Snowball

[Buzzy]

Overland,

 

Nice work.  Great logos.  I especially like the ones with the “4-seasons” logo. I agree the Lone Star logo is a perfect size for the front.  Coming from the school of thought that “less is more”, I might go in the direction of a small logo in the back.  If we carry that approach further, I might place the name “Snowball” near the door and hold off incorporating it into the logo.  I do like either white or black snowflakes in the interest of holding to a maximum of three colors within the logo.  With the body of Ollie being white, it is possible the black snowflakes would “pop” more than the white.  Not sure.

 

Buzzy

[Mike and Carol]

The Lonestar logo is 23.5”. I had two made in case I messed up installing the first one. Here’s a pic of my backup just now.

 

 

Putting it on at Land Between the Lakes just after pickup.

 

 

 

 

I had it printed locally because of the size limitation Oliver had.  It wasn’t expensive and was easy to install. I think about 24” diameter is about right. Mike

[Overland]

Overland, Nice work. Great logos. I especially like the ones with the “4-seasons” logo. I agree the Lone Star logo is a perfect size for the front. Coming from the school of thought that “less is more”, I might go in the direction of a small logo in the back. If we carry that approach further, I might place the name “Snowball” near the door and hold off incorporating it into the logo. I do like either white or black snowflakes in the interest of holding to a maximum of three colors within the logo. With the body of Ollie being white, it is possible the black snowflakes would “pop” more than the white. Not sure. Buzzy

You and my wife are definitely on the same wavelength.  I'm O.K. with the name on the back, but she's like you - she'd rather keep it simple.  I was hoping to keep it to two colors, but I was worried that the white snowflake might get lost against the light blue background, and something just doesn't seem right about grey snowflakes, so I tried the blue.  I prefer white though.  Once I get the actual artwork going, I might try some outlines or something to help the white flakes pop.

[Overland]

 I had it printed locally because of the size limitation Oliver had. It wasn’t expensive and was easy to install. I think about 24” diameter is about right. Mike

Thanks!  I had a feeling that yours was a little larger than 20".  Was it any trouble to get it to curve around the trailer without wrinkling?

[Try2Relax]

I too like the top center logo, but I think that if you don't incorporate the name, within a few years you will give up telling people and just start calling it snowflake instead.

[Buzzy]

Overland,

 

I really like the light blue background!  Try not to eliminate that color.  I also really like the snow covered peaks.  With the white fiberglass body, the black frame will be great.  So....there are three colors!    I understand your logic regarding shying away from black snowflakes.  Not sure adding a fourth color is the way to go.  Think about how it will appear from a distance, say on the interstate.  That was one reason I thought it might be difficult to read the word "snowflake" in the logo.  Probably more info than you need, but this is fun!

 

Buzzy

[Overland]

I too like the top center logo, but I think that if you don’t incorporate the name, within a few years you will give up telling people and just start calling it snowflake instead.

I'm hoping most people will just see mountains and snow and think I must be a better skier than I am.

[Overland]

Quote

Overland, I really like the light blue background! Try not to eliminate that color. I also really like the snow covered peaks. With the white fiberglass body, the black frame will be great. So….there are three colors! I understand your logic regarding shying away from black snowflakes. Not sure adding a fourth color is the way to go. Think about how it will appear from a distance, say on the interstate. That was one reason I thought it might be difficult to read the word “snowflake” in the logo. Probably more info than you need, but this is fun! Buzzy

I'll definitely keep the blue - I like it too.

You're right about the legibility.  I don't want anyone to run into me trying to read what's on the logo.

It is fun, isn't it?  I've been thinking on and off for a while about doing something but couldn't figure it out, then I had to look up something in the owners manual this morning and saw the 4-seasons logo, and it clicked.

[Mike and Carol]

Mike and Carol wrote:

I had it printed locally because of the size limitation Oliver had. It wasn’t expensive and was easy to install. I think about 24” diameter is about right. Mike

Thanks! I had a feeling that yours was a little larger than 20″. Was it any trouble to get it to curve around the trailer without wrinkling?

 

It went on pretty easily. The curve wasn’t much trouble. I did it on a warm day in sunshine. I taped it on with masking tape making sure it was centered and level (Carol’s keen eye helped). I took the tape off of the top half and then part of the backing. Using a hard plastic squeegee I slowly worked from the middle out to the edge. Once part of the top was stuck, I took the tape off of the rest and slowly peeled the back off while using the squeegee to insure there were no air bubbles. I had a few small air bubbles, but they weren’t too noticeable and are now gone.

[Mainiac]

I like the top center. My guess is that "snowball"  will end up being called "Snowflake"?

 

We had ours made locally and she used a vinyl that had small 'micro' groves built into it. When we went over it during installation, at a campground, with the squeegee any air was able to escape. With all the compound curves not one bubble. Ours went on a lot easier than the hull number, which we had gotten from OTT, and we installed. That little thing had bubbles everywhere. A fun project, but don't think it took more than 10 minutes to complete.

[Overland]

Thanks, I'll have to look into the types of vinyl.  I saw one that said it had micro-perforations that were supposed to do the same thing.

