Back from vacation! Mostly been ordering lots of doo-dads and trying to finalize the frame layout. Also we settled on a new and slightly different design for the side door. We removed the driver-side door and enlarged the passenger door.
- Aluminum handles – nice heavy duty things from ebay. These will be mounted on the doorframes for hauling yourself in and out of the trailer
- Trailer tail/turn signals. The signals that came with the trailer broke off and sucked, northern tool however was kind enough to send me new tail lights which seem a lot nicer than the originals (2 pairs! second pair not pictured).
- LED dome light with built in dimmer. This will get mounted near the apex of the roof for general lighting
- Stick on side/rear reflectors
- 3M VHB tape – space-age double-sided tape for sticking on & sealing the siding panels and other stuff. The panels will also be riveted probably so this will mainly be for waterproofing, although it’s apparently plenty strong enough by itself to hold the siding on.
- Mini-size LED side/rear marker lights – 2 amber, 4 red. The amber lights go on the upper side of the trailer, the red ones go on the upper side and rear of the trailer for more visibility and hopefully to prevent people from crunching the trailer (since the regular tail lights are pretty low).
- Interior/exterior lights. These will be mounted on the inside of the doors, when the doors are open, they’ll be exterior porch lights, when the doors are closed, they’ll be interior lights. They’ll be controlled by separate dimmers.
- Car-to-trailer wiring adapter. Clamps onto the wires going into the tail lights of the car to drive the (tail, brake, and turn) lights of the trailer. Detects when the blinkers are on, tail lights, etc. I have one already, but it’s apparently the wrong one, so this will hopefully make all that work right.
On order but not yet here:
- Lots of aluminum tubing. Ordered most of the square tubing for the main part of the frame. The siding and any other aluminum odds and ends still need to be ordered.
Cut plan for the main frame. Drew the frame out in 2d cad so I could pull apart each piece of the frame and figure out exactly how much square tubing to order. The aluminum tubing I’m using (1″x 1″, .125″ wall 6061-T6) comes in 24′ lengths. - Hinges. The roof, back hatch, and side door will be using heavy-duty geared continuous aluminum hinges – you’ve seen them on heavy commercial doors whether you know it or not.
- Drawer slides for the kitchen – these are some (expensive!) 48″ long locking heavy drawer slides for the pull-out kitchen.
- Spring latches – like the kind of latch used to hold down the hood of a jeep – these will be on the front of the trailer and will be part of the system that keeps the roof from flying up on the highway.
Major to-be-acquired items:
- Roof vent/fan. ‘Cause it’s gonna be hot in that desert.
- Solar panel/charge controller/battery/electronics stuff – I have a pretty good idea of what exactly I’m going to buy for all this stuff but I need to finalize my plans and order it all.
- Door latches/locks – for the side door and back hatch.
New Design!
As mentioned above – the passenger-side door was enlarged and the driver side door was removed. The main motivation was to simplify things and cut cost/weight. A single door means one hinge and one latch. The larger door also means that the kitchen pull-out is now behind the door – this eliminates the need for a separate opening in the trailer shell for the kitchen – one more latch removed and one less place for leaks.
Luxury Land Yacht 