Off-grid trailer for the Interstate van

[InterBlog]

Originally Posted by Heckler56

... Pewag makes a square chain that is extremely resistant to saws and cutters .....

You mean a Pewag chain like this one below?

Yes, we went through all kinds of security measures when we custom-welded our hitch carrier, because with the tremendous work that went into it, we could not afford to lose it.

The trick with Pewag is to conceal the corresponding padlocks into frame locations where tools cannot reach. By that method, the locks may remain the proverbial weak link, but nobody could ever get to them to exploit their weakness.

That's what we did with this baby, which tethered the hitch carrier to the frame:

[Heckler56]

[QUOTE=InterBlog;2613125]You mean a Pewag chain like this one below?

Yes, we went through all kinds of security measures when we custom-welded our hitch carrier, because with the tremendous work that went into it, we could not afford to lose it.

The trick with Pewag is to conceal the corresponding padlocks into frame locations where tools cannot reach. By that method, the locks may remain the proverbial weak link, but nobody could ever get to them to exploit their weakness.

That's what we did with this baby, which tethered the hitch carrier to the frame:

Great. I didn’t notice any prior mention on chain. Do consider the Viro locks for this chain as it leaves no pin exposed which is the common method to defeat a lock. Also consider chaining through tires and frame (when unhitched &#128521 makes the tire an achilles heal for a quick get away.

[uncle_bob]

Hi

If you go with commercial or residential panels, understand their target voltage. Most are set up for 24V systems. Some are set up for 48V. You want to be sure that your controller is able to handle the voltage. Also check their grounding / return setup. Many are "frame ground" setups. Most RV controllers are not happy if the negative is grounded.

Yes, you can deal with all of this. It's just a pain to catch it late in the install process.

Bob

[InterBlog]

An interesting tidbit that could help you one day:

USPS actually takes photos of inbound tracked foreign parcels.

And when the parcels go missing, you can request a copy of the photo so that you can post it on social media and put up flyers around your neighborhood as you would do if searching for a lost cat or dog. "HAVE YOU SEEN ME?!"

That's what happened with our Electrodacus BMS this week, which is destined for installation in our trailer. It successfully managed to travel 1,789 miles from rural Saskatchewan, only for USPS to lose it in the final 200 yards of its journey.

And it's irreplaceable right now - the manufacturer has a note on his website that says, "Due to semiconductor shortages, products are out of stock until around November 2022". He had sold us this lone BMS that he just happened to be holding in reserve, only because we were repeat-repeat customers. So I was losing my schtick (or something similar) yesterday, vowing to do whatever it takes to recover it, hence my deep dive with our local post office.

Anyway, you, too, can get a photograph like this for a similar lost item, if you ever need it. I was able to put this actual photo (left) on our subdivision Facebook group and within an hour, a resident came forward with my package because it had been delivered into their cluster box instead of mine. The photo helped to prompt everyone to take a second look at their recent mail pile.

I guess that USPS does this with foreign packages in case they retrospectively have to trace drugs or illegal items or maybe some kind of terrorism prevention? Something to do with national security, but also convenient for the rest of us. I blurred out the identifying info, but the original is quite legible.

[InterBlog]

Husband is hard at work chopping angle iron for the battery box frame. I'm the helper and garage cleaner. Hardware shopper. Pancake maker. Probably going to be a pizza-fetcher as well pretty soon.

It has been a while since we have done a big project for the van. I had forgotten how much I enjoy the smell of freshly-chopped steel. Some people prefer parsley, but steel signifies progress to me.

And of course I had to have some fun with it, with stickers and a roll of C2. There's always room for stickers.

[Hittenstiehl]

As we expected you guys are doing a great job with the IBT. Can't wait to see your load configurations and stowing techniques. This thing will be tricked out.

[InterBlog]

Another reason to feel good about a trailer decision:

Canada is re-intensifying border testing and mandatory enforced quarantine, which means that we must enter under the same logistical decision tree that we did in 2020 - prepared to quarantine in the van, in the woods, for up to 14 days.

