Mods to the Travel Trailer
- Thread starter ridesolo
- Start date
Brodie said:
Thank you! It works as well as I hoped it would.
trek97 said:
Welcome to the party, Eric! It's been a fun process. Hopefully when I get back home in March I can finish my CL378 that should have been finished LONG ago!
Hurco550 said:
Thanx, Levi! I have to work pretty hard to try and keep up w/ the local standard of quality that's been set for Marion and Crawford Counties.
And finally!!!! After all that has happened and all that's gone on for us this year, we're REALLY ready to get out of here. Circumstances required that we stick around here a few weeks longer than we would have liked to take care of medical things and other stuff. And of course it's cold and crappy weather now, oh well that's the way it goes. Tomorrow morning early we're on the road for the Gulf Coast.
Bye bye, Ohio, see ya in March.
Bye bye, Ohio, see ya in March.
Months have passed and we are back in Ohio. It was a cool(ish) winter on the Gulf Coast and there was a bunch of fog, but it still beat the winter they had here in Ohio! Anyway, the Tundra did pretty will dragging the Ti and we made it safely down and back. Yeah, I'm pretty careful about my route selection (sure would love to find a way around the TERRIBLE roads around Indianapolis!), knowing that I'm pretty much at my weight max. I had enough power and enough brakes but I wouldn't go full-time or attempt to cross the Rockies w/o more power and bigger brakes. We don't tend to pack very heavy and carry a bunch of junk, but being near the weight max makes us be very careful about what we drag around. Probably some day a 3/4 ton truck will be in order. The trailer suited us well for three months of living and everything worked great. I've got a couple more mods to do over the summer but there's nothing dire.
Darby did well and seemed to enjoy being away from Ohio. It was his first trip and he's an excellent traveler. We're looking forward to a bit more maturity but that'll come.
I even got to pull a float in the Gulfport Mardi Gras parades again. That's a fun time for sure.
Darby did well and seemed to enjoy being away from Ohio. It was his first trip and he's an excellent traveler. We're looking forward to a bit more maturity but that'll come.
I even got to pull a float in the Gulfport Mardi Gras parades again. That's a fun time for sure.
I don't know if anybody really cares, but it's interesting and fun to keep a record of this stuff so here's another installment.
The house battery in the trailer has pretty long in the tooth; the last owner installed a new one back in July of 2009 so it was certainly time. I found a good replacement locally. The last one was a Group 24 Marine battery and I determined that a Group 27 deep cycle would fit in the existing battery box and give me a bit more amp hour capacity.
Since it was time to put in a replacement I decided it was also time to get it all set up correctly. When the trailer isn't in use and put into storage it's best to disconnect the battery. This trailer had never had a cut off switch installed so the only way to disconnect was to take the cover off the box and take the cable off the post. If you have the battery properly secured for travel this ends up being a real pain and the result is that most of the time the cover just lays in there on top of the box and things aren't as secure as they should be. I did some research and found a switch I thought would do the trick.
I chose a good place to install it and got out the 3" hole saw. I'm relatively confident in my abilities, but still have to take a deep breath before using a hole saw on the thing.
Once there was a hole it needed to be covered up.
Run the cables and hook everything up.
Re-attach the top w/ 10 new 1" long #10s, put on the vent hose, and strap it all down securely. Done!
The house battery in the trailer has pretty long in the tooth; the last owner installed a new one back in July of 2009 so it was certainly time. I found a good replacement locally. The last one was a Group 24 Marine battery and I determined that a Group 27 deep cycle would fit in the existing battery box and give me a bit more amp hour capacity.
Since it was time to put in a replacement I decided it was also time to get it all set up correctly. When the trailer isn't in use and put into storage it's best to disconnect the battery. This trailer had never had a cut off switch installed so the only way to disconnect was to take the cover off the box and take the cable off the post. If you have the battery properly secured for travel this ends up being a real pain and the result is that most of the time the cover just lays in there on top of the box and things aren't as secure as they should be. I did some research and found a switch I thought would do the trick.
I chose a good place to install it and got out the 3" hole saw. I'm relatively confident in my abilities, but still have to take a deep breath before using a hole saw on the thing.
Once there was a hole it needed to be covered up.
Run the cables and hook everything up.
Re-attach the top w/ 10 new 1" long #10s, put on the vent hose, and strap it all down securely. Done!
