Hmm, Old Goat's corner, Christmas Yard ornament?

[dan412]

16 hours ago, phoenix2013 said:

Shall we continue starting with the "less glamorous" area.

 

Three axle independent air suspension, smooth as silk going down the road, I watched it driving behind Mark few days back. 17.5 inch tires from the factory, no fooling around with the weight of this rig. Note the hydraulic lines, these are going to six of these.

 

I'm going to take this moment as a teachable opportunity of why this was also a first. How many folks out there know what this is?

I'm interested in the air ride suspension.

[phoenix2013]

3 hours ago, rickeieio said:

While I suppose it happens, I've never seen humans riding in an rv trailer.  I believe it's illegal in a bumper pull, but okay in a fifth wheel?

We have done it hard core for years in our RV puberty. Every year for 25 years we used to go the annual Experimental Aircraft Association convention in Oskosh, Wisconsin. From NH to WI, about 1,400 miles, wife and I would swap driving and do it in one pull, 27 hours of driving. Which meant we were zombies the day after, even with taking naps in the fifth. As our brood increased they went with us, every year, until they rebelled (when they got their driving licenses). They actually preferred to ride back there and have the whole rig to themselves, rather than the back seat of the pickup. For "safety" purposes I did install a wired intercom between the truck and the rig. To tell the kids to "quit the the racquet" when going though the states (few) where it was not legal, or communicate the stops and the driving swaps. I was the President of the local chapter and the rig would be "headquarters" at the Association Rally. On couple of occasions my partner also flew the airplane into the Rally.

The year when the sign below went up at the Rally was particularly telling on the subject you raise.

Thirteen people made the trip to the Rally in our rig, the Chief, the Chief squaw, some Warriors, some Braves and the Papooses. One of the Warriors took a picture of the Chief Squaw driving and the Chief out of it.

A lunch break on that road, we alternated the personnel between the air-conditioned truck cab and the fifth. This was the second pickup out of the roster of four.

 

Edited December 29, 2021 by phoenix2013

[phoenix2013]

1 hour ago, dan412 said:

I'm interested in the air ride suspension.

I'll talk to Mark and get you more details, there are so operational tricks one needs to be aware of with these suspensions.

[phoenix2013]

3 hours ago, dan412 said:

I'm interested in the air ride suspension.

dan412, I talked to Mark and he said that he let SpaceCraft know what he wanted and they put this air suspension together starting with a solid 8K axle and hydraulic brakes and then adding the trailing link saddles for the airbags. Lots of folks offer component parts to do that. Check this website https://pjtrailers.com/options/promaxx-air-suspension one of many.

Note the massive front jacks (12,000 lbs. each). These are jacks the SpaceCraft puts on their semi chassis trailers. This was an "upgrade" after Mark lived with the rig for a while and the front jacks essentially failed. Mark and SpaceCraft eventually figured out that the culprit was this air suspension. Figure that one out. You park the rig, lower the front jacks and unhitch, level it with the front jacks and put the stabilizers down. On this rig the trailer axles carry about 20K of weight, the front jacks about 8K. On normal spring axles, nothing changes with time. On air suspensions air bags bleed down, which is equivalent with springs disappearing. All of a sudden that 20K supported by the axles is no longer supported by the axles (although it looks like it is), it got redistributed onto the front jacks and whatever stabilizers are down. None of those parts are too happy with that extra weight, particularly when also aggressively banged by a 20K Volvo hitching up. Front jacks said "see ya". New massive front jacks dealt with the problem but didn't solve the problem. Mark solved the problem. He said, assume they will bleed down, so do it first. The bags provide about 3 inches of suspension, so he bleeds the rig down 3 inches until it sits down on the suspension hard points, as does the 20K suspension load. The rig is 3 inches lower but everyone is doing their job. Important reminder, "don't drive off without re-inflating the suspension".

[phoenix2013]

HAPPY PRE-NEW YEAR EVERYONE.  2022, I'm not so sure, considering these two historical wisdoms, one over 2000 years old. First from Einstein and what he is talking about is already here, it's known as the iPhone.

Dan412, I looked up the current axle offering from Dexter and saw this.

Go on their website, you can download a ton of info and catalogs in .pdf format

I'll give you guys few day off before resuming the adventurous tale of Mark Shelley rig, I might even touch upon the live rail discussion of who's better Dexter or Kodiak, or disk brakes vs. the drum brakes. I hear Champaign corks going off, some of you guys must be starting early. 

 

[phoenix2013]

Good afternoon Gentlemen (and Ladies) and Happy New Year. 

We are about to resume our journey and adventure. I'll step back from the technical discussion and history of BluDot, etc., because I found gold. In the archives on my server I found pictures we took 15 years ago when Mark and I traveled to SpaceCraft to pick up his newly finished rig and even going further back pictures that Mark took when the rig was in final stages of production. I'll start with oldest pictures.

