Breaker, Breaker

Preparations continue. (The skies here just opened up, or I’d be out working on my list.)

Today I installed a chair rack. For future reference, the phrase up to four should be read as two. So two of the chairs are riding on the new rack and two are tucked inside the ladder behind the new rack.

I also figured out how we’re going to carry Michelle’s extra bike, the Pink Cruiser she uses for Burning Man:

Once I had that worked out, I attached a Caution sign to the tow light bar.

Finally, I did some organizing of the tools I plan to bring along and got the CB radio antenna installed.

Plenty more to do, and the sun just came out so I’m back at it!

Selah.

Oh What A Feeling!

Completed the Toyota seat swap today. (Thanks to our friend Brian for donating the seats to the cause and to Al for a double checking the safety of my installation plan.) It took an unbelievably long time to fabricate the adaptor rails for the drivers side. Measure four times and drill once. Of course, when drilling through thick steel, you get to drill every hole five or six times as you step up to the final size. The rails are attached from underneath the seat box so you must lift the camper body and tilt the cab forward to access the nuts. The passenger side, completed on Saturday, was much quicker because that seat just mounted on a hinged steel plate. (The hinge allows the seat to tip forward so you can access the oil fill hatch.) 

The “new” seats are a vast improvement over the broken down, “overstuffed” seats that were previously installed. These seats are firm enough to offer some back support and are slightly bolstered. The seats can be slid fore and aft and the seat back angle can be adjusted. The Toyota seats are also a tad lower so we can now touch the floor with our feet and have some room to spare over our heads.

My back will definitely benefit from the effort it put into the installation.

***

I’m really falling behind in the photo department. Maybe we’ll start snapping photos of all this stuff once we hit the road!

So much to do, so little time

Our silence is not do to lack of progress or anything to report. It seems as my every waking moment is being spent doing something to prepare for the trip.

A brief list of stuff done or being done…

New wiring harness for tow dolly (done)
New tires on tow dolly (done)
New seats (Toyota take outs) in camper cab (Passenger done, driver in progress.)
Fire Extinguishers and flashlights in mounted brackets (one flashlight to do)
Figuring out how bikes, chairs and big cooler will be hauled. (in progress)
Cleaning camper cabin. (in progress)
Organizing of “stuff” in all the compartments. What to bring, what to leave? (in progress)
Provisioning (in progress)
Programming the inverter/battery charger (to do)

Service visit for Land-Rover (done — no surprises!)
Cages over the new LED lights on the Land-Rover (to do)
Route planning and itinerary. Stops along the way? (in progress)

The rig also had a service visit. Big surprise (as in ouch) was that we needed a new turbo charger. Beyond that it was just fluids and a brake adjustment. The folks at Boston Freightliner assure us that we’re ready for the road.

After picking up the rig on Saturday we hit Costco and Target for provisions and some hard goods we wanted for the camper.

Written like that, it doesn’t look like much–but this is pretty much dominating my life–and Michelle’s “off” hours.

We did take a break to attend the REI Outdoor School Introduction to Mountain Biking course yesterday. It was a lot of fun and both Michelle and I learned a lot and feel better prepared for Moab. Unfortunately, we arrived back at home exhausted and we were both sound asleep by 7 PM and as a result nothing got checked off of our list last night.

Photos and better documentation (and the promised back story) soon (we hope) but I need to get that drivers seat installed! We may end up telling a lot of the story as we travel. Hope you don’t mind.

Okay Jeff, computer off and get to work!

A Rare Evening at Home for Michelle…

….But Jeff and I made no additional progress on the RV, due to yet another all-consuming project.  

Last night, we succeeded in making our very first LED illuminated hula hoop!!!  I’ve wanted one for a long time, I’m pretty good at soldering, and I enjoy making things by hand, so I really wanted to make my own.  I’m not saying that I would never buy one given the many cool designs that are out there, but I wanted my first one to be home made and made by me.  My new hoop was based on a how-to article in CRAFT:magazine… or was it in MAKE:? [It was CRAFT: —Jeff]

Given that I’m somewhat of a perfectionist, and given that we had a couple of mishaps with broken wires and recalcitrant wire strippers, it took close to 5 hours to complete.  We were up until almost 2 AM completing the project, but I was so excited I just had to take it outside for a spin.  It looks great, IMHO.  A photo and link to the how-to article will be forthcoming.  [Link to a preview of the article is above, but you need to be a subscriber to see the entire article. Instructables has a tutorial available, but their hoop is more complicated than the MakerSHED kit we built because it uses resistors. —Jeff]

At last, I’m properly equipped for hooping at Burning Man!  I originally wanted to complete the hoop in time for our shakedown RoVerhauler voyage to the Cape last weekend, but alas, it was not to be.  But it will be accompanying me to a housewarming party and Home Improvement Man burn in NY with our dear friends Eric and Carlane.

BTW, this is my first EVER blog post.  I hereby gleefully join the blogosphere!  My blogger instincts are not yet where I want them to be – for instance, missing the photo-ops last night while making and test driving the LED hoop – but I’ll get there.  I’m going to be honing those instincts over the next couple of months, documenting the saga of the RoVerhauler.

Bike Rack Revisited

If the manufacturer doesn’t come through we’ll still be able to use the bike rack. My friend Mike helped me do a little machining of the existing tube. The part that fits into the receiver socket now measures 1.99″ across. (There’s probably even room for me to add a little paint to the freshly exposed steel!) No photo of this one. Too ugly.

Hopefully tomorrow I will finish the new wiring harness for the two dolly. Today disappeared in a futile attempt to jam the bike rack into the accessory receiver.

Bike Rack Blues

Picked up the new bike rack today. Unfortunately, it wouldn’t fit into our 2″ accessory receiver. Other “hitch stuff” fits fine.

The digital caliper reveals the problem-and the rack manufacturer is looking for a tube that’s a little smaller.

Yesterday’s project

Yesterday I wired this spiffy new trailer socket, replacing one that was broken and incorrectly wired. Today I’m using the project as an excuse to test the WordPress iPhone app.

Let’s get this party started!

Michelle and I are hard at work preparing for our cross-country journey. We’ll be using the space to keep you up-to-date on our adventure, to comment on (and critique) our rig and gear, and most importantly to share stories about the places we go and people we meet along the way.

We’ll both be contributing from the road as time and technoloy allow. And in the next couple of weeks preceding departure, I hope to share some of the backstory about our trip planning and purchase and modification of our camper. 

Thanks for reading!