Amps Rule !!

My scaffold plank arrived !

So did about 2 tonnes of steel from some customers to be turned and/or milled.

It certainly means that not much truck work is being done for the next couple of weeks but hopefully that will help stem the financial tide.

So now I have a cut up scaffold plank and a very solid landing outside the door, and I did manage to fix a small water leak near the pump. Yea!

Also I finally organised (and committed to the expense of) upgrading the alternator from 40 amps to 110 amps so I can cool off the house unit while driving without discharging the batteries. That was done today and it looks to be quite successful. As long as the engine is doing more than 800 rev's it seems to cope with all the electrical demands. This new alternator is an American made variety (NOT Chinese) and is commonly fitted to most larger trucks so there are plenty of them about.

I only have a couple of small complaints.
(There he goes again . . . .)

In the picture above you can see where the mechanical belt tensioning device has been left off. Not a huge problem but it can't have been too difficult to get it to work. Looks like a job for the weekend. I think I have all the parts from the old installation as backup so I hope the original fixture is still among them - maybe I can get it to fit.

The second problem is more serious!

You can see in this photo that the bolt which is the main retaining bolt for the alternator is about 10mm too short !! The nut is a nyloc but it is never going to work without the bolt going all the way through . . . So they have put a spring washer behind it, which sort of makes the problem even worse in some ways. Looks like I'm off to West Coast Fasteners tomorrow to get one the right size. It would probably be OK forever around town, and even if not can easily be repaired, but some of the places I'want to go it could be a serious problem if it fails.

These people were originally recomended for the electrical work but it turns out they do automotive air conditioning as well. Thee has been a small leak showing on one of the hoses to the condenser. These days air con systems also have some dye mixed in the gas so if it starts to leak it can easily be identified. While here I asked them to look at it and by the time we had finished looking it was decided that several hoses needed replacing and the condenser had a fair proportion of the fins damaged and had been painted several times with chassis black paint which can't have made it work any better. So all that was replaced at the same time - none of which was cheap. . . .

So now you can understand why a few weeks work to top up the coffers is in order - even if it does mean slowing truck progress temporarily . . .

A Messy Week . . .

I was trying to think what I had done this week - a whole week gone by and almost nothing to show for it!

Then I remembered.  My friend "Sich" had a problem with his computer. A nervous trigger finger actually when trying to get rid of an obvious scam email and it opened releasing a fairly innocuous "virus" which wanted to instal a new toolbar in his browser.  Unfortunately it wasn't a very well written virus so it didn't actually do the job very well but did enough to make the browser unuseable.  As I worked in the computer industry for some time (everyone seems to forget that it was mostly before PC's were even invented) I tend to get called for help.  I don't mind that but it is just as likely I will do as much damage as the virus!  Eventually we had to get everyting backed up and reinstall XP to get it all straightened out.  It was also an opportune time to get Sich a "terabyte" drive for backing up and install that as well.  By the time that was all done a couple of days had gone by.  I decided I would also get a larger drive and make more regular backups so I got the USB version of the one I got for Sich as my main system is a laptop.  These are Western Digital drives which have a reasonable reputation for hardware but I  have to say the software supplied for backup is the dumbest software I have seen for a long time.  Why does everyone think it is important to categorise everthing by the method with which it was created?  Surely these days subject matter is more important!  File everthing on the same subject together and let the software sort out which program needs to be run in order to access it!  In the end I have uninstalled the automatic backup software and will do it manually.  The only problem seems to be after the uninstall that somehow it has affected my sound card (!??!!??!) so that there is a distinct hiss when I do certain disk operations - even with the whole thing unplugged.  I have no idea how to fix that one and I can probably live with it (until I get time to find someone who can sort it out).

Anyway none of that was getting the camper built!

So next was a series of small things I wanted to address : the steps were just about sorted so the end retaining caps were finished for locating the legs and finishing the storage tubes in which the legs are transported - a small thing but needed to be done.
Next an aluminium "scaffold plank" was ordered which I can cut into the appropriate lengths and use for the platform outside the main door at the top of the steps.  It will be nice and light and rigid.  I just have to figure out where to store it for transport.  The motorbike rack seems the most likely candidate for the moment.

DISASTER !!

The gremlins found my PC !!

I have spent two days now recovering from a crash on my laptop.  The so called "Recovery Disk" recovers the initial installation the machine was sold with.  I had no idea how many extras I had added on!  Fortunately I did have backups of all my data - but you have to have the programs to run as well.  Multiple reinstallations with "Where did I put the source disks ???????   Oh! No!  That was preinstalled by the company I purchased the PC from and they used an OEM distribution kit without discs and manuals (cheap bastards)".  Then you have to find the proof of purchase!  And then there is all the software purchased online and downloaded etc.. etc.. etc ......

And for some reason in the middle of this I mentioned to some people the spend rate on the truck and they said they had a bit of work I could do (stuff I had done previously and not complicated) and I was in a weakened state and the next thing I know I have trucks backing in non-stop dropping off material to keep me going for the next two months!!   Aaarrrghhh!!!

However in amongst all this I did manage to get the tie rod ball joints and drag link ends replaced on the truck.  Same place as did the springs but unfortunately the guy who did them had resigned so it was a bit of pot luck as to who did the work and "NO. You cannot stay in the workshop and observe (supervise)".  It took from 8:00am until 4:00pm of hanging around and I was really dreading the bill at the end of it all but "Surprise! Surprise!" the bill  was about what I expected (given the joints were $350 each) at $1600 as there was only 2.5 hrs labour booked to the job over the day!  Steering is certainly improved but I think I was hoping for just a bit more.  I am beginning to suspect that the tyres have a bigger influence on everything than I originally suspected.

The scaffold plank still hasn't arrived . . .

My friend Sich came up with the ingenious idea of using some conduit, suitably modified, to make clips to hold my inspection panels in place.  He has a a few of these panels in his bus.

Holes are drilled in a length of conduit for screws . . .

and then the conduit has a piece slit out of it, gets chopped into small pieces

 and rounded off a bit and then the pieces are screwed down along the edge of the panel.
They act as spring clips to hold it in place. Ingenious!  (I also used a bit of silicone just to stop it rattling - but don't let Sich know . . . .

I was going past the caravan supplies shop the other day and thought I would have a look at their vent covers so see if I could use them somehow . . .

They are not actually too bad as a grill but they just don't do the whole job of water and dust control. I think something more elaborate will have to be added to make them work properly.

I also bought an LED light fixture just to see if it was suitable for my purposes ie to give out light in a reasonable manner.  It is a 48 LED lamp but it just seems a bit weak . . .

Like all LEDs as far as I am concerned they are very bright to look at, and hence make excellent warning lights but they don't give out much light.  Yes I know you can get LED lights which are very powerful but then they use as much power as "halogen"globe and cost four times as much!  You can see from the photo that they are uncomfortable to be opposite but don't really brighten things up all that much.  I think that despite the power requirements I may stick to flouro's for most of the lighting.

 Lastly that dark thing lurking in the corner is a seat back cushion.
I remembered an old bedspread that I had with a pleasant pattern that just didn't fit the bed properly and a set of cushions from a lounge I made in 1971 (!) that I have been intending to get rid of (but the Jarrah has now been seasoned for 40 years!) that seemed to be just perfect in shape and size for the camper.  So as a trial I cut up the bedspread and started sewing some covers when all the other traumas surfaced.  i quite like the first one so when the HooHah settles down I will finish sewing the rest of them and see how they work out . . .
And until I get the rest of my softare installed, and all that damn work done,  it's going to be a bit quiet around here . . .