B&B...Bearings and Brakes I mean...

When I towed the trailer home after purchasing it I did not hook up the brakes.  Without physically inspecting the brakes there is no way to tell if either the brake assemblies or the wiring are working properly.  I did not want to take a chance. I was not going to be driving over any big mountain passes and the trailer only weighs 2400 lbs so for just the trip home not having brakes was not an issue.

In preparation for the 2016 Roslyn Rally I wanted to check the condition of the bearings and electric brakes.  When I rewired the trailer to tow vehicle plug I had checked the continuity of the wiring harness going back to the brakes.  So I knew that was in good condition.

I pulled the wheels and the drums to take a look. I started on the driver side. The outer bearing looked good.  The grease looked tired. The electric brake assembly was rusty, worn out. The lower spring was broken.  I had planned on getting new brake assemblies anyways. They are inexpensive and you cannot find individual parts for these brakes.

Here is a side by side of the new and old:

I then treated the axle and leaf springs, which only had surface rust, with several coats of Corroseal:

I pulled the rear bearing  out of the drum and it looked good. Cleaned and inspected the spindle which also was in good shape, no wear or rust.

The drums were also in good condition, very little wear on them. I scuffed the inside of the drum with  80 grit sandpaper. Next I cleaned the bearing races and the drum with brake cleaner. Here is a before and after photo:

 

I then reinstalled there inner bearing with new seals.  I took the old seal to my local auto store and they were able to match it to a current one. Inexpensive and easy.

New brake assembly:

Pretty!

Drums get anti rust treatment and back on they go:

After the driver side was done headed over to the curb side and repeated the process.

These new brakes are self adjusting which is a nice feature to have. Only cost about $15 more per assembly so well worth it.  I also put new grease covers on, the old ones were very rusted. Reconnected the electrical leads and weatherproofed them.  Then tested the brakes by hooking up the tow vehicle, plugging in the brake controller and stepping on the brake pedal. If the magnet on the trailer electric brakes magnetizes then you know they are working properly.

With the axle inspected and treated, new brakes, and repacked bearings, we are ready to roll!

Its a party!...a 12 volt party...the beginning

My goals for the 12 volt system were:

An all-LED light system
Solar charging capacity for long periods off grid
Additional light fixtures
A ceiling vent fan
A fan for the composting toilet
Enough battery capacity for an inverter capable of running a desktop computer

The original 12 volt system consisted of a battery, two inline 20 amp breakers, one 15 amp fuse, the converter and two circuits. One circuit was for the water pump and a 12 volt appliance plug on the top corner driver's side of the closet wall. The second circuit ran on romex wire to the three sconce lights, bathroom light and the stove hood fan/light switches. I kept looking for a fuse box or fuses somewhere with no success. Eventually I found out that the fuse was built into the converter.

The converter was still in the trailer and hooked up. It was pretty rusty and dirty, just sitting on the driver's side front floor. When I removed it I was surprised how heavy it was. Old school,  all copper winding and the shell was thick gauge steel. It weighed in at 21 lbs! Compared that to today's converters which only weigh a few pounds.  I knew I was going to replace it so I used my grinder to cut off the front cover, which I plan to reuse as a light switch:

:

On the floor near the converter I found this instruction plate:



Time to start working on the wiring. First I figured out what circuit ran what by doing continuity tests with my ohmmeter.  The circuits appeared intact although they had a poor ground. I was very happy that I did not have to run new wire for the existing lights.

While I was replacing the floor I ran all new wires to the battery area on the front tongue.  The original positive wire from the battery is the 10-gauge yellowish wire you see in the middle of the photo. Totally inadequate for my purposes, I guess back when all you had were four lights, a stove fan and a water pump it was ok. Not even close for what I had in mind...



I replaced it with 2-gauge wires for both positive and negative. May seem like a bit of overkill but since I was going to use solar I wanted as thick a wire as I could handle.  I feel comfortable crimping wire up to 2-gauge so that is what I used. On the photo you will notice there are two heavy black (negative) wires going back out to the trailer tongue area. The 2-gauge is battery negative, the 6-gauge wire is for chassis ground. More on this later when I blog about the battery monitor

Once the floor was finished I started building the front driver's side seat under which all the electrical gizmos were going to live. After I got the 110 volt system working it was time to party with the 12 volt installation.

