Category: Uncategorized (Page 1 of 23)

Three years ago I felt the tug of exploring new trailering options. Only instead of suffering “two foot-itis”, wherein boat owners are forever locked into the cycle of bigger is better, I was interested in something considerably smaller than Sparta. So small, in fact, that I would’ve been hard pressed to find any trailer as diminutive as what I found. The home-built, one-of-a-kind teardrop trailer that I brought home to my unsuspecting wife was four feet wide by eight feet long, versus the forty foot long by eight foot wide behemoth we call home.

Like most of my impulse purchases, I failed to do much research on tear-drop trailers in general and even less on this home build for which there was no information on the Internet. My cursory inspection of this little gem yielded the following: it was cute; it appeared well built; it had all the comforts of home (surround sound audio, a T.V., DVD player and air-conditioning [yep, that’s not a typo]).

For several years this little trailer was great for camping at the coast, trips to the mountains and even out-of-town catering gigs by providing us a crash pad. Although it is very small and the “mattress” hard, Cristina and I managed to sleep, watch Netflix and snuggle in it without too much complaint.

Alas, the romance of roughing it on wheels came to an end this summer during a trip to Yosemite. The long drive and rough roads stressed the frame to such an extent that, upon arrival, I discovered the back end was about to fall off due to dry rot.

WTF!! What I thought was a solid, well-built trailer was actually a mess resulting from lousy, untreated plywood, insufficient seals around seams and porous construction.

Long story short, I commenced to peeling the onion. Dealing with rot is always a bad-to-getting-worse endeavor and it can never end soon enough. By the time I finished tearing out flimsy, rotted wood I was back to the wheel well. Like extracting a cancer, I had to cut even more to achieve a reasonable margin. Once done, I cut a 1/2 inch thick piece of birch to mirror the vacancy. Before installing it I slathered it with copious amounts of anti-rot treatment and then covered it with polyurethane for good measure. The rest of the trailer may fall apart but the new piece will definitely be the last piece standing along with the tires.

Before the rains start in earnest I will have to button up this project by bending the steel skin back into place, screwing it up tight and applying weather sealing tape, caulk and my old friend, Captain Tolleys Creeping Crack Cure.

Once I finish this project I will provide more pics. Until then.

OK, so my headline isn’t original. After 230+ posts I am running out of fresh ideas. So much so that I haven’t even blogged for nearly two years. That is mostly because I’ve not done much new work on Sparta and you sure as hell don’t want to read about our day-to-day existence here.

But being the good husband that I am, I finally caved to Cristina’s complaints about the summer heat pounding on our bedroom which rendered our floor-standing A/C nearly useless. My solution?…an awning over the bedroom window.

Now, please allow me to pontificate a bit here about Chinese “durable” goods. You recall my earlier post years ago lamenting the state of American manufacturing and the fact that much of it has been conceded to foreign producers – particularly the Chinese. My case in point was the old heater in my bathroom (which I resurrected to perfect working order) versus the cheap crap now available at trailer supply stores, mostly of foreign origin. I’ll admit, I am ambivalent about products made offshore. On one hand, they are incredibly inexpensive which has made things like TVs (and my refrigerator) very affordable but the downside has been a significant shift in the domestic economy to service industries. Also, much of this imported stuff is cheap, flimsy and short-lived. I have had some positive experiences with Chinese products (my reefer) and some not so (my outdoor shower, broken after one season of use).

Which brings me back to my awning. I had some trepidation about buying a 10′, $149 retractable awning from China. I had visions of it flying away like Sally Fields in a high wind. But the thrifty Scot in me bit the bullet and, thus far, I have been very impressed with the result. The first thing I noticed upon receipt was its weight. I could barely pick it up. The second was the thorough packaging, good instructions (with just a few typos) and the presence of all the parts. Good start.

Assembly was complicated. Because of its weight and the potential stress exerted upon it by wind, I could not just screw it to Sparta’s aluminum skin. So I had to install a wood mount to affix the awning to. I painted a 10′ 2 X 8 piece of pressure treated lumber

One disturbing aspect about ageing is the jarring realization that things once taken for granted are now very difficult (like running). This is especially true if the time between them is significant. Take picking up this 10′ piece of lumber. Back in the day I would’ve just grabbed the board with one hand, tucked it under my arm and scampered up the ladder. Not so today. I could pick it up with both hands but getting it up six foot ladder was harrowing. My bad knee has left me very unstable which, coupled with my diminished upper body strength (once a source of great pride), has made the simplest of chores a real adventure. With Cristina’s help (I am not too proud to ask) I raised it into position and screwed the beam into position, making sure to anchor it to ribs not skin. I made sure to add copious amounts of silicone sealant to every place that I breached Sparta’s skin. I certainly don’t want to add roof leaks to my ever-growing list of chores around Sparta. With the wood in place, I was then able to bolt the awning above our bedroom door.

Yeah! It works! Naturally, as soon as I got this thing up and extended the outdoor temp dove back down into the 70’s, so it was difficult to test the awning’s effectiveness at first. But when the heat returned I noticed a real difference in our bedroom’s comfort level.

So with that success under my belt. I got another idea…Why not cover the back of the trailer because it gets blasted by the late afternoon sun? So I noodled over that challenge for a bit and came up with the idea of a PVC frame upon which to sew an old piece of tan fabric that I had lying around. To blend in, I painted it silver. I will let the photos tell the story.

With two sides covered, I decided to take on the rooftop. I ordered a 157″ X 105″ piece of grey sun-blocking fabric from TEMU, the latest mass marketer/seller of Chinese merchandise, to affix to Sparta’s roof. But I couldn’t just stretch it atop my trailer. I needed to devise some way to minimize contact between the roof and the fabric to create an air baffle, thus increasing its cooling effects. My simple (and admittedly lazy) solution was to place a bunch of 2′ 4 x 4s atop the roof and drape the fabric across them.

