2013 Mirage XPO 6x12- Mt Air Express

[lrrowe]

Regarding the trailer tails. I have seen a few on the highway recently on tractor trailers. The concept makes sense.

[hankaye]

Howdy All;

When I had my Travel Trailer (26'), I got about 11-13 mpg with my F-250 SD
(2004 SC, 6.0L, 3.73 rear, 4X4), I normally get about 17 to 18 running around
on a daily basis. Expecting to get somewhat the same with the CT ... but
who's to say what ... I'll check it out when I get it and let ya'll know.

hank

[Rainier70]

Slowly getting some of the projects done on our ct. Hubby welded up a mount for the spare, battery, and propane tank.

We liked Glenlivet's mount that he showed in his post here: viewtopic.php?f=42&t=46134&start=0 So we made something similar, but not quite the same. I think it does a good job of holding the assortment, and it won't be too hard to put a lock on them to discourage spur of the moment thefts.

Please excuse the cardboard on the ground in the pictures. I am still doing some small areas of insulation under the CT, and they are my part of my "padding". Actually the cardboard probably looks better than the dry dirt and weeds....it's a farm field.

[Rainier70]

I also am ordering a spare tire cover from Amazon. Hate to have the spare exposed to the sun all the time. This is probably what we will order: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001BB ... BHQV7FD0WN

Bully Universal Spare Tire Cover

Anyone have this brand?

[AZ_Desert_Rat]

I also am ordering a spare tire cover from Amazon. Hate to have the spare exposed to the sun all the time. This is probably what we will order: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001BB ... BHQV7FD0WN

Bully Universal Spare Tire Cover

Anyone have this brand?

Lookin' good Rainier! Are you going to cover the battery and tank as well --- Just curious?

I never did figure out where to carry my spare tire and still load it in the TV, strapped to the TV spare ... it works for now. I am thinking about mounting on the side near one if the fenders and water/gas can(s) on the other side, but have not made up my mind yet ... I like carrying extra gas BUT, I always worry about someone running into it and causing a fire

[hankaye]

Rainier70, Howdy;

What about your other tires (?), they need love too ...

hank

[Rainier70]

No, no plans at this point for covering the battery and propane tank. We did think about a front shield of aluminum to deflect some of the rocks, but it maybe awhile before we do it. Kind of want to see how things fair without it.

Hank, the regular trailer tires already have their own redneck covers for when it is parked.... I would be embarrassed to even take a picture of them, but they work.

[Glenlivet]

Warms ne heart.

[Rainier70]

Glenlivet, I think the only 2 things that we did different is that we put a frame behind the tire with a center bolt to hold it and we secured the propane tank different. Really appreciate you sharing your design. I think it uses the space well.

I do regret losing my nice big box up front. It held my extra blocks and some one pound propane tanks. But they will load in the back of the truck. Much easier to throw their box in the back of the truck than to mess with loading the spare and 20# propane in there. So I am very happy with the current setup on the tongue.

[lrrowe]

Hi Irrowe,
The extra 6" is not much when you look at towability and getting the trailer down the road or even off the road. My trailer sets on a raised suspension giving me a ground clearance of 2' for off road camping (see my gallery pics)

This gives me a a trailer height difference to TV of near 20"; this requires one to be aware of any clearance issues and did affect towability with the additional wind resistance (soon to be correct with a wind deflector -- I hope)

JC, have you thought about a wedge shaped cargo box on top of your TV?

http://www.thule.com/en-us/us/products/ ... -_-1680038

They can had on ebay for $200 - $300. Put a wind deflector in front of it. Serves another purpose by providing more storage. I may do more research on this idea.

Bob

[AZ_Desert_Rat]

Hi Bob,
I found a wind deflector on Craig's List, bought it and have installed it. I did not really think of a roof-top cargo box and had to put a roof rack on the Blazer to support the wing. The Blazer being an older K5, I ended up fabbing a rack from another. Another point is my trailer stands close to 28" HIGHER than the top of the Blazer ...

