Kenskill style build in Delavan, WI (Now Cub Modern)

[breb]

I used that 80 degree day last week to put finish coats on the hatch and even a little on Thursday. The first time I weighted it was 43 lbs then I added T handles , rods ,wire and skinned . I figure I'm close to the 50 lbs mark . I opted for a 90 lbs strut . Yes I know that does't come close to the calculator and everyone I read about runs higher than that calculation. Ideal length 30.0" I ended up with a 28" and now think I could go the whole 30". I will have to mount the other side and give it another go. I've been out of town the last few days. Other wise I think I would have it done already. I have most of the wiring pulled , just need the converter panel and start to connect wires . I have a space that runs the width of the galley above the counter and behind the back splash that will house a lot of the wiring/ terminal block. I have to say that part of the plan was an idea and kinda fell into place. It's one of those that I didn't have detailed drawings on but just came together. What's the saying(Even a blind pig can find an acorn ) But enough for this season I'm already shifting gears and will focus on mounting this hatch and than holding till next spring . I'm thinking my basement project for this TD over the winter will be a tongue box for the front . I had a rolling carriage for the water jug that I did last winter and as of right now I'm not using it. So I hope I'm not on the wrong path with the box idea. Your wiring is looking right on . I to have spent more than I thought on wire , connectors and a like. I have a little discount with a nephew working at a auto parts store I get a little family discount and used it for various items. I tried once to compress a strut by hand and it wouldn't budge , I did read from the manufacture that it's possible to have a hydraulic lock on the strut and they gave a possible solutions to that issue. Did you run into anything like that?

[Mr. Lahey]

breb- I wouldn't worry too much about a hydro locked strut. I'd mount them up with the hatch open. Then just start to tug the hatch closed nice and easy. You'll feel it right away if you have an issue there or not as you start to close it. I'm just curious how it goes for you with the calculator geometry for the struts. With the bottom of strut far back and pushing forward. If I ever attempt to redo my set up I was going to try that way, with smaller but more powerful struts. For now it's staying as is till I've got some camping time under my belt.

So are you to the point where you start on your exterior next season? I'm getting fairly close to that and I think you may be a tad ahead of me. I'm still going to keep plugging away this season till im freezin. What a poet I am there huh?

Going to sign off here and spend some more eBay nickel and dime money on terminal blocks for the hatch harness and rear running light disconnect points. Have some errands to run this am, then out there this afternoon to plug away at it.

Oh yeah...are you going to try and title or license yours? I know we don't have too in our state. I'm still thinking about it anyhow. It's $12 annual for WI RV trailer plates. Might stop some out of state conversations/explanations with the law, if I have a license plate on it.

[breb]

I came in after a long afternoon of clearness cutting to mount other side strut . The counter is 2 tear and right where I need the bracket with 10 mm ball. Yep I had to whittle some of the trim on that side to position for length and radius on strut ( bummer). Now that I have it all set, I go to re mount the hatch and screw down the hinge, it wont drop in place. The loom for the wiring is pinching between the edge of my cabinet frame inside and the inner wall of hatch. I measured that many times. I'm thinking right now i'll have to elongate the hole to allow for closure. ( bummer) 2 to many bummers today. Oh and the strut compressing, I used the solution they had on the paper work that came with struts. Wrestled with it during the packer game . I think I accomplished more in one quarter then they did in 4. Both struts compress now and I do believe that if that one strut compressed when I attempted to close the first time It probably wouldn't have popped the hinge. I did say in my last post that I probably could have used the 30" , It wouldn't have happened. To many clearness issues and a shorter strut would have been anchored in a hollow core space in wall ( no good). I'm waiting for the second set of hands to come home to take off hatch and i'll work on that wire loom and stretching that hole. No wizard here , I couldn't have seen that many variables and that far ahead to plan. As far as registering the trailer I have looked into that with other posts and as far as the requirements are met in your home state your pretty much good to go. I was more concerned with having electric brakes where some states require it for trailers and for my own peace of mind. Especially when I want to travel in the mountain ranges. The exterior aluminum is definitely in the plans for next spring or early summer . The wiring to converter is the project for next spring. I may get some of the insulation in yet. I have some P/T work tomorrow so I'll have to start on it when I get home at noon.

