With the shorter days and longer nights some more lighting needed to be addressed. First off the battery would not charge back up all the way during the day. I added a water proof charge controller and 100w solar panel in place of the 50w. From there I made a nice tall light whip so I could find camp more easily after runs that lead into pitch blackness. This light is red so if I were hunting or trying to keep my night vision it would light up the camp enough to see but not be obtrusive. I added an ARB 2500 awning from a member here and also added lights on the far side of the awning.
Some pictures of the awning and brackets. I also made a hanging bracket for the water heater. So far I have taken 2 desert showers with nights dropping into the low 40s according to the weather stations, but the frost on the jeep was slushy in the morning. The small blue shower tent gets steamy quickly and it is not bad at all to shower in the morning. The water heater works way better than expected and is plenty hot. While I shower I run the heater in the annex so I can step in there and be warm.
The fist trip to Johnson Valley was for a school research project for 4 days over memorial weekend. I was surprised that the awning literally did not move in some afternoon wind. I do not know if it was just at a perfect angle or what.
The second weekend was over Thanksgiving, I started north of Barstow with some friends before heading over to Johnson Valley again to watch the madness.
I took quite a few trips with the trailer last year. Actually A LOT of trips. I have over 20k miles on it now. It makes getting out so easy. All that needs to be done is load the refrigerator and leave. On the way home, I go to the diy car wash and its ready to take off and go on the next trip!
It has been on tons of high sierra roads, to Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, and Nevada now. It has worked great behind both of my jeeps, truck, and my family's Jeeps. To my supprize I caught myself going 105 and the trailer was nice and stable back there.
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