Yay, the Next Trip

We'll be taking the Mainliner out for it's LONGEST trip yet, a whole week!!

We Plan to head North to Deception Pass State park for two nights, then head east over the North Cascade Loop to Pearrygin Lake State Park for 4 Nights, then back home. I can't wait!!

Here is our planned route, if you see me, wave!

Down The Home Stretch - bringing you up to date.

So, I have been neglecting the blog again, sorry. Let me bring you up to date again. Since the last post we now have a bathroom, dresser, sofa and lots more storage. I built a folding bunk bed and an overhead cabinet to house the microwave, stereo and mini-bar. Everything inside has been repainted, again, I went with a darker wall color then last time, and a semi-gloss for the food splatters and hand prints.

I had my dad re-stitch the sofa cushions a bit smaller this time, it's not 80x39". The porta-potty is living in it's new home in the bathroom/closet. I wired up a International Cab light as a porch light and got that all wired in place with a switch on the side of the new overhead cabinet. Oh, and I swapped out the tires for some 185R14 8-ply LT tires, 65psi in these should dramatically change the towing now.

I'm finally heading down the final stretch and will be doing a bit of trim work tonight to make it pretty, but for the most part, we are pretty much done! I could go camping right now and be just fine with the status.

here are the latest and greatest pictures.

(Edit 8/10 Better Quality Pics)

The new 12v porch light

and at night... this is the cab light I bought at the antique store up in Lynden. It works!

Wiring is now done.

So, I was able to get all of the initial writing done last night. The new outlets above the dresser, where ther new overhead is going, and the exterior outlet are all wired up and working. Nice to have the lights back on inside.
I was able to put the stove back in place again, clean up a bit and it's starting to look liked a trailer again! Not too much more to do before it's campable again, just need to build a few more things, paint and trim. No new pictures yet.

More Progress: Dresser is almost complete, Sofa/Bed frame is completed, Made the bunk folding, mounted the Porta-Pottie and added a porch light

Wow, okay so busy working on it (Among other things, of course) haven't had a lot of time to post updates, so here's what's happened in the past few days (week?)

I built the dresser, so it will now house the 3 drawers from the old closet. I just cut the new top today, but need to round the corner, add the Formica to match the table and kitchenette, and add some trim before I install it on top.

Then I proceeded to start building the sofa and storage unit. Funny part about this is I just kinda built it as I went... kinda winged it, and it turned out great. So I built a base that was 23"x79" with a 13.5"x20.5" storage spot in an "L" shape. Sort of like this:

but ended up looking more like this (this is pulled out as a bed):

I didn't take any real "after" pics yet, I'll take those tonight and re-post tomorrow. Where it sits now is along the rear wall, on top of the base, is a 13.5"x20" piece of 5mm plywood stapled to the top in the corner, and a 13.5"x20.5" piece right off the dresser. Then a solid piece at the foot of the "L" storage unit. The other two foot sections of the remaining 23"x65" base are open (Along with the section that is still open along the back wall) to give interior access to the storage under the couch. The rear is also accessible from the outside door.

Oh yea, I made the couch 16" tall instead of 12" like the Dinette (that is limited by the table leg length) so it's easier to sit and get up from, and the sub woofer can fit under the couch now. The cushions already needed to be shortened to 80"x40" (currently 84"x44") so I'll just have him take the width off the back, leaving the seat 22" deep.

So when the sofa folds out into a bed, you just pull the Lip and the bed slides out off the base to meet the dresser and voila!

Next up was a re-visit of the Bunk (edit: Bonk) Bed. I took it down, cut it in half added two 1x2's and a couple of hinges and now the bonk bed fold up out of the way a lot better than it did with it being solid. I took out the small brackets and cut the old brackets down to size so they are now fully supported again. I also dropped it back down to just above the windows, to give my son as much room as possible.

Here is the mount that locks it out of the way for travel and durring the day.

I mounted the Porta-Pottie in the bathroom, so that's ready to go now.

And last but not least, I installed a pretty unique porch light. :) I found this at a antique shop up at the Lynden Vintage Trailer Rally last year, I assume if it truly is vintage/antique, it has to be NOS as it's brand new. It's just an International truck's cab light. I thought it would look great as a porch light. (going to need a new 12v battery, or this isn't going to do much! :) ) This will be controlled by a 12v rocker switch on the side of the overhead bin (yet to be built).

oh, and I re-hung the door, and painted the door stop red to match... the Rust color wasn't very becoming.

