All I Need Now is Gas !

Luckily I found a nice piece of my favourite Acetal plastic which was perfect for the job and even better it turned out that it wasn't going to take as long as I feared and even better it improved the rigidity and quietness of the motors.  Bonus all round . . .


















I finally got hold of the guy who did he original DC installation and he came around and checked out the changes I had made.  By some stroke of miraculous luck it was all connected where it was supposed to be and then he frightened the SH*T out of me by just sticking in the fuses and and slamming the switch shut.  I'm not quite sure what else you are supposed to do but I am glad it was him not me . . .
So with all the electrical working there was no reason not to take it for a drive and see if and/or how all the changes affected everything.

It drives better - but I have begun to notice that there is considerable movment in the tyres.  These, despite being only 65% profile, have because of the massive width quite high side walls which are surprisingly only a single steel ply!  Even though with the current weight they are pumped to 90psi/620kpa they are still quite flexible and are even beginning to show a slight bulge in the sidewall next to the ground contact point. The only way to overcome this is to use stiffer tyres (not really desirable) or go back to dual tyres (even less desirable) so I am just going to have to be careful but there is no point doing any further work on the chassis torsion effect for now.

I have been told the steering joints have arived but can't be done for another week yet!
I am hoping that this will make it at least feel better.

In the mean time I have managed to decide on how the steps will finally be implemented and so have been able to do a little more work on them as well.

They are supported by two of the lifting legs which stow conveniently in the cross tubes under the floor one either side of the door.  They are constructed such that if the ground is uneven in height near the door no matter where the bottom touches the ground or at what angle they finally settle the steps will always remain level.  Not that hard to do but stubbornness got the better of me so that instead of going inside and drawing it all up properly I thought I could do it on the fly in the workshop . . .
Have you ever heard of that "measure twice and cut once" saying?
My version is "draw it once or make it three times"!!
They also fold down quite flat so they will slide in under the rear end of the house and over the chassis where I can make some brackets to hold them nicely in place.
The next bit is to replace the ugly piece of chip board clamped onto the legs with some nice aluminium scaffold planking (three pieces side by side) which will make a nice 675mm wide by 1200mm long landing outside the door.  I have been using the temporary version for several days now and I must say it is nice to be able to just walk up and down the stairs and stand on the landing to open the door etc...  big improvement.


The steps came in very handy to carry up some of interior components such as the bathroom cupboard doors.  Nice white lacquer which needs only the door handles screwed on and the little bit of trim done and the drawer face screwed on and it will start to look quite neat.

Next were the items on the bathroom/kitchen wall ie the main door and the small panels covering the plumbing access points.

Cupboard doors and drawer fronts will just about finish off that area.  They will all be white except for the long horizontal opening about bench height.  This will be in polished beech again for contrast and will fold out like another bench for when meals are being prepared or can function as a desk if the main table area is in use (eg the bed down and someone asleep).
The beech timber window frame is temporarily in place in the kitchen area. 
This will just lift off and the laminate panel described in an earlier post will be glued in place and then the frame fixed permanently.

It's starting to look a little more finished up that end now.  

At the other end the polished beech window frames have been placed in position and will be fixed with screws first thing tomorrow.

All I need now is gas for the hot water system and it will just about be useable . . .
Oh, and the spare tyre mounted would be a "good thing". . .
And I suppose the motorbike mount would be "nice" . . .
And ...
And ...