Koditten random project/boat build thread.

I'll come to that eventually.

 

Head unit mounted.

Liquid and gas lines poked thru wall along with the head unit power wires and condensate drain.

 

Condenser mounted to aluminum extrusion base. I got an ass load of this stuff. Might as well use.

 

I failed to take a picture of the line set. Nothing earth shattering, just soft copper with flair fittings on both ends. The line set was 15' too long. I cut it down and added flairs to the pipe.

The unit is designed for a do it yourselfer. The instructions allows you carefully coil up the excess line and let the coils stay behind the condenser. I couldn't allow myself to do that.

I have the vacuum pump pulling down the evaporator and lines. The condenser is hooked up, but the valves are still closed.

The condenser comes with enough refrigerant for 30' of line. My line set is only 10'.

 

After confirming that my 4 connections were leak free, I opened up the refrigerant block valves and powered it up.

Started with an 85* and humid shop.

After 45 minutes I was down to 75*.

My square footage is around 1200. I could have opted for a 12k btu unit, but I would need to run it constant. I used to a 24k unit so I could cool it down fast no matter how hot it is outside.

This one uses 18 amps on full load and is powered by a 30 amp 240v circuit.

If there is any electricians in the house, stop reading now.

I did not feel like running another 240 circuit just for the mini split.

I have 4 240 30 amp circuits for my welders.

The wall the mini split is on has a welding plug that is never used. I ran power thru the wall in a conduit and just plug in the mini split.

I use L6-30 twist lock plugs for all my 240v equipment. Why change now?

 

As long as the over current protection is sized properly for the wire, good enough.

My air conditioner is plugged into the 240 volt auxiliary air compressor plug.

Spoiler

With a *cough* temporary extension cord...

 

You've cleared up an age old question for me. Exactly how much an "Assload" is!

 

If I can't help at least 1 person here, my time is wasted.

 

Parts cleaned up, removed 1 leaf from springs and reassembled.

 

Measuring axles. I need 70" wide, these aren't quite wide enough.

 

Cutting axle so I can sleeve it.

 

Axles cut.

 

Sleeve cut in prep to weld in.

 

New bushings and grease.

 

Let's try that again.

 

Axles done. Need to make up my mind where I want to position the axles. Gotta think on that.

This trailer could be hauled empty for a couple hundred miles. An empty trailer not balanced properly will beat the shit out of you.

No matter what you've read or heard, there is no " formula" for axle position.

 

Must be getting tired, keep forgetting to post the pics.

 

To be continued...

 

I shot for about a roughly 1/3 to rear, 2/3 to front approach.

The idea being that the trailer axles carry most of the weight of the load, but some weight is carried into the hitch.

From my parents pop-up camper days, it always seemed that a close to 50f/50r distribution would encourage sway, with 40f/60r encouraging it more, and 60f/40r would lower the sway-ability of the trailer.


Interesting note from what I see in your layout, it looks like each axle will be independently suspended? You don't want to put a load balancer in between them?

Ah, nevermind, I see it on the far side in the darker part of the picture.

 

Axles positioned. I opted to have the axles 8" back from center.

The trailer will have a full size spare mounted somewhere on the front half, a winch, electric jack and a battery. With those items installed, there will be plenty of tongue weight while towing empty.