[KarenLukens]

Definitely like 1&2 the best. If you didn't need to go round, you could just add a tail to #2 to make the logo a flying snowball...

 

 

[Overland]

Flying Snowball - I like that.  Actually, I was thinking last night that I could take the one with just the big snowflake and extend one end out to make a "tail" and then I could use it on the side as a stripe.

[Overland]

Thought I'd update this thread. The trailer, as of last week, is I think officially finished, at least from Oliver's standpoint. Oliver took it back after our Holiday trip to finish a few things they hadn't gotten to before our October deadline and trip, and to tweak several things that weren't quite right- mainly the brakes which were pretty flaky. Turned out they weren't grounded properly. Anyway, I told them to keep the trailer for as long as they wanted, and they did, but it all seems to have come together and we're pretty happy campers.

Anyway, she's in the driveway now and I've spent all my spare time over the past week cutting random holes in the fiberglass. Hopefully, I'll get those logos finished up this weekend and get them cut next week. I came up with a side decal that I'm happy with but I need to get it finished.

My project this past weekend was to replace the sink and faucet. I'll put up a thread and a pic. I'm super happy with it. I also had time a few days ago to mount a lamp on the nightstand. I just need to wire it up and mount a small switch to the nightstand as well. And finally I ordered a Lagun table mount and folding tabletop today so that will be an upcoming project. And I've got a pressure tank for the water system sitting here that needs to be installed also. Busy couple of weeks ahead.

[topgun2]

That pressure tank thing is a snap once you figure out exactly where it will be placed (read that - where it will fit in). It will make your sink project look huge in comparison.

 

I can feel the excitement in your words - After two years, I still like "tinkering around" in Twist. Just trying to think of little ways to make things work better or be more convenient. For me, it is all part of the joy of owning one of these things.

Bill

[Mike and Carol]

I like what you did with the sink and faucet. Looking forward to more projects and pictures! Mike

[Overland]

Pressure tank install...

 

 

This is the Flotec FP7105 that one or two others have added, sitting under the curbside bed, kind of half in front of the water heater. It's a 2 gallon recharged tank. I placed it here because I wanted to add a valve to isolate the tank when traveling, winterizing, etc. Oliver gave me an access hatch for the water valves, and this sits just inside the hatch. It's nice because I can just reach in and feel for the valve and not have to crawl around on the floor looking for it. I just didn't want to travel with the water system pressurized in case there were a leak. This way I can just shut the valve and open a faucet and all the pressure is released. then when we get to camp, I can turn on the pump and open the valve and it doesn't have to fill the tank back up.

I glued and screwed two blocks to the fiberglass to keep the tank from shifting, and then ran two heavy zip ties through to hold it in place. I put some rubber mat on the blocks and cut a block to keep the zip ties in place. It feels really solid. It was a pain to get it in there and work around it, but now that it's in place, accessing around it really isn't too bad. While I was in there, I did my zip tie tie-ing and fiberglass dust dusting. And learned my PEX skills, which is a necessity. Also, I bought a nice collection of PEX fittings and some tubing for repairs. The only thing I don't have is a crimper, which is darned expensive and bulky, but there are a few connections here and there which seem to require one.

Mo pics...

 

 

 

 

[SeaDawg]

My guess is, your pressure tank is oversized. Our pressure tank for our whole house is not a lot bigger. The boat tank is far smaller.

I found a table for right sizing the tanks years ago. I'll try to find it again.....

Sherry

[Overland]

When I was looking at them a few months ago I used an online calculator where you put in the pump GPM, start and stop pressures, and how long you want the pump to run. I picked a 15 second run time and it came out as needing I think a 5+ gallon tank. This tank is supposed to be the “equivalent” of a 6 gallon so it seemed right. Choice is pretty limited in the smaller sizes. They don't make a horizontal model in that size, but I think the only difference is the mounting hardware, of which there is none.

Had I gone smaller it would have exacerbated the problem I’m having with my pump not giving me the proper start-stop pressure differential, so I’m glad I got what I did.

[Overland]

I posted a while back that we were having trouble with cold spots inside our Isotherm fridge. Basically, stuff under the freezer on both shelves would freeze more often than not. So I decided to add a fan just under the freezer to circulate the air. We'll see how it does.

This is the fan I got - seemed much nicer than anything else I could find. It has two fans and connects directly to the 12v supply. You can keep the wiring in the fridge and connect to the light, if you have one, or if you don't, or don't want wires cluttering up your fridge you can do as I did and drill through to connect directly to the DC supplying the fridge.  I drilled straight through the back behind the fan, ran the wire and caulked both sides.  I tapped in to the DC fan supply on the side by the compressor.   I had to flip the fans around in the housing since the fan kit is designed to blow into the fins on a dometic fridge. The fan has an on/of switch and seems to draw about 0.1 amp.  You can hear it pretty well when you have the door open, but is completely inaudible with it closed.  The fan isn't super strong but you can feel the air coming off of it even at the front of the fridge.

