A Few Little Jobs Done…

03 Wednesday Apr 2024

Posted by in 5th Wheel, Caravan Electrics, Caravan Fault Finding, Caravan Servicing, Donkey Creek Farm, Electrical, Fifth Wheel Company, Maintenance, Modifications, Projects, Technical

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It seems such a long time since I posted anything.

Last time out with the Dreamseeker I noticed that the charging voltage when we were hooked up to the truck was only about 12.1 to 12.3 volts as measured in the Dreamseeker battery box.

I know that the VW Amarok puts out 14.6 to 14.8 volts, measured at the 13 pin socket AND indicated on the digital voltmeter I installed in the dash. So it was time to do a bit of investigating.

After measuring the resistance of the charging circuit and fridge circuit it was clear there was a bit of an issue. First stop was to disassemble the Dreamseeker’s 13 pin plug. All became clear…. The cable had been terminated in the socket with soldered ends and were suffering corrosion (solder very dull) and cable degradation….. the copper conductors when stripped of their insulation were black. All in all not good.

I wanted to replace the whole 12 core cable with a replacement but unfortunately I didn’t have a length in stock long enough. I usually keep a length suitable for replacing the cable and plug on a normal bumper tow caravan.

The simple solution for the time being would be to cut back as much as I could and install a new 13 pin plug with correctly crimped ferrules on the cable.

I cut off the old plug and stripped back the protective cover from the cable allowing enough to shorten the individual conductors to the correct length and inspect them for internal corrosion before crimping on the ferrules ready for termination.

The torque setting for these terminations are listed as a minimum of 5Nm to a max of 8Nm so I set my torque screwdriver to 6.5Nm. A happy medium I think.

The new plug was reassembled and I could get on with testing it. At the Amarok I measured 14.7 volts on the leisure battery circuit (same on the fridge circuit) and at the leisure battery I measured 13.9 volts and 9 amps charge, which considering the two 110Ah AGM leisure batteries are at the rear of the Dreamseeker I was happy with the loss.

Something I’m going to try…

While I was doing all this I started thinking (I’d also just seen the price of 13 core trailer cable per metre!) Why are we using this cable?

I have a length of woven kevlar cable sleeve (used in the aviation world) and I could thread my own cable…. upgrading the 1.5mm2 to 2.5 and the 2.5mm2 to 4mm and the “cable” would… (actually is…. as I have made one up now)… a lot more flexible than the existing product as it allowed the individual cables to move and slide past each other. I also used marine grade coated copper cable, so no corrosion of the strands.

4mm2 cable was a bit of a faff to terminate in the commonly available 13 pin plugs, but I believe the genuine ” German Jager manufactured plugs are acceptable for 4mm cable and they even have a crimp terminal version. So I’m going to do a bit more investigating as if I can get 4mm2 leisure battery and fridge circuits from end to end, that will reduce the voltage drop… which is always a step forward.

I’m also looking again at a high current circuit using Anderson connectors between the Truck and 5th Wheel. Currently I’m thinking of a 50 amp circuit with a 30 Amp DC to DC charger installed in the Dreamseeker…. ready for the battery upgrade. (along with a solar install, when I can find a suitable company to work with on that project)

Tourfest Northwest… as arranged by “The Caravan Addys”

Sue and I will be at Tourfest Northwest hosted at Donkey Creek Farm near Warton in May (24th to 28th) drop in and say “Hi”……” see you in a bit“

Happy New Year…

01 Monday Jan 2024

Posted by in 5th Wheel, Blog updates, Donkey Creek Farm, Gadgets, General, Projects

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Happy New Year to everyone, I hope you have a great touring year ahead.

I’d like to take this opportunity to give you a bit of an update on my personal circumstances and a look forward to a couple of projects I’m planning to kick off our year.

First…

… A HUGE thank-you yo everyone that messaged, email and posted about my cancer diagnosis. Things started off OK and I had a stent installed in my colon to stop it blocking and started chemotherapy. Before I got two cycles of chemo completed my body decided it didn’t like the stent and for what ever reason decided to try and pass the stent to the nearest exit. This resulted me being blue lighted in to Manchester Royal Infirmary on a Saturday afternoon. 24 hours later I underwent an emergency Laparotomy to remove the stent now firmly stuck where it shouldn’t be and part of my transverse colon was removed at the same time. Basically the section where the tumour was. A further five days on the High Dependancy Unit followed and another 13 days on a surgical ward. I remember very little of any of this…. basically I was on another planet drug wise. Apparently it was touch and go a couple of times as my colon was leaking into my body.

