Tom & Shelly's build

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Re: Tom & Shelly's build

Postby Tom&Shelly » Wed Aug 07, 2019 7:24 pm

KTM_Guy wrote:I’m going to let you in on a little Secret. You tell the better half that the “ best way to cut the fan opening is from the inside with a flush trim bit. (Like Tony said) But my router is to big and it wouldn’t be safe. But a small router or laminate trimmer would work perfect, and be so much safer. And it would really come in handy for other things”.

Works going the other way too. “Remember that big router bit I bought for X project? I don’t think it is safe to use in my router. Think I might need a 3 HP router to run it safe.”

I have more routers than my wife has pairs of shoes. :lol:

Todd

PS keep up the good work. Looking great.


Thanks Todd!

You haven't met Shelly yet. I actually bought that router for her. (She bought the Dremel tool for me--guess who uses which!) My Mom gave us a check for our wedding present and Shelly looked at it and exclaimed how it was enough to buy a table saw (though we haven't yet). Buying more tools is well within her comfort zone! :D

Tom
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Re: Tom & Shelly's build

Postby pchast » Wed Aug 07, 2019 9:11 pm

Sounds like you are a lucky man. :thumbsup:
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Re: Tom & Shelly's build

Postby Tom&Shelly » Thu Aug 08, 2019 6:10 am

pchast wrote:Sounds like you are a lucky man. :thumbsup:


Yup! :thumbsup:

Tom
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Re: Tom & Shelly's build

Postby Tom&Shelly » Sun Sep 08, 2019 4:49 pm

I realize I haven't posted here in a month of Sundays; mostly because we haven't done much on the teardrop in the past month. (Been cutting firewood, chipping piles of dead twigs, that sort of thing.) But sometimes in the evenings, when I have an hour or so, I cut out a piece of foam or two and glue it to the teardrop ceiling

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I'd noticed we had lots of scrap foam from earlier stages of the build. Also, I'm cheap, and decided we didn't need to buy new boards of foam if we simply piece enough of the scrap together. I also realized the downside of this is that it would take longer, since one has to clamp each piece down and that often interferes with clamping adjacent pieces. But, gluing one or two pieces in the evenings, plus one or two before going out cutting and chipping on weekends, it would work out.

Almost there. Once all are in place, we'll pull out our hot wire cutter, and trim the top.

Since we'd used the hot wire to cut one inch thick pieces to fit our 3/4" thick walls, we have lots of 1/4" scrap. These bend around the sharper front curve without cutting kerfs.

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The secret is to not piece pieces together where the hot wire is going to cut, as it doesn't cut titebond that well. Here, I actually should have used a thicker piece for the last layer. I think we'll just use PL Premium to glue the roof to this part, however. We think it will expand to fill anyplace where the foam doesn't quite come to the bottom of the roof.

This also shows a wire channel, with the AC wire for the air conditioner in place. Parallel to that will be the cable for the trailer lights, heavier duty cables for the brakes and battery charging cable from the TV, and a few cables for the forward USB ports. Once in place, I'll glue more foam over the cables. I have so much 1/4" scrap foam, I decided to glue a little in under the cables. Probably getting silly, but it didn't cost anything.

Got a little creative with clamping/weighing the pieces down

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That last one is a 1" piece glued on top of another 1" piece on the back, where there is a 48" radius. I did cut a few kerfs in the lower piece, but am counting on the 120 lbs of cat litter to bend the upper piece sufficiently. This also demonstrates, by the way, this construction technique is good enough to hold my weight...(um, when I was 20).

So here is what the scrap pile looks like now

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It seems to have gotten bigger, rather than smaller, which should be impossible. :thinking: We'll add to it the stuff we cut off the ceiling with the hot wire. If it were wood, we'd just throw it in the kindling pile.

Don't anyone tell Shelly, but I think I'll put it all in a big bag and give it to her for a Christmas present. She can use it for her doll house hobby, or something. Then, for her birthday (four days later) I'll make her a vertical hot wire cutter. Yes, I am a romantic fool! (Pick one.) ;)

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Re: Tom & Shelly's build

Postby Tom&Shelly » Sun Sep 22, 2019 8:29 pm

This is sort of teardrop related; at least it's related to ours:

Nice cool Sunday, so we decided to finally install the brake controller in our Taco. We decided to put it to the left of the driver where their was a credit card holder, or something, in the control panel. We used the existing bezel, and I found some spring steel curtain hardware in my junk box and drilled a few new holes. (Boy that dulls a bit fast!)

