7x16 Conversion from Georgia

[McDave]

Hey Martin,
I am going to put a build journal together at some point, but I'm nearing the end now and nobody really needs to see my insulation pics. I like the way MAC33 kinda put it all together short and sweet. That will be my model. Here's a pic I took at Sturgis to get ya started.

McDave

[flboy]

Nice rig McDave! Where's the swimming pool and Jacuzzi?

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[m.colley]

Hey Martin,
I am going to put a build journal together at some point, but I'm nearing the end now and nobody really needs to see my insulation pics. I like the way MAC33 kinda put it all together short and sweet. That will be my model. Here's a pic I took at Sturgis to get ya started.

McDave

Sweet rig there Dave. With that big ass bus, whatcha need a CTC for?
Actually before I committed to building my CTC I came real close to buying a school bus and converting it. The better half (wife) veto'd that though, her exacts words went something like " have you lost your F***ing mind, I'm not riding around in no damn school bus"...


Martin

[McDave]

Yea, she looks pretty good when you get her washed up. Here's one of the other side. Needs washin' again.



McDave

[hankaye]

McDave, Howdy;

Yea, she looks pretty good when you get her washed up. Here's one of the other side. Needs washin' again.



McDave

How many time your Momma tell ya NOT to use hot water when washin' them things? Leads to shrinkage ... Now ya gonna have to
rub it fast an furious like Aladdin's lamp to get'er back to full sized again.

hank

[m.colley]

McDave, Howdy;

Yea, she looks pretty good when you get her washed up. Here's one of the other side. Needs washin' again.



McDave

How many time your Momma tell ya NOT to use hot water when washin' them things? Leads to shrinkage ... Now ya gonna have to
rub it fast an furious like Aladdin's lamp to get'er back to full sized again.

hank

You got that right Hank, had to do a double take, thought I was seeing things for a sec.



Martin

[m.colley]

I had a good weekend working on the trailer and got quite a bit done. I finished up the panel for the exterior AC hatch. It came out pretty good. I did have to go see my buddy at the metal shop and borrow his stomp shear since both my bandsaw and jig saw wanted to act up when it came to cutting the diamond tread plate.

I made a gasket/weather seal out of some thin foam insulation tape. I used regular black andonized hinges and pop riveted them leaving the flat head against the siding, I used matching black barrel bolt latches to secure the hatch. I bought a couple of more square bale hitch pins to replace the bolts I had been using as pivots to allow the AC rack support to lie flat against the ramp siding while traveling so NOW the rack/support is done.
.
While I was at I built my own version of a Fantastik Fan. I borrowed part of the idea from Shadow Catcher. I used two 140mm case fans rated for 153 cfm's each. Right now I have them in the blowing down configuration, but its easy to change. The fan speed is controllable using a PWM controller. I borrowed power by pig tailing off the LED light circuit.

Total cost was $23.00 (fans) and using up a few parts leftover from other CTC projects. The fans move plenty of air

And here's what it looks like all cleaned out

Eventually I'll get to building the fold-up bedframe and as I said in a earlier post, the wife has decided she wants a mini fridge so I'll have to build a small cabinet for it but for now I'll just strap it to the wall. The wife is ready to go camping


Martin

[flboy]

Wow! Nice work on the AC mount Martin. What a nice design. I like your fan also. I did something similar on my first CTC using a computer fan. It does the job!

Your trailer looks great! I am getting anxious to finish mine and doing some camping as well... and riding!

[m.colley]

Wow! Nice work on the AC mount Martin. What a nice design. I like your fan also. I did something similar on my first CTC using a computer fan. It does the job!

Your trailer looks great! I am getting anxious to finish mine and doing some camping as well... and riding!

Thanks for the kind words Don. I plan to water check/leak check it tommorrow. I also went thru my TV wiring at the hitch and cleaned up a few things and then found my reverse light wire on the CTC 7 way. I have the relay, now just need to decide how I'm gonna run the wire for the back spot lights.


Martin

[McDave]

Looks very nice! You will enjoy your first trip so much, you won't really notice if anything isn't to your liking. You'll like it all. On the leak test for the water system, mine did have a failure. Apparently I had a cracked "tee" fitting and I didn't notice any issue, so off to the Black Hills we rode, when I returned I heard something. It was the pump cycling. That's odd, I'm not using any water. Uh Oh, that means LEAK! Well it was easy to find, just a very fine mist coming from a tee. Lost about 15 gals of water in 10-11 hrs, luckily outside of cabin. Had spare, so no biggie. refilled tank with 5 gal can. Lesson learned. Pressure test BEFORE 1st trip, AND TURN OFF PUMP and any other system not needed when you leave. I'm sure I used a ton of amp hrs during that time, and that could make a difference during the night when reefer is on battery only.
I had a pretty good weekend working on CTC as well. I'm not far behind you guys, but I seem to be re-doing some things I wasn't happy with and just getting everything ready for finish. Oh yea, make sure you have a way to latch cabinet doors, reefer door, bathroom door, etc. They really want to come open during transit, and you get a "Surprise" when you open cabin door. OK that's all. Enjoy the fruits of all your labour. Ride safe and blow out some of those cobwebs.

