Tires

I think I an going need to start shopping for some new tires for the radar trailer. The tire size is P195 75 R14.  I figure by putting entire site inside this blog I'll be able to reference it from a store using my smart phone next time I think about shopping for tires.

First solar panel test

Yesterday was a strange cloudy day for August.  For a Saturday project I thought it would be fun to roll the trailer out from under the overhang and point it at the sun as I was sanding  rust off the outside of the trailer getting it ready for a coat of primer.

According to the trailers operators manual the solar system is rated at 3 amps.  Based on this I could can safely assume that with one panel averaging 2 amps for 5 hours a day would produce a reliable 10ah of charging to the battery bank.

Looks like I am getting just under 3 amps registering on the analog display (photo is at a slight angle, not quite head on) I'm happy with that.

Single battery installation

Friday evening I decided to install a battery in the radar trailer and test the solar panel and charge controller.  It took me some time to figure out which cables in the wiring harness I needed to use.  I didn't want to open up the wiring harness to look inside the plastic hose organizer.  so I tested with some test leads to find the right negative and positive cable to use for a single battery.

Once I figured it out I decided it was easier just to rip out the old harness.

I decided to remove it because my goal was to eventually hard wire in an inverter for the trailer.  For right now this harness could run a small inverter, but eventually I will have 3 batteries connected with larger cables.  I will be able measure the old inter connect cables to order new larger cables.

In case it may help someone in the future, this is the the way the bank was wired

Main run of the positive and negative cables exit top left and run to the back of the trailer to two bus bars. from there the red (positive) wire goes to a cut off switch.  The positive wire is then routed to a 2nd. positive bus bar.  This is so the master power for all accessories ( except the solar charge controller and the alarm) can be turned on and off.

I mounted the single battery in the far left because the negative cable on the harness started on that side.

Original Battery Bank Configuration

Unfortunately the Radar Trailer didn't come with the original (3) 31DCM maintenance free batteries for a total of 345ah at 12v.

This is the spot in the front of the trailer where 3 12v batteries belong.

Each battery has a plastic cover and a metal bar that goes over the threaded  rods to hold the batteries securely in the trailer. the metal panel (that the battery cover  on the far right is resting on) hinges up.

The only concern I have about using lead

The only concern I have with using lead-acid batteries is that when being charged they generate oxygen and hydrogen gas by electrolysis of water.  To control the cost I may have to stick with this option.

For now I am going to use an extra AGM battery I have just sitting around.

This used Genesis XE 70X battery was another golden find on craigslist a few years ago.  I think it is 68ah sealed AGM battery.  I paid $65 for it new they are much more .

They still sell this battery new for $569 ( I wish I would of got more than one)

For now I am going to mount it in the first battery position after I double check (and tape up) the positive leads for the other (2) battery bays.

Ready to be added to the battery bay.

I will use this battery for now and watch craigslist for other options.  This will allow me to connect in a small inverter so I can play a radio when I am working on it.  I checked the battery specs and it is ok to charge this battery to 14.4v, so it will work with the charge controller already installed in the trailer.

More details of the battery compartment can be found below:

According to the original trailer operator's manual the vent door needs to be opened up when you charge the battery using the 120v charger (not included with my used trailer)

I was wondering what this bar was for.  I think it is to prop up the vent door?

I just stuck the bar in the expanded metal and it holds the door up.

Solar panel upgrade ideas

Right now the trailer has one 50 watt solar panel mounted on the front of the trailer.  Realistically that is enough for the battery bank I am going to install for infrequent use.  50 watts will be enough to slowly charge the 260ah battery bank I am planning on installing.  Later if I plan on running loads like a dc refrigerator or larger inverter for power tools.   I would like to add on to the system with extra panels either mounted on the roof, or stored inside but deployable to expand the system when needed.

With the 50 panel in the folded down position the rack is 48" x 48".  With the panel sitting flat taking up rack space I have 48" x 42" available.

With the panel tilted out of the way the rack is 48" x 48"

With the panel flat it goes doen to 42" of free space without the panel hanging over the back of the rack. to play it safe lets assume 41 3/4" 

If I just wanted to mount the panels flat on the rack I found a 100W panel that is 47 X 1.5 X 22 inches.  I could mount one, or mount two of them if i was willing to let the panel hang over a bit.




Another option might be to see if I can find someone to build me a custom panel to fit the space or maybe better build one good panel from the three bad ones I have laying around if they can be saved.

