Results for a 18+K mile road trip
Posted: Sun Jun 06, 2021 10:38 amI thought it might be useful if I posted about the condition of my teardrop after returning from an extended trip. It started out essentially new, only a few local overnights so there were a few things to discover on the road.
The trip involved several hundred miles of dirt road driving so it took some hard hits but handled them well overall.
Since my son was mostly going to be boondocking I needed to make a couple of upgrades to the electrical system. The major change was to add a DC/DC charger to recharge the battery while on the road. This worked great but the first night out he noticed the trailer lights were not on, at some point while installing the charger I removed the ground so none of the lights worked. I could have sworn I checked before he left, but I guess not. My son is not the most inclined so this worked out to be a 3 hour troubleshooting phone call. that was the only electrical problem he had for the entire trip.
The biggest problem experienced was wind blown rain while driving. I have a AC unit installed and the mist made it's way through the ac vent and dripped onto the bed. Also, some of the weather-stripping along the bottom of the doors failed and mist would make it through the cracks and onto the bed. Also I had a leak between my toolbox and the camper where the electrical passed through.
So here is what I found...
The trip involved several hundred miles of dirt road driving so it took some hard hits but handled them well overall.
Since my son was mostly going to be boondocking I needed to make a couple of upgrades to the electrical system. The major change was to add a DC/DC charger to recharge the battery while on the road. This worked great but the first night out he noticed the trailer lights were not on, at some point while installing the charger I removed the ground so none of the lights worked. I could have sworn I checked before he left, but I guess not. My son is not the most inclined so this worked out to be a 3 hour troubleshooting phone call. that was the only electrical problem he had for the entire trip.
The biggest problem experienced was wind blown rain while driving. I have a AC unit installed and the mist made it's way through the ac vent and dripped onto the bed. Also, some of the weather-stripping along the bottom of the doors failed and mist would make it through the cracks and onto the bed. Also I had a leak between my toolbox and the camper where the electrical passed through.
So here is what I found...
- I used a trailer jack that mounted in the V portion of the frame, it worked OK but required a lot of winding to get it up out of the way so it doesn't hit rocks when on bad trails. As you can see the jack is angled forward because of getting abused.
- IMG_1722.jpg (119.76 KiB) Viewed 906 times
- The jack was fine the hitch mount actually took the damage (it bent a little)
- IMG_1723.jpg (105.63 KiB) Viewed 906 times
- Minor casualty, one of the levelling bubbles died.
- IMG_1724.jpg (85.16 KiB) Viewed 906 times
