What did you do for your Escape today.....

[Ron in BC]

Originally Posted by HABBERDABBER

Ahoy, Ron,


So what brand of inflatable kayak do you have?

bon voyage,

I have an Advanced Element Elite. Reasonably good quality but I need that as I want to be able to go out in rough stuff and not worry about the strength of it.

Originally Posted by Iowa Dave

I needed it this week to put a rough sawn 4”X12” by 8 feet of American Black Walnut about head high in my wood rack,
Iowa Dave

I'm envious. Wish that I had a chunk of that in my wood rack. Good supply of Burmese Teak and Oak but very little walnut.

Ron

[Iowa Dave]

Originally Posted by HABBERDABBER

Dave,


With that cache of timber, what is your plan? Going to build something?



I could make another swell cheese serving tray with some of that wood.


You still need to receive your Windsor cheese and drink tray.

Hi Tom
I had a house in the 90s that had a limestone fireplace with a mantle. The wood was rough sawn pine and it was not real impressive. A good friend of mine lived in Fayette Iowa at the time ( fairly close to Yellow River since you’re familiar with NE Iowa) . He stopped by my house fairly often and was always giving me something. He saw the mantle we had and was not impressed. On the day my oldest daughter graduated from high school we had a party and he came. In the back of his Toyota was this big honking piece of walnut. He had taken three trees down for a neighbor who was old and didn’t have much money. So Ed took the pay for the tree work as one of the trees. He had the wood milled at a local sawmill. He gave me the walnut with the paraphrased Crocodile Dundee admonition “Now that’s a ( expletive deleted) mantle”.

Alas I sold the house 12 years later without doing anything to the fireplace. But I brought the wood to the new house and am working in my small garage these days trying to organize my hoarding. So I’ve had the board a little over 26 years. Which to a hoarder is but a nanosecond. I haven’t seen Ed for a while but one of these days he will stop by with something he thinks I need and I will ply him with strong drink and like the wind he will be gone again. I have about 8 hours of stories with just Ed and me as the protagonists. The best hunter and fisherman I’ve ever known.
Iowa Dave

[h2owmn]

Myron, did you expect that girly comment to go by without a response? Consider yourself responded to.

Habberdabber, we had a sevylor duckie in the 90s...they aren't high tech but if one avoids banging them into rocks and dragging them on sand/rocks, they will last. My kids paddled it in class 3 whitewater for @10 years without a patch. I think my daughter still may have it rolled up in her garage, but I'm sure it's got crease cracks, etc. Its value to her is sentimental. That's pretty girly.

[dstreight]

Finally cut a hole in the counter of our 15A and installed an induction "burner". We weren't sure how much we'd use one so we've been trying one out the past year and a half with much success. We mainly use it for heating water, scrambling eggs and other easy, quick and relatively mess free cooking atop the burner.

So, no more wrapping/protecting it in haul mode, in/out of the cabinet, bulky atop the counter, etc. A thin cutting board (not shown) straddles the burner when its not being used...

We have a TON of mods we've done to our 15A since buying it from the previous and original owners back in June 2019, including converting to leaf spring & shock suspension, lengthening the tongue, added a multi-axis hitch, LiFePO4 battery, solar, larger tires, aluminum wheels, stout and solid home-brew table post & sliding system, swapped out fridge/freezer for a 12v smaller variant, plugged up all the side wall vents, custom mattress, 6.5 gallon marine water heater, and more. One of these days I'll create a thread listing and showing it all...but don't hold your breath LOL.

[Ron in BC]

Decisions, decisions, decisions so many possibilities for hoisting up the spare under the tongue. In the end, what could be more straight forward than a small winch mounted directly over the tire.

Lifts it effortlessly. Had to use the capstan method with two wrenches until I find a locknut for it. I can only use the ratchet in one direction until I lock the nut to the shaft.

Have to make a proper bracket to hold the spare but the projects moving along well. Wish I was. Good time to do a little painting and rotate the spare onto the trailer.

I have lots of car seat belts and I'll use a couple of them to make safety straps.

Happier to have the spare on the tongue full time than carrying it in the back of the truck.

Ron

[Patandlinda]

Originally Posted by MyronL

After I painted them I thought they looked a bit to "girly" to me, but.... That can of plastic spray paint ("sea Foam,") was the only one on the shelf. You use what you got.

Myron zi agree with Ron . How cool to Jackson Pollack those wheel covers ! PT

[Patandlinda]

Originally Posted by dstreight

Finally cut a hole in the counter of our 15A and installed an induction "burner". We weren't sure how much we'd use one so we've been trying one out the past year and a half with much success. We mainly use it for heating water, scrambling eggs and other easy, quick and relatively mess free cooking atop the burner.

So, no more wrapping/protecting it in haul mode, in/out of the cabinet, bulky atop the counter, etc. A thin cutting board (not shown) straddles the burner when its not being used...

We have a TON of mods we've done to our 15A since buying it from the previous and original owners back in June 2019, including converting to leaf spring & shock suspension, lengthening the tongue, added a multi-axis hitch, LiFePO4 battery, solar, larger tires, aluminum wheels, stout and solid home-brew table post & sliding system, swapped out fridge/freezer for a 12v smaller variant, plugged up all the side wall vents, custom mattress, 6.5 gallon marine water heater, and more. One of these days I'll create a thread listing and showing it all...but don't hold your breath LOL.

