Elmo's New Toy Hauler Build

[elmo_4_vt]

elmo: Very nice skills on the face frames and design. The trailer is comming together great!
I can't wait to see more.

Thanks... One more day should bring some impressive progress... Hopefully that will be either this Wednesday if I can get some time off of work or this coming weekend. We just got back from driving to IKEA in today's rainy weather to pick up the Queen size foam mattress. It felt VERY comfortable in the store for an all foam mattress, hopefully it will feel the same in the camper.

I love it! I love that you're using unique ideas and thinking outside the box. Subscribed.

I have a silly question, and please don't pull my man card : Are you worried about the motorcycle smell? I know it's manly to smell like gasoline and engine grease while sleeping, but do you have any ventilation plans or maybe plans to cover the floor when the bike is in it to catch mud/grease/etc?

Not a silly question at all, and something that we are a little worried about. The bike is in good shape though and doesn't leak anything. I keep it, and all my other yard gear in my shed including 20 gallons of gas, and it never seems to have much of a smell (more of a grass smell than anything), so hopefully it won't be a problem. I do plan on mitigating things a little by letting the bike cool down before it gets loaded, and possibly putting a moving blanket under it do catch anything that does fall off. The linoleum floor should be pretty easy clean up, and the bike will only be inside during travel. Since we won't be able to sleep inside with the bike inside also, it would normally be the first thing out and the last thing in when we take it. I have a feeling we'll only take bicycles half the time, which should still fit nicely inside using the motorcycle stand.

Also, with the twin roof vents (one being powered), the two large windows, the RV screen door, and the main back ramp (which will eventually have a screen), I think it will be pretty easy to air it out quickly if necessary. Time will tell though. I'll keep everyone informed once I get the chance to use it with the bike (which is still a month or more out likely).

Don

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[elmo_4_vt]

Very nice skills on the face frames and design.

Oh yeah, about those frames... One thing I forgot (somewhat intentionally) to bring up, is that if you look closely at the frame on the right side, I accidentally built it backwards. Meaning that the pocket screws I used are on the isle-way side instead of pointing towards the wall... I think they make some plugs to cover up things (probably not in Maple wood though), but it just goes to show that no matter how much you plan and think you know what you are doing, something always goes wrong, at least with me. I don't think this little slip up won't bother me much as long as the functionality is still there though. It's amazing how easily something like that happens really... 20 pieces of wood on a bench, all looking the same. I'm surprised I got the dimensions correct.

Don

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[Mark Harley]

I hear you on the 20 pieces looking the same.
I went to trade school for two years " degree in cabinet making" Our final was to build a full kitchen from drawings only.
faces, styles, drawers, slides, countertop fab, mortising and dado work. It was trying at best when there is a time constraint.

It is amazing how much work goes into making it only to be able to see the front only.

Very impressive work.

 

[elmo_4_vt]

Well, I made some good progress this weekend after spending most of both days hammering away... Not too many pictures. I find that because the space is so small, the details don't photograph all that well. I need to bring a friend over with a fish-eye lens so I can get some better quality shots of the interior.

Friday I got rid of the factory birds nest in the tongue wiring junction box and installed a nice unit that has a 7 pin junction box and fuses. I hooked up the trailer brakes and the charging wire from the truck to the trailer battery.

I also got the folding part of the bed installed with a piece of 1x2 Maple on the front edge for strength and the front wall up that separates the "living area" from the storage area. (this only shows the first part of the wall)

Got the rest of the 1x2 Maple frame on the counter area completed and one of the drawers installed underneath. Also got the foam bed we bought from IKEA and opened that up so it can inflate as it comes vacuum sealed and rolled up pretty tightly in a thick plastic bag.

Here is a picture of the kitchen area now that everything is closed in. I still need to build the kitchen of course, but it will be as wide as the camper (just under 6' long plus an 3' extension on a drawer slide) and ride in and out of this opening on roller-blade wheels. The wheels will ride in channels I'll place on the floor and supported on one side by the trailer (it won't come all the way out) and on the far side by some adjustable, folding table legs.

Here is a picture of the storage area in the front of the camper. This is where all the supplies/chairs/EZ-up/etc. will go. I'm also going to put a sealed container in there for a 20lb propane tank and it's where I'll connect to shore power and fill the water tank.

I also got the all the wiring temporarily hooked up to a battery and the switch panel (except for one outside light). I wanted to get the whole electrical panel installed, but I just didn't have time and didn't have all the materials I needed. This will have to suffice. I'll just bring a standard battery charger with me in case I run the cheapy battery down. Once I have more time I'm going to install a second battery and a 40amp Weaco converter to keep things charged.

That's it... It's pretty much campable, and just in time since we're leaving Thursday after work for it's maiden voyage to a local state park with friends.

Before Thursday I want to:

- Install the rest of the drawers
- Hang the curtains my wife is sewing as I type
- Wire up the one light I forgot about on the drivers side (a small light for the bathroom tent)
- Install a couple 12V outlets for the ARB fridge, charging phones, and little LED lights I got.
- Mount the travel straps for the ARB (if I can remember where I put them)
- Make the bed and Pack things up.
- Check to make sure the generator is working, just in case

After it's first camping trip I'll still have a lot of work to do:

- Trim almost everything with quarter round
- Put up all the 1/4" white and Baltic Birch bead board on the walls and behind the bottom cabinet frames
- Install the Weaco converter and the 120VAC wiring
- Install the two exterior electrical hatches, one on each side for passing wires through
- Install the heater

The lists are more for me... Hope I'm not boring too many people. If I don't write it down I'll be up all night thinking about it.

