The truck spent most of this week with Angel and Willy, and we picked it up yesterday so we can work on things other than the cabinets.

First up was the final placement of the refrigerator.  It needs to be secured both top and bottom, and its position has been moved a number of times as we’ve put other pieces in place.  We thought we’d been done with this, but when Angel was placing the cabinet facing on the cabinet over the fridge, he found that the bracket was too far forward and he’d have to cut a notch in the wood.  We wanted the fridge moved back anyway so the door would be flush with the cabinets, so we told him to install the cabinet facing as planned, and we would move the fridge back about an inch and a half.  We think ​it’s now where it belongs.

Tom will probably spend most of the afternoon getting the components of the electrical system in place in the cabinet.  Jon and Tatiana from Sunselectric.com will be here tomorrow to start actually getting things hooked up.

We also have what we think is all the flooring for the camper floor, although we won’t be sure until we cut it and fit it into the camper.  That might get done, and it might not.

On the far side of the table, you can also see the computer “brains” of the air ride system, which was successfully removed and replaced with a mechanical leveling system to control the air let in and out of the bags.  So far, it’s working great.

One of the most exciting things for me is that our dish storage and draining rack over the sink is almost done.  It’s not yet installed because the wood needs to be sanded and varnished, but it is EXACTLY what I wanted.  We’ve had a few design discussions as it’s been put together, but the end result will be well worth the effort.

​We’ve made a lot of camper progress this week, although the progress hasn’t provided a lot of photo ops.


Water:
Tom has spent a lot of time getting the water system pulled together.  He pulled the tanks out of the camper last week and made sure the fittings didn’t leak, and this week he hooked up all the pipes and valves into and out of the pump.  It looks more complicated than it is because of the number of valves.  On the supply side of the pump it’s just the fill tubes to each tank with shutoffs for each tank, tubes from the bottom of each of the two tanks, either of which can be shut off, and a drain tube with a valve so we can empty either or both tanks if necessary.  On the pressurized side of the pump we have a T for “city water” and a backflow valve so if we hook up to city water the pump can be bypassed without running water through it backwards.  


The disappointment of the week was that after he put it all together and pulled a battery out of the camper to test the pump, he found that the pump didn’t work.  He contacted the manufacturer, but because we imported it over six months ago, it’s well out of warranty and probably not worth shipping back to the US anyway.  So, he ordered another pump, which should be here in a few weeks, and we will test that one as soon as it arrives.  In the meantime, since the pump we have isn’t worth anything, he took it apart and messed with it, and it now sort of works, although it doesn’t produce the pressure it should, randomly shuts off due to a faulty connection in the motor housing, and doesn’t shut off when the water supply is interrupted.  At least it will work to test the system.

​Lights:
When Jeff and Kathy were here and Jeff went over the truck with Tom, he mentioned that the small red running lights we had put in the rail would get us in trouble in the US, since red can only be at the very back of the vehicle.  So, Tom put in all the amber lights we have, and ordered more small amber lights from the US.  They should be here in a few weeks, so then he’ll pop out the red ones and put in the amber.  In the meantime, none of those are hooked up anyway, so we’ll just wait until we get the amber lights to do the final hookup.

​Air Ride:
We mentioned a few weeks ago that the air ride system wasn’t working properly.  Since that time, it’s been off and on.  The problem is with the computer, rather than with the actual parts that are doing the work, so Tom talked to a local company that services those systems for the big trucks.  They determined that they could put in non-computerized controls, which should be fine for our purposes, and will be easily repaired if they malfunction.  One of our guiding principles for this build has been to go simple and not high tech whenever possible, so we are taking the truck to Rig Parts to get that done tomorrow.

With the camper home for the weekend, we started working on some of the systems.  At this point, we are just checking to make sure things work.  Tom pulled the water tanks and put some water in them to make sure the plumbing fittings didn’t leak.  Well, they did leak.  The pex tubing and fittings we bought here in Belize did not seal properly.  Since this is the low (no) pressure side of the water supply we are going to use flexible tubing and band clamps to setup the supply to the water pump.  Great to find this out PRIOR to installing everything!

We’re also planning on carrying a very simple water filtration system with us, using two jugs and a Sawyer water filter.  This is the same system we had been using at our jungle lodge for 13 years.  We have that all set up, and are using it here, and so far, that seems to be working too.

We’ll use a the same type of jug on the bottom as we have on the top rather than the commercial water bottle, but for here, we filter five gallons at a time, so we drip into the blue jug.

The only other thing we accomplished this weekend was loading the motos into the camper using the new ramp.  It’s a little more physically difficult than we expected, and it takes the two of us for both of the bikes, but it works.  But, that’s why we don’t have any photos - neither of us had a free hand to take a picture when we were pushing the bikes up the ramp.