May 2017 – The Northwest Adventure Truck

May 31, 2017

More Electrical – Battery Monitor

Now that we are using the truck, we really should have a way to monitor the batteries. Now I know most people just use voltage gauges, but it’s really not a very good gauge of whats really happening. A much better solution is to use a shunt.

A shunt is basically a large bus bar, with a known voltage drop across it. You connect all the negative sides of your loads and charger to one side, and your battery negative to the other, and it can measure the amps drawn into and out of the batteries because of the tiny voltage drop across the shunt. They use the negative side simply because its safe to have exposed negative posts, the exact same could be done with the positive side.

I had to make up some cables, I am using 2/0 marine cabling, its tinned thin stranded wire, crimp lugs on the ends and adhesive heat shrink tubing. It makes for very nice cables!

The meter is quite nice. You tell it how many amp hours your battery bank is and it tells you your percentage left. It can also show current amp draw, high lowest, deepest discharge etc. Its a nice unit. It all hook up with a piece of cat5 cable and RJ 45 jacks.

I installed it in the end of our tall cabinet, next to the thermostat. I’m really happy with this product. I originally was going to use a Xantrex unit, but this one is far simpler to set up and was less money as well!

May 25, 2017

Suspension Updates

After a few trips of driving the truck, it was obvious the rear shocks were not doing what they were supposed to. It bounced after every whoop and bump in the road, even just on pavement. To the point of launching things off horizontal surfaces. The truck does have 107k on it now, and the shocks do look original.

So a new set was ordered. I settled on Bilstein 5100 series shocks. They are a good quality monotube, that don’t cost a fortune.

I crawled under, wiggled my way into a sitting position and got to work. Luckily the old ones came right out (one upside of having an oil leak I guess, not much rust). They collapsed completely by hand and didn’t rebound at all. Definitely garbage at this point.

The new ones went in fine, they were much harder to get in place, as what do you know they had a gas charge and wanted to extend themselves with much force! But with a little help from my wife and a floor jack both sides were in place.

Driving is MUCH better, so much so I want to do the fronts too, as you can feel them bounce a little now that the rear end is controlled. A good upgrade, especially to old worn out shocks.

May 25, 2017May 25, 2017

Propane Tank pt. 2 – Protection

With the tank in place it was direction in front of the tires, meaning everything the tires pick up would get thrown at it. It needed some protection.

So I set about doing just that. I started with a very thick coat of car undercoating. It’s a soft rubber than covers the bottom/wheel wells of most cars to keep road debris from denting and chipping things. Its nasty stuff, almost tar like when you get it on you, which you inevitably will do….

So that is the first step, and really probably all it needs, but stuff could still get over the top of the tank. We drive in the snow a lot and I didn’t want that to pack in there and get down to the valves on the other side. So I picked up a giant mud flap. Its heavy and thick and should take impacts very very well, that is kinda what it’s designed for. Turns out it’s really hard to cut too.

The mud flap gets bolted to the same bolts that hold the propane tank brackets. Then to the bottom corner of the body just in front of the tire. I need to hold it from flying back into the tire in the wind.

This worked pretty well, but the inside corner was pretty “flappy” even after cutting it shorter. So I added a piece of cable to pull it forward. I used an existing slot in the spring hangar to tie it to, hopefully that is enough.

That should keep things off the tank pretty well!

One other thing needed to be addressed, I had to climb under the truck to turn the propane on and off, as the valve was hidden against the side of the tool box. Not fun in mud or snow…. So a 4″ deck plate was added to the side of the box, much easier access, but still not able to fill sadly.

That is the end of the propane install, until the tank is empty and the water heater goes in any way.

May 23, 2017May 23, 2017

Propane tank! – Pt. 1

Propane tank time! I had originally planned on using two 20# BBQ style tanks on the back door. But since we went to diesel for heat, I didn’t think that much was needed. Also running lines all the way to the back, as all the propane needs were at the very front seemed silly (and expensive, and maintenance) so I tried to figure out where else I could fit one.

There was a pretty large gap in front of the wheel on the passenger side, but it was just not the right size for a BBQ tank, so I started to look at other options. I settled on trying to find an ASME tank. They are made for permanent mounting on cars/RV’s and as such have very thick walls, and also do not require hydro testing like BBQ tanks. Win win. They are also many designed for horizontal mounting, unlike BBQ tanks.

