for all the good it did me
Jun. 17th, 2020 09:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
eorToday was a break from brush and a pretty low productivity day.
I started out working on the awning setup for the van. I envision a awnings similar to the one that I built for the old van with notable improvements. Like the old awning, my plan is to start with pvc coming out from the jack points on the sides of the van and bowing up to a crosspiece with a tarp over top. This creates a triangle, with the van one side, pvc another, and the tarp the third. It allows the awning to be put up with anchors being optional (a good idea in wind or heavy rain, but there aren't a lot of lines required).
The old system had two major downfalls. The first was that it was built to a specific size tarp, the crosspole exactly fit the edges of that tarp. What I found when that tarp wore out was that there is no way to get consistent sizing in tarps, at least not sufficient to prevent bagging and pooling on a fixed width frame. The locations of grommets along the edges seemed random as well, so fixed attachment points were always wrong. The second problem that plagued me from beginning to end was how to fix the tarp to the van. I tried various clips to mount to the rain gutter, but most weren't strong enough to actually hold. Those that were strong enough to hold tended to distort the gutter. I finally found some clamps that would wrap around the rain gutter if there was a piece of wood dowel in the gutter. Those would hold pretty well, but had two problems of their own: the dowel filled the rain gutter so any rain that found it's way into the gutter would find it's way out again and right down the side of the van and the clamps actually held the tarp about half an inch away from the gutter so rain would fall in the gap and soak the side of the van and anything near it. I fought with that for the entire time I owned the old van and never came up with anything that solved the problem of how to affix the tarp.
Well, in the meantime, other people have been having similar problems. Van Cafe has some brackets they sell for mounting Fiama awnings to the rain gutter. These are heavy dutty brackets and very well desinged. They don't obstruct the whole rain gutter, so the rain gutter still functions to channel the rain away. They do exactly what I was trying to do back in the day.
So I've got some of those and I'm hacking them to bits because they aren't exactly what I want. I'm going to shorten the height, drill some holes in them and attach some perforated angle steel over the new tops. The angle steel will allow me to attach tarps of whatever width to the van (up to about 9.5 feet wide). Because the angle steel has holes at regular intervals I will be easily able to use the grommets in the tarp wherever they show up or add a few extras if I want to. I'm actually going to wrap the tarp around the angle steel and attach it on the back so there will be less strain on the grommets and so any water hitting in that area will tend to go into the rain gutter and out. That should solve the problem of attachment to the van and size variations on the van side of things. On the other end with the PVC, my current plan is to have a series of holes drilled in the PVC so that whereever the back edge of the tarp goes to I'll be able to anchor it down.
With the angle steel, if I'm not using the tarp, I should be able to attach the top edge of solar panels to the rail and run lines to stakes at the bottom edge.
So today it was lots of measuring, fitting, trying, measuring again. I did get most of the brackets drilled and the angle steel marked for cutting. I also got most of the pvc cut. All this is only for the passenger side. When I have the passenger side working, then I'll order the brackets for the driver's side and start working on a simpler tarp holder for that side (sans pvc).
At one point we went to the post office and hardware store which turned into an adventure. Turning into the hardware store Derien's car decided the only gears that would be allowed would be 3rd and 4th. It is really hard to get a car going from a standing stop in 3rd gear. We barely made it home. This evening I took a look at the Internet, then took a look at the car. I used to zip ties to hold together the bushing that failed and it appears to now shift into all 5 gears again. Once we determine if this is a warrantee repair or failing that how much it costs we'll decide if I'm going to buy the part and fix it myself.
It was really a lost day. I guess I knew it would be when I started working on the awning system. I'm making it up as I go along and that's why I hadn't tried to take it on previously. I had all the parts since last fall, but I just wasn't willing to invest the time in working it out. But today having shade seemed like a good thing, it was in the 80's. Tomorrow it is supposed to be even warmer, so an awning might be a timely invention.
I started out working on the awning setup for the van. I envision a awnings similar to the one that I built for the old van with notable improvements. Like the old awning, my plan is to start with pvc coming out from the jack points on the sides of the van and bowing up to a crosspiece with a tarp over top. This creates a triangle, with the van one side, pvc another, and the tarp the third. It allows the awning to be put up with anchors being optional (a good idea in wind or heavy rain, but there aren't a lot of lines required).
The old system had two major downfalls. The first was that it was built to a specific size tarp, the crosspole exactly fit the edges of that tarp. What I found when that tarp wore out was that there is no way to get consistent sizing in tarps, at least not sufficient to prevent bagging and pooling on a fixed width frame. The locations of grommets along the edges seemed random as well, so fixed attachment points were always wrong. The second problem that plagued me from beginning to end was how to fix the tarp to the van. I tried various clips to mount to the rain gutter, but most weren't strong enough to actually hold. Those that were strong enough to hold tended to distort the gutter. I finally found some clamps that would wrap around the rain gutter if there was a piece of wood dowel in the gutter. Those would hold pretty well, but had two problems of their own: the dowel filled the rain gutter so any rain that found it's way into the gutter would find it's way out again and right down the side of the van and the clamps actually held the tarp about half an inch away from the gutter so rain would fall in the gap and soak the side of the van and anything near it. I fought with that for the entire time I owned the old van and never came up with anything that solved the problem of how to affix the tarp.
Well, in the meantime, other people have been having similar problems. Van Cafe has some brackets they sell for mounting Fiama awnings to the rain gutter. These are heavy dutty brackets and very well desinged. They don't obstruct the whole rain gutter, so the rain gutter still functions to channel the rain away. They do exactly what I was trying to do back in the day.
So I've got some of those and I'm hacking them to bits because they aren't exactly what I want. I'm going to shorten the height, drill some holes in them and attach some perforated angle steel over the new tops. The angle steel will allow me to attach tarps of whatever width to the van (up to about 9.5 feet wide). Because the angle steel has holes at regular intervals I will be easily able to use the grommets in the tarp wherever they show up or add a few extras if I want to. I'm actually going to wrap the tarp around the angle steel and attach it on the back so there will be less strain on the grommets and so any water hitting in that area will tend to go into the rain gutter and out. That should solve the problem of attachment to the van and size variations on the van side of things. On the other end with the PVC, my current plan is to have a series of holes drilled in the PVC so that whereever the back edge of the tarp goes to I'll be able to anchor it down.
With the angle steel, if I'm not using the tarp, I should be able to attach the top edge of solar panels to the rail and run lines to stakes at the bottom edge.
So today it was lots of measuring, fitting, trying, measuring again. I did get most of the brackets drilled and the angle steel marked for cutting. I also got most of the pvc cut. All this is only for the passenger side. When I have the passenger side working, then I'll order the brackets for the driver's side and start working on a simpler tarp holder for that side (sans pvc).
At one point we went to the post office and hardware store which turned into an adventure. Turning into the hardware store Derien's car decided the only gears that would be allowed would be 3rd and 4th. It is really hard to get a car going from a standing stop in 3rd gear. We barely made it home. This evening I took a look at the Internet, then took a look at the car. I used to zip ties to hold together the bushing that failed and it appears to now shift into all 5 gears again. Once we determine if this is a warrantee repair or failing that how much it costs we'll decide if I'm going to buy the part and fix it myself.
It was really a lost day. I guess I knew it would be when I started working on the awning system. I'm making it up as I go along and that's why I hadn't tried to take it on previously. I had all the parts since last fall, but I just wasn't willing to invest the time in working it out. But today having shade seemed like a good thing, it was in the 80's. Tomorrow it is supposed to be even warmer, so an awning might be a timely invention.
