Here Goes with My Cargo Trailer Conversion, In this Sub-Foru

[hankaye]

CaleyAnn, Howdy;

Yup, like the sound of a front yard dry run, be sure to give the neighbors a heads-up,
that will give them time to place lawn chairs and acquire the proper cold adult beverages
my favorite is "Barley pop".

Some thoughts about the spare tire mount.

1 Keep it on the curb side, you'll be away from traffic should you have to pull off
onto the shoulder.

2 Some folks have used the tongue ... or front wall.

hank

[CaleyAnn]

Hank, Unfortunately the front wall is taken up by my little A/C setup. I have already drilled the two holes required for the intake and exhaust, and added the support hooks and platform. Still waiting on the inside vent cover, and the access panel I will install on the outside to cover the holes when the A/C is stored inside the trailer. You Guys never told me that modifying a trailer would so darn complex and time consuming. Whew!! I am just tired thinking about all that has gone into this project.

I may have to put the slide up window in the rear trailer door, if I want to put the spare tire over the curbside fender.

[hankaye]

CaleyAnn, Howdy;

Did you ask before you started on this project?

You do realize that there are other types of windows for use in these trailers,
there are side-ways sliders and crank out (torsion), types as well. Here's a link
to add some confusion to your befuddlement.

http://www.rvwindow.com/RV_Products_Lis ... goryID=187

hank

[CaleyAnn]

Hi Guys, Been a while since I last posted anything on this project. Well, I finally got the disaster rear door replaced with a proper sliding window in it. Twas a very expensive mistake, but now everything is done, and all I have to do is wait until things cool down this year before I can test things out.

Unfortunately for me, I am going to be very selective on what I take. All that camping gear I mentioned is going to stay home, and I will just have to live out of my car and trailer. The reason is that I learned that not only is total towing weight the trailer and its contents, but you also count yourself, and anything inside the car. That pretty much means that I will have only 200 pounds of stuff I can take with me. It means that after I set up, I will be making trips into town to get water, fuel and food every three to five days. Fuel and water are the weightiest problem.

About the only piece of camping gear I will be taking is my shower/restroom tent, and of course the poop stoop, which will be a five gallon can with liner and and chemicals. And of course the other five gallon bucket with electric water pump with spray. Gotta have my creature comforts.

When i went own to the trailer place to have them install the new rear door, the Guys apparently thought the work I did was really good. The whole crew was gaping into the trailer. I guess I did a fair job of outfitting it.

Thanks again for all the kind help. Now all I have to do is go tell the powers that be that starting in September, I will not longer be working their star parties, and that they had better find someone that is willing to run the events. I am tired of delaying my own life to keep these events going. I'm getting too old, too quickly, and want to enjoy a little travel in my trailer. Caley Ann

[hankaye]

CaleyAnn, Howdy;

Welcome back, glad to see you posting and it's good to read that you've gotten the
rear door fixed. I guess you feel pretty good about having a good functional door
back there. If I remember that's the only way in and out of that small CT. Do you
still have the swinging arm to latch the door shut for travel? Do you have a RV type
of latch on the replacement door? Do you have a way of securing the swinging latch
bar so someone can not lock you in? (kids these days), A simple way to keep your exit
in a functional manner would be a simple fix with a long shackle lock and drill a hole
in the swinging flat bar then latch it to the vertical tube that the swinging flat bar
is attached to.

I think you're going to have a hoot with that rig you made.

hank

[CaleyAnn]

Hank, The reason I ended up having to replace the whole rear door was the slicing and dicing I did to try to install an RV lock. I ended up, finally figuring out that the trailer wall in the back was offset to the rear door, making it impossible to install such a lock system.

I will end up putting a handle on the inside, and a slide bolt, so when I pull on the handle, I can slide the bolt to hold the door closed.

I was shown by the trailer people that once I put the two pieces of the latch together and put the lock through both, there is no way for the handle to be latched to try to shut me in. I guess someone could figure out that they could use wire or rope to close me in, but that is a lot of trouble, and more than likely I would push the door open before they could manage such, and be ready to swing my baseball bat (RV Home Protection).

This will probably be my last post on this thread. Nothing else I can accomplish with such a small trailer. It should do the job for a few years. Caley Ann

[hankaye]

CaleyAnn, Howdy;

You and your go-gettum attitude will be missed. Also your thoughts a ideas
about how to get such-n-such accomplished etc. Your choice so ...
All I can do is wish you Fair winds and following seas.

hank

[CaleyAnn]

Hank, Yes, I tend to take the bull by the horns, and wrestle the darn thing into submission.

