7x7x16 V Nose Cargo Trailer Conversion, First Build

[Padilen]

That you got it apart without getting hurt is amazing. Those springs can be dangerous. But with help you can safely reinstall and tension it. If you can't get a helper or garage door installer try a builder/ handyman.
You may have to call your trailer manufacturer for the correct count of turns needed. Unless you counted how many it took to take it off.

Sent from my XT1635-01 using Tapatalk

[jr9744]

@Padilen Good advice. I called the manufacturer in GA and mentioned to them what I did. The said if I bring it by, they will put it back on for free. I plan on driving down to FL in Nov/Dec, so I'll stop by and have them fix it! Woo hoo... And when I took it off, I had no clue how dangerous it was. I was lucky.

[Iconfabul8]

I think everyone makes a bigger deal about the danger than it is. I suppose if you start disassembling while the door is in the down position, you will have a problem. However, with the door in the closed position, there is very little pressure on the spring or cable. I can grab my cable pulley and easily twist it by hand while the door is closed. I think the biggest danger is dropping the door on yourself or someone else while the cables are undone.

[McDave]

It's the winding rods that'll knock the sense into you. If you get complacent or have an iffy fit, the rods can get away from you. I'll bet that 1/4 rev of one of those rods when the spring is wound would leave ya lookin for your chiclet's out in the street. And there would be a lot more of em' than you started with.
But life is a risky proposition.
So I found some youtube vids of garage door repairs and I believe that most anybody on here could do the repair/ install, with a helper for sure. I really think you should commit yourself to conquering this job. Please get a buddy to help you get it mounted, NOT Mrs. Johnson's daughter. (Unless her name is Cherrie ) I think it is important that you learn to do it safely and confidently and stick with it till you win. You are gonna have some more hoops to jump through, and some WILL be on fire, so this is an opportunity to Cowboy Up. If you can take it apart, You can put it back together. If someone else can do it so can you. Go to youtube and google and get knowed up on this stuff and then knock it out and post some victory pics here. I promise we'll all pump sunshine up yer ass when ya win.
just sayin'...

McDave

[jr9744]

@McDave Ouch!! If I can find someone, I'll give it another shot. For now, it really doesn't affect my design. More of a pain opening/closing. That door weights a ton.

So trying to keep it moving and working on the bathroom. I have the shower stall roughed in. I had to change my bathroom design to make the P-trap and black tank work. I'm also raising a floor about 9 inches from the trailer bottom.

The shower framing. I used 2 x 10's. Very heavy.


Floor with whole for shower.


P Trap. I probably have not bought one with the clean out piece.


Shower Floor and top placed together


Shower Base and flooring.


Underside of shower with floor attached


I hope to get this shower done!! I may fully finish the shower or do the 'floor' for the black tank and seat the toilet.

[Dano-Mich]

So trying to keep it moving and working on the bathroom. I have the shower stall roughed in. I had to change my bathroom design to make the P-trap and black tank work. I'm also raising a floor about 9 inches from the trailer bottom....

That is a lot of headroom lost! At 6'5" I can't afford loosing any headroom. I'm considering a HEPVO trap that eliminates the need of a p-trap for my build if I include a shower. Anyone else have experience with this? Is it too late for your build?
http://hepvo.com/
https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B00NLMPLDU/_encoding=UTF8?coliid=I31KO1D7ZFQ3OA&colid=2BM42H2XSVD3C
Disclaimer - NO affiliation. Just something I ran across earlier, perhaps on this forum too.

[jr9744]

So trying to keep it moving and working on the bathroom. I have the shower stall roughed in. I had to change my bathroom design to make the P-trap and black tank work. I'm also raising a floor about 9 inches from the trailer bottom....

That is a lot of headroom lost! At 6'5" I can't afford loosing any headroom. I'm considering a HEPVO trap that eliminates the need of a p-trap for my build if I include a shower. Anyone else have experience with this? Is it too late for your build?
http://hepvo.com/
https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B00NLMPLDU/_encoding=UTF8?coliid=I31KO1D7ZFQ3OA&colid=2BM42H2XSVD3C
Disclaimer - NO affiliation. Just something I ran across earlier, perhaps on this forum too.