Love your sink and facet ! Pat

[Eggscape]

Originally Posted by Ron in BC

Decisions, decisions, decisions so many possibilities for hoisting up the spare under the tongue. In the end, what could be more straight forward than a small winch mounted directly over the tire.

Lifts it effortlessly. Had to use the capstan method with two wrenches until I find a locknut for it. I can only use the ratchet in one direction until I lock the nut to the shaft.

Happier to have the spare on the tongue full time than carrying it in the back of the truck.

Ron

Do you have enough thread to use two nuts tighten together? Sometimes they will line up for a socket. If not using different thicknesses of a lock washer between may also work.

[Ron in BC]

Originally Posted by Eggscape

Do you have enough thread to use two nuts tighten together? Sometimes they will line up for a socket. If not using different thicknesses of a lock washer between may also work.

Yes, there's lot's of threaded shaft and yes, I often lock two nuts together with the faces aligned. However I've only had a quick look at it but I don't know what the thread is. It looked like 1/2"x 13 but it's not. Measures 1.75 on the pitch gage so it's probably M12 x 1.75, the one size I probably don't have handy. Might just pin the shaft.

Ron

[Ron in BC]

Today I made a shaft flats to hex adapter. It's a light press fit. Now I can ratchet the tire up and down without any concern of the nut unwinding. Since I always have a 3/4" socket in the tongue box it was a no-brainer what size hex to use.

Also finished the spare tire lifting bracket. OK, a little more beefy than needed but better safe than sorry.

Ron

[MyronL]

It is what we do. I can drill a hole and tap it for a quarter/twenty bolt but my metal work mostly ends there and is limited to what I can bend in a vise. Any expertise for practical fabrication as brilliant as that, Ron, I will never match. But using scrap wood? Stand back!

Others have attached their GoPro cameras to the trailer roof with glue-based brackets, or used a suction thing inside on the tow windshield. I even messed with making door brackets hanging out an open window. The GoPro takes a great video, but these things have their minuses. My GoPro's smart remote is just not smart, reliable, consistent, and is mostly just frustrating. I hate ever missing a shot.

It took a few months but today I finally finished this new mod. Not tested on the road yet but this cookie is looking sweet.

Don't trust glue or suction on a bumpy road. Finally talked myself into drilling a hole in the front window rock guard, for a bolt. Not a decision I took lightly. A future owner can always seal that hole with another short bolt and a rubber washer.

Besides its helping to kill off many recent days of self-exile here, expecting video with wireless remote thing will soon make many future trips on the dusty trails a little more interesting.

[HABBERDABBER]

Won't you be just imaging the rear of your tug? Is the camera MEGA wide angle?



Shoot!

[gbaglo]

I think you're going to need a Steadicam.
Steadicam is a brand of camera stabilizer mounts for motion picture cameras invented by Garrett Brown and introduced in 1975 by Cinema Products Corporation. It mechanically isolates the camera from the operator's movement, allowing for a smooth shot, even when the operator moves over an irregular surface.

[Ron in BC]

It will be interesting to see though. It might show that ride is quite brutal or it might look quite smooth.

Of course it'll be awhile before we see any footage.

Ron

[gbaglo]

I tried using a cart with pneumatic tires to do a tracking shot in an office with carpeted floors. I first had the camera on a monopod, but had to hand-hold it to reduce camera movement.
One would think a carpeted office floor would be a smooth surface, but I and the camera felt every irregularity.

[MyronL]

There's no doubt the GoPro image stabilization is the best. This Sony has a very good, balanced image stabilization. It's a 5-Axis gyro built in that works throughout the zoom range, even while on the move. Really amazing technology. GoPro testing with 3 different remotes killed it for me.

The Sony has a very good wide angle range but it also has an excellent zoom and my tests in the yard with that off-brand remote work great. I would prefer it if the camera could be higher up. Wind noise will be the other problem but think I can work around that.

[HABBERDABBER]

Costco had & has a sale on back up license plate, solar powered camera for $100. I bought one mostly for use with my full size Chevy van but tried it on the Escape. It worked. Bluetooth signal, no wiring required, large view screen.

I have a Breeze drone that may be kaput and could use the 4K camera in that going to my phone as a back up camera for the Escape. I still need to try surgery on the drone as I brought it back from kaput to flying high with some soldering once already.

[Ron in BC]

Myron, I get a little nervous when I see an expensive camera in a location where failure of the mount would result in it's destruction.

I added a dedicated eye for a lanyard to my Go Pro and when I place it in some locations where bracket failure would result in total loss I attach an independent lanyard to it.

Maybe you might consider adding a piece of webbing that goes behind and down under the rock shield, no extra holes required.

Ron

[MyronL]

A lanyard as a safety precaution makes good sense. Will do that. Been wondering about these issues myself, road vibration could eventually unscrew the camcorder from my bracket. My current plan is... duct tape.

[Ron in BC]

Duct tape, also never leave home without it.

I'm thinking the vibration disrupting the picture quality might not be too bad. Since the camera is located about half way between the trailer axles and the rear wheels of the truck maybe that area benefits from the softer suspension of the truck.

Ron