5x10 Cargo Trailer Conversion

[MateoDiego]

Thank you.

We do not have a current or pretty schematic, but here is a picture of the hand drawn one we started with. We have been planning to update it and eventually put it in Visio. It shows most of the wire, fuse, stud sizes and all the major components. Most wire runs for lighting and such is 16awg. The numbers on the left side were used to figure out how many of what size ring connectors we needed. The major change to this drawing is the load On\Off switch (right side) has become a 1\2\Both\Off switch and we added a separate fuse panel to handle the external lights\loads. If we get around to updating it from this chicken scratch we will post it so you can see the final layout.



Matt

 

[ITTOG]

Thanks for the image. It is small so difficult to read but I will wait for you updated schematic. Great work.

 

[MateoDiego]

This weekend we continued working on the list of items.

First up was exterior lights. We added two additional flood lights to the sides of the trailer. These turned out awesome just like to one on the rear. At the same time we installed additional red running lights on the upper rear side corners and replaced the existing running lights with newer brighter ones.




We also pulled down the solar panels and rewired them. The each panel was setup with M4C connectors to make it easy to remove them if necessary. We added a new cable entry gland box. This went over the existing gland to make the entry of the wiring for the solar panel super water proof. Along with all this we corrected and cleaned up a few minor issues with the original installation of the panels.






Finally, we measured and marked up the up coming welding we will be doing to add support to the trailer various installations. We will order the metal tomorrow and plan to do any grinding and prep work early in the week. Hopefully we will do all the welding later in the week or next weekend.



More to come.

 

[MateoDiego]

Over the past three weeks we have made some decent progress.

We got underway welding in the additional metal supports in the walls and floor. We picked up all the material from our local metal shop that provides cut to spec pieces. The welding was made complex by the flex seal like paint that was used by the manufacture throughout the trailer frame. This stuff was very difficult to remove. Even after it was scraped away with a putty knife, wire brushed, ground to bare metal with a flapper wheel and wiped down with mineral spirits a residue remained that affected the weld as soon as we started the arc. We ended up stick welding instead of tig, which allowed us to burn away the residue and get a passable weld. Being that we were using 1/16" metal tube this made avoiding burn through difficult. And then there was that one piece that got cut short even after measuring twice. The whole process of welding in the 14 pieces took way longer (almost two full days) than it should have.



We drilled holes in the newly installed metal support for the folding steps up the sides at the back end. These steps are to provide easy access to clean the solar panels. We are holding off on drilling additional holes until we are prepared to install the component in that location. The folding steps were ready to go in and we wanted to test out our plan to flush mount them inside the metal tubes. Which turned out perfect. We also cut holes for the 120v electrical connection and an additional vent in the bottom left rear.



After the welding work was finished we painted any exposed metal to protect it. This included painting the original parts that were only painted at the top and bottom. We used Rustoleum simi-gloss black in the 1 qt. can and sprayed two coats. We realize that the back side (and more exposed side) did not get completely covered, but at least it is better than it was. At the same time we applied the first two coats of paint on the fenders.





Once the paint was dry we began installing the 1" foam insulation in the walls anywhere we do not have other work to do. The plan is that we will insulate the walls and roof with 1" insulation and the floor with 1 1/2" insulation.



On a totally different subject we have been considering ditching the propane stove for an electric induction cook top. To this end, we picked up a Tramontina single burner at Costco to test out. We quickly learned that our awesome Xantrex Freedom 458 2000w inverter\charger will not support this. While the inverter does put out plenty of amperage, being a modified sine wave inverter the induction cook top had major issues with it. In our tests, using house power it boiled 4 cups of water in a blazing 3 1/2 minutes, but only got hot (never boiling) after 20 minutes on the inverter. When on inverter power the cook top would pulse on and off making a loud buzzing noise. At this time buying a new 2000w pure sine wave inverter\charger for somewhere between $600-$1500 is not in the budget. We have heard that other induction stoves may be less sensitive to this issue, but we do not want to buy and test until we find one that works. More research first.



