The Poet Creek Express - Foamie Hybrid

Canvas covered foamies (Thrifty Alternatives...)

Moderator: eaglesdare

Re: The Poet Creek Express - Foamie Hybrid

Postby KCStudly » Wed May 25, 2022 9:40 am

The West System epoxy with 410 fairing filler behaves very much like Bondo, except it is not polyester based. So in this case, the problem is my novice technique, not the product.

High build (polyurethane?) primer would be the other option, but neither Karl or I want to spray bomb the loft (although the sanding dust is building up and making a mess anyway, it should be easier to clean up than overspray). '?' on polyurethane because I'm still not convinced on material compatibility, both backward and forward. Haven't picked sealer and top coat types yet, but I know if I stick with epoxy everything (vinyl spackle being the exception) is compatible.
KC
My Build: The Poet Creek Express Hybrid Foamie

Poet Creek Or Bust
Engineering the TLAR way - "That Looks About Right"
TnTTT ORIGINAL 200A LANTERN CLUB = "The 200A Gang"
Green Lantern Corpsmen
User avatar
KCStudly
Donating Member
 
Posts: 9610
Images: 8169
Joined: Mon Feb 06, 2012 10:18 pm
Location: Southeastern CT, USA

Re: The Poet Creek Express - Foamie Hybrid

Postby KCStudly » Fri May 27, 2022 9:46 pm

Bodywork is like a roller coaster ride. First you slowly work your way up the hill with anticipation of something good (all the prep work and application of the fairing filler). You get up on top and the view looks pretty good (wet filler seemed to go on okay); then things start going down hill and it looks pretty scary (once the second(?) round of filler has cured it doesn’t look as good as you thought it did when it was still wet and you have more blisters to deal with). You brace yourself (knuckle down and get tucked in to the “rework”… really just a step in the iterative process, not really rework), wave your arms around (with the long board in your hands sanding, sanding, sanding) and scream on the way back down (because your back is hurting a little bit from all of that sanding and you’re not sure what you’ve gotten yourself into). Then when the ride is over (will it ever be over?) things seem happy again (or at least things don’t seem so bad after all) and you ride the adrenaline rush for a little bit.

So catching up, on Tuesday I “braced myself” and went after those new blisters. The two smaller ones may have been there, but I deemed them small enough not to try and fix them at the time (can’t say for sure). If so, they were bigger and puffy now. The larger two were certainly not apparent previously.

Here are some pics after "filling" the blister drilled holes with neat epoxy and letting it cure.
Image
Image
Image

You can see how some of the holes look empty. Some are, the neat epoxy slipped down in, presumably into voids in the foam or between foam and inner wall skin. Some just look empty in the pics but are actually full. And some have erupted and crusted over where escaping air bubbled up. The air bubbles could be caused by the epoxy running down and displacing the air in the cavities (either just the drilled hole, are a larger void), or they could be from the same source that caused the blister in the weave in the first place… chemical off gassing or thermal expansion. I’m thinking not thermal expansion because filling the holes was done in the evening and ambient temperatures were falling at the time of the cure.

I’m assuming there are hidden voids because I made sure to fill the drill holes up, first by squirting the epoxy in with a syringe, then tapping on the surrounding area, then sticking a bamboo skewer down in the hole (which was too close to the size of the hole and tended to squeeze out more than it released the air, then refilling and sticking a smaller piece of wire in the hole to release more air. Either way, some holes just drained right out and no reasonable amount of epoxy would fill the hole. Some filled fine, some just partially.

So that doesn’t seem ideal, but the loose weave was now reattached and hard again. Next step was to wash amine, scrape the blisters and high spots down and sand almost flush. Vacuumed sanding dust out of the remaining pits and mixed up a loose slurry of epoxy and 403 structural filler (little short “chopped” glass fibers). Almost the same technique to get it in the holes, except no syringe, just slop it on with the stirring stick and push it into the holes with skewer and wire.
Image
Image
Image

The funny looking tan-ish colored spots that you can see thru the epoxy in the last pic is where the scraper kind of dug into the fairing filler when I got a little careless. Not to worry, if the slurry doesn’t fully fill them there is going to be plenty more fairing filler in my future.

Tonight I washed these areas; sanded them down fair to the last round of built up fairing using the two different grit medium hand blocks.

