It Works!

I finally got the trailer completed enough to go on a journey, do some camping, drive on dirt, and check out the rest of the new things, like generator, battery charger, lighting, insulation, propane heater, and bed. Like it says in the title for this post, "It Works!"

Since it is the middle of winter, I decided to head south. I haven't been to Death Valley before now, so it seemed like a good place for this season. It is a four hour highway drive from my home, so it was a good test of towing the trailer with a moderate load in it. I was carrying enough gear to comfortably camp for 5 days. Since Willa is working and doesn't get weekends, it was just me and Monty.

I stopped along the way to visit relatives in the Las Vegas area. After the visit, I headed west to Pahrump. From Pahrump, I headed into Death Valley National Park via Hell's Gate. It was late when I arrived, so I decided to pull over at the information kiosk and stay there for the rest of the night. It was cold and clear outside, with an incredible star show this far from the city lights.

The bed was extremely comfortable. The 6 inches of foam were more than adequate. When I awoke, I decided to cook up some oatmeal on the little 1 burner backpack stove sitting on the front counter. After cleaning up, I stepped outside and took a picture of the surrounding hills and the trailer.

Since I just pulled over in a turnout, I didn't unload any of the gear inside. I snapped another picture of the inside of the trailer, showing the cooler, large roughneck tote, and generator all loaded up.

I was really enjoying the views of the multi-colored hills and mountains as I drove down into the valley. I came to a loop road for 20 Mule Team canyon and decided to drive up it and get some photos with the trailer on dirt road. The trailer and Jeep handled driving on the dirt road fine.

After finishing the loop, I headed for Furnace Creek Ranch. Since I was new to the area, I elected to camp in the Park Campground there. I found a nice little site for my camp between two big RV's pulling Jeeps. It had a mound of sand with a large mesquite bush growing in it, creating a small little campsite among all the pull-through sites around it.



After setting up the trailer, one of the curious neighbors came over to get acquainted. He asked if I was going to sleep in a tent, and when I answered that I was going to sleep inside my trailer he asked for a tour. It ended up being a guided tour for four of the neighbors. They were pretty impressed how everything was finished and how much "stuff" I carried along on the trip.

By staying in the park campground at Furnace Creek Ranch I was able to go out and tour some of the back country roads around the valley. I visited the Ghost town of Ryolite first. It was interesting. Like most ghost towns in the west, It had a very colorful past, with wild men and fast women playing a role in its history. One of the most interesting buildings was the bottle house, with walls made up of adult beverage bottles set in concrete.

The Ryolite Jail was a very sturdy one, built of adobe with metal bars and doors that have held up over the ages.



It was a short drive from Ryolite to the road down Titus canyon. This is considered a 2 wheel drive high clearance road. It is "corrugated" for the first 1/2 of the road, with heavy washboard until you reach the pass going down into the canyon. It is very scenic, and goes through the ghost town of Leadfield. According to the park service literature, the town of Leadfield boomed from nothing to a good sized town in 1926 after finding large lead deposits in the area. Within a year, the mines played out, and Leadfield became a ghost town. There are only a few shacks and several mines. After leaving leaving Leadfield, you come across Indian petroglyphs on the canyon walls. A bit further, the canyon narrows and the walls become very interesting.

The next morning, I drove to an area called "Racetrack". Racetrack is down a 27 mile road that is heavily corrugated. Just before you come to the end of the bumpy road, you come to Teapot Junction, which is a place where tourists leave their teapots attached to the signpost

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Most of the teapots have messages scribbled on them with markers, including the owners names and the dates they were hung from the sign.

After 27 bone-jittering miles, you finally arrive at a very ordinary looking dry lake with a couple of parking pullout. I was told to go to the furthest pullout, where I would find many rocks that mysteriously slide across the dry lake bed. After walking a 50 yards from the Jeep, I noticed the first rock, with a well defined skid mark behind it. As I walked the mile or so across the lake bed, there were many more. My neighbor in the campground suggested a reasonable explanation. He said there are two facts at play: 1) The lake bed is clay, which is incredibly slick when the rains wet it. In fact the road is impassable after a rain. And, 2) The area is famous for major windstorms.

So, his theory is that the lake gets wet, the winds blow hard, and the rocks slide across the surface. It seems incredible to see rocks that some weigh close to 50 lbs. being blown along the lake bed. Lacking a more plausible explanation, I'll have to accept his explanation.

On the way home, I made a quick stop at Scotty's castle. Since I plan to return to Death Valley with Willa, I didn't do a tour this time. I just snapped a few pictures, and then headed for camp.

The next day was pack up and travel day. I enjoyed a fine breakfast, said goodbye's to the neighbors, and then packed up for the journey home. It was nice to be able to toss all the gear into the totes and just slide them under the bed of the trailer. Plenty of room for all this gear, and more.

Towing the loaded trailer with the Jeep at highway speeds averages just below 14 mpg. Without the trailer, I typically get just under 16 mpg at the same speeds. The Jeep tows the trailer easily, holding speeds above 50 on all the passes, and averaging 65 on the freeways. I'm happy about the choice of this small little trailer with a nice bed and not much else built-in. It will be a fun time doing further testing.

Happy Trails!

Gil

I woke fairly early, and cooked some oatmeal on my small backpacking stove set on the front counter. After a quick breakfast and cleanup, I stepped outside the trailer and took a picture of the surrounding area.

We've got it covered...

Finally, the upholstery is in, and the "pink" (insulation) is all covered up. I took some pics today after installing the rest of the interior upholstery. I am pretty happy how it came out. My sister, Tess, did a great job, and was very patient with me as I added a lot of accents after the initial layout was done.

