eatSleepWoof gets a 2022 Micro Minnie 2108FBS

[Bcborn]

Originally Posted by eatSleepWoof

Mable is a favourite of ours - we will be there sometime in April for sure.

We haven't been (camping) to those other parks - do any of them stand out as something we should try? We prefer as much privacy as possible, so we typically go into the bush, but we're open to trying a few parks if they have reasonably quiet/private sites.

We like Shuswap Provincial, water nice an warm in August. Hope to get in middle two weeks of August.

We liked Mable, tough to get into at times. We enjoy fishing, July was too warm for good fishing. April should be much better.

McDonald Creek is supposed to be nice, have not been yet, but friends go every year.

Lots of great camping in British Columbia as you already know. Most provincial parks provide a good amount of privacy, no as much as forestry camping lol

[Marine359]

Originally Posted by eatSleepWoof

That's very, very good to know. Thank you!

I was afraid of the water tank not being properly secured - my neighbour experienced similar issues with his 2010 Arctic Fox. If you shared photos or further info of your fix, could you link me to them please? Great idea with the unistrut and u-bolts by the way. Easy and cheap, just a matter of getting access.

With regards to the fridge mounting, all I can do is facepalm . I'll add that to the list of things I need to do this summer, before any extensive FSR use.

I’ve added photos of these two items to my “mods and adds” album. Sorry I lost photo of the permanent unistrut fix for the water tank.

[eatSleepWoof]

Originally Posted by Marine359

I’ve added photos of these two items to my “mods and adds” album. Sorry I lost photo of the permanent unistrut fix for the water tank.

I found your albums - thank you!

[eatSleepWoof]

Slow going as I'm sick with the 'vid, but making a bit more progress on the storage unit.



Cut five, 6" pieces of L-track, and through-bolted them. Each piece is attached with three M6 bolts, with washer and nylock on the other side (recessed into the floor). I'll put tie-down rings on the tracks, and ratchet-strap the batteries in place. The tracks can also accept bolts, so things can be bolted down to them should a future need arise.

Added three gussets for that vertical divider (not sure they're really needed, but I felt like adding them).

Added stiffening ribs to the front wall, so as to minimize flex in it.

I also found what I think may be a perfectly matched stain. Will try it out in the near future and find out for sure. The stain sample pieces in Home Depot happened to be applied to red oak, which is exactly what I'm using, and visually matched very well to the panelling inside the trailer.

[eatSleepWoof]

Making some headway on this end...





Removed the old bed support, and installed the new drawer unit. Screwed (with much better screws) into the same panes/studs that the original unit was attached into. All screws bit hard, should work out great.

As I suspected, the left-side drawers do hit the couch, but the good news is that they are only two-three inches from full extension, so little to no difference in practicality.

I also re-mounted the drawers to make them flush with the front wall, and made the drawer fronts sit on the exterior. Reason for this was that the edge banding cracked whenever I tried to apply it to the tight radius corner of the recessed drawer faces that I initially built. Lesson learned there. In any case, this probably looks better than my original design would have.

Drawers are on soft-close slides rated for 100lbs.

I've got the "lid" built, stained, and just sprayed a coat of finish on it. Still have to spray the other side, and expect to install it sometime tomorrow. Then the electrical work begins...

And for anyone interested, the screws used by Winnebago protrude 3/4" into the floor and wall.

[Bcborn]

Great Job, Nicely Done

[Eagle5]

I agree; the drawers look great!

[eatSleepWoof]

Thanks, both!

---

The lid is on and gas struts mounted.



I flipped the original piano hinge upside down so that the protrusion faces downwards, instead of into the mattress. Also replaced all hardware with much better screws.



My drawer unit ended up being 3-4 millimetres higher than it should have, so I cut a very thin piece of wood to place under the back side of the hinge, so that the hinge is level. This raised the hinge up and somewhat exposed the sharp corners. To ensure they don't dig into the mattress, I cut and placed a piece of rubber around the back side of the hinge...



