snail powered
-
Posts
876 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Content Type
Events
Profiles
Forums
Gallery
Posts posted by snail powered
-
-
7 hours ago, Ctgriffi said:
Finally getting close to the point where I can really get into the cabover repair... Got a materials question: I came across some nice, straight 5/4 cedar boards at a local big box store, and I was considering using some of that in my rebuild. Obviously, the water-resistance and light weight of cedar are great benefits, but is it strong enough for structural work? Thoughts?
Cedar is variable in strength plus it is not the best wood for fastener holding being as it is a soft wood. The cantilevered structure of the overcab framing is prone to a lot more stress at the joins than any other part of the structure on your motorhome so you do need to have a material with a lot of fastener holding strength. Your most reliable bet for strength versus weight in the framing wood is to use Doug Fir. White Oak would be stronger but also considerably heavier so the Doug Fir is a good compromise of weight versus strength.
-
You can buy commercial RV rooftop solar water heater flat panel systems. They come with their own solar powered pump. It then gets hooked up so that it recirculates the heated water into your on-board hot water tank for storage. When there is not enough solar power to heat the water then the water that did get heated earlier in the day is stored in that insulated tank for later use. Seems like it would be a nice thing to have when camping in reliably sunny climates.
-
another project progress not worthy of its own thread...
It finally stopped raining and the sun came out so I went for a drive up north to a pick-n-pull. Last year I had mistakenly tossed out the graphic front insert from my heat/air climate control panel. It took a while for a 1980 Datsun to show up in a yard within driving distance. It had to be that year as the climate control is slightly different from other years. I wandered up and down the aisle and could not see a familiar looking truck. It was wearing a disguise, someone had monster trucked it with big high wheels and a strange paint job. When I looked in the cab all the dash components were gone. But fortunately I thought to look back in the rear bed and there was the part I needed
Hooray, now I can get more of the cab interior put back together!
Nice drive in the country but the deciduous trees have not yet gotten leaves so it was not as pretty as it will be in another month.
-
Go to your local hardware store and get a tube or small tub of vinyl to vinyl wallpaper adhesive. You can use an artist bristle brush to get it spread on thin enough in small areas. But not one of the floppy brushes, it needs some stiffness. Likely the problem was not how you applied it but simply that the edges dried out too fast.
-
On 3/14/2016 at 6:49 AM, red-ryder said:
red-ryder sez thanx for your responses.....
in my on-going research i found this great website, detailing a build-up...................DEEPREDMOTORHOME.COM. the links at the bottom of the page i found to helpful, maybe other members of toyotamotorhome.org will gain knowledge of this fellers efforts.
thanx----again----RED
Well some of what that person is doing indicates he does not understand how reflectix insulation works. For instance he installed it using contact cement. When you put an adhesive onto the surface of a reflective material you have destroyed its ability to reflect the heat because it is then no longer reflective. This is very typical of the DIY crowd who do things because they see other people doing them instead of actually doing research and learning how and why a material works and what the proper way to install it is.
I have an advantage over many DIY people in that I learned early on with some of these things as I was an aircraft mechanic who also did interiors of all kinds of components including putting in reflective faced insulation blankets. They were never put in with glue. Instead a plastic pin that had a wide base on it was glued to the skin, then the blanket was placed onto the surface with the pin protruding through the blanket and then a plastic washer was put onto the pin to secure the insulation. Therefore there was no interference with the reflective surface's ability to reflect heat and if the insulation ever needed replacing it could be done in a matter of minutes.
-
The bathroom modules in the RVs were not made by the companies who made the Sunraders. They were a stock item that they purchased from companies that specialized in RV bath fittings. A lot of times those bath fitting, molding, companies were also located in Indiana. If you take measurements and go online you very likely can find replacement fittings that will work for you. Just do some keyword searches such as RV bathtub or RV shower pan to find those companies selling those molded parts. I don't have the link but I remember a couple of years ago being very surprised when I realized I could still purchased the identical shower pan with toilet riser that was used in my 1980 Sunrader.
-
why would anyone need those great big bottles of spices on a camping trip?
-
I often look out the front over-cab windows when I am sitting in the back (while parked).
They really expand the space inside making it feel more bright and larger.
-
Have you thought about replacing the filler tube with a new one that would work better with modern pumps?
