Mini popup toy hauler (using rooftop tent)

[Pmullen503]

Mad fabrication skills!

 

[DrewsBrews]

Mad fabrication skills!

Thanks man! One of my other hobbies is designing and building speakers. Also made a record storage stand and TV stand in the last couple years. So I wanted to do something other than a bunch of woodworking on the trailer, for a change.

The record storage stand is pine.. if you can believe it. I almost can't. I experimented with a tinted water-based poly and it turned out pretty dang well IMO.

 

[DrewsBrews]

So I went and checked with the BMV again regarding the process of registering an under 4000lb, self built, non-camper, non-commercial trailer in Ohio. Got a completely different answer this time...

From what they told me, I only need to get it weighed at an official scale and have the weighmaster fill out the weight slip. It seems there is no other process or requirements for registering it besides that. They even had blank weight slips at the BMV. Nice

I guess it is just up to me to be sure the lighting is correct (pretty easy). If it isn't, I get pulled over and issued a ticket. Simple as that.


Scheduled a campground for Saturday night. The crunch is now on.

 

[DrewsBrews]

I picked up another canopy last week. Even got some weights for it. I've been lowering it down but keeping it open when not in use. Got some nasty little storms while we were out Saturday evening and this one got crushed too. Fortunately only one spar was badly bent, and some small holes in the cover. I was able to get it back mostly usable. I guess I need more weight on it, but I doubt it would survive another storm. Then again I'm not sure how many times it would handle the flexing of me closing and opening it by myself. Ugh

I trimmed the rear side panels to the correct sizes and routered the edges. I had an idea to split it into two pieces to give an expansion gap. Made the right side a little easier to deal with the awning brackets. But by the time I started trimming the other side I decided the expansion gap probably wasn't going to help any oil canning much. So It is still a single piece.

I started drilling the screw holes into the plank at the bottom.

 

[DrewsBrews]

Solidifying my plans for the DOT light wiring...

I have rewired my utility trailer at least three times and it is bad again. I desprately don't want that issue to carry over to this trailer. It is for play, not work. Fixing wiring is work . So I'm taking every precaution I can think of.

-No flat "zip" wiring, only jacketed 4-wire cable. This includes the 4-pin connector lead.
-Heat shrink butt connectors with all connections protected inside electronics project boxes, unless otherwise adequately protected.
-I'll do everything I reasonably can to make all connections above the floor level. Away from the road spray and debris. Not sure If I'll be able to pull it off with the license plate light, however

The 4-pin connector lead will go up into the under side of the storage box and into a large electronics project box to contain the rats nest of connections. I'm also hoping this project box will allow a few extra inches of each cable to coil inside incase future repairs are necessary. From there, two wires will exit the project box, into the storage box interior to connect the forward amber side markers that will be on the sides of the storage box. Another two wires will exit back out of the bottom of the storage box, running down the side frame rails to the rear corners. They will then come up out holes in the deck and into small project boxes mounted just on the other side of the wall at the rear red side marker lights. The brake lights will be mounted on the rear vertical edges of the side walls. So those wires can go straight into these project boxes to make the connections also. The license plate light connection will depend how long the lead wires are. I may be forced to make-do with a project box under the decking.

 

[DrewsBrews]

I got the sides fully installed today. So main construction is pretty much complete. Now to focus on getting it road legal.

 

[DrewsBrews]

I finally got the fenders mounted. I had to take the wheels off so the drill would clear. So, while I was at it, I popped the caps off the hubs and verified the bearing lash was correct.

I also aired down the tires and popped the bead to throw in a few ounces of ballance beads. Then aired back up to about 40psi as a guesstimate for final pressure once more weight is on it. I am used to eyeballing bias ply trailer tires. These are radials. Will take some time to get an idea what they like.

Used my giant nut cracker to break the beads.

With that out of the way I got the lights mounted up and ran the wiring. Not hooked up yet, just cut to length. But I had just enough to run dedicated wires for the license plate light. That way there is no daisy-chaining.

I used the hollow deck boards to run the wires from the license plate light, around the frame rail, under the deck and straight into a small project box. The wires were way too short to get above the deck unfortunately.

