Putting the new toy to work.

I didn't buy the tractor to be a lawn ornament so I put it to work today.  It didn't take long to figure out how to get the bucket fully loaded.  So fully loaded that even with filled tires I can easily lift the back tires off the ground.  I noticed that the bucket doesn't lift as well as it rotated, so I just rammed the pile and then rotated it to break the dirt apart and then lifted it to knock it back into the bucket.


It moved a good chunk of dirt very quickly.


It only took a couple hours too.


Even though the dirt was sticky.  It is a silt and clay mix.  Cheap construction fill.


I then went and played.  I tried digging with the front bucket.  It kinda worked, but the tractor isn't really heavy enough. 


I then went back to the front yard.  And I found that my cheap construction fill had a rather large boulder in it. 


I figured out how to get it in the bucket.  I rolled it back off the pile, then scooped pushing it against the pile.  It was borderline too big for the bucket, and the hydraulics definitely knew it was there.


It got added to the rock wall on the property though.  And I didn't have to move it by hand.


I got it most of the way done with the tractor.  I need to work on packing it though.  I tried a few things, the only method that seemed to work was flattening the bucket, and using the hydraulics to push down until the front of the tractor lifted off the ground.  It wasn't great, but it mostly seemed to work.  If anyone has better ideas, I am all ears.


I did a little bit extra smoothing with my rake.  This section is ready for the weeds to take back over. 


It took most of the pile. 


After that I took off and met with some friends since NH is reopening.  It was good to see people again.  So I parked it for the day.  I will need to get more dirt.  The tractor is dirty now.




On the way back I stopped at Home Depot and got the pieces for the clothesline.  I found another use for the drums too.


A couple of thoughts on the tractor: the hydraulics are definitely kind of wimpy, it won't lift if you ram the pile.  That said, they are matched well with the fact that the tractor is very light.  Even with the tires filled, I will probably want to get a ballast box.  On many occasions I lifted the back of the tractor off the ground.  I also nearly spilled it to the side a couple of times.  You can definitely tell it is a small tractor.  Turf tires didn't help matters, but I have read that they are better than the bar tires in the snow and won't tear up the lawn.  4WD is a must, and the foot pedal diff lock is actually surprisingly functional.  I thought it would drive me nuts having to constantly step on a second pedal when I was digging but it quickly became second nature.  That being said, I think it would easily handle a dump truck of dirt in an afternoon.  Not bad, especially for such a small tractor.  That boulder it moved was pretty hefty, though I definitely have larger ones that I don't think it will move.

New toy has arrived.

I got the mowing done.  The lawn tractor is running good.  I even got part of the hill done, riding the tractor down the hill. 


Thursday I went and paid for the tractor and got the keys for it.


Came home today to a tractor.  It made me happy.  I haven't done anything with it yet, but I did drive it around a little.


The bucket came with a welded hook on it I asked for.  They didn't charge me anything for it.


I expect it will not remain this clean for long.  I have a pile of dirt in the front yard to distribute.

Back home.

I got home last evening.  The drive wasn't bad, traffic was pretty light both there and back.  It was uneventful other than the issue with the truck.  I only got part way through West Virginia, I had hope to make it to the far side, but my short power nap turned into an all night nap.  Oh well.  I had my breakfast of champions when I awoke.  Yoohoo is like chocolate milk, and an oatmeal creme pie is kinda sorta like oatmeal right?


Driving through the mist of morning was pretty neat.  I didn't get a picture from the top of the hill, but got one part way down.


I also did a little bit of design work on the camper while I was there.  I worked on how I would design the underside of the bed since that is one of the critical pieces of the murphy bed approach.  It yielded a design that gave me a decent sized desk and a dining room table.  I would likely store a mobile island and at least one chair under there.  The chair would have to have a folding back, but that isn't hard to do.  The TV will be on an arm, so it could swing over against the wall so it is facing out for armchair consumption. 


While I was there I pulled the code on the truck and cleared the active code.  It was a P2757.  I couldn't completely clear the code, it is permanently embedded in the computer's flash, but it got the dash back to normal.

That code indicates a torque converter malfunction.  I cleared the code in hopes it was just a blip, but it happened again on the drive home, so there is an actual problem.