Then I hit the front wall section with the long hand board to see what was what. Once I started to see the weave in a few spots I proceeded to “degloss” (break the shine off) all the areas that the long board didn’t touch.

I was encouraged by the result and took the long board to the larger rear section of the wall. The hard flat long board, which is made from 3/4 hardwood with a 1x2 strong back rib on it, has a medium grit length of sander belt on it (not paper, cloth backed). Something like 80 or 100 grit, and is just a little bit bigger and and hard to run than the slightly shorter board with coarser grit, I think maybe 36 grit. The latter is a 3/8 thk strip of plywood, so can flex a little bit if pushed, but still keeps you honest for the most part. The funny thing is that the heavy board with strong back is actually harder to run by holding the rib; it gives you leverage above the CG so it tends to flip over if the grit grabs a bit. Whereas with the plywood board you have to hold it at or near the CG and you have no leverage to flip it over, so it glides easier… not just because it is shorter and lighter.

I didn’t get all the way through with the rear section of the wall, but was encouraged by progress just the same. Will finish that step up tomorrow. The next step is to do a guide coat of primer, hit it lightly with the longer board again and decide if it’s flat enough for my taste. We’re getting close to where the sealer, primer and top coats should be able to handle most of the rest of it… on this surface, anyway.

Add another 1-1/2 hrs to the labor count for tonight, and an hour or so for Tuesday.
KC
My Build: The Poet Creek Express Hybrid Foamie

Poet Creek Or Bust
Engineering the TLAR way - "That Looks About Right"
TnTTT ORIGINAL 200A LANTERN CLUB = "The 200A Gang"
Green Lantern Corpsmen
User avatar
KCStudly
Donating Member
 
Posts: 9610
Images: 8169
Joined: Mon Feb 06, 2012 10:18 pm
Location: Southeastern CT, USA

Re: The Poet Creek Express - Foamie Hybrid

Postby KCStudly » Sun May 29, 2022 7:40 pm

About 3-1/2 more hrs yesterday on the long board (taking frequent rest breaks). It's getting pretty close to good now. The street side wall, that is. Pics don't really do it justice.

I'm using the longer boards by hand now to make sure I don't create any hollows with the air file. Once flat I can return to the air file for a quick touch up with finer grit.

Today I watched the Indy 500, a little bit of the Monaco GP and now the Coke 600 NASCAR race.

Tomorrow I'm taking the holiday off from work and intend to use the batten and colored chalk method described in the West System manual and see what is what. They recommend rubbing carpenters chalk on a batten then dragging the batten across the surface. This puts color on the high spots, whereas a guide coat of primer leaves color on the low points after sanding.

I think having color on the highs is preferable at this point because, if you aren't seeing weave yet, it's better to remove the highs than it is to fill the lows. With a guide coat you sand the color off the highs and then, if you want to fill the lows you have to scuff the lows before filling, which takes the color away, making it harder to tell where to fill. Some people say to circle the lows with a pencil (not Sharpie) but also to sand that off so it doesn't telegraph thru the finish. Well, I tried that and it takes quite a bit of sanding to remove the pencil.

My theory is to use the chalk to color the highs, sand the color off, repeat until everything is smooth or I start to see weave. When I see weave, if I still have objectionable low spots they will still stand out after sanding them in prep for more filler. At least I hope it works out that way.

Another thing that I’m considering is, now that I have more experience with big broad surfaces, and having re-read the fairing section of the West System manual, I’m thinking it won’t be that much more effort to fix that broad dip in the curb side wall that has been bothering me so much. The notched trowel method seems ideal for that situation. Basically you make a notched trowel with notches slightly deeper than the depth to be filled; apply thickened epoxy over the area using the notched trowel; allow to cure; sand the crests of the ridges fair (which is a lot less sanding and easier than sanding the whole broad surface); wire brush the troughs to roughen the unsanded areas; fill the troughs with a flat knife; and then do a final, hopefully minimal sanding. (If somebody already recommended this technique back when we were discussing repair options, I apologize for not giving credit back then. With the experience under my belt at this time, it makes a lot more sense now, and doesn't seem like any much more effort than what would be required anyway. Yeah, it's theoretically more product weight and cost, but I can suffer that to please my eye.
KC
My Build: The Poet Creek Express Hybrid Foamie

