Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

Stairs
My current stairs aren’t the best. OK, it is a step ladder that my wife wants back in the house.


So I ordered some RV steps online and here they are. Now I just need to figure out how to bolt or weld these big boys on. They looked much smaller online.
The underside cross members on the trailer don’t line up where I need to place the steps. They are about 6â€

PostPosted: Mon Aug 23, 2010 10:07 pm Post subject: Reply with quote
Lights
I found some LED 120 v lights at Ikea. They’re very bright for LEDs and slipped easily between the roof ribs and the luan on the ceiling. They come in a pair and have a long cord with a switch. I ran the wire along the top of the wall behind the molding and mount the switch to the wall near the front of the trailer.


I found another LED light at Big Lots that runs on both 120v and AA batteries. It has three sets of LEDs that can pivot and automatically switches between power sources. It is not as bright but I like having a battery light.


My favorite light is the red rope light. I had this and thought it might work. I laid it behind the molding above the paneling. The light is indirect and reflects off the aluminum for an interesting effect. I think it is pretty cool but my wife thinks it is a bit gaudy and reminiscent of a brothel. Can’t make everybody happy all the tim


If my wife said that that I'd want to know how she knows what a brothel looks like

Took the trailer out for its first camping trip. Spent 3 days in it and everything worked as intended. One thing I'm thinking about changing is the location of the spare tire. It sits too close to the ground and I'm going to place it on top of the a frame. More grinding to get the bracket off but I think I will just use the same bracket and bolt it to the top.





And the tiny trailer pulls very easily. In fact I hardly notice it. Maybe this is why.




496 Cubic Inch V8 makes me happy.

Nice job.

$13 at Walmart. Works great for us and folds flat for storage/transport.

Don

Here's a nice aluminum one we got ... pretty sturdy!! http://www.harborfreight.com/catalogsea ... ding+step+ Got it with a coupon for 20 bucks ...

We went the other route. Typical RV step. Costs a little more but we think that it was worth it.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Black-Pu ... 3cae7ac6f6

Looks sharp.

That rope light was a nice touch.

Are those bubble levels built into the windows?

your wife is right about the brothel look. And I like it. Nice conversion. Thanks for sharing your work with us.

mdvaden wrote:Looks sharp.

That rope light was a nice touch.

Are those bubble levels built into the windows?

I do like the rope light. Gives a nice touch. The bubble level was just sitting on the window sill when I took the picture. It's one of those for attaching to a string when building a fence. I bought it just for the trailer as it is really small and easy to carry but does come in handy all the time.

I did a few more improvements this weekend on the trailer.
I also found a small pine “pantryâ€

I added another small table using the same design as the first one. It uses a 30â€

Spent quite a while on the indoors lights. I wired up the 12v overhead light that came with the trailer to my system. Now it works off the battery instead of the trailer wiring plug. I also installed a light switch near the side door for the 120v LED lights.


I did a load test and the LED lights only pull about 0.4 amps and that includes the loss from the inverter.

I tested two different inverters to see how much current they pulled. I have a newer model that is rated at 145 watts continuous and 175 watts max. Without a load it uses about .4 amps. My old one is rated at 100 watts continuous and 200 peak. It only pulls about .05 amps. I’m glad I checked because I thought the new one would be more efficient but that’s not the case.

Today at Big Lots I found some more LED lights that run both on 120v and AAA batteries. This is very similar to the overhead light I installed a couple weeks ago and uses the same size transformer. I wired this light into the existing light’s transformer and mounted it under the shelf above the couch/bed. It is adjustable and has a high/low setting. Cost $18.

Nice work!

Prem