[Mr. Lahey]

breb- Sorry to hear you've hit a bumpy patch in the road with the hatch and struts. As the British say "Keep calm and carry on". Just one more hill to get over. Hope it went well for you today.

I'm still drilling holes in everything and then putting wires in those holes. Cutting a lot of backer blocks for the screws to grab as I mount bulb sockets, usb charger panels, 110v outlet boxes and so forth. I've got outlets in the ceiling of the rear footboard cabinets for 110 and 12v and also for my A/C. Trying to attach outlet boxes with screws to 1/8th inch plywood is a no go. So been cutting the holes and gluing screw blocks to their edges.

Took some time today to temp rig up the LED bulbs for my FLW interior lamps. I bought a pricey electronic dimmer for the LED's that I wanted to test. I also wanted to check the color of the LED light itself. I don't like the cold blue or harsh white. I bought warm white to get close to incandescent light if possible. So I twisted some wires together, attached some jumpers to the battery and gave everything a test. I'm as happy as can be. The dimmer works great and the color of light is what I hoped for. The picture may not show it well, but I can control the light from a mere glow to full blast.

A couple pics below with lights 1/4 lit and 3/4 lit with dimmer.

1/4 lit

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3/4 lit

20181009_133738a.jpg (131.76 KiB) Viewed 3860 times

[breb]

Your coming along on your wiring, it looks like your making good progress. My bumpy patch just got bigger yesterday. I couldn't figure out why this hatch was seating like it did in the past. The things that changed where the addition of the inside skin and the wire loom with a 1/8" thick ply washer where the loom exited from the inside of hatch. I put chalk and various places to find the high points or places of contact if you will and I wasn't seeing any thing . Then the trouble began to rear it's ugly head. I felt everything from the skinning operation was all in line . First thing I did was to fully screw down the hurricane hinge and in the process I see the hinge wasn't laying flat to the other side of the galley . Thought, did I twist the hinge in the closing of the hatch with one strut debacle. Which will be my first project this morning , to unscrew and take both piece of hinge apart and eye them up thoroughly. Then the bigger culprit. The whole hatch I believe is distorted.Yesterday looking at the corner to corner I now see a twist that happened in the skinning process. I didn't pickup on it till I was fighting to get this hatch to lay right. All kinds of different scenarios running through my head yesterday as to correcting , from building a new hatch to to cutting relief groves. or stripping the inside skin to relieve the twist. Haven't really decided on a a plan on this issue. To be continued. I like the dimmer affect on lights. Should have a great effect on the fret boards if that's what your head for.

[Mr. Lahey]

berb- If the hatch is racked from the inner skin, I think I have a fairly quick fix method. Provided you can skin on top of the original 1/8" skin. That you have the clearance to do so.

I'd load my router with a piloted flush cut trim bit. Drill a hole in a known void area of the hatch. Drop in with the router and cut my way to the frame work. I'd follow every frame member in that way. When I was done the only thing left of the old skin would be the stuff glued and stapled to the frame members. The rest would be gone. And in no time at all too. Now your at least back to square one. Only down side is your frame is 1/8" taller than original. Scuff up the remaining old skin on the frame work good, and your good to go for some fresh adhesive and a new inner skin. Then I'd look hard at making a temp jig to mount the hatch in before I skinned the inside again. I've got a cheap and quick way to maybe do that too if needed.

Hang in there guy. There is light at the end of the tunnel, and it's coming from a peaceful campground in the future.

I just got back from work and more nickle and dime electrical parts run from 2 different stores. I'm headed out there now. I can see the lights from the campground too!