 

[DrewsBrews]

Lights are done! Turns out the connector lead cable used non-standard wire colors so I had to use my 12v power supply and a spare light to figure out the pinout. I had a heck of a time getting the license plate wires crimped. Ended up just drilling a hole straight through the frame rail so I could get a little more slack in the wires. The rest wasn't too bad except wrestling all the wires into the main hookup box. I ended up just using a bus bar and ring terminals to get it all hooked together. Fortunately there were enough existing holes in the frame rails I didn't need to drill more to tie the wires down. I got longer bolts for the d-ring mounts and installed them so I wouldn't forget.

Then I managed to move the reported 165lb tent over to the trailer myself. Fortunately the XL tent is long enough It could span from the top of the tailgate to the top of the box so I never had to handle the whole of it's weight. I reused the existing bolts that were used for crossbar mounting. Just repositioned them and omitted the strap plates. I hope to still cut the hole tomorrow to get the A/C plumbed. So I'll still need to lift the tent up a bit to install the boot/collar that seals it all from the exterior.

Got some "action shots". The rain fly may get in the way a bit for me, less so for my wife. It is removable anyway. I removed the ladder for now. I'll use a step stool for the time being until I can fab a short ladder that attaches to the tent. So when getting out, the idea is to step out onto the decking (down a 1-2 rung ladder), then have another small step stool on the ground to step off the trailer.

The tent fabric never seems to quite totally relax to flatten the floor by itself. Your body weight flattens it when in it, but it can still be a bit bouncy when getting in and out of it. There are some d-rings on the under side, so I can hook a couple straps down to the deck to keep it more stable.

 

[DrewsBrews]

Things went sideways quick today. I picked up a mini grease gun to keep with the trailer and used it on the hubs. They were pre-packaged pre-lubed hubs, but I had my doubts they were full. The grease I was adding was all blowing out the rear seal on both hubs . So I looked up the specs on the axle and hubs that I bought. Sure enough.. The axle was for 1.25" seals. The hubs had 1.5" seals. aww crap! So I went through the list of auto parts places that might have a clue what I needed. First one I tried was Napa. Sure enough the dexter equivalent part number (470706) got a hit. I had to wait for it to come from the warehouse, but I was able to pick it up and swap out the seals. Now the grease pumps back to the front of the hub like it should. Sheesh, that was 2hrs I didn't need to waste. But that's my own fault for not catching that when I ordered the hubs years ago.

I cut the A/C duct hole in the tent floor and into the storage box. Used a big 5" hole saw. Turns out the floor is made of aluminum skins sandwiching insulating foam and aluminum square bar supports. Nice! I figured it would just be skinned plywood or something like that. I'm starting to understand why these tents are so dang expensive.

The sun was at my back so it washed out the white foam in the pic.

The plug took a better pic. As you can imagine that was quite the handfull to deal with on a large hole saw!

Here is a shot of the ductwork. No time yet to add insulation. The A/C unit final install was tedious. I had to remove and reinstall one of the boards that surrounds the rear of the unit so I could get the bolts to clear the forward support. Then I don't have a way of holding the heads of those bolts (they are kindof partially blind installs), so I threaded on a standard nut until It snugged, then I could install a nylock to back it up.

The roof boot Idea seems like it will work out. Though I cut the first one wrong and had to make a run for a replacement. and they aren't cheap. I laid down some butyl tape under the square perimeter, then ran self-tappers through it all.

And the final look in the tent.. for now atleast. I wanted to raise it up a bit with a plywood ring, but the hub seal fiasco ate up too much time.

Then, after the day out in the heat, my feeble mind mismarked the cut in the mattress. Oah well. I'll repair it when I get around to sewing it, in whatever the final version of this vent outlet becomes.

Rough long day with alot of setbacks. I'm leaving out alot of other minor but very annoying and time consuming issues. Ya just gotta outstubborn it sometimes to keep making progress.

 

[DrewsBrews]

Alright, went out for a weekend event, brought the trailer and spent a night in it. Learned some things.

Those simple flip down stabilizer jacks work well! Kept the trailer from feeling bouncy. Super easy to flip down and hit the lever to drop down to the ground. I have some RV bubble levels I want to install when I get around to it. I brought a leveling wheel chock set but wasnt needed.

