A Bertie-related Post!
I was sitting today* pondering what to do with at least some of the afternoon that was stretching before me, and decided to pick up on where I got to last week in relation to the task of fitting some USB sockets into Bertie. After a ridiculously long chunk of time**, I’d filled a virtual shopping basket with all of the required items, at which point Mick asked me how I was going to be tapping into Bertie’s Electroblock and where the access was for the running of the wires.
In my head, the latter point was easy. Thanks to Bertie having a double floor, it surely wouldn’t be too difficult to run a cable across his width … would it?
“Come with me!” I said “Let’s go and have a look.”
Hmmmm. Okay, maybe not quite as easy as I was envisaging. There’s a decent gap between Bertie’s floor and sub-floor, but there are only two hatches in the front part of the vehicle from where you can access that space (there’s also a hatch for an under-floor storage locker , but that’s fully enclosed). The problem is that there’s a lot of heating ducting, plenty of structural bits, the walls of the under-floor locker, and great bundles of wires, all cluttering the space, so my ‘fling a wire across that big empty space’ became a question of ‘is it even possible to find a route through all this stuff?’. Then if a route could be found, there was the question of whether there was adequate access to ‘grab’ that wire and pull it up on the passenger side to the position where I want it.
There ensued a period of Mick peering into the electrical locker from outside whilst I contorted myself into uncomfortable positions to reach as far as possible into the floor hatches whilst calling “Can you see my hand?". Mick then came inside with me and peered into the passenger storage locker whilst I first groped around then shone a light. There was great excitement when after a period of wiggling around Mick could see a strong beam from the torch.
We gave consideration to ditching the plan for the sockets on the passenger side and just having two on the driver’s side (after all, we’ve lived for three and a half years with none!), but I thought that if it was feasible to lay the wires, then it would be worth the faff. I disappeared and came back with a length of chunky scrap cable (my substitute for not having any electricians’ rods) and the long-handled litter picker.
From viewing as best I could on the screen of my phone, I knew I needed to get the cable through two gaps in structural members, and avoid a heating duct to get to the right place and after a couple of failed attempts (bearing in mind I was working blind) it did feel like an impossible task. Then, on the next wiggle of the wire Mick could see it. After a period of endeavour with the litter-picker (it was a small space I was accessing, with another heating duct in the way, I managed to grab the end of the cable and lift it into a place where I could reach it with my hand.
As of this evening, we have a piece of string now running the route of that cable run and I have placed the orders for all of the parts we’ll need to complete the job***.
I’ll report back again in another few weeks.
Peering into the external hatch of the electrical locker. The white layer marked with ‘1’ is the sub-floor. The black layer marked with ‘2’ is the edge of the internal floor. It’s a decent gap between the floors: approximately the height of a 95Ah battery.
The service hatch for the clean water tank (marked with ‘1’) is the only access to the whole of the front right quadrant of Bertie’s sub-floor – access that is hampered by the solid wall of the adjacent storage locker (marked ‘2’). We needed to feed a wire over to the locker marked ‘3’.
Here’s another view of the destination locker (the one marked with a ‘3’ in the last snap), next to the passenger seat. It’s not a wide space (and when the base is in place, it’s not deep either).
Peering down into that locker. Without being able to see what we were doing, we needed to feed a wire from the water tank access hatch, avoiding all obstacles in the way, to hit the very small window of space circled in green in this snap.
On the other side of Bertie, we had both completely forgotten that this hatch existed (it’s hidden under the table, partly under a seat). It gives access to the back of the electroblock and will make running the wire to the other USB point more straightforward.
(*’Today’ was actually Monday. After typing the words above, I thought a few illustrative photos might be beneficial, but by then the light was too dull. Then it rained for three days. Now that I’ve taken the photos, I’m not sure they were worth waiting for!
** I have a ridiculous inability to just look an item up and buy it. I have to consider all of the options, in terms of their suitability for my purposes, the merit of the seller, and the price (i.e. is this an item that warrants spending more; is that more expensive item actually any better than the cheaper one?). I excelled in demonstrating this a few days ago when I was after six self-adhesive wire clips to rig up the new mosquito net that I’ll be making for Bertie’s bed. I kid you not, it took me over an hour of clicking away before I finally made a decision.
***I was just about to click to confirm the order when I realised that one of the items was on a 10 day delivery time. I managed to lose another half an hour considering other suppliers who could deliver sooner, including a few rabbit holes of ‘oooh, should I buy this model instead?’, before I lost patience and decided that having waited this long to do this job, it could wait another 10 days! I do despair of myself at times. (Edit: That item turned out to be in the first set of parcels to arrive, two days after being ordered. A package of connectors was also sent quickly, but weren’t what I ordered – the seller was very apologetic and has now sent the right ones. Only the USB sockets themselves haven’t made any appearance.))
