Enclosed / Toy hauler / RV / racebike hauler build

Note: As I make additions I will add them to the original post. This post will be very pic heavy.

Started back into racing a year or so ago and bought a 14’ enclosed with 2.5’ v-nose. The plan from the get go was to refine it into a nice toy hauler / rv. Just getting my ass in gear and finally seeing some progress worth speaking of now.



If things started a little rough with an air mattress then I fabbed an aluminum bed frame and set it up with a Serta pillow top. Installed a Pitbull trailer restraint for the bike. Have a second one and an extra plate in case I want to haul two bikes one day.



Aluminum roofed enclosed trailers are hell on a sunny day and are often hotter with all doors open than sitting outside. I glued 1” FSK semi rigid fibreglass insulation to the inside of the roof. I removed all of the 1/8” seam covering wood pieces and am skimming the whole trailer in FRP (fibreglass reinforced plastic sheets) just like a professional RV. Pricey as hell and then the adhesive but it looks tits and will be easy to clean anything including grease off of it.

The roof is going to be an exercise in patience or stupidity. The FRP is super flexible. I can bend a 8’ long sheet back on itself so I will need a few extra sets of hands once I get to the roof. I hope it works as I have envisioned. The FRP being white reflects light very well which is a huge improvement over the wood it came with. Once I get my led lighting in it will be awesome.

I will post more to the first post over the next weeks / months as I get more done. Once the interior is completed I will be fabbing an aluminum shelf and or cabinet for the v-nose. I have 400w of solar panels and an MPPT controller that needs to be coupled to 4 x 150ah golf cart batteries and a 1000w pure sine wave inverter. I also have another inverter that is 1200w modified sine wave but I don’t think I will bother installing it. I have a Blue Sea 12 circut fused load center which is complete overkill as I anticipate only my led lights needing one circuit but you know how you always need more if you don’t plan for it.

June 8
Got some more walls done.


June 14
Progress may be stalled for a little while. Took some meat off my finger at work and got to see the inner workings of the linkages. Luckily nothing torn up and was able to flip it back into place. Pretty inflamed right now and I can’t pull the trigger on my drill. The ceiling will need a few extra hands and no use trying unless I can be lead on this.



So far all is going as well as can be expected. Getting more and more electrical / solar parts together so I might build my backboard this weekend. Might do the battery mounts if I can weld off hand.

June 21
Got the front walls completed and ran the wiring for the LED lighting. Have to do some prep before I do the ceiling. The FRP panels are way too flexible so I am laminating them to 1/8” hardboard (Masonite). That should give the structure so it will only flex in one axis and not bow between the stringers. I have to shear and bend some aluminum to cover the gap at the front where the wiring runs and start designing a shelf or even cabinets. Haven’t fully decided on what to do here. This will be one of the final setups along with the solar wiring.



Just ordered this from Amazon this morning. Some really kick ass features.

$340 MAXXAIR 0007000K MaxxFan Deluxe Fan with Remote and White Lid, Smoke

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003ZOF09Y/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

June26
Ceiling is starting to go up today.


Support rods went on sale this morning. Made my life so easy. Basically tucked the FRP / Masonite under the 2” angle and then used the rods to hold the material against the ceiling. I moved them around as I went and actually held my alumnium straight edge as I marked out my holes for the plastic rivets. I then moved the rods again and tried to keep the ceiling pushed tight to the stringers as I drilled the holes and installed the rivets. Surprisingly strong for plastic. I set them at 12” spacing and the stringers are 24” on center. Now on to laminate more panels and slowly move forward.

June 27
Got some help from my neighbour. Since he is doing a reno his back half of the house is open and the floors are being torn up in the future. We moved all of my panels to his place and went on a laminating fest tonight. Saturday I am cutting and installing the majority of the ceiling panels and aluminum lapping strips. At that point I can probably get a start on the led light tracks and maybe do some temporary power to test and run them. My wife will be in Michigan on the weekend and will be grabbing my roof fan and Slumberjack Roadhouse tarp system. If all goes well I will be cutting the fan in at the end of the weekend or I might wait two weeks until I am back on days. Hope to have more pictures by the end of the weekend.

June 30
Hot as balls today and the fish flies are in full swing. 35C and 40C with the humidex. (95F / 104F). My motivation and the temperature are inversely related today. Got another panel cut and installed.



Have to try and slow down so I don’t make costly mistakes. I want to install trim / retainer pieces as I go but I don’t have the fan and it’s flange so I would have to guess or take it down again to trim.



Got all panels on the ceiling except for the triangle at the front. Need more material to finish that. With this heat and humidity I took all day to do 2-3 hours work. Now off to Home Depot for my last supply run.

