7x14 Snow Mobile Trailer

[Iconfabul8]

How has the side mounted fantastic fan been working for you? Anything you would do different?

[wanabxtrm]

How has the side mounted fantastic fan been working for you? Anything you would do different?

It's worked well so far with 3-4 camping trips under its belt, and no leaks through 4-5000 miles (many in rain) and countless lousinia T-storms. My initial concern was the hinge arm is on the right side (when looking at the plexiglass from outside). This put it at the rear in my orientation. The other side is unsupported and thus more flexible. I added some weather stripping on that side (the fwd side when going down the road). Not sure if I would have had issues without the wx stripping. But if I was starting from scratch and had flexibility I'd try to mount on the passengers side so the arm faces the wind when driving. Alternatively some of the other competition may have both sides or the opposing side supported; I never bothered to check.

That's about it. I like that it's a window (vice a sky light), and an exhaust fan, and I can leave it open without worry about normal rain coming in (no big shelter box).

In other news I've officially moved out of my house the family is headed to the grandparents, and me and the dog are living out of the camper for the next month ! We'll see how long term living in the redneck Rv works out. A month from now we'll be loading up for Colorado.

Cheers

[McDave]

Behave yourself now, those dogs will get a man in trouble. That's my story, and I'm stickin' to it

McDave

[wanabxtrm]

Well we've finally settled in here in Golden, Co.



Living the 'tiny house' life in the trailer for a solid month wasn't to bad. It let me work through various ideas on the thing, and in the end I came to the conclusion that the earlier design choices were for the most part the right ones. But all the big items worked out well, shower, fridge, dinning area, loft bed, tv. Storage was an issue, but that's my problem not the trailers.


Unfortunately I didn't actually do much work on it other than adding things to my to-do list in my head. Since then I reconverted to cargo mode to haul nearly 5k lbs of tools, and other junk out west.

Which turned out to be a good things, since our household goods shipment got screwed up and arrived over a month late. Haven't done much here with it yet, but we did get one 3 day camping trip in up to Leadville area and the continental divide. It was raining the entire time but it was a good test of the DC system and water, as it was the first time we've used it as a full family off grid.

The blue aquatianer plan worked perfect for fresh and grey water storage, and though (I'm hoping because of clouds) our solar didn't keep us fully charged, it did get us through the weekend. Neither would have lasted past 4 days without conservation. Amazingly though we managed to keep the inside dried out for the most part and comfortable' and saw a few breaks in the clouds at the end of the trip.

Getting a pop up/awning is definitely on the list after this trip, as is building a generator storage box (to run in the rain, to dehumidify the trailer), mounting the hitch for the bike rack on the back of the trailer, and wrapping up the propane hardline & heater install.

Overall the only real issue we ran into off grid was the water pump was 'machine gunning' so I need to adjust the pressure switch on it. I'm guessing it's likely caused by our water filter causing to much backpressure. I also haven't ran the water heater with the pump so we'll see if that works in the future at some point.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Hader]

Alex,

Would you happen to have any photos or sketches of your Grey water setup?

My build will have the Shower in the front, I won't be able to use a tank. Was thinking about 4" or 6" pipe.

[wanabxtrm]

I'll try to put a better description with some photos for you later today. There's a few in older posts, but yes mine has the branch plumbing from the sink and shower to a vented line that runs to a 6" diameter pipe. When the trailers properly leveled all fixtures drains appropriately. If it's not level or draining to an external drain/Aquitainer the 'tank' will sometimes 'burb' because the vent is upstream of the tank/large pipe. It doesn't really affect anything unless it's a large quantity of water dumped down the drain at once (like multiple gallons large). The only other 'special' things I put in was a shutoff valve between the shower drain and the system to isolate it and a one way flow device instead of a p-trap on the sink.

[flboy]

Alex,

I Really like your loft bed and need to build one myself. Do you have any details you could share? How are the struts working and how far down does the bed travel?

I had a design in mind, but yours looks to be more simple and I like that.



Sent from my SM-N900P using Tapatalk

[wanabxtrm]

Alex,

Would you happen to have any photos or sketches of your Grey water setup?

My build will have the Shower in the front, I won't be able to use a tank. Was thinking about 4" or 6" pipe.

Working from the outlet back...standard rv blade valve with quick connect twist in posts for sewer pipe. They come in different sizes, I stuck with the normal 3" (?) size so I could spray into it easier to clean if needed. From there it has a reducer bushing to the 'big pipe'. Be sure to get one that keeps the bottom (water flow level) even. I got this from amazon, after zero luck locally. I can't recall the term for the offset style but it'll come up quick on google once you start poking around.


The pipe is straight across the trailer to minimize free surface effect ( sloshing) when starting/stopping and to avoid the big reinforcing member down the center of the Trailer. The bottom is roughly flush with the bottom of this frame member, so I shouldn't ever rip it out hitting something. I then have a cap and 90 degree bend some additional straight pipe and another 90 to head back to the sink/shower on the drivers side. . I had to do a large offset because of the framing of the trailer. Otherwise I would have gone straight from sink to big pipe. I also ended up using smaller radius joints-45 & 22.5 - vice straight 90 elbows to get everything aligned.
Once it's back on the drivers side (Below the sink etc) I put a Y, again driven by framing constraints and interior layout, with one going vertically up to the vent and sink, and the other going to the P trap (frame member again) for the shower. You can see the exit of the vent stack next to the p-trap. Doing it this way kept everything on a fairly even slope from the vent to the first step down where it turns 90 and goes under a frame rail (on the fore-aft section). The p-trap allowed me to duck under the frame between the shower and sink and keep everything else aligned. Otherwise I'd have been forced to raise the shower or drop the overall level of the piping which would have been drag hazard.


