A few trailer questions for the guru's...

fire931

Adventurer
so at the moment i have two different questions but i'm sure i'll come up with more as i start building.

first off, what size batteries are you guys running?
at the moment the only power consuming devices i have planned are a fridge and some led lighting in compartments and kitchen area.

second question, my trailer isn't being built for true "offroad" conditions, more to get all the camping stuff to the nice spots off the beaten path, no hardcore stuff. that in mind is 8 feet to long for the trailer body? i am currently drawing up the plans for it and had it set at 7 feet but seems as though i'm running out of space real quick.
 
It depends on what your target range is out in the wilds....1 day...3 days...7 days? I'm going to run 6v wired together that will allow over 450 AHs, enough for at least a week (without running an inverter), but most guys seem to be running 80+AH batteries and will do fairly well with a charging or two in between.

I don't think 8' is too long at all for non hardcore stuff...I'm basically working on the same thing, and mine's about 12' (but the main trailer body started at 8')

Good luck with the build...enjoy!

Pat
 
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well i'm thinking i would like it to be sufficient for a week...

however if needed i could always hook the truck up and charge off that for a bit i suppose. the lights probably won't be used much so the biggest thing will be the fridge, i'm still undecided on a 45 qt or jumping up to the big 60 qt.

also i forgot, there will be a water pump running off it as well, don't know if that would make much of a difference or not.

as far as the length, i was looking at the truck and don't think it would to bad, i'm figuring on making the tongue just long enough to jack knife if needed so it will hang back a bit from the rear of the truck, but i don't see that being to much of an issue.


i have realized trying to take a family camping for multiple days and only having something like 3ft of bed space just doesn't work to well... thus the need for a trailer.
 
I carry two sources..30' of 10# wire(red and black) with alligator clamps to hook off the truck, and also a 1000W 2 cycle generator that has a 12v plug with clips to charge directly from the generator. The generator was very inexpensive, light, and fairly quiet. I think it pushed out 40 amps IIRC, so I would run it for an hour or so just to top off the charge on the prior trailer, and was very happy with it.

I have a 45 and I think it would be fine (long as I kept my cocktails in another cooler) for 2 ppl for a week, but with a family I don't think you be dissappointed in a 60.

Young Family=tons of gear

Old Pain in the ***=probably same amount if not more :ylsmoke:
 
so like what model number / groupe size batteries?? i'm trying to figure out how much space to leave for them..

also what size water tank would you suggest for a 3 person family for up to a week of camping? (also keep in mind could turn into 4 person family at some point)
 
I'm running two group 31M batteries in the trailer, one 31M in the truck.

I haven't bought it yet, but I'll be getting a tank to hold between 20-25 gallons of water. For a week out, I could see you needing every bit of that with a family. And for smaller trips, you don't have to fill it all the way. The tanks themselves are pretty light and store out of the way underneath.

Don

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You should start by estimating the power draw of all your appliances, and then based on how long you want to be able to camp between charging your batteries you can figure your battery capacity requirements. I think Adventure Trailer's web site has some good info on this subject. Also, check out the latest issue of Overland Journal for some good data on power consumption for popular fridge models. IIRC, you are looking at about 1.7 AH average power draw for a fridge. The power draw for your fridge may vary from that depending on the model you have.

A good quality group 31 AGM battery will typically be rated at about 105 AH, so that should give you about 60 hours of use with just the fridge, so about 2-1/2 days without recharging the battery.

I use stick up LED lights in my trailer but they each have batteries in them rather then using the trailer battery. It's a little more maintenance to keep fresh batteries in them, but I usually travel with spare batteries for flashlights etc., and it saves a little draw off the main trailer battery.

A fairly common trailer set up is two 12v Group 31 batteries in parallel for more capacity. You can get some capacity benefit here, but often not the doubling you'd expect. It can also cause lots of issues if the internal resistance of the two batteries is different. The common recommendation when running two batteries in parallel is to always use two identical brand/model batteries with the same date code to try to minimize any difference in the electrical characteristics between them.

