Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Truck Camper pics on truck



There she is sitting on the truck, guys went up this morning to get the truck from the campground, slid on real slick. Still have to wire it up and mount the bar underneath for the turnbuckles.

I am putting in a deep cycle battery this afternoon and I have my little 1000 watt inverter generator running the camper right now. Want to see if the 1000 watter will run the charger as well as the camper lights etc I am thinking it will.

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Truck Camper




Dj and I went up to Orillia today to take a look at a 92 lance truck camper for 2500.00. I was also looking at a Jayco same year, but never got to go and see the Jayco as I really liked the Lance and bought that one. It's for the son and we are going to put it on his Chevy. Thinking maybe tomorrow bringing his truck down from the campground and getting it setup with the truck camper.

Thats the truck camper sitting on the previous owners truck, I will have pics later this week of our setup. Took Dj's truck to get the camper which is a 2500 series gmc with the 6 litre which is the same setup as our truck. The truck handled the weight no problem and had lots of power on the highway even in the strong headwind.

We cleaned it out tonite and moved some stuff in to make it feel homey. Tomorrow I will make a list of the stuff that needs to be done and we will get r done over the winter months as this is really a project for my son and I.

One lucky thing though, after reading on rv.net about lance campers of that vintage and some of the problems they are known for, apparrenty rot in the rear wall and floor area by the door entrance. The previous owner had it all repaired last year and all that is required down is to replace the linoleum, which I will with peel and stick, something like what I used in the Jayco.

Business has been good, the name is getting around and more guys are dropping in. Fleets are telling me that they are picking up and I sure hope it sticks. Have a couple of insurance jobs in the shop right now and some fleet returns, welding work is picking up too.

The last ten days has been cold and wet for the most part and my achy bones feel it. I am still smoking and having the odd beer or twelve pack. I parked the trailer at the shop into a different spot and on Monday we got a heavy downpour of rain, so I am standing at the rear of my shop watching the rain hit the yard, it all pools to one area and then makes a river right to my trailer. Like 4 inches of water around my trailer. I am going back up to the campground this coming weekend and when I come back I am placing the trailer on high ground.

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

New Shop Stuff

So I quit smoking and drinking a couple of weeks back and all was going good till I hooked up with my old buddy at his campground last weekend. Beer and mixed drinks and what else goes best with that, smoking, damn. So a effort has to be made one day this week to shut it down again.

Had not seen Kenny and Michelle for ten years or so, was real good hanging out with them for the weekend where they seasonal camp. More get togethers are planned and looking forward to them.

While I was away for the weekend, Derek and Dj built a wall in the shop to make a smaller shop at the one end. Derek is renting this to continue his sidework on cars and motorcycles. This will help with the overall cost of rent here in the shop and the money that he pays for rent will go to pay the property taxes on our shop which run 900.00 per month. Yup expensive.

Here is a pic of the wall with a fireproof tarp for the top section. We are thinking in the summer to remove the tarp and allow air flow. We have some work in the shop this week, a insurance job on a Volvo that hit a low bridge and some trailer work.

We have not been getting our Bell bills for the Bell stick and the cellphones, so the wife went to them to get a number on what we owe them. The Bell Stick was 670.00 for one month due to all the megabytes we consumed. Yea, just a little retarded. That was for the second month, and we should have another bill right about now and I bet its that amount again or more. Cell phones and the stick was just under 1300.00 for one month, so some changes are gonna happen here real fast.

Ran the honda's this past weekend camping with my buddy as the campground only had 15 amp service and was a fair distance from where I wanted to park the trailer, plus I wanted to try them out anyhow. We got there around 5 Friday afternoon, ran them most of the weekend for 4 or 5 hour spurts, mostly late afternoon into the night to keep my beer fridge going. Alison did some laundry and sometimes had the ac going too. Left the park Sunday around 430 pm. 21.00 for the fuel which I thought was very good.

Running both Honda's while using the ac and maybe the dryer, is the way to go, they barely rev up, are quiet and maintain very good fuel consumption rates. I never heard them rev up to full speed at any one time. Also I have two onboard converter chargers that recharge 4 batteries, and they consume a fair amount of amperage too, especially when we run on battery power overnight and into the daytime.

Here is our setup this past weekend. I parked the truck this way to keep the exhaust fumes away from our main camp area and also to have a blocked in area so that the dogs know their limits. The Honda's are on the rear deck of the truck and I ran a cord to the trailer. Worked out very well as no one even noticed the Honda's running. We also trucked our own water. Campground was very nice and we were across from the manmade lake. In that lake is a schoolbus and jet airliner as they do alot of scuba diving.

Thursday, September 17, 2009

More Honda stuff

I put the honda's back into the truck. I ran them out of fuel, and I really don't like using jerry cans to fill equipment up. Having the Honda's on the truck deck allows me to drive a half kilo to the gas station, and they also sell propane there too.

I need to get the power system on a routine and what I have come up with, is running the genny's from 6 pm to 10 pm. This allows lots of power for the dinner prep, laundry time and the downstairs tv and Xbox for the kid. He goes to bed at 10 so that should work out fine. 4 hours to recharge the batteries fully works perfectly. This system will optimize the fuel we use making sure that it is not wasted. Yesterday everything ran all day for the most for nothing, intermittent laundry duties.

My upstairs tv and dvd are running off a 1000 watt inverter full-time and I also have a plug that is wired on the same circuit, which I can plug my laptop into and surf the net while laying in bed with the genny's turned off.