Oh, I like that. I am going to take note of this as at some point I'll add an auxiliary battery to the Bus for camping (hopefully solar powered) and it would be nice to have an easy way to disconnect.
advCo said:
Lots of different ones on eBay, but this type seemed to be the best for my application.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/12v-24v-Waterproof-Flush-Mount-Battery-Switch-for-boat-Caravan-Winch-Power-Cable/202666678510?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649
The time has come to get ready to get outa' here again. The time has gone by pretty quickly, but at least this summer I spent lots of time on the CL378 Honaki project rather than working on this thing trying to get it livable.
A few weeks ago I went to where the Ti was stored and took out the "scare lights" and brought them home to work on. The scare lights aren't used on newer RVs but they use to be fairly common. Having a 6" light mounted up high on the sides of the trailer sounds like a good idea except that they are 12v with a standard 1157 bulb. I had added LED bulbs which helped a little but the plastic lenses had yellowed over time and the end effect was that there were a couple of lighted circles on the wall of the trailer that didn't do anything to light up the area. I had some LED strip lights left over from another project so I bought new lenses and then took the socket guts out of the light bases and replaced them w/ the LED strips.
This picture really doesn't show it well but the things work really great. When it's dark out the lights look like a full moon in the sky.
Friday afternoon the Ti came home again and we started getting it ready for winter.
One of the things we learned last winter is that the crappy day/night window shades that came as original equipment in the thing had to go. They are very finicky to use and, generally, a pain in the posterior. (If you care there's probably a picture that shows them in one of the previous pictures.) We had decided that we'd keep our eyes open for a decent sale on replacement blinds and last week Lowe's came through for us. I've a list of the needed sizes in my phone for months so when the time came we were prepared to take the leap. They'll cut the width for you there in the store but they all were way too long so we spent the weekend getting them to the right length. Some shades can be shortened fairly easily,but not these! The task falls into the Don't Try This At Home category. But, of course, we jumped in feet first. I told Mrs Ridesolo that by the time we got to the last one we'd have it down and that's the way it worked out. However in between the first shade and the last shade one of the large ones came completely undone and it took HOURS to get the clockwork spring mechanism back together and get the shade re-strung and then get the tension adjusted so it would go up and stay up and go down and stay down. Don't Try This At Home folks! Anyway, here's the end result:
And another view:
Todays task was to clean out the basement and get it ready to go. I pulled out everything, vacuumed and then picked what would go back in, what would stay home and what went into the trash. (Does anybody need Mardi Gras beads?) There's a long metal rod that's used when you put the awning up and down. The thing needs to be kept handy but is usually in the way so I hunted through my parts bins and found a couple of plastic clips from who knows where. I drilled a couple of small homes and put them in place. Now the rod is handy and out of the way.
Cleaned up basement, ready to go.
More to come and then off to Mississippi.
A few weeks ago I went to where the Ti was stored and took out the "scare lights" and brought them home to work on. The scare lights aren't used on newer RVs but they use to be fairly common. Having a 6" light mounted up high on the sides of the trailer sounds like a good idea except that they are 12v with a standard 1157 bulb. I had added LED bulbs which helped a little but the plastic lenses had yellowed over time and the end effect was that there were a couple of lighted circles on the wall of the trailer that didn't do anything to light up the area. I had some LED strip lights left over from another project so I bought new lenses and then took the socket guts out of the light bases and replaced them w/ the LED strips.
This picture really doesn't show it well but the things work really great. When it's dark out the lights look like a full moon in the sky.
Friday afternoon the Ti came home again and we started getting it ready for winter.
One of the things we learned last winter is that the crappy day/night window shades that came as original equipment in the thing had to go. They are very finicky to use and, generally, a pain in the posterior. (If you care there's probably a picture that shows them in one of the previous pictures.) We had decided that we'd keep our eyes open for a decent sale on replacement blinds and last week Lowe's came through for us. I've a list of the needed sizes in my phone for months so when the time came we were prepared to take the leap. They'll cut the width for you there in the store but they all were way too long so we spent the weekend getting them to the right length. Some shades can be shortened fairly easily,but not these! The task falls into the Don't Try This At Home category. But, of course, we jumped in feet first. I told Mrs Ridesolo that by the time we got to the last one we'd have it down and that's the way it worked out. However in between the first shade and the last shade one of the large ones came completely undone and it took HOURS to get the clockwork spring mechanism back together and get the shade re-strung and then get the tension adjusted so it would go up and stay up and go down and stay down. Don't Try This At Home folks! Anyway, here's the end result:
And another view:
Todays task was to clean out the basement and get it ready to go. I pulled out everything, vacuumed and then picked what would go back in, what would stay home and what went into the trash. (Does anybody need Mardi Gras beads?) There's a long metal rod that's used when you put the awning up and down. The thing needs to be kept handy but is usually in the way so I hunted through my parts bins and found a couple of plastic clips from who knows where. I drilled a couple of small homes and put them in place. Now the rod is handy and out of the way.
