Another newbie with a new trailer. A big trailer.

[Justin Q.]

I've finally decided to quit being a lurker and join the club. I just recently ordered an enclosed car hauler, custom made and delivered all the way to Texas from Georgia. The plan is to build it into a toy hauler style camper. I originally had another trailer built last year that was a 6x12, then quickly realized that was too small for how I wanted to use it. So now onto the new trailer.

THE TRAILER
Its a 8.5x24 V-nose made by Hurricane Cargo. To save myself time and a lot of frustration I decided to have them insulate the walls and ceiling as well as install a rubber diamond plate floor. I insulated my 6x12 myself and it was not much fun. The only other big change I added to the new trailer was to have the 4" drop axles removed. This trailer will be off road in dirt lots and fields so I figured I would benefit from the extra ground clearance. The only con with my trailer is I messed up and ordered it with the 3500lb axles instead of the 5200lbs. It will still work fine for now but bigger axles will be needed in the future.

MY PLANS
So far I have primed the interior white. I'm not sure what color I will paint it but I'm leaning towards white or maybe a light tan color. I'm also open for any suggestions.
I chose not to go with a rooftop A/C and I'll be buying probably two 10,000-12,000btu portable a/c units to build into the front of the v-nose section. Texas is hot and I'd rather have double the a/c needed then sleep sweating. The exhaust ducts will be plumbed through the floor. I cringe at the thought of cutting into the metal exterior. Throw in maybe 3-5 cabinets, nothing expensive or fancy. Then add not one but two futons to position in an L shape for a poor mans sectional type setup. Maybe figure out how to rig up a hinged or non-permanent divider wall so I don't have the smell the atvs at night. And that is as far as I have gotten with my planning.

ACTIVITIES
I am a very enthusiastic atv rider. I don't play in the sand or dunes but instead in lakes, mud, trails, creeks, and other challenging places. As of right now I only own one atv ( Can-am 800), but needed the bigger trailer because I plan on getting a SxS to ride for when I break the atv. I ride very hard and things do break so I need to be able to haul both bikes with me so I can keep riding that day. Also one of my riding buddies doesn't have a trailer or even a truck so I'm stuck pulling his bike also. Then after a hard days ride (or long nights) I can just pull the bikes inside, crank up the a/c and go to sleep instead of fighting to get everything ready to leave. And in case any was wondering the 6x12 was plenty room to sleep in, but I don't trust leaving my bike outside around here.

I'll be sure to try and take pictures and document my journey as I go. And suggestions and comments are always welcome. Glad to finally be a part of these fine forums.

Justin Q.

[Justin Q.]

And just to give you an idea of what I ride in here is a pic with my last bike.

[Kyle1911]

Justin,
That's a sharp looking setup! I'll be watching this one closely. My 8.5X24 Vnose Cargomate is ready to pick up. I'll have it home this week, and will be starting on it next weekend. I'm interested to see how your AC units work. I went back and forth on the idea myself, and wound up with a 13.5k roof unit. If your setup holds up in the Texas heat, I might ditch my roof unit if it ever fails, and go with window units. Take care. Kyle

[vreihen]

I chose not to go with a rooftop A/C and I'll be buying probably two 10,000-12,000btu portable a/c units to build into the front of the v-nose section. Texas is hot and I'd rather have double the a/c needed then sleep sweating. The exhaust ducts will be plumbed through the floor. I cringe at the thought of cutting into the metal exterior.

My experience with two different brands of portable A/C units at work has made me cross them off of my list for trailer use. We keep them around for emergency cooling when an A/C unit fails in the server room or wiring closets, and 24K BTU of portable A/C units cannot keep up with the same cooling load that the permanent 20K BTU unit produces.

I was joking with some friends that I was going to hang a tractor-trailer reefer unit on the front of my trailer, and that I wanted to be able to hang meat inside my 24' trailer on a 100 degree day. A mechanic buddy suggested that a car A/C compressor could be driven by a lawnmower engine, and the little bit of info that I can find online about car cooling capacities says that they are about 15K BTU. Still don't know what I'm going to do for A/C, but also I'd rather go through the floor than the walls or roof.....

[Jo]

Nice trailer and ATV!

[lmajeff1]

Hello,

Nice Trailer
I currently have a Wells Cargo Autowagon. I bought it when I lived in Missouri. I quickly added electric and AC worked fine in Missouri weather; however, I do not think it will make it in Texas unless I insulate it. Been in Texas for 2 years and only thing I have done with my ATVs is to crank up and let run for a little while.

[Justin Q.]

Ok I've listened and done more research on portable a/c units and keep hearing they are inferior to a window unit. But I am still against cutting any holes in my exterior. So I have a back up idea that may work.

What if I use a window unit inside the trailer, mounted in a custom cabinet that has two chambers in it. One chamber in the back will be fully enclosed except for the vent in the floor for the exhaust to escape. The other chamber will be for the sides of the a/c where it will draw air in, and I can install a large home style filter in the side of the cabinet to keep the dust out. Does this sound like a feasible idea? And for the intake chamber will it be fine drawing in air from the inside of the trailer, or should it also be vented to pull in outside air? Help me out here diy gurus.

