Newbie intro (16x7 cargo trailer conversion)

[astroinfidel]

Hello from the California desert.
I am a Canadian, 65 years old, and I have been full timing for about 5 years. After having a "repair" shop in Yuma destroy the frame of my 38 foot 5th wheel in October, I was forced to literally give it away. The shop would not repair it, and other shops didn't want to touch it for liability reasons. And there is no way it would make it home. I had to buy a cargo trailer just to get my stuff back to Quebec in the spring. So I decided to convert it to an RV, and am educating myself now as to how to do this. I can't do anything major to it before I import it into Canada, so all of my modifications to make it livable while boondocking for the winter have been easily removable. I bought a new 16x7 ft Compass cargo trailer, and I have been living in it for a few months now. A knowledgeable friend and I moved my solar system from the 5th wheel, and it takes up most of the roof. I have 1300 watts of panels and 909 amp hours of lithium iron phosphate batteries. Seems a bit overkill for a cargo trailer, but I am not complaining. I am an electricity hog and I didn't want to have to live like I was camping. I have a full sized home refrigerator (120 volts), and an Airhead compost toilet. The trailer has both 12 and 120 volts, and is wired to let me use my generator to charge batteries if needed. So I have my microwave and coffee maker and deep fryer. My shower is an outdoor on demand portable propane system. I use a shower tent that I put up as needed. I have a 60 gallon fresh water bladder in the bed of the Ram, so I can have nice long showers. All the comforts of home..just in a much smaller space. I am also an astrophotographer, and that is what I do in the desert in the winter. My gallery is here if anyone is interested.

https://www.astrobin.com/users/headdown/

So I will head from here to the cargo trailer conversion forum. I am very happy to have found it, as I'm sure I will have a million questions in the next year.
Dean

[timhill28]

A little late but welcome! Enjoy the forums