2007 FG cruise control project.
- Thread starter pugslyyy
- Start date
pugslyyy
Expedition Vehicle Engineer Guy
I hope to get back to it soon, but life has gotten in the way of late. My Father became sick in November and subsequently passed in February, and caring for him took a huge chunk of my time. Now I'm his executor, working on cleaning up his house to sell, etc. Once I get the house on the market I should have some breathing room.
SkiFreak
Crazy Person
Sorry to hear about your dad.
I can definitely relate to other things in life taking priority and removing time for other things. Life's like that sometimes.
pugslyyy
Expedition Vehicle Engineer Guy
Got the Fuso fired up and moving today for the first time in a while. I'll be checking it over for the next few days and then hopefully getting back on projects. Need to seal cracked caulking on the roof, etc.
Same as last year, the clutch had frozen engaged. It took a couple of bumps to get it to break loose and then all was good. Annoyingly I managed to get it bound up in gear and had to use a come along to a tree to unbind the drivetrain so I could slip it out of gear. Twice.
Same as last year, the clutch had frozen engaged. It took a couple of bumps to get it to break loose and then all was good. Annoyingly I managed to get it bound up in gear and had to use a come along to a tree to unbind the drivetrain so I could slip it out of gear. Twice.
pugslyyy
Expedition Vehicle Engineer Guy
I finished ripping out all the old dry rotted carpeting in the dinette today - I must have pulled 50+ staples out of the plywood. The new carpet is going down with contact cement....
I also pulled off the 1/8" plywood veneer that is covering my fresh water tank. I'm going to put a SeeLevel system on that will give me greater granularity on water level, and probably leave a sight hole so I can check manually if I need. For installing the sensors, I know I can access the potable water, and have a plan to get at the black tank. Still have to figure out how to get at the grey tank without major surgery, but that's not critical.
I have a remote inspection camera that is pretty handy for looking in all kinds of cracks and holes to see what is going on. I'm not great with it, but am getting better with practice.
Last year I redesigned the dinette table, moving to a 24x24 table with a U shaped dinette. Today I fabricated an adapter for the table that should have it completely supported by the step wall before the dinette. I really want the table to be as stable as possible even with the offset-pedestal arrangement, so I'm trying to take the time to make sure that the mounting brackets are solid. It's nice to have a mill to be able to make precise holes in precise places!
I also pulled off the 1/8" plywood veneer that is covering my fresh water tank. I'm going to put a SeeLevel system on that will give me greater granularity on water level, and probably leave a sight hole so I can check manually if I need. For installing the sensors, I know I can access the potable water, and have a plan to get at the black tank. Still have to figure out how to get at the grey tank without major surgery, but that's not critical.
I have a remote inspection camera that is pretty handy for looking in all kinds of cracks and holes to see what is going on. I'm not great with it, but am getting better with practice.
Last year I redesigned the dinette table, moving to a 24x24 table with a U shaped dinette. Today I fabricated an adapter for the table that should have it completely supported by the step wall before the dinette. I really want the table to be as stable as possible even with the offset-pedestal arrangement, so I'm trying to take the time to make sure that the mounting brackets are solid. It's nice to have a mill to be able to make precise holes in precise places!
pugslyyy
Expedition Vehicle Engineer Guy
I'm sure we've all had build days like this -
The start - getting ready to work on the interior of the camper (replacing carpeting)
Hmm, the lens on the light beside the back door is cracked. Better fix that.
Hmm, this fixture really is cheesy, I think I have an LED one that I bought somewhere...
Hmm, the roof ladder is in the way of changing out the fixture. Better take it off.
Might as well take off the hand rail too.
And the camper jack mount that's all rusty and needs repainting.
And that little box Doug used for his satellite uplink thing.
Might as well clean up that beat up non-skid tread at the bottom of the steps.
Okay, cleaned up. Hmm, didn't know those screw holes were that bad where the non-skid was.
Okay, let's change out the fixture. Damn, that's a lot of nasty caulk, dirty, and butyl rubber. Time for razor blades and acetone to clean it up.