The way I see it I have 4 options:

1. Try to find someone to just replace the torque converter.
• Cheaper than a full transmission rebuild.  Still probably expensive though since it requires dropping and opening the transmission.
• The transmission seems like it works fine.
• Generally regarded as playing with fire from what I have seen, since the transmission and torque converter are regarded as being a pair.  
2. Rebuild the transmission.
• Rebuilt transmissions include a new torque converter.
• Replacing the torque converter requires dropping and opening the transmission anyways.
• Most expensive option (where I keep the truck).
• Safest option.  Keep in mind that I can't just call home and have someone pick me up.
• The transmission will be trouble free for the rest of the life of the vehicle.
• Seems overkill for a ~3 year anticipated life span.
3. Clear the code when it comes up and just drive it.
• This is the most risky proposition, the issue will only get worse, not better.
• High risk of being left stranded.  If it finished going esplody, I will be walking.
• If I did this I would most likely rent a car for the KY trips.  There is a good chance I would get AAA too.  
• AAA is approximately $75 a year
• A car rental for a trip comes to a little under $300.  I would make roughly two trips a year plus Christmas which we normally take Aunt's car.  So call it $600 a year, with an additional trip somewhere in there which is paid for with gas savings (rentals get better mileage than my truck).
• Total is $2025.
• This isn't really cheaper than just getting the truck fixed and has a lot of risk associated with it, but is cheaper short term.  
4. Clear the code, trade it in.
• For obvious reasons, the most expensive.
• Get rid of a poorly designed truck that has had abnormally high maintenance costs.
• I intended to buy a new vehicle anyways in a few years (my truck has a lot of rust).  I also thought about looking at something other than a truck (perhaps a small SUV) which I haven't explored yet.
• I could trade in the Nissan at the same time.  Kill two birds with one stone.
• I expect I will get around 10-12k for both vehicles.  After buying a tractor and paying off the septic loan, I don't have a ton of cash for a down payment.  Its timing couldn't be worse.
• I very much dislike taking on a car loan when I need to build a house in another year or two.
• I would have to come up with a short term sleeping solution until I get the camper built for KY trips.  Air mattress/cot in the bed with a cap?  Standard cabs can't lay the seat flat.
• A quick gander at new trucks: Chevy would be ~35k, a new Ford would be 39k.  Dodge no longer makes an 8' box.  Those prices don't include a rubber undercoating and a bed liner which I would get.
• An offshoot of this would be to sell the Toyota and buy another used truck, but I don't think I like that idea; I might at least look though (8' boxes are very rare).  Something like this could be an option though: https://vermont.craigslist.org/ctd/d/north-springfield-2008-chevrolet/7123568277.html  though it means I am going older and higher miles and is nothing more than a stopgap being already 12 years old.

I think at this point it is safe to say that the Toyota has topped the list of worst vehicle purchases, moving past the Dodge for first place.

It was really hot in my house when I got home (84 inside) so I didn't really feel like doing much.  I think I know why campers have such oversized A/C units though; it took a few hours to pull down to a nice temperature.  I had hoped to at least start mowing the yard.  I will have to do that tonight.  It is really bad.

Trip to KY

There won't be many postings since I am down visiting in KY.  It looks like I will be at least pulling codes on my truck though.  About an hour after I left, A bunch of dummy lights came on all at once.  Another fine feather in the cap to an already disappointing Toyota truck.  Hopefully it is just a wheel sensor or something that went bad.  I was in 2WD, despite the 4LO light blinking rapidly.  There were another couple lights that came on, but didn't stay on.


I did get some sound measurements since the way I go down is I drive until I can't stay awake anymore, then stop and sleep as long as I can in my rather uncomfortable truck, then finish the trip. 

I took some measurements from the edge of the pavement, around ten to fifteen feet away, and an idling semi is far louder than a generator.  I measured the Volvo.


It read between 58 and 65dB.  Which is louder than even the monster generator at full output.  I would still probably put a muffler on the generator, so I will be fine.  There was an even louder semi at the other end of the lot that almost drowned out the Volvo I was standing near.


While I was there, I also decided to speedtest the West Virginia free welcome center wifi.  It was underwhelming.  I had to try the test a couple of times to get it to complete as well. 


It turns out someone else had the same idea too, I am not the only person who will have done it.


The new phone actually performed worse than the G5 as far as coverage down to KY goes though.  The G5 would connect to old HSPA networks which would at least allow me to send SMS and call, but the new phone wouldn't.  So most of West Virginia I don't have cell signal anymore, and large parts of KY.  Something worth considering since I was planning on using a hotspot/tethering as the internet solution in the camper. 

I porked up a software release right before I left as well, so I figured I would try to fix it while I had wifi, and found out that my inverter has apparently died.  Even with the truck running, it wouldn't run the laptop battery while it was charging despite the brick only having a 150W input.  Might be time for a new inverter.


There was some nice scenery though.  I didn't get a picture the awesome view from the top of the mountain, but I did get to see some mountains littered with mist, and it looked pretty cool. 


Since I won't likely post until I return, have a good memorial day everyone.

Getting ready

Today I didn't get much done outside despite being a fabulous day, but I did get a few things done outside. 

