So this is happening, Mirage 8.5x16x7.5 V-nose build thread

Converting Cargo Trailers into TTTs

Re: So this is happening, Mirage 8.5x16x7.5 V-nose build thr

Postby brianjonesphoto » Thu Jul 09, 2020 10:04 am

I found them on eBay. It’s $500 for 4 180ah cells. Another $100 for shipping and taxes. I’m waiting for more seller communication before I buy them.


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Re: So this is happening, Mirage 8.5x16x7.5 V-nose build thr

Postby flboy » Thu Jul 09, 2020 10:07 am

brianjonesphoto wrote:I found them on eBay. It’s $500 for 4 180ah cells. Another $100 for shipping and taxes. I’m waiting for more seller communication before I buy them.


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Does that also include the BMS or do you still have to buy the BMS and then build the 12VDC Cell?
Don (Flboy)

YouTube Video of Finished 6x12 Trailer:
https://youtu.be/6_-8cVdWUIA
YouTube Video of 7*18 with 2ft V-nose Trailer:
https://youtu.be/MUcMM86LA2g
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Re: So this is happening, Mirage 8.5x16x7.5 V-nose build thr

Postby brianjonesphoto » Thu Jul 09, 2020 10:12 am

flboy wrote:
brianjonesphoto wrote:I found them on eBay. It’s $500 for 4 180ah cells. Another $100 for shipping and taxes. I’m waiting for more seller communication before I buy them.


Does that also include the BMS or do you still have to buy the BMS and then build the 12VDC Cell?


Just bare cells, no bms. I’m planning on using an electrodacus bms/charge controller. Why does it seem everything for this trailer is a multiple of $200? We have started referring to this ATHD another two hundred dollars.
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Re: So this is happening, Mirage 8.5x16x7.5 V-nose build thr

Postby brianjonesphoto » Thu Jul 09, 2020 9:11 pm

I"m feeling pretty like some momentum is building. With walls, half the windows and ceiling in place it's starting to take shape. I mocked up mu power center layout tonight and I think everything will fit in the given space.

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I also red did my blue tape layout for my front end cabinet/bathroom. I still think it's going to work out well. I'm not going to hold off until I get my thetford toilet and confirm layout before I start building things.

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It felt good to get my AC input hooked up so I can get the lights on while I'm working.
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Re: So this is happening, Mirage 8.5x16x7.5 V-nose build thr

Postby brianjonesphoto » Tue Jul 28, 2020 8:50 pm

I've been making some slow progress. I had 3 days of work come up and the usual life/full time parenting stuff keeping me from getting much done.

I've started framing in the base cabinets.
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Framed up my pedestal cabinet for a future top loading 12v fridge. This will also house the bulk of the water system.
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I took the time to get my electrical closer to finished. The fuse panel is in switches are functional.
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I've started the plumbing! I got the 30 gallon fresh tank installed yesterday. I have no plans for holding tanks. Toilet will be a port-a-potty type. Gray water will go into 2 jerry cans that will be emptied as needed.
The under mount tank only used up 4 of the 16" of ground clearance. I think I'll be OK for potholed gravel road travel. Tank is covered with 1/2" plywood for support and protection. I need to find a solution to cover that last section of the bottom. It's not flat with the rest of the tank.
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Re: So this is happening, Mirage 8.5x16x7.5 V-nose build thr

Postby featherliteCT1 » Wed Jul 29, 2020 6:36 pm

Wow! That is some good progress! :applause:
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Re: So this is happening, Mirage 8.5x16x7.5 V-nose build thr

Postby brianjonesphoto » Sat Aug 01, 2020 8:56 am

I made a little more the second half of the week. I got my water pump plumbed twice. I put everything together in the most logical way. Posted it to one of the facebook groups and some people pointed out so potential issues, so I did it again. Easier to deal with now.

First attempt.
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Problems fixed. The motor is no longer on the bottom of the pump, but still easily accessible and the accumulator is in a position where it will drain and the valve is easily accessible.
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I also had time to patch my earlier hole saw error.
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Today's plan it to get my base cabinet doors built. I got half of the doors frame assembled last night. I've got to say the pocket hole jigs are worth every penny granted I borrowed my dad's jig, but if I ever need to use it again I'll spend the $100 for my own. Putting the doors together was so easy with just some glue and screws, not long clamps no fancy router bits.
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Re: So this is happening, Mirage 8.5x16x7.5 V-nose build thr

Postby brianjonesphoto » Tue Nov 24, 2020 1:01 am

Wow it's been long time since I've been able to get back here for an update. Long story short it's 2020 and COVID living has greatly reduced the amount of personal time available to me. Since September I've been not only stay at home dad, but preschool teacher to my 4yo and virtual para-educator for my second grader. Anyway enough of the excuses.

