OK, I think I have done enough to give an update

[mx842]

Ive been working on my car trailer trying to make chicken soup out of chicken......well you get the idea. It's been slow because I haven't been able to work on it as much as I would like because of the hot weather and I've been busy doing honey do's and other things. Anyway I thought I would post up some of my progress.

I'm not sure what the proper way is to do pics but I created a photo album here:

http://tnttt.com/album_ ... r_id=10895

I hope it works if not I'll try again.

[mx842]

Shucks! It's backwards. You can go to the bottom of page and change the order of the pics and it may make more sense. Sorry, me and computers never did go together too well.

[d30gaijin]

Good grief that thing is huge!

Thanks for sharing your build thread, it gives me ideas, which I can really use at this point in my 6x10 conversion build.

By the way, nice M4 build and ammo supply. I keep a couple of those on hand along with ammo to suit.

Don

[mx842]

Good grief that thing is huge!

Thanks for sharing your build thread, it gives me ideas, which I can really use at this point in my 6x10 conversion build.

By the way, nice M4 build and ammo supply. I keep a couple of those on hand along with ammo to suit.

Don

Well if I can ever help out just yell. Yes it does look big compared to these tiny trailers but they fill up fast once you pack in everything you need to head off to the track.

Once this is done I will have a toy hauler for the track and if I just go camping I'll have a rolling two bed room apartment.

I learned a lot doing this and I got a lot of help right here. The main thing is don't cut corners on electrical and use screws rather than nails, glue is good once you know for sure something is how you want it. Insulation is a must if you want to be comfortable and the roll insulation don't work worth a darn in the walls it will settle right down and out the bottom before the 1st trip is done.

[AWK]

My first post here! Thanks for sharing as I am treading down the same path as you. Maybe not to the level of a camper (water and all) but cabinates, electrical, lighting and TUNES.

Is this a 28 Ft trailer?

I am using the same converter has you have. I got mine for 65 dollars at a rummage sale!

AWK

[mx842]

:D My first post here! Thanks for sharing as I am treading down the same path as you. Maybe not to the level of a camper (water and all) but cabinates, electrical, lighting and TUNES.

Is this a 28 Ft trailer?

I am using the same converter has you have. I got mine for 65 dollars at a rummage sale!

AWK

Well welcome aboard. Not that it means much coming from me but someone with some clout will be along directly to give you a real welcome.

No mine is a 24' HaulMark. It was used when I got it but used very little. It made one trip to California from the Chicago area and back to Va and it sit for a year or two before I talked the old owner out of it. It was use for an office trailer....well, a card playing room would be more like it so it never saw much abuse.

All I can tell you is to read up on the electrical sections and don't play around with trying to cut corners in that department because short circuits and flaming wires can be deadly. AND costly, I burned up my first converter by hooking it up to 220 by mistake and that wont pretty. Not only did it skert do heck out of me it taught me a lesson.

If I can ever get time to finish my two water tanks I can finish this in short order. Those converters are good as long as you don't over load them like I did. The company fixed the old burned up one so I'm back in action in that department again.

Are you going to insulate yours. I know it really makes a difference with cooling and heating but mainly it cuts down on a lot of the noise and makes the walls feel more solid. The 1" pink panther board I got at HD was around $9.50 a board and I think I used 11 or 12 boards in mine.

If you need any help just yell. Sometimes I come here every day but I do miss a day or two every now and then. I'll be glad to help any way I can.

[AWK]

Seems like a lot of these car hauler are used very little. Mine (bought in 2000) had less than 100 miles on it when I purchased it last month. They guy bought it pulled it home and it never moved till I got it. He uses it for the same thing I using for right now.. a garage.

I would like to insulate but my interion is already finished. The walls are 5/8 fiberglass (one peice! 28 x 6.5).

I'm adding this weekend the same converter your using. Last night I bult a temporary wood enclosure to hold this converter (20 inch wide, 16 inch tall, 24 inches deep). I made it the same size (as the base) as what I have planed for a 79 nich tall 20 inch wide cabinate. I want to use this to understand how it will fit. Not sure how I will handle the curved front corners.

[mx842]

Seems like a lot of these car hauler are used very little. Mine (bought in 2000) had less than 100 miles on it when I purchased it last month. They guy bought it pulled it home and it never moved till I got it. He uses it for the same thing I using for right now.. a garage.

I would like to insulate but my interion is already finished. The walls are 5/8 fiberglass (one peice! 28 x 6.5).

I'm adding this weekend the same converter your using. Last night I bult a temporary wood enclosure to hold this converter (20 inch wide, 16 inch tall, 24 inches deep). I made it the same size (as the base) as what I have planed for a 79 nich tall 20 inch wide cabinate. I want to use this to understand how it will fit. Not sure how I will handle the curved front corners.