The next pictures will be from camping!! :wings:

Don

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[elmo_4_vt]

Trailer Brakes

Speaking of the trailer brakes... I've never had a new trailer brake setup before. They always already been on my other trailers (boat and 6x12 equipment trailer) and they seem to work better than the ones on this trailer.

After I hooked up the brakes, I took it for a spin, and will max current going to the brakes, I could feel it slowing the truck down, but not all that much. Is it normal for new brakes to have a run in time? I took it around the block manually activating the brakes at full force and I didn't really have that much more stopping power then when I started. They were REALLY hot and smelled like they were cooking. Is this normal on new brakes?

I haven't, and probably won't have time to take them apart before I leave. I just didn't know if I should set them on low for the trip and check them when I get back, disconnect them entirely, or keep trying to run them in by senting the unit on high, or bypassing with max power.

Any insight would be appreciated..

Don

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[Jeff Wanamog]

Don, your brakes aren't even close to being adjusted if it is a new axle.
http://www.redneck-trailer.com/Portals/4/web_content/files/C.pdf

Pull the plug from the backing plate and take a flat blade screw driver and turn the star until the drum stop turning and just barely back it off.
My brakes sucked at first and now I can stop the truck with them
Jeff

 

[kraqus]

How is it looking?





Benny

 

[elmo_4_vt]

Yeah... I guess I haven't been very active this summer with other commitments taking up way more time then they should. The camper isn't much more complete than the pictures show. I got the drawers installed, and we've camped in it 4 times, but it's still needs a lot of attention to get the kitchen up and going. I'll post some more shots this weekend when I may have a change to put some time on it.

Good news, it camping was awesome. Very happy with it so far. More to come...

Don

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[elmo_4_vt]

Just some updated shots while I was out in the garage putting drawer stops (like the kind you would use to keeps kids out of it) on the drawers.


Where the ARB sits during transport. It usually comes out and sits on the table once we get set up, and eventually will have it's own place on the pull out kitchen.

Just all the drawers installed and the child locks on. Still need to buy or make drawer fronts and doors. Not exactly sure what I want to do there.

The bed folded up. Still haven't mounted the motorcycle front wheel chock, but it's worked great for bikes so far, and mounting the chock will only be a 15 minute job.

More next weekend when I finish some things up for fall camping.

Don

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EDIT: Not sure what's going on with the sideways pics... Look fine on Photobucket and my phone? Apologies.

 

[jronwood]

Nice "outside the box" build, I too am in the "bring the enduro" crowd. Will be good t osee how this plays out.

Jronwood

 

[Sharpie]

Any updates? This was getting good.

 

[uscg2008]

X2^^^^^

 

[elmo_4_vt]

Sorry for the lack of updates... It's always a problem for me... Once it gets functional, progress gets pushed by other priorities... Probably the reason my kitchen remodel has taken better part of a year to finish. The good news here is that we've been camping in with it more than ever before and is what my wife needed to be more comfortable out camping. I was out in Mid January and it work great other than some condensation on the inside windows because I wanted to try and keep some heat in and not open any vents. Got down to 5* and 4* the two nights, and I was pretty comfortable on the foam bed.

Either way, I'll upload some more pics in the next month or so as I start work on the kitchen and putting some other finishing touches on it. Just ordered the steel for the rear tire carrier. The kitchen design has changed somewhat because of the height of the trailer above grade. Going with a folding design to bring it down a little. More to come..

Don

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[elmo_4_vt]

Alright... Some updates as I got a kitchen pass and was able to work on the, well, kitchen.

So orginally, I wanted to do something very close to this (from the first post of this thread):

This was the CAD drawing I came up with:

This is where it will be sliding into (and out of):

Because of the height of my trailer, the top of the slide out cabinet would have been about 3'-10". This is obviously too high to comfortably use, and would have required us to either stand on a stool to use, or figure out some way to lower a pretty heavy box out of the trailer each time we wanted to use it. Since I wasn't able to figure that part out and didn't want to rely on a stool, I though I'd work on a way to bring the base down another way.

Here are the newest CAD plans that will bring the working surfaces down to just under 3':

And the plans for the cuts for the first two sheets of plywood... I had about 1.5 sheets of nicer 1/2" Maple veneer and one sheet of 1/2 ACX pine. I think that will be enough plus a couple scrap 1x6 for making corner braces and such.

Spend about 6 hours today and got most of it done... It will have a Formica veneer on all the top surfaces, and as you can see from the drawing above, the sink area will fold up onto the stove area for sliding into the trailer. Still trying to figure out what the best slide mechanism will be... But I think I'm just going to go with oak or Maple runners on the cabinet sliding on some sort of plastic board channel mounted to the trailer. That may not last forever, but will give me more strength than trying to make wheels work. Anyway, on with the pictures... Sorry they're not more clear. Once I get it out of my parents basement, I'll get something better.

First pic is just the face and starting to cut out the openings. There will be various types of doors on the different openings:

Got the main section mostly done except for the bottom of the lower cabinets and some supports:

Then put together the folding cabinet for the sink and dry food storage. This is close to how it will look when folded up:

And unfolded:

Hopefully I'll have some more time next weekend to finish things off and put some varnish on it. The Maple ply has a pretty nice grain to it and should look sharp. Then I just need to figure out the propane and water system.

Thanks for looking.

Don

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[TheThom]

This is going to be sweet!