Part of the surgery included a colostomy, so now I’m learning to live with that. I was released home late on Christmas Eve so got to spend Christmas with Sue at home.

So far I’m recovering as planned. My body strength is slowly returning… I lost a lot of muscle mass bing in bed for nearly a month. My weight has dropped by around 31kg… so if you see someone dressed in 1980’s gear… it could well be me wearing some of my old stuff. I decided against the platform shoes and petrol blue patch pocket pants though!

I go back on the 10th Jan to The Christie Hospital for checkups and to see when I can resume my chemo treatment.

ONWARDS!

So we are still planning to attend Tourfest North West in May at Donkey Creek Farm and I’m looking towards our first trip away sometime towards the end of this month hopefully. It will only be local and for a couple of days initially.

Future Projects…

The first big one is a bit unusual. I want to add electronic side view mirrors to the Amarok. These are two screens that mount vertically on each of the A posts and link to cameras where your rear view mirrors are. However I’m adding a twist. I want to mount the rear view cameras on each side of the 5th wheel. This would mean that when looking to the rear view mirror on the passenger door of the amaro I not only see the rear view from the Amarok door mirror but also the rear view from the camera mounted on the side of the trailer. Not a big gain driving down the road you might say, but there are two huge advantages. The first is I will not need to fit extension mirrors to the Amarok when towing as the installed cameras and internal A post mounted screen combo will give me the required view coverage required by law. This has already been accepted and approved for commercial vehicles and coaches and is in use on the road already. To comply with regs though these will have to be connected via a Suzi between the trailer and truck. You cannot have wireless devices.

The second is when reversing I will always have a view down each side of the trailer no matter what angle the Amarok is the the trailer. This has huge advantages when reversing into pitches as effectively there will be no blind side reversing as the combination of rear and side view cameras will always allow me to see the three sides of the trailer.

The next project really is one I came up with while in hospital. My last ‘job’ was ground op’s supervisor at Manchester Airport, a job which occasionally meant I had to oversee the ground start of engines, push backs etc. To do this we used a head set plugged into the aircraft so we could talk to the flight deck. This got me thinking…. I have several Dave Clark headsets from my flying days and thought about adapting these for ground comms between someone directing reversing and the driver.

We have tried mobile phones, cheap hand held radios working on DMR Chanels and a couple of HAM handhelds programmed to an obscure frequency that hopefully won’t get me into trouble with the authorities , as my radio licence is for aviation operation, I gave up my ham licence in the late 70’s.

It’s just an idea that may or may not work out… I have the kit and all it will take is a bit of soldering and making up a small circuit board to get everything working. As I am on restricted duties ( can’t lift anything heavier than a cup of coffee or a ham sammich) for at least ten weeks, sitting at my bench in the workshop is not an issue and it gives me something to tinker about with for a while.

The third project is to get a 12 volt 50 Amp service from the Amarok into the 5th wheel. This is in preparation for installing a dc to dc charger if we decide to move over to lithium. If not we can still install a DC to DC charger for the current AGM battery bank we have. The move to lithium is not yet a proven case for us as we currently don’t do much off grid.

Lastly is installing a couple of big solar panels. Initially this will be to keep our current AGM batteries charged, so thinking about 800 watts should do it and this could be increased in the future. One thing we do have on the 5th wheel is plenty of flat open roof space. At this stage I’m thinking of flexible panels bonded to the roof rather than ridged panels as they weigh a lot less.

Unusually for me… and the blog, I might have to partner up with companies to get a couple of these projects completed as at the moment I’m not in any shape to go crawling round the truck or the 5th wheel. We will see how that progresses though.

Thanks again..

So again a HUGE thank you for all the emails, messages and comments. I apologise if you emailed or posted comments with technical questions and I haven’t replied, but I have been out of it for a while. A huge than-you too to the people that have bought me a cup of coffee via the link. I’m well on the way to covering the cost of paying for the hosting of the blog and domain name for another year.

Both Sue and I hope you all have a fantastic New Year and have a fantastic touring season. Stay safe and hopefully we will see you soon on a site somewhere.

Sutton-on-Sea In September

16 Monday Oct 2023

Posted by in 5th Wheel, Bikes, Cherry Tree Springs, Fifth Wheel Company, MiRider, Sutton-on-Sea

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Just like to say a huge thank you to so many people that have commented or emailed me over my last post. It has cheered me up no end…. it really has. Enough to rattle this post off!

