Thanks! For parts, yes, I have a good pile of them in my house right now (actually in my bedroom... ah, the bachelor life) and when I'm sure I won't need them, what I'll probably do is start listing them on ebay with a $1 starting bid & no reserve, and post a note here or in classifieds (depending on site rules, I haven't checked). That way for weird stuff that isn't really worth anything but someone needs it for their particular project, they can get it for a nominal $1, and for anything that turns out to be rare I can get a decent market rate without worrying about setting fair prices. But for now I'm still not sure what I'm using or not, and I'd like to sell it all in one fell swoop so people can combine shipping.
Only worked a little this weekend on Saturday - put up a triple-LNB DirecTV satellite dish for one of the friends helping me with the trailer on Sunday, which took longer than expected because I really had no idea what I was doing. And then afterwards I had to play games on her Wii until 1am to recover from all the exertion.
Okay, but on the trailer I was mostly underneath cutting out belly skin. I haven't tried jacking the trailer yet so this was with the usual 12" or so of ground clearance under there. I was cutting the skin with an angle grinder with a cutoff wheel which works well but is unwieldy.
Basically I cut out the curb-side half of the belly skin from the back to just behind the axles, and from the front to just in front of the axles. This is to get access to the area where I plan to put the fresh & grey water tanks, under the floor. What was in there was a lot of dirty fiberglass and a LOT of dirt - like many, many pounds of fine, red dust, most of which fell on me as I was cutting. Good times. Luckily I had bought a full-face shield which together with a dust mask made it bearable, as long as I swept up the dirt every so often. I tore out all the ragged fiberglass I could get to, but some of it was still pristine and not in an area where I was going to put the tanks, so I just left that stuff on there for now.
I really got what people meant when they say "drop" the belly skin this time - you can cut basically along the frame rails and remove large, flat rectangular pieces from between the rails, while leaving the pieces that curve up to the floor intact and still get access to all of the floor by bending those curved pieces to vertical. Where I repaired the floor by the door, I cut out most of the curving section too to get access to the floor, and that'll be a pain to replace.
After removing that side of the skin, I could get to the original furnace ducting, which hadn't been used in a long, long time. Getting it out was a pain involving ripping off duct tape, drilling out rivets, and cutting with a cutoff wheel, along with a lot of brute force, but eventually all 30lbs or so of it came out. After that I made small rectangular patches for the duct holes in the floor, and cleats to go underneath to hold them in place, then glued them in (again using a levelling jack as a clamp to hold the cleats in place while screwing the pieces together). So now the floor has no large holes in it except behind the fridge. The main goal here was not structural - the holes were small enough to be unimportant once an engineered floor was on top - but to keep out water. And to prevent me tripping over the holes and losing things down them until I get said engineered floor.
So here's where the black water tank will go (same as the old position, but almost certainly a new tank):
That's right at the back, and the tank will probably be as deep as the frame rails (which are extended down a little there - it's about 4.5" vertically from the floor to the bottom of the frame). The width is about 54", and I haven't decided on the length yet. Potentially, I could extend the tank all the way back to the bumper from that crossmember, maybe 30-35" in total which would be a 30-35 gallon black tank at the cost of losing the bumper compartment. Still thinking about that one.
Here's where the fresh water tank will go:
This is just in front of the axles. Each of those spaces between crossmembers is about 23" long. Here I think I could safely extend the tank 4-6" below the belly skin and still have a pretty good ground clearance (especially with new axles), much like the new Airstreams. So I have a few options there. Assuming I remove the angle piece that runs lengthwise down the middle of the floor, I have a space that's about 5" tall. Without removing the crossmember, I could have a tank about 54" by 10" by 23" in that space, which is about 53 gallons (around 450lbs). If I removed the crossmember but stayed above the frame, I could have a tank about 54" by 5" by 47", which would give me about the same of course, 54 gallons or so. Or if I removed the crossmember
and had a deep tank extending below the frame rails, it could be anywhere up to 100 gallons or more, weighing 800lbs. Yikes. That's probably a little too large, but I'm leaning towards removing the crossmember rather than having a 23" long tank that's very tall. Better to go 2" below the frame and be 36" or more long, I think.
The same goes for the location of the greywater tank:
This is just behind the axles and the space constraints are the same, and I'll probably put identical tanks in both locations. The grey tank has the additional need to drain, of course, but even at 5" below the frame that should be okay. I plan on putting the drain outlet on the street-side, probably a couple of feet back from the wheels, underneath the belly skin. Basically right off of the grey tank to reduce the need for a drain slope and keep overall ground clearance to however far the grey tank extends from the belly skin.
The drain slope from the black tank should be okay - perhaps 5 feet dropping maybe 3-5" over that. Routing the drain line might be tricker, as of course there are crossmembers in the way. Perhaps it can go all the way underneath the belly skin, or perhaps the crossmembers can be modified to let it pass through them.
To hold the tanks in place, I think I'm going to have a metal shop fabricate frames that can be bolted to the bottom of the frame rails. When I have plans for those I'll post them, obviously it depends on how deep and long the tanks are.
Whatever size the tanks are, it seems likely that I'll have them custom-made to make the most of the space they're in. I haven't seen any tanks that are really all that close to the right size - maybe
this one but it's 24" long, which would require removing a crossmember anyway and at that point I'd rather it was longer.
I need to take some more measurements and draw up a side view of the trailer with the various choices drawn to judge the impact on approach/departure angles & so on.
I plan on installing tank heaters and a small amount of insulation around the tanks to survive freezing conditions, and then perhaps running the new belly skin over the tanks too to protect the insulation.
Unfortunately, the original propane line (black iron, running down one side) is going to be in the way and needs to be moved further to the side, and because it has a T in it that goes off as iron as well before splitting to be the cooker & furnace copper pipes, the whole thing probably needs to be replaced. That's really unfortunate but it looks to be unavoidable.
To do:
- Remove the remaining belly skin from those areas.
- Remove the remaining junk fiberglass from underneath.
- Measure the spaces exactly and decide on tank shape.
- Decide on the location of tank fittings and routing for drain pipes.
- Order new tanks.
- Order tank heaters.
- Design the frames for the tanks and have them fabricated.
- Remove the propane line, and re-route the trailer-connector wires that go through the space.
- Remove the centreline reinforcement and any crossmembers that need to get out of the way; possibly move or beef up existing frame crossmembers.
- Install tanks, heaters, frames, insulation, and connect up drain pipes.
- Test the drainage from the black & grey pipes.
- Replace belly skin and any under-floor insulation I put in (still undecided on whether to use any).
- Replace all the propane lines.
- Do the above-floor plumbing.
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