-
Forget about Microsoft Office programs and ever needing to pay money for new versions of it. The open source clone version "OpenOffice" works great and it will open all your old MS office files and also can save them with that same type of office file extension for export should you need to send them to someone using MS Office. Unless you were forced to use MS Office at work as well as at home I could not see any reason to ever put it on your PC when there is a no cost alternative that does what you need. We have been a MS Office free zone for 10 years now. No problems with writing documents, creating spreadsheets or doing presentations. It does run on Windows 10 or older versions of Windows as well as having versions for Mac and Linux.
-
Those types of links often show up when you are doing searches that supposedly link back to this forum but misdirect you. Especially true when clicking on images. If you put an add-on such as WOT...world of trust on your browser you can avoid them as that software will throw up a warning flag not to click on the image or on a link.
I always have my browser set to clear my history when I close the browser. I also use a program called ghostery to suppress the ads so I don't have to look at them while I am browsing.
New computer...hope you put some anti malware software on it before you started any surfing activity.
-
1 hour ago, WME said:
No comment about usability, but to baffle a tube is easy. Softball sized whiffle balls are perfect. Smaller tubes hardball sized or even golf ball sized ones.
Wiffle sounds like a potential low cost and easy labor solution for the slosh problem. One could mock up a long section and take it for a test drive say inside of a van to see how the slosh force behaves.
-
Yeah, not a great idea and indeed half baked. The water will all rush forward when braking and backward when accelerating plus of course moving around during turns. Those types of sudden brain stormed but not well engineered water systems tend to tear themselves apart from the force of that water movement as well as having the ability to put a lot of stress on the roof and rip out the fasteners that go into it. Internal baffles help to some extent but you would have to put in a lot of them throughout the length of the tube plus install some very strong mounts onto the roof that wrap all the way around the tube for a hold down. You can't rely just on little brackets glued to the tube or roof to secure it.
The second issue with this home brew water heater scheme is you actually have very little surface area on a single large tube for solar gain. A well engineered solar water heater system is always done with a lot of small tubes so that the volume of water in the tube to surface area is in a proper ratio for effective heat gain. When you have a large volume tube only the water close to the surface of the top of the tube on the side where the sun hits it is directly heated. Which means a very small percentage of heat gain for the volume of the water contained in the tube versus the solar gain possible in a small tube system.
My recommendation is to go with a properly engineered roof top solar heater system made for RVs. They do have a pump that comes with them. That pump comes with its own roof top solar power panel. There are fittings in the kit for plumbing it into your regular water heater tank. These water heater solar panels are flat and they don't create as much drag and do not have the issue of a large volume of water rushing backwards and forwards as happens in a single large tube system. On cloudy days and at night you will still have the option of heating the water with propane.
Water weighs a lot. If you are going to carry a large additional volume of it you want it near the axle and not out back hanging off the bumper or up on your roof. You would be better off bringing along Jerry cans of it that you can set inside near the axle and then fill from them into your main water tank as needed. You could get black ones or paint them and set out into the sun if you are going to be spending a lot of time at the beach. A small pump into the opening of the can will create your outdoor shower. They do sell small battery operated pumps exactly for this purpose of drawing liquid from Jerry cans for a shower. You can use a solar charger and rechargeable batteries to power the pump. A benefit of the can system is you can fill them up at a spigot when you can't get close to it with your rig. Carry a funnel with a tube and you can fill from a sink in a restroom if need be.
-
My roommate who used to live in that area and spent a lot of time in the park hiking and camping at all times of the year has this to say about RMNP. There will be lots of places in the park to visit in early June. The West side will be snowier than the east side. The trail ridge is the only way to get from one side to the other. Early in the season when Trail Ridge opens there will be snow banks piled up on either side of the road. Trail Ridge opens in stages so at that time of year even if it is not completely open all the way across you can still get fairly high up into the park to enjoy some of the higher elevation areas. It is usually open in early June but can close down unexpectedly for a few days if a large snow storm comes through in early June.
-
The way the interior is fitted out is great looking. However I would hate being in there other than at bed time as you can't see outside. The Sunrader was my choice because all the windows expand the living space meaning you can be inside and still enjoy the out of doors views.
