Tag: DIY

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So, November is two-thirds gone.  We are somewhere in Arizona.  I’m not saying where because my crazy family seems to want to know.  We’ve been in this campground for over a month and should be through the end of the year.  It’s getting colder – hopefully January we will be somewhere a bit warmer.  The bedroom slide is still “maybe”.  We went in for an oil change on the almost 10-year-old truck and came out with a newish 2024 truck.  Well, it took a week or so to get it delivered, etc.

Projects abound as usual.  And as if that wasn’t enough, we took the truck in for an oil change and ended up buying a new truck.  Old Blue was fast approaching 10 years old and there was a pretty good sale on end of season 2024 models.  We got basically the same truck with all the new bells and whistles.  We are still “remote sorting” out the title and registration transfers with the home state.  And there were all the customizations we did with Blue that we needed to get done, again.  I ordered Roadmaster tow mounts and taillight wiring.  With this truck at least, Ford left a connector in the engine compartment for hooking up to taillights.  One of the few things they did to make the process easy.  Phil and I took a serious look (started even) at installing the tow mounts ourselves – but I chose to call in the a mobile RV tech to help.  In order to install the mounts, much of the front plastic and bumper have to be removed.  Our tech had done it before and he was willing to let us work on it all with him, saving time and money.  I rarely pay to get this kind of work done, but in this case, I think it was money well spent.

But it was only the beginning.  We run a front and rear dash cam.  We install 2 magnetic phone charger mounts, plus a GMRS radio.  And, or course, the RVBrake needed the breakaway switch wire and power to operate.  I search and searched for a way to attach to an appropriate fuse for battery and accessory power and finally gave up.  Ford simple doesn’t make it easy unless you buy one of the high-end trucks with upfitter switches and circuits pre-installed.  Thus, I gathered up wire, a good quality relay, a fuse circuit tap, a couple of in-line fuses, a bunch of split wrap and a handful of tie-wraps.  I pulled ignition signal via a fuse tap, and used it to operate a relay to provide 12V to all the accessories (each with its own appropriate fuse).  I ran all the wire plus the antenna cable for the radio across the engine compartment and through the firewall together, then distributed as needed.  I put a 12 volt plus USB distribution box on the side of the center console, passenger side to split out power for everything except the RVBrake which gets straight from battery 12V.

Add in seat covers, floor mats, under rear seat storage organizer, bed cover, and mud flaps.  Enough is enough!!  We do like the truck and are still learning all the new tech.  It’s a nice truck.  Lots of electronic enhancements.  Oh, so quiet plus some self driving abilities.

Well, there is one more.  Ok, two… we put a plastic rock chip protector on the hood.  This was from Weathertech.  The instructions said to wash the hood, then wipe down the area that would be covered with an included solvent.  The idea was to remove any wax before attaching the protector with VHB tape.  The problem was, our truck had been coated with a special coating (Permaplate).  The solvent attacked the coating, causing it to peel up.  I bitched to Weathertech and got “gee, we are sorry but that’s life” response.  I was not happy but the protector covered up the ruined coating.  So beware of any product that wants you to “apply a cleaner” so their tape sticks better.  I assumed it was just alcohol but contained four much worse solvents.

While worrying about rock chips (Blue did have some chips, but we don’t really know if they were from being towed or just driving).  We first made a decision to add a full-width rock guard on the back of the RV – ordered one, then went “geesh!, the damn thing weighs 60+ pounds and that is before I would have to buy an 8-foot piece of angle iron and various bits of mounting hardware.  We took a good look at our existing RV mud flaps (to short, too narrow) and chose to cut up the rock guard we bought and use pieces to replace the RV’s mud flaps.  We ended up using about half of the ordered rock guard with no extra hardware.

Other misc….  I installed a small thermostat and three ultra-quiet fans to cool the electronics space behind the bedroom TV.  Between Starlink and the Pepwave router and the sun on the outside of the RV it gets quite warm.  The thermostat died, leaving the compartment to get warm and the Pepwave to start rebooting every few minutes.  I hot-wired the fans then installed a fourth fan to blow directly on the Pepwave and all is well.  I have ordered another thermostat and will be cleaning up all the wiring in that cabinet soon.

Janessa and I’ve made some progress on the telescopes.  Got mine almost working in every way.  We used her Dwarf II to take some deep sky picts as well as some panoramas of the Grand Canyon.

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Snowbirding

It’s been a while.  We’ve been busy – I know, sounds odd to hear from someone retired…or maybe we just get so stuck in our routines that it seems like we are busy.

Last post, we were about to leave Henry’s Lake State Park, headed south toward southwestern Utah.  We spent a couple of weeks in Hurricane (or as the locals pronounced it: Hurrican) near Zion.  Then moved on to an RV park in St George, just a few miles away.

Puppies…. Yes, we have two new puppies from the Humane Society in Wisconsin.  Deb and a friend made a mad dash across the country while we were still at Henry’s to pick them up.  We were told they were siblings and the DNA test we’ve had done confirmed they indeed are.  They are an exceptional pair, well-behaved, smart, cuddly, and beyond cute.  Here is a small sampling of the zillions we have on our phones.  Click the small image to see a full size.

 

 

 

 

As you can see, they are never very far apart.  Whenever we are gone, they lay on a doggie bed and watch for us in the “doggie window”.

I never quite finished the fender repair and now I think it will have to wait till we get back to Illinois (or more).  The sites here in Tucson are pretty close to be spray painting without upsetting the neighbors.  I have an area where the color is a bit mismatched and another area where the paint seems to be cracked (perhaps it was too cold when I painted) and the entire area needs a better clear coat once all the base coat work is done.  One has to look closely to see the defects, but it is WAY better than it was. 

