New Horse Hauler

[ML3 2,392]

7 hours ago, ebinmaine said:

 

 

We looked at those in comparison to the huge window unit we bought. I did not find the value in the mini split. The AC we bought was well under $1,000 and the mini split was going to be 2.5 times that or more.  

We know some people that have mini splits installed including the electrician that was going to do it.

None of them are super pleased with the results they get under outside temps about 25°. That's pretty much the entire month of January and can spread another month either direction up here.

 

 

Mini split is a heat pump so they definitely arent as good at heating especially in really cold weather. They are very energy efficient though. I dont need to keep my garage at 70° all winter.  All I want to do is keep it above freezing & then warm it up when I'm out there. Mostly,  I want it for the a/c. We have a few of them at work & they function without any issues. My dad was an industrial HVAC tech so he educated me on getting the right system for my application. My garage is 24x24. Walls are Rockwool insulation, ceiling is insulation board w/2' of blown insulation in attic. Garage door is also insulated. Well insulated building is really the 1st & most important step. 

[ebinmaine 79,689]

8 minutes ago, ML3 said:

I dont need to keep my garage at 70° all winter.  All I want to do is keep it above freezing & then warm it up when I'm out there. Mostly,  I want it for the a/c.

 

Excellent usage. 

 

 

8 minutes ago, ML3 said:

Well insulated building is really the 1st & most important step. 

 

Absolutely agreed.  

We made our workshop space as airtight as possible. Very lightly insulated. We don't need the constant temps. Just the ability to change it when we're out there and it's too hot.  

Luckily the workshop is on the dark side of the building so it stays cool.  

 

 

 

[stevebo-(Moderator) 8,741]

I installed the rubber floor tiles 2x2 in my enclosed that lock together. Unfortunately they began to buckle a lot and I have to physically cover the lifting or should I say cupping joints with flatstock metal. I hope this floor holds up better than mine did. 
it is a tough call on best flooring to install in these trailer. Yours looks good Kev!

[WHX?? 57,392]

I still vote for bed liner. The best hands down.  It's tuff , cleans easy when @Achto has a bowel movement on it  , water & oil resistant, non skid & patches easily if damaged. Moisture can not get underneath it to get trapped & cause damage. You really only need e track down the sides Kev. At times it would be nice to have some along the side wall for hauling furniture and such. No backing to screw to tho. A well built trailer would have backing in the side walls and there may very well be.  

My track was is 12' one piece from a trailer outfit. The recessed tie downs were factory. 

 

Buddy Massey Jason has VCT ( glue down tiles )  in a black & white checker board which is cool but gets kinda slick. 

 

I also used it on the ass end of the toy hauler after rotted out repairs. It sealed the new deck down nicely to the sidewall against water intrusion. 

Edited July 18 by WHX??

[WHX?? 57,392]

Another thing to mention about these toys is when raising the gate do so very slowly and careful not to let it slam. You get rough with it the torsion cable can come off the spool then you have a mess. Ask me how I know.

The only way to fix it is take the spring tension off and rewind. A real PIA. I don't know why they don't use assist springs on the hinge like the campers. would eliminate a lot of hassle.  Use slit pool noodles over the cables so no one gets cloths lined and easy to see when loading or backing off. 

Edited July 18 by WHX??

[Horsin'round 465]

There, fixed it for you!

[Pullstart 70,702]

My buddy Aaron hooked me up with a nice big battery and an inverter to run light duty shore power.  It’ll go up in the nose, and maybe even have room for a winch to hook up.  I’d love to be able to pull dead stuff in, rather than push it!

Edited Monday at 10:32 AM by Pullstart
Photo

[wh500special 2,434]

On 7/18/2026 at 5:47 AM, WHX?? said:

 

Wow, I didn’t realize these trailers are so wood-intensive.  Seems like an odd material choice for something that gets drug down the interstate in the rain.  But wood is cheap, so I guess is the default choice.  Trailer campers are likely the same. 
 

Would there be an advantage to not sealing anything up on these and just allowing them to breathe?  Seems like water intrusion is inevitable, so maybe just give it the ability to dry ftom all surfaces. 
 

Fishing boat floors are typically wood/plywood too.  And obviously they get wet.  I’ve made the observation (I think) that those that have carpeting on them actually last longer than those with sheet vinyl flooring surfaces.  The carpet does soak through ftom rain from the top, but I surmise that the vinyl locks in everything from below and grossly prolongs drying time.  On my current boat the carpeted surfaces are fine, but the underside of all the vinyl covered plywood flooring is starting to flake and is discolored.  The floor is still solid, but I’m sure it’s within the next 5-10 years that I’m replacing it. (I had the floor out to mess with the fuel tank and was surprised by the difference.)
 

My observation could be confirmation bias though.  

 

Steve
 

[SylvanLakeWH 31,722]

1 hour ago, wh500special said:

My observation could be confirmation bias though.

