MyRovers.com

The seams on the inner tents should not have leaked. I would have your brother either rub them with a Bee’s Wax Bar http://www.beeyondthehive.com/ or use a seam seal.

With all tents it’s best to be pro active in the area of water resistance and seam leakage. The alternative isn’t so pleasant. To test the tent deploy it, remove the mattress, and use a garden hose to simulate rain. Having someone inside checking for leaks is always a plus. If you find leakage along the seams use the wax or seam sealer. If the fabric is seeping try one of the waterproofing products such as 3M.

—————–

The material itself normally is not a problem. The stitching can allow water through as the hole the needle punches in the material and the thread are different sizes. With canvas tents you were always told to soak down the tent so the stitching would swell up and plug the hole made by the needle. With synthetic or blended materials or thread there is little or no water absorption so the swelling does not take place.

You don’t see that many problems with leaking seams, but if they do occur seam seal or wax takes care of it. The nice thing about wax is it works when the fabric is wet.

—————–

The real deal is 303 Products High Tech Fabric Guard. It is avalable in marine shops and direct from 303 Products –

303 Products website

—————–

Never had to re waterproof an Eezi Awn. If I had to I probably look into the Niki Wax products or the 303 Products High Tech Fabric Guard MikeS was referring to. Something specific to breathable materials.

—————–

It is difficult to make a single wall tent keep the rain water out but still breathe. I’ve done a lot of work with the Maggiolina’s fabric through the years, it has a DWR finish (durable water repellant) but even it’s finish does wear out with time.

Here are some thoughts, they are highly subjective and always subject to change.

I’m not a fan of seam sealant, it too wears, best to design a tent so the seams aren’t in critical places. You will sometimes find seams on the folding rooftents. The good fabrics for this type of tent have a cotton content, which is good because the water causes the fabric to swell and close up to be water repellant. The problem is it stretches the seams, allowing water to come in there. We redesigned AutoHome’s OverCamp tent many years ago because the fabric was reinforced at the peak, for wear. If it rained over 4 inches an hour, the tent would develop drips at the threads, even though this wasn’t a seam. None of the OverCamp or OverLand tents have seams in the roof for this reason. We also use a “winter hood” that turns the tent into a double walled, four season tent, for these conditions.

Here is what I recommend for the Maggiolina which uses a special Drylon fabric. Drylon is a synthetic polyester, so it doesn’t absorb water and swell. With time, the DWR finish (durable water repellant) will wear and water will not bead up and the fabric will get wet. The Drylon needs the DWR renewed. There are several products that can do this. Scotch Guard by 3M tends to attract dirt and dirt hampers the DWR finish. I recommend the 303 finishes over Scotch Guard or NikWax for this reason. Clean the fabric really well, 303 has a special cleaner for this. Apply the 303 finish, and leave the tent out in the sun on a hot day. This is critical, the heat will let the 303 finish bond to the fabric. I will use a hair dryer in the winter, but it doesn’t work as well. The Maggiolina’s design is excellent for continuous wet weather, but you can also get a winter hood to make it a double walled tent.

The Columbus is something of a hybrid tent. Drylon isn’t as good because the sloping walls need more water repellence. This tent uses Airtex fabric, which has a special PTFE finish, similar to what GoreTex now uses. Pasquale is right, it doesn’t breathe as well, but you never have to worry about water coming in. I have noticed some condensation in very wet cold conditions. If this is a concern, again, use a winter hood and turn it into a four season tent.

Martyn brought up condensation. This will occur anytime there is a cold surface that warm moist air can condense on. Solutions are breathable fabrics, and insulation. I’ve seen rooftents that are “waterproof” that will turn into little rain forests once the water condenses on the fabric, not pleasant. Any surface that gets cold needs to be insulated. Many rooftents have plywood bases, sounds bad but actually insulates quite well. Look under your mattress, if it is wet, you tent probably didn’t leak, that’s condensation. A good rooftent will have an insulated base. Another of my pet peaves is ridgepoles that aren’t sheathed and insulated. Fine if you camp in the desert, but water will condense all night and drip on you, even if it isn’t raining.

Oh, Pasquale, you mentioned an awning for a Columbus, yes we have them, we use a parawing design that goes over the whole tent, lots of protection, you just attach to the top and it deploys when you open the Columbus, Mike can set you up.

Almost forgot, we have a new experimental mesh that goes under your mattress. It is about a half inch thick and acts like a box spring, has a little cush, very little weight, but allows air to pass under your mattress. Our guy in Germany developed it and I’ve been testing in in marine conditions, it works. Stock is really limited but we do have some. Should work on any brand of rooftent no just AutoHome.

