Exiss 3 Horse to ATV trip toy hauler.

[Wraytex]

If this needs to be put somewhere else please do. We purchased a used Exiss XT308 with a home built living quarters three years ago and have been on three trips with it now and we finally decided to tailor it a bit more to our needs.

Our first trip we used our 6x12 bumper pull with a job box locked up front and we camped out of the camper shell on the truck, we used a futon mattress with was very comfortable but the facilities were lacking after eating dust all day on the Can Am. Here was the original setup in action.

 

[Wraytex]

After talking it over with my wife we started looking at used horse trailers, we never considered a full blown toy hauler, bumper or gooseneck, I didn't like the height or the weight or the costs and depreciation I was seeing at the time. We were honestly looking for a shell trailer with no living quarters in yet and we would finish it out ourselves. After several months of looking we found one in dallas that was priced good and had a decent homebuilt living quarters in it already. It came equipped with a Honda eu3000 generator, a 4 gallon hot water heater, rooftop ac, shower, porta potty, sink, table, a few cabinets and a big closet.

Here is the pic from the original ad:

 

[Wraytex]

The first order of business was cleaning it out. We removed the stall dividers, the rear tack, and I went ahead and removed the roof hay rack. We got and used a 150 quart cooler for keeping our food cold on the trips. I put d-rings in the floor for keeping the Can am in place and put smaller d rings all over the walls. I riveted some fishing pole holders onto the old stall divider brackets on one side. Where the hay rack had been I put some eye bolts in and we've used those for hanging all sorts of stuff with the ratcheting rope binders, makes for a good clothes line.

This was the layout on our first trip with the trailer to Creede and Lake City:

 

[Wraytex]

Lessons from the first trip: put the gas and diesel cans in the bed of the truck. After that first trip we also started taking an extra water tank with us. The trailer only had a 20 gallon tank and if we were very careful we could make it 4 days. I keep a 35 gallon tank at the farm for ferrying water to some oak trees we've planted and it's really come in handy for doubling our time in one spot without having to trek to town or a refill station.

here's the setup near Creede with the gen set running heating up our shower water for the evening.

 

[Wraytex]

We started looking for a tri mode fridge that would be boondocking friendly for us and we found one about two months ago, but getting the double wide unit that we really needed for our trips meant remodeling the living quarters.

 

[Titanpat57]

Wow...life just got a whole lot better!

I've often looked at those and thought what other uses they would be good for, especially with living quarters.

It'll fun to watch this unfold...good luck with it.

 

[Coby65]

That is a whole lot of fridge!

Can't wait to see the interior remodel

 

[Wraytex]

Here's few shots of how the PO had the interior configured.

 

[Wraytex]

A few weeks ago we got going on the tearout of the old interior.
First to go was the shower and flooring.

Not shown was the 20 gallon triangle shaped water tank that was nested in the back slant corner behind the shower.

 

[Wraytex]

Once we had the interior cleared out as far as we thought we needed it I got the angle grinder out and started cutting the Aluminum welds holding the slant wall in place.

Here's the shot immediately after removing the slant wall, at this point i cleaned up and ground all the weld remnants down flush.

 

[Wraytex]

I measured twice and cut twice, (once on each side of the door)

I put the wall back in for a test fit, i found i needed to trim the tops back a bit on each side.

 

[Wraytex]

I was finally to the point were i was ready to remove the old rear escape door. I don't know why they call it that since you have to open it from the outside.

I had been needing a mig welder and now i needed one i could do some decent thickness aluminum with, I found a nearly new one east of Austin and picked it up, I did have to order a spool gun and a straight argon tank and practiced up my mig skills, never had played with aluminum up to this point.

 

[calicamper]

Poorly trained horses will have you looking for an escape something quick and you make sure its ajar before you go loading that 1000lbs of horse meat into the wagon ;-)

All my horses growing up would walk right into the trailer the second they saw it open. Actually caused some comical moments over the years with different folks walking them and not paying attention to which way the horse went while walking by an open trailer.

 

[Wraytex]

One of the problems we noticed in the teardown was the old door frame had some significant cracking going on, it had not transmitted to any other framing or sheeting as of this point.

 

[calicamper]

^ This is why my professional welder grandfather would not touch an aluminum horse trailer. He was the welder GE hired to help them figure out why their fan blades were coming off their jet engines way back in the day. The answer? They were doing it wrong LOL

When he started seeing the aluminum trailer rigs surfacing he started looking at them and found a wide range of aluminum metal types being used and very few were welded with the proper welding equipment. The early trailers all suffered major issues from cracked welds and failed this and that pretty quick.

Make sure you poke through it and check for any other cracked welds however the squared off door frame is the typical broken item on RV's and campers also so no surprise. Thats why most RV and camper makers today use a rounded corner door frame.