Gary Lewis

Welcome, John. Are they clear enough? All the needed dimensions shown?

Ok, let's see if this is better:

I think you could sell them, Ron. But there's a mistake in my measurements, so let me figure that out.....

Looks good, how did the original attach in the truck did it just simply sit there? Or was it bolted in place? With the exterior dimensions one could easily adapt it to replicate the other storage racks shown on here such as the one with the fishing rod rack or the locking gun cabinet. Something I would consider doing myself could take and make it out of the same wood I use in the bed on my truck and stain it the same way. It originally was held in with Velcro. But I'm bolting mine down.

Yes, the soft start, aka LRC, regulator is a very good call, Bill. My 130a 3G squealed the serpentine/polygroove belt on the first start each day until I installed the LRC. A 2.5 second LRC did the trick.

Thanks, Jim. I struggled for a long time last night in the post with all of the switch pics but couldn't get Nabble to do what I wanted. This morning I had an epiphany - Word! And I spent far less time creating that doc than I did beating my head against the Nabble wall. I think I want to add the circuitry for each switch to the document as that will help me think through it. But I'm not sure how I'll do that in Word. On the other hand, I can do that in TurboCAD and save it as a pdf. Hmmm, let's see how that looks. Here's what I'm working on: Nope, that didn't work. Need to try another format..... Yup, that's better!

There have been lots and lots of iterations on what switches will be in Mission Control, what colors they will be, what type they will be, etc. And with each re-think it all changes. And I've spend a bunch of time trying to put the pictures of the switches side by side on here, to no avail. But it dawned on me that if I'd create a Word document and embed it here it would get updated as I change the plans in the background. And, I could easily line the switches up to see how they'll look. So here's that document. Please give me your thoughts.

Morning, George & Nick! As said, I like that tag! And, I liked the music. Put me in the spirit! I can only imagine what working in a supermarket would be like these days. Wow, that has to be busy! And my plans for Big Blue are to work on him and then drive him. Work on him and then drive him. We had so much fun last Tuesday on our outing that we are planning another, soon. So I plan my work to have him ready to go, although right now most of the work is done off the truck and then installed. But our trips are the "very cautious" types. We take our lunch and don't go in any place. If we stop for gas I then use hand sanitizer to ensure I don't bring germs from the pump's handle. Glad you started this thread as I'm curious what others are doing as well.

Night, John boy. Yep, I like that idea on the parallel switch as well. Think that's a winner.

We all have a lot to be thankful for, and some of us more than others. I'm glad you have that perspective.

Yeah, the switches are an interesting issue. But by batting it back and forth, and I've also done so with Janey, I think I'm starting to "see the light". Get it? And, by the way, the OX locker switch is a "single upper dependent". So the lens is going to come on when you push the button to lock the diff. I think I'll order a replacement for it in whatever scheme we settle on as the switches are only about $14, including the rocker.

Oh, I think I understand. Sorry for your injuries!

You can easily put a v-belt pulley on a 3G w/a serpentine pulley. I've done it. Jim did it. You will need a small shim behind the v-belt pulley, as discussed on the Choosing An Alternator tab on the 3G conversion page.

The way I got to that schematic was from this page: https://www.otrattw.net/Contura-V-Series-Contura-II-and-III-Upper-Independent/. And in the URL it says Contura II and III. So while I'm not sure what V2D2U66B & V2D2UXXB actually are, I think that OTRATTW carries the upper independent switch that is wired that way. Yes? But I don't understand "how are you going to get the +12v when paralleled?" I thought I'd get it from the harness you are sending me, so it'll be switched. But, now that I think about it I don't think I want the power to that switch to be switched. For two reasons. First, the indicator won't work when the key is off, and yet the batteries may still be paralleled. Second, because you can't parallel the batteries until the key is on. Given that, I'm thinking I'll use the to-be unused cigar lighter power for that switch. That way I'll know when the batteries are paralleled and can force them to be at any time. Thoughts?

