Help me Build the "PERFECT" SnoWest Snowmobile trailer

[christopher]

After a long drive home I have my LOVELY new trailer safely ensconced in my driveway!

First order of business was to take off the two propane bottles and get them filled, then to fire up the heater.

OH HOW SWEET IT IS TO HAVE A TOASTY HOT TRAILER!!
I may have died and gone to snowmobile heaven!

The trailer was around 20 degrees inside when we turned on the heater and you could see your breath quite easily. Took about 6 minutes to begin to make a difference and in about 10 minutes the temp was rising and you couldn't see your breath any more. Give it 30 minutes and it was comfortable to be in there with no jacket on.

I spent about 5 hours today taking pictures. Trying really hard to document every little detail of the trailer. Once I have had some time to download and process all of the raw images I will start posting them.

Tomorrow we plan on take the trailer out for her first excursion and see how the other half lives!!


And a passing comment.
I got to spend several hours this morning with the crew from Mirage Trailers at their factory in Nampa Idaho.

WHAT A NICE GROUP OF PEOPLE.
Every employee I came into contact with was just as nice and friendly as they could be. From the owner right on down to the screw pushes. Mirage has assembled a great crew of folks who were genuinely interested in delivering a quality product and it showed over and over again while I was there.

 

[christopher]

First day of using this mew trailer, and I am asking myself, HOW DID I EVER GET BY WITHOUT It???

Having a fully enclosed HEATED trailer with a STERIO is just beyond awesome. It's freaking AMAZING. I really had no idea just how frikin sweet it was to get suited up in a warm trailer while you listen to some killer tunes! And even better, when you come back after a long hard COLD day on the mountain, turn on the furnace, fold down the couch and just RELAX before loading up the sleds for the long drive home.

I should have bought this years ago!!

 

[d8grandpa]

After a long drive home I have my LOVELY new trailer safely ensconced in my driveway!

First order of business was to take off the two propane bottles and get them filled, then to fire up the heater.

OH HOW SWEET IT IS TO HAVE A TOASTY HOT TRAILER!!
I may have died and gone to snowmobile heaven!

The trailer was around 20 degrees inside when we turned on the heater and you could see your breath quite easily. Took about 6 minutes to begin to make a difference and in about 10 minutes the temp was rising and you couldn't see your breath any more. Give it 30 minutes and it was comfortable to be in there with no jacket on.

I spent about 5 hours today taking pictures. Trying really hard to document every little detail of the trailer. Once I have had some time to download and process all of the raw images I will start posting them.

Tomorrow we plan on take the trailer out for her first excursion and see how the other half lives!!


And a passing comment.
I got to spend several hours this morning with the crew from Mirage Trailers at their factory in Nampa Idaho.

WHAT A NICE GROUP OF PEOPLE.
Every employee I came into contact with was just as nice and friendly as they could be. From the owner right on down to the screw pushes. Mirage has assembled a great crew of folks who were genuinely interested in delivering a quality product and it showed over and over again while I was there.

Sweeet trailer, too bad it will spend most of its days parked in your yard! You need to get some miles on it, I know of the perfect trip to break it in and test it out to see if it works for the long haul.

 

[christopher]

Dream on. It's getting LOADS of miles every week!!


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk 2 pro.

 

[christopher]

But this trailer WILL be making a pilgramicdge to the great white north. Just be patient with me...


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk 2 pro.

 

[christopher]

QUESTION:

How many hours of run time will you get from the heater with 2 full bottles of Propane?

Saturday Night after our first use of the trailer, we emptied the trailer of the sleds, swept it out and turned on the heater.

Took about 2 hours for the heat to build up high enough to begin melting the ice on the floor.

So I am wondering just how many total hours of Heater Time I should expect from the 2 tanks of propane.

And the 2nd question, is there any particularly good system for determining remaining fuel in the tanks?

 

[togwotee9]

Looks good. The only thing I would caution you on is the locks on the ramps. I had the same ones on my 2013 Legend trailer. First trip out with it I towed it 550 miles in snow and ice, got to town to fuel up before the 30 mile trip up the mountain and the locks were froze up, went to the hardware and bought a small butane torch to melt the ice, no luck. found a local locksmith, had him try to unlock it for over 30 minutes but the rear locker was frozen, he ended up drilling it out. Long story short, 3 hours of wasted time $75 in locksmith fees and one drilled out lock. Locksmith said he see lots of horse trailer with the same problem in the winter. I switched all my locks to hasps and have Master Lock pro series padlocks with flaps that cover the key hole.