I attached a pic of the rack and wing installed ... as received, the wing has struts that are spring loaded to move the wing nearly straight up when vehicle speed is less than about 35 mph (This is for 5th wheel installs) and as speed goes up, the wing moves down to the adjusted position. This is my first attempt to use a wing and most of the sites and instructions I have read say that the wing must have less than 6 feet between it and the trailer to work ... otherwise a vortex will develop behind the wing. The wing is installed as far aft on the rack as possible and is less than 5 feet from the front of the trailer when it is down in the adjusted "run" position ... I have not tried it yet (with the trailer) and hope to test it and mileage in the next few days ... I hope it works as advertised

[Rainier70]

Adding a few more small details to my build.

First a small inexpensive plug in volt meter to check my battery.



This was an Amazon purchase, but it shipped from Hong Kong. It didn't take as long as I thought it would to get here, and the shipping was free. It was maybe a week or two longer than usual Amazon shipments. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00962 ... UTF8&psc=1

Next now that I have most of my ceiling in (I still need to do the trim molding), I mounted my exhaust fan inside my vent with the on/off and 3 speed switches on the side. It is an Antec Big Boy 200mm TriCool computer fan. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000V6 ... UTF8&psc=1 I love it. It is extremely quiet even on high speed, and it does a great job of moving the air out.



The picture is crooked, but yes, the fan is offset to one side also. Offsetting it took advantage of an existing screw hole, made it so I didn't have to lengthen the control cord, and took advantage of two sides for added support.

One of the other changes I made (again) is that I redid my heater's exhaust again. I was having trouble with it in the high winds we get here. So I had moved it from the sidewall to an extended pipe above the roof line. That solved some problems, but not the wind problem. I did get a high wind cap for it, but it didn't fit well. I finally had a "duh" moment and solved the issue for good I hope.
Here is the vent I started with:



Then mostly because it was pushing some exhaust toward my door, and had wind issues. I went to this configuration:



On a particularly cold, nasty, windy night it still had issues with the wind blowing the flame out. No gas issues though because it has a very quick acting thermocoupler. Now I have gone to this version:



Two layers of heavy aluminum tape over the two horizontal vents completely solved both the wind and sideways exhaust problems. It was such a simple fix, and it works really great now. So far I have tested it in approximately 40 mph wind gusts with nary a flicker of the flame!

I am back to being a happy camper again.

[Gonefishin]

Good job on the heater vent. That vent fan? That looks cool. I assume its wired to your 12-volt system? I don't have any wiring up there on mine, but I supposed I could run it across the ceiling and down to a 12-volt supply. I just put one to try in my Amazon cart! Thanks. Will go nicely with the fantastic fan I have.

On a side note, I camped on the Henry's Fork in Island Park last weekend, and I LOVE that foam floor I put in. Its so comfortable to walk on. Still have my carpets over it. Seemed to keep the cold out better too, as I never did fire up the heater. It wasn't that cold at night though (high 30's) Stayed around 60 inside with two dogs, my wife, and me.

[Rainier70]

Yes, the fan is twelve volt. I ran a couple of small wires to it before I put the ceiling panels up, but it would be easy to run some wires from a light that is close. It comes with a computer clip connection on its wires that I snipped off. You have to figure out which is positive and neg as it will not run wired backwards. It comes with a 3 speed switch, and I added a small on/off "mini" slide switch from Radio Shack. Since the fan is only 0.3 amps on high speed, the current draw isn't much and the wiring can be light gauge. Doesn't do much to my battery either.

I bought a second one that I am going to run on a mini extension cord. It will have a couple of different places that I use it such as on the window and up close to the ceiling in the back. It just depends on where I want to use it. On the window I can turn it to either draw more air in or push it out. On the ceiling I can use it to mix the air. Don't know if I need it there or not. Fun to play with.

Glad your floor is working! I think you will be happy campers. I am still considering it, but I would have to air the stuff forever, and then take it all apart when we load the motorcycle. So I probably won't do it. I didn't go to Island Park, but I have been doing some high elevation camping and fishing. (small native Yellowstone Cutts) The insulated floor has made a huge difference!

Hope you had a good time up there, and caught some big ones!

[charchri4]

I just wanted to thank you for doing such an epic build thread Cindy! I have learned more reading this thread the last hour then have in the last 20 hours on google!