ris 8.5 X 18 new trailer build 11/1/17

[flboy]

Absolutely beautiful! A work to be proud of. Congratulations!

I am doing the same thing (hitting the road for a exteded period) next year. Been working on (and using when I can) my CTC for two years now. Almost to the point I can claim 100% done.

All the best, safe travels, and enjoy! You worked for it!

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[McDave]

Very nice Richard. Congratulations. Clean, simple, precise and elegant. Built to last. Easy on the eyes. I love it.
Enjoy your time on the road, you have earned it.
Stay in touch and let us know where you have been and where you are headed. Pictures are always appreciated.
Vaya con Dios, Amigo.

McDave

[ris]

Made it to my sons house in Milton Fl. We drove 70 mph and the trailer is right at 6000 lbs. Truck is Silverado 1500, 5.3 liter engine. Mileage was 8.5 mpg. After we leave here we will drive off the interstate, and check it at 55 and 60 mph. One of the outside led lights lost have its leds. And one of the interior touch reading lights which is led will came on by itself, once or twice a night. Unhooked the reading light and am ordering a new reading and exterior light. It’s nice having two soon to be 3 12 volt plugs and 4 soon to be 6 usb plugs. We will also be adding a 5 ft wide X 40 inch tall X 13 inch deep shelf unit at the head of the bed. Never thought about this until we slept in here for 2 nights. A/C exhausting into utility room and then being exhausted to the outside by the maxxair fan in the rear barn door works well. Just opening the window over the bed and then using the maxxair to pull air from the 3 cabin windows through be bed window and out the back door works well also. We leak tested all the propane connections but are still looking for propane detectors. We turn the gas on to use the stove then turn it off when we finish cooking.

Richard

[ris]

Need to order an awning. Going to order a 9ft dometic and guy at camper place said I would have trouble mounting it. Running from near door to about 2 ft from rear of trailer. Trailer is 18 ft. He said they would not install it which is no problem as I want to do that. Is there any problem with awning with 2 arms and you pull it out manually on a cargo trailer. It will not be over the door way. Would like to order on Monday so please let me know if you have installed one without or with problems. Thanks

Richard

[McDave]

If it is not going to be over the door, the only problem I see would be the tendency to walk into the support arm when exiting the door. The pull out type support arm basically runs at a 45 from the trailer frame at the bottom out to the roller/leading edge. But if I am not mistaken you can detach from frame mount and use arm as a vertical support directly under the roller with a pad/weight.
Did the guy at the RV dealer say why they wouldn't install or why it won't work? I have one of the "cassette" type awnings that you use a hand crank to deploy. It takes about 1 minute to extend or retract. It is not a Dometic but it was only 146.00 shipped for 10x8 and it has been flawless so far. 2 yrs. Plus 1 person to operate and no arms in the way. You can get vertical support arms but haven't needed so far.
You have probably seen this guide from Dometic....
https://www.dometic.com/en-us/us/produc ... ying-guide
Here is a pic of 10x8 on my 6x12.


McDave

[Padilen]

Won't work, but didn't tell you why?
The things I can think of that need to be worked out. Where mounting points are. Is there enough strength in that area for bolts- self drilling/tapping screws is what I used. If it's just sheet metal (alluminum) a backing plate would be needed. The awnings do not come with the top rail, so get that if it's not already on your CT. Also 9' fabric isn't a 9' area, that's needed. It's about 10' for the "arms spacing".

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[ris]

Thanks for your replies. I have no idea why he was saying I would have problems mounting the awning. He said I have been seeing a lot of these home made trailers lately. He makes his living on these regular rv’s and just hasn’t had a lot to do with cargo campers. I think it is ignorance and not wanting to deal with the unusual. I told him more and more people are doing this to get custom trailers and better built trailers. Also that he will be seeing more and more of them. I told him he would not be responsible for any problems I have on the installition and that seemed to settle him down a little. I ordered a 9 ft awning. Will keep you posted. If anyone else has done a awning installition let me know how it went. Ours should arrive in 10 days. Thanks again for the comments.