Poet Creek Or Bust
Engineering the TLAR way - "That Looks About Right"
TnTTT ORIGINAL 200A LANTERN CLUB = "The 200A Gang"
Green Lantern Corpsmen
User avatar
KCStudly
Donating Member
 
Posts: 9610
Images: 8169
Joined: Mon Feb 06, 2012 10:18 pm
Location: Southeastern CT, USA
Top

Re: The Poet Creek Express - Foamie Hybrid

Postby GPW » Tue May 31, 2022 6:57 am

:thumbsup:
There’s no place like Foam !
User avatar
GPW
Gold Donating Member
 
Posts: 14911
Images: 546
Joined: Thu Feb 09, 2006 7:58 pm
Location: New Orleans
Top

Re: The Poet Creek Express - Foamie Hybrid

Postby KCStudly » Tue May 31, 2022 4:56 pm

Can anyone steer me toward threads discussing add on backup cameras? The 2017 didn't come with one and I wish it had.

I can do a bluetooth version and connect to my Garmin GPS or cellphone screens. I want good picture quality and multiple camera capability so I can have reverse cam and a hitch cam selectivity.

Actual user experience preferred. When I search the web all I seem to get are product reviews and comparisons from journalists regurgitating mfg brochures.
KC
My Build: The Poet Creek Express Hybrid Foamie

Poet Creek Or Bust
Engineering the TLAR way - "That Looks About Right"
TnTTT ORIGINAL 200A LANTERN CLUB = "The 200A Gang"
Green Lantern Corpsmen
User avatar
KCStudly
Donating Member
 
Posts: 9610
Images: 8169
Joined: Mon Feb 06, 2012 10:18 pm
Location: Southeastern CT, USA
Top

Re: The Poet Creek Express - Foamie Hybrid

Postby bdosborn » Tue May 31, 2022 6:00 pm

I have the Garmin backup camera. It runs off a battery so I didn't have to run any wires from the dash to the back. I stuck a magnetic strip on mine so I can stick at an angle on my tailgate to view the hitch. Connecting the trailer is a cinch now. It has good range as I can stick it on the back of the trailer and watch what is directly behind the trailer when I back up. I suck at backing up so I need all the help I can get. :lol:

Bruce
2009 6.5'X11' TTT - Boxcar
All it takes is a speck of faith and a few kilowatts of sweat and grace.
Image
Boxcar Build
aVANger Build
User avatar
bdosborn
Donating Member
 
Posts: 5492
Images: 767
Joined: Wed May 05, 2004 11:10 pm
Location: CO, Littleton
Top

Re: The Poet Creek Express - Foamie Hybrid

Postby KCStudly » Wed Jun 01, 2022 11:09 am

Thx for the input, Bruce. I was looking at the Garmin offerings on Crutchfield last night, but they weren't very descriptive.

I'm hoping for a solution where I don't have to get out and install and/or adjust anything before backing up.

The Jeep does have the factory Alpine touchscreen unit with built in GPS, and I think there are options for hooking directly to that, but they are more expensive and may require dealer activation. I wouldn't mind that option for regular backing, and then just mount the Garmin for a separate hitch cam view when towing, but I'd prefer the camera install to be "permanent".

The battery operated one I saw available was for license plate mounting, is that the one you use or is it a different model?
Last edited by KCStudly on Fri Jul 29, 2022 11:36 am, edited 1 time in total.
KC
My Build: The Poet Creek Express Hybrid Foamie

Poet Creek Or Bust
Engineering the TLAR way - "That Looks About Right"
TnTTT ORIGINAL 200A LANTERN CLUB = "The 200A Gang"
Green Lantern Corpsmen
User avatar
KCStudly
Donating Member
 
Posts: 9610
Images: 8169
Joined: Mon Feb 06, 2012 10:18 pm
Location: Southeastern CT, USA
Top

Re: The Poet Creek Express - Foamie Hybrid

Postby bdosborn » Wed Jun 01, 2022 3:18 pm

KCStudly wrote:The battery operated one I saw available was for license plate mounting, is that the one you use or is it a different model?


Yup, that's the one I have.
Amazon Linky

I don't leave it on the license plate at home as it's super easy to take it off the mount and walk off with it. I don't drive the Dodge very often, usually only when I'm going to pull the trailer so that works well for me. YMMV...