I ran the shore power cord from the power post into the tent, then another cord from the tent to the A/C. That way I could unplug it from within the tent. I cracked open one of the hatch doors to run the cable so I didn't bother to open the main vent. It was a hot steamy weekend. The A/C worked well in spite of no insulation on the outlet duct. Since it draws in outside air to cool down, it quickly built up a condensation pool inside the unit. I was a bit worried how quickly that happened and didn't want to flood it out (and have it gushing water down there). So after cooling the tent for an hour I switched it over to fan only for the rest of the night to have it evaporate the water. I'm thinking I probably do need to bring full controls up into the tent somehow. And do some testing to see what happens with the condensation water.. If it is able to reach a steady state or if it begins leaking into the box. Since I'm using it in a scenario likely outside what it was designed for.

After using the step stool arrangement, the wife voted to stay with that setup instead of me building a short step ladder. I think the large step instills more confidence. Overall, feedback seems to be much more positive than when the tent was mounted over the truck bed. Though she did like the aluminum stool (This one) I got off amazon much better than the spare plastic one I brought along as a stop-gap (To the point she wants to toss the plastic one and replace with this one for the house!) So I just need to buy another (or two), and that is a small win to save on more fabrication time I suppose. I do want to get the exterior lighting working, and add some under trailer lighting so she can have more confidence where she is stepping instead of needing to also hold a light while climbing out of the tent, and trying to slip flip flops on all at the same time. Might not sound like much, but there are some medical reasons why that can be difficult for her.

As you can see I strapped down the end of the tent. That worked, but required alot of force to keep it down. I think the strap angle was a big part of that. If I add some d-rings to the deck directly below the tent d-rings that should work better. Then maybe buy some straps, trim them down for this specific use to keep on the tent when folded instead of needing to dig around for them.

There was rain in the late evening, a bit overnight and some drizzle in the morning. The spot under the tent floor covering the deck kept dry. That will be a nice spot to stow things in case of overnight rain.

There was some time sitting in folding chairs baking in the sun. Awning install is high on the list.

I had a coupler lock on the trailer to prevent theft. Just before setting off on the trip I realized I forgot about a hitch pin. I quickly grabbed a spare padlock to use. That worked, but I need to get a long shackle lock to use instead so I can slip the chains into it when parked. That way the chains can't be used to drag the trailer off either. The more difficult you make it, the more likely they are to look elsewhere, ya kown what I mean?

Overall the trailer pulled very well. I elected to air down the tires closer to 30psi since there was probably less than 300lb on each of them, factoring in the likely high percentage tongue weight. That got a slight bit of "squish" to the radial tires, which seemed appropriate. There was still a slight bouncy tendency on big bumps due to the low load on the springs. But it would settle quickly so not a problem. If I had a 500lb motorcycle on it I bet the bumps would be nicely soaked up. The trailer seemed to be almost totally in the air shadow of the truck bed. It was difficult to tell if there was an MPG hit from pulling it. Maybe 1MPG at most? On the way up, the center of the tent cover would billow a bit. On the way back south, against the prevailing winds, the whole cover puffed up like a marshmellow in the microwave. So obviously there is a negative pressure zone all around there. It'll be interesting to see if reinstalling the tonneau cover will change anything.

When backing the trailer in the driveway upon return, the jack scraped badly on the ramp up to the sidewalk. It is a spot that even some cars scrape so it is not uncommon, but the trailer made no contact when pulling out. Turns out the jack had uncranked itself quite a bit and dropped a few inches on the trip back. Fortunately I don't think it can fully extend too close to the road.. Since the one I got is attached to the bracket pretty far up in order to use an extension foot. I'll need to research if this is a common issue on this type of jack and if there is a common remedy. It may be as simple as just cranking the thing snug in the upward position. I'm not sure. It would be nice if the factory could weld on a tab to catch the handle as it tries to rotate around the tube in the stowed position.

 

[Pmullen503]

Congrats! Really interesting build. Thanks for sharing.

 

[DrewsBrews]

Still going. I figured out the measurements for the awning mounting. Nailing down how far out I wanted it, in order to give some clearance from the tent when opened. Also how high the initial "stowed" height will be. Then I trimmed down the legs that will now become the new awning poles. The bag style roof rack awning uses a track that you slide bolt heads into. I drilled holes in the poles for this and made reinforcement spacers from 1/2" aluminum round tube that will help prevent crushing the thin steel square tube. I added a stop bolt at the bottom so the top won't get hammered by the awning track.

Then I made some front brackets out of leftover angle steel. And some straps out of 1/4" thick steel. I wanted the bolt straps to be totally flex free so it wouldn't want to crush the thin square tubing.