[breb]

A peaceful campground sounds good about now. Yeah it is a bit of a set back and more time. The struts were in the works but obviously that stopped. I just got done making a jig to router some v grooves . I'll give it a plank look and see if that grooving doesn't relief it a bit. Not confident on that it will give me what I need. Now as far as your Idea routing out the spaces with a flush trim bit that sounds good . I was going to strip the inner skin and glue ( what a project) Plan B . I don't have the space for much additional stock at the edge of my upper galley cabinet face frame, that's how close I have it. I may be able to get away with it . It would have to be checked. I have to take that hatch on and off several times in the days ahead to see if I corrected any of that twist. Darn thing was dead on accurate before I skinned inside. Thanks for the encouragement. I did check the hurricane hinge and nothing wrong there, it's as straight as an arrow, How do you like the chasing back and forth for all the small stuff, seems like I'm constantly doing that same thing.

[Mr. Lahey]

So far some collateral teardrop work is all that's happened this weekend. Spent one day reorganizing the girlfriends garage. She was kind enough to let me store the unfinished teardrop I bought in her garage. At the time I put it in there, we just kind of shoved stuff to one side to make room. I parked the tear in there with a promise to straighten stuff later. So I made good on that promise and got all her lawn furniture, bbq, etc stowed away nice and neat for winter too.

Here at home I still haven't cleared out a space to park my truck next to this teardrop. I have a 4x8 work table set up on sawhorses in the spot for my truck. Had it cleared off and ready to knock down. Then a bunch of wiring parts showed up for the camper. I got sidetracked and stopped clearing and started wiring more on the camper. As you may guess the work table is once again covered with wiring tools, parts, and supplies. Well that comes to an end today. Raise my right hand and swear. By the end of the day I will have the sprawl under control and organized. The work table knocked down and stored. My truck will be parked inside tonight for the first time since late spring. No excuses. No sidetracking.


breb-Any luck with tweaking your hatch to fit?

[breb]

I did the grooving and that didn't do anything for twist relief. It looked neat. Then I moved on to boring out the sections with a flush trim bit with left overs remaining and remounted again and it was as stiff and twisted as before. Didn't want to make a mold/jig and force the galley hatch into submission. So thought I better move on. Then removing everything and stripping it down to the carcass on inside began and that is where I am this morning. I will do a little more sanding and put hinge back on and remount to trailer. My clean up will start this afternoon. I have quite a bit to transfer to basement and reorganize. I have to settle on the point at which I'm leaving off at. It's time to pack it up and regenerate. I do have some new ideas on how to skin inside and thoughts on different material for it. So that will be pondered in the months to come. I doubt I will have the garage to the point I can park my wife's car in there but close enough for the final turn around on snow thrower and lawn tractor. Are you any farther ahead on wiring? What will be the next item on the list for next springs start up?

[Mr. Lahey]

breb- It sounds like getting the twist out of the hatch is a bit of a challenge. Seems persitience and paticience are the only way out of that spot.

I got my garage organizied and cleaned. I can park my truck inside again, and have been. The teardrop is moved in it's winter location in the garage. I still have room to work on it. Problem is I've had no time. The wiring is stalled at the same spot where I posted the last photo's above. The real shame is we have had some fair weather to work without freezing. Yet higher priorities have kept me out of the shop. I'm a tad bummed about it. I may get in a few hours today. Plus it's seems I'll have some free time again now for a while. Just don't know how long the weather will last.

Next seasons goal is to get it completed. If I may be so bold as to say so. Hope that doesn't jinx me. Plan is to finish wiring it. Insulate and exterior skin it. Fill and sand body to prep for canvas. Then PMF exterior and paint job. Followed by window, hardware, exterior lighting etc. final install. I'm kind of sweating the canvas install. From what I've seen posted here it really takes attention to detail to look good when done. So I plan to take my time and sweat the small stuff. I'm shooting for a top notch job.

Sounds like another full building seasons worth of work to me.

