Base Camp Trailer Build

[rwingnut]

Water System

I had originally thought that I'd get an RV water tank, maybe a custom one to fit exactly what I needed. During our Yellowstone trip, I realized that I want to maintain the flexibility to remove the tanks to refill if needed. I ended up deciding on using 3, 20L Sceptor Military Water Cans. Sitting end to end they fit nicely between the fenders. I'm planning on plumbing them together with an on/off valve on each siphon tube. I'm using 1/2 PEX tube for the siphon and some of the plumbing, braided plastic tubing for the rest. Drilling a 5/8 hole in a spare lid and using a 5/8 ID x 3/32 (#114) O-ring works perfect for sealing the 1/2 PEX as a siphon. But, there is a flange on the inside of the cap that needs to be removed. With the cap finger tight, the siphon tube is locked in pretty good.



These water tanks will feed a foot pump (Whale, BabyFoot) and a small faucet. I haven't decided on which faucet yet. It will be tucked in next to the stove so I want to see how much room I'll be able squeeze on the side for the faucet.

 

[Curtis in Texas]

Good idea on the portable water storage. I learned that lesson long ago with a pop up camper I owned years ago.
Ended up buying 4- 7 gallon water cans and installed racks to keep them in place on the bumpers.

Was easy to run a long strap between the handles on the military style flat jugs and sling them over the back seat of my dirt bike to make a run to fetch water in.
Sure beat having to break camp just to fill the onboard water tank.

We rarely camped in campground with hookups. A run to the closest free water faucet every other day or three was plenty for cooking, dish washing even shower use for me and my girlfriend and a few of the young ones belonging to families in our camp group.

 

[MarAgt]

That is a really nice trailer you got going there. Wish I had that kind of talent.


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[Sharpie]

Any updates? Great job on the trailer.

 

[rwingnut]

Progress has been slow. Now that its usable, its tough to put the time into it that I did when I was building it.

That said, I'll probably finish (minus painting) the stove arm and 'firewall' mounts for the water cans this weekend. I'll post pics hopefully by the end of the weekend.

Thanks for asking.

 

[rwingnut]

Progress has been slow, lots of distractions. Spent several days in the Maze region of Canyon Lands. I didn't bring the family so I didn't bring the trailer. There were a few spots along the road from Teapot to the Dollhouse that I would have probably struggled a bit if I would have brought the trailer along. There were a few tight areas and 2 switch backs that required a 2-point turn. Not saying it couldn't be done, just that I don't have the skills/experience to do it comfortably.

I'm about ready to paint and polyurethane the parts that I've been working on so I thought I'd post some pics.



This is the 'firewall' mounts for the water jugs. These sit just behind the axle. Ideally I might want them directly over the axle but this might work out better. The cooler sits at the front of the trailer and it will be full when the water jugs are full, so hopefully this will be balance out the additional tongue weight from full cooler. But, it probably won't make much difference because the cooler is so much farther forward from the axle than the water jugs.

And here is the back side.



Straps will go through the holes and slots to keep the water jugs secure.

Here's a picture of the swing out arm for the stove.



And here's the mechanism for securing the stove when it is open.



And here's the stove in position for travel.



I ended up doing minimal modifications to the stove. Just welded on bosses for some thumb screw mounts. I'm able to remove the thumb screws and lift the stove off the arm and put the legs on if I ever want to use the stove away from the trailer.

Next step is to build mounts for a shelf over the stove. I have slides for a pull-out counter top to go under this shelf. I'm still collecting parts for the water system so we'll be using it without anything plumbed in for a bit.

 

[piratexpress1369a]

Looks good so far

 

[rwingnut]

Stove Pics

Here's a picture of the stove pivot arm in action from last summer.


More pics to come from recent mods.

 

[kzam]

That stove swing out is brilliant. Great bit of fab work on that!

 

[rwingnut]

Kitchen Shelf and Counter

I added the brackets to put a shelf over the stove with that idea that I might build cabinets over the stove. Plus, there are slides with a pull out counter.

 

[rwingnut]

Cooler tracks

We really like the massive cooler. When I got it, I thought it was a real overkill. But, packing is so much easier. Just grab stuff from the fridge and throw it in then add a couple blocks of ice or frozen 1 gallon jugs of water. So easy. The only problem has been sliding it out onto the front tail gate to open it. Kind of a pain.

I got some V-groove wheels for gates that are made to ride on a piece of angle. I made some simple mounts to hold the angles in place and made a cradle to hold the cooler. The mounts in the trailer have pins that fit in holes in the cradle so that when it's in the trailer it locks down and can't come off the rails when it gets bounced around.

 

[piratexpress1369a]

Sweet

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[rwingnut]

Water System

I started off building an elaborate water system; plumbing all the jugs together with a foot pump and a faucet. The foot pump is self priming but I had too much air volume in the system for it to actually prime. So, I decided to do something much simpler and in the end I'm more happy with this setup. This also aligns better with my desire to keep everything portable.



I used 3/8" pex for the "faucet" and the "straw". 3/8 pex has a 1/2 OD so the tube in 1/2 ID tube from Home Depot. The 1/16 wall fit well in with the O-ring and hole I cut in a spare cap so it all seals well. I bent the pex with a heat gun as I wrapped it around a dog bowl. The two pieces of the bracket are held together with a hinge so it folds up. The bracket attaches to the jug with velcro. The pump is a Whale "baby foot". It's self priming and is used in small boat galleys. Add a collapsible bucket and I'm good to go.



I added some clips to the "firewall" to hold the tubes (with end caps) when it's not assembled.

 

[Sharpie]

Awesome updates! The cooler rack is simple and effective. Nice job.