I took a quick gander at the trench.  There was one place where it obviously was still pooling, so I dug that out a bit more. 


I also painted the license plate holder for the trailer.  I might get that installed tomorrow.

In addition, I got a couple of indoor tasks done.  I got my video card swapped out (I can hear Matt saying "finally!" as I write this...).  The new one is a lot bigger than the old one. 




My drivers and everything were new enough (for a change) so everything just worked.  Bonus points if you can name that movie.


I also finally got everything completely changed over to the new phone.  The internet feels faster on it, but it still struggles when tethered.  I can upload full size pictures on the blog now, but it still takes a long time for google to load hangouts and stuff like that.  I still can't load more than one webpage at a time.  The speedtest I ran on the phone was a little disappointing, even if it was a lot better than the old phone.  I kinda wish they reported ping, because the phone doesn't feel like 8/1.25 speeds.  That is theoretically faster than the cable I started out with in the apartment (which was 8/1) but it doesn't even feel close to that.

Perhaps soon I will write a more complete review of the phone.  The short version is if I had bought the phone new I wouldn't be pleased with it, but it is a notable upgrade from its predecessor.  A lot of my gripes with the phone I knew about beforehand too and bought it anyways. 

I also added a tab for charge controllers for the camper battery, though I haven't filled it in yet.  Today at work was hectic and I didn't get a ton of free time.  Perhaps tomorrow.

Long day. Some floorplans waiting for the truck.

Today was a long day at work, I was at work until 7.  But it means that I won't have to take vacation for Thursday, so I guess it isn't all bad.  The reason I was so late though was because I took my truck in to get some servicing done on it before going to KY, which took a little bit longer than expected.  All I got done was an oil change, transmission flush, and a tune up, and it took 2.5 hours. 

While I was waiting for the truck (I didn't have a ride back to the office so I waited for the work to complete) I brought my sketch pad and did a few more floorplan ideas.  I tried to keep the designs to 6x12, wondering if I could shave another foot off.  You may notice that with most of these floorplans I did a single 30x30 "room" for the bathroom.  In this situation the toilet would actually be floating, I wouldn't have a black tank.  I saw one of these toilets when I was talking to Jess about options, and figured it might be worth at least perusing if the space savings were worth it. 

1:  Very basic, very similar to prior floorplans.  Basically just taking the 7x12 and shrinking it.  This was kind of just a baseline to get started with.


2: Another basic floorplan, just with a slightly different layout due to changing the bed orientation.  I might replace the mobile desk in this one with more closet space. 


3.  This is where things started to get interesting.  In this plan, I intended to use a lofted bed.  It limits expandability in case I have guests, but in this case it gives me an actual office/living room.  It makes the trailer taller, but for a mobile office, is it worth it?  While an imaginative floorplan, I had a little trouble bringing this one to life in my head (I am not a big fan of almost half the camper I can't stand in.



4: With number 4 I went back to some of my old tiny house designs: you may notice that this design has a folding murphy bed.  Most of these designs were designed with a futon in mind, meaning the bed turned into the couch.  I went with a twin for this one.  The floorplan has ample floorspace, but I couldn't help but feel this floorplan felt fragmented and not as open as it should have been, given the half size bed.  It did have a real desk in it, an island that expands the kitchen when the bed is up.


6: The 5th didn't make the cut (it was similar to 4 but nothing fit as I liked).  Those two however led me to this one.  Number 6 is a very interesting floorplan.  I don't like the thought of going back to a twin bed, so I incorporated a full size murphy bed instead.  It folds down onto the kitchen counter (no long legs like my current bed).  The full size bed frame however presents opportunities that weren't possible with only a twin bed though.  In this design, I would have enough space to build furniture into the bed framing.  I could build a desk that folds out, I could mount a TV underneath (which I would have done with the prior one too, but that would have taken up all the space since clearly it has to be a big TV...).  I put a couch in this one which could be a sleeper sofa, but I would more likely use mobile rocker recliners instead since I would have to move them to see the TV (even though I intend to put the TV on an Ergotron arm).  It doesn't have an island, but it has a full 2' cabinet more kitchen than the other floorplans.  There isn't anything stopping me from building an island for it either, it would fit under the bed.  The bed doesn't overlap so much so that I couldn't put wall cabinets up or appliances on the counter.  The only problem is the lack of a closet (and therefor a place for the water heater).  The bottom right is supposed to say shower and bath.  It has no closet, though I could replace the couch with an armchair and put a shallow closet all along the back wall which would instantly make it one of the best floorplans for storage.  In theory (though it would make it feel tiny and cramped) I could even shrink this design down a bit more to 6x10, though I don't think I would.


