Adding living quarters to 32' Gooseneck

[Shadow Catcher]

It looks great, BUT, both the propane and battery(s) need to be vented outside and having a propane tank insides give me the willies. Hydrogen vented from batteries rises and propane leaking from tank and lines sink. Some one will correct me but I think most fifth wheels have propane tanks are in an external compartment opening to the outside and propane plumbing runs under the trailer till it comes up to an appliance. I can tell you from first hand experience that propane lines can and do leak and the main reason I went with an AGM battery is that they are recombinant (reabsorb hydrogen) and do not vent hydrogen think, Hindenburg.

[mathersports]

Thanks for the kind words! We are really looking forward to using it this summer!

Shadow Catcher, thanks for the concern. The pictures are a little deceiving. The batteries and propane are mounted under the gooseneck outside. I have the front of the "cage" covered with diamond plate but there is open space all around both, similar to the genny cage just on the other side.

[mathersports]

Well I got the truck and trailer weighted
Steer Axle 4400
Drive Axle 5700
Trailer Axle 5580
Gross Weight 15680

It appears that the empty weight the previous owner told me of 7k was a bit on the high side. I am pretty happy with these empty numbers. Heavy pin weight but with everything I added to the living quarters all being on the pin it was expected.

So my visit to the CT DMV was as expected interesting, but in a good way :-).
Turns out there are no "camper" trailer plates in CT, only camp trailer which all non commercial trailers fall into. So instead of asking about it I just filled out the reg with camp trailer and submitted, it worked and all I had to do was get a vin check in the inspection lane and I was all set, stress over and done with!!

[absolutsnwbrdr]

Thats an awesome conversion!

[Engineer Guy]

Yah, ditto on the High Five. Job well done.

Until they could modify the Building to permanently install an MRI Machine locally, G.E. parked their MRI Semi Truck just outside this Med Clinic. Major Amps were run to the Semi Trailer via a 'Ship-to-Shore'-sized Electrical Cable. I'm guessing 480 VAC - 3 Phase. I checked how their tucked their HVAC and other necessities into the front exterior of the Trailer. It wasted no space, and was done intelligently, like your Design. I'm always looking around at such implementations for new ideas. I mentally bookmarked some good ideas from your Build.

Because of European Ferries charging by length, you can also see here what I've seen there on Scania or Mitsubishi Trucks - Manufacturers to those Truck Markets - how they tuck Batteries and Filters in back of the Cab, thus shortening the Cab length to hold more Cargo on a given Chassis length. They are good studies for us trying to use space efficiently.

Thanks for sharing...

[mathersports]

I got my 3 way rear view camera installed. Being new to a trailer this big as well as the gooseneck, these should make it a little easier to backup.

I also started measuring the tie down locations for carrying two atv’s with one on a trailer. This way we can disconnect the truck and throw one in the bed and the other on the trailer. Unfortunately we do not have much in the way of riding from the campground up here in New England.

The rear dinette seat was boxed off for stronger rear back. I decided to cut it out a bit to hold books and magazines.

Not sure which board I saw it on, but they had a cool setup to swing the tool box from inside the trailer to outside. I started working on this as well.

[mathersports]

Time to update with some pic’s
Here are some pic’s of the rear (garage) area of the trailer.


The tire racks in the rear can be converted over to be shelves if I do not have the car or ATV with me.



I still need to finish the rear corners and above the rear door.
I am also added another roof vent above the front bedroom for more air…