Koditten random project/boat build thread.

Good morning @koditten I saw where they opened I-26 in TN both directions but no commercial vehicle or oversized loads.

 

Good information, thanks for the heads up!

 

Flipped the boat over so I could weld on the stern.

 

Was running some errands this week. Spied this 2 burner grill sitting out to the curb. Couldn't resist, had to check it out. I grabbed it.

It looked intact except for a bit of rot on the wooden valve handles. Into the truck bed it went.

 

Found an hour 2 wire wheel the grill. I could find nothing wrong with it. I cleaned the gas valves. I was surprised to find it has adjustable orifices. It can run on natural gas or propane.

After cleaning and checking the valves, It seemed it was a quality unit.

I added a block valve to the original assembly...don't give me shit that the valve is for natural gas...the valve works just fine for propane.

 

Nice save! Good for another 50 years now.

 

I need to source a wood lathe to turn down some new wood handles. I'm not much of a wood worker.

 

New project:

Was so impressed on how well the shop mini split worked, the wife volentold me to put one in the RV.

28' 5th wheel ultra lite.(It's not that light)

Has dual AC units that work like shit. They just plain suck.

85*f and humid, they are a joke. Noisy AF and only drop the inside temp 10* when in direct sun.

Did some research and many are using mini split heating units for their AC and heating needs.

With that said, decided to go all in on a 12k BTU unit.

Not to forshadow on the thread, but am pleased.

 

Needed to build a base for the compressor. I already had a bed box mounted to the bumper, so I needed to engineer a base that was taller as well as stable. I'm not giving up my bumper box, it's too useful.

 

I'l can to open the box ~30°. It's enough to access everything I may need.

The 1/8" x 1.5" tube iron welded to the bumper makes sure the condenser is solidly mounted.

The bumper used to hold a 90# spare tire. I think it can hold this 70# condenser unit with ease.

Obviously, I really won't know how well it works until i run down the xway.

 

Mounted up the evaporator.

This is above the right(passenger) side slide out. It's pretty close to the middle of the RV.

I will have to fab up a line set hider that matches the interior.

 

There is an 1/8" copper line a 3/8" copper line, power, condensate and communication wire that goes from the compressor to the evaporator( head unit). This is why there needs to be a 2 3/4" hole for these lines to pass thru.

 

I got the lines ran and properly insulated. It was time to wire up the unit.

Notice a difference?

My wire set was 4', too short. I needed to graft on 4' of wire from the evaporator head to the condenser unit. No one in my area had 4 conductor wire with a yellow wire.

I am not a bit upset that colors don't match.

The RV industry does not adhere to any code requirements as far as I can tell. They run their own rules

Red and yellow are functionally the same together under the RV. The other colors were the same.

 

The black lead runs to the evaporator( inside unit). The yellow line is my temporary power supply to the entire unit. As I mentioned, I want to run it off temp power until I know how much juice it needs. Once I'm confident, I'll delete one of the useless roof air units.

I have plenty of shock absorbing copper line available so I don't stress the line set too greatly. Running down the road for 800 miles is going to stress things, I'm sure.

 

Hooked up my manifold gauges to the compressor and my vacuum pump.

The instructions asked for a 15 minute pull. I did an hour. I was tired and needed a beer.

The yellow line I'm pointing at is the temp power. It's plugged into a power strip in my shop.

 

Cool stuff! Love rowing whitewater, I want to see the boat!

$190 Emergency Use Only USCG Solid Foam 24" Life Ring Buoy - White

https://a.co/d/elfOm50

 

did you ever finish your trailer?

the mini split idea in the camper is interesting. i had thought mini splits were 220v only (like a normal whole house a/c), so it wouldn't work in most campers with 30A 120v inputs... but then i did some googling, and found that there's plenty of 120v units on the market, and many even claim to be less than 15A total draw...

it definitely gets me thinking, being that all rv air conditioners seem to be built to a (sub)standard...

 

Trailer is not done. It's on the back burner, but the burner is set to "warm".

Im not happy with the axles. I spend too much time thinking about repairs.

The Chevy S-10 hubs/spindles are just not that easy to source. I'm going to dump them.

The trailer industry is centered on the 5x 4.5 bolt pattern. They can be sourced anywhere.

It makes sense to move towards that direction.

 

Unit is operational. Going to let it run over night. Ambient temps are supposed to drop to 33*. We will see how the unit does overnight.

The last couple times I checked it, the temps were quite comfortable.

Stand by ...

 

Been running for a week. T-stat set to 69*. Very comfortable inside the RV. I like it a lot and the wife really likes it.