I finished the paint 1 week before I was supposed to leave on a trip. I spent a bunch of time working on getting the trailer lights wired up. I finished getting the trailer ready to go as the kids got off the bus from school. We loaded up the gear and headed out. The trailer towed very well. It tracked well behind the pickup and the shocks on the axle really cut down on the bounce going down the rough road. We got to camp the first night and enjoyed the evening. The weather turned during the night and rained for the next 36 hours so we came home early.
After the first trip it was time to begin working on wiring the camp lights and the battery. In order to keep the battery from moving around while bouncing along the trail I had wanted to build a metal frame inside the aluminum box on the front of the trailer that I could strap the battery too. This framework would also be used to hold the switches, battery disconnect, and fuse panel. It would bolt through the aluminum box and attach to the trailer for added strength. This is what I came up with.
I found some button LED lights and mounted them in the sides of the trailer and the point at a 45 degree angle down towards the ground. They are wired into an LED dimmer in the front box. This allows me to adjust the lighting based on how much light we need around camp.
While this was all going on I got a call from a good friend J.R., and he wondered if I would be interested in a great deal on a RTT. My wife even agreed that I couldn't pass it up. We met up shortly after my first trip and got it installed on my trailer.
This last winter we began talking about going on a trip the summer of 2017 over the Magruder Corridor and the Lolo Motorway. As the date got closer I began getting stuff packed up and trying to decide how I wanted to organize the gear to achieve the best tongue weight. The kids, my cousin Tom and I met up with J.R. and we proceeded to begin the trip. We spent 4 nights on the trail. I found that jackknifing the trailer when I get to camp allows me to easily access the bed of the pickup as well as the trailer without having to disconnect the trailer from the pickup, as long as there is enough room.
I'm now caught up on updating the thread. The biggest item I have remaining is to install a pair of gas piston's to assist with opening the lid. The lid is difficult to open now that the RTT is on top of it. This part makes me nervous because I have an idea on how to make them work but I don't want to mess up the paint and then miscalculate and have to mess up more paint. I'll have to continue working on this part over the winter.
Justin