Day 2 - New Hitch/tongue IN!

Dobby and Grampa John came through again!  Arrived bright and early on Thursday morning with a brand new, STRONG, painted tongue!  We got it braced into place and got the jack stand put on.  (Dobby fixed the old hydraulic one and it works great.  After having crank ones on both other campers - this one has an automatic retraction - very cool!)  The new tongue looks great - and I feel loads better about the strength of it.  Now - onto the fixing the bumper area.  Still stressing about the bathroom.

Looks great!

Bringing into Luna to get it braced up.

New jack stand :)

All set - after bumper is done - it will head over to Dobby's to get welded to old frame parts.

Heat wave here in NH - so we headed to the cool caves of Lost River.

Loved the natural air conditioning!

Also enjoyed a couple of letterboxes and swimming in the frozen water of the Pemi River Basin.

Day 1 - new tongue/hitch

We attached the new hitch onto the tongue steel today.  Got it braced up for its ride to get welded and painted.  Dobby and Grampa John got it all set up!  Looks so good!

Bolting the hitch.

Welding a brace to try and keep angle for ride across town.

Pieces down out of Luna.

Heading to Dobby's house for welding and painting.  No pictures of all that - we've been working so much on Luna - I needed to take a part of one day to catch up on laundry, dishes, cleaning cars, etc....  But what a surprise I had the next morning....until next post!

Men of Bending Steel!

After we got the steel pieces tacked together - we clamped them into place so we could bend them to get the hitch on.  With lots and lots of gas from the torch, chains hooked to 2 trucks, steamy heat of a summer day, and the muscle of men from 3 different generations - we were able to get the steel bent and the hitch clamped into place.  Welding tomorrow!!!  Thank you Rob, Dobby, and Grampa John!

New tongue pieces balanced into place.

Clamping the tongue pieces and their braces.  Nuts and bolts could not be handed over fast enough to Dobby - Grampa John and I were just trying to keep up!  Dobby spends A LOT of time thinking about things - so when its time to actually do it - it gets done FAST!  Helpers have to be ready and its good to be able to anticipate!  Grampa John and I have been well trained for years.

Here comes the heat.  Dobby, Grampa John, and Rob.

Heating up the steel - Dobby's Dad supervises.

Rob was pushing the whole trailer - needed to find a way to stabilize it against Rob's power.

Hooked the truck up to the steel with a chain to provide counter pressure to Rob's sheer brute force.

Toyota was able to do the job.

Bend is looking good.

Now for the next one.  Rob's GMC truck was hooked up to that side.

Both sides bent and the hitch fits over the steel!  Lucky Luna has a new, strong tongue!

Pondering the Bathroom

Tongue/frame progress is going so well - I need to start thinking about the bathroom.  I am going to have a toilet and some sort of shower.  Starting to think about it all.  Here is the space I have to work with:

The old water heater (in green) is coming out and will be replaced by an on-demand water heater.  I have all that space from the water heater towards the back wall and to the back/left curbside.  The toilet was in that back left hand corner and the right hand side was a closet.  Will be pondering all the possibilities...

Welding lessons

We brought the steel right to Dobby's house and he started to tack weld them together before we clamped them into place in Luna.  He did all the real work - but he gave Johnny and I each an arc welding lesson.  I didn't do very well and since everyone listened to the "DON'T LOOK" directions - so there isn't a picture of me failing at it.  Johnny on the other hand - did great!  His weld was awesome for a beginner!

Dobby doing the real welding work - welding the brace pieces to the tongue pieces.

Welding Supervisors: Ellie, Johnny and Grampa John.

Making the template for when we need to bend the steel to fit inside the hitch.

Johnny getting his welding lesson after mine didn't go so well.

Very proud boy - he did great!

Johnny's practice welding!

Ellie having her practice lesson without power. So cute!

Field Trip to Cohen Steel

Dobby, Ellie and I headed out early this morning to Cohen Steel in Concord, NH to get the new steel for the tongue/frame.

We got a 24 foot long piece of 2 x 4 x 1/8 rectangular steel.  Plus Ellie got a couple of life savers :)

The Cohen lady with all her disclaimers that the cuts wouldn't be perfect.

Steel Supermarket.

They made four cuts for us.  Four pieces for the tongue and the leftover.

Thanks for the field trip Gramp!

Final mock-up before we go buy the steel

Yesterday Dobby came and we clamped into place some scrap metal pieces to measure and make final decisions for the tongue repair.

Decided that we would need to bend steel to fit better inside the hitch.

Imagine a cross piece in there too. You can see the support pieces that will be clamped into place next to the frame pieces and then welded to provide strength.

Pondering.....

Cutting the mock-up to make final measurements.

Field trip next!

Tongue Repair Prep

Dobby came on Saturday and made some finish cuts to get ready for the tongue repair.  He got out the cutting torch again and this time showed Teddy how to use it.

Making a better cut to even everything out.

Mock up with wood 2x4s to show how new piece will be braced up.

Teddy getting a torch lesson.

He cut the chains off the old tongue.

Old bottom tongue plate came off as well.

Teddy also got the sockets out and took the spare tire holder off the back bumper.  It will not go back - I don't like the look of the tire on the back of Luna.

Muscled the Old Fridge Out - Bee Gone!

Rob and I continued the clean out and managed to get the old fridge out.  It's good to have sheer brute force when you need it!

Hole where the fridge was.

Good bye old fridge.

All the bee nests inside the fridge cabinet.

We'll need to vent better on the next one.

The collection of nests Luna had around the fridge.

Shall we give her a middle name??? 

Luna Bee?