Orange Crush

I love the color orange.  It's my highlight color on the inside of the cabin and in the galley of the teardrop.  I've had plans to paint the rims and even add a stripe of color to the side of the teardrop for as long as I've been working on this project. 

There were always more important items to complete.  Well, today I decided to go ahead and paint the rims.  I had them off the trailer so that made it much simpler.  I didn't have any masking tape, but duct tape seemed to work just fine.

I put about four coats of paint on the rims and then set them in the sun to 'bake.' 

 

I'm not sure how I feel about the orange yet.  It seems a little 'loud' right now.  I think I'll live with it for a while and if I like it enough, I might tape out some lines on the side.

 

Now, I need to hook up the trailer to the Civic and test out all the wiring.  That is going to be tomorrow's task.

Trailer Time!

It took two days, but I managed to pull the wires up through my conduit and back into the electrical box in the back of the trailer.  It took a lot of manipulating and maneuvering, but I managed to get all the right wires into the right spots. 

I ended up taking the wheels off; something I thought would be a lot harder than to do. 

Thankfully I had bought a lug nut wrench that had the four typical sizes.  The lug nut wrench from the Honda did not fit the teardrop's.  With the wheels popped off, I could wiggle my arm up into the well and fish the wiring through. 

The lug nut wrench I bought from Harbor Freight folds up so that it can fit in the storage bin of the teardrop.  What a genius design!

This time, I decided to 'fix' some of my mistakes from wiring the trailer the first time.  I had used butt joint connectors, which worked fine, but did not keep out moisture if it worked its way up and under the electrical tape.  So, I purchased butt connectors that were 'heat shrinkable.'  When the joints are connected, heating them with a lighter 'seals' them and makes a water-tight connection.  I should have done it this way the first time.  There are a few connections on the trailer that still need to be 'switched,' but they were good enough at this time.

I also used zip ties to snug all the wires into place.  I must say, they look particularly nice and neat. You can see in the image that there is now a two-stage battery charger that is 'in-line.'  This is to keep the battery from 'over charging' when on the road. 

The piece of this puzzle that I'll need to keep in mind is that whenever the teardrop is connected to the Honda Civic, I'm essentially sharing the charge of the tow vehicle.  The battery charger will stop the charge when the battery is full, but I'll have to be careful of leaving the car plugged in because even the tiny LED battery meter will draw some power and could possibly pull down the car's battery too.  I'll just have to either disconnect the charging circuit or use the master kill switch.

I'm Glad I'm Not An Electrician All The Time...

I spent a couple of days crawling around under both the car and the trailer.  I spent an hour on the phone over the course of a couple of days debating different approaches to wiring the Civic for the trailer and the charger. 

I was directed to find a circuit that was 'only on' when the ignition was keyed.  I didn't even know that there was a fuse box under the hood, but it turns out there are two fuse boxes.  I tested each of the circuits under the hood to see if one of them was 'switchable.'  No dice.  So, I learned that I was going to have to tap into the interior fuse box and drill a hole through the firewall.  I was very anxious about doing that.  So, I decided on another approach.

 I was going to use a fuse tap to avoid having to splice into the actual wiring in the car.  This was a pretty cool device that I had never seen before.  You just insert the pulled fuse with another fuse of the same amperage.  The wire that went out of the tap was your 'hot' wire.  This wire would then go out to the teardrop in order to 'charge' the battery when on the road.  The only problem would be that the 'always on' circuit has the potential to draw down the battery of the tow vehicle when the trailer is connected.

 Here was my solution for getting into the watertight fuse box.  I was going to drill a tiny hole and insert a rubber grommet which would secure the hole and allow the hot wire to pass through.

Here is the wire and the rubber grommet.  This worked pretty well.

I learned that there are at least three different size fuses of the same amperage.  All three of these fuses are 15 amp fuses.  However, only the middle one would fit in the fuse tap so I needed to run to the hardware store and get some extras.

Here is the fuse tap with the two 15 amp fuses in place. I pulled the wire through the grommet and then snapped the fuse box lid into place.  Next I ran 12 gauge wire down past the engine and back along the bottom of the vehicle and out to the hitch.  That was all I could do today

Wiring Nuts

The hitch went on without a 'hitch!'  However, the electrical was quite another story.  I didn't know what exactly I needed and so I relied a bit too fervently on etrailer.com to help me decide.  In hindsight, I should have spoken with a person rather than using their automated online services.  I ordered a wiring kit for my Honda Civic, but ended up ordering one that required splicing into the car's electrical system.  I thought I ordered this:

So, I spoke with the very helpful staff at etrailer.com and purchased the above wire harness that has 'clips' that connect directly into the manufacturers connections.  This means I do not have to splice or interfere with the vehicle's stock wiring.  To me, an electrical novice, there was no question which I preferred.

The connections couldn't have been simpler.  Click the different units.  It was even easier than I thought; the clips were made to ONLY fit on one particular wire harness; it would almost be impossible to do it incorrectly.  Almost.  We'll see when I plug it in to the trailer to test it. 

All the ground wires were secured to this ground post on the interior of the trunk.