Hope this helps explain some of the science and design issues. Rooftents are a challenge they are very different from ground tents.

————————–

The 3M Scotch Guard will not hurt the fabric, think of the fabric like a mesh or lattice, something to support the DWR. I talked at length with the chemist at 303 products and it is perfect for Dralon. As long as you don’t have any big holes, should work as new. I tested 303 against salt water and have been very impressed so far.

All Rovers, Camping Trailer, Misc Info

finished the instillation of the submersible water heater element, seems to work ok, cheap at around $60, will field test it and let all know how it worked

got the heating element from www.hydrogenappliances.com and the bulkhead fitting from WWW.PLASIC-MART.COM,

12 volt, 300 watt, looks small in a 20 gallon tank but it can put out some serious heat

first test run, 20 gallons @ 62 deg., 3 hours raised the temp to 89 deg, everything seems to be working fine

$25 poly tank - $50 heating element - hot shower at the end of a long day priceless

WWW.PLASTIC-MART.COM

1″ POLYPROPYLENE FITTING PART #10485

requires 1.75 inch hole saw, also you must be able to reach inside the tank, i just cut a hole in the top and sealed it up after the instillation

Camping Trailer

hanks to this site for the bug sprayer shower idea.

I’ve also built my own. Seems the commercial version is too expensive for the value. I obtained the bug sprayer from Northern Tool

http://www.northerntool.com/webapp/w…4138_200314138

It’s a 2.5 gallon stainless sprayer. Unfortunately it was $54. I found some a little less costly but I’ve had good experience with Northern Tool.

Pic 1: The sprayer had a plastic internal tube that reached from the outlet to the bottom. Someone mentioned a concern with this and heating. If you look at the Northern Tool picture you’ll see that the sprayer wand is brass. I was able to pull out the plastic, cut the brass tube from the wand, insert this brass tube into the sprayer replacing the plastic, and solder into place. On top I soldered a normal brass hose fitting obtained from the local hardware store. A fitting at this point is nice as will be explained subsequently. Replacement of the plastic tube leaves a quite strong point for the fitting.

Pic 2: I often have to supply 4 showers. It is really nice to do this quickly to get out of camp in the morning. I tried to minimize heating time with the stove shown. This also obtained from Northern Tool.
http://www.northerntool.com/webapp/w…70_15490_15490
This stove puts out a huge amount of heat and the burner diameter matches the bug sprayer diameter very well. Unfortunately it is something of a trick to get it to work from the small 1 LB propane bottles but that’s another story. Stove is somewhat heavy but packs nicely into my rig. My only complaint is that it is quite wind sensitive. I used my water bottles as a block but I’ll have to bring some light metal panels next trip. I fill sprayer with roughly 1.5 gal which gives a complete shower to a female. I can shower on much less. Heat up time is a few minutes.

If a cap is carried for the connection then the bug sprayer can be completely sealed and can be filled with water and used as additional water storage until the first shower is supplied.

Pic 3: A Paha Que shower tent purchased directly from them (best price - they had a sale)
http://www.pahaque.com/products-tepee.shtml
Overall this is a really good tent and good value for the $. I got the aluminum poles. There’s a setup that is about as involved as setting up a normal tent. Don’t be fooled by their site video! I was impressed by this tent overall since it seems they’ve actually used their own product! There are a lot of subtile good things about the design. All I changed is to add external bungees around the stuff sack (they left it big so the tent is easily placed inside but once zipped it is too flooppy) and to add caribieners (SP?) at the points where their design intends that you insert the poles thru loops (a pain). You can see this in pic 4 at the point where the open zipper vents come together in the corner.

Pic 4: The shower head is made from a bent piece of stainless tubing and is clipped to a top loop with caribieners. The plastic tube is just too flexable for this operation and it is really nice to have the shower head hang above and away from the tube. Also clipping allows easy disconnection. The drill is to wet down quickly, soap and scrub with water off, then use the remaining water as a rinse. During rinse it is efficient to unclip the head and apply water directly to soapy areas. A series of several clips allow adjustment of the shower head height for various height persons. All this is about saving water and the propane it takes to heat it. I can carry only a total of 14 gal.

Pic 5: Here’s a close up of the head. All constructed with local hardware store parts. Notice I’ve applied epoxy over most of the sprinkler holes. This spreads out a very small flow rate for better rinsing. I’m tempted to epoxy in every other hole in the perimeter shown. There’s a valve located at the head which is in a convenient location to meter and shut off flow.