McDave

[m.colley]

Looks very nice! You will enjoy your first trip so much, you won't really notice if anything isn't to your liking. You'll like it all. On the leak test for the water system, mine did have a failure. Apparently I had a cracked "tee" fitting and I didn't notice any issue, so off to the Black Hills we rode, when I returned I heard something. It was the pump cycling. That's odd, I'm not using any water. Uh Oh, that means LEAK! Well it was easy to find, just a very fine mist coming from a tee. Lost about 15 gals of water in 10-11 hrs, luckily outside of cabin. Had spare, so no biggie. refilled tank with 5 gal can. Lesson learned. Pressure test BEFORE 1st trip, AND TURN OFF PUMP and any other system not needed when you leave. I'm sure I used a ton of amp hrs during that time, and that could make a difference during the night when reefer is on battery only.
I had a pretty good weekend working on CTC as well. I'm not far behind you guys, but I seem to be re-doing some things I wasn't happy with and just getting everything ready for finish. Oh yea, make sure you have a way to latch cabinet doors, reefer door, bathroom door, etc. They really want to come open during transit, and you get a "Surprise" when you open cabin door. OK that's all. Enjoy the fruits of all your labour. Ride safe and blow out some of those cobwebs.

McDave

I did my leak check last night with both city water and on the 12V pump/gravity system. No leaks and only one minor mistake, I had the inlet and outlet on the pump reversed, once that was taken care of she ran water like a champ.
We're leaving in the AM headed for the mountains of North Georgia, TN and N.Carolina for a few days. The state HOG rally is in Hiawasse, Ga this week. I almost had the wife talked into loading up the RoadKing and taking the CTC but she said no, we've had our room booked for months. It looks like it'll be the first weekend in Oct before we'll get to take her on its maiden voyage, since I'm on call next weekend. I will hook the trailer up to the truck and pull it around town a few times to get use to pulling it and setting the brake controller.
I hope everyone has a great weekend.


Martin

[McDave]

Man, that sounds like some beautiful country to be riding. You always meet the nicest people at HOG rallies. Gotta' tell ya, I'm more than a little jealous right now. We're hopin' to get one more in this year, but the weather dictates at this point. But, I'm gonna really try to push and get this project closed up. Then we can load up and head South and find the weather that suits us.
Have fun, Brother. And be safe. Maybe a few pics?
I'll hold down the fort.

McDave

[flboy]

Martin... enjoy the rally. That's a beautiful area of the country to ride this time of year. Be safe!

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[m.colley]

Man, that sounds like some beautiful country to be riding. You always meet the nicest people at HOG rallies. Gotta' tell ya, I'm more than a little jealous right now. We're hopin' to get one more in this year, but the weather dictates at this point. But, I'm gonna really try to push and get this project closed up. Then we can load up and head South and find the weather that suits us.
Have fun, Brother. And be safe. Maybe a few pics?
I'll hold down the fort.

McDave

Thanks Dave,
The weather was beautiful high's in the mid 80's, lows in the high 50's- low 60's, and plenty of sun. The only issue was gas was in short supply because of the pipeline break. We had to back track about 12 miles once to find premium for the RoadKing. We ended up with a little over 800 miles of riding. The ride home was great even though we had a SUV cross the center line thinking they had a center turn lane. I had a foot of road shoulder between me and the ditch but managed to keep the bike upright without going in the grass. It was a sphincter tightener for sure.
We met some great people and made several new friends. Here's a few pictures from the weekend.
On Friday the wife and I got out and took a long ride up to Brasstown Bald. Brasstown Bald is the highest point in Georgia at 4784 feet.Looking south on a good day, specially during the late fall and winter you can climb to the top and see the Atlanta skyline over 80 miles away.

To the north (picture direction) you can see where we rode from in the back ground. The bodies of water you see are Lake Chatuge, over 30 miles away. The HOG event was being held at a marina and resort on the shores of Lake Chatuge.

After our visit to Brasstown we headed south toward Helen, Ga and Ana Ruby Falls. Ana Ruby Falls is on USFS land within the boundries of Unicoi State Park. After a 1/2 mile hike up the trail you get to the falls. Ana Ruby Falls is actually two separate falls, the left side is right at 150ft and the right side is 53ft tall. They were beautiful but it would have been nicer if the area had had some recent rainfall.


On Saturday we got up and took a group ride over to one of the wife's favorite restaurants. On the way over we stopped to take a group photo at one of the overlooks along the way. If I remember right there were 22 bikes and 30 people.

While we were there we happened to meet the guy that was riding this sweet trike, pulling this trailer.

The owner of the trike is riding coast to coast.He's a Vietnam Vet and POW. If you can't tell its a 911 /military/veterans/LEO/First Responder tribute. The paint and graphics were incredible.

and last but not least the wife and I had our picture taken at the over look.


We had a great weekend and didn't want to come home. Before pulling out this AM I checked the weather. It was 57 degrees & 52% humidity in N.Carolina, back home it was already 74 degrees & 75% humidity. We're going back in November, this time we're taking the CTC.


Martin

[flboy]

Glad you had a good time and made it home safely!