We recently went back to Cherry Tree Springs at Sutton on Sea for an 7 day break. We had been there earlier in the year and really liked the atmosphere and the people there. As we have been trying independent sites this season over Caravan & Motorhome Club sites, I did a comparison. To stay at the C & M Club site for the same dates would have cost £280.00. We paid £178.50 at Cherry Tree so a saving of £101.50…. in fact we stayed an extra night making 8 in total so saved even more!!!

The facilities block is as you would expect… really clean, plenty of hot water and warm. The rest of the site is really well maintained and the pitches are level with plenty of space for parking and room for a large awning.

Even with our slide out… out, I still had room for the VW Amarok and plenty of room on the other side for our huge roll out canopy.

Apart from a couple of days the weather was blueish skies and warm for September which allowed up to get a bit of cycling in. Having the MiRider bikes stored in the garage in the frame I made (read “Rack’em Up“) makes it easy to get them out ready for a quick ride out. Mornings were usually a cycle, north up the coast to Mablethorpe for morning coffee, either sat next to the beach…

… or sat up on the elevated section in front of the cafe next to the life guard station. The coffee there is much better we think.

Top Tip

A great little shortcut on the bike to get to the front…

If you turn right out of Cherry Tree Springs enter Huttoft Road and follow this for about 300 metres… the first turning on your right is Bluestone Road. Turn right and cycle 70 metres up Bluestone Road. At the end is a T-junction, turn right and 8 metres on your left is a walkway between the houses. Take the walkway and at the end is Walkington Way. Cycle along walking ton Way to the end to another T-Junction. Turn left and ride for 100 metres and on your right a steep ramp up to the top of the Roman Bank… this will get you on the prom and you can cycle all the way to Mablethorpe on it. If you turn right at the end of Walkington Way you can fool Huttoft Bank all the way to Chapel St Leonards.

Its a quick little cut through and allowed us to get to the sea front in about 6 or 7 minutes

Another nice cycle ride is to follow Huttoft Bank south to Chapel St Leonards… it’s a bit further but easy cycling and stop off at North Sea Observatory, Chapel Point for a coffee….

We can both recommend you try out their toasted tea cakes…. The coffee is rather good too! looking at some of the plates being brought out to other customers, the English breakfast looks rather good as well. Unfortunately cycling with a full English onboard is not something to be undertaken lightly.

The nice thing about Cherry Tree Springs is there always seems to be someone to have a chat with… not in an intrusive way but sat out with Henry – yep he’s getting better at this now with his little harness on and rather like the attention he gets.

The 5th wheel aways attracts attention and we had a few people stop and talk to us about it. We have done a couple of walk throughs and I’m now getting dab hand at going through the usual questions about what its like to tow (easy peasy, much easier than a bumper pull) and what needs to be done to a pickup to convert it and the weights. Everyone still has a jaw dropping moment when I tell them our user payload is 960Kg… which is slightly more than half of the total weight of our old caravan fully loaded! (PS 5th Wheel Company…. I think we deserve some tee shirts!)

The next step I think will be to install some solar…. and we have a nice flat roof as I found out when I stood on the bed and poked my head out of the front skylight… I think it will be easy to get 800 or 1000 watts of panels on there!

Currently I’m leaning towards Renogy’s kit as the big blue seems to be getting very overpriced and you need so much of it box wise to make a system. But that’s for the future… and maybe if I can get them to work with me on it.

PS If you do stay at Cherry Tree Spring….. give Square Pizza in Sutton a go…. the details are in reception…. not found anything that beat’s them outside of the USA (so far!)

This Might Be My Last Post…

12 Thursday Oct 2023

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Not clickbait…. Three weeks ago Sue and I were cycling between 8 and 10 miles each morning to get a morning coffee. Arrived back home and…. well time stopped.

I had received notice that my test sample for Bowel Cancer screening had come back positive. Two days later I underwent a colonoscopy procedure which didn’t work out too well as there was a mass occluding my colon and they could not proceed further. A few days later I had a CT Scan.

This morning Sue and I met with a consultant from the Colorectal Surgery department at Manchester Royal Infirmary. We were told the results from the scan and biopsy lead them to the conclusion I had cancer, stage 4, and it was also showing up on my Liver and Lungs.

The pathway was laid out….. MRI Scan to accurately plot the cancer followed by a stent to stop the mass blocking my colon, then a course of Chemotherapy at Christies Hospital and follow up body scans to reassess the cancer.

Once that was done, further surgery to remove the mass from my colon.

Tomorrow I meet with an Oncology Consultant.