The policy revised 2 days ago will probably give us more discretion on food stores. Pre-pandemic, certain foods were allowed to cross the border, but they were subject to inspection. During the pandemic, the priorities shifted, and all Border Services wanted to know was if we were sure that we were carrying ENOUGH food to sustain quarantine.

It matters because, from the look of the reports that are coming out now, BA.5 is projected to infect a very large percentage of the population regardless of COVID personal history. LB_3 and I are both vaccinated and we both had Omicron in January. Furthermore, we are both clinical trial volunteers (I am in two trials; he is in one). Because of that, we know 1,000% more about our coronavirus profiles than the average person. We know that both of our antibody levels are immeasurably high - off the charts (my most recent blood draw was 5 days ago). We both know that we are unlikely to show symptoms if we do encounter BA.5, so there's a real possibility that one of us could turn up hot at the border with a stealth infection.

So, we will prepare for quarantine. We were going to do that anyway, but now we will do it formally.

Incidentally, after 18 months in clinical trials, I would say that it's been a worthwhile volunteer effort, with caveats. It has consumed FAR more of my time than I had anticipated, but I also learned a tremendous amount. For example, when I came down with Omicron in January, I was PCR-tested daily, because they wanted to look at the immune response profile. To my surprise, I had completely eradicated all traces of the virus within 7 days of initial coronavirus infection. I heard all these horror stories of people repeatedly testing positive for a month or two after infection, because dead virus particles continued to circulate in their systems prior to elimination. But I blew all that crap out, living and dead, within the first week.

How many people get an opportunity to learn valuable medical information like that? Not many.

Of course, one downside is that I've had so much blood drawn from my left arm so many times that I can probably never use it again. I built up scar tissue in the vein to the point where it will no longer re-seal, and I just bleed out if it is re-punctured by a needle. Not convenient.

TL;DR screenshot on the policy change:

[InterBlog]

Originally Posted by Hittenstiehl

As we expected you guys are doing a great job with the IBT. Can't wait to see your load configurations and stowing techniques. This thing will be tricked out.

Load configuration!!!

Last night I made the decision that we MUST bring the Piaggio, even if we need to leave other items behind.

We have been having a brutal summer in Texas, with intense drought and sustained 100-degree days. I stopped riding for many weeks because I won't ride without full gear, and I cannot gear up in extreme heat.

Well, we had thunderstorms yesterday and the temperature dropped into the mid-80s. Carpe diem - I finally went for a ride and reconnected with the experience. I was on the fence previously because I wanted to bring both my modular kayak and my full-sized mountain bike (as opposed to the folding bike), and it's only a 5' x 8' trailer. But we MUST bring the motor scooter. It would be so cool to cruise around all those back roads that are normally inaccessible to the Interstate. So we need to figure out this loading issue.

High viz nerd here:

[InterBlog]

A lot of work got done yesterday, although it may not look like it from the photo below. But let me unpack something I said above, because it is the driver behind the design of the trailer's electrical system.

LB_3 and I are aspiring to eventually retire to a rural location. Right now, we have a preference for deep east Texas (DETX), and that could change, but even if it does, the destination will probably be rural.

Like most urbanites, we had no idea of how poorly served rural America really is in the context of basic utilities. For example, this past week, as local temperatures reached 106 F, Zavalla Texas lost power almost daily, sometimes for as long as 4 hours. (If you wish to understand more about why rural Americans vote as they do, try living with their logistical challenges for just a short time, and the answer will make itself brilliantly apparent to you).

In that environment, people with the financial means install their own backup power systems. The technology they choose is almost always propane generators, because that’s what can be ordered off the shelf and installed without hassle. The problem is, those generators are inefficient, propane runs out quickly, and if there is a regional electrical emergency, there is no way anybody is going to get refueled (omitting details for brevity, that has proven to be true multiple times). So the propane generator option is only a stopgap measure at best, for when a tree falls on a power line, or something similar. It’s not a holistic solution to a power emergency, such as what happens routinely during hurricanes, for instance.