We have a camping trip coming up next week and plan to take the trailer so we need to bang out a bunch of work this weekend. First up is getting the trailer lights rewired, which we pulled out when we prepared for welding and painting. We will also wire in the trailer brakes at the same time. Then we need to finish up the flooring. We have ordered a large 56" x 96" aluminum sheet which will be screwed in on the underside. This will cover the majority of the back portion of the trailer bottom. We will need to work in a slightly wider piece cut to fit the front nose portion. This will include closing the area where there is no framing across the front under the v-nose, but this will likely need to wait for a later date. With the most of the bottom installed we will put the insulation in the space between that and the decking. Once the floor is in we can frame up the galley wall and get the electrical panel installed in it's permanent location on the back side of the wall. We will need to finish painting and install the fenders. That will will probably turn in to a mad rush to wire in all the lighting and install anything else we can. The last thing will be to pull the trailer out of the garage on it's cart and mount the tires. Hopefully, the next time we post here there will be a picture of the trailer, on it's actual wheels and hooked up to the truck out on some dirt road.

More to come.

 

[MateoDiego]

The previous week was a whirl wind with a big push to get the trailer back into usable and road worthy condition to take it on our camping trip this past weekend.

The running lights and associated wiring needed to be reinstalled after being removed for all the interior work. All lights were installed using butt connector to facilitate easy connect and disconnect. We ran the standard four (white, brown, green, yellow) 16 gauge wire trailer wiring for the running lights, two (red, black) 10 gauge power to the house 12v panel from the alternator and a single (blue) 12 gauge wire for the brakes. We moved the junction box back to the tongue and left the connection to the truck long (9') so we could hook the truck up without having to move it right up to the trailer.



We finished up the painting of the fenders and when dry installed them. We used Rustoleum simi-gloss black and sprayed three coats with our sprayer. We use Rustoleum so that we can do quick touch up with a shaky can when needed. The final coat did not turn out great so we will likely remove, sand and do another final coat at a later date. They are hard mounted to the metal support within the walls so that they will support someone standing on them.



Since we already had the trailer pulled out of the garage to do the fender painting we decided to mount the wheels and take it out for a test drive. It sits just a little high in the back which should become almost perfectly level once fully built out and loaded. On the road it felt almost as if it was not there, but that is expected as it was completely gutted at the time.



Next up was to install the aluminum sheet on the bottom, the insulation and the 3/4" plywood decking. The aluminum panel only covers the rear portion of the trailer as we still have work to do in the front v-nose area. It is screwed into the cross members with sheet metal screws. We had intended to just put 1 1/2" foam insulation, but we had extra 1" material and space to add a second layer for a total of 2 1/2" of insulation in the floor. It is overkill, but will help manage heat and cold. The first picture shows the different layers with the next showing the decking completely installed. There is a channel down the left side for wiring coming from the front.





In and around all the above work we installed folding steps, vents, door keepers and the 120v shore power connection. There are a bunch of other items like this to do going forward.



Next came a mad dash to install the galley wall and house 12v electrical. We had about a day to complete this and neglected to take pictures while this was going on, but did snap these two to show the results. We first insulated the back 2/3rds of the roof with 1" insulation. We then built the frame work of the wall between the front and back sections. This is made of 2"x3" studs and anchored to the metal supports we recently put in the side walls. Attached to that is the temporary electrical panel we had installed on the side previously. This will all be redone in the future going up almost to the roof and doing better wire management. We wired in the exterior lights along with three interior lights we installed. The solar panels and alternator connection were also wired in. Then we place, blocked in and wired up the three AGM batteries. We also blocked in and connected the ARB's. This picture does not show it, but we also installed lag eyes and strapped the batteries and ARB's down. All of that is temporary as we will build sliders for the ARB's and peminantly mount the batteries as we do the interior build out.



