So what did you do to your Truck Camper today?

Attempted to add a step for my single step, but I didn't like how it was turning out. So, that attempt was abandoned. Probably the last attempt.

Built a platform for my hitch mount bike rack and rebuilt the bike rack to tighten it up. I'll probably take a few pictures of the platform after I finish the paint. It's going to be used to haul a few pieces of firewood, so I don't have to put it in the truck or camper. I made it of thick flat plate aluminum.

Touched up the trim ring that I previously painted. Just a couple of spots we knocked off during the install.

Replaced red reflective tape with yellow on the bike rack and hitch carrier. That took a bit of time to take the old off, but nothing that a heat gun and cleanup with alcohol would do.

After fixing the wing rot, I replaced the sealant on the trim. Today I put the vinyl screw covers in.

1. Replaced my furnace thermostat with a Honeywell TH1100DV1000 Pro-Digital 2-Wire Heat Only thermostat. Super easy 5 minute project to finally get a thermostat that I can set to a known temperature.

2. Flushed my water system repeatedly after letting it soak with bleach for a few days.

3. A good exterior washing is in the plan for later this week. Where do all those bugs come from???

Started tearing out the wing on the passenger side, finally found a rot area. Fortunately, it's a fairly easy fix.

Pictures will be coming.

Three in a row.

1. Painted the trim for my entry window. First, let me say to those who suggest this is a good idea. I hate you. :) If you are thinking about this as a project, I have to strongly recommend against it!

My trim was old enough that the seal was barely there and very brittle, so I had to remove it to have a base for caulking. New trim rings come with seals which would have been a lot easier and less time consuming. But, I couldn't just leave the hole in the door, so I painted and then used caulking for sealant. Maybe it actually worked, and I'll see after the caulking dries.

2. Adjusted the air bag pressure. I'm going up a tiny bit and adding slightly more (5 lbs) in the driver side which seems to be a tiny bit lower.

3. Bought yellow reflective tape for front carrier. It previously had red which doesn't seem to be a good idea. I'm thinking yellow will work for front or rear. At least, cars have yellow in front and rear.

Boo, two posts in a row. Sure, I could edit, but what fun is that.

1. Installed a Honeywell thermostat for my furnace. Kind of a pain since it also controlled my AC ... not red/white, not black/white, but green/white. In any case, I got it working. This is in preparation for my switch to ceiling controlled AC. It didn't quite cover the second existing hole. Something to consider for those thinking about switching thermostats.
2. Installed baggage door catches on my water fill door and door that has my hookups. Both flop a bit in the wind. Now, they won't!
3. Cut the ball off of a ball mount and ground the welds off and took the ball off of a second one so that I could reverse the mount to give more clearance. I've been wanting to do this for a while to give more clearance for my driveway and other angle changes.
4. Installed more d-rings for tie downs in the back seat. Yeah, it's not the TC, but since the TC is on all of the time, it's kind of a TC.
5. Installed a small safe. That was actually pretty easy after settling on a location although I did reinforce the shelf a bit. No, I'm not under any illusion that it can't be stolen, but it will stop grandkids and the random visitor who shouldn't be there.
6. Fixed a piece of loose trim on my slide. I got lucky or unlucky. I would have put glue on the pieces if I had known one small nail would have secured the three pieces.

Boy was that fun ... well, it was at least needed with a little left to do. :) Unfortunately, while on the roof I noticed I have some cracks in some of my Dicor, so a bit of work to do to refresh that.

1. Cut 6 inches off my hitch extension. Why? It extended a couple of inches past my camper's bumper. That meant we had to avoid it going down the stairs even if the hitch was empty. So, I usually left it home previously. Of course, it's a typical Ford hitch which means that the 2 1/2 inch hitch is slightly smaller than 2 1/2 inch. That meant that I had to grind a slight bit off. Of course, I had to drill new holes as well and repaint. Overall, it turned out well, but dang it took a lot of time. The bonus is it should reduce the chance for dragging especially after I reverse one of my lightweight ball mounts to tow a light boat.
2. Replace my vent covers on the roof. When I first bought the camper I had Camco Aeroflow covers. I really liked them up until they shattered from sun exposure. However, I've always hated the Camping World covers because they are ugly and because they aren't quite the right dimensions to work for my bathroom vent. End result is a much cleaner look and more function. They have the bonus of being able to be opened with just a screwdriver for cleaning. I really missed that.
3. Replaced the covers for my plumbing vents. I was going pull up the old ones and replace the whole thing. However, I got lucky and bought exactly the same kind that makes it easy to just replace the cap because they pull off. That's what I did which allowed me to make up some time from the time consuming metal work. The caps essentially fell apart in my hand. The rest of the vent seems great which makes me wonder why the caps came apart. One quick scare as a wasp came out when I took one cover off. The very small nest was at the top of the pipe, so it was pretty easy to remove and there was just the one wasp that didn't come back.
4. Attempted to replace the cap over the opening for my shorepower. However, the cap is a bit small and a bit too stiff for my liking. Since my current cap lasted 10 years and still looks perfect, I guess I'll stay with it.

Still some work to do, and I left out the part of going to pick it up out of storage. :)

Harleybullet wrote:
Rbertalotto...that 160 panel from Ebay does that come with the connecter so I could connect it to my 50 watt on my Arctic Fox 2005... what about mounting hardware?

Dave

Adding to an existing solar installation can be tricky. It's important to match the panels otherwise you won't get the added power you're expecting. If you put your panels in parallel, which is typical, it's important the the Vpp ratings are close. A couple writeups explaining the problem...
http://solarpanelsvenue.com/mixing-solar-panels/
https://www.altestore.com/blog/2012/08/adding-capacity-to-your-existing-pv-system/

wash & waxed the truck
wash & waxed the camper
loaded the camper
1 week and counting for 8 days of riding
and having fun in the desert :)

Harleybullet wrote:
Rbertalotto...that 160 panel from Ebay does that come with the connecter so I could connect it to my 50 watt on my Arctic Fox 2005... what about mounting hardware?

Dave

I don't know what you have but the panel comes with two MC4 connectors on cable about 3 feet or so long. I'm the one who first mentioned it a little earlier.