That was about all I got accomplished today.  I plan to run the wiring on both the vehicle and the trailer in the next couple of days. 

Hitch: A Lot Easier Than I Thought!

Installing a hitch on my 2013 Civic was significantly easier than I thought it would be.  Somehow I had it in my mind that installing a hitch involved welding, hydraulic lifts and altering the underside of my brand new vehicle.  Turns out people like etrailer.com have created step by step instructional videos that walk you through each step.  Watching these videos gave me the confidence to go ahead and do it.  

 I ordered the hitch and what I thought was the correct wiring harness and waited.  The hitch arrived a few days later.  I borrowed some drive up ramps and asked a friend to help me lift the steel frame into place. 

I removed the plastic shroud and heat shield from the bottom of the vehicle, trimmed them accordingly and then re-installed them.  A few minutes later, we held the steel hitch into place and bolted it to the frame.  Etrailer.com included these special bolts with long tabs that allowed you to hold them into place while tightening them.  This made it much easier, as the tiny holes where the bolts were inserted were in awkward places.  

All in all, it took us two hours from start to finish.

You can see on the left that I had to trim the plastic shroud significantly more than planned.  This was mostly because the hitch needed to slide up and through the shroud.  I guess it's not too big of a deal because the instructions suggested that you could just leave it off if you wanted.  

It's kind of amazing that the hitch is only held into place with four bolts.  One on each side and two that mount to the tow hook.  Super simple and efficient.  Now to the wiring.

Etrailer.com Success Story

I decided to put a hitch on my other vehicle.  It gets considerably better gas mileage than our CRV and I am planning to take it on my first really big road trip out west.  By all reports, it's pretty easy to install.  I'm looking at it as an adventure.

I ordered it and all the wiring I need from etrailer.com.  The whole process was efficient and very pleasant.  I ended up ordering online, but realized I had forgotten a few key pieces, like the tow ball!  So, I needed to call and adjust my order.  The sales staff was incredibly helpful and knowledgeable.  They knew everything about what my vehicle needed.

Because my order was over $99, I earned free shipping, which would have been considerable since the hitch itself was quite heavy and large.  It arrived within a few days with no issues at all!

A few days later, I realized that I needed to come up with a solution for charging my teardrop's battery while on my upcoming road trip.  Most camping facilities in National Parks or Bureau of Land Management/National Forests out west do not have water or electric hook ups available.  So, I was going to need a way to charge the batteries while on the road to each new spot.

I had done a lot of reading on the Teardrops and Tiny Trailers Forum, but being a visual learner, none of those discussion threads really helped me visualize it.  That's when I came upon the Q & A on etrailer.com.  Someone had the same situation and there was an excellent answer posted online.  This seemed like the solution I needed.  It was a battery isolator that cut off the power to the teardrop's battery when the ignition was switched off.  This would ensure that both batteries would not run down when using lights/fan/CPAP machines in the teardrop.

While this solved the charging situation, it did not prevent the teardrop's battery from overcharging.  I'm glad I thought of this because the potential for overcharging could be very possible on long road trips.  That's when the knowledgeable sales staff at etrailer.com came through for me again.  The salesperson queried me about what I was using the isolator for.  He had no idea what a teardrop was, but when I explained how the power system in the teardrop worked, he came up with a Tekonsha Two Stage 12 Volt DC Battery Charger.

This charger will prevent overcharging and is small enough to neatly fit into my electrical cabinet.  I plan to mount it opposite the AC charger I have for when I'm plugged into shore power.  I'm amazed at how 'complicated' the 'super simple' electrical system I've built has become.  Another way to do this would be to add a solar panel to the teardrop.  A solar panel would allow a trickle charge to the battery but would require a whole lot of other devices along the way; maybe at some point that will become a viable option.  For now, I think my system will work well.

Hatch Solution and Detail Work

My hatch has not properly closed since I bought the teardrop.  It seems to have been slightly bent out of shape and it always made it very difficult to fully close.  This was a problem on the road because moisture made its way into the galley.  Today I finally fixed that.  On one of the forums I had recently posted on, it was suggested that I try 'compression latches' to get the hatch to close properly.  It was just the ticket.  I picked up a couple of the latches and carefully drilled and bolted them into place.  The result was a smoothly closed hatch.

As an added benefit, the aluminum at the corners had been kind of mangled in the past, the latches cover the yucky metal.  I think it looks pretty good!

I think the latches blend in quite well with the details along the bottom.

 I finally added some labels to help me remember which way is on/off for the outdoor LED porch lights.

You can also see the small black strip of velcro that now holds the sliding shelf in place while on the road.  It kept sliding out when we were traveling.

I also added some labels to the interior door locks.  I could never remember when they were locked or not.  The latches open whether they are locked or not from the inside, but it is inaccessible from the outside.  This will add a little more security inside the teardrop.






Those are all the details I was able to complete this weekend.  I will be installing a hitch on my other vehicle, my Honda Civic.  I'll also be adding a charging circuit so that while we tow, I'll be able to trickle charge the teardrop's battery.  I've learned a lot about electrical work while working on this teardrop.  Doing the wiring for the tow vehicle will be yet another learning experience.