Bruce
2009 6.5'X11' TTT - Boxcar
All it takes is a speck of faith and a few kilowatts of sweat and grace.
Image
Boxcar Build
aVANger Build
User avatar
bdosborn
Donating Member
 
Posts: 5492
Images: 767
Joined: Wed May 05, 2004 11:10 pm
Location: CO, Littleton
Top

Re: The Poet Creek Express - Foamie Hybrid

Postby KCStudly » Thu Jun 02, 2022 6:27 am

Thank you. :thumbsup:
KC
My Build: The Poet Creek Express Hybrid Foamie

Poet Creek Or Bust
Engineering the TLAR way - "That Looks About Right"
TnTTT ORIGINAL 200A LANTERN CLUB = "The 200A Gang"
Green Lantern Corpsmen
User avatar
KCStudly
Donating Member
 
Posts: 9610
Images: 8169
Joined: Mon Feb 06, 2012 10:18 pm
Location: Southeastern CT, USA
Top

Re: The Poet Creek Express - Foamie Hybrid

Postby KCStudly » Thu Aug 24, 2023 1:49 pm

ACTIVITY ALERT!!! Watch this space. After significant life changes, things have settled down and seem reasonably normal again.

TPCE will be on wheels soon, albeit temporarily, when it gets moved to my new home and shop. Have already started moving tools and supplies out of Karl's loft.

This should actually work out better with my current day job work schedule.
KC
My Build: The Poet Creek Express Hybrid Foamie

Poet Creek Or Bust
Engineering the TLAR way - "That Looks About Right"
TnTTT ORIGINAL 200A LANTERN CLUB = "The 200A Gang"
Green Lantern Corpsmen
User avatar
KCStudly
Donating Member
 
Posts: 9610
Images: 8169
Joined: Mon Feb 06, 2012 10:18 pm
Location: Southeastern CT, USA
Top

Re: The Poet Creek Express - Foamie Hybrid

Postby lfhoward » Thu Aug 24, 2023 2:52 pm

:dancing

Awesome! I will look forward to your posts!
My off-road camper build on an M116A3 military chassis:
http://www.tnttt.com/viewtopic.php?f=50&t=62581
Tow vehicle: 2008 Jeep Liberty with a 4 inch lift.
User avatar
lfhoward
1000 Club
1000 Club
 
Posts: 1369
Joined: Wed Jan 22, 2014 6:10 pm
Location: Philadelphia, PA
Top

Re: The Poet Creek Express - Foamie Hybrid

Postby KCStudly » Sun Oct 08, 2023 10:35 pm

So, the camper building shop in the loft is almost entirely emptied out, almost all of the stuff that can be carried down the stairs without major disassembly has been moved to my new (to me) home/shop.

There’s still a couple of small items, and most of the plastic sheeting still needs to come down, but it’s getting close.

Things like the Shop Smith vertical band saw, the work table, and of course the cabin and hatch will get shipped down thru the shipping hatch using the electric hoist.

The Shop Smith and work table can be transported on my utility trailer, The Charcoal Briquette. In fact, I’ve already used it several times during the move to haul some things that were too big to fit in the Jeep; leftover ply, foam planks, the galley counter insert, tongue box, etc.

But the most logical and safest way to move the cabin is to mount it on the trailer that was specially built for it. Following that logic, the best way to move the hatch will be to affix it to the cabin in the manner that it will be going down the road in use.

Now the roll around rims that I was using have more offset, putting the tire side walls closer to the cabin sides than the larger M/T tires and wheels that I’m going to run, and those stock Cherokee sized tires are all dry rotted from being out in the weather these many years, so today I worked on getting the trailer road worthy.

Karl had lifted the camper trailer up and placed it on the deck of my car hauler trailer for safe keeping. Rather than hooking the car trailer up, moving it to where the camper trailer could be dragged up on it, he had just used the extended forks on the fork truck and plopped on where it sat. Better still, to retrieve it, he now also has a rather sizeable backhoe. He had a prior engagement to get to, but was able to give me a quick lesson on the hoe’s start procedure and controls.

Seemed pretty straight forward, so I grabbed a couple of shackles and straps, fired up the hoe, got the thing in position with the bucket over both trailers, strapped it up and plucked the thing up in the air. Hydraulics and diesel power are fabulous things. Sorry, no pics. It was a one man operation and I had to stay focused on the task at hand so as not to do anything stupid.