I decided while I had the fridge out to add a layer of insulation all around. 1" in the back and ⅜" on the top and sides, which is all that would clear the cutout in the fiberglass. It was a tight squeeze even at that.

I also spotted a couple fins on the coil that were touching the top of the fridge, which were probably what was causing an occasional buzzing, so I bent those back and generally made sure everything was rattle free.

Drilling for the DC power -

 

 

This is the ASU module on the side of the fridge where I tapped in to the DC.  The wire with the white insulation sticking out is to the fan. The yellow bit is an inline fuse that comes with the fan. Not particularly convenient if it ever blows.

 

 

All wrapped up in insulation.  Cut the bejeezus out of my finger on that aluminum tape -

 

 

And the finished product. I was fortunate that there is that little scallop in the fridge liner right where I wanted to put the fan. Otherwise I'd have had to block it out for airflow. Two screws hold the bottom, and the top is fixed with my favorite 3M 4200 since I didn't have access for screws. A little 4200 on the screws as always to hold them tight -

 

[Overland]

If I'm lucky, I have one more project that I can finish tomorrow and then we're headed to Land Between the Lakes Friday morning for a short weekend trip. They have dispersed camping throughout, a few nice hiking trails, and plenty of other things to keep us busy. Hopefully the weather will be nice.

[Overland]

Just a quick follow up to the refrigerator fan install - it works, and so well that I highly recommend it for anyone who's having trouble with fluctuating fridge temps or cold spots. My fridge now stays between 33 and 40, even when opening the door a lot, the freezer stays frozen, and everything in the fridge is a nice even temp with nothing freezing, regardless whether the fridge is packed full or nearly empty. I was able to turn up the thermostat a bit, too. It's really transformed the fridge.

 

 

By the way, I've been able to do some closer monitoring of the fridge power consumption and I'm really happy with that as well. It will draw between 4 and 5 amps when starting up (a few seconds at that draw for each startup, or it will stay at the higher compressor speed when cooling off a warm fridge - I think that's only when it detects a charge from solar or shore power). After that, it's a steady 2 amps or less. The typical lighting we use at might draws more power than the fridge. I haven't gotten a bead on it's run time yet - I'm sure it's over 50% but by how much I don't know.

Also now that I bent back those few little prongs that were vibrating on the case, it's quiet as a mouse. You can hear it when everything else is dead quiet, but even then it's not bothersome - you really only notice it when the compressor is switching speed and that's just because you notice the tone changing. The loudest thing in our trailer now is the fan to the composting toilet.

[Overland]

Someone asked about the cargo nets we installed. I bought several of these and two of these.  They're a bit expensive for nets, but they're well made, and most importantly, the only ones I could find in those sizes.  The smaller ones we have over the front door, over each bed, and then we also use two in the closet to hold in stuff on the shelves and one in the attic.  One of the long ones I put under the street side bed to stash shoes, and the other went under the attic - that one we use the least.  The one over the door gets hats and gloves and is the perfect solution for us for that stuff.  The ones over the beds get down jackets or maybe a sweatshirt and also gets overflow clothes storage from the cabinets above.  Under the attic is mainly a spot for day to day stuff that get's brought into the trailer, like maps and brochures.  I just like having a place for all of that stuff so it doesn't go onto the beds or countertops.  With such a small space to live in, I find that if there's a place for stuff within reach, then you'll use it and things stay pretty neat.

We also bought a couple of these to go on the sides of the nightstand.  They're great for stashing the phones while they charge.

A few other organizing things we really like -

This key holder is great by the door.  We usually keep a flashlight on the shelf.

These baskets for plastic wrap and stuff have really worked out well for us.  I glued strips of 1x2 PVC to the door with 4200 and then screwed the baskets into that.

Most everything we store goes into these stackable plastic buckets.  They're small enough to fit places and to be able to see everything in them while still being large enough to hold stuff.  I wish I could find some a little smaller that would fit more efficiently into the upper cabinets.  Also, I noticed on this last trip that one of the handles had snapped so time will tell if these are rugged enough to last.

For basement storage, I found that the rectangular milk crates fit perfectly and really keep the basement organized.  In the very back, we have spare parts in several of the plastic boxes above, but in front of those you can slide one of these crates sideways, which will fill the back section of the basement and be flush to the corner of bed wall, and then two more will slide in lengthways to fill the front section of the basement efficiently.  One crate gets water hookups, one gets electrical, and the one in the back gets water filters and things we don't pull out often.  The plastic boxes are accessible from the interior hatch that we had installed under the nightstand.   Being able to just pull out the two crates in the front when we have hookups and working from them really beats sorting through stuff in the basement.  Our grey water hose and propane hoses go in the bumper. Chocks and blocks go in the bed of the truck, along with the grill, stove, fire bowl, and chairs.

[Rumline]

Nominated for Best Thread Ever

[CedarForks]

Following the milk crate suggestion for the basement above, is the attachment of some casters at all helpful? We're pickup up our TT in January: the casters raise the crate height by 2.75" and I'm not sure that it won't increase the difficulty of accessing crate contents via the optional inside hatch. We have an old boat hook to pull the crates out from the exterior.