@Dano-Mich I completely agree with you. I'm mainly taking up that height because the black tank will also be inside. The black tank will need the 9 inches more so than the shower.

I did not account for the A-Frame while making my design for the bathroom. Putting the black tank under the trailer just wouldn't work for me.

Unless I figure something else out with the black tank, i'll have to stay this height. I did stand in the shower and I can stand up. Thankful I got the extra height at 7 inches. Not much clearance over my head, but it will work for now.

[McDave]

So trying to keep it moving and working on the bathroom. I have the shower stall roughed in. I had to change my bathroom design to make the P-trap and black tank work. I'm also raising a floor about 9 inches from the trailer bottom....

That is a lot of headroom lost! At 6'5" I can't afford loosing any headroom. I'm considering a HEPVO trap that eliminates the need of a p-trap for my build if I include a shower. Anyone else have experience with this? Is it too late for your build?
http://hepvo.com/
https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B00NLMPLDU/_encoding=UTF8?coliid=I31KO1D7ZFQ3OA&colid=2BM42H2XSVD3C
Disclaimer - NO affiliation. Just something I ran across earlier, perhaps on this forum too.

Yep. I used the hepvo. It solves a lot of problems. I only have 6' interior, and while I don't always hit my head, it's always close. So I had no vertical interior room to spare. Showerpan and toilet had to sit on floor. The Hepvo (1.25") tucks in right under the floor. I only have a black tank so grey goes in there too. I used a diverter valve so I can drain shower to ground when possible, otherwise it goes in black. Works perfect, zero smells, can't freeze or evaporate and solves the clearance issues. A lot easier than raising the floor.

McDave

[jr9744]

Allright, so I finished the rough framing of the rest of the bathroom floor. It was a challenge with the angles. Although the sub-floor in the bathroom was challenging, I like it because it will be easy to get under my shower stall and black tanks from inside the trailer if I need to. Thinking maintenance down the road here. Also the blank tank hopefully won't freeze since it's inside. I just hope the 1 1/2 pipe vent is enough to keep smells out. I don't see why not.

I did pick up two new tools that I really like. The speed square and an angle finder. I also made a 'sled' for cutting the big boards of plywood. I'm no carpenter, but my skills are getting better and I'm looking forward to making the kitchen cabinets.

Speaking of cabinets, I'm going to tear down the 'frame' you seen in the previous pictures. It came out crooked and uneven and I'm not really satisfied with it. I'm going to rip it out, and then just use I think 3/4 Inch plywood to make a box and then attach it to the wall. Make a faceplate and then some sort of shaker doors. I just wonder if 3/4 inch plywood will hold up to all the bumps on the road. What size is everyone else using for this?

I also ordered two Grommets for the black tank. I found this a little confusing, but I believe for my tank I need one grommet to connect the toilet(Along with the flange, seal, and other pieces), and another for the outlet. Since my tank outlet whole is 3 7/8, I believe the one I ordered reduces that to 3 Inches which I'll have to connect my outlet plumbing too. Any special things people buy for the black tank outlet? I'm probably gonna buy one of those things that has that lever thing at the end. Any suggestions?

Here is the left side of the counter near the kitchen. I had to cut holes and paths for the wire to run under the shower floor.



This is where the step will go where I ran more wires under.



A full picture with all the framing roughed in and the back tank in place. All the angles were challenging and the framing is by no means perfect. But I believe it will work.



Another top picture


I really hope to get this bathroom framing done, the top layer of plywood cut out, the shower and toilet plubming in place this week/end.

I've been thinking about just using cedar or teak as my wood walls in the shower. I think it would feel cool. Teak is perfect, but very expensive. Not sure if I can afford it. But I was thinking why not just by cedar or some sort of other wood and just using marine varnish? I've seen others do it and it looks o.k. Anyone have experience with wood as the shower walls?