That got me up close to the shop where working on the trailer was a lot easier. I swapped out the roll around steel wheels and tires, that had only been held on loosely with three plain lug nuts each side, with the nice Teflon coated aluminum wheels and bigger 31 inch M/T tires and a full compliment of new chrome acorn lug nuts, fully tightened this time.

This gave me a better idea of the true ride height (and the added side wall clearance).

Next I cleaned out the bronze bushings that I had previously pressed into the tongue of the trailer, remembering not so fondly the effort it took to ream those to fit. Then I greased and reinstalled the pivot shaft and U-joint parts of the swivel coupling. I had forgotten the cotter pin at home, so I fashioned a pin out of some 1/8 inch welding rod.

I took a few measurements and found that the back end was sitting about 2 inches higher than he front. I figure the weight of the cabin and typical load out will probably squat the trailer about an inch (wild ass guess based on prior testing Karl and I did by sitting on the trailer and trying to compress the leaf springs using our known weights). For best handling I want the nose to ride either level, or about an inch or two down, so just by happenstance, she seemed to be sitting just right for me to measure and set the final offset of the draw bar for the custom swivel hitch.

My measurements said I wanted to have the inside top of the ‘C’ on the draw bar side about an inch down from the top of the draw bar square tube, give or take. Plus or minus an 1/8 inch for the bronze bushing flange and the fact that my measurements were all taken relative to the loose chipped asphalt (gravel like) driveway (Karl had left his truck parked in front of the barn doors, doh, so couldn’t get the trailer in on the concrete floor to measure). Anyway, if I put the very top of the draw bar ‘C’ flush to the top of the draw bar square tube I would get about 3/4 inch drop (or 3/4 inch rise, if flipped over) and I would only have to add gussets to one side. So that’s what I did.

Karl has been working on remote job sites, coincidentally (?) restoring the metal towers of a couple of fire lookout stations near Lake Winnipesaukee, so the foot peddle for the TIG welder was not in the shop. Had to MIG weld it. Like using a Viking broad sword instead of a scalpel, not to mention my MIG welding skills are a tad rusty, but I have full confidence that there is full penetration here.
Image

I used some 1/2 inch threaded rod and a couple of nuts and washers to press the flanged bushings in.
Image

Same for the second sleeve bushing in the U-joint (no pic, maybe next time).

Couldn’t quite get the whole thing coupled up just yet. Long time readers might remember that when I welded this ‘C’ I forgot to add shims representing the thickness of these bushing flanges, so I’ll have to modify the U-joint slightly. I’m not checked out on Karl’s new CNC mill, so that will have to wait a little bit.

Used the hoe and a strap to drag the trailer back out back, out of the way for now. I’ll try to remember to get a pic of the hoe next time out.
KC
My Build: The Poet Creek Express Hybrid Foamie

Poet Creek Or Bust
Engineering the TLAR way - "That Looks About Right"
TnTTT ORIGINAL 200A LANTERN CLUB = "The 200A Gang"
Green Lantern Corpsmen
User avatar
KCStudly
Donating Member
 
Posts: 9610
Images: 8169
Joined: Mon Feb 06, 2012 10:18 pm
Location: Southeastern CT, USA
Top

Re: The Poet Creek Express - Foamie Hybrid

Postby KCStudly » Sat Oct 21, 2023 11:29 pm

Today was a productive day in the shop.

I wasn’t happy with how the bushings had pressed into the draw bar yoke. I hadn’t put a big enough chamfer on the holes and the bushings stopped short of seating fully on their flanges. So I used another threaded rod rig and jacked them back out. Filed bigger chamfers and jacked them back in. Much happier.

That allowed us to get a good measurement between the bushings, now that they were fully seated, and that gave us our target dimension to mill the swivel u-joint to final size so that it would fit between the bushings just loosely enough to be easy to couple and uncouple, but still close fitting enough to avoid clacking and slop.

Image
The new milling machine has a few nice upgrade features. In addition to a lot more coolant capacity, it has thru tool coolant, a chip elevator, tool changer, and better software.