If the project progresses I think it would be nice to replace the 50 watt pannel with the newer black on black panels.  I think they would really give it that tactical look and contrast nicely with the desert tan and black look.


For the time being I already have solar panels that are paid for and just needing a job to do, so that is what I will use for now.

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One advantage to not adding more solar panels in a way that would restrict allowing the rack to be raised vertically is that I could mount CFL flood lights in between the vertical rails in a way that would allow the lights to be pointed to the back or front of the trailer.  This would be useful for area lighting.

Sponsors Needed

Are you eco friendly?

I started this blog because a few people that I mentioned my solar trailer project to were very interested in the concept and wanted to see some photos of the work in progress.

I am a big fan of alternative energy, and I have been playing small solar and wind power systems for about 3 years now collecting stuff as I go along.  Unfortunately the hopes and desires for this mobile solar trailer exceeds my allowable budget.  For now I am going to just make due with the parts I currently have on hand so the progress will be slow for right now.

I had an idea, and I welcome your comments and ideas.  If you would like to help sponsor this trailer we can build the dream together.  contact me through www.AskRogerSeher.com if you would like to discuss ways to sponsor.

Here are some ideas I have come up with.

Businesses in the solar or related areas would be able to offer product and or services to help this along.  in return they would get a link on this blog and a logo with link (if they create it) on the sides of the trailer.  When the trailer gets to 90% complete I will also have a banner created that can hung up on the trailer durring events I attend with it.  Or it bay be loaned out to sponsors for there events (just thinking out loud)

Of course to finish pimping it out properly we would need hire someone to put a good paint job on it.  Right now I am tired of looking at the white so I am going to quickly put a basic paint job on it. I will also repair and cover up the bullet hole.  I'm not going to get too fancy for now because I will be welding on it as I go along.   For now it is going to be desert tan with flat black wheels.  I think it will give it a tactical look to appeal to the pepper community.

I'm not sure how to proceed I guess I will start contacting vendors of products I like and use related to solar energy, batteries, solar chargers, solar panels, wiring, ham radio, meetering, DC Refrigeration and see if I can get this thing in motion.

To thank the first sponsors to support the project I will be mentioning them in any video I do that show new products that get added to the trailer.

It would make sense for them to join sooner vs. later in the project because I can add there logos and a link to there site at the end of any product related videos I decide to make.  You can see some of my videos by following the links on my www.AskRogerSeher.com site.

I could also add a paypal donate button then thank people who donate a minimum level.  Another thing I could do is an amazon gift list of items I think would be useful for the project.  If people purchase them for me I will thank them on a dedicated blog post.

So far those are the ideas I have to speed this up.

Please contact me and help if you can.

Roger

Radar Trailer - Security System

I really like all the cool ways this trailer could be deployed and secured to keep people from stealing it. Here are some of the cool things I found so far.


Once this unit arrives at a destination:

1.  The hitch (with safety chains) and lighting cable can be removed.  This will prevent people from just backing up to it and hooking on there ball and quickly drive away.
2. Spare tire can be stored inside the locked unit.
3. It has locking weel lugs to make it harder for people to steel the rims
4. A bar that is stowed under the unit can be inserted through the wheels and locked.  This will also prevent the trailer from being rolled away.  The bar will also keep people from easily steeling the wheels.
5. The jack handle can also be removed to make it harder for someone to try and jack the front up.
6. I'm guessing the jack mounted to the front of the unit will be strong enough to possibly change or  remove the tires and store them inside with the spare by lowering and locking  the rear stabilizers (missing)
   
7. Another security system in the unit is a keyless alarm.  Unfortunately I am missing the key chain wireless remote so I cannot arm or disarm the system.  Once armed the alarm will go off if a door is opened, or if the front of the trailer is tilted up.  It also has an impact sensor.
8. I would not be surprised if the in service units had gps tracking units or some type or tracking unit installed.

That covers the the security system on the mobile radar trailer.  I'm sure you will agree with me that surplus radar trailers are excellent platforms to convert into Solar:

• Camping Trailers
• Bug out trailers
• Burning man trailers
• Portable Ham Radio communication stations.
• quiet eco friendly Job Site power stations.

shown with trailer hitch, safety chain, jack handle, and trailer light connector cable removed

Jack handle removed.  The shaft is round making it hard to turn

Tire locking bar that gets inserted through the wheels and locked.  I had to cut off the old lock.  I'm using a zip tie to keep the unit from sliding out for now.  

Rear view of the wheel locking bar exposed at the rear of the trailer.

