ris 8.5 X 18 new trailer build 11/1/17

[ris]

We are now in Albany Ga. for the 3 day weekend. We do not need a wheel on the door as the awning does not go over the door. Don we did buy a couple of springs for the awning tie down as we already had the dirt anchors and the cinch straps. Thanks for the ideas.

Richard

[shootr]

Another fantastic build. Again,thank you, and all of you that take the time to post details, links to products used, pictures, and thought logic.

I know my eventual build won't approach the quality of you all but with all this info, there will be fewer mistakes.

Just beautifully done. Congratulations.

[ris]

We did end up putting 2 inches of insulation under floor and spraying cracks with expanding foam. We are now in the smoky mountains at Cosby Campground for a few days. Heading toward the Shenandoah Valley next week.
Richard

[FlyBye]

"We are now in the smoky mountains at Cosby Campground for a few days.'
Richard

Watch out for bears at Cosby. We have had some close encounters with 'em in the middle of the night while camping there before!

[McDave]

What a great place to be. I'd have a hard time leaving either one. Glad you are able to enjoy Natl. Parks and Campgrounds as planned. When you get a chance report on effects of the floor insulation if possible. I Know I need it for the cold weather up here.
Be safe and have fun,

McDave

[ris]

We have a small leak that shows up only on the floor plywood. Everything on the walls are covered at this point in time. So we are not sure where the leak comes from. I found that about 2 inches of the floor plywood from the wall toward the middle was getting damp after the rain. It is only on the driver side of the camper and it is found behind the wheel well and about half way to the front in front of the wheel well. So we put butyl caulk in all the seems on the driver side of the trailer. We first put painters tape about 1/8 of an inch from the joint, unscrewed half the screws from top to bottom put in caulk, put screws back in the top half and then unscrewed the bottom half, caulked it and then put screws back in. We then removed the excess with a putty knife, and the tape kept the caulk from getting all over the aluminum. We then pulled off the tape, leaving a nice clean joint. I tried it without putting tape near the joint and you leave a big mess. So use the painters tape.


I did pull the metal joint open so I could get a good bead in the joint.


Our next project was to put 2 inches of insulation under the floor between the floor joists. We cut the insulation about 11 inches wide and 75 inches long as our floor joists were about 11.5 inches apart. After using a table saw, a hand saw, a box knife and a saber saw we can saw that the best thing to cut the solid insulation with is a saber saw with a aggressive wood blade. We used gorilla construction adhesive to glue the insulation up with. We put a good bead about every foot across the insulation. Pushed the insulation with the glue up against the floor, held it for 30 seconds and let go and it is still up after 150 miles of travel.


We next used expanding foam to fill all the gaps between the frame of the trailer and the insulation. We did remove the end of the yellow end of the tube that attaches to the spray foam can. You do not need this end which keeps the foam from getting hard in the tube if you are going to use the whole can. It is also easier to control the foam amount without the yellow end on the tube.
Tube as it comes with the can

Tube with end removed. Just hold the red tube and push against the yellow end with a knife or thin file and the yellow end will pop off.


We used a mechanics creeper to move around under most of the trailer. We used the trailer jack to raise the part of the trailer we were working under. But some areas like the area between the axles just do not move and it is tight.


Want to say thanks for all the comments and ideas. Was only going to use 1 inch of insulation but Don and others said they used 2 inches so we put up 2 inches. Labor is the same just a little more for the material.

Richard

[ris]

We are two months into our trip and here are a few ideas that are really helping. We are in a 2008 1500 Silverado with a 5.3 liter engine. The trailer is a 18' by 8.5' weighing in at 5850 pounds loaded. The tongue weight is 580 lbs. We bought the trailer with one piece roof, extended tongue, floor joists at 12 inches, .030 skin thickness, 5200 lb axles, upgraded tires, and led exterior lights. Trailer $5250. We put $9000 in into the build so we have$14250 in the trailer. We are going to be living in this trailer for the next couple of years for 6 to 9 months at a time.

The first is the transmission cooler we had installed. The truck had a small 4" by 7.5" transmission cooler but we had the largest that would fit installed, 10 or 12" by 15". It is hard to measure the new one. Even going through the Smoky Mountains and part of Shenandoah at 70 mph up and down those hills, gauge showed 207 degrees is the hottest temp reached. It was about 92 degrees that day. The Reese Steadi-flex Weight Distribution, With Sway Control hitch for 6000 lb trailer with 600 lb tongue weight. Going down those hills passing and getting passed by Semi trucks at 70 and 75 mph that trailer does not sway at all. My wife even has no problem driving under those conditions. Our normal travel speed is 60 to 65 mph. We are averaging 9 miles to the gallon of gas.
The next item is a wireless camera mounted on the back of the trailer with a monitor inside the truck cab. At 8.5 feet wide we cannot see vehicles approaching from right behind the trailer. This camera lets us see cars at least 200 yards behind us. So we have peace of mind when we change lanes. Our monitor is only 3" X 5". But it works. It also works as a security camera at night as the camera is IR and we can unplug the monitor and move it inside the trailer. This package is from Tadi Brothers and we have had problems with the monitor, sent it back once and it still sometimes shuts off for no reason. The camera is flawless. There are cheaper versions available on Amazon that might work better.


