Slow Build in Oz

[MickinOz]

Box is coming along.
Pretty much at the point where I can fill the staples and give it a good soak in the mix.
Lid is made and fits nice. Put some blocks on the side for the latches.
Thinking of leaving it clear finished.
Photos not so good now. Days are getting shorter and by the time I get home from work the light has gone.

Box 3.JPG (54.98 KiB) Viewed 2496 times

Box 4.JPG (50.94 KiB) Viewed 2496 times

[TimC]

I'm having a great time following your teardrop adventure. Keep up the reports. They give me ideas for my own.

Tim

[MickinOz]

Thanks Tim.

Mounted the box after work Friday night.
No photos yet.

I wanted to use some carriage bolts down through the floor of the box, around the drawbar tubes and though a plate underneath.
No one here in town had any "just right" galvanised steel plates.
Then I realised - if I'm setting carriage bolts into the 15mm floor of the box, then plywood plates under the drawbar are going to match it for strength.
So I cut plates from 17mm plywood and found a new use for an old vegemite jar. Put some 2:1 mix in it, throw in your drilled 4 inch by two inch plywood plates. put the lid on, shake 'em round and leave them to soak up as much mix as possible.
Takes "saturate with the mix" to a whole new level. Definitely no questions re: sealing the holes.

The reason there are no pics is because as soon as that box was on, we threw the chairs and table in it, stocked up with breakfast makings, and hit the road. Went to the Yongala pub for dinner and a yarn, camped overnight at the RV park, breakfast next day, quick side trip to Peterborough for a look around then home via Jamestown.
Rained a little - no leaks.

Got our first "head turning" moment in Jamestown.
Idling past the caravan park, checking it out as a possible future place to stay, a bloke standing outside a motorhome called his partner to come see the teardrop.
Smiles and waves. Musta liked it. I did - I was starting to think my labour of love was invisible.

[DJ Davis]

Mick,

Great job on your build. No sense having a schedule or a deadline, just get it done right. That's the beauty of a TD - it's a blank canvas to make your own with the features that suit your lifestyle.

My next major project, besides house stuff, is to build a "standy super tear." I've got about eight months until I retire and in that time I'll be working on my design/plans. I would like to start the new build the end of this year, but we'll see what life deals us.

Enjoy the camping experiences!

DJ

[MickinOz]

Thanks DJ - I too am looking for retirement.
I may get lucky though. Seems its possible I might be able to negotiate a half time gig.
That'd be perfect. We'll see what the future brings.

Anyway, last weekend's overnight trip saw a tiny bit of rain.
I was just out inspecting for water damage, None found.
But I realised I hadn't photographed the box on the drawbar.

Drawbar box 1.JPG (64.9 KiB) Viewed 2277 times

[western traveler]

Looks good Mick and I am sure it felt good turning a few heads...

[MickinOz]

Thanks mate. It sure did.
Had a tough day at work, felt the need to do something to take my mind off it.
I've had this old lathe seems like forever, but is in reality only about 20 years.
Another garage sale special.
Had pretty loose head stock bearings, but for $40 I figured I could live with them.
When I got it home I found I could rebuild the bearings with "new" balls from an old bicycle.
So I got almost all the play out.
Best bit, I can turn the head stock around and turn big stuff. I made some 22 inch rings for a project once.
However, I burned out the original motor.
On the weekend, another garage sale came to the rescue - an identical motor, same brand, same frame number, same corrosion on the aluminium end plates.

lathe.JPG (73.33 KiB) Viewed 2196 times

So tonight, I had a lash at making mounts for my hubcaps.
The "Sunraysia" style trailer wheels don't have anything in the way of bumps or nubs, so I have to invent something.
First attempt below.
Three point snap on style. Not sure how it will mount to the wheel yet. Don't want to drill anything, so cable ties are looking good.

hup cap adapter.JPG (83.98 KiB) Viewed 2196 times

[MickinOz]

I am biased of course, but I do think the trailer will look much better with hubcaps.
More crap photography - squeezed in between the trailer and the boat for these shots. In the dark.