Admittedly, this solution was about as low-tech and inelegant as one could get, but outa site, outa mind. It still works.

Blessedly, the trailer is cooler, Cristina is quieter and I can go back to whatever important affairs I have awaiting me.

I found this cool Henningsen pendant light fixture to hang above the dining table. It is a Scandinavian classic design from mid-century and the look and color fit perfectly in Sparta. It is a new reproduction – the originals are prohibitively expensive. I love the spirit of the space age that it evokes.

That’s gonna be it for awhile. We’re down in Brazil now. Tchau!

True, the prospect of being wed lends a certain urgency to the task of trailer fixing. This primal urge is hard-wired. I’ve got to make this cave more habitable. Another motivator is the fact that my daughter, Leslie, the originator of trailer mania (the Airstream variant), is coming to visit. I must show her that I’m not a slacker.

Truth be told, I (and Cristina) have put up with an unsightly gap under the refrigerator for a year now. I just never got a round tuit. I couldn’t have my daughter see me for the procrastinator I am.

In addition to our recently installed blinds, I am happy to report Cristina’s completion of the bedroom curtains. These, she made herself and they turned out beautifully. She picked out the fabric, enlisted a friend with a sewing machine and cranked out six drapes. Then, to give them her personal signature, she highlighted them with multicolored embroidery. I am quite confident in saying that they are unique in all the trailering world.

I hung them with stained hardwood dowels and 3/4″ copper pipe straps. We now have total privacy on Sparta just in time for our wedding night next week. Z-Z-Z.

One thing for sure is that trailers settle and shift – even when they are immobile. Time to go around and inspect for cracks, fizzures and seams. The work is never done.

We were very excited to get our bamboo blinds delivered yesterday. They were custom made at www.blindster.com. Installation was a snap and they fit perfectly. Why did we wait so long?

I’m running out of things to do.

Oh…Wait. Is that a loose navigation light wire up top?

Good morning trailer geeks. As pandemic pandemonium nears its 1-year anniversary in these United States, I can’t help reflecting upon how different the world looks today. A year ago I had great catering events teed-up for season, we were living in our apartment, Trump impeachment round one was underway and a trip to Italy was in the works for the spring. Well, today we are comfortably settled into Sparta, still sheltering in place while collecting unemployment and looking forward to a much better year despite Covid’s continuing rampage. I hope we have heard the last from Donald.

Regretably, many things remain unfinished on my ’57 IM. But I am happy to report that we have made significant progress of late. Bamboo blinds arrive today for installation in the Observation Lounge. Cristina is making cool curtains for the bedroom AND I have just about finished the fireplace wrap-around.

In my last entry I told you about the salvaged metal that I beat into submission. I also mentioned using chemicals to weather the metal. I decided to go with paint instead to move things along and give me a little more control over the result.

I cut it to size, primed and painted it with multiple hues using salt to create random patterns. In pictures:

So it looks like I will have the fireplace finished just in time for the spring warm up. Fiddlesticks.

No, I am not fortifying Sparta against a cyber-attack. Could you imagine trying to explain such a concept to the orignal Spartan owner in 1957? Rather, I have finally decided to proceed with the surround for my little fireplace as well as finalizing the heat distribution system.

You’ll notice the Wonderboard covering the wall installed months ago as a means of deflecting heat between the stove and birch walls. You may also remember the 12 volt bilge pumps and tubing situated years ago running the length of Sparta’s midship to move heat from the fireplace to the bedroom.

For the firewall I have settled on a large piece of corregated metal I found half-buried on the property. (Remember, the prior occupant was a packrat cum artist.) It is distressed from time and weather but still not funky enough for my project. I have been to the art supply store to look at various chemicals to accelerate colorful alchemy in the metal.

After I get this metal converted into art, I will drill holes at each end of the cabinet so that the ventilation can suck up all the hot air theoretically generated by my fireplace.

OMG! Did this year really happen? The two of you reading in real time will know exactly what begged this question. Twenty years from now some wannabe Spartan geek may stumble across this entry and ask what went wrong in 2020. Well, there are plenty of better qualified resources recounting the horrors of this past year (Time magazine, National Geographic, etc.) so I’ll not go there. Hey you! Trailer-head. If the option still exists in 2040, Google 2020. That should keep you busy.

For me, the year was a mixed bag replete with loss and blessings. On the left side of the ledger there was: COVID-19 and its many tragic consequences, my 1948 Spartanette was stolen, I could not see my grandson who appears to be growing up without me, my catering business tanked as a result of C-19, I got the dreaded plague and, overall, the United States was a nasty, contentious and beleaguered place to spend the last many months.

But, on a positive note, I finished Sparta (more or less), found new and helpful ways to make money (food delivery & Gov’t assistance), moved into Sparta, got engaged to Cristina and finally visited Brazil with her. We both had mild cases of Covid and have recovered our health. In my book, if you finished the year standing, it was better than not.

Here’s wishing you and yours a great new year.

It was a quick process to finish up the chimney install. I got an aluminum inner sleave to go between the stack and the ceiling baffle, fireproof rubber to line it with and silver, heat resistant insulating tape to further protect against a fire where it is not wanted. Also, I got two metal finishing rings to mount top and bottom, one of which I painted with flat black bbq paint to match the flue. A few screws, a little caulk and BINGO. Done.

I am looking forward to firing this up when we get back. At that time I will cut and mount some corrugated metal to line the walls behind it where you can see the Wonderboard.