While we were in St George (to be near our daughter’s family for the holidays), they moved from their motorhome to a fifth wheel.  We spent a lot of time helping them move in and customize their new RV; including building a three-high bunk bed for three of the four grand-girls. 

 

We are now in a 55+ park in Tucson till the end of March.  There is lots to do here – already have had the bikes out several times, including some trips with the dogs.  They didn’t like riding in separate baskets, so now they ride together in one basket.  We are still considering ways to keep them a bit more out of the wind as we ride.  

The list of RV repairs and mods seems to stay about as long no matter how many we take care of and check off.  The electric fireplace, which we use a lot, quit one day.  I managed to get it running again but since we are dependent on it to stay warm, we now have a new one.  The outside porch light has been replaced.  The old one had water incursion and half the LEDs had died.  The silicone caulking Tiffin used was impossible to get off – so I just purchased a physically larger light to install over the mess.  I’ve bought a new set of horns that are supposed to be louder than the facotry ones.  I need to install them.  And so on and so forth……

Oh, we finally purchased a Power Watchdog (hardwired) and installed it.  I tried twice to order from Amazon and twice they sent the wrong Watchdog model (corded instead of hardwired).  I then ordered from E-trailer and got the correct item at the same price.  I still need to install a new battery monitor shunt – the old one has lost its mind and says the same number of amps no matter what is going on.  

An RV detailer stopped by a few days ago.  He claimed he had someone cancel an appointment at the last minute and since our rig was the dirtiest one in the row, he made us an offer we couldn’t refuse.  The motorhome is now clean and shiny, saving me a 3-to-4-day job and lots of sore muscles.

I’ve also been working on a project.  At Henry’s someonepower box for telescope wanted to throw away an old E-bike.  We took it and I looked it over – it was quite trashed; almost nothing worth saving.  But it still had the battery.  With a zillion different randomly named e-bikes out there, the used battery probably wasn’t worth trying to find another bike owner to sell it to.  Besides I had another idea.  I have a telescope that needs several USB ports and two 12V lines to run the scope, cameras, focuser, and a laptop.  In the past, I  used a set of individual battery packs to run it all.  I realized I could repurpose the batteries from the bike.  (when near the RV I just used AC power, but I want to be able to take it away from civilization and city lights). Update: I’ve taken the scope et al to the edge of the park where I have a clear view of the sky and worked off the tailgate of the truck several times, on battery power.  It works great, though the seeing at the park isn’t very good.

Mike working on powerpack for telescope
Welding bus strips to batteries

I disassembled the battery and separated all the individual cells.  For a 48-volt plus battery, they put 12 cells in series, then place the series stacks in parallel.  Since I needed 12 volts, I needed to create groups of three or four, and then placed those groups in parallel.  I didn’t bother to measure the cells at first, and assumed four in series when three probably would have worked fine (these particular li-ions batteries charged up to 4.2 volts instead of 3.7).  I purchased interlocking plastic bits to hold the cells together, some nickel-plated strips, and a small battery spot welder and assembled the battery pack.  Then I ordered a fuse box, some panel connectors, meters, and a switch and found a small toolbox it would all just fit into. Finally, a charger spec’d to the voltage of my battery pack and a pair of voltage regulators to provide 12 volts to the scope and focus motor.  Everything else runs off USB ports, of which I have four.  There is room to add more, should I come up with morepower bank for telescope switch on. things to connect.  Testing is to commence shortly.  Sure, I probably could have bought something similar, but it wouldn’t have been nearly as educational or fun.  I am, after all, an old electrical engineer.  UPDATE: well I did add some more connections.  I tried running the iPad and Macbook off the USB ports and they just don’t have enough power, so I added 2 cigarette lighter-style ports and bought a 12V adapter for each of them.    I ran everything for 3 sessions each 2+ hours long and still had power left over so I imagine I could run an all-night session and be good to go.  I also discovered the toolbox cover isn’t rainproof……

On the to-do list: install balance beads in the front tires to see if it corrects what appears to be a balance issue at 55-60.  Replace the awning lifts which sometimes don’t operate correctly.  We bought a new tow bar – all the options for fixing/upgrading it just were too much hassle.   Install a new Battery Monitor Shunt on the house batteries  (we now have a new Brooklyn Bedding Mattress and I have to upgrade the lift cylinders on the bed to accommodate the heavier mattress). UPDATES Balance beads installed – boy was that a pain coaxing the beads in through a valve stem. They do seem to have helped. The new tow bar seems to be working – now the RVIBrake is having fits for unrelated reasons. The Battery Monitor is still waiting. The awning strut was replaced (pain in the but), but it works better now and it turns out the old one was the source of the horrible noise when we closed the awning. New lift cylinders were installed on the bed. Oh, horns. Two problems with the factory horns: 1 – the horn buttons on the steering wheel were difficult to find the right spot and took lots of pressure. 2 – the horns were not very loud and were mounted high in the engine compartment on the driver’s side. So, I ordered a pair of louder horns, a high-current 12V relay, and a couple of push-button switches to try. I pulled the center steering wheel cover off to see if I could make the buttons easier to push – but it is all molded together and thus inaccessible. I pulled the horn wire connector off, drilled a hole top center of the cover, and installed a 3/4″ RED push button. Out under the hood, I used the Ford horn wire to operate a relay with power right off the battery (yes I always use a fuse) and mounted ALL FOUR HORNS just below the radiator pointing out the front. They do make a lot of noise and Deb did need to use them once on the way home.

Till next time.

Mike