NeverEnough
Adventurer
Thanks, and it is definitely a team effort.
spencyg said:
I say "wow" to myself alot lately, but mainly because of what I got myself into!
And thanks for the kind words. I was lucky to be raised in a home where working together and playing together was a way of life, even with very limited means (8 kids and dad was a school teacher). And while I've been fortunate to have more resources than I experienced growing up, I try to follow my parent's example of priorities. As a result, we have lots of play stuff in the garage, but no furniture in the house! With the age of my kids, it's tough to take long trips as a family due to scheduling conflicts; but we try to have one outing a week together, even if it's just a couple of hours. We're fortunate to live in a place where outdoor recreation is minutes away- climbing, hiking, biking, skiing, fishing- so it doesn't cost much and it's way better than going to a movie or out to dinner.
One thing I do different from my parents is escape with Mrs. Neverenough on occassion without the boys in tow. We blazed down to Torrey, UT this weekend for an overnighter with some great riding around Thousand Lakes Mtn., Capitol Reef, and the Swell, as well as dinner at one of the best restaurants ever, Cafe Diablo. I find myself assessing each road we travel to see if the new rig will be able to handle it.
Back in the shop, we're pushing hard to wrap this up. Here's an interesting shot of the solar panel support frame with the slide room extended. I struggled for a long time with the best way to distribute 12VDC and 120VAC to the big room. I finally decided on an articulating whip system. Two sealtite whips hold all the 12V and 120V feeds, as well as the incoming feed from the panels. The whips easily accommodate the 90 degree arc between the extended and retracted position. I'll probably add a tension spring to keep them from dragging on the roof, however.
The 6 185W panels weigh less than 200lbs combined, but I still wanted additional support for the frame assembly. Two sets of wheels help support the weight as it moves in and out with the slide-out room, and roll on a 4"x.25" wear-strip on the roof.
This is a crappy photo, but the rest of the load is picked up by the PCM bearings that ride in a uni-strut track welded to each ram tube.
The articulating whips are connected to the solar panel J-box, which is mounted to the middle of the panel frame on the driver's side. The box had enough room inside to serve as a J-box for the slide out room feeds (quite a bundle of 10, 12, and 14 gauge wire).
Since the remaining run didn't need to articulate, I consolidated the feeds into a single 1.25" sealtite run from the J box back to the rear of the slide out room. It makes two 90's and enters via the back wall.
I thought about using rigid conduit, but decided to stick with the sealtite, hoping it will deal with the over-the-road conditions better. Here's what the rear of the camper looks like with the room extended. The aluminum framing was added to increase the stiffness of the slide-out assembly. The vertical channels also provide a strong mechanical connection point for the room's leveling jacks, as well as guide rails for the cargo platform (the crane assembly and platform still need to be fab'd). The various components will be painted either white or black to make them somewhat less visible.
The actuator in the middle keeps the room level during extension and retraction- very important with a 100" travel stroke with that kind of load. The leveling jacks (not mounted yet) take the load once it's out.
The big horizontal roof-top actuators are steel, but the rest of the slide-out assembly is aluminum. It all had to be beefed up after the initial tests to increase stiffness, but it's still quite a bit lighter than the steel alternative. For those of you just joining in, the original design used internal composite beams and tracks, but there was just too much flex in the overall system (we never got much past 80" of decent travel stroke). Here's Jose doing his stuff on the "push-out" beam.
The inside wiring is almost wrapped. I still need to finish the battery box, which holds 4 220ah AGM cells (480lbs!) and the rig's control panel. Slowly but surely........
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