For that reason, we've chosen to go solar. And it makes no financial sense to develop a solution solely for this trailer that we’re building – what are we going to do, put thousands of dollars of power generation in a trailer that we only use a few times a year?? We have to be able to move the core of the system from place to place in order to get the value out of it. For that reason, we need to be able to configure the housing for the battery, inverter, and other electrical components so that it is portable.

Specifically, it needs to be easily scooted here and there on a hand truck (dolly). Furthermore, in order not to be a pain in the rear end, it needs to have a small footprint so that we’re not tripping over it, no matter where it happens to be operating. As a result of these considerations, the "power tower" that LB_3 is building will superficially resemble a small refrigerator approximately 4.5 feet high.

This kind of construction is like any other: a lot of the effort goes into the front-end preparation rather than the execution. In the photo below, you can see much of the angle iron that was chopped yesterday for the power tower’s frame.

And today will be another day for work progress.

[uncle_bob]

Originally Posted by InterBlog

Another reason to feel good about a trailer decision:

Canada is re-intensifying border testing and mandatory enforced quarantine, which means that we must enter under the same logistical decision tree that we did in 2020 - prepared to quarantine in the van, in the woods, for up to 14 days.

The policy revised 2 days ago will probably give us more discretion on food stores. Pre-pandemic, certain foods were allowed to cross the border, but they were subject to inspection. During the pandemic, the priorities shifted, and all Border Services wanted to know was if we were sure that we were carrying ENOUGH food to sustain quarantine.

......

TL;DR screenshot on the policy change:

Hi

A clarification: The change cited above applies to folks coming in by Air. There is no change for people arriving via a land boarder. For RV folks, the "random testing" requirement ( and quarantine if you fail ) has been in place since last summer ( = it never went away). It certainly was in place when we came into Canada in May. We have hard data on just what a terrific system it is .... yikes ....

This is very clearly stated here, right at the top of the page:

https://travel.gc.ca/travel-covid/tr...ntering-canada

Bob

[InterBlog]

Originally Posted by uncle_bob

Hi

A clarification: The change cited above applies to folks coming in by Air....

Only on its face. I was born and raised in Canada (and did my first university degree there), and so my interpretations are going to reflect what I understand about the way things are done in that country. And I see the change for air travelers as a "handwriting on the wall" development for everyone else. The meta-message is that ALL testing will be stepped up (air, land, sea), and quarantine enforcement will re-strengthen. And this is not a surprise given what is being learned about BA.5.

Americans are far more "say what you mean" than Canadians, on every level of society, including government levels. The distinction manifests in common negative stereotypes about Americans - that they (we) are brash, loud, blunt, inconsiderate, etc. Well, the upside of that is that is clarity and directness. If America says that it's going to resume random air testing, then it is going to resume random air testing, end of story. But in Canada, a statement like that is more likely to quietly signal an entire cascade of additional things.

[InterBlog]

You would think that someone would be selling a simple bolt-on 20-lb propane bottle bracket that could be mounted on this V-nose, because it’s such common sense that one should exist.

You would think that, but you would be wrong.

Multiple different types of trailers carry gas bottles in this location. Despite this, many of the solutions for doing so appear to be DIY rather than mass-market. Too much product liability with many commercially-developed alternatives, perhaps? There are several different brackets out there for sale, but they were designed for other applications, and would poorly adapt to this geometry.

Feel free to prove me wrong.

[uncle_bob]

Originally Posted by InterBlog

Only on its face. I was born and raised in Canada (and did my first university degree there), and so my interpretations are going to reflect what I understand about the way things are done in that country. And I see the change for air travelers as a "handwriting on the wall" development for everyone else. The meta-message is that ALL testing will be stepped up (air, land, sea), and quarantine enforcement will re-strengthen. And this is not a surprise given what is being learned about BA.5.

Americans are far more "say what you mean" than Canadians, on every level of society, including government levels. The distinction manifests in common negative stereotypes about Americans - that they (we) are brash, loud, blunt, inconsiderate, etc. Well, the upside of that is that is clarity and directness. If America says that it's going to resume random air testing, then it is going to resume random air testing, end of story. But in Canada, a statement like that is more likely to quietly signal an entire cascade of additional things.

