7x14 Snow Mobile Trailer

[wanabxtrm]

wanabxtrm, Howdy;

Check out how they are installed on regular RVs. That's how they are designed.

hank

...I'm trying to avoid putting anything at all through the roof, thus a vertical mount vice a standard roof mount. Though I haven't completely crossed off putting it up top, its my last choice.

[abqlloyd]

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Renogy 100W roof mount. Used their $8 z-mounts.

[abqlloyd]

Which Great Stuff are you using?

[frolickingdirtchild]

good choice on the rigid foam I did that with my trailer and it keeps cool most of the
day and warm most of the night without a lot of extra energy spent.
I did paint my roof with elastomeric paint and I noticed a difference. It extended the
amount of time before the trailer heated up in the evening.

When you do your roof I would recommend using 1x2 wood strips to hold the
insulation up on the roof you can also place insulation between the strips and then if run
the full length of the trailer you can screw your paneling into the wood strips.

As for your fantastic fan good luck. I think if you try putting it on a side it will get
knocked off going down the road. That's just my two cents and I hope you do whatever
you feel you want to. It is your trailer and it looks like your going to enjoy it.

[Prem]

wanabxtrm,

NICE trailer. Definitely going to be interesting!

We love photos of the progress. TIA.

[wanabxtrm]

- RE GReat stuff crack and gap filler, knocked down and then I stick up the foam. I've found that the panels that are cut slightly large in width hold better while curing. To long in length and they bow out and end up bonding with a gap. I tried using the 3m poly spray adhesive (78 I believe) but the spray foam seams better. It's also 1/2 the price of the 3m stuff.

I can't upload pics straight from my phone so it'll be a few days before I get around to the computer.

I'm curious how many outlets & circuits most have in their trailers and if they wish they had more or less? Also any great/poor experiences with inverters and converters? I'm working on my electrical layout now and leaning toward a xanttrec inverter/converter all in one (http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00DA0CXU ... C4C55FORLO) as a single point solution for AC-DC with basically 4 total AC circuits 2 off the shore line, one of which feeds to the inverter/converter which then is passed thru to 2 sub circuits. That way I have 2 AC circuits on inverter only and 4 (or 2 depending on perspective) otherwise on generator/landline. Doing so boils it down to 2 simple panels with 2 circuit breakers each.

I figure: 1 branch for the heat pump, one for the battery/DC side, one for kitchen area, and one for misc interior/exterior. The two largest draws I see are the heat pump and any kitchen items, followed by any power tools when the trailers used as a mobile workshop from the other planned receptacles. Thus inverter/kitchen/misc on one breaker (with the later 2 on the sub-panel post inverter), heat pump/misc on the other.

Thoughts?

[JWG]

Lots of good ideas. I plan on following your build. Looking good.
Thanks

[abqlloyd]

For that money you might be able to get a true sine wave inverter and a separate battery charger.

I bought this one earlier this fall to replace my Prosine and it has worked flawlessly.

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A transfer switch is about $50 and 40amp charger another $50. While it takes up a little more space there is a huge difference between modified sine and pure sine on electronics.

[wanabxtrm]

So I've finally figured out my electrical layout, or at least I think I'm not going to change it again. I've also ended up buying some panels, because well Amazon had them on sale for a great price. Still have to finish insulating, and about half done replacing the crappy splice/crimp connectors they had on the trailer lights with better quality butt splices. Once I have something worth-while to look at, and its cleaned up I'll post some pic's.

I picked up this: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00GZO ... UTF8&psc=1 for a bit over $40. Also I had placed a DC panel in my buy later basket but it went from the sale price back to $500+ when I came back to actually buy it, so after looking around I saw and bought one of these: https://www.bluesea.com/products/1224/1 ... 8_Position (~$100) and one of these as well :http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002IVEHZS/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1 (~$55) to see which I like more.