The shower has a ball valve after the p trap before the shower drain.

The sink branch goes vertically to another Y that continues vertically to just below the counter and then turns a U and exits back through the floor. This is the main stack vent for the system. The other portion of the Y goes to the sinks. It'd tucked under the mess of fresh water plumbing.

You can see the vent exiting on the underside, and it's U-turn in the plumbing cubby.


Ideally the vent should be last, but in order to make it all work it ended up down stream of the shower p trap due to interior and trailer obstacles. That's partially why I placed the ball valve there to eliminate any odors should the p trap be sucked dry, and prevent back flow into it.

Biggest thing I'd change if I did it over again would be not to cram it all into one tiny spot, or at least preassemble some of the freshwater lines, which is why I have so many items (that and installing the shower valve upside down in the middle of the night) and not leaving enough access to the area.

If you didn't have a giant reinforcing member down the middle of the trailer you could make the entire u shape from sewer drain around to your sink in large pipe to increase your volume. Realize that big pipe isn't very cheap, I had some lying around from a random project. So fiscally buying an actual tank may be better.

Does that answer your question? From the blade valve I connect to sewer if able or to 1 of 2 blue aquatianer jugs for grey disposal.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[wanabxtrm]

Alex,

I Really like your loft bed and need to build one myself. Do you have any details you could share? How are the struts working and how far down does the bed travel?

I had a design in mind, but yours looks to be more simple and I like that.



Sent from my SM-N900P using Tapatalk

Sure thing I'll try to grab some more pics for you and give you a better synopsis. Theres some earlier in my build too if you didn't already look. There's also a few bed discussions on here that highlight it, as well as similar designs that inspired me. I don't post much so you could look at my old posts to find the threads if needed.

Short story is 5 uni-struts per side three horizontally to the trailer frame and 2 vertically which attach to the horizontal ones. The vertical ones hold the weight of the bed and occupants on movable brackets. The bed is a ladder style frame with plywood on it the same width as the distance across between the opposing vertical supports. If you don't move it often that's all you need. You could physically affix the bed to the brackets and call it a day. Since we move it 2x or more a day we put in the gas struts (and its overbuilt and heavy to lift on its own).
Re: struts:
Basically find the 'top' of the bed travel when up this is your top reference point, place your strut here at a 45 degree slope (or as desired) down. This is your bottom reference point and should be where a horizontal brace should be. Connect them at each corner of the bed.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Hader]

Thank you for the photos and explanation of how you did your grey water setup. Very nice job.

My sink and shower will be up front where there is no space for a tank, I'll be doing same as you have done.

[flboy]

Alex,

I Really like your loft bed and need to build one myself. Do you have any details you could share? How are the struts working and how far down does the bed travel?

I had a design in mind, but yours looks to be more simple and I like that.



Sent from my SM-N900P using Tapatalk

Sure thing I'll try to grab some more pics for you and give you a better synopsis. Theres some earlier in my build too if you didn't already look. There's also a few bed discussions on here that highlight it, as well as similar designs that inspired me. I don't post much so you could look at my old posts to find the threads if needed.

Short story is 5 uni-struts per side three horizontally to the trailer frame and 2 vertically which attach to the horizontal ones. The vertical ones hold the weight of the bed and occupants on movable brackets. The bed is a ladder style frame with plywood on it the same width as the distance across between the opposing vertical supports. If you don't move it often that's all you need. You could physically affix the bed to the brackets and call it a day. Since we move it 2x or more a day we put in the gas struts (and its overbuilt and heavy to lift on its own).
Re: struts:
Basically find the 'top' of the bed travel when up this is your top reference point, place your strut here at a 45 degree slope (or as desired) down. This is your bottom reference point and should be where a horizontal brace should be. Connect them at each corner of the bed.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Alex, I did find your earlier posts with some details. I appreciate the details. I was trying to figure out what you used for "slides" inside the unistruts. I'll look for the other posts, Thanks. Nice work!

[wanabxtrm]

[/quote]

Alex, I did find your earlier posts with some details. I appreciate the details. I was trying to figure out what you used for "slides" inside the unistruts. I'll look for the other posts, Thanks. Nice work![/quote]
I used brackets that run on the inner side of the struts. If you use the deeper units rut you can get trolleys that would likely work better.



Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[wanabxtrm]

Alex, I did find your earlier posts with some details. I appreciate the details. I was trying to figure out what you used for "slides" inside the unistruts. I'll look for the other posts, Thanks. Nice work![/quote]
I used brackets that run on the inner side of the struts. The aluminum backer is just to help prevent tearing the insulation if it gets angled going up or down. If you use the deeper unitstrut you can get trolleys that would likely work better.

I haven't trimmed it in yet but I have gotten some rub marks from the bed platform, not a big deal, but something to consider when building. Perhaps placing a cabinet Teflon floor slide? Or similar at contact points? I've got some but haven't moved forward with it yet.



...down...
Clear as mud?

If not I'm happy to try and elaborate.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk[/quote]


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[wanabxtrm]

Test firing the Dickinson heater. I'm trying to determine where to put it, in the nose at the very front of the trailer, or the middle closer to the sleeping area.

Those that have one- any opinions... I'm afraid putting it all the way in the nose the heat won't work its way back very well. Putting it closer just well puts it in the way; of either coats, the kitchen,etc....


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Iconfabul8]

Refering to the sliding beds, Has anyone ever seen or put any thought into having only two guides, one on each side in the center of the bed. The bed would pivot like a teeter totter. This would help immensely in the binding dept and simplify the cables. You might even be able to incorporate the gas springs. All you would need to do is lock the four corners once the desired height is reached. Just a wild thought I had