Here is the finished system:


Pow!

The converter is on the bottom right, the solar controller sits directly above it. On the upper right is the 110 volt surge protector and directly below it is the battery monitor shunt and the negative bus bar. On the left side is the main fuse box. Each one of these circuits is protected by its own Bussman breaker, except for the converter that already has its own fuse protection built in.  I a chicken so as far as I am concerned you cannot have enough fuses and breakers. Notice I have left room for a large inverter in the compartment.

All the connections are crimped and shrink wrapped.  Unlike in a car system where the amperages are low and soldering connections is ok, you do not solder connections in a system like this, where you are going to be running 1000 watt inverters and what not. If the wire gets hot enough the solder could melt and then you have a loose wire, no bueno. Don't do eeet.

I did not want the electronic components nor the electrical connections to be on the floor just in case there was ever a spill or water leak of some sort. So each component sits on its own 1 1/2 inch thick platform above the floor. Although some wires run on the floor, no connections are at floor level. Better ventilation for the converter and less chance of a major leak damaging anything.

Power comes in from the battery through a "catastrophic failure" Bussman 150-amp breaker to a bus bar. The bus bar supplies power to the converter, main fuse box, battery monitor and solar charge controller.  The propane/carbon monoxide alarm and the trailer breakaway switch are powered from the battery side of the 150-amp breaker so they have power at all times, as required by the manufacturers.

Here is a closer view, from top to bottom:  Negative bus bar, battery monitor shunt and positive bus bar all underneath the 110 volt surge suppressor, then the 150-amp breaker and converter.



All the ground wires, including chassis ground join at the negative bus bar and then go through the battery monitor shunt before heading back to the battery negative.

Keeping an eye on the 12 volt party...da battery monitor

Turns out the most important component of the 12 volt system is not the batteries. Say what?

I invite you to visit Bob at https://handybobsolar.wordpress.com/. Read his blogs carefully and as you get through his rants you will learn quite a bit about RV 12 volt systems and especially solar 12 volt.

As Bob points out, without the battery monitor to tell you what is happening in your system you are basically driving blind (which some of us can do, but most of you cannot). No point in spending gobs of money on great batteries, good wiring, a decent converter if you don't know how the system is performing. 

With this in mind I chose the Bogart Engineering Trimetric TM 2030 battery monitor. http://www.bogartengineering.com. I selected this monitor because it gets excellent reviews, has great capabilities, and is built in the USA.  Also, I had decided to use Bogart's solar charge controller which is designed to work with the Bogart battery monitor to maximize solar charging performance. There is a lot of literature and videos online on these products and so I felt confident using them.

I purchased the battery monitor from AM Solar, http://amsolar.com, whom I highly recommend. Along with the monitor I purchased the shunt and the installation kit. AM Solar provides you with all the parts you need for a complete installation.  They are very knowledgeable and friendly. I called them several times with installation questions and got a prompt, and correct, answer.

I wanted to place the monitor in an area where it was easily visible but did not want it to stand out too much.  Here you see its location, on the front of the electronics compartment under the driver side seat. Easily viewable and accessible but not in your face. High enough off the floor that it wont get kicked.

The electronics compartment vent on the right of the monitor was originally one of the sides of the old converter.  Cut it to size, treated it for rust with Corroseal, painted it, and voila! 

The monitor works by measuring the current through a gizmo called a "shunt". I had no idea what a shunt was until I saw a photo. Basically a shunt is a bridge across which all the current in the system runs and the monitor measures that amount.  The shunt is incorporated into the system on the negative side of the wiring. In order for the battery monitor to work properly all (and I do mean ALL) negative current has to pass through the shunt. Here is a closeup of the shunt with the negative bus bar sitting above it:

I connected all grounds (negatives) to this bus bar. The bus bar is then connected to one side of the shunt. The other side of the shunt is connected to the battery negative through a 2-gauge wire. This wire is the only connection at the battery negative post. You don't have to use a bus bar to connect all the grounds but with all these large gauge wires coming together it would be impractical to tie them all directly to the shunt. Much cleaner and easier installation using a bus bar.

In my first 12 volt blog I pointed out that I had a separate 6-gauge wire running as chassis ground from the negative bus bar out to the tongue area. This means that not only the chassis but the entire trailer is grounded through the bus bar first. So the shunt is measuring anything that is grounded anywhere to the trailer shell and frame. I am then getting accurate values on the monitor.

