Aluminum Camper Forum

EOM

The larger trailers are coming with 7cf, 8cf double door fridges - separate freezer from fridge. Trouble is, none of them are three-way (dc, ac, propane).

Our new trailer is coming with a 7cf 2-way (ac, propane) which creates a minor problem in that I can't bring myself to travel with the propane valves open and the fridge running on propane. The concern is any kind of crash that doesn't put the bottle on its side where the check valve would close, and now there's an open gas line feeding a fire. I am not so much worried about the propane fridge being the cause of a fire - trailer fires are generally electrical in nature, or start with overheated brakes or tires.

But an open supply of gas makes the whole thing go ka-flooey in a hurry.

Without a dc function, it occurs to me that the fridge would be happy plugged into an inverter fed off a dc circuit. The tow vehicle provides dc to keep the battery charged and the inverter supplies ac power.

Imagine, if you will, that my new trailer is a camplite, and said fridge lives in the space directly above the PDC. It seems to me there just has to be an open 12v slot to connect to.

So now I'm looking for an inverter that would either live in the PDC space, and I would move the wires for that circuit from the ac circuit breaker over to the inverter.

Or, I would just run a new pos/neg pair from the dc circuit into a circuit box into which the inverter was also wired, and the inverter would like in the space behind the fridge, and we would unplug from the ac outlet into an outlet on the inverter.

Specific questions:

1. Size the 12vdc fuse and wire. I am thinking 12/2 romex and a 15amp fuse.
2. Size the inverter - I am thinking as small as 100w may  suffice.
3. Recommend an inverter that would be amenable for this wiring scheme.

Feel free to disabuse me of any aspect of this notion.

Again, ignore the reality that this is a Venture Sonic 220vbh, and lets just pretend it is a CL that nobody has seen before.

David ? Merlin ? Charlie ? Tinkering Techie ? Anyone ?

Merlin was pining away for more trip reports and photos, so here are some.

We are between RV's at the moment, front runner is the Vista Cruiser by Gulfstream, 23qbs.

In the meantime, here are some adventure shots from this year with my teardrop, which I use for hunting, fishing, clamming, mushrooming and other trips where Mrs. P isn't invited.









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This is the all aluminum construction that made Camplite's mark on the industry. The trailer frame itself is aluminum, as is the structure for walls, floor, roof. Exterior walls and roof are also aluminum. Floor itself is tongue and groove aluminum. No wood anywhere. No plywood, lauan, nothing. Interior wall surfaces are azdel as are cabinets and doors. Nothing to rot, these are generational passdown trailers.

Barn stored and in great shape.

The 14DBS is a 15' box, 19' overall. Dual 3k axles for a GVWR of 6k, approx. 2600# dry weight.

Television with builtin DVD
Convection microwave
13k BTU Air conditioner
3 way fridge
Forced air propane furnace
2 burner propane stove
Full time queen sized bed
2 person dinette in the slideout
Two propane tanks

$20,500






















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Coming home from Ft. Stevens, we spotted a red CL, probable a 16 but possibly a 21 heading westbound as we passed through 1,000' elevation, maybe 10 miles east of Seaside OR




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What a disappointment.

This winter they "upgraded" their site design.

You can now no longer search by map, and zoom into an area and see the potential campgrounds that have availability for your dates.

All search results are ordered alphabetically. Which is completely unhelpful.

Also gone is the "search for facilities nearby" when you do look at a campground and find no availability.

Whoever designed the new site...no, anyone who had ANY hand in the project should be HORSEWHIPPED.

tl;dr

Reserve America is very disappointing

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I remember some sort of discussion around this but kinna find it.

We're camping in the coastal range atween Portland and the ocean, at around 1,000' and 102deg. The freezer is doing fine, but the main fridge is barely keeping cool.

Do I remember something about fitting an auxiliary fan, and does anyone have actionable diy plans ?

Oh, and there was a cougar and bear sighting here back on 6/5. Bear walked right through camp they say.


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So, Mrs. P takes a dim view of me taking our Camplite on fishing or hunting trips. So I have been ruminating on a mobile man cave that I can use for these manly pursuits.

I call her "Mini-Me". Except I'm not a she. Not there would be abything wrong with that, but....I mean....

Let me try again.

I call it The Millenium Fal.... no. No, that's not it.

Oh, hell. I will be soliciting name suggestions once I get that horse thing pried off the sides.










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I neglected to get "before" pics, but I just replaced our one-step with a two-step. Ground to the floor is 24", so that's 2x 12" steps, not very comfortable or safe, as you all well know.

