Pyrofish's 8.5' x 20' Toy Hauler

[Pyrofish]

Well, the newly christened "Sailboat" has made it through the first trip. Top tow speed seems to be 65 (some tail wag after that), but at 60, the RPM's on the TV are under 2000, so that's my speed for fuel purposes. With that 8' box height, and 8'6 width, it's just a sail back there. It'll do for the foreseeable future, but I think a 7'6 tall, by 7'6 wide, by 20' length, with a V-nose would be far superior for towing with a half ton.

I got new 1/2" plywood down to cover the old floor the day before we left. I thought I had left enough room for the back door to close... DOH!! What a PITA that was... skillsaw, dremel, hammer and chisel... Had I known how long it would take to fix it in place, I would have just pulled it up and cut a 1/2" off both sheets. Done now though.

Ceiling is insulated, and I (temporarily) installed 3 of 5 of the double dome lights. I put one in the back on it's own switch, the two in the middle have their own switch, then 2 in the front will have their own. With 3 on, there is too much light in the CT. So the leds I purchased for the domes should be great.

I left the walls bare, meaning just metal studs, no panel, no insulation. And we slept on an air mattress. I was pretty excited until we found out the AC, which had cooled it so capably the entire week before, no longer was cooling. It was mid 90's, and it had taken 6 hours to get there, my girlfriend was most unhappy. She was lobbying for a hotel immediately. We found her some bunk space in a friend's camper, and I did the manly thing and I slept in what I brought. I figured I'd need to know what I needed for times when we were on 12v anyway. With the Fantastic Fan on full power, it was ok. Just like sleeping in a tent, which is fine with me, not so fine with my significant other in this weather It would have helped if my screen back door had been rigged up, but I don't have that yet.

Fortunately, the host of this gathering was an AC man in a previous life, and an avid collector of parts and materials. He had the AC back up and running in a few hours. Apparently, and I'm no AC man, so you know... one of the copper pipes was cracked, leading of course to no freon. He was able to install a valve to fill it, and replace that section of pipe, only to find 2 more holes in the coil. They stripped some fins off, then fixed those holes. Some R-22 later and I had a mobile fridge to live in. As long as it's in the shade, even with no insulation in the walls, it was reaching 70F inside.

That night, the interior was cold enough that my better half needed the sleeping bag to cover up! Of course, those AC problems seem like a symptom, not a one time thing. Sooo, I'll probably pick up a new one before November, which is my next trip.

Things I learned this trip:
- I had planned to have 1" of empty space between the skin and the 2" insulation in the walls. The new plan is to install 1/2" plywood around the bottom 4' in this area for attachment of any exterior accessories I might want to install.
- Those LED replacement bulbs will be plenty of light, and worth their weight in the extra wire I would have needed for the added amp draw. If all the lights are LED's I can run one 10 GA wire to the light's switches instead of multiple wires for each switch.
- I need cabinets for clothes. Hadn't thought of that.
- Upper shelving around the top at just above 6', should work great for me.
- A folding bed is going to be miles beyond even my high dollar air mattress.
- I need tunes! I'm going to put my spare vehicle dock for my satellite music in my entertainment center for the hauler. I hadn't figured on speakers and a stereo, but there will be both.

I ran across a Yeti cooler big enough to use as a bench seat. Someone was selling it used. 150 QT, 46" long, 19" wide, and 21" tall, with the cushion, $300. That will be my fridge/one seat

Now I have till November 1st to get the walls and accessories "done", if done is ever a word that can be used on of these. All-in-all, I like my CT conversion.

[Pyrofish]

Finally getting back to working on the CT conversion. We've been camping in it 3 times now with a very minimal set-up.

I finished my 3 exterior outlets last night. By this weekend, I should have all the side wall electric in, and the 3" of insulation in the walls.

It's also time to upgrade from the air mattress. I just ordered this bed:
http://www.samsclub.com/sams/shop/product.jsp?productId=prod1650417&navAction=

Now I just need to figure out a stand for it. I'm thinking plywood and some legs for starters. I'll probably just strap it to the wall for travel. I am considering a way to raise it up to the ceiling for a future install. This one needs to be ready in the 2.5 weeks I have before the next trip though.

