Trailer update #....14? Sure. #14

A lot has happened since you last saw our trailer. Unfortunately, unless you look closely, it looks almost the same. I suppose that's a good thing though, right? I think there's a saying, "If you've done a good job, no one will notice you've done anything at all." Or something like that. I don't know.

Anyway, when we last updated you all, the trailer was mostly built except for exterior walls. So, out of fear of completing it too quickly, we took it entirely back apart and started over. Just kidding. Not really. We DID take it entirely apart, but that was just so we could do some finish-welding and apply paint to all the bare metal surfaces, inside and out.

It came apart so quickly! It only took us one evening after work to strip it down to this point.

In-process picture of the base POR15 application. This took several days.

Part of the necessary finish-welding included adding a pair of shocks and mounting brackets. So it was also start-welding, before we got to the finish-welding portion.

Shock mounting done less the appropriate hardware.

Eventually we got the entire surface of the frame coated with POR15 and top-coated with black enamel. This felt like a major milestone.

We spent a while admiring our hard work in the driveway. It looks so much better in one (not-rusty) color!

While everything was apart, we also took the opportunity to break down all the wooden structure to its constituent parts and coat those as well. We used an epoxy product popular among boat-builders, in hopes that it should help the wood to remain dry and to last as long as possible without deteriorating. Time will tell! We didn't get any good pictures of the epoxy application process. It's dull anyways. Imagine painting a whole bunch of plywood, except the paint is clear, so it basically looks the same afterwards. Thrilling.

We got pictures as parts were completed and reassembled, though. You were warned; it looks basically the same as it did before.

Shown here is the propane tank in its spot, surrounded by the rear "loose storage" area, and the home for a 10x10 pop-up tent on the passenger's side.

We also realized that it was time to start addressing little detail things that we'd left out for quite a while. These are all the things that become a major time sink and give you almost nothing to show for it. Some examples follow.

Here we marked, and drilled holes for mounting the propane tank to its skid plate, and acquired the appropriate-sized hardware to secure it in place.

Here you can see one stabilizer jack installed with the appropriately-sized hardware, as well as the corner of the propane tank skid plate. This was also the time to chase every threaded fastener and apply anti-seize.

The drawer for the grill was only ever ~80% complete, even though we may have called it "done". It finally got the attention it needed to get it to actually complete. This included cutting a slot in the utensil drawer to act as a handle, disassembling the grill to bolt it down to the drawer, and finalizing the propane connection with a quick-connect fitting for setup and stowing. This also meant we had to finish soldering a few connections, apply joint compound to threaded connections and final-torque everything, as well as leak-check the propane system.

The utensil drawer "handle" shown here.

The grill is secured in its final resting place.

The propane system in its final configuration, ready for leak checking.

The grill drawer finally complete. Except maybe a handle on the top surface.

We also had to put some finishing touches on the battery compartment. This included painting the steel bottom surface and hold-down brackets to prevent rusting, locating and drilling mounting holes, and running and terminating a few of the wires.

These washers needed slight modification to fit correctly.

The battery in its final resting place, adjacent to the grill.

We also finally got the rock lights actually mounted correctly. Until recently, the whole harness has just kind of been laying in the trailer loosely, approximately where it belongs. Mounting them for real meant removing the electrical connectors to pass the wires through a small hole, and then reinstalling the connectors. It was tedious.

Here's a top view of the pair of rock lights installed in one corner.

Here's the bottom view of the same lights.

There's also been a bunch of other little things. The most significant is probably routing and securing all of the wiring harness. It was roughed out before we tore everything apart, but it needed a little work. Everything got wrapped with split loom for protection and all of the zip tie bases got secured with screws in case the adhesive backs fail (spoiler: they failed). We also got latches and seals put on the openings in the front panel for the refrigerator and the water heater.