Member I
congrats on the battery. So Steve what kind of electrical system you are looking to do? both shore-line & solar?
Steve & Deb's Hiker Trailer 5X8 Deluxe
- Thread starter Steve
- Start date
Traveler III
Yes, this is the 99 A/Hr group 31 Performance Series (31M-800). The other is their 105 A/Hr Extreme Series 31 (or 31M)-PC2150. The latter is the more popular in the adventure vehicle/trailer world, but I don't need 1150 CCA at almost $200 more than the 800 CCA on the one I bought. It will be used to power LED house lighting on the trailer, vent fan, charging phone and camera batteries, and sometimes the fridge when stationary. Maybe occasionally the 400W inverter I have, but I don't see doing that often with our style of travel. We'll have 110V available at regular campgrounds or motels - Deb insists on a bath on a regular basis if we take the trailer on long trips.
Yep!
Traveler III
Yep. Oversimplified, but along these lines:
The trailer is already wired for 12V at the rear, with inside LED lighting and a lighted Fantastic Vent. I'll add some USB charging ports inside and out. I like how you added some ports on your tongue box. I'll likely do something similar. I will add a couple exterior lights, as well as the aforementioned extension cord to the fridge in the truck. That's about it. Like you, I want to keep it simple.
[EDIT] BTW, Don, I have the Renogy 100W panel and the same charge controller as you. I've read on some sites (linked by @Road in the battery thread) that AGM batteries should not be equalized, and to set the Wanderer to GEL type to bypass that step. Have you seen any problems bursting high voltage into the VMax Tank battery?
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Member I
when I was talking with Renogy about help with the solar system for my build, they suggested everything by part number & description on their recommendations what I need. I was planning on originally using 2 6v. Trojan Batteries which would give me 225ah when they suggested VMax 125ah battery. They suggested me running 2 100watt suit case style panels w\o charge controllers so I can use one or both in parallel as well as they suggested the 30 amp Wanderer Charge Controller which came with the battery temperature sensor. I also took their suggestion on 2 30amp fuses (one extra) between the charge controller & panel. They walked me threw the programing the charge controller to battery type.
No I haven't had any issues at all. Matter of fact I couldn't be any happier with Renogy customer service & products. Like I mention on American Adventurist forum later this year will be investing in a WeeRoll Wrangler X offroad tear drop which I'll use the exact same solar set up. Lastly I had Mitch from American Adventurist help me lay out a simple & safe electrical system for my tongue box & he went over my solar, which he stated it was a solid system & made all the right choices.
No I haven't had any issues at all. Matter of fact I couldn't be any happier with Renogy customer service & products. Like I mention on American Adventurist forum later this year will be investing in a WeeRoll Wrangler X offroad tear drop which I'll use the exact same solar set up. Lastly I had Mitch from American Adventurist help me lay out a simple & safe electrical system for my tongue box & he went over my solar, which he stated it was a solid system & made all the right choices.
Traveler III
That's fantastic, and is far more reliable than me browsing various Interwebz articles. And yes, I read about your new trailer, and am eager to watch it progress.
Thanks again for your input!
Traveler III
I mounted a 5# propane tank on the front of the tongue box today. Now I need a lock and a hose to use on the Skottle instead of using 1# bottles.
Advocate III
Cool. I'm looking for several coupler locks, keyed alike, so I can use them for things like my propane tank, my trailer tailgate, and more but not have a mess of keys.
Curt:
OR:
Master:
Also handy, if you haven't run across them yet, are the Bolt hitch pin locks that you set to work with your ignition key, which is really handy and helps reduce the number of keys, as well. I have two; one on the vehicle receiver and one on the trailer's Max coupler:
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Traveler III
HA! I already have a mess of keys. I have a different hitch pin lock. I like the idea that you can get one to match the vehicle's key! I'll check into that.
I have the Master hitch coupler lock, and that would work for the propane tank, too. I didn't think to get a pair keyed alike last year when I bought mine. I also have a ball lock, two locking lug nuts, and a wheel lock. Keys everywhere! At least all three trailer doors take the same lock. Oh, and the lock on the tongue box.
I'll sound like Captain Kangaroo with all those keys!
(Made you think of the jingle, didn't I.
)
Advocate III
You know, to that end, security, I mean, I'm looking for a good locator device that I can bury inside a panel or someplace on my trailer, maybe my bike too, so that if either was ever stolen, I could track the trailer's whereabouts myself and give a maplink or device to authorities as well.
