It's not rocket science...

I kinda feel like Apollo 13 right now, the Hollywood version that I saw with Tom Hanks. A lot of my builds of late have been rushed; however, overall I was fairly satisfied with the outcomes or at least the demonstrated potential of some of the prototypes.

Well the wheels started to fall off...figuratively...during the night ride I did at Dictum Ridge in GWNF back on 3/21/14. March GWNF Writeup To refresh, the factory harnesses that connect the the lights in the bed had loose connections and the lights were flickering on and off as I hit bumps. A couple of times, the HAM radio lost power too. Although the CB is fed off of the same auxiliary supply, it seemed to be unaffected.

Also, right before that outing, I had a low-speed collision which then coincided with my Mass Air Flow sensor throwing a code. That, fortunately, appeared to have been resolved in time for the trip.

Well fast forward to the time of my writing this. The Service Engine Soon light was back on yesterday (off today inexplicably), neither of the rear bed lights work...at all...and the front LED bar isn't powering on either. It had failed to light up once before, but when I flicked it off and back on, it powered up with no issue. Well for two days straight, nothing.

Unfortunately, this post isn't at all visual, but it sets the stage for, 1) me attempting to once again commit to weekly updates; and 2) the complete tear down and re-routing of my entire auxiliary electric system.

The truck tool box looks like a bird's nest:

It started off neat enough...before the inverter got added. Then I added the solar panel (which got crunched down at the Cove for Big Dogs and is now caulked up) and the extra wiring for that. Then the rear winch got added. And I tapped the LED bar off of something in there too. So it needs a do-over.

I neglected to mention that my neighbor came by and wanted my help (and the electric impact gun) to loosen the retaining nut on his landscaping edger. Well, I hopped into the bed of the truck, hooked up the Dewalt, flipped on the inverter and WHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINE. The overcurrent warning immediately came on. I hadn't even tried to use the impact gun. When I did, nothing. (Another Apollo 13 moment). I ran an extension cord out from the garage to the driveway and the gun worked fine.

Now, I do have the habit of leaving the CB on, but it doesn't draw that much juice to warrant there being so little available to power the impact. So I definitely need to mount an intervention. Need to find some good, low cost, water-resistant, and vibration-resistant connectors. Is there such a thing? Otherwise, I'll be soldering everything from here on out. Fortunately, I have until May 31st to carve out some time to get it done.

Hopefully, by next Sunday, I will have also installed the new PA speakers I picked up to replace the prior too which were mounted too low. The one in the rear got absolutely crunched at some point stepping down off of some ledges, and I think the front spent so much time underwater that it finally let go. I used my Goodyear tire rebate gift card to pick up the replacements. Looking forward to getting some uninterrupted garage time logged in the coming weeks and having some photos to show for it.

This is also the start of the dedicated FB page for this blog. It wouldn't accept the URL as a valid webpage last week. Today it did. So, I'll post announcements there to redirect here.

Until next time.