Our bank of 4 Trojan 105 six volt batteries gives us power for 5 days and 4 nights of boondocking and the power only got down to 67% . You should never get down to below 55% on lead acid batteries. Our fridge (Engel) runs 24/7, Maxxair fan runs all night, CPAP runs all night plus water pump, interior fan and lights as needed.

Suburban 6 gallon gas/electric water heater. We have used the electric only once. We have used the propane to heat the water the rest of the time. Our propane is in a sealed box that is sealed and vented through the floor of the trailer. It is located in utility room at the back of the trailer. We only turn the propane on for cooking and showers and then turn it off. All our propane lines are inside the trailer. We check once a week for propane leaks. Our shower is 24" X 27". For someone 68" tall weighing in at 191 lbs this is a very nice shower size. We do not spend a lot of time in the shower so no need for a large shower. We have no gray tank for our shower, we just catch it in a bucket. This is how I know that we both use a little less than 2 gal per shower. So 4 gallons for us both to shower. We use an oxygenic shower head. We run the water heater for 12 minutes shut the gas off and that allows us both to shower without wasting gas. We get wet, turn off water, soap up and then turn water on to rinse. This is a very nice "boat shower". We do catch the water that comes out cold at first, to wash dishes. We have a 30 gallon water tank. We also use 8" X 12" disposable adult wash cloths to save water if we are not dirty or real sweaty. They work great also. We do have a 12 gallon gray water tank for the two sinks.

Our Sterling power battery chargers work fine, one is battery to battery and the other is a standard programmable smart charger. The standard charger is 10 amp so it will work with our 1000 watt Honda Generator. Our window unit A/C will also run on the generator. All lights are touch LED so no switches. Our stove is out of our boat, it is a Dickenson propane stove, two burner. The 2" of insulation in the ceiling, 2" under the floor and 1.5" in the walls work well. The floor insulation really does help. The 9' awning is very nice also

If you have any questions we will answer them. We will be in Shenandoah National Park for 4 days starting on the 14th so if we have no cell it will be after that before we can answer questions. We are trying to visit all the National Parks over the next couple of years. Our build is located on this page as ris 8.5 X 18 new trailer build 11/1/17. We have a blog at thejillkristy.wordpress.com
If we are ever near you come by for a visit. The blog always lags behind were we are but we usually let folks know where we will be next. After 4 days in Shenandoah park we are headed for the eastern shore of Maryland.

Richard

[featherliteCT1]

Thanks for the great writeup!

[ris]

We have no solar at this time. We are thinking of getting about 200 watts of solar that is portable. But until we do here are some reports on our charging with a 1000 watt Honda Generator. Our battery bank is four Trojan 105 6 volt batteries. On average our batteries will go from 100 % to 92% or 90% over 24 hrs. The odd thing is the second day the battery will only go from 92% down to 86% or 85%. That is for lights, fridge, CPAP machine, compost toilet fan and our Maxxair fan all of which we use 24/7 except for my CPAP which runs 8 hrs a night. Our charger is only a 10 amp and our Honda Generator puts out 10 amps. If we run the generator for 2 hrs per day that will bring the batteries back to 100%. Our generator will run about 6 hrs on 1/2 gallon of fuel. So we can recharge the batteries for 3 days on 1/2 gallon of fuel.

Our battery to battery charger will bring the batteries from 86% to 97% in about 5 hrs of road travel. We are happy with this. Both our battery chargers are Sterling Power battery chargers.
We will leave the eastern shore of Maryland around the 27 th and head north through Pennsylvania, part of New York before heading east for Acadia National Park in Maine.

Richard

[featherliteCT1]

We have no solar at this time. We are thinking of getting about 200 watts of solar that is portable. But until we do here are some reports on our charging with a 1000 watt Honda Generator. Our battery bank is four Trojan 105 6 volt batteries. On average our batteries will go from 100 % to 92% or 90% over 24 hrs. The odd thing is the second day the battery will only go from 92% down to 86% or 85%. That is for lights, fridge, CPAP machine, compost toilet fan and our Maxxair fan all of which we use 24/7 except for my CPAP which runs 8 hrs a night. Our charger is only a 10 amp and our Honda Generator puts out 10 amps. If we run the generator for 2 hrs per day that will bring the batteries back to 100%. Our generator will run about 6 hrs on 1/2 gallon of fuel. So we can recharge the batteries for 3 days on 1/2 gallon of fuel.