... and then put some wide tape overtop. This should keep all hardware away from the mattress.



I used some of Winnebago's original plastic trim to make these corner caps, and glued them in place.



All done!

[Fred 2106DS]

Very nice!

[eatSleepWoof]

Battery relocation, hookup, battery monitor install - everything is done and trailer is now running off my 200ah of lithium. The DC/DC charger is 99% connected - I ran out of Anderson connectors and of 2ga wiring, so hookup to the actual truck will have to wait until new components come in.

I decided to run the wiring from my new battery location, straight down through the floor, and to the spots used by the OEM battery connection. This minimizes mods to the trailer and makes things easily revertible, should that ever be wanted.

So... I drilled a pilot hole through the floor of my new storage unit, then cut open the underbelly plastic around the protruding drill bit and got access to the bottom of the floor. There was a 1.5" gap between the bottom of the plywood and the underbelly plastic, so I filled that gap with 1.5" of plywood, and then drilled out the full 1 1/8" hole to run my wiring.



I originally planned to run all new electrical through schedule 40 conduit, and even bought it, but in the end decided to keep things simple; namely because all original Winnebago wiring is exposed and doesn't even have a sleeve on it, so unless I planned on re-doing it all, there was little to no point going "all out" with my electrical.

My wire harness includes four 2ga wires (two for the battery connection, two for the DC/DC charger). The wires are wrapped in a wire sleeve, and then finished off with electrical tape. This is the new harness coming out of the floor and going to the tongue of the trailer.



Winnebago had a pre-drilled, 37mm hole just where I needed it, so I added a rubber grommet to it, and ran the wiring through the grommet.





This is the wiring coming out on the other side, and splitting into two directions.



This branch runs to the original electrical hookup location:



And the wires connect exactly as/where the original battery connected.



This is what the interior electrical ended up as:



I left enough slack in the negative cable to reach the fourth battery position (should I decide to add another two batteries).



I mounted the battery monitor on the side of my drawer unit. Easy to access/view when standing outside - less so from the interior. This was the least hassle, least mods location, and I anticipate it'll work out just fine.

Note the 5ah of charge in the photo. I was initially surprised to see this, as I had the trailer disconnected and nothing was supposed to be adding charge. Then I remembered the solar panel on the roof. Considering it's the middle of April, and we're up north in Canada, that seems like a very, very good amount of solar charge for the conditions. A nice, pleasant surprise.



While considering battery monitor locations, I opened up the cabinet right above the sink, where the main "control panel" is. Found an inline, 3a fuse for the awning lights there. Not relevant to my mods, but good to know that's there.



Lastly, added the new Juno, 8" x 60" x 80" residential-queen mattress. It's definitely softer than I like, but initially seems reasonably comfortable; hope it works out!



Mattress folds easily to allow access "downstairs":



I also figured out sleeping arrangements for the infant (at least for this summer). Bought (yet another) baby bed, cut down the legs, and ta-da. (I'll strap this down so there's no chance of it falling off.) This should do the trick for now.

[Fred 2106DS]

Nice Work!

[eatSleepWoof]

Wrapped up the wiring on the weekend and the DC/DC charger is now operational.

Connector mounted below the LX bumper:





Test fit:



40ah of charge from the DC/DC charger, and another 5ah from solar:



That should do nicely.


With this in place the LX is now a quieter, better generator than any generator, and since it's not a generator, there are no restrictions to running it only during certain hours at campgrounds. I can idle the LX for 5 hours and recharge the batteries from 0 to 100%, and of course, the same charge will happen while driving from campsite to campsite.

[eatSleepWoof]

I've been adding little usability improvements here and there...

Child-safety guards on the stove knobs.



Broom mounted on two attachments points so that it doesn't bounce in transit.



Installed a new shower head, and also replaced all original plastic rivets that hold the shower stall in place. Several of the original ones were destroyed straight from the factory and none of them were sealed at all, so the first time water hits them, it would get behind the shower stall and start rotting away everything in there. Ridiculous.

