Santa Pod preparation
I only have until Wednesday to get "Lightning DPD"(delaminating plywood teardrop) ready for the 4 day European Finals meeting.
Tarpaulin off, power on, wipe down the solar panels, new gas bottle. The on board leisure battery shows 12.7 volts, not bad. An hour later, with the sun out 14.7volt( max solar charge system should allow)
Side track a bit, the charge controller was a cheap ebay purchase and it is not without its problems. Either that or it's my wiring
If I leave the solar panels connected when I turn the battery isolator switch to off. The power system runs up to 18-20 volts, in bright sun light, which has destroyed 3 car radios
before I found the cause. There are 4off 6volt 10-watt panels connected 3 in series(3x6=18) on in parallel for a few more amps. The radio, lights and fan are all connected to the controller "LOAD" terminals. When the battery is connected all is well, max 14.7volt when disconnected
Back to the job in hand. Last winter, when water penetrated Lightning and destroyed all the bedding that had been left in situ, an alternative had to be found. During the winter, cold, dark nights when nothing could be done on the demountable build. I decided that I would need custom made seat/bed cushions.
I know, I'll make them myself
Again, working on the principle that if I read the book, I can do it.
Armed with a book on sewing techniques, my mothers 30 something-year-old sewing machine and my usual enthusiasm, we were off.
Quite a few strange looks from shop assistants when I quizzed them about fabric, upholstery silk, sewing machine bobbin tension and other allied subjects I knew nothing about.
My design dictated I needed four cushions, two each side, that when laid out together made my single bed. Denelm, four pieces of 4 inch blue foam 1000mm long. It was not until some weeks later after cutting all the cushions to size I noticed the scrap was not all the same size
3 were 4 inches, one was 3 1/2 inch. Even the shop assistant at the cash till didn't notice
At over £20 a go I was not pleased)
This picture shows the rough position on the build (thick and thin
I can laugh about it now )
Fabric was next. A colleague at work suggested Draylon as it is near waterproof and very hard wearing. Just the job I thought
Finding some turned out to be a bit of a problem
Eventually I ordered some mint green plain Draylon which came from Germany.
After quite a few evenings sitting over a hot sewing machine, running tests on bobbin tension, thread tension, stitch length, repairing the speed controller I managed to make a small test cushion compleat with sort of piped edges
I then thought, apart from not having a suitable sewing machine foot for piping, do I want to lay on two pieces of string when the cushions are made into a bed. NO
So piping is out.
That was as far as I got with cushion no 1. It's not right yet as I will have to replace the back panel with a bigger one if I continue to use two layers of wadding (for that soft touch
)
I also plan to experiment with a soft form of edging called French mattress edging
and I might even add buttoning
The whole point of this rambling is that I used the covered foam and the three uncovered for the replacement bed in Lightning.
These were taken out to air and to make sure they were dry. At least with the air vents open and a tarpauin over it to keep the wet out there was no fungus growing inside this time
The next jobs will be to check tyre pressure, check wheel bearings for grease/tightness. I usually have to take all the bulbs out of the trailer light to get them to work. I have yet to get anything out of the grey aux plug at all. even though the garage said they checked it and it works ok