Cargo Camper Miminalist Elegance: Adding lithium Part 1

[@vickireed7366]

Hello, Did you consider aunt like a (Jackery) or Blueti portable power stations ? Honest question here> Im waiting for my aluminum trailer from Proline and just getting ideas on a lot of things.Thanks

[@CraftsmanontheLake]

Hi, thanks for the quesiton. Did you order the proline brand that is from NH? Yes I did consider the Jackery after seeing many off grid van life videos with one. It's a really nice unit with inverters and multiple plugin's. I didn't get one for a couple of reasons. One was that I wanted something that would fit in place of the original wet cell batteries I had before, as the camper was already wired with plugs, and secondly The Jackery costs almost double when considering power. i.e. My bigbattery is about 2500w of power available. at $1200. The Jackery 2060watt unit is $2099. That, along with the 10 yr replacement warranty made the decision easy for my particular needs.

[@commonsense246]

Never stop posting...love all your ideas...I am OCD and cannot abide clutter and also fond of the KISS principle...thank you!

[@duffy4996]

yes, stuff is getting heavier...I am sure that I first noticed the phenomenon in Canada when we went to the metric system. And do not get me started on pant waist sizes....

[@jTone40]

Gravity, good one!

[@CraftsmanontheLake]

Well it can't be me right? BTW.. this getting older thing is for the birds. Everything the old people told me years ago is true. Sigh.....

[@jTone40]

@@CraftsmanontheLake Roger that , I enjoy your perspective.

[@vickireed7366]

Subject: Cargo trailer Yes i did order from the NH proline, 71/2 x 16 and added height too. Ordered late feb and there has been 2 parts from the supply chain mess thats still holding it up.I will have the Marine battery for 12 volt .I would like to have aux. Batt. power for various things. It would be nice to have a battery that would run the 5k BTU window air cond. occasionally, but that would probably take alot ?I ordered the rear ramp door and will use the trailer for different things besides just camping (motorcycle, bikes ,etc) I will probably use your idea for the TV antenna.How did you run the antenna cable to your TV ? Thanks, Hope i have the patience to keep waiting for my trailer ?I live in Iowa, and thats quite a trip

[@CraftsmanontheLake]

The wait will be worth it! When I ordered the trailer they agreed to fit all the wallboard inside but only put a few screws in it. They put a black dot where all the others went and gave me a bag of screws. The screws were self tapping and going into aluminum so not much harder than screwing into wood. It all went well. Anyway, it allowed me to pull it off, insulate everywhere and then run wires to various places including the tv coax cable. The AC will be an issue even for a larger battery bank like I've got. AC's take a lot of electricity. Even small generators have problems with them. I do have a wonderful fan though that works surprisingly good, is 12v and doesn't eat the battery up much at all. It's in my 8 things video a few episodes after this one. Thanks for the great comments!

[@vickireed7366]

@@CraftsmanontheLake Thanks, Did you custom make your spare tire rack for the tongue? Also, where did you run the TV coax ? Along the floor or ceiling in a channel cove of some sort ? Thanks for your You tube info

[@CraftsmanontheLake]

@@vickireed7366 The wiring from the tow vehicle comes in through the nose/floor. It runs up the V and over to a channel on the side where the door is in the upper corner to the fan/taillights, etc.. So, I ran all my wires on that side in that channel. The tire was a problem. I thought it would bottom out if I put it underneath, didn't want to take up space in my rear storage area, and didn't want to bolt it to the side of the camper. I bought a simple tire mount, sort of a curved L shaped with a bracket to bolt it to the tongue. I used that mount to mount a longer pipe to the tongue then welded the tire mount I bought to it. I could have attached it by using large U bolt clamps too instead of welding. This got the tire higher, above the bumper level and it still allows me to open the truck tailgate while connected. The antenna insertion pipe is also mounted to it. At about timestamp 15:00 on my philosophy part 1 video on my channel it shows that entire thing. I also have a build page on Tiny trailer forum that's 7 pages long recording my build. On those pages you'll see a lot of this stuff. New stuff has been done since I last updated it though. www.tnttt.com/viewtopic.php?f=42&t=63835&sid=58edd0b00a21b262f8c987ca12bc4bb0

[@Kimbers58]

Thank you very much for explaining so I can understand 😊

[@kendrasmith6637]

Thank you for this helpful info. I am learning a lot. Enjoy your channel 😊

[@MarioStFrancis]

Loving this channel, learning alot, love your speed, quality, clarity etc. It all feels so doable.