I actually really liked number 6.  I liked it better than some of the bigger 7x12 floorplans that I came up with, though the concepts could theoretically apply to those as well.  You may be asking why I am trying to shrink it: now that solar is out, the roof size is of no consequence.  The smaller I make the trailer the easier it is to tow (as long as I don't make it taller as a result).  It also means that I have a bigger weight allowance.  All the trailers I looked at had a gross weight of 3000 lbs.  If I get a 6x12, the trailer itself will be lighter, giving more weight for the structure on top of it.  There was also the problem of a 7x12 is not actually 7x12.  Many of the so called 7' wide trailers I saw were only 6'6" or 6'8" between the rails.  This way I am not pidgeon-holing myself into the very few trailers that actually are a true 7' wide.  6x12 though is a size that everyone makes, it is the most common size for landscaping trailers.  I also don't want things to come crashing down because I am two inches off and now all of a sudden my shower or bed doesn't fit by a couple of inches, and so on.

Thinking I wouldn't top that last floorplan (in case it wasn't clear yet, I like number 6 a bit), I also made a list of another sort: I started to list out all the things I want readouts and control over.  I expect I will have to make an app for a tablet  (or a Raspberry Pi and display) to display it all, but first I need to know what I would like.  Here is the list I came up with:

• Trailer tilt/level indicator
• Power meter for 12V
• Power meter for 110V
• Battery gauge
• Solar meter
• Water tank levels (both fresh and gray.  Black if I have one)
• Water pump control.  I might want a real physical switch for the control and just a readout for the display though
• Propane gauge
• Air conditioning controls (temp and setting)
• If I put electric legs on it, controls for those
• If I go with a murphy bed, controls for a motor to raise/lower it.  This may go on a switch somewhere though, not on the main control panel
• Clock of some kind
• Outdoor temperature sensor
• Fan control (if I have any built in wall fans)

I started to do a little more research into 12V panels and batteries, like I looked up that Uncle's trailer is using dual 64Ah batteries, so I will definitely need probably a 200Ah one at least (perhaps dual 150s?).  I will finish all that up tomorrow though, I didn't finish it today.  I hope to finish up the trailer and some of the other projects tomorrow too if I get out early enough.  I am rapidly running out of time before I leave for KY.

Today was all about finishing.

Last night after I posted, I didn't really do much.  I finished assembling the last rack before bed and that was about it.


This morning I reversed the door and hung it up.  Now both cabinets to the right of the stove open into the kitchen.  It isn't quite large enough to hold all my ziplocks.  Oh well.  I will probably just put the ones I commonly use in it.


I also installed the boards I painted yesterday, and sealed so nothing will get in behind the boards from either side.  There was a little bit of mildew on a couple of the boards around the window.  I guess I waited too long to get it finished.  It wasn't bad though I am not worried about it spreading inside. 


I then switched to working on the trench.  I started off digging up the rock that broke my old shovel.  It was apparently just the shovel's time to die, that is a pretty wimpy rock. 


I got the trench finished.  The previous part was full of water.


It is now all running away.  I sure taught that water who was boss...


I am not sure if it is deep enough, I may need to dig a little bit deeper, but I need to let it drain out and find the pipe first.  We are supposed to get more rain tonight.  If it is deep enough, it will be dry enough Tuesday or Wednesday to run the rest of the pipe.  I have all the materials on hand to finish it.

Next up was digging out the cooler.  My drain plug still works apparently.  I did actually break it off though, it isn't on the little flippy thing anymore (it used to be).


I intended to hose out the cooler, so I got my hose all set up.  I couldn't find my nozzle though (it should have been right next to the hose reel) so we will have to hose it down when I get down there. 


I will also bring down some stick on foam since I noticed the front of the cooler is bowed a little likely from being full of water which froze over the winter.  A little foam should at least allow it to seal and keep the efficiency up.  Or you can just take the hinges and fix yours, I don't care.  I have used this cooler twice since I moved to NH: when the fridge in the apartment died, and when I moved out of the apartment to the tiny home. 

Then I went on to the trailer.  I got the license plate holder built.  I couldn't build it the way I originally planned to since I didn't a have a vise and couldn't get this to bend.  I guess the flat stock I got was thicker than I needed...


I did get all the pieces cut out and drilled out though.  It will look like this when I get it installed.


Before that though I intend to repaint it.  I ended up using more material than originally planned and part of it wasn't painted yet.  I got the primer done, I will paint it tomorrow (you are supposed to wait a day before painting). 


I will pick up the parts needed to finish the table when I go out shopping tonight.  I will probably put out more dunks tomorrow after the rain since the black flies were eating me alive today.  Bug season is upon us.  We are supposed to be flirting with the 80s when I get back from KY, so maybe they won't live long.  It would be a disappointingly short spring in that event though.