M116A3 Build

[lfhoward]

:applause: Thanks for the great pictures. It is a beautiful area. I see you still have your Jeep Liberty. Me too. I love mine and don't have any plans to replace it in the near future. Jeeps have been known to last over 25 years.

I love my Jeep Liberty and I’ll keep it going as long as I can. It has 160K miles at the moment. Hoping for at least another 100K!

[lfhoward]

I have been thinking about installing the side utility doors on my trailer this summer. Here's a thread I created about how to approach cutting the aluminum out. I wanted to link it here for completeness in case I have to find it again.

http://www.tnttt.com/viewtopic.php?f=65&t=71480

[lfhoward]

The 3, Group 24 marine deep cycle batteries from February of 2015 aren’t holding as much juice as they used to. I looked into replacing them with a better 200 Amp SLA but that would be $350-400. Something I’ll do eventually but not right now.

There is a great thread about battery desulfation currently going on.
http://www.tnttt.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=71499

After reading that, I looked into desulfation options for my 4 year old batteries and here is that thread:
http://www.tnttt.com/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=71510

Long story short, I bought a PowerPulse battery manager to desulfate the batteries and hopefully regain some storage capacity that has been lost.



I installed the PowerPulse device on the battery bank today. Fingers crossed!



Little blinky LED says it’s working...

[lfhoward]

Did the camping trip to Ricketts Glen State Park over the weekend, and everything worked great!

I didn't stress the battery out because it wasn't hot enough to need the fan nor cold enough to need electric blankets. Just about perfect weather, in between 2 rain storms.

That's the little white trailer hiding behind the trees.


We were close enough to the lake to see it from our campsite before the leaves came out on the shrubs. The timing of the trip was right because we had all sorts of peepers and frogs chorusing but no mosquitoes or biting insects to worry about.


4 more camping trips planned to different parks in the wilds of Pennsylvania this summer!!!

[lfhoward]

The trailer sprung a leak while driving in the rain on the interstate during my last trip. So today I took care of that.





The sealant will dry clear.

[lfhoward]

Some camping glamour shots. Glamping?







What you can’t see is that it got down to 37°F that evening! Or that it rained the whole weekend.

[lfhoward]

Today I dusted off the side doors I made 3 years ago and decided I’m going to install them this summer.



I made some abs plastic hinge spacers today and ordered a remnant piece of 0.040 aluminum sheeting that I will use the skin the doors. The plan is to assemble the doors completely before doing any cutting on the trailer itself. This includes the wooden doors, aluminum skins, T-moldings and corner moldings, handles, and hinges.

The door holes exist behind the aluminum as you can see on this old picture, but I will rout out the openings and install edge moldings on the day I put the doors on.

Separate thread about planning the install: http://www.tnttt.com/viewtopic.php?f=65&t=71480

[noseoil]

Did the new charging module help with your older batteries, or was it just snake oil? What % of battery capacity was regained, if any would you guess?

[lfhoward]

Did the new charging module help with your older batteries, or was it just snake oil? What % of battery capacity was regained, if any would you guess?

Noseoil, good to see you and glad you’re still around on the forum. Actually, I have been pleasantly surprised by the charging module now that it’s been on for several months. Where before when I would run an accessory or tool the volts would just decline to 12.0-2 after a few minutes, now they go down to 12.4-5 and stay there. There is nothing scientific about this seat of the pants estimate but it does seem to last longer. It wasn’t an immediate improvement at all. And there are some co-variates that could explain some of the gains, like it’s not as cold outside now. The main advantage I see is that “buy new batteries” is no longer at the top of my trailer to-do list because the batteries are back to being “good enough.”

[lfhoward]

Today I finished fabricating the hinge spacers for the side doors out of ABS plastic. Two 1/8” spacers per hinge will provide enough space for a 1/2” foam gasket to compress to 1/4” and seal nicely. Note to others: Slow down your jigsaw or the plastic will melt!


Here are some detailed photos of the side doors, since I don’t think there are any closeups of them in my build thread so far.










Of course these will be skinned in white aluminum and have silver aluminum edge moldings when they’re fully assembled. The 0.040 white aluminum remnant I ordered from eBay is en-route!

[lfhoward]

Today I hauled three new mattresses (a queen & 2 twins) for a friend using my trailer. I built it to accommodate cargo and not just be a sleeper. It always feels good to get the trailer out and use it for whatever purpose.

[lfhoward]

Today I did some measuring underneath my trailer with future mods in mind. Here they are for future reference.

For spare tire holder:
C-channel, 45-1/2” long, 1.75” tall
Grade 5 or 8 bolts
Spare tire winch and crank
Place in front of axle, in front of crossmember so tire tilts up in front when winched up. Possibly get 2nd c-channel so tire doesn’t rub on trailer floor.

For potable water tank:
Place between cross beams behind axle.
Available space is 42-1/2 wide x 14-1/2 long x 8” high or less. Could go to 13” high if 2” shorter to clear rear stabilizer. May want to be less than 14-1/2 long to clear shock bolts if ever need removed.
Need to fab up water tank hangers and fill/drain pipes.

Right now the spare tire is inside the trailer under the bed and I’d like to get it out of there to free up space. There is no provision for drinking water yet, except large jugs, which again take up interior space. The underside looks like this so there is a lot of ground clearance and space between the cross beams.


(photo of similar trailer by Roberto over on ih8mud.com)

[lfhoward]

Today the M116A3 passed PA inspection for another year.

By next year’s inspection I’ll need new tires. But still ok for now.

[lfhoward]

Making progress on the side door project.







Today I got the sheet metal cut and drilled and test fitted!



Next up is fabricating the edge moldings that will allow the doors to seal against the trailer.

[lfhoward]

Today I visited Fastenal to get the stainless screws and bolts I need to assemble my new utility doors and install the door moldings. It’s starting to feel like this project could come together now! Not sure why, but for a long time (3 years) installing these side doors just seemed scary and unattainable. Now I have all the parts collected together and I’ve started the building process. Sometimes I forget that once I begin the work, the anxiety I have about screwing it up seems a little less. One foot in front of the other.