July 2
Got some trim pieces in today. My wife got back from Michigan with my fan so it will likely go in end of the week pending weather and ambition. Have some wiring for the fan to do as well as sort my LED lighting before buttoning it all up.




July 6th
Fan is in and hooked temporary power to test it. Cutting the hole took a lot out of me knowing I had a perfectly leak free roof and now I have a big hole. Butyl tape and self leveling caulking to seal everything.





July 10
Last piece glued and will go in tomorrow. I found a solution to holding my wiring before I get the trim pieces in. Borrowed my wife’s hot glue gun and no more wires hanging down.



July 10 1am update
My neighbor has been riding my ass about getting the last of the ceiling up since he helped cut the last piece in and fitted it beautifully. Since tonight is my day off and I am on nights this week I got out the led string lights and went back at it when the rest of the house went to bed.



Ran some more wiring and got my one string of LED strip lighting in. Tomorrow I have to buy a new caulking gun and glue on the channels for the LED strips. It should be a quick go with the lights provided the glue sets up quick. The light channels have clips and screws but since this is going to bounce down the road I don’t want to open it up and find my lights on the ground and wiring destroyed.

July 11
Got the first of the lights in. This string is powered from the 7pin plug from the truck and is powered only when the truck is. Basically these strings replace the OEM light that was in the center of the trailer. I will be adding a string in each of the angles on the side / corner of the ceiling. Those strings will be dimmable and on a remote and powered by the solar / battery system. Amazon has some great stuff for these strings. Mine are daylight single colour but you can get multicoloured strings as well.







July 15
A little slow today. Got off of a night shift and ran around getting supplies yesterday. Relaxed for an hour then headed out to the motorcycle dirt track race last night. 32 hours up without any sleep.
On to more lights. Got one string in today. Waiting until tomorrow when I head out for more aluminum angle to replace the left side corner piece. The right was a square corner extrusion but the left has a small round radius. Didn’t catch it when I brought it home and probably wouldn’t have cared until I tried test fitting the corner light tracks. The tracks are square corner and fit perfect except in the piece with the rad. They rock and don’t sit tight. So instead of fighting or trying to ghetto fix it I will just replace the angle. Next is clean everything out of the trailer and clean it spotless in prep of laying floor down. Have some cutting and fitting to do and then start glueing. Hoped to do it today but yet another weekend off and another heat and humidity wave similar to 2 weeks ago. Maybe tomorrow. Have a race in two weeks so we will see if I am ready or cancel and maybe just spectate.





These are just temp wired to a spare Optima red top I have for just this purpose. Wiring is complete to the front of the trailer but the final fuse / distribution center and all that fun stuff is yet to come. Full string (5m) rates at 24w @ 12v. I am just at 4m -ish so approx 19.2w or 1.6amps per string per side. That’s some nice efficiency when powered by a solar system and that doesn’t account for dimming the lights either. I fully anticipate them to be stupid bright once both strings are run considering they are 4 times the length of the the center strings and shine across the ceiling as well as down the walls.

July 16
More stupid humidity today but at least it helps the adhesive set faster for the lighting tracks. Picked up the angle today and removed the existing one. Layed out the mounting holes off of the old one and everything went perfect. Hooked up the lights to test before getting too far ahead of myself. Glued the tracks in and mounted lights and covers.



Today has been a complicated day. A ton of tiny rain systems with the potential for nasty short thunderstorms or the 6 raindrops a minute I have experienced. I had to unload the trailer for the floor install but then saw a dark cloud and checked the weather. Crap, make room in the garage and move anything non weather safe into any nook or cranny I could find. So far enough rain to say it rained but not enough to make anything wet. So basically I am in limbo. Don’t want to stop forward progress but can’t commit to get anything big done. Might as well relax because it’s going to be sweltering at work the next 2 days.



July 19.
Getting pretty day. Got the flooring cut and initial fitting is happening. Had to trim 10” off of one side and now to fit the V-nose and trim out the little stuff and cut to length. I will update as the day goes….




A slight delay which is costing me huge time today. I am getting a lot of expansion at the ramp door end as I try and trim in the front. So basically I am at a standstill while I wait for everything to cool down and return to its original size. Front is cool and I am able to get it trimmed to size. I am going to wait until the sun moves so I can trim the rear and then get glue down. Once glued and set I shouldn’t have any issues but that will be something I will find out over time. This is also one major reason I decided to glue instead of just lay it in and let it float.