Looks like the bathroom, closet, and kitchen will have to wait

[crumvoc]

Finally getting back to working on the CT conversion. We've been camping in it 3 times now with a very minimal set-up.

I finished my 3 exterior outlets last night. By this weekend, I should have all the side wall electric in, and the 3" of insulation in the walls.

It's also time to upgrade from the air mattress. I just ordered this bed:
http://www.samsclub.com/sams/shop/product.jsp?productId=prod1650417&navAction=

Now I just need to figure out a stand for it. I'm thinking plywood and some legs for starters. I'll probably just strap it to the wall for travel. I am considering a way to raise it up to the ceiling for a future install. This one needs to be ready in the 2.5 weeks I have before the next trip though.

Looks like the bathroom, closet, and kitchen will have to wait

Hi! Did you ever get that trailer painted? I recall that you said it was expensive to paint a trailer, and it is... unless... check out this link. http://board.moparts.org/ubbthreads/sho ... art=1&vc=1


It is about a bunch of wacko's who paint cars with Rustoleum and foam brushes from Home Depot. I would ordinarily LAUGH at the idea, but I have an old dodge pickup which suffers from a bad case of paint-falling-off disease. Being cheap myself, I thought, what the hell, I'll give it a shot.

The method is this: Sand lightly, degrease, tack cloth, roll paint reduced at least 50% with mineral spirits. Wait... recoat... at least 5 coats, more for a color change. light colors are easier as they don't show the defects as much. Plus, I understand that light colors don't have as much problem with oxidizing as the darker ones.

So, two years later, the rustoleum paint job I put on the hood and top of the pickup is, by far, the best paint on the vehicle! It's a lot of work, time consuming and lots of sanding/thin recoats, but it sort of really does work! It's not a high end paint job for a custom car, or even one that you want to have people see closer than about 10' away, but for what it is... pretty cool.

You mileage may vary.

[Pyrofish]

That's pretty awesome actually. I've been running around for almost a year with one side gray primer and one side white primer. A rolled on paint job would look far superior to that! It would probably still look like a redneck work trailer, which is fine by me. If anyone knew it was a Toy hauler, that could be a problem.

Thanks for the heads up on that! I'll add it to the list of things to do. The color change has me intrigued, I may have to put some thought into this $100 paint job

[prodart]

around here, you can stop at the local tractor supply and buy tractor enamel in gallon cans and mix one can of their hardener in with it and roll or brush it on. You can also add 8 ounces of naptha {same shelf},to be able to spray it with an HVLP gun. $30 per gallon and a large variety of colors, just a thought

[Pyrofish]

My brother told yesterday that he has a sprayer. I have a decent sized yard. All I need is calm day and some paint

Sounds like a another job to the add to the list of after-the-next-trip...

[Pyrofish]

Finally got some more work done on the hauler. It was a productive day, and hopefully tomorrow will be as well.

I got my 3 exterior outlets installed one night during the week. Got most of the insulation up today.

1" insulation in the factory 1" tubing against the skin.


The brown metal is aluminum standoffs to allow the installation of 2" insulation, for a total of 3" in the walls.



Then the 2" installed




The mess....


Because of needing to use the hauler while the construction is in progress, I haven't done anything in the front 5'... I guess that's tomorrow!

[Pyrofish]

Now I just need to figure out a stand for it. I'm thinking plywood and some legs for starters. I'll probably just strap it to the wall for travel. I am considering a way to raise it up to the ceiling for a future install. This one needs to be ready in the 2.5 weeks I have before the next trip though.

Looks like the bathroom, closet, and kitchen will have to wait

After some careful measurement, there's no way to get the bed on the ceiling without blocking the AC while it's parked. Since I plan to use it will it's parked at home, that's a no go.

I have figured out a pretty thin bed frame, and some pricey folding legs. The whole thing should be 12.5" thick with the 9" mattress. The legs, which I am loathe to order, are these http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0016MYB8S/ref=ox_sc_act_title_2?ie=UTF8&m=A2RP4VCLOBWX64 The price is fine, if you only need 4. I need 9... They sure will be easy to stow, and light. The matress, frame, and these legs will weigh less than 100 lbs

The plywood and legs I had planned was going to weigh about 200 lbs. Since this is going to hang on the wall, less is definitely better.