I like the looks of those walls but I'll bet they are heavy as heck. I took off those angle pieces that cover up the space between the ceiling and wall and plan on just trimming it out like you would a house once I get everything in place. Although that space is a good place to hide conduit for your wiring. Just use your imagination and it will come to you how you can work it out. Sometimes I have to do things several times before I can actually get it the way I want but that's the fun in a project like this. You can't screw up much that you can't fix with plywood and a few screws.

The electrical thing just keep your panel box as close to your power supply, (shore power/geni whatever) and you want your batteries to be within a few feet of the converter. The best thing is to pick a front corner and put all this stuff in one central location then run any wires from there. Remember the DC wires need to be big enough to carry the load more so than with the AC stuff. You can probably feed anything you want to put in that trailer with #12 or #14 wire for the AC stuff. But if you have something like a DC pump all the way in the far corner you may need to run a #6 or #8 wire to feed it. hat's the difference between AC and DC wiring supply demands.

[AWK]

Where did you get your AC hook up? I like that one. I like the flush fit.

The converter is overkill for me. I don't plan on making this much more than a nice garage. I have all my plans drawn up for the cabinates. It lloks like I'll have to build them over the winter. Down side is this trailer is 225 miles away, so I can only work on it occasionally.

AWK

[mx842]

Where did you get your AC hook up? I like that one. I like the flush fit.

The converter is overkill for me. I don't plan on making this much more than a nice garage. I have all my plans drawn up for the cabinates. It lloks like I'll have to build them over the winter. Down side is this trailer is 225 miles away, so I can only work on it occasionally.

AWK

That is just a normal shore power plug we use on the boats we work on in our shop. You can get them at any boating store but it depends on what type cable you plan on using to power the trailer. I had a good 30 Amp shore power cable so I went with what I could plug that into. All these electrical receptacles and plugs are rather expensive but you can find most of this kind of stuff on e-bay if you know what you are looking for. That is where I got a lot of my stuff and saved a lot of money that way.

The converter may be overkill in some cases but they are good regulated power units and can be used to power radios, a TV, cell phone charger,pretty much anything that uses 12 volts and most can be powered without even having a battery to mess with, that is as long as it is plugged into 110 volts AC.

Once I am done I will use and inverter to power all my AC stuff all accept my air conditioner unit that will have to live off what ever the geni puts out. I burned up a couple TV's and a microwave one time while they were powered by the geni. Some appliances don't like geni voltages for some reason. You can get a better geni but you are going to pay for them.

If you have the same converter as I do you can use that to run your circuits out of and just feed that box with a good heavy duty power cord. Make you up a short stub with a plug where you can plug your power cord into and then run the other end straight into the power unit.

You could buy a service door and mount that to the side of the trailer where your service will be so that you can run your power cord into to make your connection. That door on the outside looks like the pic I have of the water fill box. When it's not in use it just looks like a finished door. It has a tiny slot the cord fits in and covers the hole so varmints and bugs can't get in.

[AWK]

I thinking that may be a good idea for me. I see some nice 30amp cord on Craiglist. I'll have an area where the cord could curl itself into.

I was thinking, most al campers and trailers seem to have the "services" all on the Left (or drivers) side. That is the side I will install my converter, and keep all of mine on that side.


AWK

[d30gaijin]

Where did you get your AC hook up? I like that one. I like the flush fit. AWK

Not exactly the same make inlet but it is close and it is a flush mount marine shore power inlet made by Marinco and available here, which is what I used on my CT conversion: http://www.wholesalemarine.com/pc/MAR-301EL-B/180012/Shorepower+Parts/30+Amp+Shorepower+Inlet.html

At first I wasn't happy with it because it takes a marine type 30 amp to RV 30 amp adapter but I soon discovered its additional features (waterproof connection, won't come unplugged, etc.)



Don

[d30gaijin]

I was thinking, most al campers and trailers seem to have the "services" all on the Left (or drivers) side. That is the side I will install my converter, and keep all of mine on that side.AWK

That's what I have found and matches every RV hookup campground I have been to. Hookups are positioned to accommodate RV left (driver side) inlet/outlet hookups.

Don

[mikeschn]

Looks pretty big to me too!

Of course it won't be long and my teardrops will be that size too!!!



Mike...

[mx842]

I thinking that may be a good idea for me. I see some nice 30amp cord on Craiglist. I'll have an area where the cord could curl itself into.

I was thinking, most al campers and trailers seem to have the "services" all on the Left (or drivers) side. That is the side I will install my converter, and keep all of mine on that side.


AWK

Good idea to keep everything in a small area so that all the feed wires are kept as short as possible. The Marinco plug that d30 posted is good stuff and the price on the site he posted is a good price and would be the simplest set up just run wires right out the back of the plug right into the converter box.