 

[togwotee9]

QUESTION:

And the 2nd question, is there any particularly good system for determining remaining fuel in the tanks?

The pick it up and feel the weight method

 

[christopher]

The pick it up and feel the weight method

Thats HIGH TECH!

 

[MORSNO]

You can pour hot water on the outside of the tank and feel/look for the cold line on the outside of the tank. I think you can buy a decal like strip that sticks to the outside and the hot water will cange the color at the gas line.

Or put the tanks on a scale and weigh them 5 gallon tanks hold approximately 20lbs of gas.

 

[christopher]

I can't believe I did this to my brand new trailer.
10 years of pulling a trailer without an incident and now this...

So, there I was.
Just took the trailer to DMV and got plates for it.
Came home, parked it, and unhitched the trailer.
When I unpluged the electrical cable I slug it up and over the trailer tongue.
Hoped in the truck and pulled away.
"POP"

Oh How I HATE that sound.
Don't know how, but the cable dropped forward off the tongue and manage to catch the ball on my hitch and I ripped the whole assembly right out of the trailer.

But the cable came out of the connection box nice and clean so it should be easy to wire it back in tomorrow.

Contacted Mirage this evening and they gave me the wiring diagram off their website. GREAT CUSTOMER SERVICE. I asked and had it in less than TWO MINUTES!

 

[christopher]

And this is why they call it a BREAK-AWAY cable.
Because it broke away just as clean as could be!

 

[griffin86]

I don't mean to be negative, but are there enough screws holding down the E-track in the floor?

If you point load an area where the sled is tied down then have an accident, I'm not sure that I would trust 2 little screws to hold a Yamaha in place given the screw spacing.

Nice looking trailer anyway.

I was rear ended and my sleds were tied down to E track. The E Track was screwed into each cross member. The screws ended up snapping off. I recommend using every hole on the E Track. Screws are cheap compared to sleds getting damaged.

 

[griffin86]

QUESTION:

How many hours of run time will you get from the heater with 2 full bottles of Propane?

Saturday Night after our first use of the trailer, we emptied the trailer of the sleds, swept it out and turned on the heater.

Took about 2 hours for the heat to build up high enough to begin melting the ice on the floor.

So I am wondering just how many total hours of Heater Time I should expect from the 2 tanks of propane.

And the 2nd question, is there any particularly good system for determining remaining fuel in the tanks?

1 Lb of propane is 22000 BTUs. In theory you can run your furnace for 29 hours (22000 BTU/LB x 40 LB= 880,000BTU/30,000BTU/hr= 29.3 Hours). Depending on how could your outside temp is and how warm you want inside you could get quite a few more hours than that.

As the temperature drops the less your tanks will output. Best thing to do is fill your tanks up after every trip.

What was the outside temp roughly the first time using your furnace?

 

[christopher]

What was the outside temp roughly the first time using your furnace?

20 Degrees outside.

So, what I am gleaning from your little chat there is that is should be pretty much IMPOSSIBLE to drain the two bottles over a long weekend of sledding.

And that it shouldn't be a problem at all to run the heater for a few hours at the end of the weekend to fully MELT OUT the floor of the trailer either.

 

[christopher]

I was rear ended and my sleds were tied down to E track. The E Track was screwed into each cross member. The screws ended up snapping off. I recommend using every hole on the E Track. Screws are cheap compared to sleds getting damaged.

Dang.
That takes it to a new level.
Time for some GRADE 8 Screws eh?

 

[Scott]

That trailer will look good behind my truck.

 

[griffin86]

20 Degrees outside.

So, what I am gleaning from your little chat there is that is should be pretty much IMPOSSIBLE to drain the two bottles over a long weekend of sledding.

And that it shouldn't be a problem at all to run the heater for a few hours at the end of the weekend to fully MELT OUT the floor of the trailer either.

You should be able to run it from Friday night to Sunday night straight. Assuming it will average 20K BTU of propane an hour. Does your furnace shut off after the 30 minutes or does it still run constant?

Your trailer is insulated correct?

 

[griffin86]

Dang.
That takes it to a new level.
Time for some GRADE 8 Screws eh?

I think I am just going to use a screw every hole on my trailer. Not sure what else to do.

 

[christopher]

You should be able to run it from Friday night to Sunday night straight. Assuming it will average 20K BTU of propane an hour. Does your furnace shut off after the 30 minutes or does it still run constant?

Your trailer is insulated correct?

I have run it for a couple hours straight so far without it shutting off.