[breb]

Mr. Lahey I much appreciated your support and conversation though this build season. Sometimes it takes a little extra talk to get through some parts of the build . I'm still enjoying my build but getting to the point where I want to see it finished. I also contemplate finishing next season. My wife is looking at retirement at the end of next summer and I would like it to be ready for the late summer and fall seasons. The hatch has been a stinker and I really didn't fore see that while finishing it. Strut brackets are installed and hope fully they will operate like they should when I install struts next spring.TD is off to the side of the garage and waiting for the poly tarp to go over the top. It keeps the salt off from wife's car during winter mode. Now for the rest of this month and into November I will be concentrating on other personal activities that I enjoy doing. So for now the Teardrop is a wrap for 2017. Will you monitor and post on your build journal during the winter or pick it up in spring?

[Mr. Lahey]

Yep I'll be up on the forum through the winter. Reading, learning and updating my thread if there is something to say or reply to.

I've still been to danged busy to get any teardrop time in. Missed yesterday from and unexpected call to do something more important. Feels like other responsibilities and the weather are conspiring to keep me out of the garage right now. Plus most of the free time I thought I had over the next couple days has filed in pretty fast with other commitments. I'll be lucky to sneak a few hours in at all.

I am going to try one of those infa red propane heaters that goes on top of the bbq tank this year. I think I can take the chill off while I wire the hatch and other areas on the tear. I also have a small electric heater I can put inside the tear while working the wiring on the inside of tear. So I will try to extend the season as long as these stop gap measures will work, we shall see. I would at least like to finish the wiring before calling it quits.

I really need to get up off my wallet and insulate and heat this garage.

[Mr. Lahey]

Just a brief update. Have not had a lot of time, or the ambition to work on the teardrop lately. I have been trying to get 1-2hrs a day in. The temps are tolerable in the garage. Worst it's been so far is in the 40's. So a sweatshirt and jacket have done the trick.

Still drilling holes, running wires and soldering connections. I've been working from front to back. Hooking up 110v and 12v circuits along the way. I just finished wiring the vent fan. Installed the aftermarket fan speed and reverser controller too. I tested it all out and I'm real glad I upgraded the vent fan. It does a real nice job pulling or pushing air through the camper.

Thought I would post a pic of the first test of the FLW lamps in the headboard. I just cut a chunk of a canvas drop cloth that is for the PMF exterior use. I stuffed it behind the FLW lattice and tried it out. It makes for great lighting in the camper for 90% of the time. However I did not find it bright enough to read by. So I ordered up 2 aircraft style ceiling mount swivel spot reading lights to install overhead on each side of bed.

The picture does not do these lamps justice. The effect is not at all harsh light like it seems. The dimmer works great as well. You can really adjust the light for a nice feel to the cabin. I'm happy with the results.

You can see the hole in the back of one cubby hole under the lamp. That's for the 12v usb/lighter style outlets for that side of the bed. There is one on the other side in same location as well. So I am at about the half way point of completing my wiring. I intend to keep chipping away at it while the weather holds up.

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[breb]

Mr Lehay This looks good with the back lighting. It really dresses it up and gives it own character

I have really lost the push for this year. I went hunting for a long weekend and it helped to break away and chill on this project for awhile.
I've been busy splitting and stacking the tree I took down earlier this year. I've been organizing my tools in the basement and think I will give it awhile before I start that tongue box for trailer.

[Mr. Lahey]

breb- Funny you should mention firewood. I split and stack the stuff too. I have a wood stove centrally located in my house. I fire it up and it heats the whole place. Nothing beats the warmth from a woodstove.

I wanted to ask you if you ever gave those hatch struts a second try? I saw you said you had the brackets all mounted. Reason I ask is I don't know how long you may have to return or exchange them if they are the wrong pressure. I realize the hatch wasn't closing quite right but you should still be able to get an idea if the struts function right. I'd at least check them out now while it's not freezing. Might be a tough return or exchange next spring if you need to.

I'm headed out there today in about an hour. Possible 50 degree day to take advantage of and get some wiring done.