Heading to FOT for Shadow Beast's major renovation and service visit.

Topic: Heading to FOT for Shadow Beast's major renovation and service visit. (Read 6606 times) previous topic - next topic

Re: Heading to FOT for Shadow Beast's major renovation and service visit.

Reply #25 – March 03, 2015, 09:29:25 pm

OK, I for one am able to turn my computer upside down! Love to see them back up. I think on an iPhone you want the button on the right to get them the right way up.

Appreciate your excitement and enthusiasm, can't wait to see more pics.

Re: Heading to FOT for Shadow Beast's major renovation and service visit.

Reply #26 – March 03, 2015, 09:42:00 pm

I actually was NOT trying to offend anyone just figured in this day and age that SURELY these systems have this all figured out and I use a laptop and desktop with Win 7 so again am surely not the only one with this OPERATING SYSTEM or similar. I will say sorry if I did offend (and really mean it as I am usually not into that-as hopefully others that know me will attest to). When I go to post a picture I save it then look at them to make sure all is ok then post- but do use a real camera- not a cell, so do not run into this problem.
I guess really it is just an extension of my present feeling that these bl--dy cell phones are ruining conversation etc as everyone has their head down looking at the screens-even in restaraunts- and not talking to each other. I shake my head at them.
Rant over I guess.
JohnH

Re: Heading to FOT for Shadow Beast's major renovation and service visit.

Reply #27 – March 03, 2015, 09:45:56 pm

I can download a screen capture of the photo and turn it around on my computer before I look at it if I want to see it right ways.

Re: Heading to FOT for Shadow Beast's major renovation and service visit.

Reply #28 – March 03, 2015, 10:58:52 pm

I think it's probably worth bearing in mind that the point of the topic was a renovation that a tremendous amount of time, effort and hard won resources is going into. I know that when I have an issue that I feel the need to raise I always try to at least consider how the person reading what I write might take it. I'm not perfect about it, I doubt anyone is. But raising kids has really helped me to get better about trying to consider how I might feel if the positions were reversed.

I think that what really set Susan's teeth on edge was the fact that she DID go to some lengths to collate, export and prepare a group of images (with proper orientation) because some folks on the forum had requested them, and she was excited to share. I think most adults are pretty good about dealing with some constructive criticism. When the criticism isn't particularly constructive and doesn't say anything at all about the topic, I'm sure most of us can understand how it can come across as inflammatory.

The whole thing about a "real" camera was a bit heavy handed even to me. The best camera is the one you have. In addition to that truism, the modern iPhones actually take excellent pictures. Once upon a time a "Real" camera had a hood and a flash bar. More recently a "Real" camera always used film and digital cameras were never used by a professional photographer. Things change. Always have, always will. Not everyone is comfortable with that, and that's fine. I totally understand how John H feels about cell phones, and seeing everyone staring at phones during meals rubs me the wrong way too. But let's not throw the baby out with the bathwater, hmm?

Do you think we could all just try to treat each other with respect? If we feel the need to criticize others, perhaps a little empathy is in order? At least address the topic itself in addition to venting, if venting there must be.

Everyone here (as far as I know) is a mature, reasonable adult. Pretty much without exception, all of the Foretravel owners we have met while here at FOT have been wonderful people. So maybe we should just take a step back and try again. I'm sure that Susan will come back and post some of the updated photos. I know she was very excited to share with others who would understand why we're investing so much blood sweat and tears in order to share a wonderful adventure with our kids. I know that she would love to hear any comments or suggestions about the project.

Re: Heading to FOT for Shadow Beast's major renovation and service visit.

Reply #29 – March 03, 2015, 11:20:55 pm

Quote from: Carol & Scott – February 08, 2015, 07:27:00 pm

WOW

sounds like some very creative and unique mods. I salute you for your ingenuity

Re: Heading to FOT for Shadow Beast's major renovation and service visit.

Reply #30 – March 03, 2015, 11:28:13 pm

Yes, please keep posting, this is one of my favorite threads!

Re: Heading to FOT for Shadow Beast's major renovation and service visit.

Reply #31 – March 03, 2015, 11:49:04 pm

I like more pictures right or wrong and they were correct on I-Pad
Regards,Irwin

Re: Heading to FOT for Shadow Beast's major renovation and service visit.

Reply #32 – March 04, 2015, 07:56:52 am

Funny thing I am a photographer and have printed pictures taken with my iPhone. In good light it does a great job. Also sales of cameras are way way off and the iPhone is the second most posted pictures on flicker. That being said, take pictures and post them. We all want to see this modification though I bet we will see a few shots of it at the GV this year too.

Re: Heading to FOT for Shadow Beast's major renovation and service visit.

Reply #33 – March 04, 2015, 09:19:52 am

Ok, morning rises and cooler heads prevail.

Attached are the (hopefully upright) photos of the current progress in the bedroom/office. We have removed the entire wall separating the closet from the main bedroom space, and removed the bed base. We did most of this labor ourselves with the help of a great neighbor here at FOT.