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Fits nice, looks okay, and the driver can see it, if she looks around the steering wheel

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Only one problem (or two, counting the one that our teardrop isn't ready to be towed yet): Turns out we bought the wrong harness. So it'll be a few days before we can test aliveness of the controller.

We also have a Scangauge we plan to mount somewhere, where the pilot and copilot can both check transmission temperature.

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Re: Tom & Shelly's build

Postby tony.latham » Sun Sep 22, 2019 8:33 pm

Tom&Shelly wrote:This is sort of teardrop related; at least it's related to ours:

Nice cool Sunday, so we decided to finally install the brake controller in our Taco. We decided to put it to the left of the driver where their was a credit card holder, or something, in the control panel. We used the existing bezel, and I found some spring steel curtain hardware in my junk box and drilled a few new holes. (Boy that dulls a bit fast!)

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Fits nice, looks okay, and the driver can see it, if she looks around the steering wheel

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Only one problem (or two, counting the one that our teardrop isn't ready to be towed yet): Turns out we bought the wrong harness. So it'll be a few days before we can test aliveness of the controller.

We also have a Scangauge we plan to mount somewhere, where the pilot and copilot can both check transmission temperature.

Tom


I mounted mine below that. I like yours better.

I had a Scangauge in my 2007 that I mounted above the mirror.

T
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Re: Tom & Shelly's build

Postby KTM_Guy » Mon Sep 23, 2019 4:12 pm

I still need to do that. Probably running out of time for our trip next week.

Looking good.

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Re: Tom & Shelly's build

Postby Tom&Shelly » Mon Sep 30, 2019 6:55 pm

tony.latham wrote:
I had a Scangauge in my 2007 that I mounted above the mirror.

T


We're looking at that, and other possibilities Tony. With our 2018, I'm afraid running the cable down the side of the windshield may interfere with one of the airbags. There are airbags all over that thing! The way things are designed, there aren't a lot of places we can mount it nicely. We'll figure out something though!

Different subject: We have some paint chips from Monstaliner, including one that is close to the tan color of the Taco

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I believe Shelly is thinking of using that color Mostaliner on the teardrop and painting over it with some orange and black trim (maybe colors that are close to a match to the "TRD Off road" art on the bed).

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Re: Tom & Shelly's build

Postby tony.latham » Mon Sep 30, 2019 7:01 pm

With our 2018, I'm afraid running the cable down the side of the windshield may interfere with one of the airbags.


No doubt. Forgot about those things. But that last I heard, no one has been killed in a third-gen Taco.

We dithered all winter over what color. They'll all good. Except black. :oops:

Make sure you order three or more extra rollers when you order that stuff. They do start falling apart and need to be replaced. I kept a pair of forceps handy to pull the little roller globs out. I caught that trick on a Youtube vid. Worked well. :frightened:

Tony
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Re: Tom & Shelly's build

Postby Tom&Shelly » Tue Oct 01, 2019 6:16 am

tony.latham wrote:
With our 2018, I'm afraid running the cable down the side of the windshield may interfere with one of the airbags.


No doubt. Forgot about those things. But that last I heard, no one has been killed in a third-gen Taco.


I didn't know that. Well, we won't mess around with the air bags!

tony.latham wrote:We dithered all winter over what color. They'll all good. Except black. :oops:

Make sure you order three or more extra rollers when you order that stuff. They do start falling apart and need to be replaced. I kept a pair of forceps handy to pull the little roller globs out. I caught that trick on a Youtube vid. Worked well. :frightened:

Tony


Thank you for that advice!

We definitely want a lighter color to reflect sunlight. I think we both like the tan, and it will be complemented by the black (store bought) doors.

Right now we have chrome fenders which I learned to dislike after following my wife home from the trailer manufacturer and being blinded by the reflections from sunlight. So we may switch those out for black, or paint them or something. I also plan to paint the white plastic on the running lights black.

Not sure where Shelly wants to put the red/orange trim, but I'm sure she has some good ideas in mind.

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Re: Tom & Shelly's build

Postby Tom&Shelly » Sun Oct 06, 2019 5:55 pm

We figured out how to install the Scangauge this weekend. Decided the least intrusive installation was on the bezel around the radio

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While Shelly figured out how to program the transmission temperatures, and the battery voltage (yikes! back to that in a minute), I made the aluminum mount and mounted it to the bezel.