Karl also sprang for a couple of very expensive tool indexing add-ons. There’s a jeweled probe that has some very sensitive and accurate measuring circuitry (the white stick like thing sticking down from the spindle). The machine selects the probe, loads it into the spindle, comes over and travels down until the tip of the probe touches the work piece and the machine now knows where the part is within 0.000X (small number) inches. It does this twice, just to be sure.
Image

Next Karl had to reload the the big surfacing cutter into the carousel. In this pic, with the guard door open, you can see a few things more clearly. The cutter is in the spindle at the top, surrounded by the blue and orange coolant nozzles. To the left of that the black bar thing is the tool changer arm. Below the rectangular “lobster tail” segments (which are chip guards for the ways that lift and lower the whole spindle head) you can see my part clamped into the blue vise (or is that vice, lol). I think the red thing on the back of the vise is a fixture to hold adjustable stops, which make changing out parts repeatable. On the back left corner of the table you can see the tool indexer.
Image

Even though it has its own tool holder collet and hadn’t been changed relative to it, and the machine remembers all of that indexing in the library of tools, Karl had the machine calibrate it again. The indexing device has a hard puck mounted on it and the cutter moves over (turning backwards so it’s not trying to cut), and it touches off on the puck to calibrate the tool offset. It does this running to compensate for any cutting edge that might be lower than the others. (Blurry pic because the guard door is now closed.)
Image

Then the coolant starts, the cutting program runs and you pretty much can’t see anything while it’s cutting.
Image

But the part comes out with a super nice finish and fits right the first time (this is just a temporary bolt for setup).
Image

Started building the rig to hoist the camper cabin down out of the loft.

Karl and I had already found where the center of gravity (CG) of the cabin is longitudinally forward/aft as it sits on the build cradle without the galley hatch or side doors… but apparently I didn’t mark it on the cradle or cabin, at least not anywhere that I could discern today. I’m sure I have it documented somewhere, probably even in the blog here, but it would probably take less time to just find it again.

Anyway, the method we used meant tipping the cabin back upright. As we were doing that, when we got it standing on the curb side edge of the floor at the tipping point where it didn’t take any effort to hold it there, I took some quick measurements (height of street side floor edge above the floor and distance it was, plumb, away from the curb side edge along the floor) so that I could calculate the vertical height of the CG. Turned out to be 20.7 inches above the bottom of the floor.

Once I had that we set it back down upright on the cradle. Too heavy for me to do by myself, but not bad with two able body persons. Next, I brought up a piece of 1-1/4 Sch 40 pipe and we put that under the cradle from side to side. We nudged the pipe for and aft until the whole thing balanced evenly on the pipe, which was essentially acting like a fulcrum. Turned out to be about 2-1/2 inches forward of the rear door jamb.

Preparing the cradle for the lifting rig was going to be a lot easier with the camper laying back down on its side, so we laid it back over.

I no longer have ready use of the Inventor modelling software… I still use it almost everyday at work, but haven’t gotten around to setting myself up at home since taking the new job, now almost 4 years ago. Time flies. So rather than using the computer, we just took measurements of the shipping hatch opening (again) and I laid everything out on the floor full scale to calculate the angle that the cabin needs to tip in order to fit down through the hole in the floor. The cabin is narrow enough… we checked that before moving the build up to the loft… but it is just a bit longer than the floor hatch is, so the cabin needs to be tipped, galley end down, in order to fit.

Now, because of the height of the cabin, it actually gets “longer” as you start to tip it… the diagonal from the lower front of the front cabinet bump-out to the tangent point on the radius at the top rear of the galley side wall is longer than the base… so it has to be tipped quite a bit before the relative shortness (from base to roof top) comes into play.

The pick points on the rig will form a triangle between the forward pick point, the aft pick point and the hook on the electric hoist. And this is the most important part, the CG can never be allowed to go outside of the triangle, otherwise one of the pick points would no longer be in tension, and… the bad thing would happen… the cabin would roll upside down, most likely crashing into the edges of the floor hatch.

So that’s the reason I needed to know where the CG is both long and high.

I didn’t actually measure the angle that I need to tip the front end up, but I used a bunch of 3-4-5 triangle measurements, a couple of straight sticks of wood, and a pair of measuring tapes to lay it all out on the floor so that I could see where the CG would be with it tilted, and decided where to put the main lifting bar through the cradle main longitudinal members from there.

