Norm, we now have similar spare parts

Back in July, Norm, whose resoration blog is Captain Wilson's Overlander wrote about an unfortunate slide into second base and resulting ankle injury that kept him on the shelf for awhile.  I joined the club this week.

Many of you know my wife Pam has Alzheimers and I’m her fulltime caregiver.  Sometimes you push too hard.  Three nights ago we were both were feeling poorly, weak, nauseous.  It came on quickly.  Weird thing is that Brissy the cat got sick too, so we’re thinking it was something environmental that got the three of us.  Anyway, it was nearly bedtime and I thought I should try to get her up in her berth on the boat before I felt too badly to do it.  Nearly made it—teeth were brushed, face washed, and loaded into her jammies.  I passed out and fell straight down and broke my right ankle.

Alzheimers really makes these deals hard.  I can’t leave her alone longer than an hour or so and it takes time to arrange for care.  And the care needs to be familiar as consistency is everything with the disease—we do everything the same way at the same time, all the time.  The surgeon wanted me in right now, I couldn’t do it, but yesterday I got Charlene, our regular respite care nurse to come here early and plan for an overnight stay and Jim and Rich, two of my best friends and the big part of my Alzheimers support network in the marina got me hauled out of the boat (not the easiest thing) and into the hospital.  I was back on the boat at 8 PM last night.

So, I’ll be leaning on my friends, especially for the next two weeks while I’m in the hard cast, and I’ll still be able to take care of Pam for the most part.  Everything is cool.

Island Girl, though, goes back burner for a time, except for the delivery of the new recliners on Tuesday.  I will be there for that.

-steve

A Year End Post About Little Jobs

Weather has mostly been either wet or cold or both and progress has been slowed, but I’m still plugging along.  Electrical is ongoing, but I’ve done a few other projects as well.

I wanted to use the knobs from the Hehr lifters to replace the black plastic knobs for cranking up the Fantastic Vents.  I cut the centers out of the plastic knobs and glued them into the old Hehr knobs and added a screw to attach to the shaft.

On the electrical side, I’ve been running wires.  I’m using marine wire, tinned and stranded, both for the 110 volt and 12 volt systems.  I’ll be mostly on the 12 volt side and using LED lighting for everything.  These puck lights from VTS will be in a row on the overhead.

Added an external 110 volt plug on the outside and converted the original socket to 12 volt, mostly with the idea that I could hang an LED light under the awning at times.

I’ve used 10 gauge wire to run from the feed studs for the solar panels and covered the connection with boots.

I’m using panels from Blue Sea Systems for both AC and DC systems.  The 12 volt is on the way and this is the 110 volt version.

It didn't rain today!!!

Seems like it rained every day in November, but December has started off dry and we even saw the sun. Looks like a couple of dry days ahead, so started mounting the Fantastic Vents today. One is in and the other tomorrow.

I'm really pleased with the old Hehr cover mod. Didn't really know if it would show, but that nice shiny inside with the Hehr logo shows up well from inside with the vents extended.

Based mostly on some VAP discussion of Fantastic Vent installs, I bedded it in silicone (as Vulkem seems not to stick to the plastic) and used stainless pan head screws (1/2" #10) with washers to screw the flange down. Didn't use the supplied gasket, just lots of silicone. Laid a blue masking tape line down around the perimeter and that controlled the mess.

One goof. I ordered the inside trim piece with the curve, but it's clearly too much for my roof (which is really pretty flat right on top). Should have ordered the flat trim piece, but it'll be easy enough to trim.

As a follow up on my trailer's history, I got a phone call a week or so ago from the son of the original owners. He says he visits his mom about once a month and will get some info together for me next time he goes to see her on the island. Told me he clearly remembers the trailer arriving (he was in high school at the time) and that his parents had gone to Jackson Center to pick up a Bubble, but had gotten such a good deal on the Caravanner that they went with the bigger trailer. R.J. Dial's site says only one Bubble was made in Ohio that year, so maybe that had something to do with it too. Anyway, it looks like I'll get some nice info on my trailer's past (he said it was their baby and went everywhere with it) so that's really exciting to me.

Making Fantastic Vents Fantasticer

While searching airforums for threads about Fantastic Vent installs I came across this one by jbond, Herb, about using the original Hehr vent covers on a Fantastic Vent.  Hehr Covers on Fantastic Vent  Herb was also nice enough to post an article he had written about the mod as well.  Thanks Herb.

My vent covers were (and are) pretty battered, but they polished up pretty well and look, I think, a lot better than the gray plastic cover that comes with the Fantastic Vent.  Nothing really changes except the gray plastic is sandwiched by the inner and outer parts of the old Hehr Vents.

Rain has really hit us hard and it'll likely be months before I can actually mount the Fantastic Vents, but at least they're ready to go when I can.

 

 

 

 

Provenance

I'm pretty sure my trailer lacks a truly great history like Scott's around the world trailer, but still, I've wondered what it did, how it got those huge piles of dirt in the bellypan, maybe just where it has been. There was some information with Island Girl when I got her: I knew the name of the original owner, an address or two, but not much more. I even found a copy of Wally's "Fifth Avenue on Wheels".  Google told me the orginal owner was buried on Lopez Island, one island over from where I got her. So, I figured that was about the end of it.

In my internet searching, I did find one address of a person with the same last name on Lopez. I wrote that person a letter a few weeks ago, asking if there might be a connection to my trailer. Expected to hear nothing back. Today in the mail there was a typewritten reply to my letter. He was buried, but she is still alive and 92 years old. She wrote that she'd get some information on the trailer together and get back to me. How cool is that?

Insulation work continues. Tomorrow I'll get the front end cap area done and that'll put me at around three quarters of the first layer done. Second layer will wait until the wiring is done.

Can't wait to hear again from Island Girl's first owner.

I Really Like This Stuff

Prodex Insulation.

I'm mostly doing what has already been documented on Airforums by Malconium, Uwe, Carlos and others. Rich the Viking got me thinking about 2 layers and that's the way I'm going to go. Using 1/2" deep strips of foam insulation between the shell and the first layer of Prodex, glued on with foamboard adhesive. The next layer of Prodex will sit on another 1/2" deep strip of foam insulation and that will just about fill the 1 1/2" cavity inside the ribs. The wiring will go between the two layers of insulation.

Like many have done, my Prodex came from Insulation4less.com  and I ordered the tape for the seams and edges from them as well. Hopefully, one roll of insulation gets it done.

It's so easy to work with this stuff. Cuts with scissors, simple to fit. I had one day with the sun out (must have been weeks ago ) and there was an amazing difference between the bare shell and the insulated sections--hot and cool. It's been wet and fairly cold the last few days and I can see the heater warming the trailer up quicker as I get more of it insulated.

Likely the Last Outside Work Until Spring

Our weather has been a tease this week. It rains, clears up for awhile, and then rains again.

I pulled off the fiberglass forward endcap so I could buck rivets for the Wally plaque and do the antenna install. Don't know of any other 50's trailers that have the endcap in fiberglass instead of thirteen aluminum panels, but there must be others. It's so big and unwieldy that it'll likely go back up just as soon as I get the Prodex insulation installed. Planning to cover the fiberglass with a 13 panel redo in Baltic birch later on.

You can see the big roll of Prodex insulation in the endcap picture, that's next up.

 

Decided to patch the lower antenna mount hole and put the Wally plaque over it, moving the antenna slightly higher. Looks the best to me this way.