I had about a 1/4-1/2” to trim with the exception of length and the corners. I have much more now and this picture is after I put my 24” fan on to cool things down. It was a little worse a half hour before. In the past I joined HDPE piping for directional drilling (and open trench) and I have seen the pipe contract 2’ from the end of a hot day to the next morning so I am well versed in plastics expansion properties. From when I laid it in until I noticed the expansion the vinyl went from semi solid / stiff to the consistency of soft buttery leather.

Been a couple of hours and am I not very impressed with the glue I am using. I didn’t want quick tack but this stuff is taking forever to set up. I did a test piece at the nose and so far it is still fluid. I know it takes 24-48 hours to cure but it should start hooking in long before that. So I am moving on to E-track. I have to install one piece on the walls and then cut one to go higher. The lower will get removed before I continue with the floor and then reinstalled again after. Used cold galvanizing spray to coat the cut ends to prevent rust. Hung a few things in the upper pieces of E-track just for show.




July 24
Things are getting real now. Got some 3/4” x 1/8” aluminum angle to cap the end of the flooring at the ramp door. Installed some more e-track and started loading stuff in and figuring out dimensions and locations for more e-track. Got the TV mount installed and hooked to my iPad for rainy nights.





Lots of electrical /solar still to work on. I have power via my generator for now. I might bring my battery bank and charge it off my generator during the day or I might just “rough it” for now. I have 2 more weeks before I am headed to spectate a race where I will totally be off grid. That is followed by a track day a week later that is 8 hours from home. For now I am mobile again and will be ready to race this weekend. I still have 2 days if I need them before I leave.



July 25
A couple more pieces of e-track. You can see it coming together now. Now some clean up and preparation for the weekend.



July 26
Loading up and getting ready to head out. No sooner did I close the doors and less than 5 minutes later a wonderful summer storm came through complete with hail.





Aug 10
Got to test my new Slumberjack roadhouse tarp. It is a pita to set up the first time as there are so many configurations you can make. In time once my solar panels and frames are installed on the roof I will tie directly to the framework. For now I worked for about an hour setting up and re-jigging and moving things until I came up with the final setup for the weekend.



Aug 17
Took the door apart today in order to do the reframing for the EDWIN (entry door window). Was expecting steel framing but instead found all aluminum. Steel would be easy to work with as it doesn’t transfer heat so quickly. Due to the heat soak I need to do to get to melting point of aluminum I am afraid to burn the paint off of the skin. So it had to come apart and un-silicone everything. While I was at it I replaced the scraps of insulation they had thrown in.




There is a ton of rain happening between today and tomorrow so I am going to wait to do the cutting in the skin and reskinning the interior with FRP.

Aug 18
More holes.




Aug 26
Made a few more detail oriented additions. In order to get my dry goods cooler off of the floor and I made a little shelf / holder for it.





I ordered these e-track fittings from DC cargo on Amazon. They are the basis for just about every hook and strap commercially available. So I bought 50 for $100CDN knowing I could use these in so many ways. I then welded up a nice little cage / shelf for my cooler with 3/4” sq steel tubing and the 3-track fitting on the top 2 corners. Works amazing. Clip the whole thing in or remove it in seconds.

 

Sweet,
Once my Toyota is finally done and at ride height I want to see about a 20ft car trailer to do something similar.
The maintenance on a premade trailer is just to much for my lazy butt.
I'm gonna hard wire my batts, with an outside plug and mount a roof top ac off of a camper.
And hard mount a microwave.

 

Microwaves are a pretty heavy load to be run off of an inverter / batteries. If you have a generator for heavy loads like this you will be fine but otherwise that’s a big draw depending on your generation and battery bank size.

My solar setup is pretty overkill for most situations but I still try to keep my loads minimal. All LED lighting and the interior panelling switch to white FRP will help on the lighting side by reflecting much more light instead of absorbing like the plywood does. My main load during the night will be TV for those rainy nights when hanging out by a campfire isn’t an option. During the day I sometimes run a 24” fan just to blow the hot air out of the trailer. With the new insulation in the roof I will need to do this much less often if at all. If you compare my 4 batteries to a single group 31 Optima red top @ 47ah I have the equivalent of 12 of them. That’s the good news but they weight 85lbs a piece for a total of 340lbs just in batteries.

 

Ohh yeah I'll run a generator for sure.
Battery just for light.
Gen for microwave and a/c.
Battery charger perm mounted to the den will charge. And charge off truck.
Not sure solar would work super good for me as I'll be pulling it in the woods.
But yes the panels and all your doing looks like it will be very efficient.