I'm not sure if one exists that sends a signal for years without having to change/recharge a battery or just how that might work now. I looked into it a few years ago, but never purchased anything.
Let me know if you know of, or run across anything like that.
Would you be interested if I put together a trailer-owner's get-together sometime? More of a small camping get-together and more about the gear and tech and chargers and panels and such, not a "run."
I wasn't in on Capt Kangaroo in my early years as much as many of my contemporaries, having grown up in Europe, but I know what you're talking about. I liked Mr Greenjeans on that show a bit more, to be honest; he seemed down to earth, plain spoken, and a little less odd looking. Ha!
I'm not sure if one exists that sends a signal for years without having to change/recharge a battery or just how that might work now. I looked into it a few years ago, but never purchased anything.
Let me know if you know of, or run across anything like that.
Would you be interested if I put together a trailer-owner's get-together sometime? More of a small camping get-together and more about the gear and tech and chargers and panels and such, not a "run."
I wasn't in on Capt Kangaroo in my early years as much as many of my contemporaries, having grown up in Europe, but I know what you're talking about. I liked Mr Greenjeans on that show a bit more, to be honest; he seemed down to earth, plain spoken, and a little less odd looking. Ha!
Traveler III
@Road There are vehicle trackers, but they require constant power, and a subscription, so probably not cheap. LoJack and similar products come to mind. There are low power bluetooth trackers to put on things so you don't lose them around the house, but that wouldn't work more than 30 feet or so.
I don't know of anything similar to what you describe, but it is only a matter of time before technology gets there.
RE:trailer get together. There are members with trailers all across the country, so organizing something might need to be regional or even more local. It would be fun, though, to meet other members with trailers and see what they've done!
The weekend of May 4-6 we are camping in our Hiker for the first time (and Deb's first camping in 25 years) with the Ohio Buckeye TearJerkers chapter. It happens to be at Indian Lake State Park, which is 11 miles from my home town, and only about five miles from where my trailer was stored all winter. So not Overland Bound members, but I will be camping with other like-minded folk, and hopefully learning a lot on what what not to take and do with our trailer.
I was a Mr Greenjeans fan, too.
I don't know of anything similar to what you describe, but it is only a matter of time before technology gets there.
RE:trailer get together. There are members with trailers all across the country, so organizing something might need to be regional or even more local. It would be fun, though, to meet other members with trailers and see what they've done!
The weekend of May 4-6 we are camping in our Hiker for the first time (and Deb's first camping in 25 years) with the Ohio Buckeye TearJerkers chapter. It happens to be at Indian Lake State Park, which is 11 miles from my home town, and only about five miles from where my trailer was stored all winter. So not Overland Bound members, but I will be camping with other like-minded folk, and hopefully learning a lot on what what not to take and do with our trailer.
I was a Mr Greenjeans fan, too.
Advocate III
Awesome camping plans. I spent time at Indian Lake as a kid, not far from where the indoor roller rink was/is. Was still there several years ago when I went looking for the shorefront cottage we stayed in one summer. Was the first time I piloted a small watercraft by myself, at like 13-14yrs old, I think, running a small little runabout with an outboard and ferrying siblings and friends around the point to the amusement park and back. I felt like a sea-faring mariner, I tell you, like I belonged in a Hemingway novel, and that it was my right of passage into adulthood to be entrusted to take people over water to a destination. My first 'overwatering' experience.
I think smaller local trailer gatherings here and there could be wonderful. I have no intention of taking on anything larger than a small local gathering, but may organize several separate ones around the country on some extended trip. I'll count on you to be part of one around your part of the midwest, or in some other part of the country if you're traveling nearby.
Thanks for the info on trackers. I agree, only a matter or time before something less power hungry, or run by a simple hidden solar cell, becomes available. There has to be some solution, even if it only last as long as an iPhon...oh, dang, why not hide an older model iPhone or iPod touch that has Find My Phone capability, plugged in full time to a hidden USB port? I've got two or three older iOS devices that I keep for playing with multi-camera/voice recording possibilities and may do some experimenting! I once located my new iPad Mini in the middle of the night, left behind at a laundromat six-seven hours earlier. Was amazed to find it still there, same exact location on a counter.
See, Steve-o, asking what you know about something may have answered my own question. You rock.