A lot has happened to this project since August! As it sits today I'm about 85% complete. There are only 2 big projects left. The floor! I need to insulate the bottom and lay the floor now that the e-track layout is finalized. I still plan to flush mount the etrack by raising the floor 1/2".

OK I'll do my best to put this in a logical order here we go.

The last installment ended with me fixing my misplaced water fill hole. :oops: :x

I spend some more time on the cabinets. I don't know if I pointed this out before but it will add some context to my build. I'm 6'6" tall and I am building this trailer so it fits me. The counter height is 41" It's a great working height for me, and makes lots of space in the cabinets. At this point I am not building drawers. I may add some inside the cabinets later but for now cabinet doors are simpler to build.
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This was my first attempt at any sort of cabinet building. The Kreg pocket hole jig makes things so easy. These cabinet doors took me maybe 2 hours to build. Since I was building this myself I did a few unconventional things. Both cabinets that flank the door open from 2 sides. From inside as normal as well as a hidden door that opens from the doorway so I can access these cabinet while standing outside reaching through the doorway.

Since I am offsetting the cabinets to the V walls I only have right angles facing toward the street wall. I am also using salvaged wall cabinets. Add these 2 factors together and I get to cut the wall cabinets to fit the odd angles. It worked out pretty well thankfully. My cuts were true but the walls unfortunately aren't so my finished gaps are not as clean as I'd like it to be. This meant I also needed to cut the shelves and drill shelf peg holes into the wall.
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After too many hours debating colors I landed on a blue that is surprisingly close to the color of blue painters tape. I guess I was inspired by all the hour staring at the tape mockups. For the bathroom wall I decided to use a single sheet of 1/2" sanded plywood with a 1x3 laminated to either side of the outside edge for rigidity.
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The pieces of masking tape you see on the ceiling are my solution to not installing furring strips that line up with the edges of my luan sheets. I pulled the edges down and added some strips 7/16x2 hemlock trim boards and stapled the adjacent luan edges together to eliminate the gaps. A literal stop gap measure, but better than ripping it out and starting over.

For counter top I wanted something light, inexpensive, and slid so I can have an under-mount sink. I landed on solid wood flooring, unfinished maple to be exact. I got a 20-ish sqft bundle from lumber liquidators for about $90. It was enough for the 2 countertops I need. I had some challenges to overcome like getting all the angles right. Since it is flooring it is machined on the back with beads that run the length of each board as well as being T&G. So exposed edges need some fill work.
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My biggest motivation for an undermount sink was to reclaim counter space. It's so easy to save the plug and finish it so I can be an inset.
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Early August was also my change to install the Awning. I originally planned to save the awning for phase 2, but As I discovered the budget was only a suggestion and delaying things to spend less means it's harder to deal with later. I went with an Aleko awning because they are affordable and most importantly their US HQ is an hours drive from me so if all goes wrong I can show up on their doorstep and force them to deal with me. I watched several videos and read many build threads. I figured out the solution to some of the common awning installation issues. First don't try to "thread" the fabric into the anchor rail. Here was my process. flop the fabric upside down onto the roof. Use the included plastic pusher to push the end of the fabric into the anchor slot. Cut the plastic anchor rod end at an angle. You want to be careful not to make a sharp point. I cut it twice to make a ^ point. This allowed me to twist the ride to get past wrinkles as I fed it through without poking any holes in the fabric. Then feed the rod through the mount hardware into the anchor track.

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I'm happy to say my bed lift design works pretty darn well. My goals were minimal stack height. I have 90" interior height so I have a max of 11" for me to still be able to walk under the bed when raised. I built the bedframe like one I built a few years ago. We use it nightly and it hasn't failed in more than 5 years. I used 2x8's for the framing so the mattress can be suspended within the frame instead of sitting on top of the frame. I found an Ikea bedframe for almost free on craigslist and I used the cross slats and center support. It was worth the hassle as the slats have lots of wood waste and the metal center support beam is stronger than wood of the same size.