Cleaned up basement, ready to go.
More to come and then off to Mississippi.
We're pretty well packed up and ready to go. What we have left is the last minute put it in just before we leave stuff.
In the past we've followed a thoroughly planned route that I spent hours putting together. We've decided to be less structured and spend far less time on Interstates and more time on US Highways. We bought a generator so we can overnight where ever we want rather than having to try and find campgrounds that are still open late in the year or early in the year.
And then, here we sit, all ready to go and we get a record snow fall for early November. Yup, gotta get outa' here!
In the past we've followed a thoroughly planned route that I spent hours putting together. We've decided to be less structured and spend far less time on Interstates and more time on US Highways. We bought a generator so we can overnight where ever we want rather than having to try and find campgrounds that are still open late in the year or early in the year.
And then, here we sit, all ready to go and we get a record snow fall for early November. Yup, gotta get outa' here!
HerrDeacon
Over 1,000 Posts
Sorry, posted in wrong thread
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Looks like pretty good timing to me.
I like the battery switch accessible from the outside.
I'll be on the lookout for it in every campground I'm in so I can turn it off while no one is looking and watch the confusion
Just a heck of a guy, aren't ya? I made sure I bought a couple extra keys just in case the original gets "lost." If the 12V system is turned off I don't have trailer brakes!
The timing could have been better. This morning it's 5 degrees and even if I get all the snow/ice off the truck it's a bit too cold to roll back the tonneau to expose the hitch. I was trying to think of anybody I know who's got a heated garage. If I could get that cover above freezing just long enough to roll it up it can stay that way until I'm in sunny MS!
Ride/Hike
Active Member
Beautiful rig! Hope y'all have a fine trip, too!
When away from electrical hook-ups, we use a Honda EU2000 to recharge batteries. Can run a 13.5K AC with the Honda after installing Micro Air Easy Start system.
Thank you! I've read about that Micro Air Easy Start, pretty impressive technology. I considered getting one, but our Ti is really our "winter home" and we don't really use it in the summer months so our AC unit doesn't get used very much. As long as we can make some coffee, watch some news, or charge the battery the Honda Gen should do fine for us.
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The time has come again! It seems like every year we move the departure date a little earlier in an effort to have it warmer then it's time to leave... and every year it has gotten cold earlier! This time I almost got the truck stuck in the yard. (The only time I wished for it to be a 4x4. 99.99% of the time I'm, glad it's not.) Hopefully by the time the sun is up we'll be a couple hours south and by Monday evening we'll parked for the winter. We've already been promised there will be a shrimp boil waiting for us.
EDIT: If you look close at the pix above there's snow on the top of the rolled-up awning. It finally came off on the west side of Cincinnati! Really surprised it stayed with us that long.
EDIT: If you look close at the pix above there's snow on the top of the rolled-up awning. It finally came off on the west side of Cincinnati! Really surprised it stayed with us that long.
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Sderbyshire
Into Sailing, classic Triumph cars and motorbikes.
Wow, that‘s quute a home-from-home !
Thank you! It's 28' from the pin to the rear bumper and 33' back from the nose, so it's not a real big one but it's been fine for two adults and a 75# dog for 3-4 months. It's worked well for us and if I had one any bigger/heavier I'd have to get more truck so I feel like I've got a pretty good combination of big enough and not too big.
This Covid-19 deal may throw a wrench into things for the '20-'21 winter. As of now we aren't sure about the feasibility of being too far from hearth n home. We'd been doing the Mississippi trip for a few years now because my Mother-In-Law was in her 90s and we needed to be close enough to get back if necessary. She passed a couple weeks ago so we can now go pretty much wherever we want. We'd been talking about the TX Corpus Christi vicinity or perhaps even on toward New Mexico or Arizona, but now I guess we'll just have to hold off on plans at least for a while. I WOULD NOT be thrilled about the idea of spending another winter in Ohio!
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