Tom & Shelly's build

[Tom&Shelly]

Tony, I vaguely remember we compared notes...

Your's does seem a bit "proud." I don't recall how you worked yours out.

Tony

Well I found my problem. Here is my original design (which I clearly hadn't looked back at in way too long!)



So the outer lip should have been 5/8 inches deep. Somewhere from the design, to when I cut the sides out, it changed to only 3/8 inches deep.

Now how did I manage to do that? Too much time between thinking through ideas, and building, I suppose <sigh>

At least things looked okay when I did the test fit without the seal. Then the lip went into the slot, so we should be able to recover.

Guess we'll just press on and see how it goes. I may need to rip out the D-ring seal and find something that'll compress to about an eighth inch.

Tom

[Tom&Shelly]

OK, I just ordered some 1/2 inch wide by 1/4" tall rectangular seal

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00NL4B3VC/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Our plan is to test fit the hatch tomorrow (without butyl tape in the hinge), and if necessary, rip out the D ring . The rectangular stuff should work, it'll be about 50% compression, where my hatch fit is good, which is more than recommended but seems to be within the capabilities of the EPDM rubber. The D ring seal at the bottom of the hatch should actually be okay.

I can also use the rectangular seal for the lid over the battery cases in the galley.

OR....tomorrow morning, I'll wake up and have a better idea...

Tom

[Tom&Shelly]

Yep, definitely too much seal! We'll try the rectangular seal when it gets here...

Tom

[Tom&Shelly]

Take a look at those bumpers I mention in my book ––the chapter on doors.

I have bolted those same Jeep bumpers to factory doors and they work great.

Tony

Somewhere in my DVD collection is a pre-WW II US Army film, narrated by Ronald Reagan, showing 1940 maneuvers in some American desert that included the new prototype army scout cars, which looked like Kaiser Jeeps, though I think he said they were GM's version. Reagan called them "battle buggies." If the name stuck, those Jeep bumpers would have been--yes!--"rubber battle buggie bumpers." (It can be heck living in my head sometimes!)

I was amusing myself, laughing at that, the other day when I noticed the rubber bumper on the back of our kitchen sliding door



(can't explain why the ruler was propped there). I designed the house, and lived here since 2007, and that's the first I'd really noticed it. (Also, we have two other sliding doors, and I didn't notice until I looked that neither of them have one, even the door that has identical dimensions.) Anyway, it has an inch diameter at the base and a 1 13/16 inch length. Perfect for our teardrop!

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00FFYYCTQ/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

They will fit right behind the cargo doors, mounted to the teardrop wall itself through to the wooded skeleton around those doors. That particular length should be just right to hold the passenger door while the catch keeps it from swinging out. If it's not perfect, I can either sand the rubber a little, or mount it on a shim made from 1/8 inch plywood. I'll post a picture when we try them. (When camping, I may tell folks these things came from a baby buggie.)

Thanks for the idea Tony!

Tom

[tony.latham]

Thanks for the idea Tony!

You, betcha.

Here's some inspiration for you from last week:





Tony

[Tom&Shelly]

The new hatch seal should be here tomorrow, so to amuse myself in the meantime, I decided to make a box that will mount under the teardrop galley and hold the recessed plug for the extension cord to shore power. We want it under the left corner of the galley, behind the fender, and inside the frame to keep it out of the weather. Since the PD 4045 will mount to a box in the galley just above that spot, this will simply involve one hole drilled in the floor for the cord (the cable for the trailer brakes will go down next to it)



Looked for plastic or metal electrical boxes on Amazon, but couldn't find anything just right, so decided to make my own out of scraps of 1/4 inch AC plywood and strips of pine. Glued the pine to the plywood with Titebond III, and this morning sealed the inside and glued the ends together with epoxy.



Took about 5 tablespoons of epoxy and hardener. I did it in the garage which had cooled to about 70 overnight, and gave me plenty of working time. I then opened the garage doors to bring the temperature up to the low 80's, so I expect it will be cured by evening. I plan to sand the edges true, round over the corners, and epoxy and glass the outside. I'll then prime and paint, making it look at least good enough for the underside of a trailer. Mostly, I think the glass should make it sturdy enough for the occasional stone.

