Every Cloud has a silver lining
Coming home from work yesterday my brake light came on
Checked the handbrake was off,
tested the brakes worked,
all seemed fine. Parked up at home then decided to see how soft the brake pedal was with the engine off.(no servo)
As I pressed hard, slowly my foot went to the floor.
Just to check I did it again
I climbed out, felt all around the front brakes looking for oil...clean and dry
Popped the bonnet to check the fluid level
Almost empty. When I lay on the floor to roll under I found where all the fluid had gone
I had a damaged brake pipe leaking fluid. A quick call to the garage resulted in the earliest appointment Monday morning. No work today then
,but had a great time on the camper. Not too hot, early start, good progress.
Finished riveting the angle on. Sealed the checker plate and angle with aluminium colored silicone (Intek AG 300)
While It was accessible I started to fit the floor panel in. (Its was easier with the base on its side)
Finished up with it looking like this.
The outside edge sitting on the frame (Similar to the way the checker plate was fitted) You can see there is no support in a couple of the large areas
. Although the Celotex insulation is fairly resistant to crushing I will add 2 or 3 ✖ braces just to make sure.
The next step will be to cut and fit the insulation sheets in all the sections. As yet, I am undecided as to whether to silicone seal them in.
With the base back down on the floor, it struck me that the shower/toilet/washroom looked disproportionally large for the amount of time it will be used
(its the area nearest the camera up to the box laying at an angle. The door area seemed too large compared to Richards camper and I was going to reduce it with a section of wall.
Now I might look at making it smaller altogether with a sort of slide out pantry thing along the lines of a thick sliding door
A mock-up shower cubicle might be needed for a test.
While sealants and adhesives were going off I had time to drag poor old "lightning" (my teardrop camper) out and open her up.
It's only a week before I will be camping at Santa pod again ( I was hoping the demountable would be nearer but....
) so I need to patch and mend that ready to go This time last year when I went through the same procedure I was greeted by a furry interior that would be good for growing mushrooms. It was dry and clean so the tarp had kept the water out
The leisure battery, which I had neglected over the winter, was down to 11.7 volts. I uncovered the 40-watt solar panel and reconnected it to the charge controller.
The output from the load terminals was less than 3 volts yet the controller was feeding the battery at 16 volts. I think the unit is shot so I put the battery on the mains charger instead.
I need to educate myself on the use of solar panels, charge controllers, and battery cutoffs.
I think I have learned so far that:-
If the battery is isolated with a double pole switch while the solar panel is connected the system voltage is the same as the panel output . 18 volt in my case. This blows the car radio that has a permanent live feed for the clock. ( On third radio)
It also appears that the battery should be connected before the solar panels are or else they blow the charge controller
They say you pay to learn......I'm paying