Pic 6: This is the lower part of the head assy, shown with the sprayer removed. It is necessary to disconnect the head assy tube from the sprayer when heating to prevent melting the plastic tube. This connection allows the head to remain hooked in the shower while only the tank is removed for refilling and heating for next shower. Picture also shows a dirt floor. The shower tent is supplied with a floor but it gets wet and muddy so I don’t use it. I have a pair of cheap ‘flip-flop’ shoes that I pack with the shower. We just wear these when showering.

All in all, the shower is probably a little more complex than I’d like. The sprayer and head are OK but the tent is a little over the top. I like Kermit’s idea for it’s simplicity. Without some sort of enclosure outdoor showering just isn’t pleasant if there is the slightest breeze so I have to do something. Kermit’s design makes me think of those window shades that people sometimes put up inside their front car window. These have a flexible ring that can be squished. Maybe a completely cylinderical shroud terminated by one of these flexible rods at the top and then suspended from my canopy. It could all roll up for storage and could simply be shaken out into shape for use…

source: Expeditionportal.com Link

Camping Trailer

Equipment
- Tent, or sleep in your truck. Rent the tent for now, it’s cheap (under $20 usually). Make sure you have a ground tarp and a rain fly.
- Air mattresses are great, but I don’t think you’ll have much luck renting one. Expect to spend about $80 (+/-) and get a nice one that has a built in foot pump or even better, a plug in cigarette lighter powered pump. This mattress will be useful around the house for a few years, so don’t go cheap. REI has a nice one with the electric pump.
- If you don’t mind renting bowling shoes, then you can also rent sleeping bags. A standard cheap 40+ degree bag will be plenty for most conditions in Cali. If you want to buy, SlumberJack makes nice ones at reasonable prices.
- Coleman propane lantern. You can rent them, but I wouldn’t bother. Just go with a couple decent flashlights for now. However, if you are considering buying a lantern, get the Coleman double mantle self starting propane lantern….and an extra bag or two of mantels. You might use this lantern for the next 20 years. I like the one that comes in a plastic hardshell case.
- Stove. For a small group (2 people or so), there is a company that makes a slick little self contained self starting single burner stove that is about the size of a laptop computer, but smaller and thicker. It’s name is Venturi or something like that. They are $40 or so, and work GREAT. We use it as a warmer at backyard parties and stuff all the time, in addition to camping. If you don’t want to buy a stove, you can rent a Colemen two burner stove very inexpensively. You will not need more than one bottle of fuel on this trip.
- Trash bags. Bring Hefty large trash bags and small kitchen trash bags. You will get very inventive in their use after a while. The mother of invention is necessity….
- Lighters. I like the cheap disposable long snouted household lighters. Buy a two pack.
- Knife – a nice 2” or 3” folding knife is invaluable to have on hand, and are very inexpensive. I got a plastic handled one at Sports Chalet for about $6
- Hatchet or small axe is very handy for cutting firewood
- Small wisk broom and dustpan. A little combo unit is smart. Keep this in your tent and life will be better, I promise.
- Bring your normal household pillows, but be prepared for your pillow case to get REALLY dirty and damp.
- Kitchen tools: A nice plastic spatula, and a really cheap, or old or soon to be disposed of frying pan, about 8” dia. is perfect. You will also need a small pot for heating up water. Make sure it has a lid.
- Tongs: two types, short compact pincher type tongs are very handy. You will also really appreciate having telescoping firepit tongs to cook hotdogs and marshmallows on.
- Folding table. Hugely useful to have a folding leg card table on hand
- Paper towels.
- Plastic silverware
- Paper plates
- Packable salt & pepper
- Packable condiments, in a SEALED ziplock baggie
- Ziplock baggies

Clothing
- You will never wear as many clothes as you bring
- Prepare for Sahari days and Marine layer nights/mornings
- It will likely get chilly at night, and damp. Wear lightweight baggy layers and you will be comfy.
- Bring a packable water repellent wind breaker always always always. Matching pants too if you feel you will be doing this more often.
- T-shirts – bring one, plus the one on your back
- pants. Bring jeans, but plan on wearing shorts
- Sweatshirt. A thin light synthetic fleece is like a second skin for campers
- Hat/bandana – smelly, campy, bed hair is a fact of life, but not one that needs to be flaunted
- SUN BLOCK – no Bullfrog brand sunblock on this trip. Sand will stick to it like tennis shoes to hot asphalt
- CHAPSTICK (several)
- Spray AND lotion Deep Woods OFF with the highest DEET rating you can find.
- Towels – two per person is smart

Essentials:
- Fire wood: Need about a bundle and half per night
- Fire starter. Get a small brick of fire starter stuff. It’s like a really tough putty or clay. Works great! Grocery stores carry it near the fake logs
- Smores! The French graham crackers that come lined with chocolate make smore making a cinch. Just add marshmallow and your done!
- Source of water. Get the large Arrowhead or whatever brand container of water that is rectangular in shape, has the spout on the bottom side. Holds about 3 gallons I think?
- A few roles of toilet paper, and I hope we don’t need it, but a small shovel too

Food:
- Bring whatever you want. It’s a good idea to precook as much as you can and just heat it up on the skillet if can be.

