Lifting roof XPStream - making improvements

[OP827]

Thanks for useful information and sharing your thoughts on this. It all makes sense. I did not think of a strong side wind BTW, good catch. I've also watched the video about fantastic fan vs. tiny nature's head's PC fan. I found a Youtube video of a guy who vented nature's head toilet through his tiny house floor, so if it works for him, it would work for me too. So I made the hole in the floor today, making progress, need to run wires now.

[OP827]

The Update:
We finally did a maiden trip with the trailer, went to Pinery Provincial Park. The total 300km trip was a joy, trailer pulled nicely, I still do not know the weight, but it fell very light for its size. Setting up at site was quick and easy.
The camping and the park is well maintained, we had un-serviced site, but water, washroom and nice showers were close by, so we did not need to use our trailer shower or toilet. The dunes, the beach, and warm water were wonderful, we had a great time there.

My 2012 Nissan Pathfinder pulled the trailer no problem and fuel economy with trailer was 13.0L/100km, vs. average 12L/100km without Trailer.
This was a big and nice surprise for me as on the highway it was even less around 12.3L/100km.

[Bezoar]

Looks great out in the wild!

[S. Heisley]

You've done a beautiful job. It's remarkable!
Glad you had fun on your trip!

[OP827]

Thank you all for support, really appreciate that.

Today I finally drove to our local landfill scale to get the trailer weight...

The trailer axle only weight was 1440lbs with everything loaded (full propane tank, 700Wh lifepo4 power station, appliances, beds with bedding, cutlery, etc.) except water and food. Went back home and used a bathroom scale to get tongue only weight... It is 240lbs.

So the total equipped weight is at 1680lbs with 14% load being on tongue...

Happy camping !

[KCStudly]

That doesn't seem too bad for a fully loaded lifting top of the quality that you built. Probably under a ton with water and grub. I'm sure well under your TV's capacity. Congrats.

How does that compare with whatever you had in mind when getting started?

[OP827]

That doesn't seem too bad for a fully loaded lifting top of the quality that you built. Probably under a ton with water and grub. I'm sure well under your TV's capacity. Congrats.

How does that compare with whatever you had in mind when getting started?

Thanks KC.

Yes, My TV is rated for 6000lbs total with 600lbs tongue, so I can certainly feel that I am towing, but barely. I have also put air bags inside TV's rear springs, so it feels very stable while on the road and can easily keep the pace of highway traffic.

The fuel economy is something that pleasantly surprised me. While driving around 60-65mph I get 1.5-2.0l extra fuel spent for every 100kms (11.0l/100km w/o trailer vs. 12.5-13l/100km w. trailer), so to me it is quite a remarkable result. I would say my initial goal of building easy to tow and economical to travel trailer is achieved. With my previous fiberglass commercially built trailer of smaller space inside and 2300lbs dry weight I was getting a minimum 50% and up to 100% higher fuel consumption on tow, constantly thinking of gas stations on the route as one day I had to spend a night in hotel when all gas stations in the area were closed until next morning.
So really, it is not even comparable.

Once the build started and floor and wall panels started to take shape I actually thought that the final equipped weight would be close to 1600lbs. Somewhen in the middle of the build I have estimated (with 3 points bathroom scale and a 3:1 lever) the weight w/o beds and part of equipment was about 1300lbs.

[OP827]

To register the trailer in Ontario I need official empty weight receipt to show at Registry.

The whole unhooked trailer including tongue empty weight without bedding with full propane tank showed at 1520lbs or 689kg.

The trailer's size is 6.5'Wx15'L.

[OP827]

I have been thinking how the kitchen area can be improved by providing more working space, light and range hood ventilation. It took me some time to finalize how this can be done and this is now a final result. We now have the big shelf that can be used to free up space on the countertop, range hood fan and light. The challenge was to make the sliding contacts that will feed the lights and hood fan. Pretty happy how it turned out.

The shelf in camping mode:

Range hood fan switch:

Shelf support quick connector:

And folded up, ready to fold down the walls and lower the roof for travel:


Happy travels !

[bdosborn]

Nifty!
Bruce