Today as I write this I feel like I’m still in that tunnel without a torch…. but I know help is on its way.

Once I can see the light again…. maybe I will continue with Caravan Chronicles. But for now just understand I might be hitting you up for a bit of sponsorship for a cancer charity…. I’m thinking of a “Grumpy Old Man Park Bench Sitting” marathon.

Take care friends, and remember GET YOURSELF CHECKED OUT…FOR EVERYTHING… NOW !!!

As Arni said “I’ll be back”……… followed with a bit of Vera Lynn….. “Don’t know where, don’t know when”

S

Rack’em Up…

14 Thursday Sep 2023

Posted by in 5th Wheel, Accessories, Bike Rack, Bikes, e-bikes, MiRider, Modifications, Projects, Sutton-on-Sea

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One of the huge advantages of having a 5th wheel caravan over a bumper pull caravan is the payload and space. It’s as good as a large motorhome… we have around 960Kg of payload available to use. One thing we wanted to do was move our two MiRider e-bikes into the ‘garage’ locker of the 5th wheel. Although I built a great rack for the VW Amarok towing a 5th wheel means I had to take that off. When I designed it I aways wanted it easily removable just in case I ever needed the full capacity of the pickup.

The garage space in the Dream Seeker is big enough to fit the two bikes without having to remove any wheels. On the pickup we already removed the seats and dropped the folding handlebars so this is the same with the garage space. I needed something that would allow me to ‘wheel’ the bikes in keeping the front wheels straight and at the same time retaining either one of the bikes in an up right position while the second bike is loaded.

I wanted something that could be installed and removed easily and could also be used in my workshop to store the bikes if required.

After a bit of mooching around the workshop I initially thought of using an old bike rack we had for the rear of our Land Rover Freelander…. a day spent disassembling and reassembling resulted in a heavy and awkward contraption that didn’t really do anything I wanted except hold the bikes.

Mk II

OK, time for coffee and a rethink. Day two. A flat sheet with rails seemed like a good start…. with a small end wall to stop the bikes going in to far…. extend the rails up the wall to hold the front wheels upright would work. I needed to leave a gap for part of the steel chassis of the 5th wheel…. a plan was forming… more coffee.

I’d worked out that if the bikes were 250mm apart, with the pedals folded and the handlebars folded they would pass each other with ease. I off set this slightly so the edge of the plywood would lie flat right next to the rear chassis cross member and left a gap so the short rear chassis rail would pass through the middle. The front wall was tapered either side so I could install the rack through the door vertically and then twist it 90 degrees to lie flat on the floor. To hold it in place I fabricated 4 aluminium plates that would drop onto the existing bolts in the rear chassis crossmember. These bolts were just long enough to allow me to drop a plate on and a second nut. This way I didn’t have to touch the original bolts… they were still to the factory torque.

I thought about clear coating the stand…. then thought about a brush on wax shaded to match the Dream Seeker’s woodwork…. In the end I use some old exterior white hard coat gloss… several coats in fact. One less old paint tin in the workshop! I think that it looks OK and installed in the garage looks bright and clean… for the moment!

I added a ratchet strap, secured at both ends and cut short enough to allow me to hold the bikes down but not get in the way when loading or unloading.

To stop the two bikes pulling together a simple length of oak with a round cut out in each end holds the bikes 250mm apart.

Fitting into the Dream Seeker was easy enough and I installed the fixing plates once I was sure everything fitted in OK.

The bikes fit in perfectly and are held securely. For security I have taken measures that secure the bikes directly to the chassis in two locations and with the bikes in the garage make it damn difficult to even get access to try and defeat them. Obviously I’m to going to show this.

Bikes installed…. and still a bit of space to fit locate the two seats and bike helmets. So off to Sutton-on-Sea soon to test them out!

P.S. While I was at it I also installed two 240 volt sockets in the garage so we can plug the chargers in if needed. Although my preference for safety is to charge the bikes outside the Dream Seeker. I installed the sockets near the opposite door so they will reach the bikes while they are under our awning…. or allow us to power an electric griddle plate under the awning. Always thinking.

A Bit Of a Follow Up…

02 Saturday Sep 2023

Posted by in 5th Wheel, Dash Cam, Hitch Camera, Maintenance

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This is just a bit of a follow up to A Bit Of An Upgrade… really. After installing the new camera on the 5th wheel, I went ahead and installed a new camera for hitching up. Now obviously hitching up a 5th wheel is a bit different to a tow ball and having a camera in the right position makes it so much easier… So the view in the ‘mirror’ is now a bit different!

