The Window Wedgie Widget

 A couple of weeks ago, we were camping our way across the West on our first long trip - the two of us

and our two fur kids in the teardrop for two weeks from Minneapolis to Oakland and back.  And on the second night out in Veedauwoo Wyoming, it was downright chilly!  To keep from totally steaming up the trailer, a little ventilation is essential (and my safety vent isn't enough).  So I latched the window open and dealt with an icy breeze blowing in on my delicate backside.  I did figure out that you could sort of 'jam' the window partway open, but still...

So sitting at my computer a few days back, I thought about those nights and decided there was a better way - enter the Window Wedgie Widget (or SW-W3 for short).  And pretty soon every problem starts to look like a nail if you have a 3D printer.  So I whipped out a few prototypes that evolved into this - the Window Wedgie Widget.  The left hand picture is deployed in the 1.5" position.  Flip it vertical and it gives you 3.5" of gap.  It's made of plastic, fits snugly in the track, and stows - well wherever you want to stow it!

This works great.  I did a solo weekend trip to Arkansas, left this in every night, and had zero condensation - and no frozen backside (ok, it wasn't really that cold - the heater only kicked on once the whole trip).  

If you are interested, please drop me a note and I'll be happy to send you one or a pair of your very own.  I am selling these locally and on ebay at $9.99 for one, and $15.99 for a pair (plus shipping). Right now, I'm only making in Henry Ford's favorite color - black - but colors are a possibility too.

I'm also making a variety of other widgets to fix common problems - spacers, hole covers, anti-rattle shims, tube ends and so forth.  If you need anything like this, please drop me a note.  If I don't already have something, chances are we can figure something out!

Printed material

One of the most frustrating parts of a build are the little odds and ends that are required - adapters, plugs, grommets, vents, and other weird little widgets made of plastic and filling those 'specific purpose' needs.  The pursui t of which involves finding that none of the local suppliers have anything close, searching the net, finding something sort-of close, ordering it, waiting days for it to arrive, during which time your project is on hold, and then finally getting it and learning it... doesn't fit.  

I'm fortunate to have both the 3D printers, and some reasonable beginner CAD design skills to be able to visualize many of these, design a prototype, and then print it.  Sometimes it works, sometimes it takes a couple of attempts to get it right.  But with an hour of my time, and a couple of hours to print it, and I can quickly validate my assumptions, the part fit, tweak it a bit if needed, and it's ready to use.  

One example of this is the new ZeroBreeze Mk II air conditioner.  The Zero Breeze box contains the necessary ducts and fittings for the AC end, but nothing for the end of the duct.  Since my AC will be mounted in the tongue box, and piped back into the trailer body, I really didn't want the outlet to be a 4'' diameter piece of white plastic tube poking into the trailer!  It took me about 30 minutes to draw out in FreeCAD, 8 hours to print the prototype, 10 minutes to make changes to the louvers and outer chamfer, tweak the thickness, and then a second iteration to print (5 hours) a production quality version.  One feature of this version is that the louvers are angled 10 degrees to aim the air away from our heads while sleeping. 

There are a bunch of items that I've done the same for - from a pad for the bottle jack to fit over the 2¨frame tubes, to end caps for the rails, to collars for cable routing, and wire-way covers for burying wire in the walls.  I've included most of them in 3D prints for Teardrop build.  Feel free to copy, or if you see something you need, I will be happy to sell them as well.  I'm also available for design/prototype and custom print work.

I need to print two more - one for the return air, and a hot exhaust for the bottom of the box.  The one going out the bottom will have a little longer snout, and will have a 'lid' to clamp in a piece of screen to keep critters and insects out.