Saturday, March 21, 2009

Inches to Gallons. Cabinet work on Mirage.

Another great day here, sunny, not too hot, and not chilly or cold.

I went to get Jay, as he wanted to be here today. I had already told Ray he could carry on with waxing the outside of the Mirage, if I was gone too long. You never know with Jay, and I had to wait for him this morning.

Jay cut a few pieces of wood on the table saw and chop saw, then a friend came to pick him up. So Ray and I finished what Jay had started. We now have the back supports installed for the Formica top for the little cabinet. Then Ray and I concentrated on some other jobs. We fixed the handle that pushes up the top for ventilation on the little 12v. powered roof vent. We attached a board that had to be taken down at the back to get to the wiring for the rear clearance lights.

We took the out the back bolts that hold down the driver's seat, as I am going to have to raise the back of the seat, or keep on sitting on two cushions. My right leg can't be bent while driving, old war injury, but if I have the seat that far back, I can't engage the clutch!! So the remedy is to raise the back of the seat by adding a 2x4 back there, and use longer bolts. I haven't found the right strength bolts yet, the hardware store only had strength 5.
Ray climbed up in the overcab bed and glued the carpet back up to the front wall around the windows that we replaced. We know that we have to replace the cracked window, but there are other more important things to do right now, if I am ever to get on the road.

Then we fixed the rack for the 500 watt inverter and tested it out. The 110v. work light that is in that cupboard is being powered by the back battery through the inverter.

The Mirage has a very small water tank, smaller that I care to have, only 2 gallons. I don't carry much water on board when traveling, but there are times when you want to have a tankful. Like at the beach, or boondocking. I found an area under a dinette bench, and measured it. I have a 10 gallon that would fit, but that isn't much. There are a couple of reasonable ones on eBay, an 18 gallon, or a 21 gallon bladder tank. I only had the dimensions, so to know how many gallons they held I went to: http://www.petfish.net/calculators/calculate.php Like most Rvers I will probably be hooked to city water most of the time, so I might just install my 10 gallon, and carry one of the bladder tanks, which folds up to a small size. I might need that extra room under the dinette for other things. But the bladder tank when full, would weigh about 176 lb, and as I don't quite know how I would manage it, I will have to re-think that. When full, I would have to carry it on the hood, or inside, and then have some kind of pump to pump it into the tank.

Enough thinking for today.


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