The cameral is aligned with the hitch centre line so it should make reversing back on to the pin a doddle…. OK I have square it up a bit since taking the photos! The system I opted for allows the addition of up to 4 cameras to the screen and I have the option of displaying any combination of these cameras in single camera, two camera or four camera in various patterns, all easily configurable from the screen. So for the moment I have it configured so that each camera is displayed full screen and I can simply swop between them using the CHannel button.

Mounting the camera was pretty easy…. I used a short length of 50mm aluminium angle and with a deft bit of drilling in the right places it allowed me to mount the slim licence plate style camera on the top of the Roll-N-Lock cover.

From a distance it doesn’t stand out too much. I sprayed the aluminium angle with etch primer then a couple of coats of black bed liner so it almost matches into the black of the Roll-N-Lock… but a quick glance I don’t think you would notice it from the rear.

So I think that is that project finished…. until I decide to do the trailer side view cameras that is!

A Great Upgrade…

29 Tuesday Aug 2023

Posted by in 5th Wheel, Accessories, Gadgets, Modifications, Product Review, Vehicle Wiring Projects

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One of the upgrades I wanted to do to the Dream Seeker was to install a good rear view camera. Looking round for options it seemed that you could easily spend a lot of money and end up with something that didn’t achieve what you wanted in terms of reliability and quality.

I did a little research and found that there were options from several manufacturers on Amazon that would fit the bill that seemed to match my basic requirements of being reliable, good vision day and night and durable with the option to upgrade or add to the system in the future.

I chose a wireless AMTIFO kit, 1080P 7 inch LCD display with a range quoted as up to 320 feet with a 150 degree rear camera. I’m not doing unboxing or installation, although installation was really easy and all the hardware you needed comes in the box. The system also records onto an SD card (not included) and the screen can accept up to 4 cameras.

Quick note: I bought this from Amazon, I paid just under £110 for the screen and one camera. This is not a sponsored post and the link to it is here https://amzn.to/44pOB0x if you want to see it and you can also see my review on Amazon… I’m SP

Fitting on the Dream Seeker was quite easy… except I realised just how tall it was!… and it was wired to come on when the vehicle supplied power to the trailer. This means as long as the engine is running the camera is active. I may opt to change this in the future if I add more cameras and a screen in the caravan.

I set the angle of the camera slightly different to convention. Most people set them so they can see the rear bumper, I set it so the bottom of the screen is about two feet from the bumper. My thoughts are if an object is at the bottom of the screen I’m still two feet away and that is close enough! The secondary advantage this gives me is that the top of the screen is effectively seeing further behind… about a cars length in fact. Due to the height of the camera and the angle of view on the motorway for example I can actually see both lanes either side of me and this helps when judging when to pull in after an overtake as I know if I can’t see the vehicle I have overtaken I must be at least one cars length in front of it. Mind you I don’t do much overtaking!

Mounting The Screen…

In the box comes a couple of options for mounting the screen… fixed dash mount or sucker on the windscreen mount. I sat in the truck for ages moving the screen about… then thinking of moving the Sat Nav somewhere else so I could locate the rear view screen in its place. Then I had one of those “Doh” moments…. why not put it where the rear view mirror is as the mirror is really just full of caravan nose cap when towing. I know they do make mirrors with screens in them but I looked at a couple of these at the caravan show and they seemed really small… a honking seven inch screen on you mirror is much better IMHO. I’ve also discovered that located there its still natural to glance at it as you would normally look at your mirror and its also unaffected by sunlight reflections.

I came up with a simple solution that used a tiny elasticated cord and a pad…. it kept the screen off the mirror and gave enough room to angle the two small aerials downwards behind the screen. I installed a power feed via the roof lining and can simply unplug the screen and remove to stow safely when not towing.

Mounting it on the mirror also has a secondary advantage… I can angle the mirror so that Sue in the passenger seat can also see the screen… just incase!

I had never towed with a rear view camera before and after fitting I really can’t understand why caravan manufacturers aren’t fitting these as standard.

How’s It Working Out?

Picture is clear and bright, no drop out or freezing, there are options to change screen layout, number of cameras displayed etc. etc. Even my unconventional screen mounting with the two aerials pointing down doesn’t seem to affect things. The screen recording works great…. I can see this being a great help especially if you have side cameras to compliment your dash cam system in your vehicle.

Adding To The System…

I said that you can add to the system… up to 4 cameras. Well after using it for a few weeks now I will be adding a left and right side rear facing camera so I can see down the full length of the trailer, but first I think I will be adding a rear view camera on the pickup bed to make hitching up a lot easier.

