the jelly belly build

[steve wolverton]

ps mike do I get a tee shirt now, over 10,000 views.

I hope he sends you a short sleeved one for the heat you've been dealing with, the last ones I've received have been long sleeves.

[bledsoe3]

ps mike do I get a tee shirt now, over 10,000 views.

I hope he sends you a short sleeved one for the heat you've been dealing with, the last ones I've received have been long sleeves.

Does he know you're from Texas?

[steve wolverton]

ps mike do I get a tee shirt now, over 10,000 views.

I hope he sends you a short sleeved one for the heat you've been dealing with, the last ones I've received have been long sleeves.

Does he know you're from Texas?

I'm not complaining - a free shirt is a free shirt. Besides, I can wear it for the 2 weeks of winter we have.

[bledsoe3]

I don't know it works but we have 5 months of winter but you can get 3 months of our rain in one day.

[Tear Les]

Yesterday I did as Doug suggested and rolled resin on the inside of the galley. Looks the same as before only with a glossy finish, but will be more difficult for water to soak into.
Today I drilled a hole for one of my tail lights, and started to install the pipe that will make it frenched in. After the resin dries I will trim it off flush with the body, and finish glassing it in.

Then put an end on it that allows me to mount the tail lights, complete with blue dots of course.

del

ps mike do I get a tee shirt now, over 10,000 views.

Hi Del,

Just some food for thought and some thinking out loud...

If I follow your description correctly your tail lights will be mounted where the (PVC?) tube is projecting from the body in the photo at the surface of the body, is that correct? If so it's possible that when viewing the trailer from behind it's going to be awfully difficult for someone to see the right hand tail light if they're to the left of center of the trailer. Specifically, the person in the driver's seat of the car behind you.

I'm also thinking how difficult it might be for the driver of a tall SUV, Van, or Semi (something where the driver's line of sight is higher than the beltline of your trailer) behind you too see your tail lights. It's possible that even the left hand tail light will be totally out of view in that situation.

I'm just looking at a photo here and could be totally wrong; you're the one standing there looking at the trailer with a 3D perspective and probably have it all dialed in.

[del]

Les frenching in the taillights sinks them into the body. It is an old customizing trick (blue dots as well). Yes it does make it more difficult to see the lights, but it looks cool. Fits in with the 1947 roswell theme this was inspired by. Will most likely have to add lights to the top or bottom, but later.

[Melvin]

The frenching will exasperate the problem but just the shape of the body is going to hide the taillight. I don't know how important that is really. The opposite brake/taillight is relatively unimportant. If you are braking they can see the same side and if you're signalling a turn on the opposite side you won't surprise anyone dangerously.

You might want to consider adding a second set up high in between the final and next to final rib in your picture. They'd be a lot more visible there. Be easier now than as a retrofit, at least the pots and some wire.

[Miriam C.]

Perhaps Andrew or one of the cad people can jusp in and do a "line of sight thingy. My feeling is that if someone can't see both tail lights they are way too close.

[del]

:( Perhaps Andrew or one of the cad people can jusp in and do a "line of sight thingy. My feeling is that if someone can't see both tail lights they are way too close.

I do believe you are right they are too close, if they can not see both. Will add lights on top if I need before I put this on the road. There is a city cop who lives down the road, may ask his opinion also.

del

[asianflava]

Because of the way mine are mounted, I felt the same thing may happen. That is, not being able to see both lights at the same time. I added some LED tail/stop lamps to the bottom of the galley. You can barely see them in this pic, right next to the hatch draw latches. Because they aim towards the ground, they aren't super bright. Brightness wasn't what I was trying for, I wanted to supplement the lights on the sides. They were a little spendy but they fit my needs exactly. I got them here

As a side note, when I experienced some grounding problems, the LEDs worked fine whereas the incandescents didn't. I guess it's because they pull less current.

[Melvin]

Cops are really bad at answering this kind of question, it's not something they deal with with any kind of regulatity. The basic regulations are viewable in plain english with pictures.

The key part is No part of the vehicle shall prevent any device from meeting its prescribed requirements unless an auxiliary device meeting all prescribed requirements is installed.

The proscribed requirement is located on page 295 of the regulations (PDF here)

From page 295, taillights need to be visible from 15 degrees above the light, 15 degrees below, 45 degrees toward the centre line of the vehicle and 80 degrees to the outside of the vehicle.

Generally one is wildly unlikely to be ticketed for not meeting this standard. However I like to keep in mind that if one barely meets these standards one has constructed the worst lighting the law will allow. I like to pretend that a certian amount of sober thought went into the law. And if one's lights don't meet the standard one isn't even meeting that low bar.

[angib]

Three thoughts:

- Don't about half the trailers on this forum have lights that are not visible form the other side of the trailer? How many have been hit?

- Are we worried about drivers seeing your trailer clearly from 100 feet back but then getting to 30 feet, seeing only one tail light and deciding the trailer has been beamed up by Scotty?

- The person who drives into the back of you doesn't do so because they can't quite see your lights clearly enough. They do it because they're not paying attention. People drive into the back of trucks.....

Hey, was that aggressive enough for ya? As a motorcyclist I've paid attention to all the studies on drivers running into things and bright lights have never been shown to be any benefit. If they make you feel more comfortable, fit 'em but don't fool yourself you're any safer.

Andrew

[del]

Three thoughts:

- Don't about half the trailers on this forum have lights that are not visible form the other side of the trailer? How many have been hit?

- Are we worried about drivers seeing your trailer clearly from 100 feet back but then getting to 30 feet, seeing only one tail light and deciding the trailer has been beamed up by Scotty?

- The person who drives into the back of you doesn't do so because they can't quite see your lights clearly enough. They do it because they're not paying attention. People drive into the back of trucks.....

Hey, was that aggressive enough for ya? As a motorcyclist I've paid attention to all the studies on drivers running into things and bright lights have never been shown to be any benefit. If they make you feel more comfortable, fit 'em but don't fool yourself you're any safer.

Andrew

Having driven school buses in the past, I have seen many a driver who has no idea I was there, red flashing lights, airhorn, not to mention a large vehicle painted bright yellow. I think I will see how these work.

del

[angib]

Hey, don't tell me about dumb!

I am retraining as an energy assessor and learning all about the fairly disastrous attempts in Britain to produce pre-fabricated housing.

Recently I was cycling along and thought "that's one of those Orlit system-built houses". So I stared at it - and noticed the stationary bus in front of me at the very last moment.

As in "Where the @<~# did that bus come from?"

Andrew

[del]

Andrew if I ever get my CDL(commercial drivers license) back I will keep an eye out for you.

del