| June 20th - Spring Service | |
| On
Tuesday June 20th, I brought the Dodge home from the new storage yard to
do the Spring service. This was the first trip back since moving, and
although there's a steep hill to drive up on the way, the whole trip is
now only three miles door to door.
Today was all the basic maintenance like oil change and greasing everything, but I also waterproofed the roof canvas too. I've noticed gaps opening up above the rear window panels, where the old hinged side joins, so that needs some sealant and I also want to add some angle steel to the rear body roof, to stop it sagging and pooling water when it rains. I've also got to add some resistance into the indicator circuit to allow the yellow LED's to be fitted to the rear lights, and finish the LED headlights. |
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| June 21st - Roof Alterations |
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| For
some time, the roof behind the dome has been sagging, and when it rains,
water started pooling on the roof behind the dome. I've been meaning to
do something about it for quite a while, and up until now, I've been
parking the truck on any slight incline or chocking one pair of wheels
at events where it looks like it is going to be heavy rain.
Today I took some steps to put a camber on the roof to allow the water to drain off the side. My first plan was to screw some strip steel to the roof bow, welded so that the central join formed a peak, forcing the roof into a camber. However while it helped, it still wasn't enough, so I ended up adding a removable steel tube on the centre line, just to the side of the child seat. I also added a strip of steel from the centre bow to the rear bow along the vehicle centre line to stop this sagging. |
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This
is a picture of the dome design, made by the previous owner. The lower
wall of wood stops water from the roof draining inside the truck. The
upper part clamps on top, but is smaller than the lower wall. This
wasn't how I would have done it as water drains off the top section onto
the lower lip, and can then run inside. The joint can't be sealed
permanently as the dome needs to be removed for parking in the
container. A bead of silicone on the mating surfaces helped, but it was
never ideal. The roof modification opened up this joint, forcing me to
do something about it.
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| I redesigned the dome mount as I would have done it, had I fitted it first time around. This involved making a lip on the dome mount that overlaps the wall attached to the roof. Any rain falling on the dome or its mount, runs off the lip, bypassing the lower wall, and straight onto the roof. |
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