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Old 01-06-2013, 12:41 PM   #341
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1974 31' Excella 500
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More interior skins.. cut and fit most of remaining pieces in the center of the trailer. They are just hanging there right now not attached.

I can see now where I want the wires to come thorugh.. so the holes can be drilled and the insulation marked. Will remove pieces, then place wires, then attach panels.
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Old 01-13-2013, 04:39 PM   #342
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Worked Sat and Sun, got the curb side inside skins on. This stuff is somewhat time consuming. I feel relief after two years of working on this thing to get to this point.

I had no idea how aluminum sheets would look on the inside and it just blows me away how nice it looks.

I need to get one more sheet for around the door and backing for the stovetop and do the center ceiling area and the front end cap.

Still have some monkeying around with wiring to do.
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Old 01-13-2013, 04:42 PM   #343
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Congratulations!

This is the payoff for all the hard work!
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Old 05-12-2013, 06:28 PM   #344
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1974 31' Excella 500
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Maiden Voyage

Other than a few 5 mile jaunts from Sewee Outpost to Halfway Creek Trail Camp, this is the first time I have taken Dexter and The Heap out on the road.

After a few hours on the road from Charleston, SC I am at a truck stop off I-95 at Florence, SC.

My tow vehicle is a 1990 Chevrolet G30 Extended Van (350 engine).
Things that I need to figure out:

1) Warm tires on the trailer. Stopped a few times and checked how warm the tires were on the trailer. Not all are the same temp. One in particular is warmer than the others.

2) CAT scale results:
- Initial weigh in Van and Trailer together:
-- Steer Axle: 3060
-- Drive Axle: 4940
-- Trailer Axle: 5360
---Gross Weight..13,360

- Re-Weigh just Van
-- Steer Axle: 3260
-- Drive Axle: 4220
-- Trailer Axle: 0
---Gross Weight..7480


Trailer (74 Excella 500 31')
GVWR 7100 lbs

According to the Van manual I should be using a 4.10 rear end with this much weight, but I'm sure that I don't have that. I think I have a 3.73.

(I also have a ton or so of John Deere 140 Garden Tractor, Model 33 tiller, and rear scrape blade in the back of the Van as well. I'll be losing that weight when I get to my (undisclosed) location.)

Interesting and fun!

Took her up to the future homestead.
Learned a few things.. :-). Still more to learn :-(
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Old 05-12-2013, 08:48 PM   #345
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Stripes

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Originally Posted by 4RXLA View Post
I happen to like the Excella blue stripe...
I'll second that ! Great job on the Reno.
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Old 05-13-2013, 05:07 AM   #346
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Where the blue stripe was I was thinking maybe a sign that says "Mobile Security K-9"
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Old 05-13-2013, 10:57 AM   #347
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"Blue" blooded K-9's of course!
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Old 05-15-2013, 05:02 AM   #348
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Arrow

Working on getting weight distribution and what-not figured out. These are the weights from the maiden voyage this past weekend..

I wont be hauling the garden tractor and implements around in the back of the van any more.

So far.. This weekend I want to hit the scales again and get just the van and just the trailer. Maybe if I place the trailer wheels on one scale and the tongue on another I can get the tongue weight.


Van/Trailer ___________ Van/Tractor_________ Van/Trailer
Tractor
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Steer Axle........................... 3060........3260..........2800
Drive Axle........................... 4940........4220..........4200
Trailer Axle...........................5360.........0..... .........5220
Gross Weight.....................13,360.......7,480..... ....12,220
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Old 05-15-2013, 05:49 AM   #349
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It is starting to look like a trailer again. You need a blue stripe or something down that side.

Perry

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Originally Posted by DanielB View Post
During the week I rebuilt one window per day. Got 4 done.
I didn't have any 1/8 solid rivets so I used pop rivets on the windows to hold everything together until I get some rivets. Also need to get some rubber window gasket material. I had some at one time, but can't find it.

Put the windows in so I could go camping this weekend and work on the interior. I got the pieces for the back end cut and fitted and a few pieces in place for the overhead.

In the morning I'll go back out to the trailer and take out the windows on the curb side so that I can do those this week. Also, the overhead rails that the interior skins fit in are painted. I brought those back to strip the paint off of those this week.

I think that I have used 10 sheets of 4x8 aluminum. It looks like I will need 4 more or so.

Once the windows are done and the interior skins are in, the only "major" work left is to spray foam the undercarriage.

I have a one piece rock guard but am missing the female part of the hinge that goes on the front of the trailer Out of Doors Mart happened to have one for $6. Awesome.
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Old 05-15-2013, 09:39 AM   #350
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Blue stripe. Got it. Blue Stripe.
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Old 05-18-2013, 09:40 AM   #351
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Hitch Mystery Solved

Reese Dual Cam Hitch.

The pieces for the weight distribution and sway control setup that I got with the trailer didn't work together. A quick trip to the friendly neighborhood hitch place got me squared away.

The grey tensioner item on top of the A frame (far right) was the one that I had. The hitch dude hooked me up with a new heavier duty one (black one).

Also the rods had chains on the end of them. The hitch dude took the chains off and attached "feet".

The golden pipe thing on top of the tensioner is the lever to apply tension to the chains.

Getting them adjusted next. Will be ready to rock.
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Old 05-19-2013, 07:28 AM   #352
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Trimetric installed

After a huge rain storm last night (hard lesson learned.. lower the awning in a rainstorm) and everything is good and wet I thought it was a perfect time to fire up the generator and install my Trimetric battery monitor thing that I've had for a while.

Also a picture of the ratnest.
Now I must learn about l'ectronics and what-not.
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Old 05-19-2013, 09:58 AM   #353
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OK.. Tip.. if you want your converter to charge your battery, make sure that the converter ground wire is hooked up.. This is more like it..
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Old 08-17-2013, 05:41 PM   #354
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New endcap

I really dreaded this, but it turned out to be pretty simple. Snazzy new ceiling cover where the endcap is missing.

endCap 2013 08 17 - YouTube
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Old 08-19-2013, 08:36 AM   #355
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Lookin' good Daniel! You going to rivet them all together when you have them all cut out?
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Old 08-20-2013, 05:15 AM   #356
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Yes sir. What I hope to be able to do is that once all of the pieces are tacked up is to drill 1/8 holes and pop rivet the thing together while in place, then, take down and drill out pop rivets one at a time and replace with buck rivets.

Then I want to go ahead and do the rear endcap as well to make the interior skin all the same.

This is getting close to 3 years now on this project. Time does fly!
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Old 08-20-2013, 11:54 AM   #357
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Sounds like a lot of work, but it should look gorgeous when you are done. Do you have to cut channels for the electrical wires through the foam?

Looked like there was some wiring, I'm guessing it's the exterior running lights?
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Old 08-20-2013, 12:44 PM   #358
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Yes I had to cut chanels for the romex and for places where the 12V wiring was bundled. These are all the pictures from the beginning until now..
1974 Excella - a set on Flickr
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Old 09-22-2013, 09:20 PM   #359
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Score!

My weekly haunts include local Habitat for Humanity ReStores and Goodwills.

As I am finishing up cutting and fitting aluminum sheets interior skins, and I'm looking for spot type lighting to have around the trailer, I stumbled across these today. Six of them (new in box) for $15 total. Nice heavy duty fixtures that fit into the two-point automotive type bulb connectors. Happy Day!
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Old 11-04-2013, 02:02 PM   #360
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Always good to score useful stuff at the right price.
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