It would be fun if funds allow to weld up a box to securely mount a game camera in the upper left window. so if someone walks up to examine the trailer  I will get a picture of them (with time and date) incase they vandalize my trailer.  the rear window is a security hole.  I have a plan to make a fold down table with expanded metal that locks when folded up to protect the glass.  It would be great to figure out how to mount a 22 inch flat panel to the inside of the glass connected to an apple tv controller.  then you could watch videos or stream music to the tv speakers from an ipad, laptop, or iphone.  How cool would that be when camping?

Ham Radio Idea

I think later when the funds allow this unit needs a 50 watt Ham Radio installed.  It already has a place to mount it.

Old CHP radio was installed here.

There is a large hill where I go deer hunting.  From on top of that thing you can see for miles. It would be great to someday be able to drag this trailer to the top of it and see who I can make contact with.  It would also be great to someday have a unit with cross-band band repeat .  Cross-band repeat allows the more powerful 50wat unit to listen on one frequency and transmit on another using it's higher power transmitter.  This would allow people with smaller 2-5 watt hand held units called handy talkies to better get out in hilly terrain.

I will also need to design and mount two or more tilt-up pole mounting brackets.  One on each side or on each corner so the antenna can be positioned so it does not cast a shadow on the solar panels.

I should also design them to withstand the load from a small wind turbine if I ever finish building one.  Ideally the mount would allow a pole to be inserted horizontally and held off the ground so a antenna or small windturbine can be mounted.  Then the unit can be tilted up by pushing up or pulling with a rope to a vertical position then secured with a lock.

Radar Trailer - Solar Charging System

One of the things that made me very happy to invest in this trailer is the fact that it had a 50 watt solar panel mounted on front of the unit.  I knew if I had to go out and purchase a new 50 watt soler pannel I would have to spend over a hundred dollars on one.  So the fact that this has one is a huge bonus.

Here are the specs on the solar panel:

It is  connected to a SCI mark III 15 amp charge controller.  I like this because of the analog meters.  The top one will show the battery bank voltage once they are installed.  The bottom meter will show the amps that the panel or panels (when I add panels later)  I have other MPPT charge controllers that I could upgrade the system with, but then I would not have the cool analog meters to look at and i'd have a big hole to fill.

I found the SCI mark III/15 owners manual here

Did you notice that I have temporally removed the fuse on the charge controller?  Even with the batteries removed and the panel facing down away from the sun, the panels still provide more than enough power to run the alarm system which I have not been able to figure out how to disarm yet.

All of the wires are routed behind this panel

on this side of the panel there is a mystery switch, some led indicators, and two 12v outlets.  On the other side there is a single 12v outlet.

Look at this mess, I'm not much of an electrician so it is going to take awhile to figure this out.

I think this is a good place to mount my xantrex prowatt 1000 true sign wave inverter.  Then Run a small cord over to the plug outlet you can see on the outside of the trailer.  First I would need to change the change it to a female.  Right now it has a male plug, so you can plug wall power in to the unit to power a 120v battery charger if needed.

Another cool possibility is once I upgrade the solar panels is to wire in a grid tie inverter so when the batteries are charged it diverts to grid-tie mode to put juice back in the grid when it is parked near a structure. ( I'll keep this in mind)

Radar Trailer Found on Craigslist

Last year I got the idea of Building a trailer to mount my battery bank and solar panels on to.  I watched craigslist for small trailers and I mostly found small cheap harbor freight units that could only hold about 600lbs.  My battery bank weights in at around 600lbs so those units would not work well. Id be well over the limit once I started welding on the trailer to hold the battery and solar mounts.  Then I would stil have to harden the trailer to keep someone grom walking off with the solar panels, batteries or the whole trailer.

Then I got the idea to just build a trailer from scratch to play with my welder and plasma cutter.  Once I considered the the steel cost to build a trailer from scratch I put the project on hold.

I thought my project was never going to get off the ground until one day I saw this beauty on craigslist for $400

Picture this cleaned up and painted desert tan with flat black rims.  It would make an awesome small camp trailer. Eventually I think it is going to also need a HAM radio (with cross band repete enabled) installed.

Here are the trailer specs:

I can tell this unit is well built, and it has great ground clearance for off road.

This is a gutted out radar trailer, Did you know these things had alarms in them?  I will tell you that story later:') and it looks like this one has been shot at.

I think this is a great find for my project.  It is portable, lockable, and once deployed it would be very difficult for someone to drive off with.

Read more about the Security Features on this trailer here