It so pretty!

12 volt party...bad converter!...bad!

From my readings on the internets (as G.W. would say...) I knew that the old converter, even if still operational, would not properly charge the Trojan 6 volt batteries I had planned to install. So one of my first purchases was an Intelli-power 45-amp power converter from Progressive Dynamics. This brand got decent reviews and compared price-wise to Magnum converters, which are very well rated,  seemed like good value.

For a great education on the limitations of power converters to fully charge true deep cycle batteries I again invite you to visit https://handybobsolar.wordpress.com. Bob rants a bit on his blogs but take the time to read them carefully and you will learn a lot.  I have read his blogs repeatedly and they have helped me greatly in putting my system together. So even though I knew the Intelli-power converter was not as good as the Magnum converter/inverter he recommends I just did not want to spend the money on the Magnum. Onwards.

Installed the converter and seemed to work ok. It was a little noisy, you could hear the transformer hum some. Ran ok for a few days and then on the first warmish day (80F) it started making more noise. Took a look at it and it seemed the fan was trying to engage but would only twitch and hum.

Clearly not working properly.

First mistake: Ordered through Amazon in early January but did not get to install it until late April so the 30 day return policy had expired.  So I called the manufacturer, Progressive Dynamics and they told me they only repaired it directly if the unit was more than a year old, so to call the seller and have them deal with the repair.

The Amazon seller was Vintage Technologies out of Union City, MI. I sent them the unit in the original packaging. Long story short, after almost 3 weeks of calls and talking to clueless people at Vintage Technologies, the owner, Frank who was a total jerk on the phone sent me back a "new" (according to him) unit that arrived in this box:



Inside was a clearly not "new" (had some scratches)  unit wrapped in one layer of bubble wrap. Far as I know, "new" units do not come from any factory in USPS priority mail boxes...

Second mistake: Buying a sub par product from a dishonest seller.

At this point I had spent over $40 on back and forth shipping costs on a $150 item so was not about to throw any more money at this issue. I installed the "new" converter and like the previous one it hums but at least does not make as much noise as the previous unit.

Lesson: Spend the money on a better unit. Maybe Santa will bring me a Magnum converter/inverter for X'mas.

Will the 12 volt party ever end?...

Originally the trailer came with one 12 volt fuse integrated into the converter.  Since I was not going to reuse the converter, I needed a fuse box of some sort. I chose one offered by Vintage Trailer Supply (my favorite store, http://www.vintagetrailersupply.com). This fuse box allows for 9 independent circuits and is very well built.

I thought to myself "when will I ever need nine circuits on an 18 foot trailer? Thats crazy talk!"...

Installed the fuse box in the electronics compartment (see previous 12 volt blog) and started my wiring. Connected the existing romex wire that fed the original four lights and the stove fan/light on the trailer to one circuit. Then connected the other existing wire that fed power to the water pump. Thought I was just about done...Not!

When I was doing the floor installation and had some of the wall panels out I ran new wires to areas of the trailer that did not have wiring circuits before. Such as: to the small ledge cabinet above the front window, the curb side seat area, the new water heater and to the rear closet area. I also wired the running light so they can be turned on while the trailer is not connected to the tow vehicle.  Pretty soon I was out of circuits...

Here you see the fuse box and its dedicated 50-amp breaker. Thats 6-gauge wire all the way to the fuse box from the positive bus bar:

The wires going to the right are for the original circuits and the new circuits in the front of the trailer.  I ran separate ground wires for each area.  The wires going to the left are for the water heater and the rear closet area and those circuits also have their separate ground wires back to the fuse box. I could just use the shell to ground my circuits but I wanted to make sure that I had good grounds.  The most common problem with trailer electrical circuits is poor grounding. I wanted to avoid that.

In the rear I wanted to add at least one light inside the closet. I also needed power for the composting toilet fan, the shower pan bilge pump and at least one more circuit for new LED under the overhead cabinets. So I split one of the wires from the main fuse box (ummm...did you say "main" fuse box?) into a secondary fuse box in the closet:



This fuse box has its own ground wire back to the main fuse box. Am I a little out of control?...I don't feel out of control, doctor...I used 10-gauge wire which gives this secondary fuse box a 30-amp capacity. My power needs for this area of the trailer are well below that amperage.

