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8 Nov 2000
The roof of the pop-top, another bloody engineering
marvel :-)
The entire motorhome roof is covered by a tropical
roof and the pop-top is no exception. Here we see the inner roof,
and the white battens which will support the outer roof. A lot of
battens are required because the roof must be able to support someone
walking on it so their spacing must be fairly close.
Fig 1. Pop-top roof battens ready
for the outer roof sheets.
In the following photo we see the construction
of the battens. Because the underlying steel bowed at some time
during welding (and I didn't notice until it was too much trouble
to fix it) I needed to provide a flat surface for the outer roof.
Therefore each batten is hand planed and levelled
with its neighbours with a straight edge. Another example of a small
error turning into a big job.
Of course the air gap between the two roofs needs
to breath or there's not much point. There are over 300 holes drilled
around the roof edge and the hatch edge. Air can enter from the
side of the roof, pass through the outer holes, cross between the
two roofs, and exit via the holes in the hatch surround.
Fig 2. Pop-top roof battens under
construction.
Fig 3. Close-up of the pop-top
roof battens and breathing holes.
The entire roof is now finished, well almost. Here's a shot from the front of the pop-top looking to the rear...
Fig 4. Looking from the pop-top
to the rear.
Note the hole in the foreground, this is a hatch for access to the roof.
Fig 5. Looking from the rear
the pop-top at the front.
Note the four solar panels in the foreground,
four more will be placed in the centre part of the roof (the white
parts). There is a walkway between the panels in the centre of the
roof.
The walkway is elevated about 75mm over the roof,
as are the panels, to create the tropical roof.
11 Nov 2000
I've been working on the plumbing. Not the
taps and sinks etc but the business end, the pumps.
First I prepared the areas in the left-hand bins,
here we see the bins after undercoating.
Fig 6. The LHS storage bins after
undercoating.
Not
all this space is for plumbing but there's no point only
spraying part of the bins then having to re-mask and setup
again to do the rest at a later date.
Fig 7. The main plumbing components.
Several days later the bins have had their final
coat (silver hammertone) and the plumbing has been installed.
In the photo above we see the following (left to right)
- Whale outside shower.
- power point.
- two pressure gauges, one for drinking water
and one for the main system.
- three filling points, one each for the fresh
water and two drinking water tanks.
- the pumps, accumulators and filters.
- five control valves
- large hole for the hot water system
The grey and first fresh water tanks can also
be seen below the body at the left.
The following schematic shows the final plumbing
setup. I won't describe everything here (see this technical
section article for a description of most of this) .
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