then I screwed this temporary board onto the front edge of the street side wall to use as a measuring reference. This way I could measure horizontally across the top of the wall from the front, rather than dealing with the radius (many of my dimensions are referenced off of the vertical face of the front wall).


I cut down some blocks from a scrap of 1x4 that ended up being just under 1-3/4 wide x 3-1/2 long. These will be let into the top edges of the walls, glued in just behind the inner ply skin giving me something to screw the ceiling panel and roof spars into along the tops of the walls.

Note that the extendable razor blade is set to match the width of the blocks, that way I can plunge the blade down into the hilt and slice to the correct depth before chiseling out the foam for the blocks.

I’ve decided to leave the roof vent fan in its planned location and just add another spar splitting the distance between the forward fan spar and the front cabinet frame, so three more blocks on each side. (I’m sure that I had a feeling that we weren’t done gluing blocks into foam yet!!! Will it ever end?)

From there I started digging out foam.


One pocket done, one started, 4 of 6 laid out.

Tomorrow is another day.

[RandyG]

Wiring is easier said than done, just so time consuming. I know you can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

[GPW]

KC, Although it may seem tedious now , it’ll all be neatly done soon and you can have all the lights and gadgets you want , wiring already at your disposal .