Day 3708

 I woke up at 7:30, played games, and then got up for pet stuff and breakfast.  I replaced the batteries for the weather station.  that took a while because the battery box is inside a waterproof box.  That meant dealing with small screws and putting the seal back in place once the box was opened.

It was windy and a little cold so I did a little surfing while I was waiting for it to warm up a little.  I went out to the garage when it did.  I took out the car and put everything back in place.  Then I got started on the trailer.

The project for the day was the hitch.  I spent hours trying to figure out how to cut a notch in the L channels so I could bend them into the correct line.  I wish I could remember all that geometry I learned 55 years ago.  I ended up cutting out some paper templates.  I used them to figure it out and cut a piece of scrap to the correct angle.

By then it was time for lunch.  I was going to take the dog to Circle C afterwards, but Ellen's asshole was giving her problems.  I surfed until she was better and then we left.  It was a cool day and Abby ran a lot.  An ice cream van showed up and we bought ice cream.  We sat at the kid's place to eat it.  When we were done we went home.

I went back to the garage.  I made a prototype using two pieces of scrap to make sure that I didn't waste the good material.  I don't have enough to make any mistakes.  I also worked out how to connect the trailer ball to the front of the hitch.  Then I added it to my prototype to make sure it would work. 

I was finally ready to cut the real material.  I cut it to length and made the ball hitch mods.  The result looks really good.  By then it was 5:30 and time to quit.  Just as I was leaving I realized that there was an easy way to figure the cuts for the channel bends.  I could have made the measurements in a couple of minutes.

I went back inside and had leftovers for dinner.  The Arktos came.  I opened the box and looked at it, but didn't play with it. Instead I tried to figure out what to do about the motor swap.  I looked on Amain, Amazon, and Aliexpress but couldn't find the right sized pinion gear.  That might be lucky since apparently the gearbox is really weak.  I spent the whole evening on the effort.

Right now I'll probably get a non-Hobbywing motor for the Arktos, or maybe just a stronger brushed one.  I haven't decided if I'll get an ESC for the Typhon to go along with the motor I already have.  Maybe I'll bag the whole idea.