Camping Trailer

This post is where I will document the build progress of my Off Road Trailer.

Comments are Welcome!

More pictures here.

Camping Trailer

Propane
Water (about 20 bottles & 5 gallon jug)
6′ x 3′ folding camp table
2′ x 2′ portable camp table
4 folding campchairs
4 sleeping bags, pillows, blankets, etc
BBQ
10′x10′ Tarp
Tool Bag
Spare Parts Bag
Knapking dispenser
Toilet Paper
Food box (full of paper products, utinsils, pots, pans, spices, seasonings, etc)
Cooler
Tent
Tons of other misc junk…

Camping Trailer

I found a few things that stood out from the comfort department:

1. Mounting the tent lower great improves ingress/exit from the tent. It is only about 4′ off the ground, which is appreciated at 2:00 in the morning after too much cerveza…

2. The Eezi-Awn uses a 3″, multi-density mattress. It works like a pillow-top, with the first 2″ being soft, and the last 1″ much firmer. The mattress also has a high quality fitted cover/sheet that is on both sides, so you can just flip the mattress over and use it for another week or so before a washing.

3. The heavy canvas lets almost no light in with all of the windows up. This was a very pleasant surprise. At 7:00 in the morning, it seems like midnight inside still. You can leave all of the windows closed, as the tent has two small chimneys on the sides to allow air exchange.

Camping Trailer

I have the 1.8m OverLand mounted on my trailer. My partner is 6′3″ and sleeps very comfortably in it. These things are BIG - they can easily sleep three adults. Maybe 4 if they are good friends. I think you will like them…

Camping Trailer

Well, after nearly a month of research, I have a solution on the way. I have always been concerned with touching the vehicles coolant system, and more concerningly running coolant lines all the way back to the bed. I also did not want to run the engine because the tent is just above the exhaust. This cool little water heater is electric and will run off of my inverter. While driving, the inverter will power the heater and bring the water temp to 170 degrees. One gallon of 170 degree water will provide enough water for at least two (longer) showers as the shower has cold and hot inlets.

Hot water heater: Hubbell CE-110 450

1 Jacket Blue-Green Enamel
2 Heating Element 450 Watts, 120V
3 Thermostat 110-170oF
4 Stainless Steel Tank - 1 Gallon
5 Hi Limit Manual Reset - 190oF
6 Access Plate To Hi-Limit
7 Cold Water Inlet - 1/4″ Male NPT
8 Hot Water Inlet - 1/4″ Male NPT
9 Front Cover
10 Electrical Service Entrance
11 Insulation Fiberglass 1″ Thick
12 T&P Relief Valve Opening

Optional Equipment:
Tempering valve to increase the supply of hot water to 11.5 GPH 45-110oF
450 watt model, please specify model CE110-450 W rated 4 amp at 120 V

Notes:
Unit rated for 150 psi WP
Recovery rated 6.3 GPH 45-110oF and will draw 8.3 amps at 120 V, 1 PH
Unit supplied with two (2) wall mounting brackets
Unit supplied with T&P relief valve set at 150 psi and 210oF

Camping Trailer

Another HUB Conversion

Here

Camping Trailer

When I registered my trailer and found myself in a perdicament, how
was I going to illuminate the license plate? I puchased a product
called “lite N-boltz” and it solved my problems.
They install as license plate bolts with built in led lights to
illuminate the plate (designed for custom car/truck applications). The
web page is www.designengineering.com but, I bought my off an ebay
store for a little less. With priority mail 2-3 day delivery the total
was $23.00, not bad. The best part is I didn’t have to drill any new
holes just enlarged the bottom two that were already drilled. I
grounded them to the closest wire connetor bracket bolt and tapped
into the running lights with a wire tap connector. I used some wire
frame clips to hold the wiring to the frame. Whole process took about
fifteen minutes. I am not going to post pictures do to the limited
space issue just go to the manufactures web page and you’ll see

Camping Trailer

I am going with hub/drums from Northerntool.com , P/N 12493-2507.
They are supposed to be 5 on 4 1/2 bolt pattern.