[Pyrofish]

I decided against those folding legs, and instead purchased some 1-1/2" PVC flanges. My bed frame legs will be sch 80 1-1/2" PVC. After some waffling on those legs, and looking closely at the design, and what they would look like folded up, I realized that each location would have 2 sharp metal point sticking out of the wall. A total of 18 pieces of metal sticking out 2-1/2" past the wooden frame. The PVC sticks out 1-1/2", and is rounded, AND is less than half the price.

Got the mess cleaned up yesterday, and started on the front 4' of the hauler. I need to get that insulated, then a closet built where the electrical will find it's permanent home. I found a brand new Big Kahuna 6 gallon on eBay for $70 shipped, so the shower will also be taking shape this weekend. more progress than I though

[Pyrofish]

Got a lot of work done yesterday thankfully. I got the insulation done. Most of the wood that holds in on the walls. I got the electric panel unhooked from it's temporary position, and built a diving wall to install it into. Got all the wiring back together, or so I thought...

This morning I was installing the last two dome lights in the ceiling and the lights started to flicker. Funny, because I wasn't working on the power side yet. I checked the power outside, then the fuses. Then I smelled it. My lighting junction box... I too the cover off and found a melting wire nut and the wires in the pic below. I pulled the fuse and went about figuring out what I had changed from the temporary install to this install that would have caused the negative connection to melt like this.


That was the trick. The old connection had a wire coming from the panel to a ground block attached to the frame. This installation, the ground block was attached to the panel ground, but screwed into wood. So I ran a new wire to the frame, and the problem seems to be solved. I waited half an hour and checked it with my handy new IR grill thermometer and all seems to be ok.

Speaking of the IR grill thermometer, I used it to check my installed lights. Incandescent dome lights. They were running 140F. I installed some LED arrays, they run at maybe a degree or 2 above room temp. Pretty awesome reduction in heat, and they're actually brighter, and seemingly whiter than the old incandescents. I went back and checked the temp on the light connections once more and just playing around, shot the connectors on the back of the switch. The 2 switches running the LED's were 72F. The switch connection running the one set of incandescents left, was at 78F. Interesting

I'm definitely going to all LED's now! More pics to come, now it's time to go work on the bed frame. Only 3 days left before it needs to be ready for a 5 day trip.

[Pyrofish]

Got the bed frame done, and the rest of the wood up on the insulation. I'll probably put up the bottom half of the wall panels tomorrow after work. I have to build some stuff off the walls, so I might as well not have to do it twice.

[crpngdth2001]

Looking good so far - keep the pictures and updates coming.

[Pyrofish]

Well, I didn't get nearly as far as I'd hoped. I did get the important stuff done though. The bed. This is the bed attached to the wall.



The legs are PVC, so you put them in before you put it down.
The supports on the bottom are attached to the wall with strap hinges with an additional 2x4 screwed to the wall under it. They fold back tight against the wall when not in use.
The rope at the top is on a pulley, and is for letting it down smoothly.
The whole thing weighs about 100 lbs and is made of 1x6"s, and 1x4"s.
I used plastic lattice under the 9" foam mattress for support.

It's now significant-other-approved We laid on it prior to it going up on the wall.

Tomorrow morning starts the battery install, then on to camping.

[Pyrofish]

Slowly but surely got it done.. enough anyway. It's as campable as it needs to be for this weekend.

I wanted the battery mounted in it's final location, but that's not going to happen. I mounted it in it's box, then put it in the front and wired it in temporary. So we'll camp with it in the cabin for this trip.

Loaded from the back prior to loading the Rhino


A littler better shot of the Port side with the bed and chair hanger.


With the Rhino loaded up and ready to roll... soon anyway. Still need to pack my clothes... and get a shower.

[Pyrofish]

The bed was a huge success. It was easy to deploy and to stow, both a one person job. It easily supported our combine weight, which is over 500 lbs. The mattress was also a winner. It was soft enough for my better half and supportive enough for me. After 5 days in it, I couldn't be more pleased with the project and where it's going. Thanks everyone here for the ideas and guidance along the way.