Now that I knew what I wanted I had to try to find one. They are stupid expensive new. Some CL scouring later I found one, It was in decent shape, used, but not rusty. But its was BIG, like 50 pounds of propane big, but with a little coaxing and cursing it looked like it would fit, but only sideways…..

But that was ok, the valves would be protected well, but inaccessible….. The good news about using an ASME tank is that you can set them up for a remote filling station! So I did some googling and a few fittings, some high pressure line and a few AN fittings and we have all the goodies to fill it remotely. But wait, I have to install the fittings and the used tank came 2/3 full. UGH.

Well I guess we will just mount the tank and deal with the fill later when its empty. To mount the tank I had to make brackets as of course nothing lined up with nothing to bolt it into place. So brackets were made, they had to bolt through the side of one of the floor cross members since that was in the door way and you can’t just bolt through the floor there, and the front side had to help support the back and be spaced down from the floor 2″, but that one could get bolted up through the floor (well once the fridge was un-installed).

After wrestling the tank in and out numerous times I had all the measurements needed to make the brackets. They were simple enough.

Then it was time to loosely bolt the brackets to the tank, wresting it in one more time and try to bolt everything together!

And it fit, thank God. Well almost, I had to trim the forward spring hanger a little bit…. The tank and it wanted to occupy the same space. I only removed about 1/4″ of material, I think it should effect the structure.

While the fridge was pulled out I ran the 3/8″ line up to the stove and Wohoo! We have gas.

I decided to use rubber 3/8″ flare lines for all the connections. The regulator and a T were all there was space for. I was hoping to have a high pressure line also for an outdoor stove. But I just don’t have the room. It may be something I can try to work in later on.

May 16, 2017May 25, 2017

Blewett Pass – Quick Overnight

Needed to get away, so we headed to one of my favorite areas, Blewett pass. It’s on the east side, but still has big trees, just without all the thick underbrush you would get on the wet side.

It’s a great spot to come in the winter, they keep Swauk Campground (review here!) plowed in the winter, it’s a sno-park and is free to camp with a snopark pass.

Occasionally someone will stop by to use the bathroom or stop by the main picnic shelter, but it’s usually very quiet in the winter. The lot was a sheet of ice, we ended up shoveling snow around the truck just so we could walk.

I added a folding had rail next to the stairs while we were here, just a quick project.

We had a nice little fire and a quiet dinner. It’s nice to get away.

May 15, 2017

Fridge Install

Kitchen is coming together and it needs a fridge! Cold beer is better than warm beer. We are using a 12/120V marine fridge, that uses a DanFoss compressor. They are very very energy efficient and don’t need to be vented like a propane fired one. With the fridge being under the counter, I didn’t want to have to to get on my knees to to see in the bottom, so we found a great solution, a drawer fridge! The whole things slides out on drawer type glides. Works great for seeing whats inside. It’s an Isotherm 130 liter unit.

It also has a second smaller drawer and the top is a freezer section. I’m really happy with the fridge. It draws about 2.5% of out battery bank each day. Not bad at all!

May 12, 2017

Kitchen – Counter tops!

The plywood top and camp stove worked just fine for a couple of trips, but we had now acquired the real stove, a sink and its time to put the counter top in.

We used 18×18 black granite tiles for the top. They were reasonably priced and much lighter than the slab of stone we had originally looked at. I was Leary of using standard tile thinset to stick the tiles in place, there is just so much movement and vibration in a RV, especially one that does a fair bit of time on forest service roads.

First order of business was to remove the thin crappy ply I had on there and put down a sheet of new 1/2″. Then carefully layout the sink and stove holes. The stove was rather complicated….

So I decided to try using polyurethane caulking to glue them down. Let me tell you that was interesting to trowel on, so much so that I have no pictures at all. Its sticky nasty goop. But it stuck! They took a few days to dry to the point of not moving when pushed on.

After they had dried for a few days, I was able to test fit the stove. There is only about 1/8″ overlap on the edge of this stove so I made the hole very tight, too tight. I was able to come in with a diamond grinder and carve it away just enough to slip it in.

Once that was done we could “grout” it. Just like not wanting to use thinset I didn’t want to use grout, again I was worried about flex. So we used a black silicone caulk.

To do this nicely, you first have to tape off all the grout lines. This will allow you to squirt lots of caulk all over trying to force it into the gaps, and then it also gives you a surface to wipe it down to.

Again a messy process, but it turned out well. You need to wipe as much as possible down to the tape line so it can be cleanly peeled off without leaving a ridge at the edge of the tape. Lots of paper towels and take your time.

