I joined the Cult

[teotwaki]

That's turning out quite nice! Everything is looking real clean and professional, but how can you manage do do all that without vanilla wafers? I thought they were essential to the process...

It was late and it was dark and I just know that the mountain lions would come and eat my vanilla wafers.....

[teotwaki]

I had a quick 15 minutes that I could steal to finish one small thing for the nose box: an insulating cover for the batteries and their cables.

Before


After, with a simple 1/4" thick sheet of plastic held by two wing nuts on the threaded rods that the battery hold down bar is on.


I want to keep chipping away at the backlog although none of these would stop me from offroading:

1. solar panel bulkhead connector
2. awning adapter plates
3. swap in the stock Jeep YJ springs to lower the height (if possible). Need some bushings
4. 5 Gallon gas can mounts
5. antenna mast mount
6. 2-way radio mount
7. shorten the inverter's power cables
8. connect the inverter's 150 A thermal breaker
9. whatever else I forgot...

[kjp1969]

Looks great Jim!
Could you attach a small action packer or similar plastic bin to the top of that plastic insulating cover? sized correctly, it would be snug to the lid of the nose box and would need no lid of its own, but still give you some additional storage without interfering with the electrics.

[teotwaki]

Looks great Jim!
Could you attach a small action packer or similar plastic bin to the top of that plastic insulating cover? sized correctly, it would be snug to the lid of the nose box and would need no lid of its own, but still give you some additional storage without interfering with the electrics.

I've been thinking a canvas bag to store trailer stuff like the wheel chocks, locks and so on. I need to make sure that whatever I do it won't bang into the electrical panel and chafe against or loosen things.

[teotwaki]

I had a request from for a schematic of the nose box so here is the first version. Please let me know if there are questions, omissions or mistakes!

EDIT: updated to Ver 1.1 today to correct grounding of inverter

[teotwaki]

Finally decided on an approach for the mounting of the awning to the adjustable height brackets. I had to drill one hole in the Fiamma for a bolt and the other two bolts went into the existing captive slot. I used some 2" by 1/8" flat aluminum but wish it was 1/4" thick. If I can find some I'll replace the current ones.

night time shots of the awning deployed. The driveway is sloped so the awning is also sloped where the support poles are.

[nwoods]

Whats the clear hgt under the awning?

[teotwaki]

Whats the clear hgt under the awning?

I think that at full extension the awning legs are 6'4" and I set the trailer brackets higher to get some downslope. Let me grab some measurements for you later today if I take some daylight pictures.

[teotwaki]

I measured 74" or 6'2" for a fully extended support.

You may want to check out the other versions of the F-35 Pro, some of which seem to have taller legs
http://www.fiammausa.com/products/awnings.asp?Fam=F03

[teotwaki]

Progress on the bucket list of non-critical mods.:

1. solar panel bulkhead connector awaiting installation
2. awning adapter plates DONE!
3. swap in the stock Jeep YJ springs to lower the height (if possible). May need some poly bushings
4. 5 Gallon gas can mounts (decided it will require someone welding a base frame for me)
5. 15 ft telescoping antenna mast mount DONE! Looks great. Will grab pictures in Death Valley this weekend.
6. 2-way radio mount (radio tested and cabled for install)
7. shorten the inverter's power cables or install as-is
8. connect the inverter's 150 A thermal breaker
9. spare tire mount?
10. lid locks
11. whatever else I forgot...