I noted the same thing on my previous boats... 

Edited Sunday at 05:16 PM by SylvanLakeWH

[Pullstart 70,702]

2 hours ago, wh500special said:

Wow, I didn’t realize these trailers are so wood-intensive.  Seems like an odd material choice for something that gets drug down the interstate in the rain.  But wood is cheap, so I guess is the default choice.  Trailer campers are likely the same. 

That is his trailer camper… toy hauler style.  

[Pullstart 70,702]

This new trailer has the rear spoiler.  It covers the rear door by quite a few inches, and @Achto turned me on to the advantage of shedding water vs allowing it to run past the seal.

[Pullstart 70,702]

I mounted the inverter up on the wall.  Once the bench is in, it’ll be a good height for 110v use, and good height to monitor the battery level as well.  For a bonus, it’ll be away from any potential moisture!

[Pullstart 70,702]

I ran a dedicated 12v wire from the junction box under the nose to the battery.  The ground strap from the inverter to the trailer frame completed the circuit and now I have on board power supply!  The group 31 deep cycle battery shouldn’t ever lose charge with such a simple load.  The tow vehicle will recharge the system while driving.  The battery also has its own singular e-track tabs to tie down to as well.

 

 

[lynnmor 8,900]

41 minutes ago, Pullstart said:

I ran a dedicated 12v wire from the junction box under the nose to the battery.  The ground strap from the inverter to the trailer frame completed the circuit and now I have on board power supply!  The group 31 deep cycle battery shouldn’t ever lose charge with such a simple load.  The tow vehicle will recharge the system while driving.  The battery also has its own singular e-track tabs to tie down to as well.

 

 

 

 

 

Be aware that your battery may not charge well, here is some information.

[WHX?? 57,392]

Owww look ... scotch locks. Now don't get too excited about those Dan. Won't have any skin left to close yer eyes...  

 

Why does it look like that rig has sky lights Kev? 

[Pullstart 70,702]

54 minutes ago, WHX?? said:

Why does it look like that rig has sky lights Kev? 

It has a translucent fiberglass roof.  

[WHX?? 57,392]

1 hour ago, Pullstart said:

It has a translucent fiberglass roof.  

First I've seen ... no worries about how it will hold up? 

[Pullstart 70,702]

7 hours ago, lynnmor said:

Be aware that your battery may not charge well, here is some information.

Thanks for that.  I stuck the trickle charger on that battery tonight.  It was at 12.1v, or about 50% of it’s charge according to that link.

[Pullstart 70,702]

4 hours ago, WHX?? said:

First I've seen ... no worries about how it will hold up? 

It’s supposed to deflect branches or falling items (hail) better than aluminum.  The salesman told me they will all transition to similar materials in the near future.

[Pullstart 70,702]

The hauler is coming along nicely!  I built a little jumper to stick in the 7 pin pigtail.  It illuminates the marker lights off the battery.  I am considering wiring a shore power plug to run when we have power available.  I also began installing the .030 aluminum sheets.  The remaining pieces I’ll bring to my father in law’s shop to make use of the stomp shear and press brake to have clean edges and cut to fit.

 

 

[Pullstart 70,702]

The little vent on the right rear sheet was fun.  I pulled the vent off, forgot to measure, then proceeded to install the aluminum!  A little precision guess work and I found center enough to saw a 2-1/2” hole, then trim the edges to 3” with some hand shears.

[wh500special 2,434]

Nice. 
 

a few comments in no particular order:

 

Fiberglass panels…

Up to a pretty impressive limit, the fiberglass panels will be incredibly damage resistant.  Unlike metals, fiberglass composite is completely elastic right up to its failure point.  So as long as it doesn’t crack, it will rebound fully. 

 

The polyester resin matrix will, over time, yellow and lose some translucency due to UV exposure.  It will also get a little more brittle as this happens and will eventually start to bloom some fibers.    Depending on the inhibitor package mixed into the resin you can expect 7-10 years outside.  Keeping it inside stalls that deterioration process. Even without sun, the inhibitors will still be consumed and lose effectiveness over time. 

 

The most active degradation reaction mechanism is called free radical polymerization by the way.  This is when a photon on UV light knocks an electron loose from a molecule and which is then free to swim around in the plastic and react with things.  Commonly, additional cross links form between polymer chains, thus stiffening and embrittling them.  The inhibitors are mostly free radical scavengers which have active sites that have a special affinity for those radicals.  
 

analog free radical reactions happen in your skin and tissues too causing all mannee of damage. All those makeup and cosmetics commercials you see have a (very small) kernel of truth to them when they talk about such things. 
 

Lights…

I’ve seen people shoehorn a 5A blade type fuse into the two adjacent battery and taillight pins of the 7 way plug to power up their running lights from the brake battery. Apparently if you lightly twist the blades just a little bit it will pop right in.  Same as the jumper, but with a bit of protection in case something goes wrong. 
 

