jjrbus Posted September 28, 2015 Share Posted September 28, 2015 As long as I only have 12 projects started I have room to add one and have a bakers dozen I have been trying to figure how to install 2 captains chairs in the Toy and seems like my best option at this time is too just pull out what I don't like and give it a go. I wanted to leave the partition between the cab and house, but after reading the forums if I have trouble with the fridge it would not fit through, so gotta go. I will also have to redo the area between cab and house and wish I had one around to copy. The construction of the day bed and such is not bad for amateurs, but almost every screw head is stripped. Cheap screws. They also used a liquid nails type product which has not adhered well due to the screws being too tight and squeezing the glue out. Lucky for me. Left click photo to enlarge. The electrical panel is original, I have picked up a newer/better one to use, but it does not have the converter charger in it. The electrical is also cobbled badly and need's redoing, I am trying to figure where and how to locate the new panel and the Intella power. Will become a moot point if I end up putting the day bed back in. I see no reason to upgrade the Intella power, but am open to suggestions. Many RV fires are caused by 12V. This is an example, a wire crimped but not even close to tight, came right out, how could they not notice? Does not show in picture but serrated face nuts are installed upside down. Loose wires in sink cabinet rubbing against drawers. Very poor/dangerous job. And now a question, the generator box is the fiberglass box showing in the pic ahead of the wheel well. I can not figure what holds it in there, any ideas. Jim Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jjrbus Posted September 30, 2015 Author Share Posted September 30, 2015 65 views and no comments, I'm surprised. Muddling through this, trying to form a plan for the best use of space, time and energy. Should I paint or wallpaper? Keep the RV fridge or put in an apartment size? What to do with all the material I have taken out, too good to throw away but I am running out of room. It looks like the 2 Captains chairs will fit and work for what I want. But now the big question that I did not know when I started. The floor is not designed to mount pedestals to. How can I secure 2 Captains chair pedestal's to the floor?? Have to hand it to those that can take decent pictures inside. Jim Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kgragert Posted September 30, 2015 Share Posted September 30, 2015 I always thought the captains chairs were not needed, and then I sat on the sofa for a while . I'll probably remove the jack knife sofa eventually and build a replacement that's a little more comfortable. No clue how to mount the captains chairs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snail powered Posted September 30, 2015 Share Posted September 30, 2015 65 views and no comments, I'm surprised. Muddling through this, trying to form a plan for the best use of space, time and energy. Should I paint or wallpaper? Keep the RV fridge or put in an apartment size? What to do with all the material I have taken out, too good to throw away but I am running out of room. It looks like the 2 Captains chairs will fit and work for what I want. But now the big question that I did not know when I started. The floor is not designed to mount pedestals to. How can I secure 2 Captains chair pedestal's to the floor?? Have to hand it to those that can take decent pictures inside. Jim IMG_0410.JPG IMG_0408.JPG I would approach mounting the captains chairs in the same way that was originally used to reinforce the mounting of my dinette table leg. Go underneath the vehicle and install a large square of marine quality plywood against the bottom of the floor. Be sure to coat the plywood with a good quality sealant on all sides and especially on the cut edges. Cut edges need to have the end grained sealed to prevent delamination of the layers. Then install through bolts to hold the base plates of the captains chairs all the way through all of those flooring materials as well as the reinforcing plywood plate you just installed. Be sure to put some marine sealant into the bolt holes on that lower bottom plate to prevent water penetration coming up from wet roads. Not the permanent type of sealant but the always flexible type as you may someday need to remove the chairs. If you are going to be installing seat belts you will need to have reinforcing under the vehicle for those bolts as well unless they are going into a steel framing member which of course would be the preferred mounting method. I am sure it will all come out to your liking. Keeping a 3 way propane fridge generally makes more sense for an RV lifestyle than putting in a bar fridge. I did not keep my propane fridge in my remodel and will eventually be putting in a 2 way fridge 110v and 12v. As I am anticipating solar power with a larger house battery set I do want a very efficient 12v fridge for off grid use while traveling. As I will likely often be plugged into 110v I also want that option available. So I will be purchasing an auto switching model. They are not inexpensive so I have not yet made the purchase as I won't be traveling until next fall or summer but I have left space in the new cabinetry for the installation of one and will do the wiring runs for it as part of the remodel. That space will also fit a small dorm room sized 110v fridge if need be and it might be an interim solution if needed but I would not be able to keep it running with my current size of house battery setup so it would only be good when plugged into 110 electrical. Budgets do drive most of our remodeling choices but with advance planning we can allow for future upgrades even if we don't start out with our optimal choice of appliances. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jjrbus Posted September 30, 2015 Author Share Posted September 30, 2015 The jack knife sofas are not comfortable for sitting, they are not comfortable for sleeping, other than that they are great! I have the same feeling about the dinettes. My sofa and dinette had already been removed and a day bed built in. Not a bad idea, but I want to try the seats. I have had a cooler and 2 way fridge and a house type fridge in motor homes. I had no issue with any of them, but had an efficient inverter and large battery bank with the house fridge, so this time am not sure? Large is subjective, I had 4 golf cart batteries, worked very well for me. This fridge is a small Dometic RM2410, so am thinking it is too small?? I will have to crawl around under there and see how a large piece of plywood will work for mounting, thanks. Butyl rubber putty tape is about the best sealer I have found for anything RV. Jim Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WME Posted September 30, 2015 Share Posted September 30, 2015 Plywood... good idea. But just use a 2ftx4ft (or what ever size you need) inside . Glue/bolt to the floor. If you can, screw it to some frame crossmember. 