Okay, cleaned up. Throw out the cheesy wire nuts and use heat-shrink butt connectors.
Now to install... damnit, screw holes are in different places even though the housing is the same dimensions.
Well, I have a bunch of other holes to fill, might as well mix up a little Marine Tex and fill the holes.
Better drill them out first with the Dremel though.
Hmm, might as well drill out these other couple of cracks / earlier patches as well.
Okay, mix up the Marine Tex and patch all the holes.
... so at the end of the day I've taken everything off the back off the Bigfoot and still haven't changed the lightbulb, let alone worked on the carpeting.
The start - getting ready to work on the interior of the camper (replacing carpeting)
Hmm, the lens on the light beside the back door is cracked. Better fix that.
Hmm, this fixture really is cheesy, I think I have an LED one that I bought somewhere...
Hmm, the roof ladder is in the way of changing out the fixture. Better take it off.
Might as well take off the hand rail too.
And the camper jack mount that's all rusty and needs repainting.
And that little box Doug used for his satellite uplink thing.
Might as well clean up that beat up non-skid tread at the bottom of the steps.
Okay, cleaned up. Hmm, didn't know those screw holes were that bad where the non-skid was.
Okay, let's change out the fixture. Damn, that's a lot of nasty caulk, dirty, and butyl rubber. Time for razor blades and acetone to clean it up.
Okay, cleaned up. Throw out the cheesy wire nuts and use heat-shrink butt connectors.
Now to install... damnit, screw holes are in different places even though the housing is the same dimensions.
Well, I have a bunch of other holes to fill, might as well mix up a little Marine Tex and fill the holes.
Better drill them out first with the Dremel though.
Hmm, might as well drill out these other couple of cracks / earlier patches as well.
Okay, mix up the Marine Tex and patch all the holes.
... so at the end of the day I've taken everything off the back off the Bigfoot and still haven't changed the lightbulb, let alone worked on the carpeting.
pugslyyy
Expedition Vehicle Engineer Guy
Yeah I'm doing a bit of an interior refresh, changing out the carpet in the dinette and vinyl flooring elsewhere. There are some other small carpeted areas that I am converting to vinyl.
Crazy the amount of sand I am finding underneath the carpets I'm pulling out.
I have some SeeLevel tank monitors that I plan on installing as well. Knowing that my water tank is FULL-2/3-1/3-EMPTY is not useful when I'm trying to monitor/plan usage when on a long stay boondock.
pugslyyy
Expedition Vehicle Engineer Guy
unfortunately I've become even more distracted and now pulled most everything off of the roof and am filling a bunch of holes with marine-tex. I'm planning on leaving the ladder and roof rails off, so am filling in all those holes. I had a leak where the bash guard mounted on the roof so am filling everything in and will drill new holes when I reinstall. Also a bunch of mounts, etc that are no longer needed so getting rid of those as well.
It's supposed to rain tomorrow so the camper is under a tarp, I'll get back on it when the weather clears. I plan on laying down all new ProFlex around all the roof openings. I patched it a few years ago but decided this year to just pull it all up an redo it.
I've found two great tool combos for removing caulk and sealant - heatgun + scraper, and scraper blade attachment for my oscillating multi-tool. I managed to kill my 30+ year old Dremel opening up the screw holes before patching, but it had a good life.
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pugslyyy
Expedition Vehicle Engineer Guy
... and it gets worse. Once up on the roof I decided that the shrouds for the Dometic AC and for the Dometic 3-way fridge need replacing - after 10 years of UV they had become really brittle.
Hoping that when I'm done I don't have to go up on the roof for quite a while.
Wondering if a Moisture Meter would come in handy finding leaks around RV windows, doors, seams, and fixtures.
The only thing that ever works on an RV is the owner.
The only thing that ever works on an RV is the owner.
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pugslyyy
Expedition Vehicle Engineer Guy
I have a standard 2-pin moisture meter that I use for checking wood, etc. I'm not sure how well a non-piercing one would do at detecting sub surface moisture?