[GPW]

J, sounds like a lot of work .... why not just add a pro factory cargo door and a simple slide out AC , that has worked so well for so many here... You Do seem to have a LOT of real estate in there ... Looks COOL too !!! Nice rig !!!!

[vreihen]

Several years ago, I had a 12K BTU window-mount air conditioner when I lived in an apartment. I placed it in the through-wall AC sleeve that the complex provided, and went inside to enjoy my cold bedroom. Within an hour, the AC unit compressor tripped off due to overheat. The AC unit was not a tight fit in the sleeve, but even so the built in fan could not blow the exhaust heat far enough away from the sleeve to prevent it from overheating. Long story short, I had to run a secondary box fan in the sleeve to push the heat out to prevent it from overheating, and even then it struggled to cool that one bedroom when it was 90+ outside.

Think of an air conditioner as a heat pump. It pumps the heat from inside to outside. The lower the temperature difference between inside and outside, the better the unit works. If you read the TD sections of this site, you will see several designs that incorporate a window-mounted AC unit with venting to the outside. There are also a few CT conversions with arrangements to vent through the back wall via an air space inside the barn doors. For a small space to be cooled, they can probably get away with not having great venting to dissipate the heat. This is the same problem that those portable AC units suffer from, only they try to vent the heat through a dryer-type exhaust hose.

Remember that heat naturally rises, and cold air sinks. If you are planning to vent your enclosure through the floor, you will be fighting nature and need an even bigger fan to force the heat downward. Once it gets outside, it is going to naturally want to rise back into the trailer through the floor. eBay has $25 automobile electric radiator fans that I'm sure would work, but how much power will they draw and even more important how much noise will they make to vent what will essentially be a huge vibrating speaker box inside your trailer?

There's a reason why the RV industry close to mount AC units on the roof, and it wasn't just because it was an open space. It is actually a pretty darn good place to vent heat from, without having to worry about it falling back into the camper.

I have been debating the merits of the different AC options with my own 24' trailer, including options that are used in bus-to-camper conversions that mount underneath. I still have the 12K BTU window unit sitting unused in my garage that I could throw into the trailer, but I think that my two options right now are to get a roof-mount RV unit or make a lawnmower engine-powered unit from a car AC compressor and other parts. Given that everywhere I'd park the trailer would require running a generator, having a gas-powered AC unit might be more efficient in my case.

Just my $0.02 from experience, but I'm not an HVAC expert.....

[Justin Q.]

Thanks for all the feedback guys. Yeah I'm not the normal handy man type so all I'm left with is ideas that need to be run by more experienced people lol.

So then if a roof top is starting to sound like the best solution that leaves me with another problem. The roof is fully insulated and sealed which probably wouldnt be fun at all to try and remove to brace the roof. So just how heavy are the roof top units and has anyone ever gotten by without bracing the roof for the extra weight?

[Kyle1911]

I just picked up my 24' Vnose Cargomate yesterday. It has SIX ribs bracing the AC unit, 3 in front and 3 in back of the unit. If that's the number of braces that Cargomate uses to meet their standards, I wouldn't go less than that. Just one guy's opinion, but now that I actually have a trailer, and can examine it closely, I believe that their would be a lot of potential problems by not bracing well enough for roof ac. My roof is arched, and logically, if the roof braces flexed down from the weight of the ac, the walls would push out at the top. Over miles and miles of road, that would just have to cause some kind of problem. Probably the reason they braced it so well. With a flat roof, you be looking at the walls pulling in. (Just as bad). I vote for some beefy bracing. Sure a good looking trailer! Regards, Kyle

[dguff]

Doesn't quite match the concept of the forum title "Teardrops and Tiny Travel Trailers".


Jerome

[8ball_99]

Doesn't quite match the concept of the forum title "Teardrops and Tiny Travel Trailers".

Jerome

Depends on what you have to haul.. I just got a 7x24 a few weeks back.. It replaced my 6x14. I needed a 19' Garage to haul to side by sides.. To get a garage that size in a factory made trailer your looking at 30' with a DRY weight of 7500-8k pounds... Mine will weigh about 4k Dry and has a full bath and kitchen in a little more then a 5'x7' area..

[lmajeff1]

I had a 13.5 btu unit installed on my Autowagon and have not had any roof problems todate; however, I plan on adding more bracing to the roof and insutlate the trailer. I am looking at adding windows and twin bunks.

[Justin Q.]

Update: So far I've primed and painted the entire interior semi-gloss white. Bought 4 of the basic rv style porch lights I need to install. But best of all I can quit worrying about a/c. Today I bought 2 portable a/c units, 12,000btu each. Its the good name brand and I got them from my local Conns so I can just return them if I don't like them vs online shipping. They may not be as efficient but I'm willing to try it and hopefully 24,000btu total is enough overkill to keep the trailer 70 and below in the summer. I'll update with some pics once I get time off work to install more stuff.



lmajeff1 I'm not sure what part of Texas your from but there are plenty of good places to ride. More for offroad mud style riding, but still plenty to go around.

And yeah it doesn't quite match the teardrop or tiny category but its the smallest I can do for the toys I need to haul. As it is now I didn't plan enough for the height of a sxs so I'm going to have to chop/section the rollcage when I get one. Thanks for the input and reading guys.