That was up until last Wednesday. We then went on a camping trip through the weekend, which was our first real off road test run of the trailer on it's new axle, hubs, wheels and the interior changes. More about that in the next post.

 

[MateoDiego]

We had to do two separate posts because you can only post 10 pictures in a single post.



Our camping trip with the trailer was great. We went camping along the Santa Maria River which is northwest out of Wickenburg, Arizona. We have camped down river about 15 miles previously, but this spot and route to it was entirely new to us. We were able to camp just above the river in a nice spot with great views and easy access to the river. The river had more water than we have seen in previous years due to all the rain we have had. That rain also contributed to the desert being very green with flowers blooming like crazy. The weather was just about perfect with day time highs in the low to mid 70's. We spent our days hiking around and hanging out in the river. We saw all sorts of wildlife (burros, jack rabbits, lizards, birds) and almost no one else. A group of people on quads and side by sides were the only other people we saw from the time we got to camp to when we left. This is how we like it.

This trip was about 280 miles round trip with about 60 miles of that off road. A good bit of the off road was on decent hard packed dirt, but we did go through several areas (roughly 10%) of deep sand and rough rocky terrain with interesting ups and downs. The trailer performed well on all of this. Since all our gear was packed in, but not necessarily secured like we plan to make it, we had to take it very slow when the road got bumpy. Nothing got broken or damaged so we would call that a win. We did have an issue with the electric brakes not working as expected, but we just disconnected them with the plan to fix it later.

The solar\electrical system worked exactly as expected. We got to the site with a full charge since the alternator charged the batteries along the way. The solar goes into float before the alternator does (14.3v vs 14.5v) so the system favors the alternator when connected. We run with both enabled. The batteries never dropped below 12.6v at camp even running the lights for hours at night. First thing in the morning the solar kicked in and within an hour or two was in float. At the end of the trip the panels only need to to provide a total of 69Ah to replenish the batteries (615Ah total) and run the trailer during the day. We had something like 56 hours of sunlight over the four days. I would like to add the same meter we have on the solar side to the load side to be able to determine our exact usage, but clearly we are well below the systems capabilities. There will be other loads added to the system, but we think we will be more than fine.

The exterior lights worked awesome. The fact that each one can be turned on at the light makes it super easy to walk up, turn it on and have light right were you need it while you need it and quickly turn it back off when done. The lights provide about 30 feet of solid light out from the trailer on each side, but illuminate well beyond that at lower levels. This is more than most situations would require.

One thing we did new on this trip was to add those Amazon packing air bags to the ARB's while underway. We discovered on our previous camping trip that if the ARB is not totally loaded the bouncing of the trailer can really shake things up in there. We lost several cans of beer on the previous trip. By using the air bags to fill that open space nothing gets bounced around. Once at camp we put the air bags in a box to save for the trip home.

The trip gave us an opportunity to consider other improvements and changes.

• The first has to be to secure everything within the trailer which is already the plan, but we thought of ways to improve what we have planned.
• Next is the tires. While these older used tires we have are probably fine for the road, we noticed some questionable flaking on the side walls that we do not like. We have already spoken with our local tire shop and ordered new tires. We will use the best two used ones as our spares and roll on new tires.
• The current suspension on the trailer is just too firm. The slightest bumps with any speed (10mph+) caused the whole trailer to bounce significantly. This just confirms that we need to replace it. The plan has been to upgrade to the Timbren Silent Ride suspension all along. Our understanding is that this will help reduce some of this bounce and smooth things out a bit.
• We also need look at the tongue and trailer hitch. The 2" ball hitch limits our ability on steep terrain. We were unable to go up a steep climb (15-20%) coming out of a wash for fear of it popping the ball hitch out. Luckily there was a way around that area.
• We are thinking about making a table to mount on the side of the trailer above the fenders to hold things while at camp.
• We are also thinking of putting a platform on the front top of the trailer. This would be to provide a solid elevated position for looking around us or just provide an unobstructed view of the sunset.

