What an exciting weekend! We arrived at the trailer and surveyed Will's handiwork. I was not entirely sure what I was looking at, and this convinced me there was no way I could have done this myself. He walked us through the set up, explaining the flow of the circuit, and at the end he asked us if we wanted to see something cool? He flipped the battery switch and the Fantastic vent started spinning!
He explained that all of the existing DC wires were tied into the fuse box and that to wire in any DC component we could just pick a wire and a ground and "tap" into them. He even gave us some connectors he had leftover! He also said that the AC power is hooked up, too, but we didn't have an adaptor to plug into shore power, and so no way to test that yet. Next time. He brought his van to plug into the 7-pin system, and confirmed that the 7-pin junction box was functioning--even some of the brake lights still work! And the hydraulic hitch!
He was able to get all that done a lot faster than we were expecting, and he is always a wealth of information and encouragement. He is also willing to help us with our propane system, which is a relief because that is the next anxiety-frontier. He said he wished he had installed an outside propane hookup for a grill on his, and he suggested we include that in ours, and Peter was excited about this idea. Will is even going to order all the parts for us, so it feels amazing to completely outsource thinking about those logistics.
Peter turned his attention to the plumbing venting. We went to the Home Deport and chatted with a knowledgeable and enthusiastic young man, and bought approximately +20 connectors (sorry, baby). Peter had ordered a 24x24x10 mop sink for the shower pan. The venting is 90% dryfitted, even the vent going through the walls, which feels to me like a huuuuge step forward.
The puzzle of the tank attached to the axles continues. Soon enough it will have to come out, and we will hopefully have a better understanding of its functionality, but Will's theory is that it is an extra fresh water tank. It only has the one hose in and out! Peter is curious about finding a way to plumb the two tanks together. At any rate, I think we will have to install the main fresh water tank soon, including sensors, and find a way to reinforce the section of subfloor that is over the tank. Plumbing, y'all, it's starting sooon!
I drilled out 90% of the remaining rivets in the ribs, and then went back to stripping paint and power washing. I have given up on perfection. We chose the bottom street-side panel to reinstall. We split the rockwool batt in half and crammed it into the wall haphazardly, with no adhesive, which was not my fav, but it held in there long enough for us to get the wall in place with some clecos and then the riveting commenced! Took a sec to get the hang of the pneumatic riveter, but now it is smooth sailing. Our fridge outlet and our mid-counter outlet are in place!
I want to outsource rockwool installation to Amanda and Prudence, but I'm not sure the Reflectix will hold the rockwool up all week until skins go in, so that will probably just have to wait. We still have 3 big skins to strip paint from, and they can't really go in right now until holes are cut and vents are installed. Still, it's super exciting to have one of the skins completely riveted in, and I feel like that counts as meeting our goal of having a wall before September!
Looking forward, I've ordered the Separett Weekender 7010 toilet so we can figure out how to vent the solids and drain the liquids to the gray tank. We also need new brake lights and a new 7-pin inlet and 7-pin cord. The breakaway switch is probably also too corroded, though the wire itself seems fine. I think we should probably also buy our puck lighting, so we can cut the holes in the skins and get those wires set before the top skins go in. No looking forward to cutting more holes in the skins. :( We brought home our window frames so that during the week we can strip the paint and bend them into shape.
No comments:
Post a Comment