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53' Toyhauler Build

Pt_Ranger_v8 said:
That's cool. Have you ever thought about painting the trailer so it doesn't look like a moving van? :smokin:
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Yes. VERY BRIEFLY.
I 2-toned the truck a couple weeks ago to kinda tie the two together. I have over 12 hours just sanding the truck (lower fairings and door handles down on the cab.) I really hate sanding around rivets. There are over 100 rivets per seam on the trailer. And 24 seams. So around 2400 rivets to sand around. If I am going to spend the time and money to paint it, I would have to do it right.

At first the orange was obnoxious, but it has grown on us. Makes finding camp a lot easier.

I am planning on a little paint on it, and some graphics to break up the orange.
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Nice touch on the paint.

I'm learning about paint right now, and I think I'm gonna try spraying my rig this summer. it'll be a 40' paint job for sure
 
Pt_Ranger_v8 said:
Nice touch on the paint.

I'm learning about paint right now, and I think I'm gonna try spraying my rig this summer. it'll be a 40' paint job for sure
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I helped a friend prep one of these for paint a few years back. They painted the whole thing 2 colors in a day. Started at 5pm Friday, they were spraying the first color at 3am. Remasked and 2nd color by 8am. Then put it back together so he could put it back to work by Sunday afternoon.
I swore that day I would never Sand and paint one again. Almost made it.
 
So cool. My wife would not have the patience for memto do something like that. I probably would not have the patience, either. What kind of mileage do you get,maince realistically, it is nearly empty? Also, how much have you spent on building it out? With the current price of big trucks, they are a bargain.
 
Average Mileage on the 3500 mile trip was 7.5. Not great, but my 2000 CTD was getting 7 with my gooseneck and 2 rigs. This rolls over the scales about 46k fully loaded.

I am in the truck about 15k, and about the same on the trailer. That includes purchase price and upgrades (tires, transmission, cabinets, appliances, steel, donor RV)
 
maveric said:
Average Mileage on the 3500 mile trip was 7.5. Not great, but my 2000 CTD was getting 7 with my gooseneck and 2 rigs. This rolls over the scales about 46k fully loaded.

I am in the truck about 15k, and about the same on the trailer. That includes purchase price and upgrades (tires, transmission, cabinets, appliances, steel, donor RV)
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.
Do you have to stop at weigh stations?
 
We have been using this a lot this summer. Have taken it to Az, Ut, and Tx since March. The one thing that I have come to realize, is that it NEEDS AC. I didn't know what type to put in it, so have been doing some testing. My brother had a portable that he used in his camper, so I have tried it. It works ok, but not big enough. So I will be putting a mini-split in there.
This brought up another issue...power. I have a 2k Yamaha that has worked fine for our needs, but it struggles to run the portable AC. Plus with the small fuel tank, it requires more input to keep things going.

A couple years ago, I bought a 6k Onan out of an RV to put in the build, but couldn't figure out where I wanted to put it. I thought the truck made the most sense, since I would never have the camper without the truck, but could take the truck with my flatbed and still need power. But the size made packaging difficult without rebuilding the bed on the truck.
I opted to build a cage under the front of the trailer, directly behind the landing gear. This should keep it safe from road debris, and getting hit on things.
Mounted it on the driver side, with exhaust exiting under and behind. Pipe will exit under the exhaust for fridge and furnace. 20 gallon fuel cell should be here tomorrow.
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Since this was hard mounted on a RV, it didn't have a panel on it, or a fuel tank. I found a panel from a trashed unit, and will mount it to the side of the genset. Also plan on running a remote start controller inside the garage area so it can be started from outside or in.

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We also realized that the fridge does not like the heat of the southwest. The air needs to move over the coils for the cooling effect to work. Since I could not put the top vent on the roof like normal rv's, it is mounted above, but still on the side. Since heat rises, I hoped that this would be sufficient. This does not appear to give enough air movement on its own when the temps are in the 90's.

So after doing some research, found some people had added some small PC style 12v fans to force the air past the coils. Built a small panel to hold 3 of them, and tied them to the power source for the fridge.
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I didn't want (or need) the fans running and drawing power when the temps are lower, and they are not needed, so I found a 12v temp controller relay on amazon. It turns the fans on/off at 75*. The probe is mounted above the coils at the upper vent.
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We are taking it to Washington next week, so hopefully everything works.
 
Installed the fuel cell and exhaust. 20 gallons of fuel should run for a while. Exhaust isn't too loud, but noticed some serious vibration directly above in the camper. The rear mount is bolted directly to the trailer frame. Thinking I need to add some rubber belting between the frame and the bracket.

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Cool build. This is something I want to do someday but with a shorter single axle trailer.

How does it handle in the wind being so light. I hate pulling an empty dry van in the wind.
 
KungFooMASTA said:
Cool build. This is something I want to do someday but with a shorter single axle trailer.

How does it handle in the wind being so light. I hate pulling an empty dry van in the wind.
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It isn't exactly light. I rolled it over the scale a couple weeks ago, loaded with 2 crawlers. Came in just over 52,000. Most of my weight is down low (comparatively). Water, batteries, gen, spare parts, tools, all located in the boxes below the deck. We got into some heavy cross winds a couple years back coming home from Trail Hero, could see the inside duals of the trailer in front of us lifting off the ground. Mine was moving around pretty good too, so just slowed down. 65 - 35 really fast.
The biggest issue I have with the wind is moving a 13' tall and 8' wide brick through a head wind... because that is usually what we encounter.
 
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