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Ol' skool.JPG (84.45 KiB) Viewed 2196 times

[MickinOz]

No successes with mounting the hubcaps, and very grateful I used the roughest looking one for trials - it's not survived well. The aluminium is very soft and so easy to scratch and dent.
Decided to stop trying for a while. When in doubt, give up.
Friday night was another get-home-in-the-dark-after-a-very-long-week affair.
So, a repeat of a few weeks ago: "I think I'll take the 'drop out to the RV park for the night, do you want to come?"
"See you in the morning," she said, again.

8 RV's in the park when I got there.
4 big caravans
one Kombi van
A Toyota Landcruiser with rooftop tent
Another Japanese truck with slide on motorhome body
And a 5th wheeler towed by a Toyota Landcruiser traytop.
And lil' ol' me. WAs still able to get a good spot.
SBS World Movies was playing the Blues Brothers, so I watched that for the umpteenth time, and crashed.

During a late night visit to the toilet, I noticed the interior light on in the Toyota towing the 5th wheeler.
I thought he might think I was breaking in if I just shut the doors properly, so I knocked on the old blokes door and let him know.

In the morning he came over to thank me. Said he would have been in a pickle as he couldn't get his generator started to charge anything.
So we fiddled with the almost new generator, got it fired up and all was good.
Old bloke reckoned the 5th wheeler was a piece of crap.
Modern campers, built with weight and low labour costs in mind, have lots of bespoke fittings and materials to make them light and quick to assemble, but some don't stand up to Aussie conditions so well. He'd stopped the day before on the Eyre Peninsula and persuaded a local agricultural engineering firm to weld a busted bracket on the chassis.
His 5th wheeler leaks at most of the seams. He showed me his impressive collection of sealers and caulks.
The thing is covered in caulking repairs and at nearly 15 years old will need a full refurbishment soon.
He mentioned he saw a teardrop similar to mine - only a double mattress, not full queen sized like mine - at a RV show recently for $24K

Four $100,000 outfits

Park 1.JPG (97.05 KiB) Viewed 2135 times

[MickinOz]

My vintage Esky arrived. Quoted postage was pretty steep, but something happened I'd never seen before.
When the seller took it to the post office to send to me, the postage was $10 cheaper than the on-line calculator.
He refunded the $10! Anyone else would have called that $10 a little bonus for all their troubles, and kept it!!
Lovely old Esky steel inside and out. Will probably not be very well insulated, but if holds ice over night, its good enough.
Main reason I bought it is because I think it looks cool and is almost period correct!

new Esky.JPG (65.9 KiB) Viewed 1996 times

[MickinOz]

First job was to extend the slide. The slide has to come out a little more to allow the hinged lid to be lifted.
Can't put longer slides in, they would foul the hatch frame when it closes.
Couldn't get any drawer slides up here, anyway, except for super light duty ones sold for indoor cabinetry.
It'll be quite some time before we head for the smoke again, so improvisation was required.

I cut some aluminium angle from an old shop display shelf, screwed that to the sides of the original slide, and cut a piece of 15mm ply for a snug fit.
That gave me a slide out piece, like an extra stage in the telescoping function.
But no limits to stop it coming out too far, and nothing to stop the Esky from being slid into the bulkhead between the cabin and the galley.

So I put a handle on the under side at the front that doubles as a stopper to prevent the added slide from going in too far.

To limit the extension, I routered a couple of grooves into the extra piece, and added some screws with washers rebated in to the timber. These stop the slide coming out any further than necessary and contribute a little strength, so not just the aluminium angle is stopping the 15mm slide and my new Esky from tipping over the back. It'll have to pull the heads off those screws and stretch the aluminium angle for that to happen.
Now I have a 580mm long Esky in a 600mm space, with just enough clearance all round.

