More Construction

Construction continues, every day.  If I’m not doing client work or sleeping, then I’m probably working on the trailer.  I figured it’s about time for a photo dump here to show some of the projects I’ve been working on.

Continuing from where we left off last time, I finished the interior portion of the shower fan, and it looks all nice too.  That extra wire hanging down near the bottom of the photo is intended to be used as an additional 12-volt light, once I get around to it.

The shower base is supposed to be mudded in, but that concept doesn’t work in an RV, so I built a custom multi-layered support system for it.  Pictured above it’s upside-down with the drain hole sticking out in the middle.

The square-ish hole in the middle of the FRP (fiberglass reinforced panel) is an access port so I can get to the plumbing behind the shower valve.  I learned very quickly why shower ports are never on exterior walls.  I’ll cover the hole with a nice perfectly-square FRP piece when I’m done.

One of the layers of soundproofing in the crypt is called “Green Glue“, and it’s supposed to help with noise from generators, diesel trucks, and the like.  It gets sandwiched between a couple layers of wall material, in this case, OSB.

The lithium batteries arrived! Yay! I could do a whole dedicated blog post about just these guys, why they were chosen, the pros and cons and so forth.  Basically, it’s a sufficiently-large power source to handle my primary needs.

Here’s an action shot of the batteries, inverter, a couple circuit breaker panels, bus bars, Victron BMS, 48v-to-12v converter, and a few other miscellaneous items all being installed.

Back to plumbing, I finally cut a hole in the floor and routed the main drain pipe and all of the stuff that connects up to it.  Coming out of the shower, I can direct the water to either dump directly outside, or if that’s not an option where I’m staying, it can go to the shower sump pump where it’s then pumped up into the grey tank.

I got the fresh water tank mounted into the utility area.  Nice to have a giant water tank.

Here’s a recent action shot working in the front part of the rig.  I cutting out an opening in a wall panel for the window, and it was a messy job, hence the vacuum.  I’m actually powering the vacuum off of internal wiring at this point, pretty cool!

Something I saw at home depot the other day was this flooring.  Looked nice to me, and being planks, it should be fairly easy to install.  I’d use this stuff in the kitchen, loft and crypt, if I decide to go with it.  I liked the almost reddish tones to it, and the depth of character it has with the light and dark areas.

Opened up the box the toilet was in, found it damaged.  It had been sitting in its box for about a month and the return period had just expired.  The day before.  I called Amazon and begged for leniency, and they gave it to me and allowed it to be returned.  New one is on the way.

Here’s something I was working on today: figuring out exactly where the support beams are going to be laid down to support the trap doors / removable floor sections in the kitchen area so I can access the “basement.”  What will the cuts be for the thick plywood, what shapes will each piece have, what stuff I need access to, etc.

I’ve been working on the trailer nearly constantly.  The last couple days, I’ve been getting very tired and not able to put in as full of a day as I’d like.  (Meaning, generally working in the shop from sometime in the morning ’til 8pm or later.)  I suppose if you take a software engineer and make him into a carpenter, plumber, and electrician, there’s bound to be side-effects.

I’m excited to go to Dallas tomorrow and pick up the new truck topper for the Great White Knight.  Under the topper I’ll have a generator, air compressor, and a large variety of tools for use on the road and for repairing whatever falls apart in my rig.

I’m also very much looking forwards to installing the floor in the kitchen area.  It’ll be a major milestone to be able to have an actual floor I can walk on without carefully stepping around holding tanks, drain lines, and lots of wiring scattered about all over the place.

3 thoughts on “More Construction”

  1. I’m glad you were able to return the damaged toilet. The blue batteries look cool. Good luck on the topper/Dallas trip. Im having some real issues with my newish iMac. Cant seem to get online, continually having to have re boot etc. I checked all the modem/router settings with the service provider and thats all good so I’ve isolated it to the iMac. Virus, malware . Not sure. Don’t put away your software engineer skills just yet.

  2. I’m so happy to see so much progress. I’m curious about your battery configuration, but I’ll either wait for that post and ask you about it in person (so it can fly over my head!).

    1. I’m thinking about having dedicated blog postings for each major system in my rig. Explaining what they are, why I chose or designed them, and how it all fits together.

      A preview of the battery situation: it’s a 48-volt bank, (16 lithium cells in series). Capacity is 200 amp-hours, of which 80% is considered usable, so that gives me 160 amp hours at 48 volts which equals 7,680 watt-hours. Translated to a 12-volt system since that’s what most people are accustomed to, it’s 640 amp hours.

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