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Made the mount out of a piece of scrap 1/16" aluminum that already had the bend in it. Actually, it came from the shelves I'd cut apart to make the battery case in the teardrop.

Cut it with my Harbor Fright metal cutting band saw, including a little taper in the part that screws to the bezel, to better fit that. I used my high speed square drill bit to cut that square hole. (Okay, actually I spent an hour with a file.)

The oblong hole, with matching hole drilled in the bezel, is where the cable with the ethernet connector goes through. Doesn't show too much, except through the windshield.

The scan gauge is attached to the aluminum using their supplied velcro.

So what's going on with our brand new, year and a half old, starter battery?

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Shelly was so proud that she'd programmed it in, but didn't seem to recognize a problem. It did start the truck, but I think we better get a new one before Winter. Anyone think 11.9 v for a starter battery at rest for a day (albeit with doors open and accessories on as we worked on the truck and camper shell for a few hours) is okay?

I think the temperatures are reading accurately--obviously ambient air temperature since we didn't run the engine at that point.

Shelly dressed the wire under the control panel, and also installed the cable for the brake controller (picture taken before the scan gauge wire was dressed)

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(It's alive! All we can say until I get the wiring in the teardrop to the brakes.)

Shelly also added an appropriate New Mexican caution sticker to the Taco

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Earlier in the day, she took off the dead cow's head that came on the back window of the the used camper shell we bought last weekend. She didn't like the elk because she thought people would mistake us for hunters (So what!?) but she was okay with it when she added the "mountain life" decal underneath. Works for me!

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Re: Tom & Shelly's build

Postby Tom&Shelly » Sun Oct 13, 2019 9:53 pm

Finally back to working on the teardrop. This weekend, I finished the wiring in the ceiling, and glued in the last pieces of foam

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Really needs a "haircut"! Next weekend, we'll break out our hot wire, which we made 6 feet long just for this purpose, and cut the foam to match the contour of the camper.

I also added the dome light and porch lights.

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They are all on the same circuit, with the wires meeting at the junction box built into the ceiling behind the dome light (seen from on top in the second picture).

I used some connectors that evidently are made for RC airplane batteries. Used the big ones with 14 gauge wire from the galley (which will hold the PD 4045) to the junction box, and also to the fan. Made this connector for the junction box, with three little connectors to each of the lights.

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I used 22 gauge wire from the junction box to each of the porch lights. Should be sufficient for the amount of current each of those draws and the less than 4 foot run each.

For the porch light switches, I used some shallow AC house light switches, that just fit in the walls.

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I feel so naughty using switches labeled "for AC use only"! :lol: Again, for the low current draw of the LED lights, they'll be just fine.

Went down this evening to see how much light they throw out when they are the only source. Looks good!

Can't remember if I'd shown these already, but earlier, I'd added small wiring strips in our utility compartment, forward of the headboard, so that we could feed our headboard mounted USB ports with 10 gauge wire.

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For the 12 volt USB ports, cigarette lighter ports, and cabin, porch, and galley lighting--everything that runs off the house battery--I'm using red/black heat shrink to designate + and neutral lines. For the trailer lighting, I'm using the "standard" 7 pin wire colors. Even went out and bought a whole bunch of extra heat shrink because that batch included brown.

I know some here favor crimps, but I solder everything. Dad taught me to solder when I was 4, so I've been doing it for 53 years. (No joke.) I'm confident the joints will be reliable.

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Re: Tom & Shelly's build

Postby tony.latham » Mon Oct 14, 2019 10:09 am

For the porch light switches...


Those lights may be handy if you come visit up here where things do go bump in the night!

Image

:oops: :frightened:

Looking great, as usual.

Tony
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Re: Tom & Shelly's build

Postby Tom&Shelly » Mon Oct 14, 2019 7:35 pm

tony.latham wrote:
Looking great, as usual.

Tony


Thank you Tony!

Long as things only go bump, and not boom!

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:o

Tom
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Re: Tom & Shelly's build

Postby tony.latham » Mon Oct 14, 2019 9:58 pm

Tom&Shelly wrote:
tony.latham wrote:
Looking great, as usual.

Tony


Thank you Tony!

Long as things only go bump, and not boom!

159668

:o

Tom


Fer sure.
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