Several years ago, my son (a plumber) bartered some work for a small 8' x 5' utility trailer. It was an older 1995 model and took some effort to fix it up, but it came out pretty good. For the first couple years he used it in his mobile bicycle repair business, but quickly outgrew it for a much larger mobile repair unit. From there, we made it into a toy hauler/camper combo.
Here it is most recently set up at the Goldhead Branch State Park for the Polar Bear in January.
Below is a photo of the inside of the utility trailer from the back. Depending on weather conditions, I can either lower a canvas privacy tarp or raise the ramp. It fits a small camping table and a cot.
Electrical--Camp Supplied
Many private and state campgrounds and parks have electric hookups for campers and, as long as it doesn't cost too much more money, I usually opt for an electrical hookup for lights lights and heater/fan. To support the electric, I installed a Journeyman Plug Inlet (about $20) on the outside of the trailer that connects to outlets on the inside (shown later).
Virtually all camp sites offer 15 Amp/115V (normal three pin), 30 Amp and 50 Amp electric hookups. What I'd found is that the 15 Amp hookups often did not support an electric heater and would blow the circuits on my internal power strips. To compensate, I purchased a 30 Amp to 15 Amp RV Power Adapter ($6 at Walmart). In doing so, I had to upgrade the cords. Normal extension cords are rated for under 15A; the higher grade cords are found in commercial supplies.
The photo below is what a typical campsite electrical station looks like. The receptacles, left to right, are 50 Amp, 30 Amp and 15 Amp/115V. The purplish adapter in the above photo fits the 30A receptacle.
Once inside I have two in-line commercial-grade power strips, the forward strip is wired directly to the inlet and the rear strip is run off it's regular cord. Both have breakers.
My internal lighting comes from two fluorescent lights that each have a high-low.
Electrical--Not Supplied
There are campsites that don't have electric or it's reserved for larger RVs or otherwise limited. In those cases I either go primitive (no electric) or make my own internal AC power. It all depends.
In three days, I'm heading to a Rally in Hohenwald, Tennessee (near Nashville) and will be in a primitive camping area for four nights. That's too long to go "fully" primitive, so I'll be making my own power. This requires either my generator or my power inverter.
My camp generator is a 2000 Watt Predator Generator sold by Harbor Freight. I use this generator quite a bit and it's held up very good. I have a complete review of it on my Dormany Road for Reviews Blog. The issue with generators is that they make noise and disturb other campers, so I have to carefully consider that or some places have areas set aside for generator use; they had such an area at the Wild Bear Safari camping area back in December. The problem with those areas is people bring massive generators that are really loud and irritate me!
The alternative is setting up my power inverter, which I intend to do for the upcoming Tennessee Trip. Current weather reports indicate days in the high seventies and nights between 40 and 60 degrees.
I have two power inverters; the one I use for camping is a Shumacher PC-2000 Watt Converter/Inverter. Don't let the $420 price in that link scare you; it was $130 at Advance Auto Parts and many other places.
Essentially, a power inverter converts DC current to AC current. The DC current is derived from a battery...preferably a marine deep cycle battery rather than a traditional automotive battery. I have a couple deep cycle batteries that I use on my electric gate opener, so one of those will make the trip to Tennessee.
In an effort to save room and keep my small living area uncluttered I just constructed..new for my Tennesse Trip...a shelf for the inverter and my butane hotplate.
Staying Warm
Heading north (Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee, even Alabama) anytime before Memorial Day is hit or miss weather-wise. There have been times that I've woke up to frost on my seat and rode in snow on the mountain trails.
I have different kinds of layers to keep warm when riding, but staying warm at night has been a problem in many instances. Sometimes it's literally a matter of going to bed in a hot trailer, sweating with a fan on and having the temp drop to 40s in the middle of the night.