Image

I used the tried and true unistrut for track, but I did not use and wheeled fittings. After reading FLboy's binding issues I took his advise to build some slop into the system. I also didn't want any exposed cables. Taking design cues from the racor storage lift, I used a work drive gearbox for a simple selflocking winch. I ran my 2 cables from the top anchor on one unistrut through the winch shaft, under the mattress and to the top of the opposite unistrut. This way the shift winds the cable from the middle-ish and the bed raises more or less evenly without binding. For hardware I used 2" angle iron holding a pulley between them. The pulley is mounted with a sex bolt that also keep the fitting inside the strut. I had binding issues from the walls not being sqaure to each other. I decided the easiest way to deal with this was to allow the pulley hardware on the winch side to float by adding some longer bolts and extra jam nuts. You can see the bolt heads don't sit right on the board in the second photo. The lift is operated with a cordless drill for simplicity.

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I need to go back and take more detail photos of this build. Let me know if there's something specific you want to see.

My eletrical system turned out pretty well. I ended up buying 4 150ah LiFePo4 cells on Aliexpress they arrived in about 6 weeks time. Now I only had to wait 5 weeks for the Eletrodacus BMS. I can't say enough good things about the Eletrodacus the design is great and the support is above and beyond anything I expected. I really like how it uses external controls to deal with switching. Think of it as a small network of devices vs a single device that can go bad. It has a built in solar controller too. I'm using a 100A Victron smart battery protect as the discharge control and a 65A battery protect as the charge control. For the DC converter/charger I'm using a Meanwell RSP-15-500. It can be adjusted to 14.5 volts and puts out 41A. It's very efficient drawing only 6 amps from shore power. This works great as I have 3 other battery chargers running off my EU2000i for out electric motorcycles. I'm pulling 10-12 amps when everything is charging. I decided to conceal the electrical system with a panel that matches my cabinet doors but instead of hinges it's held on with magnets. I also didn't what the BMS front and center so I mounted it inside the cabinet next to the eletrical system. While the info if good to have I don't need to be geeking out over it while on "vacation".

Since everything is in pretty tight quarters I decided to use triple and double runs of 8AWG wire for my larger loads instead of the larger less flexible 4awg. it ends up 3x8awg is equal to 3AWG. As you can see for the main battery cables the triple runs are terminated with 2AWG copper crimp connectors. I discovered that you get what you pay for with the cheap 12v breakers on Amazon. I orignally ordered a 50A breaker for my charge circuit figuring it would be fine for a 40a load. Well after 10 minutes it would trip. I tried a 60a of the same design it lasted 12 minutes. These breakers are significantly under rated. I ended up using an 80A for a 40A load seems crazy to have to double rating for it to work. I suppose it's safer than the other way around.

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This little cabinet houses the water system. It will also be the base for the 12v fridge. I had 2 extra hinges left from the cabinets so decieded at the last minute to make my life a little easier if I ever need to work on the water pump or accumulator. It's held in place in the front edge by 2 screw. 20 seconds and I can access everything from 3 sides if needed.

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We ended up getting a great deal on an ICECO VL45 fridge. Amazon had a $115 off coupon around prime day and we had some credit card reward points we could use. Out of pocket was $250. I had planned to get the 60 liter version but in my excitement over the coupon I got the 45l instead. I think we will be fine. I'm looking forward to not having to deal with ice and soggy food.

Labor Day weekend we took it on a one night shake down trip an hour from home. Everything went pretty well, no major issues. My outdoor kitchen concept worked well, but we discovered we lacked enough light outside to cook before sunup or cleaning up after sunset. Not an issue in the summer but fall and spring a real pain. I got a 5m waterproof LED strip and adhered it to the channel in the awning anchor. We now have so much light I needed to add a dimmer for it.
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We also discovered that we really did need windows at the back of the trailer. I had 2 12x20 window planned for that area but wanted to see if they were needed. With the ramp closed there was lots of still air around our bed. We had one more camping trip planned for October 17th so the next weekend those windows went in. I also had time to get the overhead cabinets in and I decided to add a Chinese knockoff diesel heater. With a mid fall camping trip at higher elevation I know overnight lows would dip into the 30's, and for the cost of a buddy heater I can get a permanently installed heater with a thermostat control. The heater combustion air is all plumbed outside so it's safe for an enclosed space. So far we've used it on 2 cold mornings and It' worked out great. Picking a mounting location was a bit of a challenge. I decided to extent the street side wheel well to contain the heater. It's a tight fit but it works well. I've mounted the fuel tank on the nose and ran the fuel line up the frame rail. Not bad for $100. Now the wheel wells are insulated and finished to boot.

