Floors and walls

Now that we've gotten back into working on the Crusher regularly we're making great progress. Well, Dave is making most of the progress while I'm working on keeping the websites going that are paying for the project.

Dave got most of the wiring all figured out. We're going to have 3 outlets on each side of the truck, which should be sufficient. Now we will put the roof back in place and install sheet metal on the walls - thanks to Thornton Plumbing and Heating. We're thinking laminate flooring for the floors. I tried to buy it online thinking I good get hooked up with a good deal, but turns out that shipping 80 square feet of flooring will cost $150 so we decided to look into other options. Looking on craigslist.org i noticed a lot of people tend to over-buy when doing flooring projects and we found some people selling their extras for pretty cheap. We haven't bought anything yet, but i think that's a purchase we will be making soon.

Now we're starting to plan out the layout and decorating of the mobile office. Once we get the floors/walls in place we are going to take another small trip to try out a few set-ups to see what works best.

The Crusher goes to Brighton

Our first journey:

So, the mobile office isn't done yet, but since we have all the major components for powering everything, we figured we'd take it out for a little mini-trip.

Destination: Brighton, Utah

We loaded up some make-shift desks, power strips, laptops, lawn chairs, snacks and of course, a bottle of wine to celebrate our first trip. We headed up the canyon where we picked up a hitchhiker. He was a schizophrenic guy named Tom. We gave him a lift up to his cabin.

We got up to Brighton. Luckily, the resort has wireless internet so we parked right up by the lodge. At this point we realized that the metal cage we were in very effectively blocked out all wireless internet access. We rearranged the desk situation so we were closer to the window. Success. We set up shop and went to work. I've found I'm much more productive when I'm working from exciting places. We opened the back doors so we had a perfect view of the mountains. It was a little chilly, but we brought hoodies and blankets so it wasn't too bad.

This little trial run gave us a chance to see what was needed/needed to be fixed to effectively run our office. The internet thing will be an issue - especially once we get the wall up in the cab. Dave will run some sort of antenna on the roof so we can pick up a signal. Everything went pretty well. We had a productive day and it gave us the motivation needed to get back to work on the truck.

Back in action

And we're back!

So now we've got all the necessary equipment for powering the mobile office. I'll have Dave go more into that later. Basically, we have 2 generators, a power inverter, 2 additional batteries and a battery charger.

Dave is working on setting up the door that separates the cab from the rest of the truck. It's a wooden wall with a sliding door. It will be well insulated to block out much of the truck's running noises.

Next on the to-do list: wiring.

Week 3

Dave's been getting a lot of the technical aspects figured out for the truck/mobile office. I'll have to have him explain those in a little better detail since most of it is still a little over my head. We've got most everything we need as far as power is concerned: 7000 watt generator, batteries, inverter, etc, etc. Over the past few days Dave got the rest of the framing and the floor out of the truck and we started painting the walls with the insulating paint. To provide further insulation, as well as sound protection, we've also got plywood and some thin insulation. We will only lose about an inch on either side with this method, as opposed to the original framing and insulation which took almost a full 4 inches off either side.

Naming the beast

It needs a name. It's way too cool to just refer to it as "the truck" or the "mobile office."

Nothing brilliant has come to mind yet.

A few suggestions that have been motioned so far:

Mo: Sort of an acronym for 'mobile office'. I'm usually anti-acronym, but since it is pronounced "Moe" rather than spelled out M-O, I think I could handle it.

Geek Crusher: Dave's brother suggested this one. I liked it enough to use it as the blog title. Maybe we could just call it "The Crusher" for short or something.

Archie: Short for our original business name,
Archetype Development - we are merging with another company and creating a new company with a new name, so it would sort of be a reminder of where we started.

Nothing is really sticking yet. We are looking for suggestions. What have you got, huh? Name the beast.