That kind of rig is good for urban stealth camping in residential neighborhoods since it is a newer model where you won't be so obviously one "those" van dwellers.
-
You might be needing some new weep hole covers. Those are pretty easy to make using thin aluminum sheet from the hardware store or even the metal from a pop or beer can. The ones on my Sunrader measured out to be 3/4" wide. That means it is very easy to form them over the edge of a 3/4 inch wide board. Then just trim to match the profile of the edge of the window trim with a pair of shop scissors. If you are making a bunch of them just create a paper patern. I glued the new weep hole cover in place with the rubber fortified brand of super glue gel from Gorilla Glue. It helps the job go faster if you have some super glue accelerator on hand. I made them 3 years ago and they are still holding in there nice and strong. The original weep hole covers on my Sunrader were made from Styrene plastic which does not hold up well to UV light. This summer I will get around to replacing the rest of them as the other that are still original are very brittle and coming apart now. They won't hold up for another RV bath day.
-
as to those window screen nylon pieces. Now that is something that could be 3D printed in nylon
I will look and see if my 1980 Sunrader uses those. If so I can reverse engineer them for 3D printing.
Or you could get a block of nylon material and create them with a router in a table with a fence. One tip to make it safer and easier. The first cut to make is the center channel and then you should fill it up temporarily with a snug fitting solid spline the size of that groove. Wood is OK to use for that temporary filler. Then cut the grooves on the two sides. Having the solid filler in there will reduce the tendency of the material to flex on you from the cutting forces while machining the outside edges.
-
I do think after looking at the plastic part you could get by using a nylon bushing for the lower half and a nylon washer above it. You might need to adjust the length of the bushing but that is a job for sandpaper glued to a block of wood and just rub the excess off the bushing. It does not really have to be a one piece setup. The bushing needs to be as tall as the upper inside rim of the latch where the screw hole is. Then the washer fits into the recess and the screw pulls the window latch down against the bushing.
ToyoGuy thanks for the link, I do need to order some new latches for my rig. I will take care of it this week as soon as I figure out which ones and how many.
-
41 minutes ago, ToyoGuy said:
Hey Linda,
Thanks for the link.
Have you ordered any of those sash locks?
Do you know if they come with the little white "plastic-washers" that go inside the screw-hole?"
That's what I can't find, and the cam-action on the lock is sloppy without them, (with just the screw)
Mine have cracked and fragmented, likely from age and heat.
Got a couple used from RV George years ago and they are on the way out now too.
Thanks,
TG
It is just a basic nylon washer. That is a stock item available from those small parts bins at the hardware store. If not it is easy enough to make a custom washer on a lathe from nylon rod.
-
Go to most any hardware store or Home Depot or Lowes and get some of these. Not expensive, easy to use. You can get ones with a thumb screw or for more security get the kinds with a hex key screw that comes with an allen wrench. I use them all the time on my Sunrader, even on the windows where I still have the original latches as it is an easy way to secure a window where you want to have an inch or so crack left open for fresh air but keep casual prowler types from sliding the window open any further. It is a good back up option for those original latches that makes it a bit more difficult to pry the windows open. Of course if they are determined to get in all they have to do is break the glass.
-
Well you could start a new thread about your new RV in the Misc area that is for non Toyota things. But since this was always your thread and it was not particularly about Toyhomes in specific then why bother? It is a very cool trailer and I know I will enjoy reading about it and hope to see more about it.
-
Nice job on the decal, it is a good match for the original
-
OMG shower, flush toilet and running hot water? Now you are in serious danger of becoming "civilized"
-
Way to go Zach, great choice and congratulations on your new home.
Hooray, now I can get more of the cab interior put back together!
Soaked & Rotting
in General Discussion
Posted · Edited by snail powered
You can use metal strapping across joins to help increase the strength in various areas of the construction. That will help tie it back into the main structure of the coach.
Yes you should bond the wood to the fiberglass skin. Stress skin panel is a method of building where the framing and the skin are bonded together resulting in a light weight and strong structure that also has some flexibility to it. Not just the boards on the bottom but also the other areas should also be bonded. Use an adhesive that is rated to stick to fiberglass and wood spreading in a nice even layer all across the timber.
Over the years in this forum there have been quite a few rebuilds by forum members of wood framed overcabs. You can browse through the photo albums and thread postings to find them.