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Our last camping trip of the season was our longest tow and first multi night trip. My 3.0L diesel ram half ton did well pulling from sea level over a 4500' pass in 100 miles. There were a couple slower climbs, but they were by choice. No need to make the truck work hard to save 20 minutes of travel time. I'm pulling a barn on wheels no land speed records will be set. The trailer feels pretty balanced, not drama. I hit the scales since they were close and available to play on for a few minutes. 5000lbs loaded with half a tank of water with 600lbs tongue weight. I thought I would need a WD hitch but I was pleasantly surprised how well it towed. I'm keeping my eye out for a good deal on an Anderson hitch, better safe than sorry. Why risk a $15k trailer build to save $500 on a hitch.

Loaded up and ready to head out. Plenty of space for more stuff. It's nice to have some extra room. A few more trips and we will figure out the best loading method, hopefully.

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Great camp location

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Early on we decided to go with disco beds for the flexibility, but he setup and tear down each time is a PITA. I came up with a solution. I over did it on ordering etrack so I had some extra piece and this makes life so much easier. takes 90 second to setup now.
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Re: So this is happening, Mirage 8.5x16x7.5 V-nose build thr

Postby ris » Tue Nov 24, 2020 4:09 pm

Looking nice!! It is interesting that our 8.5' X 18' X 6.5' with barn doors and V front, loaded with batteries and 30 gal. of water weighs 5800lbs with a 590 lb tongue weight. There are only two of us. Enjoy your trailer we certainly do.
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Re: So this is happening, Mirage 8.5x16x7.5 V-nose build thr

Postby featherliteCT1 » Tue Nov 24, 2020 8:03 pm

WOW! Really looks great! Your knowledge, skills and execution are enviable. With all that progress, and raising the kids at the same time, I am wondering if you get much sleep. LOL!
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Re: So this is happening, Mirage 8.5x16x7.5 V-nose build thr

Postby BigDave_185 » Tue Dec 08, 2020 8:53 am

I’m impressed. Seemed like a fast paced build which makes a great read

Where about scare you from, the kids on trails bikes is awesome!


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Re: So this is happening, Mirage 8.5x16x7.5 V-nose build thr

Postby flboy » Tue Dec 08, 2020 7:33 pm

Trailer looks awesome. Very nice work. I especially like your bed setup. If I ever do that again, I will do something similar. Mine works fine, but is more complex than needed.

Can you give me some info on your source and etc. for the diesel heater? I need to think about adding a heater.
Don (Flboy)

YouTube Video of Finished 6x12 Trailer:
https://youtu.be/6_-8cVdWUIA
YouTube Video of 7*18 with 2ft V-nose Trailer:
https://youtu.be/MUcMM86LA2g
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Re: So this is happening, Mirage 8.5x16x7.5 V-nose build thr

Postby brianjonesphoto » Thu Dec 10, 2020 8:40 am

flboy wrote:Trailer looks awesome. Very nice work. I especially like your bed setup. If I ever do that again, I will do something similar. Mine works fine, but is more complex than needed.

Can you give me some info on your source and etc. for the diesel heater? I need to think about adding a heater.

Thanks Don
The heater was the most reasonable priced one from a US based shipper on ebay.There are literally hundreds of options for these knockoff heaters. I paid $95 shipped for mine. There is a good facebook group for these heaters "Chinese Diesel vehicle air heaters - Troubleshooting & Parts sales" and I was able to figure out what to look for. There is a guy I believe based in Australia that has started making an aftermarket controller for these heaters called Afterbruner. I wanted to make sure I got one that would be compatible with that controller just in case.
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Re: So this is happening, Mirage 8.5x16x7.5 V-nose build thr

Postby brianjonesphoto » Thu Dec 10, 2020 9:31 am

Here is some more details about the bed lift. I'm cosoldiating this with some of the other post so it's all in 1 place.