Camping Trailer

Sorry for not providing this link. I had intended to post it with my
original message and got sidetracked.

http://www.etrailerpart.com/mywebs/myweb/catalog/l0555lb3e_1322933.htm

This is a 10″ drum/hub with a 5×5.5″ pattern, complete with
bearings, grease seal, lug studs and lug nuts. They also seem
to carry most other popular bolt patterns: 5×4.5″, 5×4.75″, 5×5″ etc.
Price is $35 per side.

The Dexter axle link I’ve seen on this message board seems to
be the same item in Dexter’s line. They get a little over $100 per
side for their version.

Camping Trailer

I got all my bearings today at NAPA.

They had a hard time with the seals. Both NAPA and Advance Auto couldn’t
cross reference the Timken seal number 712416. I will try the 442251 number
tomorrow and see if I have better luck. Anyone have any other numbers? I
haven’t pulled everything apart yet.

Also, to save a few bucks, bearing and race numbers L44649 and L44610 can be
bought together in a set, part number BR4, saving you a couple bucks on each
set as opposed to buying them individually. I will see at a later date if
the other bearing and race is also available as a set.

FYI, if you’d like to replace the dust caps with a greasable Bearing
Buddy/wheel bearing protector, NAPA Balkamp part number 745-3039 fits like a
champ and costs between $16 and $20. It’s nice knowing that the bearings are
under a constant pressure/supply of fresh grease to cut down on the
maintenance. It’ll also give you peace of mind if you happen to submerge the
hubs on a water crossing.

It’s seems like the original seal is difficult to find a replacement
for (post up if you find one). It’s a design that is more commonly
found in an axle tube rather than on a spindle.

The 442251 Timken will work just fine although it is a little more
simple in design.

Camping Trailer

For use only when wheeling don’t worry about weight-no need for down just get a comfy poly fill bag and thickest thermarest pad available.

—————–

There’s a big difference between car camping gear and backpacking gear.
for car camping, i use a Kirkham pad (local SLC tent maker) and a mountain hardware 0 degree bag or columbia 40 degree bag.

for backpacking , i’m all about light…. thermarest and a Mountain hardware ultralight 20 degree bag.

the point is, for car camping, you can affort more weight and bulk for more comfort.
i’m way more comfy on my Kirkhams pad and Columbia bag anyday. but i would NEVER want to lug this stuff on my back

—————-

Camping Trailer

Here is a nice list of items to bring when Off Roading.

Brake fluid
Cable ties
Chain Saw, spare chain.
Claw Bar
Clothes – thermal top & bottom – if entering mountainous area, deserts or venturing out in winter.
Clothes – spare socks, undies, T-shirt etc.
Circlips Circlip tool
D’ shackles x 2 heavy duty + 4 light duty.
Electrical connectors - assorted
Electrical tape
Electrical wire - 10 amp
Engine Oil (8 litres)
Fan Belt
First Aid kit.
Fuel Filter
Fuel Pump
Fuel Injectors x2
Fuel Siphon
Fuses - assorted
Gasket Cement
Globes -driving light, head light, brake light
Gloves - heavy duty - thermal type with fingers cut halfway down for working in hot engine bay,
Superglue Graphite - small puffer pack
Hacksaw & Hacksaw blades
Hammer (4lb)
Hand Cleaner - tube
Hand operated drill + Drill bits
Hose Clamps – assorted
Jack x 2.
Jumper Leads 800 amp x 4 metres (13ft)
Matches – water proof
Multi Meter
Oil Filter
Oil filter remover
Plastic ground sheet – thick
Power Steering Fluid
Radiator Hoses - top & bottom
Recovery Gear – snatch strap, drag chain,
Screws - assorted
Screw Drivers - various
Shovel
Silicon Sealant - small tube
Snatch Block x 2
Spanners - various
Spark plugs x 2
Springs - assorted
Sockets set - small
Sockets set- large
Test light
Tie Down load straps – ratchet type x 6
Bungee type x 6
Tyre Repair kit
WD40
Wet Weather gear – light weight
Wheel Nuts (6)
Wheel nut socket + bar
Winch –

Camping Trailer

If you want the regular Ex military metal cans you can get them at www.sportsmansguide.com or www.cheaperthandirt.com They go for about $17 to $19 bucks They WILL ship to CA cause they don’t care.. fits standard Nato nozzles, you can get extra rubber seals at British Pacific if the seals are old ( there are date codes on these cans.. I have one from 1953 so find out before you buy) the 80’s issued ones will cost a little more.

source:NCRC maillist

All Rovers, Camping Trailer