Between 705 & 1200 SQ/FT ZMotorsports Home and 50x60x16 Shop/RV Garage

[zmotorsports]

The benches and everything out Awesome Mike!!! Nice job!!!!

Thank you Quinn. I appreciate the comments.

Mike


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[wogdog]

Just hit page 2 of the Home and Shop/RV Garage build, after reading all of your shop projects v1 thread. Completely impressed by your work, work ethic, and just the kind of guy you come across as. The work you do is, to me, inspiring. Imagine my delight when I looked up and saw that I was on page 2 of 89!! Yay me! AND I STILL HAVE SHOP PROJECTS 2.0 TO GO THROUGH!!!

Keep up the awesome work!

 

[zmotorsports]

Just hit page 2 of the Home and Shop/RV Garage build, after reading all of your shop projects v1 thread. Completely impressed by your work, work ethic, and just the kind of guy you come across as. The work you do is, to me, inspiring. Imagine my delight when I looked up and saw that I was on page 2 of 89!! Yay me! AND I STILL HAVE SHOP PROJECTS 2.0 TO GO THROUGH!!!

Keep up the awesome work!

Thank you. I am flattered by the comments and hope you enjoy from page 3 on as much as the first two pages.

Thank you for checking out my thread(s) and commenting.

Mike

 

[zmotorsports]

Thought I would throw out a couple more pictures.

These were taken last week as my wife and I were hooking up the Jeep and heading out on vacation to the RV/Jeep rally that we hosted in Ouray, CO. I can't tell you how awesome it is to be able to pull the coach out of the RV bay up to the gate and hook up the Jeep all in the back yard without even being past the gate let alone on the street in front of our home like at our last place. I have been so blessed throughout the entire house search and shop build to be able to find and build EXACTLY what we were looking for as our forever home.





Thanks for looking and thanks to all my fellow garage journal members for all the supportive comments throughout the past year.

Mike


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[Finallygotit]

Have fun!! And drive safe!

 

[zmotorsports]

Have fun!! And drive safe!

Thanks Dan.

Mike

 

[C_F]

I'm curious, when you tow your Jeep like that, do you just put the transfer case in neutral? Or do you disconnect drive lines? I've only towed vehicles on a trailer or tow dolly, so I don't have experience towing in that manner.

 

[zmotorsports]

I'm curious, when you tow your Jeep like that, do you just put the transfer case in neutral? Or do you disconnect drive lines? I've only towed vehicles on a trailer or tow dolly, so I don't have experience towing in that manner.

Put the TC in Neutral and go. Jeeps are still one of the easiest (and best in my opinion) vehicles to pull behind RV's.

This is my 4th Jeep that we have towed now in the past 22 years of having motorhomes and well over 100k miles of flat towing (plus probably another 80-100k of towing trailers behind motorhomes).

Our past Jeeps we have usually had to turn the key to the "unlock" position to unlock the steering wheel but on the 2009 model year to present they left the steering pawl out of the steering column thus allowing the Jeep JK/JKU to be towed without even having to have a key in the ignition. When I was looking for our JKU I really wanted at least a 2009 for this very reason.

Thanks for stopping checking in on the build thread.

Mike

 

[WhiffySpark]

Is there a reason beside coviennce you don't trailer tow it? I've never flat towed before but I don't think I would like it

 

[blacksporty]

Is there a reason beside coviennce you don't trailer tow it? I've never flat towed before but I don't think I would like it

safer, easier, takes less time to set up, one less thing to have to worry about fitting in a camp spot.

 

[zmotorsports]

Is there a reason beside coviennce you don't trailer tow it? I've never flat towed before but I don't think I would like it

I've done both and flat-towing is hands down the most convenient and practical. Like I mentioned earlier, I've been flat-towing for well over 100k and trailer towing for a little less than that. Our motorhomes have NEVER been anywhere where we weren't towing either the Jeep or trailer.

There are pro's and con's to both types of towing. I LOVED towing my 26' enclosed trailer and having my rolling workshop with me. I especially liked arriving at a rally or the races and rolling out my toys nice and clean no matter what weather or roads we had driven on. However, it was not the most convenient and flat out a pain in the a$$ at times. If we were heading to a specific destination where I could find a site long enough and were planning on staying at least 3 or 4 days I would tow the trailer. If the wife and I were hopping, skipping and jumping from place to place each day or couple of days I always flat-towed because I can have the Jeep connected in about 2-minutes and disconnected in about a minute. Loading and strapping down in the trailer took the better part of about 20-minutes, unloading about 10 minutes.

