I want to start a new thread about nothing, and let it run...

[ducksface]

The Porcine Bible specifically names my spousal unit as the
Demon of Chop Fire Shred Consume.

Pork tamales.
12hr mesquite/hickory smoked ribs.

https://www.smokintex.com/?gclid=Cj0...waAqlkEALw_wcB

[MTHook]

I've gotta find a Vega to check and see if I could install the the wheel wells in my '15 Windsport 34E. It would seem the wheel wells would be the same

[ducksface]

Just a cautionary tale told in pictures.
It didn't break off in my hand but it was broken clean through.

I'll either lathe turn an aluminum knurled and engraved bar to replace the plastic one or just go buy an ADA bathroom stainless bar.
Mine was 17"top screw to bottom screw.
The new one willl be through-bolted and back plated.

Take a look-see before showing your portulent Christmas guests the rv....

[ducksface]

I bought this as replacement for the broken assist handle in the post above:
https://www.amazon.com/CSI-Bathware-...6959457&sr=8-3
I'll spray it with some plastdip/grip, or slip a section of shrink tubing over it and stipple(look it up) the coach side of the shrink tube using a soldering iron, for a good grip.
https://www.amazon.com/XHF2018-Dual-...+tubing&sr=8-3


The new betterer bar is $10 shipped.
18"
I'm going to suggest this as a preemptive fix for what will be a STARTLING failure.

[ducksface]

Everything runs through my inverter.
Thus, even if hooked to shore power, the batteries run everything.
The kids turned the 1500w heater full blast and ran the microwave and TV and lights.
It dropped the batteries low enough(12.1v) everything kicked off and the shore power wouldn't activate the charger. I had to kick start it all with a 60 year old Sears 10amp analog charger. It only dumped 4amps, but it got the relay or whatever was the problem to release. A new digital charger flipped itself off and on and wouldn't stay in charge mode. The overhead bunk was down so I didn't try the chassis battery to see what was up with it.

A glitch of some sort or they turned off the charger, I'll have it looked at during the spring thaw and I'll probably change my idea of running it all through the batteries, and have the switches rewired.

Anyway, charger built into the inverter goes up to 150 amp. It went up to 123amps during this little stress test. Batteries barely even warmed from 54° to never hitting 66° they're just two cheap cheap 24 series. I expected a Squat load of heat... Heat never happened.

[ducksface]

Damn!
Some people can't make cookies.
I bet we have 8lbs of inedible cookies here.
The birds are gonna get them all.

We're too high of altitude(I suppose) in that we do not have English sparrows or starlings or grackles.
Seldom do we see whitewings and never mourning doves, and no quail.
Migratory birds and an occasional roadrunner and local Jays are what come around. Hawks and owls of all sorts buzz the place like religion, but they eat cookie eaters, not cookies.
A bald eagle circled us on Christmas day, they and Merriam turkeys are common just a mile+ away, but not here, and on great occasion a condor will use our mountain as a sign post that says turn back.

But
The chickadees that are passing through and our local Pinon Jays and our family of three ravens(and our momma papa juvenile javelina family) are gonna be loving new years and cookies. Cold and snow covered, a calorie is a calorie when you be freezing your tail feathers off.

It's odd. We have three ravens, two miles away they have three hundred.

I'm gonna have to run off the javelina if they start coming up to the house.
They're stupid and dangerous.

The pictures are
A squirrel imitating a banana peel
And
Our local squirrel eater.

[ducksface]

A drier pizza than most.
Aioli sauce-ish, Pinon nuts, pepperoni and linguisa and Jamon and red bell peppers home grown chives and garlic and a half dozen hard cheeses. A 'venice' type pizza vs a Sicilian.
Light and happy cracker bottom and fluffy top thin type crust.

It will be excellent as a dried out found on the counter four hours later slice.

[halfprice]

Mine

[ducksface]

I knew your pizza was cooking!
We don't have a pizza oven yet.
We're deciding on a section of 500 gallon propane tank or a smaller half of a clothes dryer drum.

It'll be on wheels with a hitch mount like our bubba keg(a stainless steel 'big green egg) is.

We never use the Bubba keg.
It's up for trade.
It Mounts to a bitch receiver.

[ducksface]

My new
'ain't never gonna give you up, Ain't never gonna let you down'
Stainless steel, welded, longer, stronger
Entry assist handle.

Color matched caulk for the old holes is coming soon.

[ducksface]

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sour...N8sVojiOfVta96

[ducksface]

A very casual acquaintance called to have me check on a friend of his stuck in the snow.
Insult to the injury of owning a 2wd durango(I didn't know such a thing existed), I showed up in the gator and had him put his in neuter-all until knew I could trust him to not run over the make-do strap.
In his defense it's about a 12% grade with 2 to 10 inches of slushy snow on it.
That slope above us in the picture, the driveway he was on crosses and climbs the same.
7000ft altitude. That's not smog you're not seeing.

