Well what a crazy year 2020 was! This is going to be a big update on my progress. During the rest of winter and spring I worked hard to get the trailer to a very livable state with running cold water (propane is the 2021 project, which will include hot water), holding tanks, an rv toilet etc, so that during the pandemic we could still enjoy one of the few things we were allowed to do, camp! We camped I think just over 3 weeks in total in the summer, and loved it. My wife reports the toilet was the game changer, not having to go to the campground toilet with my preschool aged daughters made a big difference in how chill the camping was. We could get about 5-7 days without emptying the black tank depending on how careful we were. Grey water if I needed I could just flush a bit into the bushes.
Ok, so let's talk progress. Last we left the kitchen was making progress and i had the drawers mostly finished. Well we painted everything inside the trailer white, and the kitchen is a grey blue. We added a stick on backsplash that has a thin stainless steel finish on it.
Then came the main work on the plumbing. I'll have to take a picture, but under the driver side bench is the bulk of the plumbing which includes the pump, the low point drain, the accumulator tank, and some shut offs etc. Then the tanks went under. I have 3 tanks. 1 fresh, and 2 holding, one for black that is right below the toilet, a straight shot into it, and well in front of the axles, the fresh is between the axles, and the grey is just behind the axles.
This tank is the black tank in the picture, but they are all essentially mounted the same way, with a galvanized frame as seen and then bolted into the webbing of the aluminum I-beams. Given the lower clearance of my trailer in general it was a tough job to get them in there, I ended up driving the wheels onto some blocks to get some more height. Both holding tanks have their own vents up through the roof, and the fresh has its own airway in where the fill port is.
I see I have some more pictures to take. I also completed the finish wiring, you can see the lighting in some of the pictures. We ended up going with a LiFePO4 battery which is 150 Ah. We also put in a powermax converter that is 75 amps. This worked fantastic, although I had the same ish amount of Ah as my previous lead acid batteries, this thing would go 4 ish days running our lights and fridge and pump etc without being super cautious. I hooked up some solar which slowed drain down a bit, but given the converter and the fast charge rates of lithium I could run my generator on day 4 or 5 for 2-3 hours and be back to full capacity, without having dropped below 30% ish, which was great not to be running the generator almost daily, which we were on the other units.
I ended up building a bit more storage on the passenger side, which also helps balance some of the weight left to right. So far based on my measurements my tongue weight is right in the appropriate range, if maybe a touch high.
I also build this cool library style ladder for the front bunk, which can roll over for getting into the bunk, and roll back and then get tucked against the wall when not in use or when the clothes drawers need access.
The table in the back uses a heavy duty piano stand to go up and down making the dinette into a full sized double bed, which will help now that we have a third daughter (just over a month old as of today). It also can expand or contract, so in the picture below you see it in its short form, giving more space, but it can be expanded to cover the full depth of the dinette. The design isn't perfect yet, I may end up rebuilding it, but it worked fairly well for year 1 of the dinette being functional.
In the picture below you see the side storage, and oh we used the ikea roll down black out blinds for our windows which work super good, its very dark in there, and we were easily able to sleep until around 8 am even with the bright summer days. Where the blue fabric basket is there is now (again need a picture, a roll out laundry drawer, and then in the top two slots, one is a car deck for the audio system and one is a small drawer that appears to be as wide as both slots, but covers the deck so that at night it doesn't shine into the space, and just hides it (not that it is a super expensive deck, but just gives a cleaner look.
Well there is almost a year's worth of updates which I have long put off. Like mentioned before I have a stove to put in and the hot water heater, and the ensuing propane system, which I also will size big enough for some kind of heater, which is so far undecided.... I also have the capacity for an air conditioning unit, but that's low on the priority, even in the hot summer the insulation and grey paneling kept us from sweltering inside as did the vent fan.
Last, but not least a picture is needed, but I ended up with a classic style awning by installing the appropriate channel, then my mother in law sewed the beading onto a 12x20 white tarp, and we use ropes and poles to put it up, it works quite well and gives us a very large awning that goes up fairly easily, and is mostly a solo job except feeding the tarp into the channel. I epoxied the channel onto the top trim so I didn't have to add more holes into the side.
I have some house projects for now, but I'm planning to be back on the trailer to try to finish the last leg here starting in March, with the hopes of being fully operational for summer.
by BigDave_185 » Fri Jan 10, 2020 5:23 pm 