Fuel extension tube install

When I put in my second fuel tank under the drivers seat I did not have an extension tube for it. I have been keeping an eye out for one online but hadn't found one. They make pouring a NATO can in SOooo much easier!

Finally I advertised for one on the GnR forum and Colin replied that there was one in a thread on the Series 2 forum for free. So I quickly chased it down and the Poster, 602 agreed to give it to me and post it up from the UK to the States. Of course I offered to pay the postage.

 I received the tube this week and it is in awesome condition! Many thanks 602!!! My hero! The magazine wrapping paper was a bonus!

The hard part was to figure out how to attach the chain to the bottom of the main tube. My hands are too large to fit down in there and I had no tool to clamp the chain that would be long enough. Then I remembered that they made a double scissoring needle nose pliers that is quite long. I stopped in at my local hardware store and found one with the bent nose. PERFECT! (he said)

This tool was able to reach down the tube and clamp the chain, but it wasn't easy. It took about 10 min to get 'r done. I had to hold the lock hasp out of the way, the flashlight, the chain and the pliers all at once. And not drop any of them down into the tank! I wound up with the flashlight in my mouth, blocking the hasp with the chain in my right hand so I could keep tension on it and turn it so the pliers could grab it, with the pliers in my left hand to do the initial clamping. Whew!

Looking down the tube with the chain held in the fixin loop.

The final result;

I know, but I like them longer to get way out of the way.

Just a grammar note;  I tried to use the word plier but is gets underlined as a misspelling. So I looked it up in my paper dictionary. Comes back as plier, one who plies (a trade).  While the correct spellin I needed was pliers which I took to be plural for a single plier.  Never too old to learn, or most likely in my case to re-learn.

Trailer hub replaced

Last year, 2K16, while working on my trailer I noticed that it was leaking and when I went to fix it found that it was due to a bolt being siliconed in because the threads were stripped. SPOT!(Stupid Previous Owners Tricks). Let me tell ya this trailer has been thruogh the mill at some point.

My repair at the time was to drill out the stripped hole and retap it to a larger size bolt. I didn't like to do it but, hey it is only a trailer! Still it bugged me........knowing that in order to remove the hub I would need 2 different sockets.

This pic shows the larger bolt circled in red;

So today I set about effecting a better repair by replacing the whole hub/stub axle. Loosened the lug nuts and jacked it up and removed the wheel. Then the drive flange, hub, brake backing plate and stub axle.

Earlier in the week I had prepared the spare hub by cleaning and painting it. Now I had to clean the brake backing plate and I decided to cover the hole for the brake cylinder at the same time. The backing plate was a gooey mess! A thorough cleaning with acetone and a wire wheel got it done, next I snipped out some aluminum sheet to cover the hole and just siliconed it on. Add some rust preventer and some black paint, touch off with a little heat from a propane torch to make everything dry and;

Then is was just a matter of kneeling in the rocky dirt of my drive and bolting all the stuff back on. First though I had to clean off the bolts and find a sixth to replace the 1 oversized one I was replacing. The backing plate and the stub axle get bolted on at the same time. that is when I found out that I didn't make the patch the right size. It was too large and the hub flange wouldn't fit flush. So I took it off and trimmed the patch and stuck it back on. THEN it would bolt on.

Next to go on was the hub taking care to get the bearing tension right and locking the tabs over on the nuts. I had to sort thru some used nuts as these had been removed/installed via the world famous chisel method, necessetating some file work to get them to fit flat and the proper nut wrench. After spending more time cleaning up the gooey brake drum it too was put on.

That left only the drive flange to fit. All the bolts were wire wheeled clean before installation. I put them in more or less hand tight because the hub wanted to rotate if I went harder.

Installed the wheel and hand tightened the lug nut prior to dropping it on the ground. I pulled the jack out and put some weight behind my socket on the lug wrench and tightened the drive flange bolts at the same time.

DONE!
Total time was 4 hours, lots of cleaning................, but I feel better knowing that I fixed a small flaw and I and others won't have to deal with it in the future.

Pack rack install

I really like the Dormobile's ability to store your gear and cook all on one side(for the most part) of the back of a Landy. Since I want to sleep on the RHD side in my cot that leaves the LHD side for some sort of storage.
I have been contemplating cupboards or shelves or just bolting the pelican case to the roofside to removing the windows and installing one of those cupboard insert thingies. By myself as I am now and likely to be the rest of my life I don't need much storage for clothes and all my camping cooking gear fits nicely in a Pelican 1650 case.

Let's face it all that space along the roof sides is wasted behind the driver. I was thinking of putting in some 1.5" wire mesh with a 2 fold purpose, 1 to stop theft and 2 to be able to attach things to on the inside. You know just cutting and bolting it to the inside drip rail to the tub capping like an inside cage.

I have also been thinking of how to have something to drink while driving and figured that something like a tank or water bladder mounted behind the peoples head along the roof side with a drinking tube extending over the door would allow for sippin  while on those long hwy miles or fourwheeling.

Mulling it over for quite a while I finally came up with these pack rack thingies. Basically a cleat mounted to the inside drip rail for the shoulder straps to hang on and the bottom I just put in a simple wire ring anchor point.

Measuring things out I figured I wanted to start with a 12" long cleat and I found some 7/8" electrical conduit I had kicking around. I wanted something round and largeish as to not damage the pack straps. I marked 6" to get the center and made 2 more marks 1.5" out on either side of that. Then I drilled out 1 side of the tube to fit a 1/2" OD steel tube.

I had to kinda guess at how long to make the 1/2" tube to make the cleat stand off enough from the drip rail. I used 1.5" for my length. It is tight on my pack(1-3/4" would have been better) but good on my Camelback. These tubes I welded into the cleat making sure they were lined up flat and straight with each other.

Once the one side was welded in I then drilled out the other side to 3/8" the size of the ID of the tube. This would give me some bite on the tube and keep the bolt from cutting through it. (I hope!). Inside the 109 I used the 3/8" drill to mark where to drill the holes. I only marked 1 hole and drilled it out to 5/16" the size of the bolts I was going to use, wanting to keep as much of the drip rail as possible. Step drilling out the hole and then installing a bolt allowed me to accurately line up the other hole with the 3/8" bit thru the tube marking the drip rail. This was done for both pack racks. And all bolts were installed, I didn't measure them just grabbed some I had I think they are around 2" x 5/16".

A view from above;

So here is a pic of the packs hanging from the racks before I figured out how to restrain the bottom.

Without the packs;

I needed a day or so to figure out how to restrain the bottoms. I tried bungie but it wasn't tight enough and kinda awkward to do. It also showed me that the straps would have to be tight to keep the packs from slumping down from the rack.

I was going to make some kind of restraining thing for each strap, then I hit upon the idea that I could do 1 restrainer for both straps. So this is what I did;

Having some left over wire ring anchor points I mounted them under the centerline of the racks and marked the holes. Then using the do 1 hole at a time on each bracket method I drilled and bolted one side and then I could accurately drill thru the opposite hole and line up the bracket. Installed with 1/4-28 x 3/4" bolts.

Through these I put those links with the threads, I'm drawing a blank on what they are called. Then I could run both the straps thru and tighten them down. I will probably try spring loaded carbineers at some point.

Next up was to make some sort of clips that I could use to hold the drinking tube. Using some stainless strapping tape I fashioned a couple of clips and we'll see how they work out.

In use;