The Porch

Another good day. Managed to put the porch on today. It extends 18" off the back of the trailer and makes it much easier to get in and out of the caravan. It is bolted to the trailer using the pre-drilled holes. The light brackets are mounted to the sides of the porch. Should be finished next weekend. Then I will have to start a new blog to document our travels.

Flying Caravan

Today was the big day. The day we had to mount the caravan on to the trailer. Early in the building process, we had set the caravan on to 4 round wooden fence posts so we could roll it from under the carport. We wrapped a rope around the caravan and slowly rolled it from under the carport pulling it with my car. Every few feet I would have to move a fence post from behind the caravan to the front so it would continue to have something to roll on. Once it was out from under the carport I used an engine hoist to jack up one side enough to slide a couple of tires under the caravan. Then we put the engine hoist on one side and a hydraulic jack on the other and used one of the fence posts to jack up the other end. We put one end of the trailer under the caravan and wedged a fence post between the caravan and the trailer and planned to roll the caravan onto the trailer. The trailer could actually lift one end of the caravan by pushing down on the tongue. The engine hoist was moved to the other end and we got some help from neighbors to push the caravan the rest of the way onto the trailer. The whole process was a bit scary but its done.

I bought a new trailer from Harbor Freight for the Caravan. A 1,700 lb model. My caravan is a bit heavier than normal because of the AC, bed, etc. and I thought the extra weight capacity would make it safer to pull. For some reason they designed it to have bolts sticking up on the bed so I had to add a couple of 3/4 deck boards to the trailer so the caravan would not sit on the bolt heads. You can see the deck boards in the picture. That is it for now. Off to Lowe's to get materials for a porch for the caravan.

Almost Finished

Managed to get some more work done this weekend. Mounted the door and trim. The door will open 90 degrees. Glad I lowered it 1 1/2" to give it extra clearance. Found some nice Victorian hinges at antiquehardware.com. Finished attaching the bows. Currently waiting for the caulk to dry between the bows and the wall panels to paint the caulk. Once that is finished I can attach the tarp and it is ready to put on the trailer. My wife made some curtains out of the leftover material of the curtains we used on the walls. Here are some pictures of the finished interior. That is my son Gavin making the funny faces.

Windows

I managed to get my windows put in. First I tried some kind of plastic glass from Home Depot. It was difficult to cut the curves so I tried a jig saw with a fine tooth metal cutting blade. It cracked. Went back to Home Depot and got a sheet of 3/16 Lexan. It cut very nicely with the jig saw. No cracking. My windows were attached with 1/2 rivets. I didn't try to pull the nail all the way through the rivet with the rivet gun as it may crack the Lexan. They were pulled snug and the nail was clipped of flush with the rivet. Hope to get through with this by May so we can get some camping done this summer. Pics to come.

The Bows

Haven't posted for a while because it has just been too hot to work on the caravan. I finally gave up on the wall paper idea. Even with the flooring glue the wallpaper would not stick to the PVC wall panel. After shopping around for fabric, what we ended up doing is using some curtains from Wal-Mart. Actually looks better than the wallpaper. I'll post some pictures later. Did manage to finish the the bunk and get it painted. I have started on the bows and found that 1/4" by 1 and 1/2" pine lattice boards from Lowe's work very well. Hope to finish the bows and get the tarp on my caravan over the Labor Day weekend. More pictures shortly.

Paneling II

It has been raining the last couple of weekends so we haven't done much work. The wiring is finished and the paneling is going back up. The tile glue is holding well. Much harder to get the bubbles out though, and you really need to let it set up a couple of days before installing the panels. We also bought our patio cushions at Target. They currently have a 50% off sale.

If you look at the back wall you can see where I installed a couple of scraps of plywood to cover the wiring. It also gave me a place to install the carrage lights. (Lowe's, $8.00 each) They are hooked to a dimmer switch for a more romantic mood. As romantic as you can get with two kids sleeping nearby. Anyway, that is it for today. Have to finish covering the bunk with plywood. Bet you are wondering how I'm going to get the caravan out from under the carport. I'll save that for later.

The Air Conditioner

We installed the air conditioner over the weekend. Bought it from Sam's for $86. Wal-Mart has them too for $96. Had to widen the window opening about 1/2" to get it in. A piece of 3/4 plywood left over from the benches is on top along with some left over 2x2. The 3/4 plywood fits into the AC's upper mounting bracket. On the bottom I used 3/4 plywood and 2x2s. There is also a 1x4 window sill. The air conditioner's lower mounting brackets are screwed into the sill. I still need to caulk around the edges of the air conditioner to make a water-tight seal.

Two brass carriage lights will go over the top of the air conditioner. Some left over plywood will go between the king posts over and under the AC to cover the wiring of the lights and outlet for the AC. All the wiring is finished except for the 15 amp male exterior plug, the 15 amp ground fault plug, and the lights. The male plug will hook into the ground fault plug, which will act as a 15 amp circuit breaker. All other plugs are hooked in series to the ground fault plug ending with the dimmer switch for the lights. That way all the plugs and light switch are protected by the ground fault plug. The light switch gave me a fit for a few minutes. After a quick check on the Internet, I figured out how to wire it. The white wires are hooked together as are the green ground wires. The black wire hooks to the hot black wire from the previous plug and the red wire hooks to the black wire going to the lights. The yellow wire isn't used.

On the back of the AC you will notice some vented metal panels. They did not come with the AC. Nothing was covering the coils. Not the best of situations for traveling down the highway. The panels are actually vents bought from Lowe's for a couple of bucks. They measure about 17x8" and 17x4" and match the color of the AC. The two of them cover the coils of the AC. 4 screws were removed from the back of the AC cover, then the vents are slid under the air conditioner cover against the coils and attached with the screws. 4 small holes were drilled in the vents to match the original holes for the AC screws. DO NOT TRY TO DRILL NEW HOLES IN THE AC COVER TO ATTACH THE VENTS ON THE OUTSIDE OF THE COVER. You will damage the air conditioner. My wife Lisa had the idea to mount them under the cover after I learned the hard way not to drill new holes to attach the vents to the outside of the cover. This is the second AC I've installed in the caravan. The vents should protect the AC from debris and insects while traveling while providing enough ventilation so the AC works properly. Anyway, it is in. I'll finish the wiring next weekend and try to get a better picture of the vents.

The PVC panels have been removed to be recovered using tile floor cement. The other glue stuck in some places but started coming loose at the edges exposing the seams. The new glue should fix the problem.