My first line of defense against the evening cold is a 20 degree rated Bass Pro Eclipse Hercules Sleeping Bag with Hood (about $100). For some reason it's advertised as a 10 degree bag, but it's a 20 degree in the specs. Notwithstanding, sleeping bag temp ratings are ridiculously vague. To prove my point here's an Article on REI. Good luck following that/
Obviously, the best solution for a cold night is a closed ramp door and my electric heater running. That's the setup I had at the Polar Bear Rally back in January because the park we stayed at had electric for all campers. Second, if I can use my generator, my electric blanket works great. However, there's that 50% of the time I need something else.
One of my most recent items was the purchase of Heat Lamps (about $25 for 2; Amazon) that operate off of my butane hot plate. Basically, these lamps sit on the open flame and radiate heat. They are perfect for very small coverage like tents and the inside of my trailer. The first time I used them was at my Citrus WMA trip a couple weeks ago. They worked fine, but the issue is that the butane bottles only last about 2 hours on mid-flame. Since adequate ventilation is in order for the use of something like this, I lost the great heat pretty quickly once the canister expired.
Here is a photo of the lamp in use. In my trailer with the lights off, it glows orange at high heat. This photo was in the dark, but with a flash.
Another new item that I'll be using in Tennessee is a heated vest. There are a number of fairly cheap heated vests on Amazon that operate off of Portable USB Power Banks. The vest I purchased was the Cozihoma Heated Vest from Amazon (about $50). I had to purchase a power bank and picked the Rolisa 24000 mAh Power Bank (about $35); this particular power bank was attractive because it had an LED power usage display.
Reviews indicated that people were using the cheaper 10,000--13,000 mAh power banks and having good success, but the larger 24,000 mAh was only about $10 more on average; it was, however, pretty big. Anyway, the way the vest works is the power bank is connected to a USB cord in the pocket. It operates three heating panels on the back at four levels of heat.
In initial test runs, I operated the vest off the fully charged power bank at medium power. The vest consumed 12% of the battery capacity per hour indicating that it should hold out 8.3 hours at medium.
Fuel
I used to lug a Rotopax Cell on the back of my dual sport bikes during events. I have two with the mount to double them up. It seems like the fuel always got used during events...just not by me. Yeah, there's always someone who doesn't manage their fuel well. Well, when I got the KLX250 I decided that I wasn't going to add any weight, including a rear rack, so that means no fuel cell either.
Instead, I mounted the fuel cells on the wall inside my trailer and make sure they're full of ethanol free before I leave on my rides.
I usually still need to fuel up at stops during rally, but if I can do that mid-day, then I can get a slug of ethanol free in the tank for the next day.
Checklist
If there is one thing that I really need for my rally road trips, it's a checklist. My memory just gets worse and worse as each year goes by (I'm about to turn 60). Just a couple weeks ago...I camped and rode the Citrus WMA and forgot one of the most important things on my rally checklist...coffee!!! Oh man, nothing is worse than starting my day without coffee. Dang. It was just another reminder that I need to stick to my checklists even on my short little overnight trips.
Checklists, if anyone chooses to use them, are a very personal thing. Even if you find some online, such as the links provided below, they really need to be tailored to the person and to the specific circumstances.
The method that I employ is to list everything and then make a decision on what makes the trip on a line-by-line basis. For example, I have two sleeping bags, one for cold and one for warm. Obviously, I don't need to take both, but I do need my cot pad that I also forgot on my Citrus outing. Other decisions, such as electric and cooking can be facilitated by a comprehensive checklist.
Below are links to my checklists. The first is my rally checklist that includes everything from riding gear to camping gear. The second is a General Tool Checklist that includes the tools and certain other items that stay in a tool box in my truck bed at all times and includes some items for the event or rally. For example, I keep a supply of fuse sizes in the General Tools. I also keep one of each motorcycle spark and motorcycle specific tool kits in the General Tools.
My Rally Checklist.
My General Tool Checklist.
You may think it's too much. You may think it's too little. ymmv
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