I did a weight check. The trailer now is about 675#, leaving me just 325#. After eliminating stuff not absolutely essential, I got the load down to 230#. But that does not include food, water (10 gal) and fuel (5 gal). So I astill have a weight problem. Like I said previously, I can probably skim on these, and after setting camp up, go into town to load up on those items to last me for the remainder of my camping stay. I am guessing that this probably is how some people with weight limitations handle the problem. As it is I will be over 1000#, if I include my own body, but I cannot get around that.

Back in 2003 I drove accross the country twice with my Honda CRV, with much larger trailer fully loaded, probably in the range of 1500+#, and things went fine, probably because I kept my speed down, and did not push the hills. My biggest problem I discovered was going up very steep grades. I don't know how steep California State Route 62 is in certain spots, but my car and trailer definitely slowed down to a crawl like some fully loaded big rigs do. I'll just have to play things by ear, and hope I plan well enough to avoid places with long steep grades. Caley Ann

[John61CT]

The weight limit is a safety precaution, and US standards both have a safety caution built in compared to rest of the world, **and** assume fast highway speeds, bad weather etc.

IOW fill your tanks when you're done with the distance travel, from then on take it slow and careful, you'll be fine, from a practical POV.

Legal / insurance issues aside, but then those aren't enforced here as they are in the rest of the world.

[hankaye]

CaleyAnn, Howdy;

Ok, understand you not wanting to push your transportation to the maximum limits.
water weighs in at 8.34# per gallon and gas at 6.3 # per Gal. or ... 8.34 X 10 = 83.4
added to 6.3 X 5 = 31.5 = 114.9# . Propane weighs in at 4.2#/gal. so, in those 20#
propane tanks you're getting just short of 5 gal. of propane. Some folks use the small
Coleman tanks a re-fill them for our weekends and short trips. Plenty of you-tubes
about that. That way you can avoid overpaying for the Blue Rhino tanks that are generally
only about 2/3 full to begin with.

hank

[CaleyAnn]

Good idea. Before heading into the hills, load up with the gas and water for a week. I can manage the food before leaving home, as it really does not weigh that much.

As for propane, I have six one gallon canisters (Coleman), but they are about 20 years old. Not sure they still have anything in them. As little cooking as I do, two of these should be fine, except during the cold winter when I will use my little one burner propane stove for heat inside the trailer. Yes, I know that is a problem, if precautions are not taken. I have exhaust vents in my two trailer side walls, as well as the sliding window in the trailer door. I also have a carbon monoxide/smake detector. Since I will only be heating things until the inside gets warm, then turn it off, and climb into the sleeping bag, there shouldn't be a problem. Anyway, I will have to test one of these bottles to see if they are still viable Caley Ann

[hankaye]

Mornin' Howdy Ms. Hand;

About that 20 year old propane cylinder, It may need to be re-certified first,
unless you've already had that done. Great site for information about propane;
http://www.propane101.com/propanecylind ... tification

" Cylinder Certification and Recertification
Cylinders are subject to recertification (also known as requalification) twelve years from their date of manufacture and every five years after that. For example, a cylinder manufactured in January of 2000 will have to be recertified in January of 2012 meaning if you take your bottle to the propane company in April of 2012 to be refilled, it will have to be requalified by authorized personnel before it can be filled. The recertification process is simple and does not take too long to complete. Think of cylinder recertification as an inspection similar to that of your car. A vehicle has to be inspected annually so that it may continue to operate safely on the road. Similarly, a propane cylinder must be inspected so that it may continue to operate safely in LP Gas service."

Always sumtin else, ain't there.

hank

[CaleyAnn]

Hank, Tnanks. They're Coleman 1# containers, and it probably would cost more to certify those, if anyone would bother, which I will not. I'll just go purchase a couple new ones. I'll bleed the old ones till they are empty.

[hankaye]

CaleyAnn, Howdy;

The Colemans don't get re-cert'ed. they are 'disposable' . You can You tube the
bit about re-filling them, several ways, take your pick. Here's a link to get ya
started;
https://www.google.com/search?q=re+fill ... e&ie=UTF-8

hank

[John61CT]

If you want to refill disposables, keep them outside the living space, or better yet don't travel with them at all.

There are 1# bottles designed to be refilled, really not that expensive.

Nothing beats 20# BBQ bottles for value, but plenty smaller sizes are available, many in aluminum.