[hankaye]

jr9744, Howdy;

The folks at Valterra (I have no business connection to them), have a very good selection of items
that will be useful for you project here is the bladex valve that you'll find you'll need to "let it flow".
http://www.valterra.com/product/bladex- ... at_id=1444
here's is the rest of the Sewer & Sanation page.
http://www.valterra.com/product-categor ... anitation/

Hope that helps. I've broken the plastic handle so that is why I choose to use the metal handled one.

hank

[jr9744]

@hankaye Thanks for the information. I will buy the one you listed with the metal handle. So many of the things I bought are cheap plastic, and I would have gone metal on most of it had I known.

I feel like I did a lot more this weekend then the pictures show, but moving forward.

I made my first cabinet for the kitchen. I'll make two cabinets, this was my first. I used 3/4 Maple wood I believe. I used glue and Kregg nails. I wonder if it will hold up, but I'm guessing once I bolt it down it will feel stronger.



I got my two Valtera grommets for the blank tank. The system makes more sense now and I purchased all the plubming needed. Now just waiting on the outside piece with the handle.


Will have to fine tune my original hole to make the plubming work. But it will get me there.


Most of the bathroom floor screwed in together and attached. Will still need to do some sanding/tweaking of the subloor.


Can anyone recommend any good locks for the door? I'm looking for an rv style door latch, and curious what some of the good ones were.

I really hope to get the other cabinet and plumbing in the kitchen and bathroom done so I can do some testing. I'm really looking forward to getting the plumbing/electricity fully done.

I also had another 'creative' thought. I really want to make the shower walls out of wood. Teak is too expensive, and marine wood is expensive as well. So I bought some 1x2's for cheap from the big box store and some Marine Epoxy two part mixture. I plan to just cut the pieces for the shower walls, and then just coat them with the epoxy. I figure if it doesn't work, it will be cheap to buy frp and just fix it later. Any thoughts on this?

[hankaye]

jr9744, Howdy;

Here's a link to a reputable parts house, they gots tons of good things. Also a link to your door lock.
https://www.pplmotorhomes.com/parts/mai ... rv_31-3610

hank

[McDave]

I saw a shower in Sturgis that was T&G redwood or cedar that was covered by a sheet of plexi-glass and they had newspaper articles/advertisments sandwiched in between. The paper was dry, so.... a pretty nice look as well.

McDave

[jr9744]

@McDave Would be cool to see a picture of that. I thought about Cedar too. But I figured I would take a risk with cheap wood to see if the epoxy will hold up (In theory it should). I figure then I can buy better wood or Frp in the future.

@hankeye Thanks for the link. Those locks look good. Gonna compare this to a few others and pull the trigger. Getting really tired of not being able to close the door behind me.

Making my first cabinet motivated me to make the other half of the kitchen cabinet and then one of the small cabinets up top. I still need another cabinet up top in the kitchen, but ran out of wood. I'll probably make the other small cabinet and then work on the face frame and cabinet doors.

Here are some random pics of my cabinets:

Second cabinet to hold up the kitchen counter. I did much better the second go around.


First Small Cabinet made that goes above the kitchen counter.


Back of the small cabinet


Bottom cabinets roughed in. Still have to make them permanent to the trailer.


Top Cabinet roughed into place. I plan to take this down and put the final paneling up first. Just wanted to see it up.


Outside image of the ktichen


Now that the new kitchen bases are in, I plan on adding my plumbing connections back in and then finishing the 1/2 inch flooring subfloor in the bathroom and finalizing that plumbing. Then some plumbing testing soon!!!

I also bought a couple of lights for the outside of the trailer. It gets very dark on the outside with no lights. I'll probably also run two lights to the back rear outside like I have seen others do as well.

Coming along. I'm really getting comfortable with my tools and the woodworking.

[McDave]

Oh yeah, I'm liking what I am seeing. Keep that stuff up. You are knocking off some big chunks there. Here is a suggestion for a porch light. I love mine.
https://www.amazon.com/Starlights-SL-10 ... 0XYY7WJ749

These are the ramp lights I used. VERY POWERFUL!! I also wired them through a relay to the reverse lights on tow vehicle, very helpful when backing in at night, and they get people's attention.... just sayin'...
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00EA ... UTF8&psc=1

McDave