leelikesbikes
Adventurer
Has anyone bought these trailers on Alibaba? I'm not sure if the ones there are a clone knock off or the exact ones smittybilt imports from China? Pretty crazy deals on rtt on there as well.
Smittybilt Scout Trailer Reviews?
- Thread starter Tkhawk
- Start date
Help with electrical....
Hello All - bought the trailer, RTT, and Anex...and am taking my little-ones on an 'adventure' to Zion in 2 weeks. We will be sleeping with an electric mattress heater and maybe electric blanket (I am old, and they are young..so not too much roughing it for us at the moment). I have been testing all week to see what kind of power draw the two devices have. In total, I need....... 500wh (or 42AH @12v) to power both for the night, in the event it gets really cold.
Side note - a 4 inch gel-mattress topper on top of the smittybilt mattress is 'da bomb' for sleeping comfort, and you can fold it into the tent when you pack up
anyway...
I have/am purchasing:
Giandel 1000W Pure Sine Inverter w/ solar control
PowerMax PM3-100 110 V to 12 V DC Power Supply Converter Charger
Ryobi Bluetooth 2,300-Watt Super Quiet Gasoline Powered Digital Inverter Generator
plus a random 105AH Lead Acid battery.
I am going to 'rig' this to a 'portable board' as I am not yet ready for a permanent install. I have read a bunch of conflicting literature on the "C" for recharging lead acid, so I went with C=~1 - yes, I know, REALLY high, but I only have 4 hrs of gen runtime available per day.....
So, if anyone has any comments / advice / hints / etc, I would appreciate hearing from the wisdom of the group.
And if you are in Zion in 2 weeks, come find us!
Happy Camping
Regards
James
PS - I have a little buddy propane heater, but it puts out TOO much heat to use in the tent all night, even on low when it is 37 degrees.... Besides, we are still paranoid of suffocating in our sleep...
Hello All - bought the trailer, RTT, and Anex...and am taking my little-ones on an 'adventure' to Zion in 2 weeks. We will be sleeping with an electric mattress heater and maybe electric blanket (I am old, and they are young..so not too much roughing it for us at the moment). I have been testing all week to see what kind of power draw the two devices have. In total, I need....... 500wh (or 42AH @12v) to power both for the night, in the event it gets really cold.
Side note - a 4 inch gel-mattress topper on top of the smittybilt mattress is 'da bomb' for sleeping comfort, and you can fold it into the tent when you pack up
anyway...
I have/am purchasing:
Giandel 1000W Pure Sine Inverter w/ solar control
PowerMax PM3-100 110 V to 12 V DC Power Supply Converter Charger
Ryobi Bluetooth 2,300-Watt Super Quiet Gasoline Powered Digital Inverter Generator
plus a random 105AH Lead Acid battery.
I am going to 'rig' this to a 'portable board' as I am not yet ready for a permanent install. I have read a bunch of conflicting literature on the "C" for recharging lead acid, so I went with C=~1 - yes, I know, REALLY high, but I only have 4 hrs of gen runtime available per day.....
So, if anyone has any comments / advice / hints / etc, I would appreciate hearing from the wisdom of the group.
And if you are in Zion in 2 weeks, come find us!
Happy Camping
Regards
James
PS - I have a little buddy propane heater, but it puts out TOO much heat to use in the tent all night, even on low when it is 37 degrees.... Besides, we are still paranoid of suffocating in our sleep...
ratled
Adventurer
It has a built O2 sensor to prevent that. When you do use in the tent, place it on a cookie sheet to protect the mattress from melting from too much heat or tip over
ratled
screwball48
Explorer
Lots of good information and research material in this thread.
Official Test Results: Five Ways to Heat a Tent
https://r.tapatalk.com/shareLink?sh...rtal.com/showthread.php?t=188602&share_type=t
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
ebrabaek
Adventurer
I camped in my Tepui Kugenam XL ruggerdized in 19 deg. F. Wind was blowing 60 mph, with snow and ice pellets. The only thing that kept me @10200 feet on the mountain that night, was the fact that it was opening day for Elk.... Beside the fact that everything was frozen and snow covered the next morning, I was toasty in the tent. I did a bit of math wrt power consumption vs. fuel stops for the generator. I use a Yammi EF2000is, and @25% use in eco mode, it is supposed to run just over 10 hrs on a tank full ( just over 1 gallon)
The heater of choice was the following. I chose it as it has the right power setting of 350 watt, but with it set to 65 deg, it did cycle on and off. It is suspended half way up on a aluminum rafter, and it is simply fantastic.
IMHO heating blankets use too much power, and are localized in nature. The small fan distributes the air very nice indeed.
https://www.homedepot.com/p/Lifesmart-Heat-4U-Personal-Heater-HT1038/303681962?cm_mmc=Shopping%7cVF%7cG%7c0%7cG-VF-PLA%7c&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI4LeQnpvJ2QIViZ9-Ch0yKQWcEAQYASABEgJYCPD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds&dclid=COjU9aCbydkCFUl7AQodpPoBAw
Last edited:
I just posted this on the tent heating thread...thanks screwball48...