I was sitting today* pondering what to do with at least some of the afternoon that was stretching before me, and decided to pick up on where I got to last week in relation to the task of fitting some USB sockets into Bertie. After a ridiculously long chunk of time**, I’d filled a virtual shopping basket with all of the required items, at which point Mick asked me how I was going to be tapping into Bertie’s Electroblock and where the access was for the running of the wires.
In my head, the latter point was easy. Thanks to Bertie having a double floor, it surely wouldn’t be too difficult to run a cable across his width … would it?
“Come with me!” I said “Let’s go and have a look.”
Hmmmm. Okay, maybe not quite as easy as I was envisaging. There’s a decent gap between Bertie’s floor and sub-floor, but there are only two hatches in the front part of the vehicle from where you can access that space (there’s also a hatch for an under-floor storage locker , but that’s fully enclosed). The problem is that there’s a lot of heating ducting, plenty of structural bits, the walls of the under-floor locker, and great bundles of wires, all cluttering the space, so my ‘fling a wire across that big empty space’ became a question of ‘is it even possible to find a route through all this stuff?’. Then if a route could be found, there was the question of whether there was adequate access to ‘grab’ that wire and pull it up on the passenger side to the position where I want it.
There ensued a period of Mick peering into the electrical locker from outside whilst I contorted myself into uncomfortable positions to reach as far as possible into the floor hatches whilst calling “Can you see my hand?". Mick then came inside with me and peered into the passenger storage locker whilst I first groped around then shone a light. There was great excitement when after a period of wiggling around Mick could see a strong beam from the torch.
We gave consideration to ditching the plan for the sockets on the passenger side and just having two on the driver’s side (after all, we’ve lived for three and a half years with none!), but I thought that if it was feasible to lay the wires, then it would be worth the faff. I disappeared and came back with a length of chunky scrap cable (my substitute for not having any electricians’ rods) and the long-handled litter picker.
From viewing as best I could on the screen of my phone, I knew I needed to get the cable through two gaps in structural members, and avoid a heating duct to get to the right place and after a couple of failed attempts (bearing in mind I was working blind) it did feel like an impossible task. Then, on the next wiggle of the wire Mick could see it. After a period of endeavour with the litter-picker (it was a small space I was accessing, with another heating duct in the way, I managed to grab the end of the cable and lift it into a place where I could reach it with my hand.
As of this evening, we have a piece of string now running the route of that cable run and I have placed the orders for all of the parts we’ll need to complete the job***.
I’ll report back again in another few weeks.
(*’Today’ was actually Monday. After typing the words above, I thought a few illustrative photos might be beneficial, but by then the light was too dull. Then it rained for three days. Now that I’ve taken the photos, I’m not sure they were worth waiting for!
** I have a ridiculous inability to just look an item up and buy it. I have to consider all of the options, in terms of their suitability for my purposes, the merit of the seller, and the price (i.e. is this an item that warrants spending more; is that more expensive item actually any better than the cheaper one?). I excelled in demonstrating this a few days ago when I was after six self-adhesive wire clips to rig up the new mosquito net that I’ll be making for Bertie’s bed. I kid you not, it took me over an hour of clicking away before I finally made a decision.
***I was just about to click to confirm the order when I realised that one of the items was on a 10 day delivery time. I managed to lose another half an hour considering other suppliers who could deliver sooner, including a few rabbit holes of ‘oooh, should I buy this model instead?’, before I lost patience and decided that having waited this long to do this job, it could wait another 10 days! I do despair of myself at times. (Edit: That item turned out to be in the first set of parcels to arrive, two days after being ordered. A package of connectors was also sent quickly, but weren’t what I ordered – the seller was very apologetic and has now sent the right ones. Only the USB sockets themselves haven’t made any appearance.))
Fascinating! I know that feeling of triumph when you succeed with such a thing ( and you've just got to tell somebody) although you are fortunate with having Mick. I have had similar epics re-locating ceiling rose positions against the grain of the joists. Well done. I wonder what Bertie thinks of it all, perhaps s bit like having a birthday present? I hope he doesn't equate it to going to the dentist.
ReplyDeleteOh dear, know that you put it like that I fear that it is akin to a trip to the dentist. Or perhaps, given the positions of the sockets, I could sell the drilling of holes it as the equivalent of having one's ears pierced?
DeleteOh! I wouldn't know about the piercing. That leads me on to that old Stan Freberg Banana Boat Song thing: "too piercing man, too piercing..." Perhaps before your time - it's on you Tube somewhere I reckon.
ReplyDelete