design and construction of an expedition camper - part 6

I install a seat cover for the driver side, after vacuum the cab really well.

design and construction of an expedition camper - part 5

I have been procuring the hard to find components for the expedition camper. I want to secure them even though I am only conducting high level design at this point, and I have yet to even commit to a sketch. However I have been designing in my head.

design and construction of an expedition camper - part 4

There are two gas struts supporting the big roof window when open. The hinge bracket on one had delaminated at the glue interface to the glass pane, evidently due to excessive heat build up with the window and blackout blind fully closed. To repair it involving finding an adhesive that will work well with two perfectly flat surfaces, will cure hard, and will not creep, as well as standing up to extreme temperature range. I reckon it would be characteristics of a modern structure adhesive.

design and construction of an expedition camper - part 3

When I took possession of the Fuso Canter at the Porsche dealership I didn't expect to see the insect screen and black out blind for every window and skylight were messed up. I knew there was no point trying to straighten them there. I said to the person doing the sales paperwork that these are not designed for Americans. I would investigate when I get home. I wasn't optimistic I could repair them as they look like they had been abused or sabotaged. 

design and construction of an expedition camper - part 2

I like to tell my friend and family I have 10 years worth of projects lined up. I have no disillusion the design and construction of the expedition camper will take about 2 years working with the time I have among other projects and maintenance. I have spent countless hours watching the best of German expedition campers/motorhomes to see the latest technology, architecture, industrial design, functional design, and material. Still, my best point of reference is Brunnhilde by Westfalia that was done over 20 years ago.

design and construction of an expedition camper - part 1

 

I decided to start a new series with a more appropriate title for the design and construction of my expedition camper, so here it begins. I am breaking from my normal photo-rich posts for this one post as I begun with a top down design by first enumerated a wish list of things I want in the camper.

The list is not compiled with wistful thinking alone but with iterations of brainstorming comprehending the many constraints. As such the items are realistic and realizable given my rough estimated budget of $100k for taking the rig to completion. I would be doing most of the work except the specialized fabrication work that I cannot do without the needed equipment and tools.

more lighting for the ranch - part 1

There are much more than what first meets the eyes with this inner gate. It has 120Vac power, gate opener, an outdoor wifi access point, and a 4k 20x pan/tilt/zoom network security camera. I found these wifi controlled outdoor power receptacles made by Feit from Costco. I use one for the LED string lights on this gate.

fancying for an overlander - part 4

One thing that I didn't rush to do was attempting to tilt the cab. Before getting onto the road in Colorado Springs I would had like to check the vital fluid levels but that would require tilting the cab, and I decided not to take the risk. I was right.

fancying for an overlander - part 3

In preparation for investigating the cause of the limp mode and red check engine light I did some research to see which low cost diagnostic code reader to buy. I selected FCAR F506 Heavy Duty Truck Scanner. The same scanner is sold at huge range of prices from $120 to $495 at FCAR USA's online store.

brunnhilde's broken sway bar bracket - part 2

The parts I ordered to repair the broken right side RSB arrived. I order a spare side in case I need another one down the road. I thought install them would be a cakewalk, with 30 minute max. I could not be more wrong.

happiness is a close by faucet - part 1

While I had the foresight to sink 3 hydrants around the concrete patio of the barn I wasn't able to plan one right adjacent to the concrete pad. I have to walk across the native soil to get to the hydrant to connect a hose, or to open or shut the hydrant. I planned eventually to install a hot/cold mixer outside faucet on the barn wall down the road.

fancying for an overlander - part 2

After about 1200 miles driving the truck back from Colorado Springs through early winter snow storm in Wyoming it needs a good wash badly. I want to wash off any deicing chemical they might had put on the road.

steak au poivre - part 4

For the last club members weekend at the track I signed up to prepare the dinner. There were going to be around committed seats of 30, I was told 3 days in advance so I could shop for the right quantity of ingredients. I wanted a dish with widest appeal so steak au poivre it is. By now I have made this dish a few times for myself and feel confident that I could scale it 30x without the need to measure or weigh.

brunnhilde's broken sway bar bracket

I was at the track camping out. I noticed a small area of wetness under the camper though I was sure it was just condensation from the overnight dew. I crawled down under the van and check just to be sure. All was good.

fancying for an overlander

It was one of those impulse purchase that I made. Impulse purchase can be very good if you had done the research beforehand and act on it when the opportunity presents itself by chance. I had made numerous big impulse purchases including the two most recent properties. I had looked into the Mitsubishi Fuso Canter 4x4 diesel truck a few years ago, casually and I learnt of their rarity in North America. It is now even more so as Daimler Truck cease to import all Mitsubishi Fuso trucks about 5 years ago a few years after stop selling the diesel and 4x4 models.

happiness is another small engine - part 5

 

This one is not so small engine, really. Having endure some big snow storms last winter I decided life is too short to not spending money to get a good snowblower. I have a 1/4 mile long private driveway that is all gravel road.

steak au poivre - part 3

I still have a lot of the brined green pepper corns as well as the heavy whipping cream left for making steak au poivre. I bought more steaks when I was grocery shopping in town. Ideally the steak to use for this dish is filet mignon. I didn't want to spurge so I chose New York strip steak instead.

home made oyster sauce

I have always been very dissatisfied with store bought oyster sauce. The best ones I've ever tasted was during my youth and only in Cantonese wonton soup noodle shops. They are specialty oyster sauce not sold to the public except the trade. I had put up with store bought subpar oyster sauce for decades, and finally I decided the only way to get good ones is to make my own.

I don't need any recipe as it is very intuitive for me. It is all about using real ingredients, reduction and concentrate.

installing window tint film

I have been donating my time and skills to improve my home track at Oregon Raceway Park. This is only the simplest of project. I install window tint film for the small office. The two windows face East and West which is the worst directions. The office suffers from solar gain and glare through out the day making working in there miserable. I would fix that besides the LG mini split that I'd already installed.

LG multi-zone mini split heat pump - part 3

Winter seems so far away when you are in the mid of summer. I dislike working in the sun and I know I would regret for not getting more done before the winter comes. The nasty old man will soon at the gate of the ranch threaten to destroy a lot of stuff that I worked hard for. It is time to plan ahead as a rancher worths his salt.

more infrastructure improvements - part 4

With the testing I am satisfied adding a wifi AP to the inner gate is a worthwhile improvement to the property. With this I would have internet covering the circa 3 acres of outdoor area around the inner gate. This would give almost complete wifi coverage of the property from end to end along the 1/4 mile driveway. I need to pull one more ethernet cable for the access point.

I wasn't looking forward to pulling another ethernet cable between the tractor garage and the inner gate through the in ground PVC conduit that already has a Romex, a 24Vac wire pair for the gate opener, and an ethernet cable. It is really not about just adding another ethernet cable. To add another cable, one has to pull everything out and pull the bundle with the additional cable though the entire length of the conduit.

more infrastructure improvements - part 3

A person is defined by the tools he has. With the East wall outlets installed and the floor washed, I decided to set up the electronics work station utilizing a good section of the wall that is sheltered from the before noon sun. Since its dismantling for moving from Portland to the ranch it has been sitting disassembled for 3 years now. How it all come back together gets fussy the longer they sits.

steak au poivre - part 2

While I made this dish a couple months ago, I didn't have green pepper corns nor Cognac. I went onto Amazon and ordered 2 cans of green pepper corns in brine. I also have a bottle of Hennessy. I gave this dish a go again without trying hard to make sure I have the other ingredients like reduced beef stock. I knew I can improvise and work around this minor detail.

more infrastructure improvements - part 2

By planning ahead, I provisioned two loops along this East wall when I dropped a four-plex outlets on the corner of a North wall. The loops provide the 20A service run to the four-plex while allowing me to later add two more four-plex outlets. In all there are actually 16 outlets all are GFCI protected, as required by code in a garage building.

more infrastructure improvements

I never appreciate the need for a personal weather station until I moved out into the country. In a city all one needs are outdoor and indoor thermometer and indoor humidity sensor. Living in the country one needs to be more in tune with the weather including precipitations, sun, moon, cloud, storm, and wind. I'd never thought much of the Acu-rite weather station until I experience with one. It came with the property from the previous owners. The only thing I want to change is the location of the outdoor unit.

still, still yet another mini split installation - part 1

Some might think that I've gone mini split crazy. It is not. I'd always like them and I was one of the earlier person in US to install them, back in early 2000s. At the ranch I have planned to install one in the cabin. The cabin has no water or toilet. The only means of heat is a wood stove, or electric heater. I want to improve its amenities including water, heating and cooling, and a bath.

happiness is authentic hong kong style chow mein

This is one of my favorite Hong Kong restaurant dish. It is a Cantonese fried noodles called chow mein. Even in Hong Kong this dish is often too oily and lack adequate and quality topping. A Google search on chow main returns a lot of images of the supposedly chow mein. Most I would not touch with a ten feet pole.

happiness is more iOT - my eunuchs, part 3

 

I have been looking forward to putting one of the Shelly Uni to work at the front gate. The Shelly Plus 1 module I installed inside the gate opener has been working flawlessly once I sorted out some quirks. The quirks involving changing wireless SSID. The only way you can change the SSID in these devices is you have to be in communication with it in. It can only connect to one and only one that you tells it to.

happiness is more iOT - my eunuchs, part 2

 

I was determined to clean up the big work bench in the laundry room so I can work more comfortably there with electronic projects like the Shelly iOT. In the process I came across a box that contains a lot of stuff that I bought for the Arduino projects a few years ago. Amongst them are what I thought DHT22 humidity/temperature sensors. I was beaming with excitement and rushed to wire one up to my Uni.

happiness is more iOT - my eunuchs

After installation of the Shelly Plus 1 into the gate opener I discovered the company sells a lesser known iOT module called Uni. It requires more electronics skill to use but has the most functions than the nicely packaged and easier to use modules. I went ahead and order four to get the best unit pricing.

think and act like a rancher

When you have a ranch with countless buildings and a huge barn, there is no such thing as having too many power cords. In fact you want power cords (extension cables) of various lengths. I like my cords to be just the right length, and very often circa 25 ft work really well for powering battery chargers attaching to the vehicles.

door bell 1/4 mile away - part 3

With my plug-and-play harness made for the Shelly Plus 1 module I was so eager to get it working at the front gate. I actually wasted some time trying to use the wireless network bridge AP 1/8 mile away hoping I can avoid adding a PoE AP which will add power consumption. The signal is simply too weak down on the ground even for the iPhone to work.

door bell 1/4 mile away - part 2

More progress on my incremental work to improve my front gate of the ranch for expected and unexpected visitors. Since I installed the PoE remote door bell camera I am satisfied with its design and functional reliability given the challenges of being 1/4 mile from the house. I want to be able to operate the front gate from the house. I also want to keep the cost as well as power consumption down. The latter is most important as everything there relies on solar energy.

still another mini split installation - part 2

The LG 12,000 BTU heat pump is finally on hand for me to finish the installation. It is the exact same model that I chose to install for the racetrack's office. It is one that will work down to extremely low ambient during the coldest of winter here.

i fix it; iFixAll

I have this DeLonghi radiant electric space heater for 30 years. I have always taken good care of it, and it never failed me until this winter. Inexplicably the dial of the thermostat seized up and cannot be turned. The heating elements still function just fine except I cannot change the thermostat set point. I finally found time to investigate.

still another mini split installation - part 1

I have long planned to install a mini split heat pump in the three-car garage. There is a full bath as well as the accumulators for the well water inside which rely on resistive electric heat to prevent the water from freezing in winter. I want to be able to use the garage as a closer workshop. It is a no-brainer decision, except finding time to install one. That time is now.

door bell 1/4 mile away

The front gate of the ranch is 1/4 mile away from the house. For security reasons I like to keep the gate closed. But what do you do when guests show up at the gate. For friends and acquaintances they can call ahead. But for unexpected visitors there is no way for them to announce their arrival, until now.

electrician ranch hand

A few weeks ago I ran an Ethernet cable from the barn to the tractor garage, and from the tractor garage to the inner gate for a pan, tilt, zoom security. While feeding the cable through the underground PVC conduit between the tractor garage and the inner gate I discovered there is a Romex cable the previous owner provisioned but not used. What a shame to leave it unused.

