I like the lights in the box roof. Right now, there are 21ft of LED strip in there, of which around 15ft still work after being abused quite a bit. I had always planned to update the wiring for them when I removed the plywood on the walls, so I only did a temporary zip-tie installation. Instead of updating this installation, I thought I'd go for something a bit more modular ... and add a bit more lighting as well.
Fast-forward a bit of measurement and math, and I've spent around $50 buying lighting replacements. The end result is 10 1meter strips that fit together pretty much perfectly. The aluminum channel acts as a basic heatsink, the lights are insulated from shorting out on it, and the light is diffused (not a lot, but it's enough). The aluminum channel makes them rigid enough that they could easily be moved and installed elsewhere at an event.


I still need to consider how I want to mount them to the roof spars (ideally to the canopy, on jackstands, etc as well), and solder on the XT-60 connectors I've standardized on ... but this represents a serious lighting upgrade.

To support that upgrade, I've added another group65 battery to the box truck. Each group65 battery is rated for 85aH, so that's around 2000 watt-hours (not counting the box truck primary battery or generator for recharging). With all of these lights running at the same time, they draw a little under 200w ... giving me around 10 hours of continuous use. I'm definitely planning to run some other accessories on these, so the generator is still a must-have, but that's pretty promising.

 

That's a lot of light

 

I don't like working in the dark!

 

Ow you didn't get the night vision upgrade on your eyes? That's handy

 

I couldn't decide which night-vision upgrade to get, so I ended up getting UV vision. Turned out to be an awful plan.

Anyway, here's a new episode for you animals.

 

I'm just going to leave this here.

Tire fitment mockup (27 tire diameter, 13 tire width, 15x15 wheel):

 

There have been several chunks of progress on several parts of the build, but I'm pretty focused on finally wrapping the quarter plugs up so we can pull a body mold.

 

Holy crap that's wide

 

Indeed, it is wide. I'm going to have some problems getting this on the trailer, but that's a problem for future-me.

It sounds like the "shop short" videos are pretty well received? I was just hoping to come up with something quick and easy to release every week, and I have a handful of ideas that are equally interesting (neither more nor less interesting) than the couple we've put out so far. Tomorrow we're going to record one that covers when you should use drywall putty for automotive uses (and when you shouldn't).