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

[breb]

I have the brackets mounted on the side walls. but the hatch brackets need to be installed after the inside skin is finished. So that won't take place till spring . I'm keeping my fingers crossed on weight and length that I ordered. Last week I had my friend over with his log splitter and I kept about a quarter of it , half went to my neighbor and the other 1/4 went on the drive way for free and in 30 minutes it was gone. We had trick or treat here on Saturday night and quiet a few folk use there portable fire pits at the end of the driveway while the kids come by. I'm still organizing tools and cleaning . I haven't touched the TD in 2 weeks ,even with some good weather lately .

[Mr. Lahey]

Getting some time in on the teardrop today. Been working on wiring the hatch area. When I was placing some lights inside the hatch for the galley I got a reminder how these campers use every inch of space. Three different places I wanted to mount the galley lights hit something or interfered when try to shut the hatch. Fourth spot was the charm and the lights mounted up great.

It was also to the point that I needed to locate my tail lights to complete the hatch wiring. I can't believe what a big change it made in how I see the camper. It feels like things just got real. As in those are the taillights I need to be on the road with. Didn't expect it, but seeing those 4 lights installed felt like another milestone has been reached.

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[breb]

That trailer is really taking shape. When you see everything coming together it is real incentive to keep going. Are you closer to putting in some insulation in the roof?

[jswain13]

Your camper is looking great!

[Mr. Lahey]

I'm probably at 95% done with the wiring. Then I'll test all the circuits, and hook to the tow vehicle to test all lights. I'll be lucky to get that done because the weather is changing fast. I'm still way ahead of where I thought I would be for this season. So the insulation for the roof will most likely wait until next season.

I was really surprised how long it took to make the hatch harness. With the lights and harness junction block it was 48 connections to set up for. Just never really thought about what it would take until I was underway. I chose not to crimp solder the connections to any of the lights. I want to make them easy to replace if needed. So it will be twist connections with taped wire nuts for those items.

Got my aircraft reading lights installed too. Cutting holes in my newly installed ceiling was a tad tense. I'm happy with how the came out. Here's a pic of when I was first fitting them up.

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[breb]

Don't you just hate drilling holes through the ceiling when it has a nice finish on it , thinking it may splinter or tear some ply loose and chip.
Your lights look good. So does the whole TD. Welcome Wisconsin winter. I've been doing some reorganizing in the garage and the teardrop is just getting shoved around and waiting for its finial rest spot for the winter. Lawn tractor is separated from deck and deck spindles are lubricated so I stored it and brought out the snow thrower.

[Mr. Lahey]

Officially closed out the build season here today. Too cold to work comfortably in the garage any more. I spent 30mins or so today straitening up tools and supplies. Closed the rear galley hatch, and came in the house to warm up. I got further along in the build this past season than I thought I would. I will miss the after work sessions working on the tear. Really helped me unwind.

[Jordan87]

I'll be waiting to see this complete next year right?! Good luck and can't wait for the pics. Thanks for the comments this year on my page as well!

Sent from my SM-J727T1 using Tapatalk

[Mr. Lahey]

Jordan- Yep I think I can have her done for fall 2019. Provided life doesn't throw any huge curveballs my way. Should be good to go.

Saw pic's of your maiden voyage with your camper on your thread. May each future trip be great as well.

[Mr. Lahey]

Well I'm back with the start to the 2019 build season. I hope to have the teardrop at least camp able if not completed by the end of this season.
For the last couple weeks we have been getting scattered weather here warm enough to work in the shop. A day here or two days there. Then it gets cold again. So I've been able to get in a few hours work here and there. That has let me get the wiring about 98% completed. Just a couple more connections to wrap up and I'm done.

I have decided I'm going to test the full system and all circuits before I add the insulation and outer plywood skin. I'm going to hook up all lights and accessories temporarily. Also going to hook to the tow vehicle and verify all lights, signals, and charging circuit.

Got a tad ahead of myself and cut and popped in a few insulation panels. I'm using 1" rigid foam. I wanted to leave an air gap between the inner wall and insulation. I left a lot of slack in my wires in case future changes or repairs require a tad more wire to get done. I also wanted to be able to pull a new wire if required to replace a bad one. I don't know the likelihood of that, but it's what I did.

