Trailer and truck modifications

More, more, more. There’s always more to do, isn’t there? There’s always some slick trick or modification you read about for your truck or trailer that you just really need to try out. Or something has been niggling at you all year because it just doesn’t work right, or it just doesn’t fit right, or … well, just because.

So here are three upgrades/modifications that I’ve made to the trailer or truck recently.

The first one is a small but meaningful upgrade to the propane tanks. By default, trailers are delivered by Escape Trailer Industries from the factory with no way to know how much propane is in each propane tank. You just wait until one tank runs dry, flip the switch to the other tank (and remember to open the other tank’s valve), then close the valve of the first tank, then you remove the first tank and take it to be refilled, and then you bring it back and reinstall it. And then you wait until the second tank runs out of propane and reverse the procedure. But you never really know when either tank will run dry.

That worked for me for one season, until the time that I came back to my trailer in the evening to find my trailer batteries were really close to dead because the propane had run out earlier in the morning, so the trailer automatically switched to battery power rather than switch to the other propane tank. I was “dry camping” without any way to plug in the trailer to recharge the batteries. I didn’t like that very much at all.

I researched options and purchased two pressure gauges, one for each propane tank. Then I could tell reasonably well when one tank was close to running out. Since then, I’ve had no problems with the propane system or with keeping the batteries charged.

The photo below is of my two propane tanks with no pressure gauges on them. The black hoses and the green tightening knobs fasten directly onto the tanks … there’s nothing in between the green knobs and the tanks.

The photo below, on the other hand, shows the pressure gauges installed between the green tightening knobs and tanks. One gauge on each tank. Piece of cake!

 

The photo above was taken from above the two tanks, looking directly down at the top of the tanks. Obviously, I had removed the protective cover in order to install the two gauges.

The photo below is of the two tanks (which you now can’t see) WITH the protective cover back in place.

Notice the inspection hatch on the top of the cover in the photo above. The hatch has two small black knobs and two small black wire ties holding it on. All I have to do is unscrew the two small black knobs (they unscrew by hand), then open that hatch (the wire ties act as hinges), then I look inside and see … the new gauges (photo below).

You’ll see there are three tri-colored pressure “rings” on the gauge face. Each ring relates to the outside ambient temperature to help you determine pressure in the tank. The photo below was taken on a cool day. When the pointer on the gauge gets down into the yellow, then you might want to think about switching to the other tank, then get this tank refilled. It’s an easy way never to run out of propane. I like that!

The second “fix” that I completed recently was a modification to the black “head” where the electrical switch is located that’s used to raise and lower the tongue jack. The problem was … shortly after I purchased this trailer, I discovered that I could not lower my truck’s tailgate when the trailer was connected. When I tried to lower the tailgate with the trailer hitched to the truck, the tailgate would hit the black head of the tongue jack. Granted, I didn’t need access to the bed of the truck hardly ever when the trailer was hitched to the truck, but still, this was not a good arrangement.

Photo above … the red 2-way arrow shows the path of the edge of the truck’s tailgate … the yellow arrow points to the black head of the tongue jack. You can see that the black head sticks out towards the truck quite a ways.

I didn’t like this arrangement! But I didn’t want to buy a new, longer trailer hitch for the truck. So I fussed and figured and measured and muddled about the issue for awhile, and eventually decided to see if I could remove the black head on the tongue jack in order to find out how it was afixed, in hopes it could be turned sideways.

I did it! And it worked! The photo below is of the black head turned sideways and firmly bolted in place. The black head now sticks out to one side rather than sticking out towards the truck. Granted the electrical switches are now on the side, but I don’t find that a problem at all.

Now, the width of the black head (fore and aft) is just slightly more than the width of the tube below it, leaving plenty of room for my truck’s tailgate to fully open without hitting the black head or anything else.

Photo below … I added two wire ties to hold the wiring in place.

 

Mission accomplished. I now have a fully opening truck tailgate even when the trailer is all hitched up.

Not to worry … I also checked underneath, when the tailgate was fully open, to make sure the tailgate did not hit the trailer hitch mechanism either. The yellow arrow in the photo below shows the clearance, almost 2 inches.

The process of turning the black head included drilling a new hole completely through the hollow tongue jack tube, then tapping threads into the holes on each side of the tube, then reinstalling the black head. In the process, I also moved the propane tanks back about 1.5″ in order to gain even a squish more room, and that process also involved drilling holes and figuring and measuring. I had a good time, and the end result is perfect.

Ok, next modification/upgrade was inside the trailer.

Here’s the problem. Every time I used a spray cleaner to clean the floor, the propane alarm went off … LOUD!!! If I used hairspray, even with the bathroom door closed, the propane alarm went off … LOUD!!! Every time I used any kind of spray cleaner (and I tried different ones that claimed they wouldn’t do this) … every time I cleaned anything in the trailer with any spray cleaner … well, you got it, that dastardly propane alarm would blow and scare the daylights out of me and out of anyone else anywhere near the trailer. Rumor has it that, if you have a dog, and it’s lying on the floor near that propane sensor/alarm, and the dog farts … you guessed, the propane alarm will sound … LOUD!!!

I didn’t want to disable the alarm completely. It’s too important. Another factor in all of this was that I’m told that the propane sensor itself (the little sensor inside that device) … that sensor itself wears out, at is were, with electricity running through it. That’s why propane sensor devices need to be replaced every few years. But if the device is turned off, then the little sensor inside does not wear out. I thought that was a grand idea.

So again I researched all information about these issues and eventually purchased a small on-off switch, properly wired it into the wiring system that feeds the propane sensor/alarm, and installed the on-off switch right above the propane sensor device.

The red arrow in the photo above points to the on-off switch that now controls the propane sensor device. [Because propane is heavier than air, the propane sensor device is near the floor in the trailer.]

In the photo below, the on-off switch is on and the green light on the propane sensor device is also on. [Up is on, down is off.] When the on-off switch is turned off, no lights will be lit on the sensor device. Whenever I’m not in the trailer, I turn this system off. Since I use the trailer only a few weeks every year, that means the device is OFF about 98% of the time, which means it will likely last for 50 years instead of 3-5 years.

Don’t worry, this sensor/alarm does get turned on when I’m in the trailer. I have no desire to die from a propane leak.

So that’s what I’ve been doing lately. Poking at stuff on the trailer and the truck, researching options online, talking with my local RV repair mechanic, and making all things better and better. I love camping. But I must admit, I do also love this fiddling around bit. 🙂

NOTE: There were lots of wonderful comments on the last blog post, the blog post about “housekeeping” and the two silly photos of me sound asleep. If you haven’t gone back and read those comments by readers, please feel free to do so. What a great group of folks. 🙂