Author Topic: Questions and Advice for Constructing a Wheelhouse for 2022 - 2023 (Read 11910 times)

Rebelss · « **Reply #60 on:** Oct 13, 2022, 11:01 AM »

Quote from: cwavs1982 on Oct 13, 2022, 10:59 AM

Enjoying this thread - that's how you learn!

x 2

Royalwapiti · « **Reply #61 on:** Oct 15, 2022, 08:28 AM »

It's fun seeing something develop from a pile of steel. I would have purchased the dropdown trailer from Miltona and started with that. My welding is not that good and it would be known as the crooked fish house when I got done building the frame.

Nice work.

flyfish59102 · « **Reply #62 on:** Oct 22, 2022, 03:12 PM »

I thought of doing that. Who knows. It could still turn into a colossal #^@% up. I have measured, re-measured and re-re-measured every angle I couldn't tell you how many times. Hopefully I can finish getting it covered this weekend. I was out of town last week so no knew pics. The snow has started, and I am thinking of some nice hard ice in my not-too-distant future.

flyfish59102

flyfish59102 · « **Reply #63 on:** Dec 19, 2022, 05:29 PM »

flyfish59102 · « **Reply #64 on:** Dec 19, 2022, 05:30 PM »

Don't you hate it when life gets in the way of having fun. Nothing but work, work and more work. I haven't made nearly as much progress by now as I would have hoped, but here are some pictures updating where the project is at.

flyfish59102

flyfish59102 · « **Reply #65 on:** Dec 19, 2022, 05:36 PM »

So, I decided that the spray foam insulation wasn't as thick as I hoped it would be. That and it was freaking expensive. So, I added another layer of foam insulation over top of it for a total of three inches of insulation on every side. If that doesn't keep me warm when it is colder than heck out there I don't know what will. Current weight estimate is 1,300lbs. Now I need to work on finishing the outside details, putting the floor in and running the electric. Already thinking about how much running the electric all over the place will completely suck. I decided to go with running wires through plastic conduit so when there are wiring problems in the future, which there will be because there always are, I can get to it and repair it easily without ripping off any walls.

flyfish59102

flyfish59102 · « **Reply #66 on:** Dec 19, 2022, 11:13 PM »

Let the trimming of the doors begin. 2 hours and I got 1/2 of one door done... this is going to take a while.

flyfish59102 · « **Reply #67 on:** Dec 30, 2022, 10:35 AM »

The build continues when time allows. I managed to finish welding an inner frame from the spear fishing holes and get the panels installed. Then I cleared out the inside of the shack and started putting in the rubber floor. It is 1/2 way glued down. I figured adding the plywood and tires would make it dry flatter. Seemed like a good idea at the time. I guess I will see if it worked tonight when I get home.

flyfish59102

hawg · « **Reply #68 on:** Jan 01, 2023, 06:14 AM »

You’re 1st post was June 19th. Most have no clue how much work building a house is.

flyfish59102 · « **Reply #69 on:** Jan 03, 2023, 09:17 AM »

I did think I would have it done sooner than this. I must say that the real problem is I have a job that takes way too many nights and weekends, a wife and two kids that take up the rest of my time and I do need to sleep every now and again. It is getting there though. I thought it would take me two or three months. Missed that guess just a little bit.

Otherwise, the trim work on the outside is now done. Yipee, I am down to building a small counter inside and installing the electric then I am good to go. I hope....

flyfish59102

flyfish59102 · « **Reply #70 on:** Feb 02, 2023, 04:56 PM »

The last 10% of any construction project takes 90% of the time. The structure is complete. Now it is down to installing the interior features. I am goign to skip a lot of the pictures because it will take to long to upload them. Either way, here are a few. I am taking a few hours a night and doing it a bit at a time. Things are not looking good for bieng done this season.

flyfish59102

flyfish59102 · « **Reply #71 on:** Feb 02, 2023, 04:58 PM »

And more pictures of finishing the inside. Boy oh boy is copper wire expensive right now. I thought I was getting copper not solid gold.

flyfish59102

flyfish59102 · « **Reply #72 on:** Feb 02, 2023, 05:00 PM »

And now I am wiring even more lights. And more lights, and more USBs and more 12v hook ups for accessories. Good grief am I sick of running wire. I think I am putting the hardware store owner's kid through medical school.

flyfish59102

cwavs1982 · « **Reply #73 on:** Feb 03, 2023, 07:03 AM »

Coming along nicely!!

flyfish59102 · « **Reply #74 on:** Feb 06, 2023, 10:20 AM »

No new pictures to add because this weekend's work isn't visible. As a heat source I bought a diesel heater. For anyone who cares, they are crazy energy efficient and kick out a ton of heat. Everything has a drawback, and the drawback for them is that the have a pump that is freaking loud and annoying as all he!!. Really, who wants to be warm when you are spending your time grinding your teeth thinking about eating a pistol because of the never-ending ticking that sounds like a woodpecker beating a hole into your soul caused by the furnace.