Here is a closeup of the upholstery fabric Tess and I picked out. The basic color is a light tan, but it has other colors woven in that move the color towards a reddish color that really matched up to the flooring and the Luan.

Tess got all the cushion covers made and the foam installed. She cut and sewed all of the material to cover the area between the top of the walls and the ceiling. All that was left to finish the upholstery was to mount the fabric on the Luan boards and fasten them to the walls and ceiling.

I started out by stretching the fabric and two layers of batting around the luan boards. I stapled the fabric with about a thousand staples for all the upper trim that covers the area between the walls and the ceiling. Then, I did a few experiments trying to find the best way to attach the boards after they were upholstered.

I had hoped to use wood screws with little hinged caps. I found the screws would twist up the fabric and batting into a wad, and eventually tear the fabric and make it unusable. Then, I tried adding a drop of hot glue on the fabric and that was barely better than without the glue. I tried glueing the hinged screw cover to the fabric, and it worked no better than with the hot glue. Finally, I tried using 1 1/4 inch brads in my little air nailer, and it worked well. It also made it quick and easy to install the boards without an assistant.

Now that I had a workable method of attaching the upholstery to the walls and ceiling, I tackled the "headache board" I planned to install above the back door. With the low ceiling of the trailer, and even lower door openings, about every 3rd time I get out I bang my head on the top of the door. I need a padded board above the door to make it less painful when I forget to duck on the way out.

To build the headache board, I started by cutting a piece of Luan to fit the space between the back door frame and the ceiling. I glued a 1 1/2 inch piece of memory foam to the Luan with 3M 77 adhesive spray. Then, after stretching the fabric over the foam and stapling it to the board, I faced another mounting problem. Again, I couldn't use the screws I had planned on, because they would twist and ruin the fabric. I couldn't use the brad nailer, because I was going into a piece of stainless steel. I decided to use self adhesive industrial strength velcro. After putting about 2 feet of 2" wide velcro cut into 5 strips on the back of the board, I peeled the other side's backing off, and stuck the piece on. It is solid enough that I don't think I'll be removing it unless I plan to replace it, because the Luan may crack before the velcro or the adhesive lets go.

So, here is a picture of the upholstery on the bed/sofa, trim boards with accents, and the foam padded "Headache" board.

We stayed with the same theme for the trim boards in the front.

The walls along the side are a little higher than the ones in the V Front, so I had to deal with the transition of the rear trim boards to the ones in the nose cone. I cut a wedge shaped piece and covered it with the cushion fabric, and I nailed it to the back piece, front piece, wall, and ceiling.

And this picture shows the LED Dome Light and the two LED reading lights turned on.

Here is a picture of the v front counter with the original incandescent dome light above it turned on.

In the sofa position, the seat is the front cushion, with the back being the second cushion, and the third cushion stows neatly behind the seat back. Here is a picture taken from behind the trailer with the doors open to show where the third cushion stows when in the sofa position, and also the storage under the sofa.

Here is a pic of the bed in the bed position from the front area.

The cushions are a composite of 3 inches of poly foam with 3 inches of memory foam on top. We elected to not use piping, because it just makes more bumpy things under you. After sitting and laying on it for a bit, it feels pretty comfy. I'll be anxious to see how good it is for a night of sleeping. Here is a pic of the bed taken from behind the trailer with the doors open.

While I was at my sister's home in Salt Lake, her son, my nephew Tim, looked at the trailer and asked me if I wanted to put bigger tires on the trailer. I told him it was in the plan, but I hadn't got there yet. He made me a great deal on a couple of slightly used BFG All Terrains that were 31x10.50x15. That works out great for me, because they are about 5 inches taller than the original 205/75/15 tires and they fit under the stock fenders with the 4 inches of lift I already had installed. Also, they work on the stock wheels, so I didn't have to get a new set of wheels. He even mounted them up for me. Here is a pic of them on the trailer.

This just about completes phase one of the build.

Here is the list of changes since I bought the trailer:

1) Remove vinyl wrap

2) Install vinyl flooring

3) Add rear stabilizer jacks

4) Add 4" lift blocks

5) Insulate sides and top

6) Add 30 amp service

7) Add 100 amp/hr AGM battery

8) Install combination converter/charger/distribution panel

9) Install vent with Fantastic fan

10) Install 2 slider windows

11) Install LED Dome and reading lamps

12) Install porch lamp

13) Move original dome lamp to front V section for desk/counter lighting

14) Build and install convertible bed/sofa

15) Install front counter top

17) Paint all exposed wood with satin Urethane

16) Upholster bed cushions with composite of 3" urethane foam and 3" memory foam

17) Build, upholster, and install trim panels between walls and ceiling

18) Build, upholster, and install "headache board" above back door

19) Convert vehicle/trailer hookup from 4 wire to 7 wire and add battery charge circuit

20) Install 31" All Terrain tires

21) Install porthole window in side door

22) Install Max Air vent cover

23) Install roof rack

With only the last 3 items on the list left to do, the trailer is now camp ready. I have a vent cover, roof rack, and a porthole to install, and then we go into the testing to see how it holds up on the "corrugated" dirt roads around here. Phase 2 is next year's project, and it is pretty open now, depending on how the trailer works for my intended goals:

- Camping on back country roads

- Minimum setup

- Minimum weight

- Durable

- Able to use for cargo when needed

I'll let you know when I get it loaded up and take it out for the test camp.

Stay tuned!

Gil