A new hope ... (build journal and component reviews)

[cug]

Thread locker blue on all bolts in the below platform now ... I have nightmares now since we need to do the same for the full camper build-out. Today we did about 80 bolts or so, the furniture will be hundreds. (Note to self: count the bolts, just for amusement.)

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[SightsOfIron]

?

 

[cug]

It’s that, but also just keeping track of which have been done and which still need to be done …

 

[cug]

So, gear is coming together as well:

Maxtrax

Since Maxtrax will be our #1 recovery gear as we have no winch and are generally traveling alone with one vehicle, we have now four of them. We had a set of Maxtrax Xtreme including the mounting pins from our Patriot Camper, now we have four of them. Would have been only $50 cheaper to get the MK II version plus a set of hybrid pins, so I just went with another set of Xtreme once I found them for a reasonable price and in a tolerable color ... ;-)

Jack

Decided to go with a bottle jack from Safe Jack. Went with the Sergeant kit in the ammo can – I can always repack in a bag if the ammo can turns out not to be practical.

I'm likely getting another small (2T) bottle jack to replace the scissor jack, then the kit recovery kit is complete for now.

Recovery Kit

The kit now includes:

• Preventative: air down, air up gear, decent tires
• Shovel (currently a folding one, once I figure out how to mount one, it'll be a medium sized one)
• Four Maxtrax boards
• Two Bubba Rope soft shackles
• ARB Snatch Strap
• ARB Soft Shackle hitch mount
• Safe Jack with various length adjustments plus a wider base plate
• To be added: small secondary bottle jack
• Updated: Small axe and a saw

That should do it for most of the situations we might find ourselves in for the next year or so. If we get so stuck that we really can't get out, we might think about a winch, but for now, we'll chance it. We do have a Garmin Inreach if we end up in serious trouble.

 

[cug]

It's slightly frustrating that there is nothing "new" to show, but we've been busy improving things, finishing stuff that should have been finished a while ago, improving electrics etc.

Been two really long 14 hour days just working on one little thing after the other. Had nearly all the furniture out again to improve access, enlarge some pass through cuts, etc. Today, spent most of the time finalizing electrics and re-installing parts into the camper.

Tomorrow the bench and galley modules go in, electrics will be hooked back up and everything tightened down.

Tuesday we plan to leave for a shakedown trip to Southern California ... so, probably one more very long day and we should be ready to go. *knock on wood*

 

[cug]

Some of the work today took longer than even our pessimistic estimates, so while we'll be ready to leave for our shake down trip it'll not be tomorrow morning but some time around noon(-ish).

Need to pack everything, we just ran out of juice after another long day ...

Impressions are below.

Cleaned up electrics, shortened a bunch of wiring, tested both chargers (M30 + BCDC25), wired the fixed 120V outlet, made some small improvements to the furniture and re-installed it:

The Redvision panel really needs to move to the door. It'll be much more practical there:

Travel oven installed, hot air outlet optimistically installed (we don't have the heater installed yet), side table is functional:

It was dark by the time we had the galley fully installed with all side panels, interior panels, drawers, and bolted everything to the camper and the bedplate. Fitting carpet will come at some point in time after the test trip.

We even installed the sink:

Faucet and all the water plumbing is still missing though. Just didn't get to it yet.

Water, Webasto heater, and rear door setup (load bars, table, relocate Redarc display, design mounting brackets for Rotopax etc.) will be the next big items. But we can improvise for now.

 

[Geared4adventure]

Looks great! I am so curious about the overall flow for tasks. I am not crazy about the redarc location but most of the time I do everything with the app.

 

[cug]

Looks great! I am so curious about the overall flow for tasks.

You mean building out the camper? We’ve certainly not done it the optimal way, had to backtrack a few times and are still rethinking some decisions. I would build differently today as well.

 

[Geared4adventure]

You mean building out the camper? We’ve certainly not done it the optimal way, had to backtrack a few times and are still rethinking some decisions. I would build differently today as well.

