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.