Next up we need to troubleshoot and fixed the trailer brakes and deal with the tire\wheel situation. We will likely install of the side window and maybe the roof vent which we have all the material for. There are a few other misc items that can get installed. We just ordered a water tank and a bunch of other water related stuff to begin building out the kitchen area in the back.

More to come.

 

[el ceviche]

Thanks for sharing your build as it progresses. I am new to the forum and you guys are doing something almost exactly like what I'm thinking about for a future build. Following excitedly...keep up the good work!

 

[MateoDiego]

We have been dealing with some family stuff along with the normal life stuff that has kept us from being able to put any significant time in on the trailer, but we have been working on it and have some good updates.

As stated in the last post, we replaced all three of the 8-10 year old used tires we had intended to use on the trailer with brand new ones. These are the same Goodyear Wrangler Adventure Kevlar tires that the truck has. These are not as aggressive as something like an MT, but for most of what we do they are fine. We have used similar tires for the past 15 years on the truck offroad without issue. We got a great deal (almost 25% off) from the shop. Timing was perfect as we discovered at the shop that one of the old tire we were replacing had a huge chunk of tread ready to fall out. It was probably damaged on our last camping trip. These tires had significantly dried out due to the Arizona heat.



We had said in a previous post that we were not going to replace our existing Xantrex Freedom 458 2012 any time soon, but we found a awesome deal on a new Xantrex Freedom HFS 2055 True Sine Wave Inverter\Charger that was too good to pass up. The HFS is a significant improvement over the 458 for a number of reasons besides being a true sine wave inverter. It is smaller and significantly lighter (14lbs vs 40lbs) and can mount in a variety of positions. It also has a 120v surge rating of 4000w and will charge the batteries at 55a. We have begun to work on installing it and are making some changes to the original plans to mount it differently than we would the 458. The electrical panel will extend all the way down to the floor now and the batteries will likely move to the left side of the trailer. Once we have the inverter and 120v electrical installed we will need to selecting an induction stove to replace our propane stove.



While we were looking at the installation of the HFS, we discovered a mistake we had made with the 458 going all the way back to the 5th wheel we had owned years ago. Both units require 2/0 AWG wire for the connection to support the more than 2000w 120v output they both provide. For some unknown reason, we had setup the 458 with 2 AWG wire and used the same wire to tie all the batteries together. While we have not tested it yet, we suspect this may be the reason we had issues with the induction stove we tested previously. We have replaced all that 2 AWG wiring between the batteries and the inverter with some nice flexible marine grade 2/0 AWG wire as seen in the before and after pictures below. There is a 200A difference (130A vs 330A) between the two wire sizes and types.




We have welded up the side window frame and are ready to paint it. Once ready we will weld it into the trailer wall. We will mock up the window\cutout on both the inside and outside to validate exactly were it is going before making any cuts. We also need to make up a wood or metal trim ring for on the inside to go over the wood siding. This should be complete by our next post.



On a similar note we mocked up the spare tire mount to get a feeling of where it will go on the exterior. The blue tape under the card board tire mock up identifies the two metal supports we welded into the wall to attache the spare tire mount to. We will likely begin fabricating one for each side in the next few weeks. While we currently only have a single spare tire for the trailer we intend to have two at some point. We are really looking forward to getting the spare tire out of the trailer and free up the space. The card board square to the lower right is where we will install the water fill hatch\box. It will have a fill cap, vent, and city water hookup. That should get installed this week.



On the subject of water, this is the new 42 gallon fresh water tank we recieved. This is roughly where it will go. We will fabricate a metal base that will allow it to be securely mounted to the trailer floor and two walls. We previously beefed up the support in the floor to accommodate this tank when full (300+lbs). The kitchen counter with the sink will go just in front of it. There will be cabinets above it across the back.



That is all for this posting. We have a camping trip coming up Easter weekend, so we will need return the trailer to usable condition again in the next two weeks. We will need to get some of these projects buttoned up. We are looking forward to getting out into the forest for the first time this year with the trailer.