Scott - I really, really appreciate you going to the salvage for me today! THANK YOU! As for which harness, I think the chewed up one will be more than adequate. I can easily replace the chewed up section and branch out for the several things I'm going to use it for, including the USB charger and the several switches in Mission Control. And that would leave you with the better harness - right? But I want to pay you for the better harness nonetheless. And on the horn pad, I think the bulging may be due to having been improperly installed. The one off Huck was bulging as well. But I discovered today that the rubber covering comes off and can be scrubbed - it was gross! But after pulling it and cleaning it I found that it hadn't been where it was designed to be. And when I did get it there the cover laid down on the horn pad much better. As for cleaning, that took quite some effort. The steering wheel's rim was sticky gooey and the horn pad was covered in icky stuff. I used a combo of SEM soap and Dawn w/a grey 3M pad and got the wheel acceptable. But the horn pad's yuk defied the cleaning combo and a nylon brush on the first pass. And the second. It wasn't until I spent several minutes with the brush on it that I felt like I could put it in the truck. So, send it on! I know how to clean them.

First, I'm several posts behind, but right now I'm trying to focus on switches. Ok, forgetting for a moment upper vs lower dependent/independent, I think what y'all are helping me think through is the functions of the lights. And it looks like there are two options: 1: Legends lighted at night with the lower LED indicating that the function is on 2: Lower LED lit at night and the Legend being on when the function is on. I think I'm leaning to Option 1 because that way you can find the switch at night since the legend will be visible. And I doubt the lower LED will be bright enough to be distracting whereas the legend might be if it was the On indication - and you have no control over its brightness unless you put resistors in the ground circuit for the LEDs. So in the odd case of the battery parallel switch, the lower light needs to come on when the batteries are paralleled, and that is a function of the smart isolator not the switch. The switch just provides momentary 12v to the isolator to force the batteries into parallel. And when they are the isolator grounds the wire going to an LED. The wiring diagram to the switch is shown below. And it seems to me that if I put power to #3 that when the isolator parallels the batteries and grounds the indicator wire going to #6 the lower LED will come on. And if the "boost" wire is connected to #2 then when the switch is closed the isolator will be told to parallel. Does that make sense?

Here's a first pass at it. There's a glitch in the size of the little trays in the top that I hope to sort out tomorrow. But overall I think it is close. Please let me know what would help you. And do you need a file to download? If so, what kind?

But you have to find the switch first and then press it before the LED comes on. And if everything is clear then all you can do is read what they say, and I don't want to have to do that.

Thanks, Frank. You are saying you think it looks good on Big Blue, but you don't want one on your truck. Right?

Jim - I think I understand "diffuse glow of a white lens". But is that as opposed to a clear lens? Or any of the colored lenses? On the available legends, I'm thinking of the ones below. However, I'm not saying those are the colors as that's an issue I'm still working on. I will have six switches but OTRATTW only carries five colors, so I'll need to duplicate one color, and will put those two at opposite ends of the row of switches. That will let me identify the switches by color rather than having to read them. Red seems to me to indicate an abnormal situation, like the backup lights are on. Green means "good", which is why I've picked it for paralleling the batteries. And amber is something to be aware of. What I'm struggling with is the lighting. There are these options on OTRATTW, and perhaps it'll help me to see them together: UPPER INDEPENDENT - Graphic area (upper light or LED) lights up when dash or ignition is turned on, indicator bar (lower light or LED) lights up when the switch is activated. LOWER INDEPENDENT - Indicator bar (lower light or LED) lights up when dash or ignition is turned on, graphic area (upper LED) lights up when the switch is activated. SINGLE UPPER DEPENDENT- Upper light or LED comes on when the switch is activated. No lower light or LED. Note that the Battery Parallel switch has the lower indicator, meaning it is a Lower Independent, and the lower indicator will be wired to show the status of the batteries, with "on" meaning they are paralleled. This should be a momentary switch and one push parallels the batteries for one minute, after which is reverts to automatic mode.