You can see the beginnings of the two upright cabinets in the back of the office space that will provide for hanging storage and adjustable shelves behind closed doors. These will be walnut on the outsides and carpeted on the inside to help with sound deadening and budget.

Yesterday they were glueing and screwing the face frames, so we are hoping to see them installed today.

Also pictured is the carpet we picked. RED!

Re: Heading to FOT for Shadow Beast's major renovation and service visit.

Reply #34 – March 04, 2015, 10:13:37 am

Way to go, Susan! I L o v e the red. Go for it. Keep the pics coming.

Re: Heading to FOT for Shadow Beast's major renovation and service visit.

Reply #35 – March 04, 2015, 10:50:31 am

I do love seeing all you are doing, keep the photos and more coming. Thanks for taking the time to share with all of us.

Re: Heading to FOT for Shadow Beast's major renovation and service visit.

Reply #36 – March 04, 2015, 11:38:52 am

John, oops! Mea culpa. I have learned how to get them upright, now. Hey, it was a major achievement for me to learn to post a picture in the first place.

Re: Heading to FOT for Shadow Beast's major renovation and service visit.

Reply #37 – March 04, 2015, 04:29:02 pm

Love the red carpet, can't wait to see the final product

Larry

Re: Heading to FOT for Shadow Beast's major renovation and service visit.

Reply #38 – March 04, 2015, 09:27:04 pm

More progress on the bedroom/office today! Face frames constructed and in one of the pics below, you can see it tacked up in place. The wiring plan got worked out for the desk area, and tomorrow we may get the new bedroom ventilation fan.

Tomorrow night we take up the carpet, and on Friday, new carpet plus hopefully our new adjustable full-sized bed. I'm too old to be sleeping on a mattress on the floor during reno!

Susan

Re: Heading to FOT for Shadow Beast's major renovation and service visit.

Reply #39 – March 05, 2015, 08:08:23 am

This one is going to be epic.

Re: Heading to FOT for Shadow Beast's major renovation and service visit.

Reply #40 – March 05, 2015, 10:04:10 am

Hope so! It's certainly a HUGE project and nerve-wracking to say the least. We're going to be documenting our experiences online on a new site we're building and writing the whole thing up in a little more detail. Things like "How to Survive a Full Rig Remodel with Four People in 336 Square Feet."

Today, when the guys take their lunch break, we'll go remove the carpet in the bedroom and prepare it for them to put in the carpet padding. Carpet comes in on the truck today, and we hope to get the bed installed before the weekend. No new pictures for now, but maybe later today if the cabinets are completed... *fingers crossed*

Susan

Re: Heading to FOT for Shadow Beast's major renovation and service visit.

Reply #41 – March 05, 2015, 12:00:35 pm

Well, I can say 100 percent you will survive. I have totally remodeled my coach. Pulled the couch and table put in a new couch and dining bar, extended the slide room floor. We replaced the shower, pulled the solid surfaces and stove and put in granite, an induction stove, a stainless steel sink and also a residential fridge. This let us pull the propane tank and put in a 4th battery in its place for more capacity. Also replaced the toilet and cut down the desk and hung a part on the wall, put in a new table behind the passenger seat and new drivers and passenger seats as well. IN the Bedroom we put in a ceiling fan and built out window boxes around the bedroom windows and replace the TV too. Changed out backsplashes and faucets as well as new tiles and a wood floor in the entry and covering on the entry steps. Replaced all marker lights with LEDs. It took a while but it a great.

Re: Heading to FOT for Shadow Beast's major renovation and service visit.

Reply #42 – March 05, 2015, 12:03:34 pm

FYI the padding in the bedroom that came with the coach was sound and heat deadening. It is very expensive to replace if you can reuse it, I would. Oh yes, we replaced all the carpet too. Twice in fact.

Re: Heading to FOT for Shadow Beast's major renovation and service visit.

Reply #43 – March 05, 2015, 09:49:26 pm

Thanks! Today, we pulled up the carpet and got new "elephant hide" - that rubber covering that deadens sound and heat from the engine. The existing was all squished down and they had some scraps they could use just around the engine hump. Because of weather, I'm not sure if the carpet came in today, but hopefully tomorrow we'll see that. Some progress was made in completing the framing for the wiring to the cabinets and adding electrical outlets to the outsides of the cabs (above the desk and above the shelf. Shelves have been cut and fitted and covers made to hide the wires in the backs of the cabinets. Doesn't seem like much, but every step is closer!

Susan

Re: Heading to FOT for Shadow Beast's major renovation and service visit.

Reply #44 – March 06, 2015, 10:10:12 am

Argh! No carpet 'til Tuesday - the salesgirl was 'mistaken.'

We'll still get the new bed in before the weekend, and just re-place it after the carpet comes in next week. Boo! A queen sized mattress (8" thick or so) easily bent and fit through the front door with no necessary wrangling, btw.

Shelves are going in the upright cabinets today, and the guys said they'll get the face frames on the fronts of them. All the conduit/chases for the wiring are in and covered nicely in the rear of the structure and the outlets are in place. Yay!

Susan

Re: Heading to FOT for Shadow Beast's major renovation and service visit.

