Reaver's Squaredrop Camper Build!!

[reaver]

Nope, not a fan of frame grounding either. I'm going to run the buss up top, along with the power wires. The splice is a section cut out of the buss wire (much larger gauge,) the buss wires pulled apart at the center, the incoming wire fed through that hole, wrapped around and soldered, and then a cold shrink wrap around that. Might be overkill but considering this is "expedition" and the wires will be buried under paneling, I don't wanna have to have those go bad. But I also want to keep down the # of wires running back.

Still might not be worth the fuss over running more smaller wires back...

My concern would be solder cracking due to vibrations in that instance. It might not be much of a concern, but I tend to prefer marine crimp connections for that. Now, I did use a bunch of solder seal connectors in the front overhead storage, but if they do fail, I can access and replace them easily, so overall, I'm not too worried about it. Even my overhead light and fan are grounded where I can access the termination point. I don't have any splices anywhere where I can't access them. Something to consider.

 

[reaver]

Only had one day this weekend, but now she's ready for paint!

 

[reaver]

I don't really have any pictures yet, but we put the first coat of paint on the trailer last night. Thinned it down to a 2:1 ratio of paint to water, to help it soak into the canvas. I'll be putting at least two more coats of paint on it. One more full strength coat of exterior latex base coat, followed by a minimum of 1 coat of porch/floor paint, which drys nice and hard. Should be able to get the doors mounted and sealed this weekend!

 

[reaver]

Finished getting the trailer painted this weekend. After that dried, I got the doors mounted with butyl tape. I also got the camp side porch light and roof vent mounted.

Tonight I need to get the faceplate for the battery monitor made, then I'm done with the interior of the cabin.

Trim should hopefully be here Tuesday, and I can start working on getting that on, and figuring out the best way to mount the stove box.

 

[reaver]

I've been really bad about taking progress pictures, but the trailer is usable for it's first run this weekend. Mattress is in, trim is on, awning is mounted, stove box is mounted.

Galley drawers are also made. I just need to make the doors for the galley cabinets tomorrow, and get them mounted.

Once I do that in the morning, I'm spending the rest of the day loading it up, so it's ready to go when my wife gets off work at 1 on Friday.

 

[WYWander]

Very cool! Nice job reaver.


** Also... go Milwaukee!

 

[reaver]

Very cool! Nice job reaver.


** Also... go Milwaukee!

Thanks! I'm very pleased with how it's turned out. I think I'm going to come up with a different solution for mounting the stove box. I think I need to use some sort of bracket that brings the vertical strut channel closer to the body of the trailer. On top of that, when the axle get's moved next month, I don't think I'm going to be able to mount the bottom support where it currently is, so I'm going to have to look at how to solve that.

I'm going to be making lots of notes over the weekend on adjustments.

**EDIT** I don't have Milwaukee money!! I spent it all on building the trailer. Those are Bauer tools. They work well for my needs.

 

[WYWander]

Any reason you can't just bolt it directly to the main wall? Using enough bolts and fender washers maybe?

 

[reaver]

Any reason you can't just bolt it directly to the main wall? Using enough bolts and fender washers maybe?

I'm sure I could, but I'm trying to avoid bolting things directly to the wall if I can. That opens up more possibilities of water ingress, which I'm trying to avoid if I can. I can design a bracket that bolts to the frame, brings the strut channel up and out, and bolt it to that. I'm not going to do anything until after the axle gets moved though, since that will determine where it needs to go.

 

[reaver]

Well, took Groot 2.0 out for it's inaugural trip, and I must say, it was a resounding success!!

 

[WYWander]

Yay!! Very cool. Very jealous.

 

[reaver]

Yay!! Very cool. Very jealous.

Thanks man! It's going to be a work in progress for quite some time. There's lots of tweaks that are going to take place, and I'm sure I'll think of more, the more I use it.

 

[Ebbs]

Awesome Job! I built a trailer last year but went with cargo and RTT, I should have gone Square drop... BUT, the one thing I did do right was make the whole thing bolt to the frame, so I could unbolt it and start over LOL (my wife would kill me)

 

[reaver]

Awesome Job! I built a trailer last year but went with cargo and RTT, I should have gone Square drop... BUT, the one thing I did do right was make the whole thing bolt to the frame, so I could unbolt it and start over LOL (my wife would kill me)

Haha! That's how the box is held onto the floor. Grade 5 bolts to the frame of the trailer.

Don't get me wrong, I love our enclosed cargo trailer with the RTT up top. It served us very well. But, I took what I learned from building that one, and didn't make the same mistakes on this one (is definitely made different mistakes though).

I will say, that I'm VERY glad I went with the simarine system for monitoring. Was it expensive? Yes. Is it worth it? Absolutely. I'll be able to monitor water levels in the tank, Temps in multiple areas (inside, outside, and battery compartment), as well as it having integrated relay functionality, that can be triggered by any number of sensors or functions. They also have an inclinometer I'm planning on adding, to make leveling the trailer super easy.

Planning on getting the fridge box built this weekend. I just need to go and get a crap ton of 2x2 and some plywood.

 

[reaver]

Been a very busy day. I've been working on the fridge box since 9am this morning...

2x2 framing (to support a rack on top of the box)

3/8 plywood skin

Tomorrow I glue on the canvas, and will get a couple of coats of paint on it.

It's supposed to rain late tomorrow night, and I need to use the trailer again next weekend, so I'm moving pretty quick.

 

[reaver]

Ok, so in my attempts to get this box PMF'd, I made many errors. Let's just say things did not go as planned.

First of all, I ran out of canvas. I had enough to do the sides with the doors, and the top, but not the rest of the box.

Then, the pain can spilled.

Then, while trying to hose that off the patio, the hose knocked it over again...

Then I tried to spray the paint using my new paint sprayer (this part worked, but not well for this application. You need a roller to push the paint into the fibers).

I finally got it painted just before dinner, and got the doors on while it started to sprinkle. The paint that's on there will have to last a couple of weeks, until I can pull the top canvas off, and re-wrap it.

I just got these old trade show fabric displays from work that I'm going to use, so that I can save some money.



There a 7x7.5 and an 8x10 display there. Those should work well for this purpose.

 

[reaver]

Since I need to use the trailer this weekend, I got the fridge box in place last night, and temporarily bolted into place.

I need to get some more bolts tonight, as well as work out a way to secure it at the top, that doesn't involve drilling holes in the cabin...