New trailer design ideas

[kennyrayandersen]

What I have in mind is a <300 Lb bare trailer -- 500 Lbs loaded up with propane, A/C and water AND a light cooking stove. Conceptually, it's inspired by the ultralightweight, the new cub, and supperleggera.

The Superleggera is a bit homely, the new cub a bit long, and the ultralightweight for me, despite the clearly beautiful lines, too short in the sleeping area.

So, I’m shooting for the clean lines of the ultralightweight, but stretched out to 105 inches to allow for a full 80 inch sleeping area. I’ll use as much composite construction as possible to keep all the weight I can out of it (that’s why the 1/8 inch plywood is too heavy! -- anybody know a good source of thinner stuff?).

It needs to be extraordinarily light as I'm going to tow it with my Smart Fortwo that I plan on getting! The car is only 105.6 inches long and weighs just over 1500 Lbs, and has 70 HP... so the tear HAS to be LIGHT!

[Miriam C.]

Ok. Go for it! I think you can start right off shedding weight by getting a pet cool or other outside air.

Can't wait to see this cause I love a new build with lots of pictures.

[john]

Go for it.


Just keep in mind with such low power wind resistance is often a larger factor on the highway than weight excluding hills. I experienced this towing a hobie cat with an 85hp civic. The boat was light but 55 was tops unless I was drafting Madjack.

[Laredo]

For this, you'd want the "camping pod" design from butler projects, slightly redrawn for rounded front corners. Definitely the petcool or similar small cooling equipment! If you can build it on the Harbor Freight 40''x48'' trailer you'll save about a third of your frame weight -- like so:


In something that small I'd give serious thought to using a couple of water-cooling systems for computer cases as my A/C -- weight should be significantly below a typical $99 room air box... you might need to rig up a couple of larger muffin fans to force cool air, mount it on the upper front slant of the top, and set yourself a 2'' or so exhaust vent in each upper back sidewall just before the hatch hinge for circulation's sake. This would probably not be real helpful in true boondock situations as you'd lose most of the weight savings to batteries....

[kennyrayandersen]

Laredo,
That's an interesting idea -- I'll have to check that out. Really you're right that most of the single-room A/C units are overkill for these. The petcool, doesn't seem to be any lighter than the single room $80-100 buck off the shelf unit. I wonder... What would a stripped appart and integrated petcool or single-room unnit might weigh? hmmm...

I'm thinking very minimalist framing with most of the 'structure' being the tear monocoque. I.E. tha tear reacts all of the load not a frame -- this should save some weight -- I might even check into what a couple of angles of decent aluminum for the tounge-- same strength as the low-strength mild steel, but half the weight!

[bobhenry]

For this, you'd want the "camping pod"

....

And if you should die will camping it can be easily converter to a coffin just add a wreath !

I know ,I know ,but the devil made me do it !

[Ira]

Pep Boys has a portable self-contained air conditioner that doesn't look heavy, but who knows. It comes in two BTU sizes, and the smaller one is like $379. (Pretty sure that smaller one was 8,000 btus.)

You just place it in a space and it doesn't need venting--but $400 is still a pretty big nut for AC. I guess you can rationalize the purchase if you could also use it for like your garage or something. Also, I don't know how big it is and how it would "fit" in a TD. Maybe there's a way to keep it outside and vent in.

The PepBoys website sucks, and I can't even find it there--but I see it in their newspaper circulars every week.

[Gambam]

Pep Boys has a portable self-contained air conditioner that doesn't look heavy, but who knows. It comes in two BTU sizes, and the smaller one is like $379. (Pretty sure that smaller one was 8,000 btus.)

You just place it in a space and it doesn't need venting--but $400 is still a pretty big nut for AC. I guess you can rationalize the purchase if you could also use it for like your garage or something. Also, I don't know how big it is and how it would "fit" in a TD. Maybe there's a way to keep it outside and vent in.

The PepBoys website sucks, and I can't even find it there--but I see it in their newspaper circulars every week.

Target has a 7000btu in the ad this week for $299

linky-seems pretty heavy-62lbs

[kennyrayandersen]

You just place it in a space and it doesn't need venting--but $400 is still a pretty big nut for AC. I guess you can rationalize the purchase if you could also use it for like your garage or something. Also, I don't know how big it is and how it would "fit" in a TD. Maybe there's a way to keep it outside and vent in.

Doesn't need venting? Brain turning, churning -- I'm dizzy -- conservation of energy ughhh! How can this be -- where is the heat that is being extracted being rejected to?