[@CraftsmanontheLake]

Thanks. I was a teacher most of my adult life. Don't get me going! As my wife knows so well.

[@Lapeerphoto]

[Combined comment of the Trailer-tour video and this one.] I LOVE that I found a channel of a cargo trailer guy that previously tent camped. So many of the cargo conversions are people building an RV to park next to a bunch of strangers at an RV park with less privacy than their own back yard! That is NOT my gig. Wife and I just bought a 8.5x20. We wanted an enclosed trailer for the motorcycle, and a one we can (at minimum) blow up our airbed and sleep, then hit the road.(I know, its bigger than we need/wanted, but the price was so cheap I couldn't pass on it. And its practically new.) If you and I lived close, we'd be friends! From what I've seen so far (and I just subscribed, 2 videos in) is you have practical approach, very similar to me. Looking forward to your thoughts after you use this battery for a year. I'll be using 200Ah of AGM to begin with. Just can't justify the lithium cost, just yet. And ALL 12V for now, too. Then in a year or 2 when we go to visit the kids in AZ, I'll add Air and maybe a microwave. - enuff rambling... looking forward to watching the rest of your CTC vids. Thanks! Cheers from Michistan

[@CraftsmanontheLake]

Thnx... BTW... Michigan, which took a long time for us to get to as we had toured most of the other states was a surprise state. We love Michiga!. Did the west side from Holland up into the Upper Peninsula. We stopped every 20 miles or so and stayed a day or two each stop. Great place to visit.

[@Lapeerphoto]

@@CraftsmanontheLake yes yes. There are so many beautiful spots in Michigan. I've motorcycles much of it. The U.P. is our favorite. I highly recommend going into porcupine mtns and up to copper harbor and Pictured rock, if you've not been that far. A future trip for us will be coming back from AZ, go up through WI into the U.P. and around lake superior. Happy trails you and your wife. Our new CTC adventure begins next year.

[@MarioStFrancis]

Same size for us too, love the largeness of our trailer... traveling with a family (little kids) eager to learn and implement. Love this channel!!!!!

[@brianburley2229]

Enjoy your videos. Since you only stay at State or Federal campgrounds that have nice showers and electricity why is $1,200 lithium battery system needed (other than your lake boat needs)? I like your minimalist approach to camping and am developing our retirement cargo camper plan. Thanks!

[@CraftsmanontheLake]

Good question. Thanks. I do need the power for my boat. It's electric. I can stay out fishing a long time that way. And we do find campgrounds with electricity often but sometimes we don't which is the reason I made almost everything 12 volts. Sometimes we like to boondock or stay on BLM land. And some places don't have full hookups. Our recent video to the White Mountain National Forest had electric but our move over to Vermont afterwards didn't. We love the state parks in Vermont but none of them have electric as far as I've seen. So we don't need the battery that much but when we do it's nice to have all the power you'll need.

[@brianburley2229]

@@CraftsmanontheLake Thank you for the explanation. Makes sense. Having all that extra callable power is a real advantage.

[@vickireed7366]

So, one of my concerns with the Proline (or most cargo trailers )when i get it is : The short Tongue and possibly short turning radius. Don't want to dent or crease the V-Nose or damage my truck .Looks like you might have used a Hitch Extender to lesson the chance ? My trailer will have random axles, but looks like the tongue to Ball is the same distance ? When you Insured your trailer , did you just insure the trailer cost from Proline , or did you add coverage for your Build out ?Im going to get total replacement coverage on the trailer but haven't got quotes from State Farm yet for that. Might add some to the trailer coverage for part of my build outs? Hopefully the insurance isn't real costly, ? Have you been caught in any hail with the alum. trailer?

[@CraftsmanontheLake]

Great point. Seems like most trailers have the shorter tongue. Mine is like that and I have dented the trailer as a result. Extending the hitch still places the pivot point at the same place, so you can turn a more acute angle but you will still hit the same point. The only way to get the bumper away from the camper is to extend the tongue on the camper itself. I called them and they said that it had to be that length for balance and they can't just extend the tongue beam without bringing the support beams on the sides further forward too. I've learned to be more careful when making sharp backup turns. It doesn't happen turning while going forward, as you never turn that sharp. And the only time it happened to me is when I had to back up because a bridge beam was too low and it was a narrow one lane road. No choice but to jackknife and push the camper to the side. I have a red mark on each side of the V of the camper on a specific point. If it disappears in my side view mirrors it means that I've turned my limit.