Okay, the solar pre-wire is in, we unjacketed the 6 AWG wire and put it in two separate holes, running it from the refrigerator vent to the front end cap and down.
The air conditioner drain will be a pex line with sharkbite connectors to make the turns, no it isn't done yet, stop snickering. The holidays were busy and I have the supplies, I just kinda lost them. I refuse to buy those super expensive sharkbite connectors again, so until they surface that project is stalled. Its currently -7 degrees outside, with a windchill of close to -25 degrees. Its difficult to even think about air conditioning!
In the meantime I thought I'd catch up on other things:
The two LED wedding cake lights in the back had grounds that I pop riveted to the ribs. I've re-thought that (like nearly every other project I've done so far!) . They are buried in the walls , never to be seen again, so I've reattached them with stainless #8 panhead screws with lock nuts. I even hit them with a bit of Locktite and I'm fairly certainly they won't budge for the next millennium. If they do the ground wires are long enough to pull to the outside of the shell and figure out some sort of outside screw.
My insulation is complete, but there will be a few adjustments as I put panels in. the insulation was far more time consuming than I thought, especially when you have a helper (
not!) like this!
I have covered all the ribs with 1/32 inch foam tape. This has already made a huge difference. I can touch the ribs where the tape is and it's not cold, the rest of the rib is freezing. I've also noticed when the snow starts to melt, usually where the ribs melts first, leaving this telltale crosshatching, that no longer happens! Is it going to mean a warmer trailer? Who knows... but it was easy and inexpensive. Plus it's a doublesided tape so I can not only rivet my interior panels in but they will be secured by the tape too!
This is the stuff I used. http://www.findtape.com/product153/Scapa-SR532V-Double-Coated-1-32-Foam-Tape.aspx?idx=0&tid=0. In case the link doesn't work for you, it is Scapa SR532V Double coated 1/32" x3/4"x 72 yards in white. It sells for $16.75 per roll. That's less than 34 dollars to insulate all the ribs!
A shout out to Capn Tom on Airforums, whom I got the idea from and who kindly sent me his excess tape! It took two rolls to do the Overlander. The only issue I had with using it was that it makes it really hard to find the rivet holes. After applying the tape, I used a bamboo skewer to punch them all out and then marked the holes with a black sharpie so i could match up the holes to the endcap/interior panels holes easier.
Which leads me to THE BIG NEWS..... which is the endcaps are in! I was really dreading them due to the experience of helping my sister put theirs in . Story found
here, as I remember, it took 5 hours to get one end cap in. But I didn't have the same problems with ours, maybe because I had stripped all the paint off and the fiberglass endcap was surprisingly flexible? The back one went in in literally 15 minutes and I honestly think I could have done it alone!! The front one took a little longer
But I've jumped ahead in my ADD sort of way. There was alot of work in prepping the endcaps. I've posted previously about how I cut out the shelf in the front endcap. But I also had to do some cutting out and re-fiberglassing of the rear end cap There was this odd shelf protrusion that the light came off of that interfered with the clean curves of the end cap.
This is the piece I cut out of the back end cap.
I used a drill to drill holes in then four corners, then a jigsaw to cut the area out.
I put a piece of heavy plastic (so the West System wouldn't stick) then a piece of prodex taped in place behind it. I braced the whole area from behind with a piece of 4 inch thick foam and a 2x4 to get as close to the contour of the original shell as I could.
I then patched it with two layers of fiberglass and the
West System fast cure a couple of hours apart. . I then washed it down with water and sanded it to remove the amine blush. I added another layer of epoxy mixed with the
microlite filler beads when the fiberglass had finished curing.
The completed patch... after lots of sanding. I can't believe I was doing this in my house the week before Christmas!.... but it was too cold outside for the expoxy to properly cure.
In place!
I doubt once its painted anyone would know that this is a patch. I keep waffling about the finish of this rear end cap. Originally I wanted to do it in copper, but it turns out that that would be about $4,000 in materials alone. Reality check! LOL
The truth is that I have this special talent for falling in love with expensive things, a gift for it really!. If you ever need someone to come with you to a store to choose the most expensive item, without looking at price tags, I'm your girl! Strangely enough, I have yet to find a use for this hidden gem of a talent....I did however pass the talent along to my daughter. LOL
Any hoo, I'll come up with some way to mimic copper, or I'll woodie it like I'm going to do in the front.
Also, for those who are wondering, this is how much Prodex I have left of two rolls after completing two full layers , I also cut 1 layer of insulation for all the windows to use in extreme cold boondocking that just will pressure fit into all the windows.
I also chose to insulate directly to the back of the end caps. There was already a layer of foam strips followed by Prodex, followed by more foam board strips on the shell itself..... so this makes two full layers of Prodex with foam strips to hold the insulation away from the shell and between the layers.
That's all for now, the plan is to try and get the interior skins in this winter/spring....we"ll see how that goes! Stay warm people!