Our battery to battery charger will bring the batteries from 86% to 97% in about 5 hrs of road travel. We are happy with this. Both our battery chargers are Sterling Power battery chargers.
We will leave the eastern shore of Maryland around the 27 th and head north through Pennsylvania, part of New York before heading east for Acadia National Park in Maine.

Richard

Thanks for the good information and performance data. I think your Sterling battery to battery charger is rated to output a maximum of 30amps and your battery bank holds about 200 amps (so 90% state of charge would mean about 20 amps are needed to get back to 100%) . Do you know why the Sterling compared to the generator takes so much longer to recharge your batteries? I am wondering if your tow vehicle alternator has limiting output capacity and/or if the wire sizes and/or wire distances are what is making the difference. Thanks again.

[jlflyreel]

Great Build. We really enjoyed seeing your work first hand in Shenandoah N-P last week! Safe travels to Acadia! JL from Maine

[ris]

Flyreel we on the St. Lawrence Seaway near Alexander Bay NY. We will head for Maine next week. Featherlite when you charge batteries the closer they are to full, the less charge they will take. That is why solar panels are great for topping off the batteries and keeping them charged as you use power. We drove for 5 hrs today and the battery to battery charger took the batteries from 91% to 100% over that time. We checked at one hour and 45 minutes and it was still on 91% but at the end of 5 hrs they were fully charged. So that charger is working great. We are spending 7 or 8 days traveling to Acadia National Park. We are stopping several times in Vermont and New Hampshere.
Our camera on the back of the trailer continues to be very helpful. The monitor is a piece of junk. It kind of comes and goes as you travel. Calling the company again. If you have a 8.5 ft. Wide trailer that camera is nice for changing lanes.
Richard

[ris]

We were headed for Acadia National Park from Alexander Bay NY when we made a detour through the Adirondacks to Lake George to visit some friends. We stayed around Cranberry Lake for a few days then proceeded down to Silver Bay on Lake George. We tried to call when we were close to their house but we couldn’t hear them. So we proceeded down the road until we came to their road. We didn’t know at the time but their road connects to the main road by two different entrances. We turned at the first one which turned out to be the wrong one. This road is a 10 ft wide road so if you meet a car someone has to back up to the nearest drive way in order for one car to pass another. The road turned back the way we came by about 45 Degrees so we had to swing out into the oncoming lane in order to make the turn to the right. The road went about 50 yards at a steep angle then we could see it turn 90 degrees to the left. There was a house on the right side of the road as you started the turn to the left. When I turned left the road got really steep, after 40 yards the truck quit moving forward even as I raced the engine. I put on the brakes to think as I idled the engine and we started sliding backwards down hill. About this time the ole anal sphincter got real tight. Which must have forced blood to the brain because I dropped the lever from drive to 1 and floored it again. We stopped sliding but we did not move forward we just sat their with engine racing. Oh Sh**. What do I do? Trailer brakes move them from 2.5 to 5 on the trailer brake adjustment. Apply brakes idle engine and we sit still!!!! Ok now I have time to catch my breath and ease up on the ole sphincter. I know I have to back this 18 ft by 8.5 ft trailer back down the hill without backing into the ditch on each side of the 10 ft road. So we start backing down this windy little road to try to back up at a 90Degree angle into this guys yard because I can’t back onto the main road down past the corner. Every time I brake to stop for a moment we slide about a foot backwards. We did make it back into the mans yard by backing slow as I did not want to try to pull forward again. We backed back almost into his porch in order to head back out the way we came. About that time one of the people we were heading to visit came down the road and recognized my wife. She told us they wouldn’t drive up this road in a car just down it. That we needed to go back to the main road and go down 1/4 mile to the other entrance to their house. We did this with no problem. All the houses on this mountainside are small and are on the ground on one side and 10 ft off the ground in the back. It is a steep and small area with houses that are mostly 80 yrs old or older. They group of houses paid the city to run water up to their houses and they did by laying the pipes right on top to the ground. They drain the pipes in Oct and start the water again in Apr sometime. Lesson learned is DO NOT go down roads if you do not know where you are going if you are in the mountains. We are now in Maine headed for Acadia National Park for a week.
Richard

[featherliteCT1]

Sounds like you dodged the BIG one … could have been real nasty. I can imagine the relief you felt when you stopped sliding and held your ground … but then more fear when you realized that you still had to get the trailer backed out of the situation. Glad you made it!

[McDave]

Wow! That makes for a long day. "Hand me my brown trousers, we're going in." This is where a dirt bike or even a bicycle could come in handy. When the road starts getting a bit hairy and you are not sure if you can make it, ride the bike to scout it out before committing fully. It probably wont happen often these days, but rural America is still rural.

McDave