What you don’t see is the high quality of paint and the red lock-tite on the corner bolts. There is top-rated liquid glue where it matters, above and beyond what is called for. Club trailers do not go out of square and that is that. The interesting part is the wooden stakes. What these are is a mock frame that I can adjust to determine the right size of the interior as I go along, rookie that I am. I have never built anything of this kind before in my life and have zero training or practical experience. I miss Wallace here to tell me everything I’m doing wrong.
The horizontal white plastic tube front to back on the trailer matches my height plus three inches. That is the internal length of the sleeping area. It is surprising how, if one is not careful, parts like the interior insulation, struts, or bulkheads can really bite into the snooze space. If you don’t know what an “Idaho bedroll” is, I am convinced that design has gone too far. People toss and turn in their sleep and camper dimensions should allow for uninterrupted rolling and at least enough height to lean up on one’s elbows. Right, Wallace? I know you already thought of that.
That’s why the practice frame shown here. If I’m wrong, I’ll only waste around $40 but I'm not designing no sarcophagus here. The rush to complete the electronics is so I can use the trailer to haul the materials here that I need to complete the trailer. Circular logic, but I only dislike it, I don’t refuse to use it when it is needed. That’s why I live in a mobile home—so I don’t go broke while looking for a better deal. Got that, Sharon?
The other white tube across the top front stakes is the legally allowed width, but I’m tending more to keep the box within the confines of the fender wells. This will minimize interior clutter and there are huge advantages to removable lockable external storage bins, though the size of those would be measured in cubic inches. I’m considering keep the battery outside as well as a gas can and a small water supply. The battery would also be handy if the motorcycle needs a boost. Which it does more than I care to mention.
One more option I’m planning is to have the roof panel removable. It would be bolted down from the interior and form an integral structural component, but think of the convenience down the line if it could be removed as a lid. Again, just planning, but it would not add any major difficulties to the design.
There is a small unlucky proportion of people who get that laser operation in the legs like I did who require a second session. You guessed it, that’s where I was this morning. They jab a fiber optic laser into your vein and zap things shut. Makes everything taste like rust (it’s the iron in the blood).They don’t go easy on the second try and this time it hurts. Ten hours later I’m still limping. Good thing I kept my $50 pair of nylons.
The real pain was having to return here after a high-speed dash on the batbike. I wanted to just keep going. Even that little trip is enough to make me wish I was out on that road. There is no place like America for roadways covering vast stretches. Europe doesn’t compare as you hit a town every five miles. Europe doesn’t pave fifty mile roads in the middle of nowhere. And that’s where I want to be. I can hardly wait for this trailer to be finished. I’m making the broad assumption I will always find places to park it when on the road.
And pity the person who is so old they can’t get excited over such fun. What’s holding me up is the electrical and that happens tomorrow. Every account I’ve read on motorcycle camping tells the owner is happy with it. I want to see a space launch but I don’t want to spend $600 on a rip-off Titusville motel. Oh yeah, I stopped at Office Depot and in the end, they don’t have a bracket for my GPS. They tried but it is not a regular stock item. I’ll make my own. Speaking of brackets, the hole in the roof of the camper is for a beach umbrella. So I can sit in my fold-up chair on top of the camper in the shade waiting for liftoff.
Some of my readership is picky, and I don’t mind that if it leads to improvement. Y’day I could not get my post to display a proper right arrow in my description of a solar panel system. Where I’ve said the worst mistake the original computer people made was to not distinguish between capital letters and small letters, the second biggest mistake was to ignore the blank space as a necessary part of written English. What (everybody is surely asking by now) is the third item they screwed up on?
That’s easy. Punctuation. We already know most of the original computer people were too ignorant to learn to type, but they went ahead and royally messed up with punctuation because they didn't even look at the rulebook. Want to see their bastard rat mentality at work, look at C++ code. Decades later those clueless wonders still don’t understand the importance of punctuation. Then again, I have had many a co-worker who will never require much beyond the period, comma, and eroteme. Right, Bernie?
Let me explain something. Punctuation is only used in writing. We talked about this before but there is always a fresh crop of Phoenix grads that have totally missed the basics. Punctuation was developed so that the printed word makes sense. Hence, quotation marks. And paragraphs are not the only use of indentation. It also helps distinguish who is speaking in a written dialog. I always use the Oxford comma, to the point where I avoid clauses that don’t require it.
Here is a little self-test. If you can give the correct name for every punctuation mark on your keyboard, you are up to snuff. This blog is not watered down for dummies, but it is regularly reworded for layman’s terms. Everybody I know is busy and just wants the rundown. For full marks, I want the proper terminology, not “the ‘and’ sign” or “the splat” or slang like that. If you can do that, take a break, make an extra cup of tea. Tell them I said it was okay.
What's this? The logical question? Is it possible to do the wild thing in a motorcycle camper the size of an Amtrak berth? Well of course. Do I have to teach your everything? Use your imagination. I'm a veteran of Ford Mustangs, sofas in the back of station wagons, airplane seats, and upper bunks. But this is a family show. An open family, of course.
ADDENDUM
What can I say? I had no idea there was so much confusion and disinformation about solar panels. I only seriously looked at them a week ago when I found out that the Harbor Freight kit didn’t have a battery. That’s right, you plugged your phone or whatever directly into the panel and hoped like hell the sun was shining. I quickly realized that any extra power produced by this system was never used. That is why you need a storage battery. Then 100% of the converted sunlight is stored until the battery is charged up. I also learned the generic term for anything you plug into the unit is called an “appliance”.
What’s more, it seems that placing a load [a device requiring varying amounts of electricity as it cuts off and on] directly on the solar panels is never a good idea. A battery, on the other hand, requires a smooth and steady amount of in-current and can handle jolts like when you crank the starter or plug in a drill. Again, a set of small panels is preferably to one large one. Easier to handle and better odds that a single malfunction won’t strand you. Further reading says these panels don’t work that well when they get hot. That means I will need to design the panel rack to allow full air circulation when I am moving down the highway. Maybe an air scoop.
Research says car batteries don’t work. Car owners know you can only recharge your car battery so many times, then it is over to Autozone. Because Sears has gotten so damn expensive. You want a marine battery designed for repeated deep discharge and recharge, my understanding is these batteries contain a gel instead of liquid. Even then, plan your work as I notice the wise boat owner keeps two of these batteries. One for starting the motor and another for running appliances. He knows something we don’t.
There’s more. My little robot club has taught me not to trust the trusted sources. Every step of this recharge and discharge cycle is going to have to be carefully controlled. I doubt many of the products on the market are intercompatible. (Oooh, did I just coin a word?) I’m borrowing a lot more from boat magazines than from [camper trailer] how-to articles on the Internet. So should you, as the average Joe out there does not always understand that owning a camcorder does not automatically make him an authority on everything like the way it does for me.
Return Home
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
