EXPO Casita towed by 80 Series on 40s (2 Viewers)

[ExpoMax]

This is just to catalogue my evolution of a 2010 17’ Casita Spirit Delux I picked up a couple days ago. Pretty awesome little trailer. All fiberglass, 25g water tank, and only 2200lbs.

Pulls easy enough with my 1997 80 Series.

Onto the build! I’m really excited to get this thing off-road worthy.

Plans:
Bigger tires
Lift
Custom bumper
Bedliner
Interior pwr stuff
Solar probably
And probably much more down the road.

This is how I picked it up

 

[ExpoMax]

First mod was blacking out the wheels

 

[ExpoMax]

2nd was a camping trip and then a 4” lift today.

 

[GW Nugget]

Please post those inside pics. Thank you for the share.

 

[ExpoMax]

Please post those inside pics. Thank you for the share.

Oh yeah guess I missed that! More to come for sure.

Bed can also be turned into a 4 person dinette. But since I’m only me I’ll probably get a nice mattress and have it permanently.

 

[80t0ylc]

Good find, but things that would concern me are if the frame would hold up to off road pounding, dry camping - you'll want a generator and solar and a good system that automatically switches from shore power to 12v/propane. Just things to think about. If it's a 3 way fridge, it's more efficient running propane than 12v, so that can help with solar keeping batts charged. I've got a 2006 Lance 1055 slide in camper for my F350, but want to get more mobile for the outback. Been toying with the idea of selling it and getting a Lead Dog 4x4 Extreme off road trailer and customizing the build for my needs. My Lance is setup perfect except it's too big to tow with my 80 or get into tight places with the F350...lol. Looks like you have a good start!

 

[ntsqd]

With a 2-way compressor fridge you'll only need a good solar system. Find the "Handy Bob" pages about setting up a solar system that actually works as it should. His pages aren't easy to read, and they are repetitive, but what he says has proven by many to do what he says it will.

3-way fridges have proven themselves to me to be too temperamental and have inconsistent performance that greatly depends on ambient temperature. The lowest temperature I ever consistently got out of one is about 40°f below ambient.

If you plan to be able to charge from the TR's alternator you'll need to do a voltage drop calculation for at least 80 amps over the total distance. Total distance is both the power and the ground wire lengths. I suspect that you're looking at at least 4 ga. cables, and can buy that in duplex form from West Marine and Bestboatwire.com Use an Anderson connector for those cables. That puny 10 ga. (max) wire connector in a RV 7 blade electrical plug & receptacle supposedly for charging the trailer battery(ies) is pert near worthless. There will need to be a breaker at both ends because there is a battery at both ends. I prefer the 285 series breakers for their manual reset capability. Makes it easy to turn off the line when I need to work on it.

 

[ExpoMax]

Good find, but things that would concern me are if the frame would hold up to off road pounding, dry camping - you'll want a generator and solar and a good system that automatically switches from shore power to 12v/propane. Just things to think about. If it's a 3 way fridge, it's more efficient running propane than 12v, so that can help with solar keeping batts charged. I've got a 2006 Lance 1055 slide in camper for my F350, but want to get more mobile for the outback. Been toying with the idea of selling it and getting a Lead Dog 4x4 Extreme off road trailer and customizing the build for my needs. My Lance is setup perfect except it's too big to tow with my 80 or get into tight places with the F350...lol. Looks like you have a good start!

Frame seems to be pretty good from what I’ve seen. But I will probably add some ribs to help reinforce it some more. Last thing I want is the fiberglass flexing.

I have pretty much zero power needs, and my truck is outfitted with dual batteries and solar + huge inverter so if needed I have that. Plus when I’m dry camping I just leave my trailer plugged to the truck and then I can pull from two deep cycle batteries and get the charge from solar. I only really need enough pwr to run the water pump, fan, tv, stereo, and charge my phone, so what I have should be plenty.

If/when I decide to camp camp in 90+ degree weather I plan to have a small 2000w generator to run the AC.

 

[ExpoMax]

With a 2-way compressor fridge you'll only need a good solar system. Find the "Handy Bob" pages about setting up a solar system that actually works as it should. His pages aren't easy to read, and they are repetitive, but what he says has proven by many to do what he says it will.

3-way fridges have proven themselves to me to be too temperamental and have inconsistent performance that greatly depends on ambient temperature. The lowest temperature I ever consistently got out of one is about 40°f below ambient.

If you plan to be able to charge from the TR's alternator you'll need to do a voltage drop calculation for at least 80 amps over the total distance. Total distance is both the power and the ground wire lengths. I suspect that you're looking at at least 4 ga. cables, and can buy that in duplex form from West Marine and Bestboatwire.com Use an Anderson connector for those cables. That puny 10 ga. (max) wire connector in a RV 7 blade electrical plug & receptacle supposedly for charging the trailer battery(ies) is pert near worthless. There will need to be a breaker at both ends because there is a battery at both ends. I prefer the 285 series breakers for their manual reset capability. Makes it easy to turn off the line when I need to work on it.

The one in the trailer is a 3 way fridge. I just plan to just run it off propane at camp and dc while driving.

I don’t use enough power to merit bigger cable going to the trailer and So far the 7pin plug has been working just fine. So I’ll probably just stick to that!

 

[ntsqd]

I ran off propane all of the time when we had a 3-way. Running it off of 12 VDC was not only really inefficient, it also didn't work all that well.

The large cable isn't for mega amps, it is surprising how big they have to be because of the total run distance involved and needing less than 3% voltage drop. Even at just 5% voltage drop you may not have enough overhead in the charging voltage at the distant batteries to actually charge them. Have a look at this chart after figuring out the total circuit length: Voltage Drop in Conductor - Wire Sizing Chart - Blue Sea Systems My really rough guess is to get 50 amps (~bulk charging) at less than 3% VD from the TR you're going to need 2 ga. conductors. That's a big pill......
If what you have is working I wouldn't change it either. If/when it stops working this is the direction you'll need to take for best performance.

With 100W on the roof of our camper and a 2-way fridge I can always keep the Popsicles frozen in the SW deserts. That wasn't possible with the old 3-way.

 

[yotasavg]

Following! Nice lil trailer you got there.

 

[ExpoMax]

Awful old pipes vs new setup

 

[80t0ylc]

Awful old pipes vs new setup...........

Nice job! And easier to protect, if needed.

 

[ExpoMax]

Usbs:

 

[GW Nugget]

Slick little trailer, it is set up very effective.

 

[DylanTheVillain]

Again...brilliant.

 

[alia176]

@ExpoMax

I need a favor bud, can you tell me if this piece with the arrow can be purchased at a typical RV store? Does this thing have a special name by any chance? My GF's Casita needs her pipes to improved and I need this thing.

I'm curious did you change the drain pipe config from the pic below to something with higher clearance? If so, can you put up a pic pls?

Thanks.

 

[ExpoMax]

@ExpoMax

I need a favor bud, can you tell me if this piece with the arrow can be purchased at a typical RV store? Does this thing have a special name by any chance? My GF's Casita needs her pipes to improved and I need this thing.

I'm curious did you change the drain pipe config from the pic below to something with higher clearance? If so, can you put up a pic pls?

Thanks.

View attachment 3151332

You can see what I did in the pics above in this thread. I also have no idea what that is called unfortunately.

 

[ntsqd]

Something like this maybe?

Amazon product ASIN B002N5L9T6

 

[alia176]

Oh SNAP, thank you bud