This is the first post of the 2015 Drive Across America road trip
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This is a summary of the past several months where I made improvements to the “casita” (1959 King Richard Scamper teardrop trailer):
- Revamped the entire 110v and 12v systems to be more robust and useful. Added a 12v wheelchair battery to the tongue area of trailer. Added a fuse box and battery charger to facilitate charging the battery when hooked up to shore power. 12v LED strip lighting has replaced the stick-on 3v LED lights that always seemed to be falling off while traveling.
- Cleaned up and finished the galley hatch. Looks really nice, making the galley a welcoming place to prepare, eat a meal and engage in conversation. Also added LED strip lighting on the hatch.
- Acquired a Coleman 200A lantern of close vintage to the trailer. This small red lantern cleaned up well and is much more appropriate in size compared to the large military lantern I carried with me last year. Hope to make more use of the lantern on this year’s trip.
- Cleaned up, repainted and put anti-vibration shelf lining into the fore and aft storage cabinets in the sleeping cabin. Made use of plastic trays and army surplus canvas bags to store items such as electrical hookup cords, first-aid kit, and other supply items. All this should cut down on the dust and wear/tear on items being jostled around and misplaced during travel.
- Replaced all the lidded trays in the galley area and sorted through and removed items that were never used during the last trip. Food storage was reduced from the large trays that had to be constantly shifted between sleeping area and truck cab every night. Now all food will be kept in the galley area and more food supplies will be purchased along the way, rather than packing so much food from the start.
- Cleaned out, repaired and polished the icebox interior. Replaced the plastic tubing serving as the drain trap with copper tubing, which won’t deform. Removed some of the stainless trays that were beating up the interior and will be replacing with plastic lidded storage.
- Refinished and covered the support platform plywood on tongue with aluminum tread plate. This brightens up the front part of trailer and should eliminate the need for repainting this platform which used to get pretty weather-beaten by the end of the travel season.
- Mounted battery box on tongue, forward of the LP tank. Still need to come up with a method off securing the battery from theft…
- Repainted the LP tank. Replaced the copper line between LP tank and stove. Not sure what type of goop had formed in the old line over the years. I assume the old line was the original when the trailer was built.
- Built a fresh air fan that can hang from the curtain rod on either cabin door. It’s powered by 12v.
- Applied rubberized undercoat to bottom of trailer.
- Replaced cable hookup for trailer tail lights. Replaced damaged section of tail light cable between the tongue and fuse box. Re-homed the grounding point for the tail lights from galley to the frame under the cabin, street-side.
- Replaced all skin screws with stainless steel screws (#8, 3/4″, pan head). In areas of exterior that are painted black, black painted SS screws were used as replacements.
- Repainted tongue
- Washed and waxed the wheels. Replaced missing hubcap on the curbside.
- Repainted, waxed and applied new undercoating to the fenders. Cleaned, repainted and waxed the trailer exterior under the fenders.
- Removed mattress pad, vacuumed and cleaned cabin deck. Spot cleaned mattress and reinstalled.
- Replaced the old military surplus Linco torsion axle, which was frozen and provided no spring support whatsoever. Delivery of the new axle was delayed until xx-March.
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Repairs and improvements were also made to the 1992 Toyota pickup tow vehicle:
- Replaced front brake pads that were soiled by oil leak during 2014 trip, causing chatter during high speed breaking.
- Replace instrument cluster so that now there is a functional speedometer and odometer
- Installed a gooseneck connector for GPS unit to keep GPS unit placement legal
- Installed additional 12v outlet in console area
- Cleaned out glove box and other storage areas in the truck.
- Installed lumbar support on driver’s seat
- Installed gear bag on back of passenger’s seat
- Cleaned carpets and mats
- Cleaned seat upholstery
- Repainted windshield wiper arms. Replaced wiper blades
- Purchased supplies