More to come.

 

[MateoDiego]

Our last update about two weeks ago had us forging ahead with the various sub projects we were working on. Most of that planned work got set aside as we realized that we were getting ahead of ourselves. We did not go on the planned Easter camping trip due to illness in the family. This was actually a good thing, because there was no way the trailer was going as a result of active work being done.

We started out this period working on installing the new inverter\charger to the lower portion of the wall between the cabin and galley. This would eventually be inside a vented compartment. All of the new wiring was cut to length and the proper ends installed. We were able to successfully test the inverter\charger.



We then started creating a secure way to hold our three heavy AGM batteries in their new permanent location. We know that off-roading can bash things around inside the trailer and we wanted to make sure that the batteries were securely mounted so that they could not move. The idea was to make a tray that would be bolted to the trailer deck. We welded this up using 2”x2”x1/8” angle steel.



It was about the time that we were looking at covering the cabin side of the wall with plywood that we realized we had covered up the steel wall beams for the spare tire carriers. This would make it impossible to mount the carriers with the wall in place. That prompted a quick reassessment of our plans. The carriers needed to be fabricated and installed before we completed the wall work. With that, we tore down everything mounted to it and then unbolted the wall. We drilled the holes to mount the carriers to first and knowing the exact mounting locations drew up some quick sketches.



The plan was to have to side beams bolted to the wall supports and joined between by cross members. We went with this two beam approach after seeing what Gwolff and others went through with creating their carriers. This will provide a very solid base. This base frame has four connectors (two side and two bottom) coming out to a metal plate that the studs are attached to.



All the metal tube is 2”x1” or 1”x1” 1/8“ steel. We welded 1/8" plate across the tops of the side beams to close them in, but left the bottoms open to allow any water that got in there to drain out. The base plate is two 6”x8” and 6”x6” 1/4” steel plates welded together. We would have initially went with a single 3/8” plate, but the shop was out of it the day we went in and did not want to wait for it. We used 3/8” hardware to mount the carriers. The studs are 1/2-20 Grade 8 bolts with the heads tacked to be back side of the steel plates. The fabrication and painting took about four days to complete working mostly nights and part of a weekend.



The tires sit about a 1/2” off the base on the back. This was done so that no rubber touches metal. Here in Arizona hot metal will burn the life out of tire side walls. The base and mounting bolts are all inaccessable behind the mounted tire so the mount can not be removed to take the tire. We will use locking lug nuts to secure the wheels on to the carrier. There is absolutely no movement of the wheel or mount. The mount will hold far more weight than the tire and aluminum wheel. The carriers are not perfect, but overall will meet the need just fine.



While we were waiting between paint coats on the carriers we decided to pull off the fenders and reinstall them with silicon to keep debris from getting between the fender and trailer siding. This was clearly a problem from our last camping trip as seen in the before and after images below. We may add some sort of backing to the fenders to protect the trailer siding sometime down the road. While we were working on the fenders we notice there was some minor damage caused by the trailer suspension bottoming out. As a result, we may move the suspension replacement to the Timbren Silent Ride suspension sooner.



With the carriers mounted we reinstalled the wall. We put in the insulation and covered that entire cabin side of the wall with 1/8” plywood. On top of this we mounted a 3/4” plywood base up the middle for the electrical to mount to. We re-mounted the inverter\charger, solar charge controller and other 12v electrical components. This configuration may change as we need to incorporate a 120v breaker panel some where. This was all moving pretty quickly so no pictures along the way.



We also bolted the battery tray securely to the deck. There is a piece 3/4" plywood inside the tray under the batteries and then the additional 3/4" plywood base underneath the metal tray. All these piece are bolted together to the floor. There is a 2" gap all the way around to insure air flow.



That is all for this update. Next up will be continuation of the 12v and 120v re-installation\installation. We need to get the window, roof vent, water tank and water fill hatch\box installed. We have much of the material and have done some work on these items.

More to come.