If that doesn’t make sense, or you haven’t seen my prior discussion on this subject (or maybe just don’t remember) let me back up a little. The plan is to stick a lifting bar through the 2x6’s that make up the build cradle and pick from that pivot point using a pair of straps running up near the sides of the cabin. The straps will be spread over the roof by a, well, a spreader bar, that with hold the straps from rubbing on the sides of the cabin. From there the straps will angle up to the central hook on the hoist. For the second pick point I’m going to use the two trailer bolt points on the underside of the rear edge of the galley floor; I’ll build a cleat that sticks out from under the back of the floor that I can attach a block and tackle to which will lead up over the oak hinge spar and on up to the hoist hook. By paying out the rope of the block and tackle the galley will tilt down. Once at the desired angle, the rope can be tied off to the cleat and the whole thing will be lowered down through the floor opening.

Provided there is enough head room for the rig to work the way I envision it.

Once I had figured where to put the main lifting bar, I had to move a couple of cleats on the cradle from aft of one of the main cradle xmbrs to in front; then I was able to hole saw through the selected location.

Next I made the main lifting bar. Used the same piece of pipe we used to find the CG. I had to shorten it slightly on the big Marvel vertical band saw, then I cut a couple of short pieces of 1-1/2 Sch 80 pipe that would fit into the clevises Karl has for his straps. We flattened the rings of Sch 80 into ovals so that they would be the same as the smaller 1-1/4 pipe and fit thru the same sawn hole. I lopped off one end from each oval and welded them onto either end of the main pipe making sure to clock them the same on either end.
Image
Image

Here’s a shot of the new CG mark and the pipe fit into the hole in the cradle.
Image

Here you can see how the shackle fits.
Image

Earlier I had been thinking that I would need to reinforce the wood around the pivot hole, but the more I thought about it the more I realized that there was no possible way for the wood to split out in the direction that we would be pulling, so I omitted that. The other thing I thought I might need to do was devise a way to keep the bar from sliding side to side, but with the straps limited by the side walls, and the corners also protected by those heavy cardboard cargo corner protectors that I had been using for finishing churches, I don’t think that will be needed either.

In this wider shot you can see better how the pipe fits thru the cradle longs, and the clevises installed. It’s sticking up a bit more than it will be because the curb side end can’t stick out the way it will when the cabin is upright.
Image

Tomorrow I plan to make the upper spreader and possibly the rear cleat, as well.
Last edited by KCStudly on Sun Oct 22, 2023 7:44 pm, edited 2 times in total.
KC
My Build: The Poet Creek Express Hybrid Foamie

Poet Creek Or Bust
Engineering the TLAR way - "That Looks About Right"
TnTTT ORIGINAL 200A LANTERN CLUB = "The 200A Gang"
Green Lantern Corpsmen
User avatar
KCStudly
Donating Member
 
Posts: 9610
Images: 8169
Joined: Mon Feb 06, 2012 10:18 pm
Location: Southeastern CT, USA
Top

Re: The Poet Creek Express - Foamie Hybrid

Postby KCStudly » Sun Oct 22, 2023 6:50 pm

Made the cleat for the rear pick point. I already had the two (2) green hook tabs that bolt to the middle rear cabin mounting points. These allow me to set the lower edge of the hatch on them; the vertically angled tabs prevent the hatch from sliding off the back while I screw the hatch hinge down. I have used them a few times already.

By adding the piece of maple 1x2, leftover from another project, they provide a solid pick point and place to tie off the tag end of the block and tackle.
Image
Image

I used the table saw to rip a rabbet off of the length of the maple stick (making it rectangular again) and was reminded of what a pleasure it is operating that grand old cast iron piece. Solid as a rock, no vibration, cuts like butter.

For the spreader bar I had an appropriate length of 1x4 pine. Cross cut a small piece off of the length using the miter on the table saw, and then the Bader belt sander to round off the ends to protect and capture the lifting straps. Crude but functional.
Image

Next I needed a way to keep the spreader bar from sliding down on the straps; I wanted to make sure that it stays centered and doesn’t drag or drop onto the roof of the cabin. Cut a couple of short lengths from a strip of aluminum I found in the drop pile, and drilled a few holes making a couple of strap clamps. Did the trick.
Image

The next step, fitting the lifting rig to the cabin, required us to roll it back upright, and recenter it under the hoist beam. Working together this was pretty easy, just each grabbing a corner and shifting each end a little at a time. This pic is after tipping it upright, but before moving it back away from the work table.
Image