Working to get some coats of paint on all the bare steel parts this evening.

 

[DrewsBrews]

Awning is installed.

I goofed up on the measurement when welding the rear mounts. So, the distance to the front mounts was a little too far. I found some aluminum plate to quickly fab up an extension bracket.

It isn't in a great spot to test it out right now. Plus I think I need to locate the bag that had the cording and stakes that are requred for the other legs to stay up.

 

[DrewsBrews]

I neglected to talk about getting the thing weighed for registration...

I went to a CAT scale at a Thorntons truck stop. I called ahead first to be sure they were willing to deal with a non-commercial trailer. They seemed familiar with the process.. needing to do two weighs, one with both truck and trailer, then one with just the truck. Then subtract the difference. Otherwise the scale is not sensitive enough to weigh just the trailer and be accurate.

The way they handle it is you need to make the first weigh. Then go in and pay for it and get the printout. Then go back around without the trailer for the 2nd weigh and go back in to pay for the "reweigh" and have them fill out the official Ohio weigh slip. At that scale the charge was $14.75 for first weigh and $5 for reweigh.

Trailer with tent, A/C unit and spare tire (otherwise unpacked) came in at 840lb.

So, at worst I've got another 560lb to spare on the spring rating. Then there is probably around 100lb of unsprung weight from the axle, hubs and mounted wheels/tires. That and the tongue weight. I bet there is plenty of capacity for camping gear and a ~500lb motorcycle.

The registration process was so simple. Hand them the weight slip, tell them the color and pay. I could go get a toilet weighed and get plates for it!

 

[DrewsBrews]

Yesterday I slathered some silicone on the end caps (for lack of a better adhesive onhand) and popped them in place. I wrapped some tape on em so the silicone wouldn't act like a lubricant and slide out before it dried, but it was a snug fit. I removed tape this morning.

I next moved to mounting the tongue box... A big rotomolded thing, lighter than it looks at least. I ran out of angle steel so I went ahead and got some angle aluminum. That allowed me to bump up to 1.5" stuff to better support the plastic box bottom and end up lighter than the 1" steel I was going to use. Sofar I've been loath to drill holes in the tongue bars. But at least these should add some more torsional stability to them so I'll call it a wash. Wash.. speaking of, I hosed it off but obviously it needs a scrub.

Then I hitched it up and brought it out to a vacant area at a local park to test setting up the awning. 96F out with official "feels like" temp of 114F, but a nice breeze at least. So I sat under it to dry the sweat for 15min until packing up. I also have the ARB room enclosure for it, but the heat made that sound like a bad idea to try out.

While hitching it up I threw a bathroom scale under the jack and got a readout. 240lb. Not sure how accurate that is because it is a digital scale that just spits out a static number. It takes a few seconds for me to jack the weight off the ball while the scale is "thinking". Even if that is correct, I'm not too surprised. Near 30% tongue weight is probably considered excessive, but once loaded up with a motorcycle or mini golfcart that should go down some due to weight on the rear. The truck is rated to pull 11,000lb. 5% of that would be 550lb, so 240lb just makes it ride nicer .

 

[DrewsBrews]

I did some thinking regarding setting up control of the A/C in the tent:

-It is such a small uninsulated space that I think any sort of thermostat control would be problematic for multiple reasons.

-I'd rather have simple control to turn the fan and compressor on and off independently myself. Idealy with a way that the compressor can only be powered on if the fan also has power.

-I also want a toolless setup that I would have options for simple bypassing in the event of a failure of a switched component.

-Lastly, I'm not too enthused to run wires up into the tent. I may still run a single 12v pair up there for phone charging and lighting, but I'd like to leave it at that. I don't much like the idea of wireless either (potential intermittent reception issues, or dead batteries in the controller), but it may be the least headache way to go about it. As long as it is reliable.

So my current plan is to wire up the fan and compressor independently to two seperate plugs. Then I can control them with wireless remotely switched recepticals. This one seems to fit the bill. Since they have two recepticals each I may be able to daisy chain the compressor control out from the fan control unit so it can't have power if the fan is turned off. It just depends how the units react to intermittent power being supplied to them, so testing will be needed. All in all that setup allows retrofitting by moving plugs around if one of the switched units fail... I can fall back to "just plug it in if you want it running" mode, instead of being stuck without A/C or fan.