Matt

 

[MateoDiego]

This week did not provide much time for the trailer, but we did get a few things done.

First up was the continuation of the 12v and 120v electrical. We re-positioned most of the 12v components to into a tighter cluster. There are still a few things to be done including wiring in the 12v alternator connection and 120v shore power and breaker panel. We have the panel and breakers and just need to decide how to install it. It and the 12v components will likely go into two separate electrical cabinets.



We pulled the trailer out of the garage to weld in the window frame and finish up the wall insulation. This took longer than it should have, but it is done. We will install the window some time in the coming weeks. It is always a scary thing to cut a big hole in the side of the trailer. Measure 15 times to only cut once.



While we had the trailer out we figured we would take a few more pictures of one of the spare tire carriers with a wheel mounted. The second picture shows how the tire sits right up against the carrier base without touching it.





We also installed the water fill hatch box. This is one of those three in one deals. There is a fill port, city water port and vent port all in a nice compact lockable box.



We took some pictures of the galley area to show all the work we had done in there, but for some reason they were all washed out. Possibly sun glare. Oh well... next time. It is coming along though. We have most of the insulation installed. We are beginning to weld up the water tank base.

That will be all for this week. Work is going to keep us from working on the trailer for the next two weeks, but we will get right back at it when we can.

More to come.

Matt

 

[CyberRube2]

Nice build! Hoe much does it weight so far? 8 may have missed it earlier.

 

[MateoDiego]

I do not know currently. When we last hauled it over to the dump to run it across the scale it was about 1100 lbs, but that was before we swapped out the axle. There has been a lot done to it since then. We will make sure the next time we weigh it we will post it here.

Matt

 

[MateoDiego]

This past weekend we were finally able to put a little time in on the trailer after two plus weeks of solid work and family obligations.

The focus was to finish up existing projects. We finished up installing all the insulation in the back galley area. After that we finished up reconnecting the 120v power connection and alternator from the back area to the electrical panel in the main cabin. This included creating two pass throughs for the wires. At the same time we worked on adding insulation to the roof in the main cabin. That is all complete except for the very front where the roof vent will go.



Next up will to build the water tank base and galley ARB slider. We have the material for the tank base and have drawn up the plans for the slider. We will begin work on these this week. Hopefully both can be completed by the weekend. This will allow us to start work on the galley counter.



We also drew up the plans to replace the trailer tongue with a receiver tongue to use with a Max Coupler. We will do some work at the base of the v-nose to close off the bottom front at the same time. We will likely do this work in the next coming weeks.

On a totally separate subject we were recently asked how we manage this and other projects we are working on. We thought that we should share the answer here as well. We understand it is important to keep track of plans and the work. We do this with a simple spread sheet. The entire project is broken into bite size chunks. Each chunk or item is turned into a work record, where we track what it is, what is needed, it's status, the priority and if there are prerequisits. Color is used to help identify status, priorities and such. As work progresses on each item it is updated. We usually filter out the completed items. This way it is easy to see what is or can be worked on at any given time. Since we work on this project as we are able there are no time tables or due dates. Items get done when they get done.



That is all for this week. We hope to have a lot more to update come next week.

Matt

 

[mep1811]

We have not posted an update since mid summer, but we have been working on the trailer albeit slowly. Family and work have been taking precedent so the trailer has been getting attention only as time becomes available. That makes posting here even tougher. Sorry about that.

With regard to electrical we have made a bunch of improvements. We installed a temporary plywood panel on the passenger side wall to mount electrical components to. The panel will be relocated to the back side of the kitchen wall once it is installed. We temporally installed the three 205Ah batteries just below the electrical panel. On the panel, we added several breakers, selector switches, voltage displays and a fuse panel. This all handles the power coming in from the solar panels and the alternator and going out to the various power requirements. We can switch charging between solar, alternator or neither. We also added three 12v ports to plug in the ARBs and a dual USB port. We temporally installed two LED lights on the ceiling. We replaces the original four way trailer connector with a seven way connector and wired the 12v hot to provide alternator charging of the batteries. This adds trailer brake wiring as well. The two ARB's have been temporally mounted at the rear of the trailer. All of this is 12v currently, but we do have plans to have a exterior 120v connection, battery charger and circuits\outlets to run the ARB's on shore power. We are undecided about installing the very large 2000W Xantrex inverter we have or another smaller unit as we are not sure it is necessary. We might just go with a quality 300-500w plug in version.