Eight (8) foot straps seemed to be best for the main lift bar. They will pull a little flat from each side to the hook, but there isn’t much reach height left for ten footers. The spreader needs to be positioned above the roof enough that it doesn’t hit when pivoted; I gauged using my fist with a thumb up to set the clamp bars the same on either side, and that seemed to work out fine. Here you can see the slack in the strap because the spreader is resting directly on the roof with the strap not hooked to the hoist yet. Curb side this time.
Image

I had forgotten to bring my block and tackle rig from home, so we just used a heavy duty ratchet strap for the time being to test. A shorter strap in the middle of the hook, and another basket style wrapped around the lifting cleat at the bottom rear with the ratchet strap in between.
Image

Karl had wondered if the 1x4 would be adequate for the spreader, noting that we would see it start to bow on the test lift if it wasn’t. Sure enough it bowed pretty good (not shown), so I fashioned a strong-back for it out of a piece of dimensional 2x3 lumber that Karl had laying around. You can see that addition here on the second test lift. The black snaky things hanging down are the power cord and control whip for the hoist.
Image

I wanted to make sure we had enough pick height to lower the galley end into the hole from the work table side because there is only one plank width between the windows and the hole on that side… not enough to safely stand on and operate the block and tackle. But we couldn’t test this with the ratchet strap because loosening it would allow the galley to drop uncontrolled. By raising the camper up on the hoist near its limit and pressing down on the edge of the galley floor with my foot I was able to tell that we had enough lift height to tilt it enough, maybe with a little bit of drift, that the galley will go down in the hole and not hang up on the edge of the floor opening. (You probably can’t tell which floor plank represents the edge of the shipping hatch in this pic, but it is easy to see in person.) Here Karl recreates the act so that I could take the picture. Guess I should have used the flash.
Image

Building this rig and doing this test has given Karl and me a bunch of confidence that we can do this safely without damaging the cabin. It doesn’t really weigh that much and the rig seems to be engineered well. There weren’t any creaks or groans, and the hoist, with 1,000 lb capacity handled it readily. We are estimating that the cabin doesn’t weigh 500 lbs bare like this, even with the build cradle attached, and that’s with all of the finished cabinetry already installed.

And that’s about all to report for today.

After some more thought, I think I will have to rethink how I am going to secure the tag end of the block and tackle after tilting the galley down enough. I think the pick point cleat at the rear will be too far down in the hole for me to safely reach once it is tilted, and that’s where I had intended to lash it off. We don’t have enough vertical reach to keep it up higher at that point, so I probably won’t be able to reach it. I’ll probably have to add another tie off point that I can lash the tag end to while I’m standing next to the cabin. Maybe screw another cleat into several of the hatch hinge screw holes up on the oak hinge spar near one side.
KC
My Build: The Poet Creek Express Hybrid Foamie

Poet Creek Or Bust
Engineering the TLAR way - "That Looks About Right"
TnTTT ORIGINAL 200A LANTERN CLUB = "The 200A Gang"
Green Lantern Corpsmen
User avatar
KCStudly
Donating Member
 
Posts: 9610
Images: 8169
Joined: Mon Feb 06, 2012 10:18 pm
Location: Southeastern CT, USA
Top

Re: The Poet Creek Express - Foamie Hybrid

Postby KCStudly » Sat Oct 28, 2023 10:30 pm

Have been focusing on setting up the new shop for the last couple of days. The shop is at the back of the garage through a generous single door width rough opening, and when I moved in a lot of stuff just got put in the middle of the room with the hope that I could get the electrical system sorted the way I want it, and get the walls finished. That hasn't happened yet, but I need to make room for the work table and get it into the room before the camper gets put in the garage.

To that end, I bought some used commercial grade shelving units and have been working on organization and trying to purge some things through FB Marketplace.

Slowly but surely things are getting slightly better organized than just a bunch of stuff plopped down on the floor.
KC
My Build: The Poet Creek Express Hybrid Foamie

Poet Creek Or Bust
Engineering the TLAR way - "That Looks About Right"
TnTTT ORIGINAL 200A LANTERN CLUB = "The 200A Gang"
Green Lantern Corpsmen
User avatar
KCStudly
Donating Member
 
Posts: 9610
Images: 8169
Joined: Mon Feb 06, 2012 10:18 pm
Location: Southeastern CT, USA
Top

Previous

Return to Foamies

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 7 guests