Hope Deb has a blast and enjoys herself and that you get to to go camping all the more.
Road
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Traveler III
That's wild! I spent most of my youth there, too. Both of my grandparents either rented waterfront cottages or waterfront private camping spots every summer, and my Dad was a teacher, so we (to my recollection) spent the whole summer there.
Other than when Grandpa's field flooded, Indian Lake was my first nautical experience, as well, although mine was several years younger. First in an aluminum row boat, and later that same rowboat with a 9 HP motor. And you're right, it was like a taste of freedom.
I skated at that roller rink, and spent a lot of time at the (then two) amusement parks across the channel from each other. Were the paddlewheeler and the Chris~Craft boats there at the head of the channel when you were a kid? Seems that they might have gone by our teens, so maybe not. And the donut shop across the street from the paddlewheeler was a must stop.
In later years, I learned to sail by crewing for a guy at the sailing club and bought a small sailboat, and had my own Chris~Craft; a 1953 17' Rocket. But by my mid-20s, I moved to Virginia, renting a waterfront house on an inland lake.
Now of course it is all changed. The amusement parks are condos, O'Conner's Landing, where Grandpa's cottage was is long gone, and all of the small family restaurants have been replaced by fast food joints. My mother still has a place there, near Dream Bridge, and we go there Memorial Day, July 4th, and Labor Day weekends with the extended family. But it is never as cool as it was as a child having many of my first adventures.
Thanks for dragging up old memories!
Advocate III
You bet - it's another aspect of OLB that I appreciate; the memories brought up as I wander around seeing what members are up to, like my 19 yr old ride in the patrol car I told the other night.
I remember a paddlewheeler, more of a smaller lake style than big riverboat if I recall correctly, so it may have been earlier in my life that I did the ferrying of passengers over open water. There is probably something online about when the paddlewheeler was there. My mother would know when it was we stayed on the shore, but she's gone now. I was used to seeing Chris-Craft a number of places as a kid, so may not have noticed them as much at the head of the channel. I think there was even some big dealer, or warehouse, or something for Chris-Craft in Cinti that I used to see all the time.
I'm envious that you had a '53 seventeen footer. Their mahogany topsides and overall construction and quality always appealed to me. Just their sleek, cool, looks and polished wood, man, that's actually part of what encouraged me to do best I could when I got into woodworking and finishes. It's an art to apply a good stain or clear finish well.
You skated at that rink, too ? I remember you now!
No...not really. I always wished we'd gone up to Indian Lake more. It would have been perfect for my younger siblings to have as a regular part of their childhood. We older siblings had regular adventures all over Europe; camping, urban, long driving trips all over the place, but the younger ones pretty much had Ohio and an occasional state park trip, unless I helped do the driving after my dad was gone.
Never really learned a lot about sailing, though wish I had. I'm in a perfect part of North America, prime sailing grounds, right now.
Pretty cool you still go to Indian Lake.
Traveler III
Not mine, but exactly like this, right down to the flags. 95 HP Hercules straight 6 inboard, with brass rudder. I sold it to someone at Buckeye Lake in Ohio, and bought a 1978 23' Sea~Ray Cuddy.
Just last fall I finally sold my last of eight boats I've had (excluding the two kayaks I still have.) A 1981 Boston Whaler 5.2 sail boat. I sold it to two teen who's grandparents have a place on Lake Erie. Helping to get another generation out on the water and away from the screen.
Advocate III
Handsome!
Big part of why I want a good practical kayak is to be able to get out on and enjoy the water more.
Traveler III
You will have a much happier trailer life now. Just be careful when disconnected from your vehicle. That jack makes it very easy to move your trailer and it can roll away easily if not properly chocked.Aussie Santa came today!!!
Before:
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Wherever you go, there you are. Sent from my phone.
Traveler III
Traveler III
After we got back from our weekend camping, I added a sliding table under the shelf. This will come on handy when we don't want to set up the table, such as a quick lunch break.
I'm also in the process of the-bolting the fenders so that I can stand on them, and adding a rear view camera. There are several other items on my list after our first camping experience in the Hiker.
I'm also in the process of the-bolting the fenders so that I can stand on them, and adding a rear view camera. There are several other items on my list after our first camping experience in the Hiker.
I really want to add a camera as well. Still looking for a reliable system. Ultimately it would be nice to view on my tablet vs another screen. Let us know what you install.