I rigged up a toggle switch at the junction box on my trailer (just like your pic) between the battery terminal and backup terminal so I could switch on a reverse facing flood lamp and power it from the truck supply independent of having the gearshift in reverse.  This gives me a work light available and a backup lamp for nighttime launching.  I’ve used it a couple of times and it’s been a nice addition. 
 

I just assumed the lamp would work from

the trailer’s onboard brake battery too even when unplugged from the truck.   No such luck. My battery is apparently isolated via a diode so it doesn’t backfeed the truck or allow power to be present out at the plug.  I don’t know what the convention is, but mine doesn’t permit powering up anything from the battery and yet apparently others (like yours) do.  
 

I assume that same diode also clips off a half a volt or so of charging voltage when connected to the truck and may be the reason I only get a couple years out of a battery…it’s chronically undercharged. 
 

Chargjng…

 

You can install a fairly cheap DC-DC converter or DC-DC Battery Charger between the trailer power wire and your battery to achieve a full charge.  If you pick a small one you don’t have to worry about overcurrenting the feed from the truck as they are self-limiting and also typically don’t allow battery discharge back through them when off. Nice ones have adjustable charge profiles to allow you to later switch battery chemistry if you desire. Most aren’t weather sealed tightly enough to be mounted outside, so it would have to live inside like your inverter.  Some even have Solar charge controllers in them to allow roof mounted panels to charge the battery too.  
 

still on charging…

 

I haven’t done it, but I am considering running 6 AWG wire ftom my truck’s battery to an Anderson connector under the rear bumper.  From there, plug in another cable and run it up into my boat where it would feed a sizable DC-DC charger to charge the 24v battery bank for the trolling motor.  A second circuit would go to the 12v cranking battery.
 

I’ve moved my boat to a storage lot that doesn’t have power and this would enable me to recharge at a high rate while traveling to and from the lake. As it stands now, I take a little generator with me that I run on the return trip to get as much back into the batteries as I can.  What’s happening is I’m slowly killing my lead acid batteries since they never get fully charged.  
 

Eventually they’ll be lithium which charge quickly and tolerate being stored with a partial charge, two things lead acid don’t. But I’d still benefit from at least being able to actually top them up fully. 
 

there are days where I might draw 35A out of my 24V system for a couple of hours.  Best case, I can only get 5A out of the current charger and I might only run the gennie a couple hours.  So I’m presently going the wrong way most of the time. 

 

I can see this sort of setup having significant utility for campers or trailers like yours.  I think on the road at high engine speeds the alternator would

cool sufficiently and its internal currents would be low since the voltage would be up  Not cheap of course, but manageable. 

 

Finally, inverters…

 

It’s not going to be common, but if your inverter isn’t a pure sine wave inverter you may find some devices that won’t like it and may not run.  Some inverters put out a square wave or choppy/noisy modified waves that some equipment might recognize as problematic and not operate.   We tinkered with a sizeable modified sine wave inverter at work on a piece of equipment and the onboard microwave oven didn’t even try to run, yet everything else seemed fine.  The takeaway from this should be to make sure you trial everything before you take a trip away from home base.

 

Great progress.  Looks like a pleasurable diversion.

 

Steve

[Pullstart 70,702]

@lynnmor @wh500special

 

DC to DC charger is something I hadn’t heard of before.  Could it be installed in line on the tow vehicle?  Would it work to supply power to a trailer that doesn’t have a battery to charge?  Maybe that wouldn’t make sense, if I only have one battery powered trailer and have potentially two tow vehicles, but just in theory…

 

Are you thinking something like this?

 

https://a.co/d/0fJQshGK

[lynnmor 8,900]

1 hour ago, Pullstart said:

@lynnmor @wh500special

 

DC to DC charger is something I hadn’t heard of before.  Could it be installed in line on the tow vehicle?  Would it work to supply power to a trailer that doesn’t have a battery to charge?  Maybe that wouldn’t make sense, if I only have one battery powered trailer and have potentially two tow vehicles, but just in theory…

 

Are you thinking something like this?

 

https://a.co/d/0fJQshGK

 

Looks like it would be about right, but I find Vevor products to be variable in quality.  It might be a good idea to be able to move the charger between tow vehicles and trailers as needed, just use quality connectors and provide weather protection.  I don't know about running that charger without a battery, perhaps you can get the manual for it.  You still need wiring heavy enough to carry the amps involved at the estimated distance and voltage, the charger won't be able to compensate for wires that are just too small. 

 

Another option is to run an inverter for 120VAC and use a small battery charger.  The 120 volts can use much smaller wire to cover greater distances and then the charger can be close to the battery, of course you need to protect the higher voltage system well.  I wouldn't be very comfortable with 120 volts across the hitch because of potential damage or error.