I'm happy to say my bed lift design works pretty darn well. My goals were minimal stack height. I have 90" interior height so I have a max of 11" for me to still be able to walk under the bed when raised. I built the bedframe like one I built a few years ago. We use it nightly and it hasn't failed in more than 5 years. I used 2x8's for the framing so the mattress can be suspended within the frame instead of sitting on top of the frame. I found an Ikea bedframe for almost free on craigslist and I used the cross slats and center support. It was worth the hassle as the slats have lots of wood waste and the metal center support beam is stronger than wood of the same size.

Image

Bed stack height ended up being just over 9"
Image

I used the tried and true unistrut for track, but I did not use and wheeled fittings. After reading FLboy's binding issues I took his advise to build some slop into the system. I also didn't want any exposed cables. Taking design cues from the racor storage lift, I used a worm drive gearbox for a simple selflocking winch. I ran my 2 cables from the top anchor on one unistrut through the winch shaft, under the mattress and to the top of the opposite unistrut. This way the shift winds the cable from the middle-ish and the bed raises more or less evenly without binding.

I initially used self tapping #10 screws to attach the struts but I will be replacing those with #10 Riv-Nuts when I take this apart for painting. I had issues with one of these stripping multiple screws on one of the studs. There are 2 cables each run down the length of the bed and attach to the top of a piece of unstrut attached to a wall stud. Obviously the unistrut needed to mount to wall studs. Do to space constraints we decided to use a Full XL mattress which is 54x80". The frame width is 58" this does not line up with 16" O/C studs so I chose to off set the unistrut from the corners where most people put them. I haven't seen any negative impacts from this choice yet.

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For hardware I used 2" angle iron holding a pulley between them. The pulley is mounted with a sex bolt that also keep the fitting inside the strut.

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The cable goes around the pulley and feeds onto the spool. 2 of the 4 pulleys are designed with some float to accommodate things being less than perfectly square. I chose to let the spool side float as there is more room. You can see the gearbox in these photos. I had binding issues from the walls not being square to each other. I decided the easiest way to deal with this was to allow the pulley hardware on the winch side to float by adding some longer bolts and extra jam nuts. You can see the bolt heads don't sit right on the board in the second photo. The lift is operated with a cordless drill for simplicity.

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The bed blocks 2 of the puck lights and it got really dark at the back of the trailer when the ramp was closed. I decided to as some light to the bottom of the bed. Again I wanted simplicity. I decided to use LED strips that would be powered from the same circuit as the ceiling lights. I used some pogo pins and aluminum trip to make a contact on the top of the bed frame to power the light while the bed is up. When the bed is lowered the circuit is broken and the lights turns off.

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I had some difficulty getting the light to come on consistantly at first. the washer you see just under the pogo pin board is a height stop. I used unistrut cone nuts and thick fender washers to make a stop for each track and now the bed has a constant stop point and the light works great.
Image











https://youtu.be/WL8hLEvCLGA
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Re: So this is happening, Mirage 8.5x16x7.5 V-nose build thr

Postby featherliteCT1 » Sun Dec 13, 2020 3:20 pm

brianjonesphoto,

In your November 24, 2020 post, you posted a photo of your electrical system with a Mean Well Model RSP-500-15 AC to DC power supply, feeding into your Eletrodacus BMS, to charge your four 150ah LiFePo4 cells.

Have you used the power supply to charge your batteries after the batteries have been discharged deeply enough to pull maximum amps from your power supply? I think your power supply is rated at 33.4 amps.

The reason I ask is because I recently purchased a Mean Well power supply rated at 30 amps to charge my 235ah lead acid battery bank. The power supply functions well when the batteries are not deeply discharged. However, if the batteries are discharged down to, say 150 remaining ah, and if I try to charge the batteries, the batteries draw more than 30ah, and the power supply overload protection kicks the power supply off.

My charge controller is rated at 30ah, and has a feature that is supposed to limit down the excess amp input. However, I noticed that my battery monitor will show around 35 amps being drawn by the batteries right before the power supply kicks off. I suspect that my charge controller cannot instantaneously limit the current down to the rated 30ah, but not sure.

If you have not already done so, I was wondering if you could test your system by charging under conditions that would draw a heavy load of current.

Thank you!
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