Planning |
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The PlanI also need to figure out what I and my lady want in our vardo. Me, I'm all about the all-mod-con lifestyle, but I do recognize that the more mod-con I put in, the more weight, cost and time will be involved. So a happy medium must be found. As I go along, and particularly once I start spending money and building, I intend to keep a running tab going on the right, so people can see what this is actually coming out to. I'll also post photos and descriptions of what's been accomplished so far. DiscussionI plan to post ramblings and stream-of-consciousness thought process stuff when I'm debating various alternative or how I want to approach something. Stop the Presses(21 July 07) I've decided I'm not going to do a lifting-top vardo after all (Sorry, Rachel). It is an extremely cool design, but I'm rapidly becoming frustrated with trying to engineer it. So instead it will be a bow-top with a canvas roof, similar to Rachel's brother's vardo. Fresh Water(5 July 07) Suddenly occured to me to wonder just how much water weighs. 1 US gallon of fresh water doesn't weigh much; just a measly 8.35 lbs. But wait - even my little 18 US gal tank in the current trailer comes out at just over 150 lbs - plus the weight of the tank. I've added two more columns to the fresh water tank chart on the Sizes page and based on the info there, I think I'll go with no more than 48 gallons of water tankage; that tank weighs 70 lbs empty, and the weight of water will be just over 400 lbs. This is heavy enough that it needs to be as close to center fore and aft as well as side to side. Lifting?(4 July 07) I want to have a lifting upper section, same as Rachel's vardo. This will
But how? Rachel's vardo has a very cool winch system, which she and her lord have, this year, augmented with gas shocks (bottom picture), as they found the roof weight was a little heavier than they were comfy with. Currently I'm thinking a hydraulic system might work well. What I have in mind is a variation of a hydraulic bottle jack, commonly sold at hardware stores and with lift capacities starting typically at 2 tons (which is far more than I need). Essentially, a bottle jack consists of two pistons, a small one which is moved up and down by the jack arm, and a larger one, on which the vehicle rests. There's also a small reservoir of hydraulic oil, and a check valve between the small piston and the larger one, so that oil pumped from the smaller to the larger cannot flow back to the smaller. There's also a drain with a screw-operated valve, which is how the vehicle resting on it gets lowered back down. Okay, so instead of one large piston, I'll have four, one at each corner of the vardo. The small piston will still have its check valve, and the oil will go to a manifold so that it splits off to all the pistons. The manifold will also have another line, with a screw-valve, to allow the oil to drain from the large pistons back to the reservoir. Just like a bottle-jack, except it'll be spread out some. Then, once the roof is raised, I'll use drop-nose pins through the supports to lock in place, so I don't have to rely on the hydraulics. Hydraulic oil is pretty well incompressible, but still... The biggest question mark in my mind is how much will the components cost me? Hydraulic pistons with 36-in. strokes (or travel) certainly exist, and I've seen them advertised on eBay for less than $100 each, but that's still $400 just for the lifting pistions, never mind the small piston, the check valve, the drain valve, the manifold, the hoses, the reservoir, etc. I'm also not sure how much sideways stress (if any) these might be subject to. I also want to hear from Rachel how well the gas shocks work out for them; those will likely be less expensive and just as effective.
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