I tried a few different options to correct the problem. There is a sound insulator that fits over the pump. That helped a little, but not much. There is also a dampener that fits onto the fuel line. That reduced the noise really well, but then the heater didn't work. That kind of kills the point of the sound dampener and the heater. The best solution I found was to build a wooden box around the heater and line it with automotive sound insulation. That reduced the noise of the pump by around 70%. The remaining noise seems to be vibration coming off of the fuel line. I think that maybe I can insulate vibration and sound from that by wrapping it in foam or some kind of material. If I can reduce the noise just a bit more it would be perfect.

Otherwise, I got the RV electrical box, converter, charger installed and wired in. I was also able to get the line run to the outside of the shack to hook up the power to shore power to charge everything inside of the unit. Didn't actually get that wired into the plug yet. Ran out of steam around 8:45 and the idea of putting three wires into three matching connections points seemed like way to much work. I suppose the good news is that all of the power ports, buttons, lights, ect.... all work on the first try and I didn't light anything on fire, fry anything important, shock myself, or even blow a single fuse. I am not an electrician, so I will put that down my success to some extreme luck, a lot of planning and working slowly and deliberately.

flyfish59102

flyfish59102 · « **Reply #75 on:** Feb 07, 2023, 10:03 AM »

Shore power has been established. Goodness gracious. It took months longer than expected, but finally, the wiring is done. I plugged into the wall in my shop last night and my power converter started humming to life. Then I plugged a random took into a power outlet inside of the trailer and it worked. IT'S ALIVE.... insert evil cackle here. The batter started charging up, all of the lights worked, all of the plugs worked, the heater fired up. This morning I checked, the garage hadn't burned down, and everything was still working.

So, here is a question for you wiring guys who may know what you are doing. The inverter converter is installed and hooked up but now how do I make it so that my batteries charge off of my truck while am hauling the damn thing around?

flyfish59102

ice dawg · « **Reply #76 on:** Feb 07, 2023, 04:15 PM »

Use a seven pin connection to your tow vehicle so you have a 12v power source.

flyfish59102 · « **Reply #77 on:** Feb 07, 2023, 06:26 PM »

I have a seven-pin connection. Do I just connect it to the positive line coming off of the battery in the trailer then? I guess it would just charge to the same level as my vehicle battery and I wouldn't have to worry about overcharging the batteries? Admittedly, I am just guessing here. I have zero idea. All previous wiring, I have done on a trailer has been replacing old wire or routing new wire and hooking it up where the old wire was previously connected. I never really understood the theory of what went where and why....

flyfish59102

ice dawg · « **Reply #78 on:** Feb 08, 2023, 11:08 AM »

I would run a separate, heavier, wire to the positive post of the battery of the ice shack. You should be able to Google a wiring diagram for a seven pin rv connector.

Badder · « **Reply #79 on:** Feb 08, 2023, 11:32 AM »

Check out [email protected] He has made a silent diesel heater fuel pump.

flyfish59102 · « **Reply #80 on:** Feb 09, 2023, 09:27 AM »

So here is the sound box I came up with. I managed to reduce the sound of the pump by about 70%. The only sound now seems to be coming from the hard plastic line. I am going to try and add some insulation around that and I suspect it will reduce the sound/vibration about 50% of what is left. In all fairness, it is pretty darn quiet right now. The box is lined with two layers of automotive sound insulation the opening has a few layers of felt to reduce vibration there.

flyfish59102 · « **Reply #81 on:** Feb 09, 2023, 09:34 AM »

I built the box bigger than I needed to because I bought a few different devices to cut down on the noise from amazon. The rubber housing for the pump works ok. There was another thing that you added to the line that was a dampener. That did not work at all. Well, it reduced the heck out of the sound, but it caused my heater to not get the correct amount of gas, smoke like crazy and constantly stop working with error codes. Given the choice between a functioning heater that made noise and a quiter heater that didn't work, I went with "makes some noise" option instead and called the $14 dampener a loss.