 

IMO solar is expensive and the last choice anyone should consider UNLESS your main goal is quiet. In my case I will be using my generator all day to run my tire warmers for the race bike at the track. If I need power the generator is already running. At night however you are risking anything from people turning your generator off to cutting a few inches out of your fuel line if you don’t get the point. I personally don’t care if you need it for your AC unit. Your AC shouldn’t be the cause of everyone else staying up all night.

The misconception is solar is FREE power. It is anything but free. Dollar for dollar generators are much cheaper and better performing. If your needs allow for the noise of a generator go that way definitely.

 

Haha.
Yeah different worlds for sure man.

 

Added a few updates as I go to the original post.

 

More updates to the first post.

 

June 30
More daily updates to original post.

 

July 6 update to original post.

 

thats going to be a nice setup. i plan to do something very similar for a trackday trailer. i hate having to leave the track and stay in a hotel. you miss all the fun!

 

Whatcha get for a trailer? Looks like a pace or something. Good little trailers

 

The camping and hanging out at night are where the real friendships are built.

It’s a LOOK trailer. Typical production trailer. There are a few corners cut just like any mass produced trailer. If I ever upgrade my mig and get a spool gun I am tempted to build another from the ground up. I already know how I would do things different and the things they have done right.

 

Excited to see this develop. I have the 14’ pace I use for work. It’s pretty bare bones for now. This is giving me motivation to get mine better set up for my needs.

 

I got a pal that races AHRMA almost every weekend, and believe me your build is going to save you $100K over what he's doing. You'll want to be sure and put in some floor vents to rid the trailer of gasoline fumes. Maybe you can build a lock box on your trailer tongue to store gas cans in overnight, or some such ?

Otherwise, it looks comfy and well done. Congrats !

 

Like this build, I plan to build one like this in a few years to haul the toys and sleep in at night

 

I own a pickup. Fuel cans stay in the bed. I put electrical tape over the tank vent on the bike when in transit. The roof vent can be cracked slightly as well in transit to ensure no fumes stay in the trailer if there are any. So far my tape trick does an amazing job at keeping fumes in check.

 

So I did some rough math on costs. I will refrain from using the word budget because that was blown ages ago. Prices are in Canadian dollars and some supplies are much cheaper in the US so your pricing could be quite different. Some items are yet to be installed.

$61 per sheet for FRP (fiberglass reinforced plastic sheets) and I am in for 12 or 13 sheets.
$41 per gallon for FRP glue which covers about 2 full sheets.
$230 for vinyl checker plate pattern flooring 17.5’ x 8’.
$? Aluminum angle, flatbar etc. Have to check my receipts on this one.
$40 2 new circular saw blades for the FRP and the glued FRP and hardboard.
$230USD ($299cdn) for Maxxair fan.
$240 FSK foil backed semi rigid fiberglass insulation. Was 2 sheets short and it is sold by the case.
$42 14ga wire for fan.
$25 18ga wire for lighting etc.
$275 2/0 wire for solar system battery cables.
$200 per battery X 4 12v 150ah deep cycle golf cart batteries. This is the equivalent of 12 Taco batts.
$200 per Renogy monocrystalline solar panel 100w X 4.
$400 MPPT solar charge controller with display / control panel.
$300 Renogy pure sine inverter.
$50ish Blue Sea 12 circuit fuse / distribution panel.
$50ish various size wire lugs 6ga to 2/0.
$80 Red and black wire 4ga.
$50 battery switch.

$4666 Approximate running total plus cost of trailer.

There is much more than this but it gives you an idea what costs look like. Compared to an off the lot toy hauler I am still at a fraction of the cost. Sure I am not near as fancy but it is plenty fancy and professional for my needs. Batteries were at cost so that bill is half of retail due to a family friend at Interstate.

 

That works out to be about $3570 in US dollars.

Considering that a good used toy hauler would start at around $10K in the US, that's a steal !! Very impressive.

 

Those are exceptional ideas and very proactive steps. I see you've thought about this.

However, the danger is not in running out of oxygen during the night and waking up dead, as one might first think. Consider that the petrol fumes hug the floor, and possibly fill the compartment to a level where a fan, heater, or air conditioner relay sparks in the night, and ignites the fuel/air mixture.

I fully agree with you. This is NOT so much an issue now. But in 2 years, after 20 races, when fuel may have inadvertently spilled onto the plywood floor, please consider that at that point fumes will be inevitable. Simply saying that the heavier-than-air petrol fumes will escape by themselves (whether the vents are open or fan is in operation) with the addition of several 2" holes in the floor. The presence of wire mesh in those holes will provide the necessary bug protection, discerning clientele may require.

Also consider that carburetors have vented float bowls, which are not sealed.

All the best.