[ducksface]

Buy any 32" light bar with a wiring kit. Mine was amazon, $27 bucks. I have four of these. No failures. I can't see much difference in $400 light bars vs $27 light bars. I'm sure the minutia is important and death defying to someone. It's not important to me. But buy any light bar. 32" is the maximum fit between frame rails.

Remove the supplied switch and attach the White switch wire (the trigger 12v for the included relay) on the light bar wiring harness to the Black lead on one of the Thor led lights in the headlight bezel. If you have a multimeter, double check me on this. It's how mine on all the vehicles hooked up. The black wire on the Thor led is positive.

Cap the black and possibly added blue wire that was attached to the switch in your wiring kit.

Attach main light bar power(fat red wire coming from the relay) to the big positive cable connections beside the drivers side of the radiator. It doesn't matter that this wire is always hot. The white trigger wire keeps the light bar turned off.

The new light bar will be on during ddl Thor led use and always on, high beam or low beam.

UNLESS you turn on your FOG lights.
THEN the new 32" light led bar is OFF when using your low BEAMS and ON during high beam use, just like it should be.

So, always on, which I don't suggest, or goes on and off with the high beams depending on the fog light switch. (from the factory your fog lights do not work with high beams and your ddl lights do not work with low beams.(That was handy)
No need for a seperate switch, the coach is already wired correctly for this.

Of course if you want a seperate switch it comes with the wiring kit. I wouldn't want a seperate switch. I'd forget to flip it on and off.

A one inch spacer on your frame rails let's it shine EXACTLY through the lower grill opening.
Practically unseen when not in use it lines up almost exactly with the factory led's giving a bridge of light from one bezel to the other.


Explanations:
Those are 2"spacers in the pictures.
Mine no longer lines up perfectly due to the front hitch install.

I will possibly move the light bar up to the brace going across the radiator front, aligning it with the second grill vent. Maybe a 36" will fit there.

The light bar is OFF in the pictures. That's just the phone flash reflecting. It's incredibly bright and even and.really hard to take a picture of when on.

[ducksface]

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B06Y5...b_b_asin_image

Already had to use them on someone else's stuck vehicle.
Pondered a betterment, so I added studs.
They store well in their pouch but I might bolt them to the rear bumper of the axis, in keeping with the 6wd theme.

The next mod will be legs to use them as a table top when flipped upside down.

[Sk8nmike]

Ducksface, Where did you find the spacers for mounting your light bar?

[ducksface]

Originally Posted by Sk8nmike

Ducksface, Where did you find the spacers for mounting your light bar?

I tapped a 1/4-20 hole into the frame rails. A nutsert would work also. If you don't have or don't want to get the tools, self tapping screws would work just fine. You could even use stainless steel zip ties and wrap them around the frame horns.

The mount itself is a 1/4-20(Standardly it has a 7/16 head)bolt and a couple of uerathane bushings I had sitting around, but pine block would do just as well as would a section of pvc pipe cut to your desired length/height. If you want to get all purdy: two appropriately sized washers wrapped with tape leaving space for an inch or so of cheap silicone squirted in would make a custom spacer. I'd just use wood since I'm not sure the cushion is really needed.

I sorely considered mounting it directly to the hood. This would work well but I feared the added weight might mess with the hood balance because mine opens up. Older axis opened down and would be fine.

[ducksface]

I had to whack about 3" of height from my windshield washer tank because the front hitch Mounts low to the frame and interfered. It is ssooo hard to find a good place for that tank under the hood so I just whacked this one and will put it back where it was.

I cut out a 3"+- strip and used the strip to reinforce the new seam.
Plastic welding was not my friend, so I went over the edges with hot glue.

If it fails I'll get a soft tank from a Gen1 mustang restoration place or adapt a Sam's club size plastic mayonaise jar.

[tag8015]

Which ryobi tire inflator did you get?

[ducksface]

Originally Posted by tag8015

Which ryobi tire inflator did you get?

https://www.amazon.com/Function-Infl...v+infal&sr=8-8

This one.
We love that thing.
We've had it since they first came out four or so years ago.
Inflates air mattresses and deflates them even quicker.
For tires I hook it to a valve stem, set the pressure and walk away to do something else. It shuts off on its own at the right pressure.
No squatting for minutes at each tire.

It goes with us in the little Blazer even though I carry a 120ci scuba tank and tire adapter for airing up after a crawl.
This is slower than the tank but the automatic cutoff is ssssoooo nice.

It lives in that ryobi bag along with a charger and two batteries.
That's the 3 gallon 18v vacuum next to it.

[ducksface]

I put the Christmas gingerbread houses out for the birds today, and now it's snowing.