flyfis59102

flyfish59102 · « **Reply #82 on:** Feb 10, 2023, 10:45 AM »

The interior detail work continues. I built small shelves with lights on the bottom that go over the holes. The lights are both black lights and white lights. Now I need to get those wired in. The idea is that the individual fisherman can illuminate the lights over their own holes in front of them to illuminate their own holes or to tie on new lures without disturbing everyone else in the shack. I figure the shelf would be useful to put bait or lures on while changing stuff out. We shall see, seemed like a good idea at the time. I also finally got around to sanding down the door and hanging it on the cabinet so I didn't trip over it and break it.

Also, looking at the general crap on the floor, it is probably time to do a major clean up before I start the next phase of my construction operation. It is getting a wee bit cluttered in there.

flyfish59102

flyfish59102 · « **Reply #83 on:** Feb 15, 2023, 05:50 PM »

Work keeps getting in the way of fun and construction. Most of the work has been working on internal wiring for taillights when I have had the time this week. No real picture to show that since it is all inside of conduit and well, that makes for boring photos. I got it put in and the taillights work and that is good. I ran the wire through conduit on the inside of the shack under the theory that wiring for trailers always gets f#$@ed up. This way I can replace it super easy...I hope. I figure if it is in conduit inside of the trailer it is also less likely to get messed up. We shall see. Once I finished the wiring I worked on another interior project. I wanted a fish finder holder that folded up out of the way. Note the 12v plug in next to it so I can run it off the large batteries in the shack when I want too. Here is what I came up with. Thoughts?

flyfish59102

OldSailor · « **Reply #84 on:** Feb 15, 2023, 07:24 PM »

Looking good!!!

flyfish59102 · « **Reply #85 on:** Feb 16, 2023, 04:24 PM »

I don't think she is going to hit the ice this year. Life has just been too busy. I haven't even cut the holes in the floor yet. Hoping to do that this weekend. Only major stuff left, is cutting the holes, running lights on the sides, staining the woodwork, insulating the floor, and putting on the rubber roof. At least, I think that is all that is left. There is always something else to do.

flyfish59102

Splattypus · « **Reply #86 on:** Feb 16, 2023, 05:39 PM »

Nice. I'm really enjoying seeing the updates.

Some unsolicited advice: after having spent hours upon hours rewiring taillights, I hope you leave plenty of slack for years of trimming. I also really like using bullet plugs, or even spade plugs. Usually it's the light plug or connection that goes first, only having to repair one end is nicer, and saves effort of you don't have to splice in new line because you ran out of excess

You look like a pro at this, though, so I'm sure you planned well ahead for all the eventualities

flyfish59102 · « **Reply #87 on:** Feb 17, 2023, 10:36 AM »

I am so NOT A PRO at this. That is why it is taking so long. Well, that and I have a day job that takes up days, nights and weekends. I actually work in an office all day long. I am not a mechanic, welder or in any other trade. Just a boring office dwelling dweeb with a dream about having a cool shack I couldn't afford to buy. I did leave six inches of extra wire for the taillights on either side so that I could replace or rewire them if I needed to. I did that with all the interior lights as well. I have had to rewire lights in trailers before. That little bit of extra wire can cut down on a lot of cursing down the road. This is the first build of this kind I have ever attempted.

Last night I managed to wire in the "lower hole lights". I think they look pretty good. Originally, they were going to go on the bottom of the shelf that holds the fish finder, but it turned out that the led strips could only be cut efficiently into three (3) feet lengths. Any shorter than that and a lot of extra wiring would have been needed because not all of the lights would have lit up on the strip. As a result, I had to make the place the attached longer. Hence the shelf. Make it up as I go a long I guess.

flyfish59102

Splattypus · « **Reply #88 on:** Feb 17, 2023, 05:11 PM »

I love the shelf idea anyway, makes great sense for nearby storage that is still out of the way. It's coming along awesome, can't wait to see the final product

flyfish59102 · « **Reply #89 on:** Feb 21, 2023, 09:15 AM »

I am looking forward to seeing the final product too.

flyfish59102

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Author Topic: Questions and Advice for Constructing a Wheelhouse for 2022 - 2023 (Read 11910 times)