Yeah I am on my first big trip and finding that I need to keep everything mounted and put away otherwise that small space gets overwhelmed quickly.

 

[cug]

Yeah I am on my first big trip and finding that I need to keep everything mounted and put away otherwise that small space gets overwhelmed quickly.

That’s definitely true. We try to keep every single thing in the same place, generally tucked away. Otherwise we’d go crazy always searching where the other one put something.

We also try to keep in mind that if you have to move something to get to something else, it better be something rarely ever used or you’ll go mad … Once everything is sorted away properly, I’m happy to do a video about it.

 

[cug]

Photo impressions ...

Alabama Hills:

iPhone night mode can result in some really whacky stuff ... ;-)

Death Valley:

Mojave:

 

[cug]

Thoughts:

• We really need to get the water system hooked up.
• A heater is a comfort factor, even in California; it'll be crucial for Alaska.
• The rear door table is overdue, it'll make life much easier.
• Lights have become a higher priority during this trip. We got to the first campsite after dark and it wasn't nice having to navigate a slightly rougher trail with just the halogen headlights and foglights. Wife's comment: "That's all the light we have?"
• Need to start working on content organization, moving stuff around all the time gets old on day two ...

More to come.

 

[cug]

Lights have become a higher priority during this trip. We got to the first campsite after dark and it wasn't nice having to navigate a slightly rougher trail with just the halogen headlights and foglights. Wife's comment: "That's all the light we have?"

Today was a decision and parts ordering day:

• Shovel: found a good deal on a Rhinorack Spade, basically a 42" shovel, which we'll mount with Rhinorack mounting hardware to Rhinorack loadbars (either super short ones on the side hatches, or to the rear door).
• Lights: OEM LED headlights are on order as well as a set of Baja Designs Squadron-R SAE fog lights. Should be simple enough to install from what I could find out.
• Solar: Decided to go with a CIGS panel, Sunflare XPLOR 140W panel on order. This will hopefully be an easy install, just with the double sided tape, hook up the wiring, rest is already done.

Tomorrow will be back to working on small(ish) tasks, when the weather clears we'll start with the bigger ones. I want to get most things done before I leave for Europe at the end of April.

 

[cug]

True to the motto of this build, everything is again moving at a snail's pace ... incredibly frustrating, but at least it is moving.

We've been going back and forth on where to go through the camper shell for our toilet vent. I want it out of rain and away from splash water, the driver's side is blocked by the GP-Factor panel, the passenger side will be very tight due to our diesel heater install. Still, that's where the current plan has the outlet ... but to finalize that, we need to design the whole diesel heater setup first.

So, what I've been working on for the last few days is a replacement for the passenger side molle panel. Plan is to have an aluminum frame build, similar to the molle panel, but deeper, to house the outside components of the heater (exhaust silencer, diesel pump, filter, air intake including silencer) and provide a Rotopax mount for the fuel (1 gallon).

Here's the current draft:

It'll mount similarly to the molle panel, replacing it. The big opening will get a lid that'll have the Rotopax mount on it.

This is one of these things I never wanted to learn. 3D CAD software has quite a learning curve and I've been fighting it for the last two days for this piece. It should be mostly done other than a few optimizations and the lid. Lid should be simple enough.

I'm going off the thought that these components often live under a car/truck/van, so I don't have to bother getting them out of the elements, there are enough openings for fresh air to come in and for the toilet exhaust to vent away, the heater exhaust exits through the round hole visible on the right of the bottom piece in the above picture.

Waiting for a few small parts as well as some cage nuts to finalize the design and then have it cut, bent and shipped. We'll leave it raw for now, then drill the rest of the mounting holes for securing everything inside, then have it powder coated locally to match the camper.

So far, all this is theory in my head only, I can only hope this will fit ... if it doesn't, we'll grab the "fitment hammer" and make it work ...

 

[mquetel]

I'll be interested in following the sun flare install and inside wiring. I've got lazy aspirations of adding a roof mounted panel of some sort (use a ground array now). As such I haven't even done the work to find the solar specific wiring inside the chase.

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