A pic of the completed wiring and slack. Another pic with some insulation installed.

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[breb]

Hello MR. Lehay Just checking on your progress. Have sent you a couple of private messages but haven't heard any thing. Hope all is well. I have yet to swing into action on my build and need to build that cradle for the hatch when I redo the inside skin , more so just getting the right frame of mind and marching forward. I have painted yesterday the 1 inch tube frame for the tongue box and if weather allows I will put on another coat today.

[Mr. Lahey]

Hey breb

Don't know what's up with the pm's-I replied to two of them. Guess it never made it to you. I have been getting your pm's. Send me your email and I'll copy over those messages and send them direct to you.

Long story short- been working on a lot of stuff besides the teardrop. Should be able to get back on it soon.


Your tongue box is looking good. I didn't know you don't have the outer skin on the camper yet either. I should be ready to go with mine in a session or two. When I can get back at it.

[Mr. Lahey]

Finally had some time to get my campers electrical system tested. I wanted to do that while the roof plywood was off. So any repairs would be much easier if needed.

Glad I did the test. I did find that the aircraft type reading lights I installed last minute were wired into the wrong circuit. I had made a mistake and tapped into the wire that fed an outside porch light. So you would have to turn on the porchlight outside, to use the reading lights inside. Not the best setup. It was an easy fix with everything open. That area would be impossible to reach with the roof panel on.

The rest of the 12v system worked great. Lights, USB charge stations, vent fan, 110v power inverter. All worked as they should thankfully.

In other bad news I had a puzzling fail with all the road lights. Plugged into the tow vehicle, and only thing that lit were the two pass side tail lights. That's it. Then when you turned on the right turn signal all the side marker lights flashed. I had nothing from the left two taillamps at all.

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So after much test light probing it turns out I appear to have a bad 7 pin connector harness. First off is after probing with the test light, the harness wire colors are wrong. When I moved the wrong colored wires from the harness side of terminal block to match with the correct color on the camper, everything lit up just fine. Al the running lights and the right signal and brake lights worked correct too. Still dead on the left side tail lights. None of the wires from the harness, right or wrong color, have power for the left signal lights.

Just before taking a break for lunch, I unplugged the tow vehicle and pulled up to another trailer I have that uses the 7 pin plug for wires. Plugged into it and everything worked just fine. Including the left signal/brake light. So I have eiminated the tow vehicle as the problem.

Going to get out there today and run some continuity tests on the connector and harness today. I'm 98% certain it's the problem. Sad thing is the harness has a molded on plug on the tow vehicle end. So I can't see which terminals have what color wires connected to them. I think this brand new harness is bad. Today will show for sure if I'm right.

[Mr. Lahey]

Victory is mine!?!???

So I got after this tow connector/harness with the 12v test light while hooked up to the tow vehicle.
The good news is that all road lites, camper to vehicle ground, 12v aux power from vehicle to charge camper battery, now all works correct so that's my claim to victory.

The weird news is that most of the wire colors for this tow harness have almost NOTHING to do with standardized trailer road lighting colors. Brown which should be running lights is right signal lights. Green which should be right signal is running lites. Red which should be 12v from tow vehicle was left turn signals. There may be some RV kind of stuff as to why those harness wires are those colors. I sure don't know what it is. I'm just glad I did not have to take this harness out and try again. All I had to do was swap some connect points on the harness to camper terminal block, and all is good. I'll take the win. Even if it's a tad sloppy.

All my 120 shore power outlets in the camper tested out fine too. I am good to go with installing the last of the insulation and then getting the outer layer of plywood installed!!!

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[tony.latham]

The weird news is that most of the wire colors for this tow harness have almost NOTHING to do with standardized trailer road lighting colors.

I don't think the factory folks understand what the color coding means.

I'm working on a new trailer chassis. The only thing wired up for the moment are the two forward marking lights. I attached them to the brown wire in the junction box. Brown to brown, right?

Yesterday I hitched up to see if my pigtail length was right. When I jackknifed to check for length, I noticed the marker lights came on when I touched the brakes. Sheeeeeeesh.

The brown wire on the pigtail is the brake light. The yellow wire is the taillight/running light wire.

Goofy.

Tony