08.24.08

“Jerry-rigging” the backup lights

Posted in Exterior, Electric at 7:02 pm by elly

For the OCD or purists in the crowd, you may not want to read this post. It may even be illegal. As I mentioned before, the backup lights had no socket left to replace the bulb into and the canister in the mounting base was so rusted there was nothing to screw the lens onto. I searched the local auto and tractor stores and online sites with no luck finding a replacement. So in the spirit of my enterprising father, I used some things not meant for the job, including a tuna fish can. See the step-by-step process in my web album.

New backup light

08.22.08

Land Yacht vs real Yacht

Posted in General at 2:43 pm by elly

Son Nathan is more of a captain than a streamer.  He is starting an adventure of his own with his new 30 foot Tartan.  His yacht is a 1975 versus my 1973 Land Yacht.  Its amazing how much we have in common to talk about when it comes to these two vessels.  I hope he takes more pics that I can share.
Nathan's Tartan

08.17.08

Lights, action, camera

Posted in Restoration, Exterior, Electric at 7:58 pm by elly

I’m still working on the back up lights dilemna, but I did get 10 marker lights replaced with new LED lights this weekend. There were many challenges with getting the old ones off and the new ones on due to rusted, broken screws and rivets and inexperience. The good news was that they all tested positive for voltage.

The LED lights are not as easy to mount as the old style ones, especially since I was going to do it with connectors or twisted wire caps, but there’s NO space behind the flush mounted ones. The lower ones have a mount, so four of them were done nicely, the rest were wired with electrical tape and heat shrink tubes. You can see the pictures from the 1970’s Airstream type marker lights installation if you’re interested.

Night lights

08.03.08

Preparing for inspection

Posted in Exterior, Towing, Electric at 12:23 pm by elly

The trailer has not been plugged into a vehicle since Fletch delivered it 3 years ago. I guess its not surprising that only 4 of the 20 running lights work. The left blinker and tail light works, but not the right. The backup lights didn’t work at all. The picture below is how I found it when I took off the lense - do’ya think thats why? There is no socket remaining on either side. I’m debating whether to jerry-rig (as opposed to jimmy-rig) a closed unit that I found at Northern Tool or re-wire a socket.
Backup lights

I made a list of the bulb numbers based on the owners manual for running, tail/blinker, backup, and license plate lights. I was able to find them all at Advance Auto (bought a few at Camping World since I bought out the entire stock of running light bulbs at Advance).
Exteriour lights

08.01.08

Brake controller Pt II

Posted in Towing at 12:11 pm by elly

Croft’s Trailer and Hitches came through with flying colors. I now have a brake controller (Tekonsha Prodigy) installed and a functional 7-pole plug on the Land Cruiser.

Tekonsha Prodigy Brake Controller

Tekonsha Prodigy Brake Controller

7-pole plug

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