Riding this wave til the end
I’ve been working on the camper for about 4 weeks now after a 4 month break. I realized early on that I can’t work on the camper if it’s under 50 degrees so I pushed to get the fiberglass and paint done before closing down for the winter.
Now I’m back and I’ve spent the last 4 weeks worried about the tail and marker lights. I had to install and wire the brand new tail and marker lights and I’d never done any electrical work before. The first hurdle was finding the time to wire the camper. Youtube tutorials said it should take 30 minutes to an hour to wire a trailer. I expected it to take me even longer because I needed drill holes to feed the wires in and out of the camper. I also had to make a wiring map to reference throughout the process. In the end it took me 3-4 hours to finish and when I plugged the camper into our SUV nothing lit up. This was the second hurdle.
That was hard. Because I had no idea how to figure out why it didn’t light. I guessed that either my map was wrong (it wasn’t) or that my connections weren’t secure enough (they weren’t). So I called my mechanic. He came out and did a free look over and confirmed my suspicions. Everything was wired correctly, I just needs special adapters and connectors to complete the circuit. 2 weeks later, he came back and secured everything. Even though all the wires were in the right place and matched up perfectly, the connectors required a lot attention to detail and it took him another 3.5 hours to finish. When we plugged the camper into the SUV, it lit up!
I don’t know the last time I squealed with so much joy. Until this point, I’d spent so much time second guessing this project. I thought I was in over my head. I thought the lights would never work. I again wondered if I should just sell it. But now I am ready to finish. I’m riding this excitement wave until the end. At this point I estimate 2-3 weeks until it is camping ready. Maybe a few more weeks to be “done” (decorating, etc). The end it in sight. I can’t believe it.
Here are some photos of the current interior. While waiting to get the lights working, I filled some wall patches, added some waterproofing to the interior cardboard, installed the ceiling panels, finished the bunk bed structure, made progress on the pop top, and cleaned up the door frame.