LOL! But I thank you anyway. And I agree, they ain't pretty. But then I'm not doing Big Blue to be pretty. Instead, functional.

Like this? Thanks anyway.

And now for the switches. I spent quite a while on the phone with a very patient Tina at Carlingtech. She helped me understand a lot about the part numbering system, including that only the first four digits of it are on any of the switches, so there is no reason to pull the OX switch out. As for the legends, while they have hundreds of them I can't buy them since they don't sell to individuals. So I have to buy from a distributor and there's a minimum quantity of 10 if I want something that the distributors don't stock. However, there is a distributor that puts their own legends on the rockers - OTRATTW.net. And that stands for Over The River And Through The Woods. I called and talked to Jim and told him what I'm doing. He, also, was very patient and helped me understand a bit more about it. But basically what I need to do is to peruse their website and see what they have, then call Jim back and buy the switches themselves awa the appropriate rockers.

Next up is the steering wheel question raised on the Woodgrain horn cover with speed control [E1TZ-13A805-A] - NOS [relisted?] thread. Turns out that I have two later-model steering wheels, but only one horn pad and it doesn't have speed control buttons. However, since I'm not using the speed control right now due to a surging problem, probably caused by the top speedo cable, that's not a big deal. So I cleaned the better of the two wheels up and installed it. But, as I started to install the horn pad I found that the later trucks are apparently wired differently than Bullnose trucks. As you can see below, the later pad has two wires that go to the connectors instead of one wire to the left connector and the other to the hole in the steering column like a Bullnose. And with that combo it wouldn't honk the horn. Now here's where it get puzzling. Not shown in the pic is a metal "cone" that fits over the circle and screws to the three screw holes. And it comes in contact with the copper tab at the 9:00 position of the circle. Thinking that might be the ground I put it in place but still couldn't get it to honk the horn. Perhaps I didn't get it installed fully? In any event, I modified the horn pad's wiring by cutting the ground tab off the Bullnose pad and placing it on proper wire on the later pad. And that worked. So I installed the pad and took a pic of the later model wheel to compare with the Bullnose wheel. And while the pictures don't tell the story, there is a significant difference in the ability to view the gauges. The pics don't show what the driver sees, and that took me a bit to figure out why - we have to eyes set several inches left & right from the camera's position. So I can see part of the AFR meter that is on the left side and part of the voltmeter that is on the right side w/o moving my head. And with the Bricknose wheel it doesn't take much movement of my head to be able to easily see either gauge. But with the Bullnose wheel I have to not only move my head left or right, but I also have to lean forward. So I'm going to run the Bricknose wheel for a while to see what I think. Then if I like it I'll have to find a horn pad with speed control buttons.

Ok, I'll move it to the top. As for what I did today, I have way too many little things to put in one post so I'll break them up a bit. And first we'll talk about the USB charger. It came in today and I installed it in Big Blue's ash tray. But it wasn't quite as easy as that since the lip of the door hit the charger and wouldn't allow the door to close properly. So I filed the door's lip down until the door shut properly, and that probably took taking 1/8" off. So I'm really glad I went with a screw-in charger rather than a power port & plug-in charger as that combo would surely have required a lot of cutting on the door. As previously reported the quiescent current on the thing is 6ma, probably due to the LED, so I'm going to change to switched power. And while I was thinking about that I wondered what kind of a push button I might have to latch a relay in with. Looks like there's plenty of room in the corners. And about then the Anker USB-C to Lighting cable came in (yep, Amazon delivered at two different times today) and I wanted to try it out. So I borrowed Janey's iPad Pro, which was at 84% on the battery, and plugged it in. Initially the current went up to 1.6A, although I don't know what the voltage was and it can go up to 20v. After a bit it dropped to 1.3A, and then over 20 minutes it dropped to .5A, at which point the iPad was up to 92%. So that's pretty much it on the charger.