If no reservations were made for campground sites, towing the trailer and being over 70' in length was a real pain but I still enjoyed having our trailer. Last year was the breaking point for me. I had only towed the trailer once the year before and last year when the wife and I headed to an RV/Jeep rally in Texas I was all ready to load the Jeep and Harley into the trailer when I opted to just flat-tow the Jeep so we could hop, skip and jump our way the 1600 miles to Texas. We didn't know where we were going to stay each night so we just drove until we felt like stopping then find a place, which is really out of the norm for us. After 650-miles from home we found a place in Albuquerque, NM and pulled in for the night. My wife had heard about a place to eat so we unhooked the Jeep and ran to dinner. Upon returning from dinner I hooked up the Jeep so it was all ready to head out early the next morning and not have to delay departure and wake up neighbors in the campground.

Had we been towing the trailer there is no way I would have unloaded the Jeep to run 5 miles down the road to dinner only to load it back up again. Upon returning home I put the trailer up for sale to avoid paying storage fees. This was long before we had thought about moving. Now that I have a place to store a trailer I may have another one at some point down the road but more than likely closer to retirement when we can stay for longer durations at various locations and still have the option to flat-tow those other times.

Sorry for the long answer to a short question but there was a lot of thought and experience that went into my decision. This seems to be quite a hot topic on a couple of RV forums that I belong to as well and everyone has their own opinions, however many don't have many miles under their belts on either method.

Mike

 

[zmotorsports]

safer, easier, takes less time to set up, one less thing to have to worry about fitting in a camp spot.

I guess this would be the "short" answer. See my much longer one above.

Although I question the safer comment. Both are safe if done correctly, and both can be less than safe if not.

Mike

 

[C_F]

I tried flat towing once, many years ago. I had just parted out a truck to the point where it was a roller & wanted to tow the rest to a boneyard. So I bought a temporary tow bar that mounts to the front bumper. I didn't even make it to the end of the block, the truck I was towing kept wanting to steer anywhere but forward.
Maybe it was because it had no real weight up front, I don't know. I ended up renting a U-haul tow dolly.

I still have that tow bar, if anyone wants it.

 

[JCQuick]

All this talk about flat towing makes me want to ask. Mike that type setup on a big coach like yours. Can you back up? Reason I ask is being the VW person I am I have flat towed many with the standard ole VW tow bar sold every where. And those well backing up Nope.
I warn customers every time I sell one and some don't listen

 

[GRN96WS6]

You can't back up with them, you have to unhook.

 

[zmotorsports]

All this talk about flat towing makes me want to ask. Mike that type setup on a big coach like yours. Can you back up? Reason I ask is being the VW person I am I have flat towed many with the standard ole VW tow bar sold every where. And those well backing up Nope.
I warn customers every time I sell one and some don't listen

JC, no ability to back up when flat towing like this. You have to pick your fuel stops and turns carefully which is one con to flat-towing vs. towing a trailer.

I hear all the time about people who have bent their tow bars because they backed up and thought because it was such a short distance that they would be fine. The stresses put on the tow-bar when those front wheels all of a sudden turn due to the opposite caster when backing is tremendous and it will twist a tow bar into a pretzel very quick. Sitting behind the wheel of a 30k-50k pound coach you won't even feel it until it's too late. That being said, in the 100k plus miles I have flat-towed Jeeps over the past 20+ years I have only had to unhook twice because I couldn't back up.

Once was because I took the wrong turn into a campground in Grand Junction, CO. The sign said turn right so I immediately turned right where I turned into a cul-de-sac and couldn't make the turn with our last coach. Had to disconnect and back the coach out of the cul-de-sac. Luckily I only had to go to the next driveway so I just had the wife follow me in the Jeep right next door. I inquired at the office and they told me that the neighborhood just went in that summer and they should probably move their sign as that is quite common. REALLY? If that is common, move the stinking sign, pretty simple.

