sleepycruiser
I will get by….I will survive
- Thread starter
- #501
Yes, just the OEM tow loop/hook
Let’s see those 200s camping…..
- Thread starter sleepycruiser
- Start date
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I'm worried about the strap rubbing or dulling the paint when doing that. Did you see any rubbing/dulling from that?
sleepycruiser
I will get by….I will survive
- Thread starter
- #503
The angle is definitely not the greatest. I had just painted my grill and the strap left some pattern imprint on it. I think I am going to tie a microfiber cloth at the point it touches the Cruiser to alleviate that issue.
sleepycruiser
I will get by….I will survive
- Thread starter
- #504
Trying to decide what to do here. It has Lexus wheels on it, but I have extra matching Lc200 wheels so my LC200 and the trailer will have the same wheels. Just need to get the wheels painted and the wheel adapter in and installed. Thinking of painting it a dark grey and getting a Yakima rack and bars. This will make loading and unloading the kayak much easier.
sleepycruiser
I will get by….I will survive
- Thread starter
- #505
That time of year…
sleepycruiser
I will get by….I will survive
- Thread starter
- #507
We went camping this weekend. Who is that in the garage? 
We had the most memorable camper door opening mornings at Valley of the gods 2 years ago. Arrived really late and after having to do doing Moki Dugway at night because the road to Muly Point had a massive amount of standing water. It was pitch black when we arrived, went straight to bed. Sunrise we open the door to one of the most spectacular golden hour sunrise moments we’ve ever experienced, even the kids were in awe.
Thanks for sharing and reminding me of that.
FrazzledHunter
SILVER Star
We just got back from taking our trailer on its maiden voyage to Oregon Inlet Campground (6/13-6/21) in NC then to Williamsburg Campground (6/21-6/26) just outside of Williamsburg VA. Each campground had its pluses and minuses and we enjoyed them both immensely.
Oregon Inlet was more "camping like" in that it had no water, power or sewer hookup. The last time we were there was in a tent! The experience was good for testing the trailer's off-grid power features. We were able to use the 2 ceiling fans, microwave, toaster, 12V fridge-freezer as much as we wanted and recharge 100% via solar. The 200Ah batteries got down to about 65% in the morning and were fully recharged by 1PM each day. We didn't use the A/C as it would draw too much battery power. Luckily, the weather was cool and breezy with lots of sun for the solar panels. I plan to add an additional 200Ah. While there we enjoyed the beach daily and visited Okracoke island.
Williamsburg Campground was the polar opposite: patio, porch swing, picnic table, full hookup with water, power and septic (#unlimitedwater,#unlimitedpower,#unlimitedpoo) and was a nice change as the weather got HOT. While there we visited Jamestown, Yorktown and hiked the York River in York River State park.
Oregon Inlet:
Williamsburg Campground:
1607 Jamestown fort archeological dig & Memorial Church - where it all started for the British:
Yorktown surrender field - where it all ended for the British:
Hiking along the York River:
Oregon Inlet was more "camping like" in that it had no water, power or sewer hookup. The last time we were there was in a tent! The experience was good for testing the trailer's off-grid power features. We were able to use the 2 ceiling fans, microwave, toaster, 12V fridge-freezer as much as we wanted and recharge 100% via solar. The 200Ah batteries got down to about 65% in the morning and were fully recharged by 1PM each day. We didn't use the A/C as it would draw too much battery power. Luckily, the weather was cool and breezy with lots of sun for the solar panels. I plan to add an additional 200Ah. While there we enjoyed the beach daily and visited Okracoke island.
Williamsburg Campground was the polar opposite: patio, porch swing, picnic table, full hookup with water, power and septic (#unlimitedwater,#unlimitedpower,#unlimitedpoo) and was a nice change as the weather got HOT. While there we visited Jamestown, Yorktown and hiked the York River in York River State park.