Reply #45 – March 06, 2015, 12:39:53 pm

Ok, talking more about my part of the remodel ;-) we've nailed down some of the details of the solar/electrical updates.

Phase one:

Victron Multiplus 12 volt 3000 watt 120 charge.
2 Victron 75/50 MPPTs.
Victron Color Control GX control/monitor panel.
2 banks of 3 160 watt panels from AMSolar with relevant hardware for a total initial of 960 watts.

We'll be mounting 3 panels on the front and 3 panels on the back of the roof (with 7" between panels) with each bank of three wired in series and feeding one of the MPPTs. I spent some time on the phone with Dave at AMSolar talking through possibilities and making sure we'd be able to tilt the outboard panels if we connected them directly to each other side by side. We specifically talked about parallel vs. serial, and he said the Victron MPPTs were MUCH faster at dealing with changing conditions than some of the other charge controllers so he didn't think there was a strong reason for going one way or the other all other factors taken in consideration. Putting them together in series side by side will greatly reduce the install complexity with no combiners and little voltage drop, while still staying comfortable below the 75 volt incoming limit of the 75/50 MPPTs.

Down the road we plan on adding a second phase of panels and controllers. We'll have plenty of room left on the roof, but I'll want to spend some time going through the learning curve before we do the rest of the array. One of the things I did decide was to take the huge Sat TV dome off the front to free up space. The modern portable units are a lot smaller, lighter and can be set up quite a distance from the rig if you happen to be parked in a site that doesn't have a direct line of sight. We really don't watch TV much at all though, so it's not a major focus for us and the space freed up is substantial. Less windage/height too. ;-)

Not sure how the weight issue is going to come out in the end, but we're shedding about a hundred pounds changing to the lithium ion battery, so between that and removing the Sat dome I figure we'll offset the 120 lbs on the front, and with the tag axel the weight in the back isn't an issue at all.

We had a meeting with some of the FOT folks to talk about the electrical changes and I have to give them some recognition for the focus on making sure that everyone will be safe. The main concern was about putting the battery bank inside the living space, they just want to be sure it's safe to do and that nobody would be at risk. They had a good idea about getting the manufacturer to provide a written statement that the batteries are safe to install in a sealed section of the living space. We know it IS safe to do so, but having it in writing is always best for many reasons.

We're going to wait until the remodel crew is almost done as switching out the batteries, inverter etc will shut down everything in the coach. We also need the new battery box ready, so that has to wait until the new fridge is installed. We'll probably be able to do the solar panel install earlier, that's really just waiting on the arrival of the panels. I did opt not to buy the 10/2 wiring from AMSolar, they charge $2.50/foot and FOT only charges $.52. The initial reason for leaving off the wiring was the inability to determine exact length until the infrastructure is in, but the price difference made the choice pretty dang easy.

I'll post pictures as we get to a point where there's something installed to take pictures OF. ;-)

Re: Heading to FOT for Shadow Beast's major renovation and service visit.

Reply #46 – March 06, 2015, 04:30:30 pm

Face frames on cabinets and new adjustable bed in place today - the difference in the amount of space to walk by the end of the bed now is unreal. If you look at teh picture, the black line on the floor is where the old base for the queen sized bed sat, plus an extra couple of inches overhang on the platform for the mattress. It was TIGHT!

Plus Larry is back from his trip to Florida to pick up a rig, so there's been more work on our daughter's bunk in the front. So nice to have visible progress!

Susan

Re: Heading to FOT for Shadow Beast's major renovation and service visit.

Reply #47 – March 07, 2015, 07:23:27 pm

Well, we took a risk buying that adjustable bed base and mattress online (for less than 1/2 of what Mattress Firm, etc. wanted for same basic thing) and it turned out! Great night's sleep and after getting up all week at 5:30am to be in the shop at 7:30, it was very nice indeed.

We got some projects done ourselves today. We installed fabric roller shades in the front of the bus overlapping to allow cats to slink through. We think it turned out great and it only cost me getting my pinkie closed in the RV door once!

Susan

Re: Heading to FOT for Shadow Beast's major renovation and service visit.

Reply #48 – March 07, 2015, 08:16:54 pm

Quote from: GofD – March 07, 2015, 07:23:27 pm

We installed fabric roller shades in the front of the bus overlapping to allow cats to slink through.

Ours are like that, too, and our cats love to slink in and out between the shades.

We LOVE your fabric shade upgrade, and we really want to do that, too. Ours are vinyl-ish, and kinda tacky. Where did you get them?

I just wanted to give you both TWO THUMBS WAY UP! ScubaGuy and I are thoroughly enjoying your daily posts and pictures. You both have a LOT of courage and faith. I appreciate all your guts, sweat, hard work, and love that you are pouring into your new home and new exciting adventure with your kids and furry kids.

Re: Heading to FOT for Shadow Beast's major renovation and service visit.

Reply #49 – March 08, 2015, 09:44:50 am

I am glad the bed worked out too. It is amazing what you can do to the insides of these coaches. I have only seen this done on bus conversion before I started my complete upgrade.

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