What a Difference a Week Makes

In October 1974 The Rolling Stones released their 14th American studio album, "It's Only Rock and Roll". The album blended rock-blues with elements of reggae and funk.  Five years later I installed one of the first auto-reversing cassette players in my car. I listened to It's Only Rock and Roll without ejecting and turning over the cassette. One of the songs I was listening to on an endless loop was a slow, dreamy song that was somewhat out of character for the rough and tumble, early-1970's Stones: Time Waits for No One.

Yes, star crossed in pleasure the stream flows on by
Yes, as we're sated in leisure, we watch it fly ...
Drink in your summer, gather your corn
The dreams of the night time will vanish by dawn 

My neighbors stopped by to check on my progress.

Looking back at all the camper work I DIDN'T accomplish during my week off work, I'm painfully reminded that time waits for no one.

In my last post, Trailer or Camper,  I was doing a celebration dance because I achieved a significant milestone by installing all the windows.  After installing all the windows I put all the plywood back up on the interior walls and moved on to the next phase.

Prior to installing the windows I had built a couple of walls but had not installed them.  One wall to separate the front "V-nose" section from the main cabin and the other to wall off a 2 foot area in the back.  The front area houses the toilet and a closet. The back is both for storage and to protect the occupants from the highly-loaded spring that makes the back door easy to open and close.

All in all it's just a back wall.

That coiled spring holds a lot of energy and if it breaks someone could be seriously hurt by flying metal debris. I built the walls at the shop and brought them in the trailer through the back door.  On my first attempt the walls were too wide and had to be disassembled and narrowed about a half inch. 

You might remember from my earlier post, One Thing Leads To Another, I was having trouble finding a place to put the toilet that would be clear of the boxed-steel frame.  The toilet requires 11 inches of clearance on all sides. I didn't have any of the interior walls in so it was difficult to get an exact measurement. Once I got the plywood back up and the front wall in, I was fairly certain of the

NONONO. Don't. It's not hooked up yet.

placement. I did a lot of looking underneath, then looking inside. Like 50 times.

The toilet mounting hardware is about 6 inches around and is made of black ABS plastic. You cut a 4 inch hole in the floor and screw it down. The item that connects to the sewer hose is also ABS. So you need a piece of PVC to join those two together.  A special type of  ABS to PVC transition cement is required to join ABS to PVC. And Holy Toledo. My toilet fits perfectly.

My old pop-up had a 17 gallon fresh water tank I thought I could use in the new trailer.  I removed it and found it was strangely shaped. It was custom-made for the shape of the pop-up. Flat and wide with a small area that went over the axle. It wouldn't be a good fit for the new camper. I bought a new 21

Bed frame, water tank, back wall

gallon tank and had planned on mounting it underneath the floor in front of the axle.

When I tried to place it, it was too big to fit without notching out one of the floor braces. I did not want to compromise the structure of the floor so I found a place inside, under the bed to put it.

I found an hour to also install a couple of smaller features. A folding handrail next to the entrance and an exterior AC outlet.

Now, I'm rushing to get all the infrastructure in and working. Fresh water tank. Plumbing, sink and toilet. Power inverter, batteries, 110V and 12V outlets and lights.

The folding handrail is a nice touch.

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