David_M_Schacht, 1547 N. State Street Unit 140, Greenfield, IN (2026)

04/05/2022

TRAILER HITCH….. for Towing, NOT for Luggage

Have you ever seen people put a hitch on the back of their travel trailer? And then put a luggage rack on it and fill it with coolers and other heavy items? There are various recipes for camping disaster, but this is probably the biggest one. This causes a trailer to “wag” the towing vehicle, often rolling over both the RV and the vehicle towing it. Youtube it. I added a hitch to my 5th wheel to tow jet skis. How???? I found a steel shop near work that sells “drops” for half the price of cut-to-length steel. I used a circular saw with a metal-cutting blade, and a cut-off wheel to size the cross-beam and the receiver. I also got some steel rod from the big box store to make loops for the safety chains. My biggest mistake was using a welder that was under-powered. No weld puddle. Very lousy welds. But it works enough to hold my weight when I jump on the hitch. I have been using it for about 5 years to tow jet skis. Also had to add a wire harness for the trailer lights. Highly recommended if you want to tow behind your 5th wheel, and can keep your total length under 65 feet.

04/04/2022

Old Tires as a CLIMBING Contraption

I got this idea several years ago. When I was a kid in elementary school we had huge tractor tires we played on. Some were vertical so you could go through the center hole or climb over them. Most of them were laid flat in a big area and we would play tag on them. As a parent, I accumulated tires for a while from my vehicles and some from friends. I cemented a 6x6 post in the ground and attached each tire with 3 lag bolts. This makes them very stable. I used tires that are in the best shape. And I attached them close to each other so the kids can climb from tire to tire all of the way to the top. It’s not done yet. The platform will have tires around it for safety. Also, the four corners of the platform are anchored to the ground with steel cables. When looking for ideas online, I thought I would find lots of similar projects with used tires. But I actually found very few, and none this cool. The plan is to expand this a lot so there are more tire obstacles for the kids to climb on. Gives the kids variety from what they find at the playgrounds. Helps them build better motor skills. I hope this inspires you to think outside the box and use what resources you have around you.

03/30/2022

NEW CAMPER or Upgrades?
Does the RV shows come to your town? It comes to Indianapolis every year. Before the plandemic we made the yearly visit to the state fair grounds to see what we were missing in the new models. My conclusion… NOT MUCH. That’s not so say there aren’t some useful upgrades. A few years ago they started putting dyson vacuums and pull-down kitchen faucets in RV’s. My wife thinks you have to buy a new RV to experience these things…. For under $60 I replaced the kitchen faucet. And for $50 I bought a nice new faucet for the bathroom. I’m never buying a dyson cordless vacuum. Bottom line, if there are things you like about new RVs/Campers/5th wheels, think about adding the upgrades to your existing rig. It’s an inexpensive way to help it FEEL NEW without the price and hassle of a new camper.

03/19/2022

A Gun Magnet... REALLY?

I've had trailers and campers and other items with doors on them. They default to the lousy hold-open latch on the door, with a hook mounted to the wall. This was one project that went even better than I thought. I bought a gun magnet and mounted it to the wall of the camper. It's magnetically VERY STRONG and already encased in soft plastic with mounting holes.... PERFECT. So I mounted it to the camper wall as close to the edge of the open door as possible. The bonus is that there was steel in the door so I didn't have to mount a plate to the door. Works great. The Wind NEVER gets behind it to pull the door away from the magnet. You've also probably seen the latest and greatest, which is a shock mounted to the top of the door. These are also NASTY in my opinion because they only let the door open about 110 degrees. I like 180 degrees.. The point of all this is that there is ALWAYS a better way to do something. And sometimes YOU will be the first person to figure it out!!!

03/19/2022

LIVE WITH IT or FIX IT???
I've heard it said the we will put up with things in life until the pain of staying the same exceeds the pain of change.