All:
I was directed to this page from the SmittyBilt Scout trailer thread, as I am getting ready to do some winter camping with my young kids. We will be in Zion, expecting night-time temperatures in the 30's. How fortuitous that after having no winter to speak of, we had about a week with temperatures in the high 30's low 40's this last week to test out various setups.
We tried the Little Buddy heater as mentioned - too warm even on low setting....
We took an electric blanket, slept on top of it inside a sleeping bag...toasty warm on the bottom, cold on the top
We took an electric blanket, slept on top of it inside a sleeping bag, with a 750w heater set to about 60...that was about perfect
We used an electric mattress pad on the bottom, sleeping bag, electric blanket on the top, comforter on top of electric blanket....too toasty, even with the electric blanket on 3 of 20 and the mattress pad on 5 of 10. Turned the electric blanket off in the middle of the night
The power consumption numbers (for the entire night) seem to be somewhat contrary to what I have read previously on this post, so here is the data taken from our 'kill-a-watt' meter we reset each night before bed.
Electric blanket only - 0.4kwh
Electric blanket and electric heater - 6.5kwh
Electric mattress pad and partial night with electric blanket - 0.5kwh
0.5kw@ 120 v = 4.2AH. At 12v = 42 AH. Very doable with a 105Ah battery....
as to the comments about the electric blankets not feeling warm to the touch, they generally do not, but based on our experience my suggestion would be you give them another opportunity. They really are power misers, and do good job keeping you warm...
The true test will be in about 2 weeks!
All:
I was directed to this page from the SmittyBilt Scout trailer thread, as I am getting ready to do some winter camping with my young kids. We will be in Zion, expecting night-time temperatures in the 30's. How fortuitous that after having no winter to speak of, we had about a week with temperatures in the high 30's low 40's this last week to test out various setups.
We tried the Little Buddy heater as mentioned - too warm even on low setting....
We took an electric blanket, slept on top of it inside a sleeping bag...toasty warm on the bottom, cold on the top
We took an electric blanket, slept on top of it inside a sleeping bag, with a 750w heater set to about 60...that was about perfect
We used an electric mattress pad on the bottom, sleeping bag, electric blanket on the top, comforter on top of electric blanket....too toasty, even with the electric blanket on 3 of 20 and the mattress pad on 5 of 10. Turned the electric blanket off in the middle of the night
The power consumption numbers (for the entire night) seem to be somewhat contrary to what I have read previously on this post, so here is the data taken from our 'kill-a-watt' meter we reset each night before bed.
Electric blanket only - 0.4kwh
Electric blanket and electric heater - 6.5kwh
Electric mattress pad and partial night with electric blanket - 0.5kwh
0.5kw@ 120 v = 4.2AH. At 12v = 42 AH. Very doable with a 105Ah battery....
as to the comments about the electric blankets not feeling warm to the touch, they generally do not, but based on our experience my suggestion would be you give them another opportunity. They really are power misers, and do good job keeping you warm...
The true test will be in about 2 weeks!
honda250xtitan
Active member
Awesome thread! If you guys were motivated/had the time/tools/desire to build your own trailer or buy this trailer would you still buy it? I've been thinking of building a trailer for a year or so, now that we've been camping for 4-5 years and it's not just a fad lol.
The on board water/heater, electrical setups, and kitchen setups are DOPE btw.
The on board water/heater, electrical setups, and kitchen setups are DOPE btw.
honda250xtitan
Active member
I feel like I could build one for around 1k in parts. Maybe i'm crazy though? Thats not including a RTT, awning, shower setup, etc.
Not from scratch buying new parts.
Cannibalizing supercheap old trailers or other sources of cheap materials maybe.
Cheapest and easiest is restoring / upfitting an old bargain that's already close to what you need.
Unusual very specific requirements makes that harder of course, for me a grand doesn't get past the suspension + brakes.
Cannibalizing supercheap old trailers or other sources of cheap materials maybe.
Cheapest and easiest is restoring / upfitting an old bargain that's already close to what you need.
Unusual very specific requirements makes that harder of course, for me a grand doesn't get past the suspension + brakes.
honda250xtitan
Active member
well **** lol.
That was my other question, the independent suspension seems pretty awesome. You guys think its better then a solid axle/leaf spring setup?
mmrocek
Observer
I do think so. If you look at it, the arms are setup as skid plates that will let you slide the trailer over hard obstacles. (backing up is a different story) on a solid axle you have the axle tube hanging low. That said, I will be taking mine to Rubicon with a friend that has a very nice home built trailer with solid axle, so we'll see.
Tkhawk
Adventurer
Yeah, buying new steel is expensive. For just the modifications I made to my rack and material for a rear tire swing, I've spent about $400. I do have a lot of steel left over because I bought full lengths for the local steel house, it was just slightly more to buy the full length compared to buying just the short lengths I needed.