M101 A3 Camp Trailer AKA "Bode Custom"

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Troyadventures

New member
Well, my journey of this started about 2 months ago when I was randomly looking at camp trailers... again. They are so pricey and big that I just have never found what I wanted.

My criteria was this:
Low profile.
Towable with my JK (super charged which give me a bit of an edge on weight...).
Kitchen (exterior).
Didn't want the heavy top weight and time consuming of a RRT so - sleep-able inside.
Hot and cold water.
Onboard electric.
Able to do light wheeling with it.
Can haul surf boards and bike on it.
Waterproof.

SO I checked into teardrops, but they get very high when you add bike and boards. Lots of pros/cons on my list but in the end it just did not work for me.
I considered an a-liner off-road series, but that is like 12k USED. It also has an internal kitchen which I don't want. Good trailer, but not for me.
I thought about the M416's or smaller adventure trailers you see, but I am not going to hardcore wheel and will take my family which means LOTS of stuff. So none of them were big enough for my needs.

I already owned a small utility trailer that was worth $400 and I was going to add $300 in material to build sides for it. Not to mention all the labor. I REALLY like having a utility trailer and cannot store two trailers. Condo living in California, every square inch is precious!!

So back to the origin of this journey... doing my monthly search for the "perfect trailer". I was scouring Craigslist and ran across an ad for a camp trailer. It was an M101 A1 with the canopy. $1500 and a whole bunch of instant ideas started brewing. What if I BUILT the perfect trailer?? What if I used THIS to start from??
I went to look at it and fell in love with the trailer. It was the perfect size for my needs. The only thing was $1500 was making me think twice as a starting price since I would have to make TONS of changes that cost $$$.

Then went my search for the M101 A1 specifically. I found another guy on craigslist that was selling a bunch of them. He was kind enough to explain the differences between the A1, A2 and A3. Which are:
M101 A1+2 have flush fenders, no gussets, no heli hooks, 45in between the fenders on the inside, 3/4 ton, straight axles and tough as nails!!
The M101 A3 has fenders that stick out 5in on either side which give you 55in on the inside between the wheel wells, stepped up axle for high clearance, heli hooks, which I removed, extra gussets which I think are unnecessary, 3/4 ton still and of coarse tough as nails.

So I went and took a look, bought an A3 for $700!!! I sold my utility trailer for $375 and saved the labor and material I was going to spend and it more than paid for this one to start with.
Bango, I was in business. He had already replaced the front hitch to one that can use a pintle or a 2in ball, converted it from 24v to 12v, put trailer tires on it and removed the surge break. All things I would have had to do, DONE!

So the BIG win for my needs is that what I end up building will be, in my opinion, as cool as a teardrop but lower profile yet more headroom, more versatile than a camper trail like an a-liner but will REMAIN A UTILITY TRAILER!! Thats Right, I will build it so that everything stores easily inside my garage on a rack and so I can always utilize it as a utility trailer and then load up and go camping in a flash!

So Here it was, the start of my project. Gotta break for dinner, but will be posting often my progress on the trailer. It will be shown at SEMA 2013 behind my Jeep called "M1A1-HAVOC" that I built for my business JK-Adventure.com.










Lots of great plans for this. It will sleep 4, be paint matched, and have 33in Toyo tires on it eventually.
The other thing I hope for others to benefit from is all the stuff I have learned over the past 8 weeks about solar power, the size battery I need and how to calculate amp hours, how to daisy-chain water tanks and pull from whatever tank you want etc.

I will post a lot of the products I used to as I go to help give inspiration and pricing to others wanting to build their own trailer.
 
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T

Troyadventures

New member
Got myself a Harbor Freight tongue box. Great for $90 but the front corners look like I got what I paid for lol. That will change.
I installed my batteries, bank switcher, switches, ports and solar controller. The photo does not have the battery bank switcher (same as you find on a boat).










Got the USB ports wired for inside charging during the night.



Also made a rather large jack to support uneven ground when I need to move the trailer after I unhook.
 
T

Troyadventures

New member
So a little more on the power situation...

I chose to run 6v batteries in series to make one 12v battery. THey have thicker plates in them therefore can be discharged/charge more often without hurting them. Crank amps and car batteries are more for initial power say to start a vehicle, and then it runs on the alternator. Wheel chair batteries or marine batteries are the way to go!

Now to figure out what size batteries to get. I was talked off a ledge on getting two 225 am hour batteries by Woods. They are great for an RV, but not for what I am using it for. To figure out what you need, you have to understand your components and amp hours.

I chose to run (2) 6v 36amp hour batteries in series, which gives me (1) 12v 36 amp hour battery. That means it can continuously run 1amp for 36 hours. SImple math really - If you have a draw of 3amps, then it will last you 12 hours.





Next I looked at the components I will run: 1Gal per minute pump, LED lights, Charge 2 iphones and 1 iPad, Misc. electronics plugged in from time to time. And eventually a fridge/freezer.

After figuring how often these components would be on and running on average and calculating their amperage draw, I figured 36 amp hours would be enough. I have been right so far...
Adding the fridge freezer I have always planned to double up the amp hours but do it by adding a second battery bank of 36 amp hour 6v batteries.

That is why I got the battery selector. It protects me from ever leaving the fridge freezer or other things on and coming back to a dead trailer. I have yet to install the second battery bank though, I will test teh fridge/freezer first with what I have currently. Also depends on the fridge/freezer too as they are not all created equally.

 
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brboyer

New member
I chose to run (2) 6v 36amp hour batteries in series, which gives me (1) 12v 36 amp hour battery. That means it can continuously run 1amp for 36 hours. SImple math really - If you have a draw of 3amps, then it will last you 12 hours.
Click to expand...

Actually, you should only discharge the battery to no more than 50% capacity. Going any further will reduce their life by half or more - or permanently damage them.

These are AGM batteries, what do you plan to charge them with?
 
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Troyadventures

New member
I don't think I mentioned anything about how far to run down batteries, but great topic! For your questions first:

I am charging them with a 100w solar panel that will re-charge 25-50 amp hours a day depending on sun coverage.

I also have a genius 3500 charger that connects on the tongue to the hitch plug if I need to charge off of the jeep.



As to how far you can drain batteries, I follow the theory that agm batteries should not be discharged more than 80% and that is occasionally. I have the solar panel feeding into a charge controller that smartly charges the batteries and they are getting a consistent flow. VERY safe for the batteries. I don't recommend going below 50% if you charge off of an alternator as they won't charge more than 75% for your battery from what I have read.

With my solar panel being able to replace up to 50 amp hrs per day, most of the use during the day is replaced before nightfall. I use approx. 15 or so amp hrs over night and that is safe.

With the fridge freezer, I will probably need the second battery bank I plan to add to run it over night. Glad you brought this up! Definitely alot surrounding this topic to think about when planning a system!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
west_ok

west_ok

Adventurer
Can't wait to see how this turns out. Thanks for the info about the battery setup I'm working on one for my trailer also.
 
T

Troyadventures

New member
enigmadsm said:
Do you have any sketches on how you plan the floor layout? Curious as to the sleeping arrangements for 4 people
Click to expand...

I don't yet. The tailgate stays down and the canvas will connect there. In front of the queen sized bed there will be 3 feet sideways for one kid and a hanging bed for another.
 
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