Tucson tortoise: Edit for photos

[capnTelescope]

Congrats on the upcoming maiden voyage!

Be sure to take along pen & paper for your to-do list. You'll need it.

[Vedette]

Well, your build journey is coming to an end.
And I have to say, your build journal was great! Very nice build!
Congrats on a job well done.
But, now the real fun will begin!
You say you are off to a Gathering.......well you are going to meet some real Great Folks! l
I remember when we headed out the driveway for our first Gathering 804 miles away. Miss Piggy was unfinished but ready for her first shake down trip. I even took some stuff with me to work on it a bit at the Gathering (That never happened, as we were too busy showing her off).......since then we have had three seasons of amazing camping and travelling! 34,000 miles and 156 nights of sleeping off of the ground!
Enjoy your first trip!
Brian & Sandi

[aggie79]

Fantastic! I know you enjoyed the outing. The first trip is really special.

[tony.latham]

I'm not trying to hijack this thread, but..

34,000 miles and 156 nights of sleeping off of the ground!

Good grief, Brian, it's a 2,800 mile drive from San Francisco to Washington DC. Your travels with Miss Piggy set an awful high bar.

Now, back to Tim's build thread.

Tony

[KCStudly]

Almost there! You have done a great job and I am envious of the position you are in now. Way to stick with it and get 'er done!

[noseoil]

Thanks again guys. Not finished but at least headed in the right direction still.

The temporary AC cover. Need to finish it but it's good enough to travel for now. Glad Gorilla tape works so well. This should stay put on the road now & not blow off. (Edit, can't find the right image, so...)


Here are those pesky cable glands. They work very well, but I didn't leave enough room to work on them properly in the overhead. They're bedded in Osi Quad, gasketed & tightened with nuts on the bottom. No leaks possible now. Everything is snugged up well at this point.



Spent more time working on it today than I had planned, but it went well enough. Had to sort out the wiring at the truck as I'd added a 7 pin connector to the hitch & never got a chance to test it last year. What a mess & PITA! I had a few wires in wrong, so I just removed them at the junction box (in the tongue box) & started over again. The ground wasn't working properly either, which can give some very strange results when trying to trouble shoot things. It's all good now & everything is working like it should.

[OP827]

Congratulations, I am sure it feels great to be finishing with the build!

[Atomic77]

Wiring can be such a pain. Glad you figured it out!

[noseoil]

P.S. A little follow-up to the wiring department thing. I'm almost finished now. When I drove off yesterday morning for work, I had the headlights on & everything was good. As soon as I left the driveway, I noticed in the rear view mirror that the marker lights are possessed by some sort of strange electronic gremlin. One side wasn't working at all & the other side was blinking up a storm. Everything else was doing fine, so I guess I have one more problem to trouble-shoot & sort out before I leave. Not a big deal, but I've got something which is loose or not tied in properly. Pity, it was all working so well when it was just sitting there.

Guess I'll have to use the motto from work I coined, it's the one my boss doesn't like me telling the customers.
The first part is "We can't possibly screw this up" which is usually followed up with "Don't worry, we always get it right eventually....."

[noseoil]

It's finally 100% ready to leave now. It's not done, but it's as ready as we can make it for small a trip this weekend. The wheel bearings were good & repacked, have 2 new seals in place & a spare set of bearings & an extra seal as well, just in case.

About that problem with the marker lights, I can't believe I missed it. The symptoms, erratic & strange marker lights, blinking, not running at all, one side not working, then the other (it was screaming at me the whole time). The tail lights were fine & working as they should have. They both feed from the same wire up front at the truck. I finally looked into it tonight after I got the trailer home from work. Powered up the markers from the back where they meet with my test battery & they were fine. I tried from the front junction box & they were not running. I thumped on the tongue box & then they came on. I thumped again & they went out. What the h... is wrong now? Finally stopped & ate dinner. CLICK!

I had tied everything together at the PD4045 & grounded everything to the battery in the rear (solar panel, cabin lights, galley, marker lights, etc). The front box was grounded from the harness & truck with a bolt & a wire the box is welded to the frame. What I had forgotten to do was connect the front ground from the truck to the power panel ground buss in the rear in the PD4045, & then tie the whole system together at the back as well as the front! Since the marker lights were sharing a ground in the back with the battery, they had no connection to the front where the source for the lights came from (the ground from the truck was missing at the back). I had provided a + side to them, but not the - to make them work. When I tested, them I was supplying power to both the hot & the ground from the back, so they worked fine when tested.

Ah well, we always get it right eventually! Fortunately it only took a couple of hours to find (?????). Ready to leave now on Thursday. Will report back next week with some new pictures & a few tales to tell.

[OP827]

Good that you found it quickly. I had similar poor ground contact related glitches with my other trailer.
All the best!

[JmsCaverly]

Good luck on your first trip, I wish you the best!!

[dales133]

Wooohoo.
You must be stoked to be making the maiden voyage

[KCStudly]

Good deal! You must be very excited, and perhaps a bit nervous, too(?). The main thing is to remember to have fun. Don't worry about minor stuff, if something goes a little askew just work thru or around it and "enjoy the ride". That being said, I'm sure it is safe to say that we are all very excited for you!

Remember to take plenty of pics; I'm looking forward to your first, of many, trip reports.

[Atomic77]

Something like that would have taken me forever to sort out. Glad my brother is an electrician...
Well, I envy where you are on this build but I'm also real happy for you. I know it has to be a good feeling, preparing to go out on the road. This is what you've been working for! So, make a few preparations ahead of time, for safety sake. Then go out there and explore and enjoy the journey. I wish you safe travels, many memories and a whole lot of fun. Be sure to let us know how things go!