Extending the slide.JPG (58.06 KiB) Viewed 2033 times

Esky tucked away..JPG (54.89 KiB) Viewed 2033 times

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[MickinOz]

Build Journal rapidly becoming a Camping Journal.
Yesterday, reality regarding hitting the send button on my resignation was starting to bite.
Same questions everyone asks themselves when they finally walk away from the coalface, I guess.
Will I run out of money?
Will I "drop my bundle", as we say here in Oz, freak out, stay home and vegetate, and waste the hours I have left on this earth?
Will I keep my health long enough to enjoy my last years?

Distractions required. So I went out for a camp. In the rain.

Rain has happened three times now.
First time, the hatch hinge let some water in and I had to diagnose and remediate the problem.

Second time, after very light misting rain that kept the trailer wet for nearly 24 hours, there was some swelling of the plywood on the roof.
Indication of failure to fully water proof the plywood, obviously.
It was localised along some long but very narrow cracks in the outer veneer that were obviously not sealed.

The swelling shrank back when the trailer dried out for a couple of days in the shed, but I can't let it keep happening.
It can only lead to eventual failure of the first veneer.
I decided to try the easy option first - sand and add another coat of the paint.

I have a back up plan if the paint doesn't work, but an extra coat of paint is virtually free as I have plenty left over.

Paint applied, a test was needed, and anything to take my mind off the life changing decision I just made.
So last night was a deliberate trip in the rain.

Happy to report it worked. It rained quite a bit, and I was a bit concerned. But all okay, no evidence of swelling at all.
Planning one more coat of paint, just to be on the safe side.
Lesson learned - two coats of oil based paint might be enough to protect a vertical free draining timber surface on your house, but its a different story on a flat surface where the water lays.

[rjgimp]

She'll be right, mate!

[MickinOz]

Saturday night, time to get out of the house.
I've been watching a lot of videos on Youtube of guys, and gals, who "stealth camp".
Involves finding a patch of nature in and around the city where they camp for the night without others knowing and, often, without permission.

It's kinda interesting seeing the ingenuity they employ.
Of course, I don't need to search the city for forgotten pockets of nature.
The countryside is only 5 or 10 minutes away, pretty much in all directions.

Plenty of secluded roadside spots that offer peace and quiet, no rules broken.

Last night was a disused limestone quarry on a very quiet back-track.
15 minutes from town, coulda been anywhere. Saw 2 cars this morning during breakfast, not a thing overnight.

Took a spotlight, but the only edible game I saw was rabbits.
Not that I'd be able to shoot anything last night.
The idea was that if I saw anything, I'd go back later and see some of the surrounding landowners and ask if I could hunt their land.
Most likely answer would be no, but not always.

Learned a bit more.
Woke at 4 am to fairly heavy rain on the roof.
Opened the door, water ran in!
When its raining the water runs off the roof onto the frame of the door, and when you open the door - in it comes.
WE need gutters over the doors like the old time 'drops have!

Research time.

The other thing I need is some sort of emergency toilet.
The old "when you're a man, the world is your toilet" idea might hold true for urine, not so true for poop.
Good thing I was only 15 minutes from home after I packed up this morning.

I'm not keen on a porta potty type setup. I'm thinking a folding stool with a seat, and a plastic bag with kitty litter.
Or just put it over a hole in the ground in easy digging country.

New cooler set up worked well. Slide her out to get the dinner fixings out, then close the lid, put the offcut of plywood I'm using for a cutting board on top and she makes a handy workbench.

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Quarry at Dawn.JPG (75.94 KiB) Viewed 1679 times

[western traveler]

This, some kitty litter and a trash bag liner though one can get creative with a chair over a hole in the ground. I prefer Home Depot orange pail for no other reason as they get so much of my cash…
https://www.cabelas.com/shop/en/reliance-luggable-loo-camping-toilet-seat-and-bucket?ds_e=GOOGLE&ds_c=Shop%7CCAB%7CTopPerformers%7CCamping&gclid=Cj0KCQjw_8mHBhClARIsABfFgpj7ShgfQ0KNVQa6rGZq9oON5IFWkZRwoRXEs3_yOQpUJyBQViZDFTYaAqq6EALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds