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November 1-2, 2024

The Bug Shakedown

October 29, 2024

The Bug gets a logo.

Just a little touch of art for The Bug. The dragonfly is a favorite bug in these parts. We have them zooming around our place for a large portion of the year. My wife owns a Brother ScanNCut machine, and she took the downloaded .png, converted it to .svg, spent some time cleaning it up, added a bit of text and cut the parts from a UV resistant vinyl material. Then she pieced it together on transfer paper and we went outside and applied it to the trailer.

She did two of them, one we put centered on the front, the other is on a corner of the gate.

I think it's wonderful! It makes me smile everytime I look at it.

Latest Bug Pics Photo Gallery

Pics are chronological. Newest are at the end.

The Bug sits very low to the ground naturally. Much lower than in this picture. I was concerned about the safety of the black water drain gate valve. I decided to make a Road Hazard Deflector Shield.

The port Road Hazard Deflector Shield, mounted solidly to the frame.

As you can see, it would be difficult for anything to hit the valve now.

This gives me a great deal of peace as relates to stuff breaking that valve or pipe.

The Bug, port side. Fresh water inlet and the water heater are seen.

The Bug, starboard side. The air conditioner's condenser grille is there.

Heating the first pot of water for coffee. Ahhhh.

An option for storing the stove capper when the stove is in use indoors.

The first meal is being prepared. Simple but worthy, like The Bug.

A perfect skillet cornbread (upside down). The oven does well with cast iron.

I love the cheery feeling this flooring brings.

The colors make this a happy feeling place.

Chasing a short in the running lights proved my design for the air conditioner install DOES allow for quick and easy maintenance.

I had a hard time figuring out a way to lock the fridge tray for travel. It needed to be both secure and simple to use. Getting both was the challenge. When I ran across the lock handles from my old pickup shell, things fell into place. After some light modification: Perfection.

The graphic artist inspects her work. We both think this is just great!

October 26, 2024

CAT Scale Results at Love's.

The Bug weighs 4,300 lbs mostly loaded. All three tanks had some liquid. Bug-out supplies all onboard. The only things not included in that weight are personal luggage and passengers. It's a good weight for my F150, which can tow up to 6,400 lbs max. That's not much, if you listen to the truck ads on TV, but it is adequate for my needs. And it's all paid for, which makes it perfect in every regard.

The tongue weight was right at 440 lbs last I checked. Tongue weight should be 9 to 14 percent of the loaded trailer's weight. That is between 387 and 602 lbs. Perfect.

Getting the weight involved weighing the truck/trailer combo, then unhooking the trailer and weighing just the truck. I went into the Love's store and talked to the person at the commercial counter so they would understand what I was doing. She also told me where I could drop the trailer for the second weighing without making anyone angry. That's a good thing.

Total cost: c.$20.00. Sweet.

Fridge Slide Lock Problem Solved

Sometimes things just aren't going to work out. It seemed like finding a easy-to-use and secure way to stop the fridge tray from sliding out during transit was going to be one of those times. Fortunately I finally ran across a potential solution, and when I looked more closely, it appeared it was going to work.

I had a pair of handles from the topper shell that used to ride on the bed of my pickup. One of them, with some slight modification in shaft length, is now the simple and secure answer to that problem! Pic in the gallery below.

Oops, There's a Short in the Running Lights

While preparing to take The Bug down to our local Love's and see if I could weigh it, when I tested the lights nothing happened. Nothing happened because I blew the 20 amp trailer lighting circuit fuse in the truck.

Oops. Got my meter out and sure enough, a short on the trailer running light circuit. Well crap.

I found the short and repaired it, but not before wanting to look behind the air conditioner shroud. This was it. The moment of truth regarding my design for the A/C installation. Would it come apart as easily as I had intended?

Yes! Six screws, and it was apart!

The air conditioner is easily accessed.
In the process of hunting a short, I had to dismantle the A/C shroud. It was as easy as I had planned. I like that.

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