Here is a shot of the Honda's in the rear of the truck, with the water tank in the middle and my Honda water pump that I use to transfer water from this tank to the one that I have mounted in the basement storage of the fiver. This looks like it is going to work out well, as I want to leave the truck hooked and dedicated to the fiver. I do want to loose the steel deck and fuel tanks to save some weight but thats a project for the winter months.


Here we are hooked to the truck, everything is sort of just sitting where roughly I want it but not bolted or secured. We are heading out this weekend to a campground around Woodstock to see a old buddy of mine, so I get to try stuff out then. You can see on the last pic, how the truck is squated a bit. I either need to install air bags, or loose the deck and fuel tanks and move the hitch about 18 inches forward.

Fueled the Honda's up, they were both empty, 24.50 for the two. which is 26 litres. Now burning roughly 1.5 litres per hour, 6 litres for four hours equates to 5.64 per day for hydro approx.

These numbers are just off the top of my head and will likely change but gives me something to work from. My hydro bill at the campground for 3 1/2 months was 365.00.

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

In the yard


So we needed the room in shop and also have to do some painting, no sense getting overspray on the fiver, even though I could spraymask the trailer to protect it. But none the less, I moved it outside to the back section of the yard, in our corner where we have truck parking.
Still a problem with dust. What we need is some rain. I got back my other Honda genset today and went to the electrical store and got the required plugs and receptacles and made myself a parallel kit for the Honda's.


so they are running right now. Very sweet, have the ac unit running, and starting a load of wash. The wife will have no problem now with power as there is almost 50 amps in total feeding the trailer.
Wondering too, if my fuel consumption will go up by much. Do you run one genset at full bore or two at idle?????????

I need to figure how to mount the units too, I would like them side by side on the pin, thinking that may be a little too much weight, 300 pounds in total. Maybe leave the one on the pin and mount one on the rear of the trailer off the hitch assembly????????

One consideration is when the units are mounted on the pin box, the weight goes directly to the truck, does not add any stress to the trailer frame.

Monday, September 14, 2009

Dusty


The yard here sure is dusty, no rain the last couple of weeks and when trucks come into the yard the dust really kicks up. I decided to move the trailer indoors this afternoon and here she is.

But I gotta take it back outside tomorrow as I will need the room. Got a few calls today and fleets are getting busy again, so a fair amount of work is coming my way this week and next. So far so good.

Post more later.

Sunday, September 13, 2009

Ready for work

Well the last few days have been busy, got all the equipment and tools moved in and I spent the weekend hooking up the compressor and installing welding plugs, power washer and water lines, general cleaning and organizing. My rear door entrance was full of gravel so most of today was spent cleaning it all up.

I moved the trailer down this afternoon. Have it parked in the yard for the week now as we are taking off this coming weekend to see a old buddy of mine in Woodstock. This should be fun. I quit smoking and drinking over a week ago and that is going real well, but next weekend I will be drinking with my buddy as I have not seen him in ten plus years. I'm okay with that.
I finally got the pics out of one of the cameras from last month's camping stuff. Here is our site at Rockwood which is just around the corner from our seasonal campground. Real nice site, in a valley too, no wind and just the right amount of shade. We had a good time, took the dogs swimming and a general do nothing for three days kinda relaxing. My brother inlaw and his son came with us too. Good to have a drinking partner.

Well here is the homestead at the new shop, out in the yard with the trucks. No hydro or water, so running the genny and trucking my water again, kinda like boondocking, but services just nearby. Will stay here for the week. I do have a spot in the shop for Jan Feb and March, no sense being out in the cold.

And there is the shop, another one. I can barely get together the energy and desire to do this again. But here I am, narrow and long, I rent out 40 feet of the shop at the front to my buddy. That will help with the rent, and I have parking outside to rent out as well. The rent and property taxes are enough, 4000.00 per month total. Plus the heat and hydro, at least I am a middle unit and have business on both sides of me which should help abit with keeping warm?????????

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Early September

And i am sitting on my duff waiting for the keys to my new shop. The shop deal up north fizzled and thats okay. When it's ready I will go, so for the time being its back to the grind starting hopefully today or tomorrow.

The new shop is right in the heart of trucking in Milton, a very good location with lots of trucks driving by. Shop is a proper truck shop with lots of yard space, easy for guys to pull in and turn around.

Once I get the keys I will move my fiver down there. We likely are not coming back to our seasonal campsite next year. After the last month of being off work and doing some travelling, it was real nice to get away from our campground and meet other people and families. We are thinking that next year, we will spend the weekdays at our business and then weekends travelling and camping at campgrounds within a couple hours distance. I got online and was surprised just how many campgrounds there are.

I am going to sell the boat either this fall or next spring. After a bunch of bullshit with it, at the last campground we went too, it just is not worth it all to get in a couple of hours boating time. I wanted to tow the boat behind the fiver, but we are too long, and although i would chance it, it really is not a optimim thing to do. I broke the toungue on the trailer going over a very bad speed bump a little too fast. That happened at the campground on the day that we were leaving, so I had to jerry rig up the busted metal enough so that it can be towed behind the trailer. After buying all the hitch stuff, none of it fit, so we had to make double trips back to our campground, one trip for the fiver and one for the boat. Also a wheel seal on the boat trailer, one stop light busted, tore up a prop too. plus pay 10.00 per day to have the boat at the dock in the that campground. Where I already pay to be a seasonal visitor on the lake and conservation area.

The kid is too busy for boating now anyhow, most of the time it is just me going out. He wants to hang with his buddies and girlfriends. Thats okay.

Never did go up north, found a really nice private campsite, but I checked the weather and it was calling for rain and shit weather for the whole week.

It was good to have some time off, but I am now ready to get back at it. Will post some pics this coming weekend once we get the keys.