Bought our Wildcat 5th wheel in 2015 at auction in Texas for $7500. Inflated one tire to get it home. Lost a tire on each of our first two trips. Then replaced all tires and two of the 4 wheels. Broke a leaf spring 4 years ago and replaced all 4. The last few years on multiple trips, I've found ONE flat tire the first morning after we arrive. What's the culprit? The tire? NO. The steel wheels. And only the NEW ones. The axles/wheels are under extreme stress when pivoting a camper to park it. More than the stress from thousands of miles of driving. They hairline-crack at the welds. After swapping out several spares in these instances, I'm done. I also had 2 blowouts this past summer(tire issue). Went to aluminum rims. Some considerations. I would've liked to go to larger rims so I could put US-made tires on it. Not an option since my tire spacing is already so tight. Also realized my stubby lug nuts would not work without destroying the rims with a tire iron. Thus the long black lug nuts. Cone angle on the lugnuts has to match the cone angle on the wheels. New center caps too. I'd like to say this was a success but I have no data. It will be several years before they reach the age where the steel ones started to fail. Time will tell. I just know I've had enough of changing tires on Saturday mornings! On the bright side, I've got LOTS of spare tires if I need them 🤪

03/18/2022

PICKUP TRUCK SEATING FOR 6?

No big deal for vehicles that are designed for that. First step is to define the problem..... Go camping without having to drive a separate vehicle or make somebody ride on the center console. When I was a kid my grandpa had a chevy blazer and the center-console route was the solution. Picture is the console in my excursion which is much nicer than the one that was in the pickup. Found a 2015 Ford center seat on Ebay that matched the colors pretty close to my 2001 F350. Mistakes??? Although it did come with a seatbelt, it was designed for a truck with no back seat. The shoulder retractor would usually mount to the back of the cab(which didn't work for me), so I got a regular lap belt. This was after I wasted HOURS trying to make it work. And the new center seat doesn't have a trim panel on the back for the same reason. Buying a 6-door pickup isn't a good option. I hated giving up storage and was happy to see that the new one had as much or more storage. Yes, that's a 2x4 under the front to provide the proper spacing and angle. It's in compression, so don't worry. Kids fight to sit in it because of the DVD player on the dash. I'd highly suggest this solution for anybody needing an extra seat. Simplest and safest solution. Easy DIY, and I doubt you'd ever get a dealer to do this for you.

03/18/2022

OVERDUE Bathroom Upgrade!

When you live in an old farmhouse and the main bathroom that everybody uses is downstairs, it becomes crowded long before the family grows to 6 people. Before our 1st child I tiled the bathroom and put the old vanity back where it was. Having the double vanity has helped with traffic during teeth-brushing time.... and it looks a lot nicer. Easy DIY Project? Not this time. It was a bit of a saga and I'll describe why so you can decide if it's right for you. First, the old vanity went all of the way to the floor so I didn't tile all of the way back to the wall. So... had to pick up tiling where I left off 11 years ago. Old vanity had a single drain and supply pipes in the middle. New one has shelves in the middle. So the copper had to be rerun to fit behind the vanity. One hot and one cold with a splitter and stainless braided lines to each faucet. PVC drains now go down either side and come together in the basement, then into the trap. Waterfall faucets were on sale at amazon and were easy to install. My wife did a nice job of getting containers to put things in. The main thing is that I didn't know most of the obstacles until the new vanity was home and the old one was out. Couldn't turn back at that point as we were without our bathroom sink and brushing teeth in the kitchen. I find myself in these situations in many areas of life. In over my head and have to figure it out. They USUALLY work out! The key is to remain focused and make progress every chance possible. This took over a week for what I though could be done in an afternoon. More than I bargained for? YES. And was it worth it, YES!

03/11/2022

BIG GREEN EGG...

Last summer I went to Alabama to visit my aunt and uncle. Had a great time. He made some delicious pulled pork on an Egg. I bought one a month or so and have been using it ever since. I'm going to add a video on DIY Kingdom of how to repair a fire ring using high-temp JB weld. I've cooked on it 5 or 6 times. I've never smoked anything until now. There are a lot of things that must be done right, but like anything else, it's a process and eventually it's easy and you don't have to think about it too much. I live in Indiana. The first time using it, it was 4AM, and -3 degrees F. Did that stop me? NO. I didn't have a stand to put it on, but did that stop me? NO. I am not big on making excuses. And I'm going to build an outdoor kitchen this summer. Learned a lot and applied lessons learned on every successive cook. Cooking is a learning process and takes "reps". You don't become a pro overnight. But with repetitive action and continuous improvement, you can become as great of a chef as you want!