A grabbed a few other misc items, AC amp meter, plugs etc while they were on sale too. I elected to go with standard house circuit breakers over blue seas for the 120 VAC so I could have GFCI and Arc fault detection. Blue sea offers GFCI but not arc fault at all so far as I can tell, though their leak detection system is similar its not entirely the same.

If you've never seen blue sea's panel's they're pretty nice and used on some high end yachts and rv's like earth roamer. Anyone I couldn't pass them up when I saw them 80% off or so.

So anyway check out amazon if you need some blue sea stuff while its still marked down.

[wanabxtrm]

Quick update; still haven't finished insulating but I did get some headway on other things.
Here's my propane tank holder:

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I stole someones idea for the solar mounts, and bought the swivel gate hasps. which allows the panel to be mounted in multiple locations. Here's one of spots, which allows it on the roof or side. I also have one inside for transport, and will have another one on the opposite side. Wire disconnects at the nose allow swaps.

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apparently 3 pics is the max per post so...

[wanabxtrm]

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DC electrical panel is mostly put together (still need to run most of the accessory wires) the LED's will show voltage, time or temp. I bought them to show inside and outside temp. The analog meters are voltage and amperage. The other random box is the solar charge controller:

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and I started mounting the AC side, but haven't finished much other than identifying where I'm putting them, and how it'll come together. AC amp meter box also contains the trailer input connection (hence wiring hanging out), and the transfer switch is next to it. I liked that the transfer switch will detect/display reverse polarity and power available. Main breaker panel will get mounted above.

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Cutting the hole for the AC in allowed me to assess how the insulation actually set up. I'll post those next.

[wanabxtrm]

I used dual 1/2 " foam board insulation and after reading through the 'big' foamies post and some trail and error elected to use great stuff as my adhesive.

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Thats my hole cut from the ac inlet. You can see good bonding and fill in from the expanded foam. Adhesion was very good with the exterior aluminum skin (back of picture, and pretty good with the foam itself.

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So bottom line I'd recommend using this technique for anyone considering how they'll insulate. Spray foam would have been best, but was to expensive for me.


Final item of note is the stabilizer jacks in the rear... not very exciting but here you go...

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[wanabxtrm]

I was able to borrow some racing scales to measure my weights at each wheel. Though I'm not done with the trailer were looking at purchasing a new vehicle and I wanted to ensure I had an accurate idea on payload. Anyway here's what I learned if anyone was curious.

Our trailer is nose heavy without heavy snowmobiles in the aft end to teeter it up. With the stuff in it currently I figure it weighs in around 2k. Original empty weight was 1.8k. Current tongue weight is 450 lbs. With a weight distribution hitch the tongue weight shifts for and aft down to 250-350 lbs depending on how tight I make them. So you end up with a roughly 1/3 reduction in tongue weight using a wdh. I'd read that elsewhere but wasn't sure if t was true. I can tell you at least for my trailer and two cars it is. Adding weight at the hitch with the wdh similarly split the load 1/3 aft and 2/3's to the vehicle. This is useful to me in deciding on propane tank size., batteries etc.

Weights in the nose transfer 50% to the vehicle, center of mass is tongue neutral. And at the rear door results in a 25% reduction in tongue weight. At my current Cg.

[KCStudly]

Um, hmm, but what was the actual measured trailer weight by itself? Isn't that what you need to know for towing capacity?

I realize a WDH jacks the tongue weight forward helping to distribute it to the front wheels of the TV, but tow capacity is still tow capacity, right?

[wanabxtrm]

I wasn't worried about overall tow weight/capacity, as we are looking at vehicles which will tow it maxed out (7k+). That said a lot of vehicles have decent tow capacity but terrible payload. Wranglers a a good example, 3.5k tow but only 800 payload. The 4 door 1500 rams are similar, only around 1000 payload but much higher towing.

I think it's one of those often overlooked items for most people. PS- to answer your other question I'd weighed it empty previously and only have insulation in it so far so I know my estimate of 2k can't be to far off yet.