Hi

The testing process was very much in place back in May .... we have "empirical evidence" to support that claim. Also collected a lot of data on just how they manage that system.

Will things change further down the road? We'll see. I certainly would not bet against them changing.

Bob

[InterBlog]

***MY BAD***, and may you learn from my mistake:

When my trailer was delivered to the dealer by the manufacturer and I arrived to pick it up, I was solely obsessed with ensuring that it had no hidden damage or missing parts. My mental bandwidth was consumed with going over it inch by inch to ensure that the workmanship, which was rushed due to supply chain shortages, was up to snuff.

In so doing, I failed to notice that two digits had been slipped on the VIN number that was submitted for title. That simply never occurred to me as a possibility. Doesn’t it fall into the “You Have One Job” category that the dealer makes sure it’s correct?

Never assume anything. Now I have a brand new type of goat fornication on my hands. This cannot be fixed until the state of Texas produces blue title for this trailer. Only when I have permanent title in hand can the correction process be commenced.

Meanwhile, my trailer has been wearing a mis-matched temporary tag and now it has a mis-matched permanent license plate. “The mistake was discovered during an audit,” the dealer told me today.

Really? I don’t really understand how the popular criminal scheme works (see below), so I don’t know if this was an accident vs. some other motive such as a sub-scheme (e.g., issue me a forgery and sell the REAL tag to someone else). But see the news story titled How Texas Paper Tags Became a $200M Criminal Enterprise. Yup. Two hundred million bucks. Am I collateral damage to that, or simply unlucky? I’ll never know.

Moral of the story: Check your paperwork twice. There’s a scammer around every corner. And/or someone who cannot do their “one job”.

[Titus]

Agree with your comment about 'someone who cannot do their “one job”'. I'd be especially upset if you had to pay a 'document fee' like is charged here on each car purchase to process the paperwork of car titling and licensing. This is a dealer fee - state title and licensing fees are on top of that.

I once had them want me to come in and sign something that they forgot during the purchase. The dealer was way across town, and I had no other reason to be going there. I told them I'd drive there if they wanted to refund my doc fee, otherwise they could come to me. (The forgotten signature was on the car I traded in, so I had no incentive to drive 30 miles to sign it.)

[InterBlog]

Livin’ Peter Zeihan’s nightmare here in Texas today:

West Marine, historically the retailer of last resort, because they are the most expensive. An uninitiated person might look at this and say, “Oh, but there’s still some electrical wire available for sale.” Yeah, but it’s all the wrong specs. And electrical components cannot be substituted willy-nilly.

Projects and inventions are not fun like they were in the Before Time. It’s a completely different experience now. Every component is a massive struggle to obtain.

[InterBlog]

The power tower, partially assembled. Battery cells will be arranged on the lower two shelves, and the inverter plus the rest of the workings up higher. (I assembled it in our kitchen because the garage is about 97 degrees right now).

The wood shortage crisis is abating somewhat now that builders are slowing down in anticipation of a recession. But the lingering problem is poor stock, often geriatric. I suspect that, during the shortages, some wholesalers got hold of as much wood as they could, and hoarded it. Now that the market is softening, they are selling off their stockpiles, but it's old and brittle and difficult to work with. Wood must have the proper moisture content for best working. Not too wet and not too dry. This stuff is way too dry. It was purchased last week, but it was very old before it ever made it into our garage.

The screw box is positioned in the photo as a reminder to me that I still need to track down #8 x 1/2 inch metal screws. I managed to get that one box this past week at a Lowes store, but they only had one.

[InterBlog]

Get it all mocked out of cardboard first, and take some pics, because once all that wiring starts going in, it’s going to become a hot mess.

[Hittenstiehl]

CAD, A favorite of many here, cardboard aided design. Looking good.

[InterBlog]

Originally Posted by Hittenstiehl

CAD, A favorite of many here, cardboard aided design. Looking good.

*LOVE* that. I can’t believe I haven’t heard that one before. Thank you!