Our "New to Us" Winnie

[T1 Terry]

Do you remember the cartoon, "Fearless Fly" no spray could knock him down, no fly swatch could harm him ...... Mannum has "Fearless Mozzies"

The awning is rolled up, using a tyre lever in the sail track cut aways in the drum and the ratchet to lock it from unwinding, it is in the travel position now.

The thermostat switch for the oil cooler water return hose in in place and tightened up, so, tomorrow, before the sun attacks, I'll pump the coolant back into the cooling system and start up the beast, so I can figure out which pipe on the transmission cooler is the hot one ..... and have a crack at recharging the HVAC using this Hychill Minus 30 HC regassing kit, and see if I can have a win there .....
Then the actual wiring of the thermostat switches to operate the fans and test them ....

That will only leave sorting the cell balance problem for our yard guest, and wiring the inlet and outlet points I fitted to the Winnie that I'd forgotten all about

If all that goes well, it's just a fill the LPG tanks, pack all the tools away, and we will be on the road to Balranald for rego

I spend maybe a total of 30 mins in the sun today, 5 mins at a time at the most, yet, I still got sun burnt ..... it has been a while since we had this level of sun intensity ..... and I guess no where to work out of the sun might be a lot to do with it as well .... but nearly there .....

T1 Terry

[Greynomad]

T1,
I do hope you’re not planning to drive your patchwork Winnie on public roads with just a tyre lever jammed into the sail track to keep your awning furled!?!?!
If you are, please warn us here so we don’t accidentally end up following you.

[T1 Terry]

T1,
I do hope you’re not planning to drive your patchwork m/h on public roads with just a tyre lever jammed into the sail track to keep your awning furled!?!?!
If you are, please warn us here so we don’t accidentally end up following you.

I used the tyre lever as leverage to wind the drum until it was in the travel position, the locks on the arms and the ratchet lock stops it from unwinding

And enough of this "Patchwork Motorhome" stuff, NSW road rules say they have to be inspected every 12 mths to ensure they are safe, not like Victorian rego where you can drive with fractured suspension components to the point of failure
Although, the Fuso did have a dodgy kingpin eye, that was passed by an inspector for the purpose of rego transfer from the dodgy Qld rego inspection report .....

T1 Terry

[jon_d]

It shouldn't need a tyre lever to be rolled up.

The spring inside is releasing its tension and performing the roll up action.

Did you swap the barrel around like mentioned earlier?

[T1 Terry]

It shouldn't need a tyre lever to be rolled up.

The spring inside is releasing its tension and performing the roll up action.

Did you swap the barrel around like mentioned earlier?

No, that is the longer option for when we return from Balranald. The tyre lever for leverage was to wind up against the spring, because it is end for end backwards, all the operations are backwards as well, it is spring loaded unwind .... and when I originally wound the spring up, it rolled the awning up inside out.

When I tried to wind the springs in the other direction, it was basically trying to uncoil the spring and that doesn't provide near energy as tightening the spring coil, so that explains why it wouldn't wind the awning onto the drum in the correct direction ....

T1 Terry

[BernieQ2]

This is where I am now...both arms on...
I'm assuming you put the awning in next..
My book is too confusing 😡.
Bernie.
Help 😲

IMG20251218103718.jpg

[T1 Terry]

You may need to take the top arm bracket off one end to gain free access to the sail track.
Slide the awning into the sail track. Don't pull the rope but rather pull the awning material. I wrapped the jaws of a pr of vice grips with electrical tape, made an elastic strap out of a loop of elastic cord, but anything you have that will stretch yet provide a pulling load, looped through the jaws of the vice grips and clamped down onto the awning material.

When you get the rope started in the sailtrack and the awning material started, run a rope from the elastic loop strap forward .... through a pulley would work well, and back to where you are doing battle with the awning going into the sail track, pull tension on the elastic and feed the awning into the track, progressively pushing the rope through the track ahead of the awning, otherwise it will bunch up and progress stops.

To avoid information over load, I save the next bit until you have the awning in the sail track ......

T1 Terry

[BernieQ2]

Thanks mate... probably not till after noon.. when I can get another set of hands..I need two on the top one feeding and one pulling... and herself on the ground with a broom helping to feed it up..
I have taken on board your comments re vice grips..
Bernie.

[T1 Terry]

If you have some silicon spray, a squirt each side of the awning will make feeding it in a whole lot easier.
Don't be tempted to pull it through with the rope, looks like the easiest method, right up until it isn't ..... the awning bunches up on the rope as the rope pulls through the awning pocket and it won't go into the sail track ..... I developed a whole new vocabulary the first 5 times I attempted it, smooth sailing when pulling the tarp by comparison.

T1 Terry

[T1 Terry]

The other trick was to put the tarp/awning, on the roof, inside facing up, so much easier to feed the material in that way.

Once I adapted the winch, elastic strap and awning on the roof, I did the job on my own, Brian and Margaret helped get the last piece of sail track threaded on the tarp and then the drum parts onto the tarp, by that stage, the wind under the tarp was lifting me off the ground .... not near as much fun as that sounds

T1 Terry