The other time was at a small fuel station in Monticello, UT. I had pulled in to fuel up at a fuel station I had used in the past and knew I could drive around the building upon exiting. While I was fueling the fuel delivery truck pulled in and commenced stringing hoses and filling the tanks. This time I had to disconnect the Jeep, have the wife drive it across the road while I backed the coach out then drove about a quarter mile down the road to reconnect the Jeep and were on our way again. Not the end of the world but something that wasn't planned.

All in all I feel pretty good in all those miles to have only had to disconnect a couple of times.

Had I been towing the trailer I could have backed out of the fuel station pretty easily but the cul-de-sac would have been a bit more problematic due to the busy street I would have been backing out onto.

Once when we were towing the trailer we took a turn in Winnemucca, NV and after driving down it for almost a half a mile found out they had it blocked off doing construction. Luckily I radio'd back to the other members of our party not to come down the road so the other three rigs pulled off but I had to back up more than a quarter of a mile @ 72' long coach and trailer until I found a wide enough spot in the road where I could do a three-point turn. Luckily I can back well, other members of our party would not have faired as well.

Mike

 

[zmotorsports]

You can't back up with them, you have to unhook.

^^This.

Mike

 

[zmotorsports]

I tried flat towing once, many years ago. I had just parted out a truck to the point where it was a roller & wanted to tow the rest to a boneyard. So I bought a temporary tow bar that mounts to the front bumper. I didn't even make it to the end of the block, the truck I was towing kept wanting to steer anywhere but forward.
Maybe it was because it had no real weight up front, I don't know. I ended up renting a U-haul tow dolly.

I still have that tow bar, if anyone wants it.

Yeah, little different situation here compared to your tow to scrapyard trip.

Mike

 

[WhiffySpark]

Thanks for the detailed explanations. Everything makes sense I was just curious. How do you like the size of your shop? I was considering a 100x50. But your shop seems to be a good size and would be cheaper obviously

 

[zmotorsports]

Thanks for the detailed explanations. Everything makes sense I was just curious. How do you like the size of your shop? I was considering a 100x50. But your shop seems to be a good size and would be cheaper obviously

You're welcome.

The size is ok. It was the absolute largest the city and county would let me construct on 3/4 acre lot, actually I am just under 3/4 acre @ .69 but the city let me slide. It is also the largest my wallet would allow.

That being said, so far I like the size of my shop @ 40'x50' but I still do not have all of the items from my last shop in this new one yet. All of my big equipment and tools are in with the exception of my two motorcycle lifts which are still in the third bay of the house garage, I hope they will fit and be convenient as I like having two motorcycle lifts compared to just one. Seems like I generally have one of our normal bikes on a lift and then much of the time a project bike. I also still have many boxes of supplies that need to be organized and put away in the shop. Luckily most of those remaining items will end up in either the toolboxes under the work benches or in the three cabinets that I purchased so they really shouldn't encroach too awfully much into the working space of the shop. I am also fortunate to have a wall inside the RV storage bay to put larger items that I don't use a lot but I still have very easy access to. Things like engine stand, engine hoist, 10-ton floor jack, ladders, etc. This was planned in but still nice to not have them taking up space in the actual shop section.

Had the city allowed (and wallet) I would have loved to have built a 50'deep by 80' long shop and RV garage with 50x60 being the shop and 20x50 still being the RV garage but then other things come into play such as heating that much space in the winter months and would have added a LOT to the overall cost.

Overall I am pleased with the size of my shop/RV garage and also having a 50' deep third bay on the house plays a role because once I get the last remaining items out of there I can park my truck and probably Harley in the third bay along with lawn and garden equipment which will open up more space in the shop where my truck is now being parked.

It also comes down to what you will be doing in your shop. If you are like me and actually work in your shop and do major rebuilds on vehicles, bikes, etc and you could afford to go bigger I would. They are never big enough. People keep telling me mine is huge but I don't feel it is huge. It is larger than what I had and definitely will be my last shop but far from huge.

I hope that answered your question, I apologize for the long answer.

Mike

 

[zmotorsports]

Thought I would post this in the shop/RV garage build thread vs. my Projects Thread.

My GC stopped by my office today to check in and see how I was liking the shop and if there were any issues. I thought that was great of him and it was completely unexpected.

He informed me that he has started three additional buildings from referrals that I gave. He asked if my gates had been installed yet and if they had if I minded if he come by to take some pictures of the finished project and if he could put them on his website. I told him I was good with that as long as we agreed on a date/time so I could make sure to have my lawn edged and mowed. He just chuckled and said he wouldn't have expected anything else. Not quite sure how to take that.