View attachment 494698
View attachment 494699
View attachment 494700

Mechanically, we replaced the dropper axle with a slightly longer straight axle. We also replace the original 5x4.5 lug idler hubs with new 6x5.5 lug electric brake hubs. We did not replace the existing leaf spring suspension, but may replace it with a Timbren Silent Ride suspension system later on. We have decided not to go with the Timbren Axle-Less suspension system as we have plenty of clearance for what we will use it for. The trailer is currently sitting on the trucks spare wheel and another chrome\steel wheel that was previously the trucks spare. We purchased two black Pro Comp Series 69 aluminum wheels (these match all the wheels on the truck) and just need to take the existing 285/75R16 (33") tires we already have to be mounted at the shop. We will get a third wheel as a second spare a little later. The chrome wheels facing sits about 2" closer to the trailer and will not work beyond sitting in the garage. The original aluminum diamond plate fenders were never going to work with the new tires so we have been installing new larger steel fenders. We would have liked to make custom (larger\stronger) steel fenders, but in the interest of moving the project forward opted for pre-made ones we ordered online. The new axle and tires raise the trailer 7". This puts the axle at 15" and the frame at 20" from the ground. The top of the solar panels\trailer sits at 87" (7.25'). The opening to our garage is only 7', so we will have to get creative to move it in and out of the garage.

View attachment 494707
View attachment 494701
View attachment 494710

We are currently working on finishing up the fender install. We still need to pull them back off and paint them. Likely flat or semi-gloss black. We need to wire up the brakes as well. After that we need to pull down the interior plywood panels to weld in support for the kitchen wall and a spare tire carrier on the aft drivers side. We are considering installing a window on the drivers side up forward for ventilation. We may pull up the floor to add support to the frame at the same time. We recently found the perfect size stainless steel sink to use in the kitchen. Now that we have all the key elements of the kitchen area and the trailer height is established we are able to plan out the back kitchen area. Build out should start soon. We recently picked up a couple cool stainless waterproof switches for the exterior lights. We are going to have switches externally at or near the lights to simplify turning them on. We are going to swap out the power side selector switch to a multi position switch from an on\off one and add a second fuse panel that will handle the exterior power. That way we can turn the exterior completely off and still have power on the interior when we leave it out in public.

We have taken the trailer on a couple camping trips recently. We went camping at Joshua Tree in mid-November and locally just north of Tucson in Ironwood National Monument on Thanksgiving weekend. The trailer has been awesome to use even in it's incomplete state. We had four days and three nights worth of food for three families in the fridges and no coolers. The solar system works flawlessly. The fridges can run all day and night and the batteries hardly dip down at all. Regarding towing, we hardly feel it behind the Suburban on the highway. Unfortunately, once we start the major interior work we will not likely be taking it on the road. Hopefully that will happen quickly and we can get it back to a usable state. We have plans for summer camping trips that we want the trailer to come along on.

View attachment 494708

More to come.

Great build thread. How did you wire the HTRC 200 watt meter ? Between the batteries and the output draw ? Thanks

 

[MateoDiego]

Great build thread. How did you wire the HTRC 200 watt meter ? Between the batteries and the output draw ? Thanks

The meter is between the solar charge controller and the batteries. You can see it in the picture just above the picture of it. It was a pain to wire in due to the really short leads. We ended up using a 8AWG butt connector and double heat shrinking it. For a cheap Chinese meter it works flawlessly. Super happy with it. We may add another on the load side.

Matt