December 22, 2007

Modding Weekend

I finally had some time to putter around on the Caboose. We're planning on taking the dogs on our next trip, and Polly here is pretty arthritic. She had a tough time with the folding step at the door, so I built her this ramp out of a piece of 3/4" plywood and scrap carpet. I added some 2x2 lumber to the edges to cut down on the sagging. I milled the lumber into an El shape and gave it several coats of spray paint to match the trim on the Caboose.

I also added a kill switch for the heater next to our bed. Sherry likes to have things toasty when she goes to bed, and then cool while we sleep. Now I don't have to get out of bed to turn the heater off. Having this switch also helps me out in conserving propane. I disabled the red lamp in the switch because it was too distracting for sleeping. It was very simple to wire, I simply spliced into the thermostat leads and ran some wire through the cabinets and to the switch.

Lastly, I bought some larger LED replacements for the dome lights. I had tried some that just had nine LEDs and it was like working in a gold mine with a single candle. These are 36 LEDs per unit, so theoretically it should be like working in a gold mine with four candles. The units have a standard 1156 base so I can swap them out with a standard bulb when we have a site with full hook-ups. When we're going for a longer stay, these should substantially stretch the battery life. I'm thinking that I might get a double lens fixture and wire one side up with the LEDs and the other side with an incandescent bulb.

1 comments:

Sharon said...

Love the idea of the ramp for the dogs. We take our 10 year old shelti and mini chihuahua and they have trouble with the fold down step, Heck I have trouble with the step. Thanks for the idea. I think I need to make one for me, I mean the dogs.

Sharon