The on/off switch you see under the fuse box is to isolate the solar panel array, but that is conversation for another blog.

Just when you thought it was safe to leave the 12 volt party...its solar time!

Having solar charging capabilities on the trailer was one of my main goals to bring the Mini-Me Stress into the 21st century. A composting toilet was the other, but that's another blog...

In getting this goal accomplished want to thanks the folks at AM Solar in Springfield, Oregon. They spent a lot of time on the phone holding my hand and guiding me through the design and installation process. Greg, Dave and Roger, you guys rock! Could not be any nicer or more knowledgeable. Their website: http://amsolar.com has a lot of great information and videos.

On the internets (as G.W. would say...) You Tube's LoveYourRV channel has great info. It was through that channel that I was introduced to Bob from HandyBob Solar, whose advice I followed closely. https://handybobsolar.wordpress.com/.

There is so much information out there about solar systems for RVs that it can be overwhelming and confusing.  After endless research here is what I chose:

Batteries:
Two Trojan T145 6-volt deep-cycle flooded batteries, connected in series. Check out my "Tongue work" blog for a photo. I chose Trojan because of the great reviews, proven history and they are an American company.  http://www.trojanbattery.com. I picked the T145 model because they have the highest amp hours for that size Trojan battery (260 amp hour rating). I went with flooded cell because it is proven technology and maintenance is not a big deal, just a few minutes every month or so.

Bought mine just down the street from United Battery http://unitedbattery.net, here in Portland.  Good price and the folks there could not be any nicer or more customer friendly.  I have also bought my car batteries there and highly recommend them.

Solar charge controller:
You can go crazy reading about MPPT vs PWM controllers and bla, bla, bla...Forget about it. I just went with what Handy Bob said and got the Bogart Engineering SC-2030 PWM solar charge controller.  Designed to work with my battery monitor, great reviews, American made and great customer support. Called Bogart a couple of times on some minor installation questions and immediately got an answer.  Their website http://www.bogartengineering.com is full of good information.  I bought the controller through AM Solar.

The most important feature of my Bogart battery monitor/solar charge controller system is the ability to program the solar controller to charge the Trojan batteries up to 14.8 amps. This is what Trojan recommends and this no converter on the market (certainly not my Intellli-power noisy converter) can do. Only through solar can you get these batteries fully charged!  Handy Bob rants about this over and over and I finally got it. This was the number one reason I chose this controller.

Controller location:
As close to the batteries as I could get and still have the controller inside the trailer. Bob says "very important!" and I a Belieber.  Less than 24 inches of heavy wire from the controller to the battery.

Here is the solar controller with its dedicated circuit breaker. I also have each solar panel fused so the controller is protected on both sides.



Wiring:
Handy Bob says "go big" and I did. I have 6-gauge wire running from my solar panel combiner area to the controller, 6-gauge from the controller to my positive and negative bus bars and 2-gauge from the bus bars to the battery terminals. I planned the wire runs to minimize distance between components.  Some people will tell you that using such heavy wire is overkill, just read what Bob says. If Bob says it, I can dig it...

I ran my solar panel wires in through the fridge vent:



From there into the front of the rear closet where the individual panel wires are combined and head to the controller on 6-gauge wire. A lot of RV solar systems use a "combiner box" (basically a glorified weatherproof bus bar) up on the roof to make the panel wire connections.  I had good access to the fridge vent area because the upper cabinet had been removed to be refinished so I just made the connections inside the trailer using bus bars. Better access and don't have to worry about weatherproofing the connections.  You can see how each solar panel has its own in-line fuse:



In my readings I found that technically you only have to fuse individual panels when your array has more than two panels, but as usual I believe more is better when it comes to fuses. Plus the fuses allows me to isolate each panel individually if I need to. As mentioned in a previous blog I also installed an on/off switch between the positive solar panel bus bar and the solar charge controller so I can isolate the array from the rest of the electrical system

Solar panels:
Poly vs mono, bla, bla, bla...The more you read about this the more you realize it does not matter. Just get the panels that fit your power and footprint needs. Period. I looked for a local solar panel dealer and found LightHarvest Solar: http://www.lightharvestsolar.com/12-volt-battery-kits.html. The owner is Miles, who could not be any nicer. I needed to maximize the small roof footprint I had and they offered a 40 x 40 inch Solar Cynergy 140-watt panel that fit my needs. So I got two panels and they cover just about all my roof.