We have a Bathroom!! (and a "Bonk Bed")

Okay so after a quick 30 miles ride this morning with my brothers, I got some work done on the trailer. My now 3 year old son and I got some good progress today. My goal was to just get the bathroom walls and door up, but we built what he calls a "Bonk Bed" (Bunk Bed, of course). Funny thing is he's so much taller now than when we first got the trailer, first thing when he got in there was sit up and "Bonk" his head... so I think the name will stick.

So, I built the 27"x76" frame for the wall off the kitchen first, adding extra supports at 36" and 63" for the counter top and the overhead storage. I added the 5mm plywood to the back, (stapled on) and put it up in place. I needed an extra 1/2 inch to make it sit tight, so I cut a 3/4" strip out of 1/2 plywood and nailed it to the floor as a footer, then wedged the wall on top of it. Then I added the halfway polished corner bracket (from the original closet).

for the other wall, I screwed 2 1x2" firing strips on the wall 38" each to follow the shape of the rear wall, then a strait 72" piece for inside the corner frame. I also added another 1x2" along the floor. For the top piece, I cut the former 1x4" piece from the center of the closet into an 3" to 3/4" 42" long angle. This created a level header for the door frame (at 72" tall). I added a cross piece at 55" to mount the "bonk bed" brackets, and a 1x2" stud as support. Then I cut and tacked up another piece of 5mm plywood to create the outer wall. This time I used 3 self closing surface mount brackets to mount the now Shorter 72"x16" door (Previous closet door, of course). I recessed the handle a bit into the door, and added the clasp to the 1x2" frame. Done. (yes, you can only close or "lock" the door from the outside, hence the self closing hinges... it will close on it's own.)

For the "Bonk Bed" I made a quick frame of 2x2's 55"x26" with a support in the center to support the weight (Should be good for 100-150 lbs at least, but only weighs about 10-15lbs, a LOT lighter than the 150lb 1" solid plywood old bunk 42"x84" platform) I added more 5mm plywood to the top, added the two old sofa bed supports to the walls, and a piano hinge to the rear, and presto! A fold-a-way "Bonk Bed"

and the pics:

Finally finished the Tinting, and interior progress

So I got the Windows tinted last night, and just to show what has come along with the interior... ready to start building the bathroom walls and door, upper and lower storage and bunk, paint and camp... right? Almost... well here is the pics of the progress.

The Red wheels are off due to clearance issues in my driveway with the P195/70/14 tires I put on there, they are off to swap out the tires, they WILL go back on with taller (6-ply) trailer tires soon.

I have most of the day Saturday and Friday night to do some more work, so hopefully there will be some progress this weekend!

Window Tinting...

So I tinted the windows, or at least started to this weekend. Go the rear windows done so far. Just using 5% VLT film I bought at the Local Auto Parts Store, rear window was done in place, the two side windows were removed and done inside. New felt seals and anti rattle holders were put in too... no more window clatter.

This was done for a few reasons...

1) Duh, it looks bad-ass! :)

2) Keeps the interior a bit cooler in the summer

3) darker inside for daytime naps (3 year old)

4) Blocks UV rays, my wife had Stage 3 Melanoma 10 years ago... want to keep it that way.

5) keeps the curtains looking new, no fade from the UV rays

6) Needed to hide the new interior wall - about a foot of the rear window will be blocked by a new wall inside for the bathroom. (Port side)

wow... finally bringing this blog back from the dead!

You would not believe how much hassle that is to add a new gmail account to a blog. Not as simple as I thought. But finally figured it out. So now the blog lives on!

I Dropped Comcast as my ISP when we made the move to Bellevue in late November, and couldn't get signed in for a while there. Little fancy switching here and there and poof, it's alive again.

Update: Nothing. The trailer has a new 14x30 foot flat slab to sleep on, and that is about it. She's plugged in, winterized and waiting ever so patiently.

Plans for the spring are to rip back into the interior, reconfigure a few things for now... Just planning to get the porta potty in it's own "bathroom", I'll worry about holding tanks, sinks and showers later. For now, it's just a bit of re-arranging to get ready for the trip to Yellowstone in Late July/early August.

A couple new 6-ply LT 195/75/14 will go on very soon so I can actually get it back out of the driveway without scraping. The Passenger rated 195/70/14's are just not cutting it anymore. Too low and sidewalls are bulging under the weight of the trailer now. finishing polishing the windows is still in order, along with some ever so needed tint to keep interior temps down and preserve the curtain fabric. The rear window will be extra dark, especially because I will most likely wall over the section where the bathroom will be. I'll keep the other two windows, but the rear will be tinted, then covered up for a cleaner look inside. I can't wait until I can start working on it again... just need to get some funds saved up and then I'm off and running.