Would I recommend a rear view camera?…. most definitely. Would I recommend this rear view camera?… well based on my experiences so far, yes. For the money… £110 is not a lot to invest in something like this.

Moving from Twitter…

16 Wednesday Aug 2023

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OK a quick heads-up… I have moved away from X(Twitter) to Mastodon. This morning Elon Musk decided that TweetDeck, which I and many others have used free since it’s release, was changed and could only be used if you paid for a ‘blue tick’ on your account. In my case about £130 per year.

So, due to the insane amount of tweets that are totally irrelevant and the equally insane amount of advertising tweets that come through and as you can’t filter on the native X(Twitter) platform I have moved everything over to Mastodon. I can be found here: 

Caravan Chronicles
@CaravanChronicles@mastodonapp.uk

I will change links from my blog from Twitter to Mastodon in the near future. I’ll also post on Mastodon when new posts on the blog become available.

I have not deleted my Twitter account at the moment as I would like to retain @caravanchron. I won’t be monitoring it or responding to it.

Thank you for understanding

Simon

Getting A Slide On…

04 Friday Aug 2023

Posted by in 5th Wheel, Accessories, Amarok, Maintenance, Modifications, Projects, Tow Vehicle, VW Amarok

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After our trip out to Donkey Creek Farm I started procrastinating about the slide out bed we used to have in the Amarok. Did I need it… was it worth it….. should I put it back in? Well my body kind of made the decision for me after loading and unloading some heavy boxes from the bed reaching over the opened tailgate it kind of said “We ain’t doin’ that again big boy“.

I had to set about working out how to install the base of the slider in and around the Reese 5th wheel hitch and where it could be mounted. It also needed to be raised up 35mm so it would pass over the 5th wheel hitch cross rails and still allow me to pull the pins so the hitch could be lifted out if required.

I got lucky…. with only having to cut out the rear cross bar the slide bed would fit and the original mounting holes lined up with the holes I drilled in the truck bed when I first installed it. Next step was to fabricate some spacers to raise it to the correct height.

I just happened to have a couple of blocks of high density poly in black so cut 4 100mm long by 35mm wide slats to fit under the frame and drilled 10mm holes through them for the mounting bolts. A quick trip to Francis Kirk – my local engineering fastening company. (I’ve been going there since 1976 for all my fastenings) got me four M10 grade 8 bolts of the correct length… I even splashed out on coated ones and nylock nuts.

A test fit of the sliding frame allowed me to see where I needed to cut so it would clear the hitch. A bit of quick work with a four inch grinder and cutting wheel and it slid in without any problems. I needed to remove the original locking pin system and a couple of coats of black rust preventative paint on cut areas that I’d smoothed off with a fine grinding disc soon had the sliding tray ready to be fitted again.

I did a couple of other mods that allowed the ray to slide out further. Previously it only came out about an inch past the tail gate, now it comes out about 10 inches which will have a great advantage… more on that later.

It was now time to refit the decking and do some trimming as required so it would fit around the hitch.

I cut the sheet so that the section in the truck would remain in one piece and if I needed to the hitch could be lifted out and the cut section replaced giving me a full size sliding bed once again. I do like having options!

The trimming was actually quite easy. The board is Phenol faced marine ply and quite easy to trim. I gave all the edges, especially the new cut edges several coats of clear brush on wax and let it soak into the ply. I’ve found that this is usually better than any polyurathane edge sealant when it is in an area that is prone to dinks and abrasion. The wax penetrates quite a lot and soaks into the layers protecting them from water.

Everything was given a spray and rubdown with Boeshield as a protective against the elements and looks as good as the day I installed it.

Next little job is to find two waterproof boxes to mount on the sliding bed either side of the hitch for my recovery kit and straps. This is why I wanted to make the slide tray come out further than it originally dis so I would have better / easier access to the two “fingers” either side of the hitch.

I need some low profile narrow boxes 200mm wide, 200mm high and about 600mm long with a hinge lid. I did start looking around at what is out there but I suspect that they might need to be fabricated out of aluminium diamond tread plate.

A couple of bonus things…. there is enough space under the 5th wheel hitch to allow me to store two of the “Really Useful Box” company’s boxes under the hitch which will be fairly secure when the slide tray is stowed.

The second is there is now enough room under the sliding bed to be able to store some kit and it pulls out far enough for me to sit the Cadac on for a bit of tail gate BBQ’ing.