03/10/2022

REAL TREE or Artificial?

When I was a kid growing up in Michigan we would make the yearly pilgrimage to Arend Tree Farm in Jackson Michigan. When I got my own house in Indiana, I knew of no place to chop down my own tree, plus it was just me and my wife and we didn't care. Since we visit family on Thanksgiving, and since we wanted to keep the tradition with OUR kids, we stop at the same tree farm and cut down our own tree. Our youth pastor went to the NorthEast US to visit family this Thanksgiving and paid more than twice as much for a tree that wasn't as nice. An artificial tree may be cheaper and less messy, but the EXPERIENCE and TRADITION with the family is worth the cost to us. I hope everybody has family traditions that their kids look forward to each year.

03/08/2022

FROZEN CONDENSER???

What kind of person deliberately leaves the windows and doors open when the AC is running?......

If that happens in your house, the humidity will get so high in the air that it will start to freeze to the evaporator coil. If humid air keeps being introduced, it will quickly turn into this magnitude of mess. And then the guilty party will ask you why there's no air blowing out the vent.

How did I melt the ice? SLOWLY. I figure whoever created the problem should have some uncomfortable time to think about it. After 12 hours or so with the thermostat fan in the "on" position, the ice was melted and the heat pump functioned properly again. What did we learn from this? NOTHING. It has already happened again at least once. For those who learn from their mistakes, and better yet, from the mistakes of others..... don't run the AC with the windows open!

03/08/2022

CONCRETE COUNTERTOP Anybody?

I started this DIY project during early-summer of 2020 as the plandemic was gaining momentum. This is the last stage where I had to pop the bubbles in the epoxy with a propane torch. That was unnerving at first. But it all came out pretty nice. The fiber-optic lights added some complexity, but it was worth it. They are actually very crisp, not blurred like the picture. This is an example of taking a project to the next level. There were NO videos or how-to's of how to do this. I had to invent it myself. Now I can duplicate it and teach it. There were things I would improve next time, but nobody notices the imperfections like I do. Had a friend ask how much to make one for her. I didn't take her up on it though. I thought how I might pre-form these and sell them as a side business. It likely won't happen. The bottom line is that your hobbies and projects can turn into an income stream if you find the right niche. More recently I think about how my skills and talents could be used to serve others. The best blessings come from the most unexpected places.

03/06/2022

CAMPER REPAIR. It's always SOMETHING!

We went camping last summer and our AC had quit working. This wasn't unusual. But usually it's something to do with the roof unit. This time, I found that by messing with the slider on the right, I could get it to kick on briefly. Root cause of the problem was that our 2-year old had been messing with it and we didn't know it. When I opened it up, I was able to get the slider to stay connected long enough to cool the camper. Solution was to REPLACE this item. It's a 2008, so I figured by 2021 it had lived a good life. And I couldn't figure out where it was losing connection inside. Is this DIY? YES. It would cease to be DIY if I took it to the RV center and paid $200 to have them "diagnose" and fix it, instead of the $43 that I paid to buy it and install it myself.. It was a 10-minute job and now we keep an eye on where the little guy puts his hands. How much hassle would it be to drop off the camper, wait for them to fix it, and then pick it back up? NO WAY. It took a few attempts to find the problem with this because it was an intermittent electrical failure. And my wife had some good input too. A couple of lessons I learned. Don't be afraid to set something down and come back to it. And be open to input from others who may see things from a different perspective. DON"T take it to the RV center (but I've known that for a long time!)

David_M_Schacht

04/05/2022

04/04/2022

03/30/2022

03/19/2022

03/19/2022

03/18/2022

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03/11/2022

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03/06/2022

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