Oregon Inlet:
Williamsburg Campground:
1607 Jamestown fort archeological dig & Memorial Church - where it all started for the British:
Yorktown surrender field - where it all ended for the British:
Hiking along the York River:
sleepycruiser
I will get by….I will survive
- Thread starter
- #511
I’ve got to get solar figured out and a generator). I’ve never even looked into it. Our battery ran dead running just two fans, putting the awning out, and random lights at night. I had to pull the battery form the 200 to get the electric jack up and the awning back in. Then I hooked up the 200 and it fed it enough to do the rest.
I added solar to our Sprinter van. Pretty easy to do, as far as hooking it all up:
- buy and mount panels on roof
- fish wires into camper
- buy and connect wires to solar charge controller
- wire solar charge controller to house battery
I have 200W solar and 200 amp-hr battery. That's enough to run a fridge, microwave, electric coffee pot for two of us and we are 100% recharged each day, providing it's partly sunny or better. It's way better than a generator, as it's quiet, nothing to start, no fuel, etc.
sleepycruiser
I will get by….I will survive
- Thread starter
- #513
I don’t know if our fridge will run just off the battery. It only works when plugged into a 30amp plug or if I run off propane….and the propane just doesn’t cool it down enough so we ended up going to find two styrofoam coolers and a bunch of ice as we were in the middle of nowhere.
Gotcha. SOOOO nice not to have to deal with ice anymore!
FrazzledHunter
SILVER Star
There is a thread dedicated to trailer power. I drew some inspiration from it and I as well as others have outlined what we have done. AFAIK I'm the only one on this board to have upgraded the LC with a heavy duty alternator to charge the trailer. A REDARC BCDC1250D in the trailer connected to the LC allows for the tow vehicle to dump 50A from the LC plus additional wattage from OEM solar panels while under tow and stationary and also auxiliary portable solar panels while stationary. Others have added DC-DC chargers to charge from their tow vehicle and solar as well.
We also have a small 1000W Honda generator that is just powerful enough to run the converter (750W) to charge the batteries and maybe some additional AC loads. We may some day need it but our first trip had lots of sun!
Trailer power - https://forum.ih8mud.com/threads/trailer-power.1317688/
This is our trailer at Oregon Inlet using auxiliary Merlin XP-170 solar panels to augment the 2 400W solar rooftop panels. It connects directly through a ZAMP connector to the solar (yellow wire) connection of the BCDC1250D. As this panel is an outstanding panel which due to their portable nature can be oriented optimally it alone produced approximately 140W whereas the 2 400W rooftop panels produced about 280-300W.
I could also charge the batteries if I chose to idle the LC but that avenue is intended for charging under tow.
FrazzledHunter
SILVER Star
Your fridge sounds like the fridge-freezer in our first trailer. It's 120V or propane. It's pretty much all different now with 12V compressors.
sleepycruiser
I will get by….I will survive
- Thread starter
- #517
Yeah, sounds like I need to dive way into this.
Eastern Sierra Camping with the kids. This is where the 200 really shines. Tow your trailer down, drop it, and have something to go explore in (and even haul large rounds of wood).
Most older RV fridges are 120v or propane. The 120v is not nearly as efficient as the newer 12v compressors.
You can't see the panels in my pictures, but I have (6) 200w panels on the roof, going to a 7kwh 12v lithium battery bank, then to a 3000W inverter. I can run the rooftop AC for several hours and only deplete the batteries down to 70%. If the sun is out, I get about 1000w of solar, while the rooftop AC runs at like 1200w so I can run all day if needed. Blowdryer, microwave, Keurig are no problem either. I no longer bring a generator camping.
You can't see the panels in my pictures, but I have (6) 200w panels on the roof, going to a 7kwh 12v lithium battery bank, then to a 3000W inverter. I can run the rooftop AC for several hours and only deplete the batteries down to 70%. If the sun is out, I get about 1000w of solar, while the rooftop AC runs at like 1200w so I can run all day if needed. Blowdryer, microwave, Keurig are no problem either. I no longer bring a generator camping.
sleepycruiser
I will get by….I will survive
- Thread starter
- #520
Crazy you can run the AC off that….i had no idea. I will assume that is $$$$$$$$$