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We are coming up on this step and I am curious if any of you or CLC has some advice. They appear to be aluminum.
And to add another twist, as we have gone with Sapphire Blue Interlux Brightsides on the bottom that wraps up about 1.5 inches on the sides we are wondering if anyone has painted the mushroom vents to last.
I know CLC spray painted their white ones black originally so we could try and find a blue that is close, but we have 1/3 can left and would prefer that they match exactly if it will stick to the plastic.
Thanks!!!
What about some earthquake velcro straps at the sides? Those things have a really good grip.
I don’t imagine they will be very strong without being screwed down BUT that is a perfect solution for testing on one trip! Perhaps once I get all the electronics in I’ll screw things in place. I think I’ll put on and leave the rubber feet regardless. Thanks for the strap idea!!
My first thought would be to use two quick release hinges like these.
That is definitely in the direction I am thinking! If it could pull tight and put a little tension it would be even better. Even with rubber or felt I would be worried about the little hopping up and down it might do on the road.
Alright scratch that, it is in the right place. This is what I get for trying to work and play at the same time!
Very strange that this posted on the wrong thread. I’ll try again where it should be. Sorry for the confusion!
Hey Bill! I am looking at the mushroom vents now and I think I really want to go the route you did. How are they working? Do you find you snag the handle inside? Any chance for a higher quality picture of your awesome design?
I have also run across this in my battery research and I might feel brave enough to try and build my own battery as I can skip the soldering minus the major wires to get power in and out of the battery.
I really like that you can find and replace individual cells as so often with larger batteries just one cell goes bad but the whole thing “breaks”. Here you could even be on the road and a few minutes with a volt meter you could find and then easily replace the one bad cell. The Lifepo4 batteries put out 3.2v each so 4 parallel packs of whatever size will put out ~12.8v. I just need to calculate the AH per X batteries and then look at battery box options once it was all shrink wrapped up. If you buy the cells in batches they get a lot cheaper and I have read a few people have had luck with $1-$2 per cell on ebay, though going through there has been iffy for me several times with poor knock offs etc.
Sorry for all the posts, I can’t figure out if/how I can edit my reply from earlier to just add more info.
I also find this interesting. It would need a box and some voltage regulation etc, but for the price it would still be a lot cheaper than most I have seen:
This popped up a month or so ago with free shipping and I should have grabbed it then:
https://www.amazon.com/Lithium-Battery-Electric-trolling-charger/dp/B01MR34NPR
It is $85 shipping now. I am keeping an eye on it to see if the price drops or the shipping drops again.
As you are not supposed to discharge lead acid batteries below ~50-75% if you calculate needing a 100AH traditional battery would it not make sense to get a 50AH Lion? This is my plan as I have seen them on sale for $350 with a charger included. If we end up needing more power than that I figure I can easily add a second as a backup.
When I look at the other benefits to me it makes sense.
- ~1/2 the $ or less over the life of the battery compared to Lead Acid
- Zero maintenance
- 1/3 weight and 1/2 the size of lead acid (even less for 50AH)
- 100% discharge safely
- Significantly longer life (some say 10x the 500 charge cycles of lead acid but more like 4x-5x with noticeable AH drop after that)
- If sealed properly no gas expelled.
- LFP is not the same as your cell phone battery that “explodes” with violent flames and seems fairly safe
- There are versions that are drop in replacements for lead acid that can use the same charger etc you already have
“The trailex trailer does not require trailer bunks from what I understand but according to the manual they should have been shipped with the kit in case you’re using a different trailer.”
Unfortunately this is not the same thing. The bunks are the long CNCed strips of 18mm plywood used to elevate the teardrop over a non-Trailex trailer that has a smaller wheel base. (Hymnal page 266) We have those.
The risers are small round pucks of wood that sit on top of the L-brackets on the Trailex. (Hymnal page 275). We’ve decided to give hockey pucks a try instead.
I just find it weird they are listed in the hymnal and aren’t included in the kit. I thought about a call to CLC today but honestly we are ready to drill holes and mount to the trailer just to get the space back in the garage and I really like the idea of the vulcanized rubber providing a lot of vibration absorption so I ordered some hockey pucks. I figure I can always call later if we have issues. Thanks all!