Here is the rear panel getting ready to be installed in its new home:



Panel power requirements:
While researching how stupid to get with the solar panel footprint, in other words how many and how big a panel array I needed, I found the answer to be: "It depends".  It all depends on your usage.

You can get an approximate idea of your usage by adding up the manufacturers' specified amperage use of the equipment you are planning to install. My LED lights draw very little amperage and go a long way towards reducing amp hour usage as compared to incandescent. Add the water pump, fans and other draws. There is also the matter of how big an inverter, and other electronic gizmos, I might decide to install in the future. I wanted to stay flexible. Since my biggest limitation was the amount of roof space available, I chose to install the largest panels I could fit on the roof and back into my amp hour charging capacity.

My two 140-watt panels got me to 280 watts of solar panel energy for the system. How does this translate to the batteries I chose and how charged up I can keep them?  Well, I took a couple of the rule of thumb array size formulas out there to give me a ballpark idea. One formula says: Match the amp hours of your batteries with the watts on the array. Two 140 watt panels is 280 watts, pretty close to the 260 amp hours on the battery.   Check.  Other formula says: Take 3 percent of your amp hours (260 time .03) equals 7.8 and this is the amount of amps you need out of each panel.  These particular panels are rated to produce 8 amps per peak sun hour each, so again the math says this should work.  Check.  Of course this is all assuming good sunlight, inflated specs and what not.

Panel installation:
Although I bought the panels locally, I ordered AM Solar's rocker foot mount kits. These allow for the panels to be tilted for winter when the sun is lower on the horizon and also make it easier to clean under the panels. I was impressed with the quality of the parts and AM Solar includes everything you need in the kit to get the job finished.

AM Solar recommends attaching the panels to the metal roof with just the 3M two-sided tape that they provide. I spoke to Greg from AM Solar and he assured me that the tape is adequate for the job. They have installed thousands of panels this way and not one has come loose. I a chicken so I used the tape and then I also screwed the feet to the roof...Greg clearly is not familiar with my ability to generate never-before-seen events...

Here is the front panel installed:



Notice how the rear panel, which you can just barely start to see on the lower left of the photo, sits away from the vent fan cover. When the vent is open no part of the panel will be shaded.  The front panel is close to the vent because the cover hinges on the front so even when fully open it will not shade that panel. Very important not to have shade on your panels. I say this and yet the whole trailer is in the shade...hmmmm....

AM Solar sells a panel tilting kit but it is designed for their panels which are smaller than the ones I have so their tilt bars are too short for my application. I ordered two extra sets of their mount knobs and fabricated my own tilt bars:



The wires are secured to the roof using Alumibond tape which is UV resistant and also makes for a cleaner installation. All the connectors are shrink wrapped and weatherproof. There is enough slack on the panel wiring to allow for tilting to either side of the trailer.



She may be 51 years old, but she tech savvy!...

The new upholstery...it purrtee!

When I acquired the trailer only the curb side seat was still existing. There was no street side seat. There was one cushion in the trailer, no idea if it was one of the originals or not. It was in very sad state:



For the new upholstery I wanted some material that was durable, easy to clean and could put up with the dawg traffic. There are an overwhelming number of fabric choices out there.  With the help of one of the local upholstery stores I narrowed my options. I chose a "Faux Leather" product that is produced for use in commercial seating applications. It is supposed to have a 500,000 rubs life cycle. That is a lot of dawg and people use!  Flame retardant. Crack resistant down to 20 below. Sounds good. Not a cheap fabric choice, but I like it a lot!

Once I had finished rebuilding the seats, patterns were made for each cushion. I took the patterns to Lan's Upholstery here in Portland. Lan's gets great reviews and I can see why. Lannie helped me try out (by having me sit and lay on samples) and decide what type of foam to use. Wanted a foam that was dense enough for sitting comfortably but not too hard to sleep on.

A couple of weeks later I had my cushions! Very nicely finished, with bullnose fronts and welts on each end. Lannie did a great job:




Soweet! On the table you can see a sample of the Linoleum floor to be installed once all other interior work is done.