I did a little research on the plugs they put on window A/C units. Seems they tend to have "LCDI" breakers on them (Leakage Current Detection Interrupter). The reasoning I found was the cords on window units tend to incur alot of damage. The circuit monitors the shielding of the cord for leakage current. It may also help detect a circumstance if water somehow saturates inside the cord, but I'm not entirely sure. Though I can have the new cords coming out higher up the unit to stay away from the condensation water and incorporate "drip loops" upon install. It won't be removed and reinstalled many times like a typical window unit. Which, I imagine is where alot of the damage comes from. At most I'll re-seat the plugs every once in a while to be sure of a corrosion-free connection. And it will still be GFCI protected from the strip ahead of it.

 

[featherliteCT1]

Not only have I enjoyed following your build, I am also learning a lot.

 

[DrewsBrews]

While browsing the cords available I found they have these nifty in-line switch extensions. It is an in-line connector (receptical on one end, plug on the other) with a 15ft cord that terminates at a switch. It wouldn't be my first choice for my current need. But it could be an adequate stop-gap to get a switch up into the tent to control 120v devices below.

This, but Do it has better pics of it.

Figured I'd share, as it could be useful for control of other 120v items without needing to do deal with romex and traditional bulky switches. And easily replacable in whole as long as they remain for sale.

 

[DrewsBrews]

I pulled the A/C unit back out and opened it up.

Issue: I saw there was a ground wire going to the chassis.. The big LCDI plug with Test and Reset buttons appeared to be 2-prong, which I did think was odd but I didn't question it at first. I looked closer and found there was a hole for a ground pin on it. The hole looked like it was slightly damaged. So it probably had the ground pin originally, but was broken off. (I got the unit as a return/refurb). The new cords I bought were 2-pin. So I returned those and got grounded cords.

The original cord had the hot going to the fan/compressor control rotary switch. The compressor hot connection came back out of the rotary switch and to the thermostat. Then back out the thermostat to the compressor. The neutral connected to a multi-tap terminal on the capacitor. The fan and compressor neutrals also connected there.

I disconnected the compressor wire from the thermostat and directly connected one of the new hot wires to that wire. The 2nd new hot wire I connected to the original hot connection on the rotary switch. That way I could still use the switch to change fan speeds, but the compressor was no longer controlled by it. I connected both new neutrals to the same neutral tap on the capacitor. I crimped ring terminals on the new ground wires to use the chassis ground screw. Lastly, I disconnected the wire that ran from the thermostat to the switch, cut and capped the wire from the switch side so there would not be a potentially "live" bare terminal... Probably not entirely necessary, but sounded like a good idea.

All the bare wire connections I twisted together, then used crimp wire caps instead of wire nuts. Then wrapped the cap down to the first inch of wire with electrical tape and finished with a wire tie around the tape termination over the wires. I figured that would be reasonably robust for a vibration prone connection. I did end up running the cords out the factory position. The full insulation begins well above where any water level could possibly get. I used the factory strain relief P-strap for one cord and wire tied the 2nd cord to it above and below the strap. I didn't take any photos inside, as I didn't want it to seem too much like a how-to. If you are familiar with home wiring you can probably figure it out. The only actual change to the workings of the original wiring was the compressor hot wire connection being moved to a 2nd cord instead of the thermostat. The rest was mostly stuff you gotta do when adding a 2nd neutral and ground.

I installed the internal wiring box cover. But before completely buttoning it up I tested it out to be sure each cord worked as intended and no fireworks or bad sounds or smells. The fan spun up when that cord was plugged in, the compressor fired up when it's cord was plugged in.

 

[DrewsBrews]

The remote control recepticals shipped in. I tested it out in the house. To my surprise daisy chaining them seems to work fine without any erratic behavior. If I power off unit 1 while both were on, then power unit 1 back on, both come back on. So it seems to carry some memory of the previous on state. The remote also has "all" on/off buttons. If I hit all off when both are on, then power unit 1 back on, unit 2 stays off. nifty!

The reasoning behind daisy chaining them is that way the compressor can't recieve power if the fan is not already powered on. I may or may not end up having it wired this way. My whole wiring plan has alot of plug connections in-line so I may just plug them parallel instead of series and be extra mindful when using the A/C.

Crossing fingers it still works reliably with the aluminum-skinned tent floor.