Richard

[Padilen]

Yes I did mine, it was a used longer awning. I cut it down and ordered new fabric.

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[ris]

Tried our Suburban water heater today on propane. It took 18 minutes for the 6 gallons to heat up to 130 F. We will heat up the water heater tomorrow with electric to see how long that takes. This was the first time we have used the water heater. We almost finished the shelf/cabinet that will sit on the bed and go to the ceiling today. Will finish and paint tomorrow. We are also working on a small cabinet for by the door. Every thing else is working fine.

Richard

[McDave]

McDave

[ris]

After living in the trailer for a week we discovered we needed some additions. We had 14 inches on the end of the bed area so we built a shelving unit for the head of the bed. The unit is 13 inches deep, 59 inches wide and 41 inches tall.


Here is a pic of the unit after we filled it part way. We put our clothes in here so we didn't have to go under the bed for all our clothes.


We also decided we needed a small cabinet by the door that is 22 inches wide by 31 inches tall.


Here is a pic of the cabinet open. The striped thing in front of the door is one of those magnetic screen doors that come together after you open it.


We have also found that we need to insulate the floor as flboy and others have done. I think we will start with a inch under the floor.

[flboy]

Looks nice.

On the floor insulation, I set out to just put an inch of foam, but the 2" foil backed Styrofoam was twice the R value and not much more in costs. You only need 4 sheets which covers 16*8 and after you insulate around any tanks, cross members or etc. 4 sheets just about does it. If you bought a 5th, you'd use very little so buy 1 sheet of 1" and double up.

You will spend twice the labor if you add more later. Just something to consider. May be worth the extra $ for two inch styrofoam.

Good luck. It is an easy job overall if you have room under there. I waited untill I flipped my axles. That gave me alot more clearnance to work underneath. You could always jack it up on blocks dor the job.

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[ris]

Don we are for sure going to add insulation under the trailer. Thanks for all your suggestions and comments.
AWNING install.
We bought a Dometic 9 ft awning, black onyx is the color. The actual size of the awning is: vinyl is 8 ft. 6 inches. Outside arm bracket to outside arm bracket is 9 ft. 6 inches. Our trailer inside is only 8'6" tall so without some kind of modification, the awning will NOT fit over the door. As you will see in the pics we mounted the awning in the aluminum strip at the top and bottom of the trailer. You need this top to bottom length when you order your awning arms. You could mount the arm at the floor level but we chose to mount the bottom of the arm at the bottom of the trailer. There is a piece of angle metal in both the top and bottom and this is where we anchored the awning screws. When I first talked to the guy about buying it he kind of made it seem harder than it was. You simply put up the aluminum strip at the top that the fabric slides into. slide the awing in and then extend the legs to the ground or a block, screw the top of the arms in and then the bottom. It is easy with two people.
Pay no attention to the white rod hanging down in the pic. It is the rod short people use to unroll and roll the awning. This is the top bracket.


Here is the bottom bracket.


This it the awning rolled out. That is my wife under the awning.


This is the side view of the awning. The blue mat is 6 ft wide so the awning must extend out about 8 ft.


We are still doing small mods that we will post later.

Richard

[flboy]

Awesome job on the awning. They are not hard at all.

The hardest part for me was feeding/pushing the round a plastic cord into slot in the fabric (retains the fabric in the awning rail groove). I had 13' of fabric and after 9' it did not want to push further. Next time I will cut the cord in half and feed from either end to meet in the middle. Also, I was a bit nervous pre-loading the drum spring.

Like you said, putting up the awning rail and feeding it in and bolting up the arms at the bottom.


You will enjoy that!

If you haven't got one already, I recommend the following tie downs. They will really hold the awning down and allows you to use it on more windy days. \


https://www.amazon.com/Camco-42593-Awni ... e+down+kit

[hankaye]

ris, Howdy;

I'l second the , >

Did you get the small wheel to keep the corner of your door from scraping the awning?

https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss ... oor+roller

hank