 

[Finallygotit]

Mike, your reputation proceeds you.

 

[-Brent-]

Mike, you should tell him you'll be overseeing the progress on the three projects. Hahaha.

 

[JCQuick]

Thought I would post this in the shop/RV garage build thread vs. my Projects Thread.

My GC stopped by my office today to check in and see how I was liking the shop and if there were any issues. I thought that was great of him and it was completely unexpected.

He informed me that he has started three additional buildings from referrals that I gave. He asked if my gates had been installed yet and if they had if I minded if he come by to take some pictures of the finished project and if he could put them on his website. I told him I was good with that as long as we agreed on a date/time so I could make sure to have my lawn edged and mowed. He just chuckled and said he wouldn't have expected anything else. Not quite sure how to take that.

That made me laugh thank you

 

[rattle_snake]

Mike,
For your Steevo benches, what is the depth measurement of the top steel surface?

How much overhang did you put on the front edge and how much would you allow if you were to do it again?

 

[shortykorte]

Mike, you should tell him you'll be overseeing the progress on the three projects. Hahaha.

Good one. Mike should show up with a clipboard, hard hat and id badge. lol


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[zmotorsports]

Mike, your reputation proceeds you.

I don't know about that Dan.

Mike, you should tell him you'll be overseeing the progress on the three projects. Hahaha.

That's great Brent, I should do that.

 

[zmotorsports]

Mike,
For your Steevo benches, what is the depth measurement of the top steel surface?

How much overhang did you put on the front edge and how much would you allow if you were to do it again?

Justin, the bench tops measure 30" deep and seem to be about perfect. That gives me right around 2" from the front of the toolboxes underneath to the face of the turned down edge of the top.

I wouldn't change a thing if I were to build them again. So far I have only been working at these benches for just over a month but they seem to be the perfect height and depth. I am 6'2" tall and my son is 6'4" tall and the benches are right at 40" to the top of the work surface, about an inch and a half taller than my last shop.

Thanks again for following along Justin.

 

[zmotorsports]

I am going to be honest here, I am REALLY getting tired of digging in the dirt. I thought once my shop was complete I would just be knocking down projects in the shop left and right. Unfortunately that has not been the case. It's difficult because my last home's yard was in perfect shape with grass like carpet and it is taking me a bit to get my new yard dialed in.

I made some more changes to my sprinklers in the back yard a week ago and while I was gone last week on vacation it had shown some significant improvements in my dry spots in the back yard. The front yard not so much.

I was really disappointed when we pulled in Saturday night and saw the dry areas in my front yard so I came up with a plan to add several sprinkler heads for better coverage. I am STILL having to deal with the half-assed work from the previous owner.

I ended up digging three trenches about 20-25 feet each and T'd into existing heads.




After backfilling the trenches, compacting and putting the grass back in place.


I hope with dual coverage now that my front lawn will bounce back and fill in.


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[GRN96WS6]

Your yard looks good to me.. Ha!

When I moved into mine it looked awesome and I was able to keep it that way for a few years but now the damn neighbors don't give a **** and their weeds flow into mine thus making it a losing battle.

 

[zmotorsports]

Your yard looks good to me.. Ha!

When I moved into mine it looked awesome and I was able to keep it that way for a few years but now the damn neighbors don't give a **** and their weeds flow into mine thus making it a losing battle.

Sorry to hear that. It's hard to stay enthused about keeping up the yard when you look around at the neighbor's yards and they all look like ****. I used to think that as long as I kept mine up to my own standards that others would try to keep theirs a little nicer but I soon realized some people are just pigs and don't care if they are the scumbags of the neighborhood or not. I would have to go around into my neighbor's yard at least once a month to trim the weeds back so they wouldn't keep coming through or under my fence. I asked for permission and they were good about it but they also never got the hint. Hell, I would have been embarrassed if someone had to ask to come over to my yard and trim the weeds so they wouldn't go into their yard.


On a similar note talking about pig neighbors, last night while I was digging trenches in the yard for the additional heads, a couple that we lived near in our old neighborhood (across the street and three doors away) pulled up to our house. The timing was perfect, just as my wife pulled in the driveway from work so we were able to have a nice visit. For those who followed my other thread, these were the people that were so pissed at us when we put the "for sale" signs up at our old house on Halloween last year.

