Toby the Turtleback Trailer Build Thread

tae73

Observer
Looking good. I see your from Johnson County, grew up as a kid Edwardsville/Bonner Springs, but living in Jefferson City, MO now.
 

JCDriller

Adventurer
Looking good. I see your from Johnson County, grew up as a kid Edwardsville/Bonner Springs, but living in Jefferson City, MO now.

We won't be staying in this area for much longer, but we've enjoyed JC for a couple years. I've signed with a great company in Wichita KS, we're excited to move our adventures out there and be closer to Colorado. If we don't like Wichita then in a few years we'll likely head back to San Diego.
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I haven't had that much time to work on the trailer, but I've got almost 100% of the parts needed. Mostly still waiting on the custom kitchen side box from truckbox.com. Their lead time isn't short for custom work and their prices are sky high for a one off, but they are making me exactly what I want. Can't wait for it to arrive.
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For now I've mounted the Alu-Cab Shadow awning. The factory Alu-Cab Frontrunner brackets worked with well with some modifications. First I ordered passenger side brackets, started cutting on them only to realize the angled top piece was going to hit the tent. I had 3 options, move the tent and drill more holes in it, weaken the bracket or order a drivers side set of brackets and flip them. It worked perfectly. The awning raises up and down with the tent. It's really slick and VERY stable. I do need to weld up a couple of 45* brackets that will move the awning up and away from the tent as it make zipping the tent very difficult, I'll tackle that one once it warms up a little more.
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I'll get photos of it all opened up this weekend.
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SsNEwHm.jpg


Also, since I'm running both low and high pressure propane I needed a dual regulator system. This is what I have so far, I'm going to have custom braided stainless lines made for each run. There will be a 16" or so run from the regulators to the bulkhead propane inlets that get the propane into the trailer, once in the trailer each appliance will have it's own 12v operated ball valve allowing for isolation of each appliance. After the ball valves the HP propane (27psi) will go to the Partner Stove and the LP propane (.5psi) will go to the L5 water heater, propax heater and a rear QD fitting for the Weber Q grill.

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Next week I should have my perforated aluminum needed to make the electrical panel in the nose box. The electrical will keep me busy for a few days...
 
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JCDriller

Adventurer
Started working on my electronics mount and tongue box pass throughs last night. I figured why re-create the wheel so I replicated the perforated aluminum electronics mount that Turtleback Trailers uses on their factory build outs. I did add 2 1" PVC bulkhead connectors to allow me to pass cables from the tongue box to the main body of the trailer while staying water tight.

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Tonight I started laying out the electronics and planning the wiring. This should be pretty simple, however I'm getting a little hung up on the combo of the Victron BMV (shunt that ALL negative cables must flow through), the Powermania M230, and the parallel dual Odyssey G31s. I'm not sure If I would just wire both powermania negative leads to the BMS then to the batteries or if I should separate out the powermania's leads and place on (+) lead on each battery's (+) terminal. I'll ask about this one in the 12v section.

Just a peak of whats to come!
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I also received a email from Truckboxes.com that they are finally starting to actually build my box. Hopefully it'll arrive in a week or two. getting closer!
 
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JCDriller

Adventurer
My 2 year old who's all about Thomas the Train named my trailer "Toby, because he's square". So now the trailer has a proper name, Toby the Turtleback.

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I also am happy to update that I have my lifting roof rack working very smoothly now. It takes about 30lbs of force to open and is easy to close.


I wanted to move the Alu-cab shadow awning away from the tent so I could zip it easier and I also wanted to move it up enough that I could walk under it when the tent was collapsed. I used 3/16" thick 316 stainless 3" square tubing and a piece of 12x2.5x1/4" 316 SS flat stock, then bolted it all together. So far I think it's going to work well, there is some flex, but I don't think it's enough to cause a problem, just absorbing some energy. As you see I had to get drivers side mounts and flip them to clear the tent, works great other than reading upside down.

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I also just got my Quick-pitch shower tent. I'm planning on mounting this on the front of the trailer on a single 36" 500lb slide that pulls out to the drivers side when extended.
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Utah200

Adventurer
I'd be very suspect of the leverage that hinge side awning mount is going to be under. Love the strut system, smooth as silk.
 

JCDriller

Adventurer
I'd be very suspect of the leverage that hinge side awning mount is going to be under. Love the strut system, smooth as silk.

Thanks for the compliment.

I do agree with you on the mounts, that awning is a giant sail. I think I only need one of the bracket extension; either square tube or the 1/4” strapping. Once my kitchen box arrives, I’m hoping I can clear what I need to with only one of the brackets. I do need atleast one of them or else zipping the tent is almost impossible.
 

JCDriller

Adventurer
What did you think of the monstaliner? Thinking of doing my frame and rack out it.

Not sure yet. It’s peeling in many places but they are all places where the arms rub the rack when it articulates. I’m going to touch it up this summer and add an additional stainless washer to keep the parts from rubbing.

The painting process was easy enough, stunk really bad!
 

JCDriller

Adventurer
Over the weekend I got my nose box wired up. Here is the general lay out and wiring diagram, only difference is that I moved the Blue Sea AC Breaker box and added a Blue sea 4 gang DC circuit breaker/switch panel to control particular items that I wanted to override when the main Blue Sea fuse panel is turned off. For instance my ARB Fridge or the National Luna area lights that will be mounted above each door, I wanted to be able to power these even when the power was turned off behind the nose box. I'll likely also hook my trailer's rock lights to this switch panel.

Along with all the goodies I mounted a NOCO 110 shore power plug and a ZAMP solar plug to the side of the nose box.

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Here is how it sits in the nose box.
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JCDriller

Adventurer
Installed the outdoor shower housing tonight

First holes drilled
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No turning back now
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Done, you can also see the NOCO changing port and ZAMP solar input
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Shower sprayer
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JCDriller

Adventurer
I installed my "house" side electrical panel. I think I'll leave the wood raw, kinda like it. It provides 8 switches, 4 2.1a USB, 1 12v, and 4 110v plugs as well as a remote switch for my inverter.

The switches will control:

1. Box internal lights
2. Tent power
3. Water heater & 12v propane on/off valve (uses 3.1v adapter so I can run it off my odysseys instead of C batteries)
4. Water pump
5. Tent's Propax heater & 12v propane on/off valve
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h9wevLc.jpg
 
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JCDriller

Adventurer
A few photos of where I'm at. I got my custom truckbox.com box installed, it's amazing. They did a fantastic job.

I spent this weekend working on my kitchen. It’s not done yet, but it’s far enough along I thought I would share.

I still need to build my electronics panel on the top right and spend some time sanding and rounding over all the edges with a router, finally it’ll get a stain.
 

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funshot

New member
I hope turtle back takes note of your designs. If they did this from the start they would be on my shopping list, sadly they don't. You kitchen layout is exactly what they are missing! It looks great and thanks for the build thread, I've enjoyed it!
 

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