I used to have the two 12v battery in parallel setup in my camper and had no end of problems with it, so I converted it to a single 8D size battery that has about 200 AH of capacity. I've had better luck with that setup, and I'm currently thinking of converting my trailer over from dual Group 31 12v batteries to a single 8D 12v battery. Same capacity, same weight, and gets away from the parasitic discharge issues of two batteries in parallel. The challenge is you need room for one large battery (Group 8D is about 21" x 9" x 9").

Another alternative to consider that may give you more capacity while avoiding the issues with two 12V batteries in parallel is to use two 6V batteries in series. It's a good option if you have room - 6v batteries tend to be tall. Be sure to check on the charging voltage requirements though. You may find you need over 14v to fully charge a bank of two 6v batteries in series, and typically your voltage regulator in your vehicle won't go that high. When thinking about charging voltage you also need to consider the voltage drop in the wiring back to the trailer.
 
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My Bantam trailer is 4x6, so battery space is scarce. I use a single Group 31 battery, which powers an Engle fridge, an inverter and some lights. (I don't use the inverter much, but it is there in case I need it.) It is enough capacity for a long weekend.
 
thanks for the great replies guys!!

another question has come to mind.. my soon to be wife is about 5ft nothing, i want the trailer to sit up high enough to clear any obstacles we may encounter but be low enough for her while camping to use the galley setup so i was thinking of using air bags instead of springs since i can dump the air at the camp site and lower the trailer down a decent bit. (i have a good on board air setup on the truck to reinflate with)

my question is using air bags would it be better to do a normal axle, with some sort of control arms and a bag on each side or try and do an independent setup with two "swing arms / control arms" ??
 
i know this thing is going to take awhile to build but man i sure am getting excited about it... i've been spending every spare moment designing the thing... :D
 
my question is using air bags would it be better to do a normal axle, with some sort of control arms and a bag on each side or try and do an independent setup with two "swing arms / control arms" ??

You might find this suspension design article from Adventure Trailer's website interesting. Adventure Trailers are built with independent trailing arms with a shock and air bag on each side. They work very well.

One feature I find useful is to be able to use the airbags to level the trailer side to side when we're camped. You could play around with putting boards under the tires on one side or the other, but using the airbags is just really convenient.
 
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thanks! thats a great little article.. i really like the concept of that design. my main goal with using airbags is like i had to said to be able to lower the trailer down to her height when camping so she's not reaching up for everything.. as far as leveling the trailer i had planned on doing some jacks or something eventually since in the long run the plan is to add a RTT as some point.
 
it looks like the challenging part is going to be keeping the ride height low enough to satisfy me.. don't want it to tall where it starts getting top heavy. i was thinking maybe do a C notch in the frame to allow it to ride a bit lower but still have some suspension travel.
 
batteries I run two of these
http://store.solar-electric.com/pvx-1295.html
very good quality AGM along the lines of Deka ? since the company sells both they favor these over Deka ? but both are very good

with a 60 fridge lights and a few other small things we can go 5 days easy but I run the generator every 3 days anyway to keep things up if we are in one spot ?
I have a honda 200 generator I run in the eco mode at 1000 watts and its so quiet you cant hear it 40 feet away

fridge ? 60 or 45 ? well with our family we have both and have used both
the 60 is nice for under 5 days over that the 45 is dedicated freezer and the 60 is our fridge we find it a nice balance with the 4 of us
the 60 is only in our trailer and the 45 can live in the rig


as far as size no prob look at the Kimberly and other setups that are a bit longer and mine with the nose at just over 8 feet the main box is 2.1 meters on mine
 
i am pretty settled on the size of the trailer now.. just working out the details for the ride height and suspension travel. can some of you guys chime in as to how much travel your suspensions have?? i'm stuck in the world of trucks and can't seem to convince myself of how much travel a trailer actually needs.
 

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