 

Remember, I mentioned earlier that Mark consumed a whole stack of cherry lumber in building this rig, he actually took the picture of the stack.

He also took few pictures of the woodworking work in progress on one of his visits.

A picture into the bedroom during construction phase.

Next post, we'll take a tour of the interior, the "new" owner was mighty happy with all this cherry as you can see.

[phoenix2013]

Time for the tour of the interior. The rig was configured with having four sections. Front kitchen, center living room, rear bathroom and bedroom and beyond that a separate compartment with a separate door to house racing bikes. Mark and Dianne are serious racers in tandem divisions and in off road racing.

Mark did a lot of research on conventional 110VAC appliances and how to power these from massive battery banks (more on that later). I believe this was the first time this was tried and started the trend to install "real kitchen appliances" in RVs. As I mentioned before Mark designed both the kitchen and living room floors and spent few weeks at SpaceCraft installing these.

The kitchen slide out contains the signature round SpaceCraft  dinette. More on that later.

The left side housed more of the (researched) high end kitchen appliances.

On the lower level you can see the extended living room slide waiting for the installation of the couch and the "giraffes", yes giraffes, but that's enough for today.

 

Edited January 12, 2022 by phoenix2013

[phoenix2013]

Ok, time to talk about giraffes. Here's the picture of the proud owner at SpaceCraft in the rig's living room.

There are two slides in the living room area. On the right the entertainment area and on the left, seating area to enjoy the entertainment.

Like everything else, the entertainment area was designed to accept the biggest damn flat screen TV available 15 years ago and audio/visual gear worthy of the movie theatre. In the seating area there is a luxurious couch to park your, you know what and the giraffes. 

The giraffes was a requirement for Mark's lovely wife, who goes by "she who must be obeyed", so he dutifully obeyed. There was a discussion about moving the giraffes to the new motorhome, but the smaller footprint and square footage made it impossible, so they will go the lucky new owner of the rig. The last two pictures I took just before Mark drove the rig to SpaceCraft with the two slides brought in. Does this look like a 15 year old unit, Mark takes meticulous care of his stuff.

Mark and I will be getting together this Saturday. He has been living and working remotely in the new rig for few weeks and is bringing the motorhome back to the dealer in Port St. Lucie to take care of "the list". These day, even on the brand new stuff, you can expect to have "the list".

I can let you in on a new "development". There will be a new "side tale", which involves yours truly, Mark, SpaceCraft and his new Jayco motorhome. 

 

Edited January 14, 2022 by phoenix2013

[Alie&Jim's Carrilite]

Any idea when this unit will become available?  Or is it already spoken for?

[phoenix2013]

24 minutes ago, Alie&Jim's Carrilite said:

Any idea when this unit will become available?  Or is it already spoken for?

Don't know, but will meet with Mark tomorrow morning. He had a small list of repairs and upgrades to be accomplished by SpaceCraft. I don't know how this is going. Again, that's Mark, he doesn't want the unit to go on the market unless it's perfect.

[phoenix2013]

Here's the rest of the tour, into the bathroom and the bedroom, starting with the vanity build.

Separate toilet room on the right.

Bedroom storage compartments.

In future posts will get into mechanical, electrical and plumbing. As part of electrical system it has a 5KW Onan generator, LP powered, no need for separate gas or diesel storage.

 

[phoenix2013]

More archive pictures from the day we picked up the unit at SpaceCraft 15 years ago. Mark with Marsha and Wyatt Troutman. Marsha sold the company to Greg Wallman, Wyatt is still with the company.

Yours truly with Wyatt, yes the airbrakes need to be attached.

While we were there there was a custom puller/toter that SpaceCraft built, naturedly I needed to take a "tour".

 

Looking from the truck cab back.

From back forward

Bathroom and the kitchen

There will be more on the signature round dinette.

 

[Larry Burkett]

That is quite an awesome Toter Home

[phoenix2013]

18 hours ago, Larry Burkett said:

That is quite an awesome Toter Home

Yea, with one of those who needs the fifth. I'm guessing it was built for a racing crew going from events to events.

[phoenix2013]

Had a nice dinner with Mark last night, he's back in the frozen north east for a bit and will be back to proper Florida climate in a week or two. Did a bit of "interrogation" about his rig.

1. The bike "garage" is a separate room in the back. 6 feet long, about 10 feet high, width if rig's width 102 inches. Access from the side through 36 inch wide door. The central duct extends into the room providing same heating and air conditioning as in the rest of the rig.. Custom bike racks are bolted to the walls and can be easily removed. Can be easily converted to bunk room, office, shop or massive storage.