You have to peel the tape before the silicone sets up, don’t worry its not too fast.

All finished. It turned out really well. The joint look nearly just like grout would, just a little shinier. So far I am really happy with how my unorthodox install worked out.

May 11, 2017

The First Night!

The day had come! It was done enough to use, we had a bed, heat, and a toilet. The kid was at her grandparents house so we didn’t have to worry about her freezing if something went wrong, it was going to be fun.

Got home from work and quickly packed up our stuff. Threw sheets and blankets on the bed, packed the dog bed and ski stuff and headed out. It was the first long trip we had done, more than 20 miles anyway.

Truck drove great, ran up the pass like it was a little hill.

Threw it in 4×4 and drove through the fresh snow in the parking lot with no trouble.

Made a quick dinner and crashed out as it was pretty late already. Slept very well! Also got the stairs installed before we left so we didn’t need a step ladder anymore.

It was a great first trip, everything work well! Truck drove great, and we had fun even though it was just one night.

May 11, 2017May 11, 2017

Kitchen – A Temporary one

With the impeding ski weekend coming I needed to get something on the kitchen cabinets so we could use them. I had lots of the plywood left from the walls when I had originally stripped it off from when we first bought it. I took a piece and cut it to fit so we had a cooking surface.

OK kitchen good enough for the weekend!

Also whipped up some ski storage. Needed something. It actually worked well, but I will need to redo it with the black tank vent being in the way. It was just plywood with slots and some bungee cords….

May 11, 2017March 11, 2019

Black Tank – Useful not fun.

So I will start this by saying this, if you can get a tank with the drain fittings on it that will work for you, DO IT, this was a not fun project, but I could not get a off the shelf one to fit.

We opted for a 17 gallon tank, it was as big as we could realistically fit, and should give us at least a week between dumps.

So with that said, the black tank will go behind the passenger tail light, like where the kerosene tank went on the drivers side, but this one is much larger. It fits tight against the mud flap, to tight against the tail lights, and needs to go in at an angle past the spring hanger. The reason I could not use one with the dump valve already on it was that I needed to set the valve into the tank, not glue it to a fitting attached to the tank.

So I ordered parts. The tank and a dump valve.

Tank and valveThe idea was to cut a hole and glue the valve right in, if I ever need to replace it I am hoping I can undo those four bolts and just replace that piece. Otherwise it will not be fun. But its a sacrifice to fit it in the space.

The tank manufacture recommends ABS shavings and acetone to bond things to the tank. Being cheap I didn’t want to buy their shavings figuring I could make my own, hint: buy theirs. I spent a long time drilling holes in a pipe with a big paddle bit to make shavings…..

But I made a slurry up and started to bond the valve to the tank! Notice all the stuff holding things in place? Yeah it takes overnight to dry.

But it worked! It needed more coats to make me feel good about it but the next evening it was all hard and I could add more to it.

After a couple more coats and I was sure it was all sealed up, I stood the tank on end and dumped about a half a can of ABS glue inside. I decided to do this instead of making my own slurry. The tank is abs, the valve is ABS and they are bonded, I just wanted to fill any gaps from the inside and smooth the transition out.

Well it worked well, but half a can was WAY too much. It dumped everywhere, luckily the seal and door were greased so it didn’t stick to those at all and I didn’t glue the valve shut….

Moving inside the truck, I set the toilet in its location and marked around the bottom with pencil so I could locate where the flange goes on the floor.

Unfortunately, even with my plywood “spacer, its a little closer to the wall thank I would have liked, the lid doesn’t quite sit like it was in the picture, but the hole is there so its not moving!

With the toilet flange in place I could slip the tank in from the bottom and try to mark where to drill the hole for it. This needs to be perfect and there is no going back once the hole is there…. But I got it close, I was off ~1/8″ and was able to angle the toilet flange around enough to make it work. I put the tank in from the bottom and glued up the flange and pushed it in from the top. The flange alone was long enough to reach the tank in my case.

And with that the toilet is bolted back in place.

Now that the toilet and tank are in, I need to vent the tank. Vent needs to be there to let the stink out, and to let air in when dumping.

I drilled a hole in the side wall, I did not want any more holes in the roof than absolutely necessary.

Then ran a piece of 1.5″ ABS up front the tank, through the rear storage area and out the hole. I added a clean out thinking I could flush the tank from there. Does not work as well as I had hoped.

I used a marine style clamshell to protect the vent outlet. This worked well!

And with that the black tank is complete! Its a nice thing to have at 2am.