I mostly just joke around on FTE and don't get to into the real deep conversations.
But this camper build is very interesting to me, and I look forward to any sort of updates and info etc.

So glad that Carlene has this thread going on to read.

RV Tech goodnon ya man for the info.
I do not know a thing about building one....I just bought mine from a dealer all ready to go.

 

Carlene,

Reference the NEC code book on the this placement. You should never mix low and high voltage lines in work boxes mainly for safety reasons. They have brackets for the low voltage wiring. I know them as LV1 and LV2. LV1 single LV2 double. The code book or the NEC would give better explanation on the guide lines where to place the lines.

good luck

 

Lots of discussion on this point on the Internet. The large box Lowes has actually is two separate boxes on the same mount so they never come together. Interference seems to be a lesser issue. NEC is for safety, although RVIA has their own code and their own inspectors.

Steve

 

RV Tech has it right on the 110v/coax issue. You can't run them in the same box or conduit. It's a safety issue, not really a noise issue (but it can cause noise, however a fuzzy picture on a tv won't get you electrocuted).

Per code, you cannot run "low voltage" circuits in the same run with "high voltage" circuits. In this particular case, the low voltage would be the coax, and code refers to 110v as "high voltage" (although in the old days it was not referred to as "high voltage", it is now). Low voltage also includes, phone lines, network/internet lines, control circuits (aka thermostat or security/alarm ckts).

This is all done for safety reasons more so than AC noise on line reasons. For noise filtering, you want to keep from running low voltage circuits in parallel (by this I mean not having the wires run along side each other for any great distances, not the "electrical" version of "parallel" such as a "parallel circuit"), with AC circuits as much as possible. Anytime you have to cross the low and high voltage circuits in your wire run, it's best to cross at a 90 degree angle.

As long as you're using a quality coax cable, your noise concerns should be minimal. I would use at least a "tri-shield" (as in 3) coax, and a "quad-shield" (as in 4), would be better. And do yourself a favor and run RG-6, and not RG-59. Yes, it costs more, but your signal throughput will thank you later.

 

1 & 2, O/LP Detector - I went ahead and bought the Atwood Combo since we do a lot of camping with & around generators and I liked the smaller size of the Atwood better than the other ones.

3, Grounding - We went with running ground wires back to converter area for the major stuff and grounding to frame for the LED lights and lighted switches. We tested each wire and all looks good.

4, Gas Line Grounding - I guess we'll figure out if Steve wants to ground just the main line or that and where it splits across when we run the lines. Makes sense though that with all the grounding of everything else that it might not be necessary.

5, 110 & Coax - We already ran it to separate boxes. My question was if it is alright to run the Coax cable "behind" the plastic gang box containing the 110 outlet. We have a 1-1/2" wall space with 1-1/4" blue plastic gang boxes spaced to account for the 1/8" wallboard. The cable fits nicely behind the gang box and is a straight shot from the antenna control to the outside cable hookup.
From the sound of Slowpoke Slim's post, we should be alright.

 

I was only off by one number.

Thank you guys so much for your help and comments.

BTW, I am having fun doing this project and learning a lot.

 

Coming in late on this project, but I love it! This is the kind of thing that I really dig.

I did notice one thing back in the pictures you posted in #73. The way the tongue is enclosed may make it difficult to attach many WD hitches. You may have that worked out already, so feel free to ignore me, but I thought I should mention it.

Good luck on making October!

 

Thanks for the comments bp. We have a WD hitch but Steve's not worrying about that right now. The only thing that will be towing this camper is our F350 dually and he said its not an issue. If we ever get back to working on the 41 pu, he'll come up with something, he usually does.

 

I think I'm way overdue for posting some progress pictures so here goes.

We already had some aluminum rims that were just laying around the house. They came off a Jeep but fit our new axles perfectly. They were in ok shape, I could have polished them out, but we decided I have enough to clean/polish around the house so decided to go with having them powder coated.

Here we're taking them off to send to powder coater's and then to get new tires mounted. We had a couple junk tires/rims (the tiny one) to put on in the mean time.



Here's a shot with the newly coated rims and new tires.



Steve didn't make the fender trim because we didn't want anything "boxy" looking. I found these online and we think they really make the trailer & wheels pop.

 

Here's a view showing how we mounted the rear lights. I followed Steve once when he was in his new work truck and the lights on his flatbed were angled like this. We got home and I told him how much I like that setup and want our trailers lights to be set up the same way.



Here we have the whole shot of the truck and trailer. Notice how the trailer matches the bottom paint of the truck..........well, it only matches in the shade. If you look in the "tire" post above you'll see the difference with the sun on it. Guess we have to just ride around in the shadows.



Oh yeah, that's my boys going to christen the new tires.

 

We caulked and screwed all the floor boards down. For those of you that haven't read this whole thread or remember, we used 3/4" marine grade plywood and put plastic laminate on the underside for extra protection.

We decided to go with vinyl flooring for the weight factor. One of my relatives said they could lay it so we had him come up one weekend and lay it down. It looks pretty good here, other than I don't like the way that there's a rolling gap going from the floor up the fender well.



It looked real good til about 2 weeks later. I was showing someone how nice it looks and noticed there was a raised bubble going all the way across and a good way back - both were in the only place that isn't getting a bed or cabinet or anything. Right smack-dab in the middle of the main area. After we got over the "what are we going to do now" and a lot of research on how to fix this, only to find out that the fix may not be permanent, we decided to go with a floating floor - which I like much better.

I had to pull up the old-new flooring and scrape all the adhesive off. That was a chore in itself. The plywood floor was still tacky so I sprinkled it with a lot of powder to do away with that issue. We decided to leave the vinyl in the bathroom, storage area and where the bed is going to be.



You'll notice that the planks and vinyl colors compliment each other. It won't be noticeable here where the bed goes, but looks nice where the bathroom and living area meet.

BTW, there is only one "1" plank in this whole thing that we didn't have to cut.



This shot is just showing how we finished off the fender well. We screwed the top most plank leaving the lower plank free to grow/shrink and screwed on the one at the edge of the fender well allowing the inner plank to float. We figure with this 9" width, it shouldn't be that much of an issue.



Also in this shot you can see where we've started drilling the holes for wiring.

That's it for now.

 

Excellent progress. This project is coming along nicely.

 

Of everything going on here (Stewart pointed me to this) I'm mostly wondering...

Why is there a toilet in the middle of the driveway?

 

That's where the sewer drain is

 

Subscribed. Very interesting proyect, and very good work, congrats.