2. Kitchen appliances. I was expressing certain opinions garnered over the years of RVing in many rigs, but Mark requested, "please don't be unkind to Dometic", nevertheless he's done a lot of research on that front. There are companies out there such as  https://applianceoasis.com/shopping/ who cater to the off road, boondocking, tiny house, etc. crowds who manufacture and sell appliances with minimum energy consumption, whether these are DC, AC or propane. The cooktop, the range, the dishwasher and the refrigerator were chosen with that in mind. I might add at prices that most RVers would probably balk at. The AC refrigerator and dishwasher we believe was the first ever done in a fifth (part of the reason it took a year to build it.)

3. I forgot about a little "luxury" item which is built into the kitchen cabinet (next to the giraffes), an 8 bottle "wine cellar" which will keep those bottles at a proper temperature for serving.

4. The washer and dryer were also chosen for their efficiency, the dryer is 110VAC and it will work if you only have the 30 Amps instead of 50 Amps of shore power.

5. All this required serious energy. On the AC side there are three sources: the conventional shore power, Onan 6500 Watt LP generator and a massive MagnaSine (pure sinewave) DC to AC converter/charger. To maneuver all that power there are two transfer switches and all kinds of other "stuff" for monitoring, fusing, routing, and etc.

6. On the DC side Mark started with six 12VDC batteries going to the rig and the MagnaSine converting 12VDC to AC for the appliances. He felt he needed more so he "upsized" to two massive gel cells which you normally find on an ocean going yachts. With the exception of the rig heating and air-conditioning and the clothes dryer he can run the whole rig for a period of 24 hours through the MagnaSine from the batteries alone. He does not recommend running batteries too low on such an "experiment", particularly with those other sources of power available. And for those times when the rig is sitting unused and unpowered, there are solar panels to trickle charge the battery bank.

7. The front jacks you see above, that was also an $8K upgrade, after the original jacks did not survive the "experiments" with the air suspension, I described earlier. Original jacks were 12K for both, these are 12K each and are used on SpaceCraft's semi trailers.

8. For you plumbers and waste water engineers, there is a 12 gallon hot water tank heated by both propane and AC. There are three plus one storage tanks. The three are: fresh, grey and black, the fourth one is additional grey tank for kitchen only, since the kitchen is so far forward. 

9. Back to the TV compartment. See that long compartment below the TV shelf? It was built to house full 88 keys piano keyboard, he even remembered the model, Kurzweil KG200

10. The TV (still in there) is a 50" and the first TV that won the battle 15 years ago between plasma and LCD (it's an LCD). The price he paid for it was similar to what you see today in home theater setups you enter after someone let you in with a key. Mark was joking that when replaced with a modern 50" you'll gain 120 pounds, the thing weighs 130. Of course, there is a surround sound  provided by CambridgeSoundWorks speakers and equipment. Although no longer  around, this website  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cambridge_SoundWorks  will tell you why Mark would be attracted to their products.

11. In general, the rig is 43 feet long, it weighs loaded 27K, the pinbox is a straight down and rated for 30K, the pin weight is 7,500 lbs. Mark mentioned that when he was constructing his New York campground and domicile and moving lot's of "stuff" from Mass to NY he had the rig sometime up to 34K GVW.

12. He has been pulling all the time the rig with the first ET Junior and the Super Binkley head, both of which he designed specifically for that rig (very interesting story how this came about I might share with you). It's also the first time the 13,500 lbs. airbag  was utilized in ETs. 

13. There are two furnaces and two air-conditioners for comfort, feeding the center ceiling duct, the SpaceCraft signature item. 

14. There are four slide outs, three have slide out toppers (the entertainment center one does not). All three have been replaced about 5 years ago.

15. Mark said that in 15 years he put about 120K miles on the Volvo, he estimates that between 80-90K was pulling the rig.

16. One thing he says will have to be replaced quickly are the 17.5 inch tires. They are seriously past their date codes. He was concerned pulling the rig from New York to Florida and from Florida to Missouri, although both trips went without "incidents".

This is a once in the lifetime opportunity for someone to own a special rig like this, this is why I am doing this. I had a rig very similar to this one (mine was 10 years old when I bought it) and it was an astounding experience every time we hooked it up and took it someplace. From the hits I see on this thread there is quite an interest following it. Mark said that he commissioned SpaceCraft to appraise it and offer it for sale (after they take care of few things he requested). He asked Wyatt Troutman to handle this since he was very much involved with the original build of the rig. So if any one has this "burning desire" (it was known as "car fever" when we were 16 and just got the driving license), contact Wyatt. One note here, SpaceCraft will be exhibiting next week at the Tampa RV show, which is busy week for RV companies, so Wyatt might be busy with other things.  

 

Edited January 17, 2022 by phoenix2013