Okay, got the bug again... darn ralley!

So, I made the mistake of looking inside a bunch of really great trailers at the Mt.Baker ralley... that 16' Airstream really got me thinking "why can't I have a bathroom in mine?" So I got started moving some stuff around...

Originally the Dinette was in the rear,under the bunk... bad design. Nobody over 5 feet tall could get in and out of the dinnette seats without taking a deep breath and ducking, bending, and manuvering... so it didn't get used as much as I hoped it would. So I pulled out the bunk (for now)and I swapped it.

Dinette went up front, and the Couch went to the rear... for now.

Okay here's where it sits today. I might add, it's built better now than before. At least up front. (sorry about the cell phone pics, too lazy to take out the camera.)





okay, now the rest of the project...

So the reason I removed the bunk. 1" thick plywood was WAY to heavy... could never load enough stuff in the front to counter balance when I had to fill my water tank. Plus the weight was up high... made it tipsy too...

next up in the next few months as I find the time...

1. remove the rear couch (for the time being)
2. Build a wall off the rear of the Kitchenette to make an enclosed 27"x43" bathroom.
3. Build a 22"x17"x36" dresser set that will get against the rear wall below the window facing forward. (beside the new wall for the bathroom)
4. Remove the closet and re-install a new Couch platform along the wall where the current closet is.
5. Reinstall a lighter, smaller bunk platform between the new wall and the existing mounts. Instead of 1" solid plywood to the tune of 83"x42", it will be hollow built from 1x2" and luan 1/4" plywood about 55"x34". (Should save about 100 pounds or more)I will also make doors on the front for easier access to the storage when not used as a bunk.
6. Build a new cabinet over the new side mount couch between the door and the new smaller bunk about 47"x13"x16". This wil house teh Microwave and stereo flush mounted, and have two smaller storage areas too.
7. re-paint interior. (new wood and scratches)

So this now gives me a private bathroom for the porta-potty... but I can take it a step further... I can install a black (and grey while I'm at it) and a flushing toilet.

If I am really tempted to go further... I can install a full shower there too. Might as well, I want to install a better 12v water pump and water heater anyways.

Still deciding on what way to go for the storage tanks... find some used, have a couple built... or build my own with 6" PVC pipes under the trailer. Heck, I can even build a new fresh water storage while I'm at it. We'll see what the coming months bring... what I know is, I have to figure out something to do with the existing fresh water tank (it's in the new bathroom) and move the battery out to the tounge, or at least somewhere else than where it is.

Stay Tuned!

Mt Baker Ralley Photos

Sorry, I've been a bit busy in my life so I'm slacking on my posts... so here we go.

Ralley was sweet. We got off to a hard start with Rob's Commander breaking down right before we met to leave from Bellevue. Poor Rob, just dropped a ton of cash to get everything fixed so this wouldn't happen, and the day he finally gets to drive it... caput.

Good thing it was only 4:30, and my dad made me fix cars with him over and over and over again... we were able to get parts and get it changed out in front of an office building... not the greatest, but better than blocking traffic where he first broke down! (sorry, no pics of that, I was greasy).

But we got to the ralley at 11:30 or so and set up camp as quietly as possible next to the water tower (only available water and power hookups we could see at night). Saturday was great! Here is some pics!



Mt.Baker


Absolutely Georgeous!

(inside)


Rob being Rob


16ft Airstream, fantastic!


(inside)




'Inspiration' (Rob told me to take notice right when this was taken... I did... see the next post)






'50 Burb color matched set, this picture does it NO justice!


Shasta/Chevy Combo was terrific!

Pano of the "early birds"


Spotless Chevy


Sandy and Jerry's '71 Airstream Overlander (99.9% original) :)


This Newel was fantastic as well. Very similar floorplan to my Dad's RV.


This Mercury was from Maple Valley... lived in the same town for 5 years and never saw it :(... until now! :)


A bit blurry, sorry... forgot to turn the VR off...




There were a large handful of Boler/Scamp/Trilliums there


The COMMANDER!!!


This was cool, longer version of mine (and a Shasta)


Very nicely done Aloha!






I may have to steal this idea for my celing...











This was towing

this


a couple other cool Class-A motorhomes


There were plenty of teardrops too.


Look, IKEA makes trailers too! :P


This was so shiny it threw off my camera sensor.


Okay, I'll let this speak for itself...


Heading home (Parting ways in Bellevue)