Here is the guest bedroom:



I specified that the bullnose fronts of each cushion be left square. As you can see that makes for a nice tight fit between the cushions. I also had welts put only on the ends which I think gives the cushions a more finished look. Did not have welts put on the fronts so when you are laying down there are no uncomfortable welts poking you. Comfy?...Yes!...Spendy?...Oh. yeah!...

This is the part of the show where I make my own odorless composting toilet...

One of my main goals with the renovation was to have a toilet that would not use water. There were several reasons for this: I wanted to extend my boondocking capabilities by not using any of my fresh water for flushing. I also did not want to deal with having to empty a black water tank.

As I did my research on composting toilets I became aware of the overall problem of how modern humans deal with our excrement. We are the only mammals on the planet that combine their feces with their urine in order to dispose of it.  These products come out of our bodies from different parts for a reason, that reason being that nature does not want us to combine them. Pretty clear. Yet we ignore the obvious and combine them down a tube using fresh potable water. We then push our byproducts down progressively bigger and bigger tubes into faraway tanks, using lots of fresh water. Then we use even more water to separate the feces from the urine in enormous tanks that smell for miles. We so smart!...

Clearly, the key to proper composting and better disposal of our excrement is to separate the feces from the urine. We can then dry the feces which becomes odorless to humans. The urine does smell but is easily disposable as it does not carry pathogens. That is why peeing in the bushes is not a big deal. If you are on certain medications you do have to be careful where you dump your urine.  I invite you to visit http://humanurehandbook.com. There are many other sites and videos on this subject and on composting toilets.

Separating toilets for rvs are pretty expensive, most are well over a thousand dollars. In addition, all the models I found rely on a urine tank that is open to the urinal end of the bowl, meaning that you can smell the urine. The manufacturers mitigate this issue by using a fan to both dry the feces and vent the urine smell out of the rv.

The original toilet was broken and would have to be changed, so I removed it. I decided to leave the black water tank in case any future owner decided they did not want a composting toilet. I had enough room in my toilet area to think about making my own toilet system.  So I built the toilet box out of scrap wood to fit my existing space. Then I added all the necessary systems and this was the result:

The custom toilet sits on top of the black water tank flange. I sealed the black water tank with a removable plug. Eventually the top surface will be covered with aluminum also, just like I did the front of the toilet.

To empty the feces bag and urine tank the top of the toilet is removable. And yes, for my male friends, you DO have to sit down to pee...

For the toilet seat and separating basin I used the Separett Privy 501. http://www.separett-usa.net.  This is not an inexpensive piece of plastic at close to $200 dollars but they are the only game in town for a preformed separating toilet basin.  Here is the seat and separator system:

What I needed now was a way to seal the urine tank to avoid the smell. Obviously could not use a conventional plumbing "P-trap" system since that requires water to act as the odor seal.  What I found was a P-trap equivalent that does not rely on water. It is called a HepvO valve http://www.hepvo.com. This little beauty is a tube that has a one way bladder that allows for liquids (and solids) to travel down the tube but then closes to stop any odors. I got mine through Vintage Trailer Supply.

In order to capture the urine from the front basin into the urine tank I cut a plastic funnel to shape and attached it to the HepvO valve. I then cut an appropriate diameter hole in the top of the urine tank to attach the valve. The urine tank has a two gallon capacity and has a vented lid. 

The toilet seat urine nipple fits well into the funnel. The urine tank sits in tightly in a cradle made out of wood scraps. It pulls up when needed for emptying.

In order to work properly in a urinal, the HepvO valve manufacturer recommends that the valve be installed in a vertical position. In my situation, putting the valve vertically would have added about 6 more inches of height to my toilet box, which was not feasible. I compromised by putting the valve at a sloped angle by sloping the urine tank cradle. Works great.

Next step was installing a fan.  http://www.littlehouse.co was a great resource in my research. The fan has two purposes: remove any smells; dry the feces. I had planned to use the existing black water vent to exhaust the composting toilet smells. As for drying the feces, the key is to have the air flow just above the lip of the bucket, which creates a low pressure zone. This insures that there is constant air flow in the bucket drying the feces faster.

Computer fans draw very little amperage (mine uses less than 1/10 amp) and they are very quiet making them ideal for this application.  I decided to get a low flow model. It is rated at three cubic feet per minute. Now that may not sound like a lot but in a small space like the enclosed toilet box it is very adequate since this fan runs continuously. I ran a flexible 2 inch hose from the box interior and tied it into the black water tank 2 inch PVC vent with the fan inline:

 

Towards the top of the above photo you see the low flow fan horizontal next to the vent connection.  While stress-testing the toilet I found out that when the toilet lid is up there is some smell so I added a high flow secondary computer fan that you see on the left side of the photo. This secondary fan runs on demand when you are "using" the system.