Tom

[Tom&Shelly]

Here's some inspiration for you from last week:

Tony

Well, at least no one was on it when you took the picture!

Tom

[Tom&Shelly]

We received the new rubber seal yesterday, and I installed it right away. It says to give the 3M adhesive 3 days to fully adhere, but I suspect we'll test it this afternoon, or tomorrow at the latest.



Our channel is 1/2 inch as is the seal width, but I found if I pulled it a bit it would stretch and go right in. I cut the bottoms flush, but they crept up about an eighth inch over night (not a problem)



The D ring seal in the pictures is the seal on the bottom of the hatch. I may not have made it quite long enough, so I may rip it out and try again (I have just enough D ring seal left). I'm not too worried about water sneaking in, but dust.

Tom

[Tom&Shelly]

We turned the Cabin Fever around this morning. That's more of a chore than it might sound, given that we have about enough flat space in front of our garage to turn it 3/4 of the way around



Our solution was to use a hand trolley to push the camper out of the garage, and turn it until the trolley was on the dirt, then back the Taco up to finish the job. (Sorry I didn't take pictures of Cabin Fever outside. Soon we'll do the water test and I'll take some then.)

Mission accomplished



If one doesn't cut the cables until one has to, it's possible to test the lights from TV to hatch, on the bench



They all work!

Right now, the camper is definitely nose heavy. (Shelly did say backing up, up hill, was a piece of cake.) If we take it down to register before finishing the galley, we'll put some cat litter in the back.

Tom

[Tom&Shelly]

A minor medical issue (now resolved) kept me out of the shop for a few days, but Saturday morning we installed the hatch



Of course, the plate is just there for sizing and looks; we'll get a real New Mexico trailer plate when we register the thing. I have lots of license plates from the places I've lived. That one is from Joliet



Mine has "Illinois Land of Lincoln", but the Warden fired me because he wanted "Illinois Land of Lincoln". Picky!

Anyway, the rectangular rubber seal seems to work well, though we're asking it to compress a little more than was intended. The result is that we do need the latches at the bottom for the hatch to fully close





I expect that we'll compress the seals beyond their ability to completely recover and eventually the hatch will fit on its own.

We didn't do the hose test yet, because there are obvious gaps in the corners. Think I have a solution in mind for the bottom corners (where dust is an issue). I know I've seen discussions on this forum about ways folks have solve the problem of water getting in under the hinge at the corners, and I plan to review that before proceeding. Likely, the solution to all of the gaps will involve several inches of the rectangular seal.

Tom

[Tom&Shelly]

We had two candidates for the latches, but chose the chrome colored ones because, when we looked closely at the black ones, we noticed one couldn't get a full sized lock in the hole!



Anyway, we have enough chrome on the back of Cabin Fever that the latches don't look out of place. I could've painted the plastic frame around the 3rd brake light, and the plastic "chrome" on the license plate light black at the same time I painted the running lights black, but we wanted a chrome handle bar on the theory it won't get as hot in the Sun as a black one.

Tom

[lfhoward]

The rear hatch is looking really nice! Well done.

[Tom&Shelly]

The rear hatch is looking really nice! Well done.

Thank you!

Tom

[Tom&Shelly]

Decided to buy some longer struts to prevent marital strife (Shelly has me by about an inch!)



Same compressed length, same weight (70 lbs each), but two inches longer extended length. Almost went for 80 lbs, but these seem about right. When extended, they are slightly more vertical, and so the hatch feels firmer than it did with the previous struts. I figure less force, less stress on the teardrop.

I had to raise the lights in the shop by two chain links.



Tom

[Tom&Shelly]

Not a big update, but I added the rubber bumpers to Cabin Fever



I used scrap 1/8 inch ply to make circular spacers, and with those, the length is just right to hold the doors tight with the clips



Also added the trim to the hinge sometime this past week



Tom