3/4" should do nicely. Making it so it fits under the chairs. Carpet, panel, vinyl flooring to match the "normal" floor. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Back East Don Posted October 1, 2015 Share Posted October 1, 2015 Looks like you are knee deep in projects lately. Instead of plywood, how about some sections of angle iron drilled to match the spacing of the chair pedestals? What is the underside like for obstructions? Or perhaps you can anchor the angle iron to something more substantial than just the floor. I had plans to get moving on mine till I had a bit of a mishap a few weeks ago. I'm almost ready to get back to it but am a bit discouraged as this summer was such a bust. I've almost got everything ready for winter here but a lot will depend on how quickly winter hits. Really want the dinette done for next season and would rather go fishing than work on the motorhome next spring. Might just take a trip south this winter too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snail powered Posted October 1, 2015 Share Posted October 1, 2015 Looks like you are knee deep in projects lately. Instead of plywood, how about some sections of angle iron drilled to match the spacing of the chair pedestals? What is the underside like for obstructions? Or perhaps you can anchor the angle iron to something more substantial than just the floor. I had plans to get moving on mine till I had a bit of a mishap a few weeks ago. I'm almost ready to get back to it but am a bit discouraged as this summer was such a bust. I've almost got everything ready for winter here but a lot will depend on how quickly winter hits. Really want the dinette done for next season and would rather go fishing than work on the motorhome next spring. Might just take a trip south this winter too. The plywood will spread the stress out across a much wider area which will reduce the compression of the original layers the flooring was made from. The object is not to point load the pull of the bolts on smaller areas of what is not a substantially stiff layers of flooring materials with a concentrated pull in a smaller section. Sure angle iron is strong and a good backer but in this situation with an easily compressed foam layer it is not actually an optimal choice. Here you want a wider distribution of the pull to resist the compression. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jjrbus Posted October 8, 2015 Author Share Posted October 8, 2015 Time for a little break here. Someone told me I should get a hobby, I thought I had one? After a bit of inspection and some input here on the forum there is a frame member under one chair, so that should only be a three week project. The other side with plywood, angle iron and duk tape should be ok also. Not finding any pedestals, may have to pay retail which would break my cheap little heart. The cabinet of dubious construction and chopped up over the years was still a bit difficult to remove. A bit of finesse along with brute force had to be used so as not to take out wiring or gas or plumbing. Looks like 12lbs of staples were used to hold it together. Redoing the cabinet and working around everything, the face is going to look like a design by Picasso. The wiring is like a bowl of spaghetti thrown across the room. I could not fit the electrical panel in, but a multi tool made quick work of that. Jim Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jjrbus Posted October 12, 2015 Author Share Posted October 12, 2015 I'm making a little progress, that's a little fib I tell myself so I don't call the junkyard to take this away Buy a motor home it will be fun I told myself!! I have a couple more weeks to play with this then it is time to paint the house! Got a bit of woodwork done, I enjoy doing the wood. I have to figure out the wiring, electric is not my strong point. The 120 volt is pretty basic, but the 12V is a ?? mess is not the proper word, more like a very frustrating mystery. Where did it come from, why is that wire 6 feet longer than it needs to be, where does it go, how did it get there? A red wire goes in a wall and exits a yellow wire, do I really want to know what is in the wall? Past projects I have been lucky and had people around that were good with electric, not this time. I have the factory schematic, It appears to be a generic one, printed for every Toyota RV ever produced by National or maybe one they copied from Winnebago. It is some help but not much. Jim Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jjrbus Posted October 22, 2015 Author Share Posted October 22, 2015 Not much on the forum today so will add a bit for entertainment. I am not well versed in electric and have to take my time and double check everything. So the electrical part is getting frustrating and way out of hand time wise. Plus I miscalculated on my space and sequence so have made it harder than it should be. The 120V is not all that difficult, but the 12V is all over the place. I wonder how much is factory and how much is redone? Took me a while to chase down the hot for the water pump. Turns out it was wired directly to the house battery with no fuse. I don't get that one? There are 3 grounds directly connected to the house battery and I can see no reason why? I think I have one isolated and will chase down the other 2 today, maybe. I did notice there is no outside 120V electrical outlet, did anyone add one? Hopefully this will be the worst part of redoing the Toy and from here on out will be smooth sailing! Any electrical guys in SW FL? Jim Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maineah Posted October 22, 2015 Share Posted October 22, 2015 The white wires connected to the exposed buss bar are 12 volt? The reason I ask is because your white 120 volt wires are not supposed to be grounded like they are in a house. The frames grounds may not be the best for 12 volts that is why the battery has so many wires you should most likely need 3, frame ground, fuse panel and converter it won't hurt and probably will make your 12 volt stuff work better. You do have a bit of a rat's nest there looks like there is left over old converter wiring. Your new converter needs a frame ground also.to it's case. The outside outlet is up to you if you think you need one, has to be a GFI. Stop by an auto parts store and pickup some split loom it comes in different diameters good for corralling your loose 12 volt wiring.it has a split in the side that allows you to get the wires inside with out cutting. Good plan on the couch mine squeeked so bad and was worse than sleeping on the floor it only lasted one trip before it went out the door! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Totem Posted October 22, 2015 Share Posted October 22, 2015 ^ agree... with 12 volt grounds are your friends. the more the better. oddly enough for me I love working on 12 volt ... I not so much the 120 because it smarts when I mess up and touch. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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