I removed all the original rivets, slightly expanded the holes to accommodate the new rivets, added waterproof caulking into each hole and also on the back side of each rivet, and re-assembled it all.



Added these stainless thingamajigs to hold shampoo containers in place.



As is tradition, new trailer gets a new Trasharoo (everyone must know how #overlandAF we are).



Mounted a paper towel holder.



Mounted a "weather station." This device is battery powered, but can also be plugged into USB. Found a good spot for it with nearby USB, and set it up. It shows temperatures from three remote sensors (came with the unit) and also temperature at the unit itself. I mounted sensor #1 ("outdoor") inside the propane tank cover, put sensor #2 inside the fridge, and sensor #3 inside the freezer. The very bottom temperature is the interior of the trailer. Bet this will come in handy!

[Marine359]

Liking your Unni Seems every time I buy something useful, something new and better comes out a year later. I’m in a constant state of obsolescence.

So, if it’s raining, do you go outside to use the Trasharoo? You overlanders are a hardy lot.

[eatSleepWoof]

We typically have a small indoor/outdoor garbage can, and when that fills up, we bag and dump into the Trasharoo. It's a pretty big bag and can fit a ton of... whatever you want. I've been using them for many years, and typically fill them to the brink with firewood on the way into camp. Never had any issues with them, either.

My last trailer (custom 6x12 Cargo Conversion) with the Trasharoo filled with firewood:



... probably 3 packages of "gas station firewood" in the bag alone.

[Marine359]

Thanks for the great ideas. On my next RV, I’ll hustle out and get a trasheroo so garbage doesn’t pile up inside.

Bear bait?

[eatSleepWoof]

Yes, like anything that gives off smell, it can attract bears and other animals. But that's hardly the worst offender in our typical camp. At the end of the day, unless you're burning the trash (which has its own downsides), it'll smell and attract animals. Whenever possible we use a large trash bag inside the Trasharoo, put everything inside that, and carry the bag far away from camp at night. Not a perfect solution, but it doesn't make things worse.

I've only had bears show up to my camp twice:

1. Motorcycle camping in Colorado (summer 2012), in a campground with about a million "bears are here" signs, which I completely ignored. Left unfinished tea (in a pot) on the table, woke up in the middle of the night to the distinct sound of it being lapped us (as if by a dog). Then my plastic motorcycle bags started spontaneously flying around the campsite. No real harm done, just a mess.

2. Summer 2016, solo off-roading and camping at the top of a mountain range here in BC, known grizzly habitat. Cooked a delicious dinner that must have carried the smell, and an enormous grizzly showed up about 30 minutes after I finished eating. Massive, massive animal, and it came up an incredibly steep (at least 45-degree) slope covered in loose rock completely silently. My GSD alerted me to the bear, we scared it off.

Slept a tent (the same one) both times.

No incidents since then.

The need for a Trasharoo became clear when I was in Death Valley in 2017. I kept my dog's poop in bags, in the bed of my truck, under a canopy. I'll tell you, dog poop in a sealed environment, in 42C heat, for 5 days... that's not a smell you will forget anytime soon.

[eatSleepWoof]

Made a thing to hold other things.

The black knobs are spring-pin latches, which lock the drawer in place (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00BTI2SS4/).

The hinge mechanism (https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B00ZGOJJ8E) I used is finicky and weak - can't recommend it, but if you're handy enough, it'll do the job.

I moved the original light to the bottom of the drawer, too.

[Eagle5]

Hi eatSleepWoof,
Beautiful work, as usual. I have never considered a tip-down storage tray for over the stove, because that is where my exhaust vent is located.
Thanks, Eagle5

[eatSleepWoof]

Originally Posted by Eagle5

Hi eatSleepWoof,
Beautiful work, as usual. I have never considered a tip-down storage tray for over the stove, because that is where my exhaust vent is located.
Thanks, Eagle5

Thanks!

No exhaust on my trailer (nor even ducting for it - I've removed the microwave to check), so I figured I might as well use the space!