The original was mounted on 4" drop outriggers welded to the frame. These were cut off, and new mounting plates were welded in place to support the different bolt holes.

The new step now gives us 2x9" drops, with a third step of just 5 or 6" at the bottom. Couldn't make it all even, but they are not such large leaps. The new steps are also 24" wide instead of 20", harder to miss a step that way.

The steps came from etrailer. Rubber tread surface (not shown) came from Harbor Freight. The cutting and welding was done by a guy down in Newberg who specializes in aluminum boat customizations and also custom trailers and truck racks.




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In our lives with RV's there are a lot of situations where we might experience high anxiety: bears in the campground, running out of (propane, water, black tank space, grey tank space, battery power, A-1 sauce, firewood, firewater), traffic mishaps, campsite invasion robberies, fireants, etc.

But the highest pucker factor comes with what I did today. Or, rather, what I did 4 1/2 months ago and have been dreading today ever since.

Last November, I laid down a ticking time bomb. A non-ticking time bomb, actually. This is the silent killer type.

That's right, I winterized it myself. And today I recommissioned for the upcoming season. And it occurred to me that even though we have a local spring shakedown cruise for a reason, I really didn't need to wait until I got to the campsite to find out how I did Lo ! These many months ago. Trust me, it is not fun to be outside at the water post with your bitter half inside the trailer, turning the valve and hearing "that" shriek. You know "that" shriek. Of course you do. Yes.

So today I pulled the rig out of the barn and up to the house, gently filled the fresh water tank, and with great trepidation applied my trusty trigger finger to the switch so innocuously labeled "Water Pump".

Now, you may ask "Pin, brother, bubbie...why did you go to all the trouble of filling the the fresh tank and using the pump when you could have much more quickly just connected to the city water port and saved a lot of time ? Schmuck."

Well I'll tell you, wise guy.

First, my momma only raised one fool, and he lives in Atlanta.

See, I needed to test both pathways: city water and fresh tank/pump anyway. So no matter what order you choose, the total time doesn't change. So the joke's on you, because it doesn't save any time.

Second, if there WERE a leak, I can hit the pump switch much faster than trot/waddle over to the standpipe and turn the city water off. So I chose the order that would allow me to react most quickly if there were a leak, from the pump onward, which covers most of the plumbing.

Having faced down the blue wire/yellow wire moment and throwing the swi....no. Hang on. I don't want to use the bomb squad metaphor. Too hackneyed. Been done before. Unoriginal.

Let's go instead with....the scene from Young Frankenstein.

No, not the one where Gene Wilder looks at the castle door and exclaims "What knockers !" and Teri Garr replies "Oh, thank you, Doctor !" I mean the one where he has all the power circuits turned on and the platform elevated into the lightening storm, only to find out that he has the polarity wrong and fails to bring the monster to life.

Which is what I wanted, actually. To turn the pump on and NOT have everything come to life.

So, much like Basher in Ocean's 11 (the remake, not the one with Sinatra) I closed by eyes and put a hand to protect my....well, to protect myself, and then pushed the button.

(For you newcomers, it's helpful if you know that I watch a lot of movies...)

Anyway, I pushed the aforementioned button and then listened......Nothing. Wait for it....nope. OK, let's push the air out. I opened the cold water at the sink, and with much spritzing and gushing, finally got a steady stream going. Repeat at the toilet. And the shower. Turn them all off and sit and wait....nothing.

Wow. Check under the trailer outside. Nope, no gushing cascade of water.

OK, now the hot water circuit. Sink, check. Shower, check. Outside "shower", cold and hot check out clean. Wait a bit, still no leaks.

So now, if there's a leak, it can only be from the city water intake to the junction after the pump. With somewhat more confidence, I turn off the pump and connect to the city water port, and with a studied, casual panache (or is it suave ?) I open the city water valve again.

NO LEAKS !!!

Now, I know what some of you are thinking. "Pin, ya doofus, I've been winterizing my own trailer since the second Roosevelt administration ! It's no great accomplishment ! You shoulda been there before they invented threaded pipe !"

To which I reply "If it was so damned easy, my dealer wouldn't have screwed it up last year. And the year before that. So THERE !"

Dealer: 0-2. Pin: 1-1. I win. BOOM !

https://youtu.be/B0iChz6bDcQ


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Can we get a section titled "Livin Lite Dirty Bastage Stories" ?

I think we can generate some traffic there.