My wife asked what they were doing out in our neck of the woods. They informed us that they were checking on the progress of their new home being built about a mile west of us. HUH? Evidently they are throwing in the towel as our old neighborhood has continued, if not sped up, the rapid decent. They reported that our old home's yard is a mess, the Sanford & Son's neighbor to my south has hauled in more **** and the neighbor to the north of us has changed renters again and the parents aren't keeping a reign on their kids and have had the police called several times already. Sounds like they are holy terrors and two other homes have changed hands and have since declined.

I felt bad for them but at the same time I was grateful for us getting out when we did because they have had their house on the market for almost two months now and have lowered the price with still no interest, and they had a fairly nice home and yard.

Glad we got out when we did and even though we had to go back into debt for a while my wife and I are extremely happy in our new home.

Thanks for checking back in.

 

[smalltown]

zmotorsports I was wondering about your workbench and of course Steevo's.

It's about the adjustable floor leveling feet. That's a great idea to level the bench, but are they sturdy enough to take the pounding you might do to something on the bench top ?

 

[zmotorsports]

zmotorsports I was wondering about your workbench and of course Steevo's.

It's about the adjustable floor leveling feet. That's a great idea to level the bench, but are they sturdy enough to take the pounding you might do to something on the bench top ?

Yes, they are VERY sturdy. My bench doesn't move at all as each of the feet have a 1500 pound rating. On the L-shaped bench that is 14 feet giving it a 21,000 pound capacity. I will NEVER load it to even a fraction of that with several engines at one time torn down.

The inserts are very well molded and have a lot of surface area for the thread engagement. I don't ever see a problem arising with them now or 20-years down the road.

Now that I have them leveled perfectly and everything has "settled" into their home, I think I am going to work on getting my two doors for the bench compartments fabricated as well as a toe kick plate for the bottom to alleviate any chance of debris or parts getting under them.

Thanks for commenting and checking out my thread.

 

[smalltown]

Thank you Mike.

 

[zmotorsports]

Thank you Mike.

You are very welcome.

Thanks for checking out my build thread.


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[zmotorsports]

I was helping my son on his Jeep in the shop tonight and my cousin stopped by with his 1931 Sedan. He and his wife were out cruising around and thought they would stop by.

As we were standing outside visiting I just had to get a picture of the mountains to my East as the sun was setting. They were glowing and almost looked purple.



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[JasonJ]

Awesome Mountain view. I live at the base of a similar looking mountain in Las Vegas. Every night, my girlfriend and I are on the backyard patio watching TV, sipping wine, talking and watching the same sun light up the side of our mountain.

.. during the summer its the same thing... we are just in the pool.

 

[Bighead38]

I was helping my son on his Jeep in the shop tonight and my cousin stopped by with his 1931 Sedan. He and his wife were out cruising around and thought they would stop by.

As we were standing outside visiting I just had to get a picture of the mountains to my East as the sun was setting. They were glowing and almost looked purple.



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Mountains are cool but I look at that picture and want to walk barefoot and lay down on that grass.

 

[zmotorsports]

Awesome Mountain view. I live at the base of a similar looking mountain in Las Vegas. Every night, my girlfriend and I are on the backyard patio watching TV, sipping wine, talking and watching the same sun light up the side of our mountain.

.. during the summer its the same thing... we are just in the pool.

Thanks Jason. I couldn't agree more about sitting on the deck and admiring the view and sunset in the evenings. Pretty awesome.

Glad to see that you have a similar situation. Pretty relaxing after a long stressful day isn't it?

Thanks for checking out my build thread Jason.

 

[zmotorsports]

Mountains are cool but I look at that picture and want to walk barefoot and lay down on that grass.

Funny you should mention that because my lawn is the one thing I have really struggled with the past couple of months trying to get dialed in. My last place the grass was like carpet and I won't be happy until this one is the same way. I still have a couple of trouble spots that I am nursing along after our extremely hot summer but they are getting there. Last night I mowed the lawn so it looked nice for the weekend and the wife come home and was just grinning ear to ear at our yard as she pulled in the driveway. That made my day even though I am not 100% happy with the grass, yet.

Thanks for commenting and for stopping by my shop build thread. I appreciate you taking the time.