Building Gypsy Rose

Many family and friends have been following the progress of Gypsy Rose through this blog. Marion's mom is one of those faithful readers. We wanted to be sure that she got a chance to see Gypsy in person before the move north, so last Thursday we brought her over for the tour at the end of the day. In the photo above, Marion explains the layout of the kitchen and bathroom.

Today was perhaps the most anxiety-ridden day of the entire project. Almost exactly one year after we started building Gypsy Rose, we took her off her blocks and hooked her to the hitch in preparation for the drive to Vermont.

From where we built Gypsy, the tongue extended over the end of the driveway and into the adjacent woods. After cutting a couple of saplings I had a clear path to get the truck to the hitch, but you wouldn't know it from the picture above.

While I backed Gypsy around in the driveway, Twilight (Marion's daughter's kitty) basked in the late October sun warming the corner of Gypsy's porch.

We wanted to check our tongue weight to be sure it was within design limitations for the ball mount. After a bit of research, we opted for a simple method that utilizes a bathroom scale and an offset fulcrum (above). By placing the tongue on the plank spaced at three feet from the scale and one foot from the fixed side of the support we were able to weigh the 600 pound tongue weight with a reading of 200 pounds on the scale. (Hard to explain without a diagram, but the principle uses a fulcrum that is one unit (one foot) from the fixed (non-scale) side of the support, and a multiple (in this case, three feet) from the scale side. Simply read the weight on the scale and multiply by times the number of units that the scale is away from the fulcrum, in this case three feet, so the 200 pound reading is multiplied times three which equals 600 pounds at the hitch).

Next, we had to install the lights and license plate.

In the shot above, you can see the last minute addition of the shed door.

License plate, lights, and the remaining tongue and groove to finish the interior once we arrive in Vermont.

Hitched up and ready to roll.