happiness is another small engine - part 4

There is this one pine tree that I have been reluctant to cut down as it is a perfect living Christmas tree, both for its form and location. However, its location had became a curse because of the new barn. It is in the pathway of the approach to the barn. When I have the Sprinter Westfalia motorhome with the car trailer in tow it is where a tight turn while part of the road train has not clear the inner gate.

dim sum style pork rib mass production - part 1

My favorite pork rib is Cantonese dim sum style. I was shopping at Costco and I decided to buy a pack of St. Louis style spare ribs. It is a big package as always from Costco.

steak au poivre

I bought some ribeye steak in the recent shopping trip. I decided to make steak au poivre (pepper steak).

char siu mass production - part 2

 

This morning I decided to grill the rest of the marinated pork shoulder. I only have a medium Weber original grill that was given to me as a gift. I would prefer a full size one but it would be such a shame as this one will last indefinitely. Because I had to grill them in small batches. There is no thermometer to monitor their progress as each piece is of different size. Once you done it a few time you can pretty well judge the doneness by the firmness of the meat.

happiness is a nice refrigerator

I didn't intend to be in the market for a new refrigerator. I did consider buying one when my GE failed suddenly in January. I seldom browse the appliance area in Home Depot but this time I did while picking up some plumbing and electrical parts. None of the appliances caught my eye, except this LG side by side fridge. In the past I had pretty well decided that I would not want another side by side again. However having recently experiencing the most common French door with bottom freezer I grew to dislike the often need to open two upper doors, as well as how the cold drops to the floor when accessing the freezer.

char siu mass production - part 1

 

I stopped buying store bought char siu decades ago. None are acceptable to me. I took the matter into my own hands and taught myself how to make them by trial and error. Now I can make very good one and I don't use Chinese bean paste as I don't trust any from mainland China. I use Korean bean paste and they are extremely reasonably price as well as excellent quality. 

spring change over

It is time to change the front end implement on the tractor from winter mode to spring mode. I was first quite intimidated with installing the snow plow implement. Swapping it with the front end loader for the uninitiated is not easy. Doing it wrong you can damage the equipment or risk injuries. Also detaching and attaching the hydraulic lines can turn into a day long struggle. In time I learnt and got to know my equipment.

another mini split installation

I bought many HVAC tools and quantities of consumables for the multi-zone mini split heat pump that I installed in the barn. It would be such a waste for a one time use. I proposed to my home track owners that I would donate my time and skills to install one for only the cost of the material, with some free ones from my collection. As tokens of my contribution they give me a few free track days. A win-win proposal they couldn't refuse. We are like a family which motorsport is our share passion.

happiness is another light fixture

I have always wanted the Arco floor lamp by the famed Italian architect Achille Castiglioni. Only I had never have enough ceiling height to make it work. Now with the timber frame living room with a vaulted ceiling of 18 feet, would one serve both functional as well as atheistic purposes?

one more network run - part 1

During the early phase of constructing the barn I tried hard to identify all the opportunities to maximize the utilities of the project, including improving the entire property, especially the cabin that is about 1/8 mile away along the private driveway. Now with the barn in the finishing phase of stage I there is nothing I wish that I had provisioned except one. That is running an Ethernet between the barn and what I call the tractor garage adjacent to it separated by the big concrete pad. It would had been so easy to throw in a conduit between the two buildings before the external concrete was poured.

one more network run - part 2

I used the opportunity to pick up the needed conduits when I bought the last 6 sheet of tongue and grove plywood used as wall panels. As the transition of 1" conduit to 3/4" would be done in a tight confine I decided to use heat to slightly enlarge the 1" pipe so the 3/4" pipe can fit inside. I glued the two pipes together so the transition is watertight. I also reamed the end of the 3/4" pipe to facilitate pulling the cable through it.

wall finish for the barn - part 4

 

When I finished all the main wall sections I used up 46 sheets of plywoods. To also cover the small wall sections flanking the garage doors I needed 6 more sheets, making a total of 52. Off to Home Depot I went and return also with enough PVC conduit to do the remaining network run that I didn't do during the construction of the barn.