Trailer FAQ, 2023 updates

So many changes recently!

The Awning Thing

Now we have an actual 270 from 23Zero, and … OK we are happy with it, but it is not without problems. FIrst, the underside is a black spray-on material. This means it can flake off! It also means it makes it darker and colder. In summer, that’s not too much of a problem, but in winter, it’s less than ideal.

We have walls for it. They’re great in heavy rain and especially great in moderate winter wind. The problem is the zippers can easily be damaged; plan on buying half a dozen spares and learning how to replace them in the field.

We added a Buddy Heater to the kit. It is capable of nicely warming the awning space when the walls are up; it is just warm enough to make making coffee somewhat less annoying.

Changes and additions

We replaced the Whisperlite with a single-burner propane stove. It’s less fiddly than the Whisperlite, but massive in comparison. It’s also easier to cook on since it has a larger burner surface.

The outhouse “shower” tent was replaced with a Joolca tent. The other one was fine, but it took 2 people to stand up/take down. I can set the Joolca up myself in less than 5 minutes. Otherwise, they’re comparable.

I finally got rid of the wet-cell marine battery and redid the power to move everything to the galley. We have an AC->DC inverter to handle shore power, and the rest goes to a 12v DC plug that goes into the Jackery 300. This powers the trailer for an entire weekend with more than enough power to spare. That lets us use the Ecoflow for the fridge, and the Jackery 500 is around as a spare. We need a spare bit of power, since the fridge seems to be eating more power than usual, and on hot days, it can’t keep pace with the solar, even with clear skies.

We got a little Solo stove for Christmas, and we’ve used it once on a stopover. It’s nice! I have the backpacking model as well, and in both cases: man oh man does it eat sticks, especially since you can’t find really good, dense hardwood given the form factor. Anyway, it’s really fun to have on stopover nights when you want to sit around after a long day on the road, but not deal with the whole “set up camp/set up the campfire” thing.

We have the same toilet, but have learned about Poo Powder, which you have to include in your kit.

Our storage boxes are now basic Plano boxes instead of the old Wal-Mart ones. Sturdier, bigger, but not see-through so finding stuff is hard for me, since my lady friend is often “optimizing storage” and not telling me.

We took the doors off the pass-through and replaced it with a simple curtain. We are pondering some sort of sliding screen.

What’s next?

Our largest constraint remains our storage garage: I had to modify the door to get the 270 in, so that’s our max height. I want to move the spare tire to the roof, but unless I learn how to weld and build a very low-profile mount, I’m hosed.

We have a single Zamp panel that is very high-quality and extremely durable, but it’s a single panel built for charging a 12v car battery; it doesn’t push out enough juice to really charge the big power banks. We also have a totally craptastic but larger solar panel, that I want to replace with a higher-quality (Renogy etc) one, but those tend to be huge.