Once the fans were installed I was concerned about how much air (3 cubic feet per minute) was being removed out of the trailer continuously. It is such as small space that in a few minutes that fan is going to recycle all the air in the trailer. Less than ideal when trying to cool or heat the trailer interior. I ran a second flexible hose that brings fresh outside air and put that hose directly across and at the same height as the exhaust hose. Thus the air flow is running just above the feces bucket to create that low pressure zone that we want:

In this way most of my toilet exhaust air is fed directly from outside and I am not venting my air conditioned or heated indoor air. The air inlet is on the rear bottom of the trailer:

As of the writing of this blog post I have tested the system for months and it works great. My cost for the toilet was under $300, compared to over $1000 for a factory model.

After billions of years of evolution, and hundreds of hours of hand-wringing, I present to you my dry toilet solution: the bucket!

PS: In case the more squeamish of you are wondering what is at the bottom of the bucket, it is sawdust...This photo was taken when the system was clean....just saying...

Our first trailer rally: Roslyn 2016

I had been keeping in touch with the previous owner and knew he was going to attend the 2016 Roslyn Vintage Trailer Rally, June 16-19th. I wanted to show him the progress I had made on the project so decided to attend. This would be my first trailer rally. Very exciting!

In early May I made a list of what had to be done in order to make the trailer not only livable for the weekend but safe to tow the 230 or so miles between home and Roslyn, Washington.

Towable, livable, then showable was the mission statement. Brakes, bearings, 12 volt electrical, plumbing,  logos,  rims...the list went on...

It was invigorating to have a deadline. I focused on the necessary tasks only. Before you knew, it was time to go.

Thursday June 16, ready to roll:

Here she is, being presented into vintage trailer society:

There were over 200 vintage trailers at the rally and a great time was had by all. She certainly enjoyed all the attention. It was very nice to see the previous owner and meet his parents. I think he enjoyed seeing The Mini-Me Stress. She so cute!

Sad appliances

Here are a few photos of the original fridge and stove. Their condition gives you and idea of how the rest of the interior space looked when I acquired the trailer.










I had originally hoped to restore the appliances, although I did not particularly like the color. But it became evident pretty quickly that they could not be saved.

I canna do et Captain!...I don't have the power...

Wasn't just a question of cleaning and refinishing, in both cases a lot of the metal parts were heavily corroded.  The stove top tubing looked like swiss cheese, but less appetizing. After deciding not to reuse them, I offered them on Craigslist for free.  After about 3 weeks of no response they were sent to the big recycling bin in the sky.

Meantime I checked Ebay and Craigslist regularly for a replacement Magic Chef stove of similar vintage. Wanted to get a turquoise one. It is my favorite vintage appliance color. I had already purchased Formica sheets for the counters that had turquoise on the pattern.  Was lucky enough to find the stove of my dreams on Ebay within only a few days of beginning my search.  Free shipping...not sure how they can afford  to ship for free a 70lbs item but ok...

Here she is!:



Pretty!

Same stove top dimensions, the tag on the stove says 1965 and it fit perfectly on the original counter space. Works like a champ.

As far as the fridge, looked for quite a while on Craigslist but did not find anything that I felt good about. The dimension of the space under the counter limited me to just a few models.

Pantry lights

Got tired of forgetting, guessing and losing items in the pantry and decided to add lights to the area.

I had extra led lights I had planned to use under the cabinet above the bed area and never used.

I bought these from Vintage Trailer Supply a few years back and have been using them under the kitchen cabinet and like them a lot.

I wired the lights through the closet area.

Voila! No more groping hoping for the best...

Bed headboard

As part of the renovation of the bed area, once I put birch veneer I decided a headboard was needed. Here is the area once the upper cabinet had been removed and the veneer added:

I built an oak headboard frame with radius corners to match the bed trim top piece:

This piece was the only original gaucho part to survive the renovation.

Then I used some of the same fabric I had chosen for the closet area light feature:

The after:

Notice the dinosaur pattern on my bed sheet set. I love it!