Built-in cooler progress.

[EllPea in CA]

Oh my goodness! That counter is beautiful. Please tell us more about it!

[AlanKilian]

The counter is an old display panel form a company called lovepop.com that had an R&D studio at my Maker Space.

When they got a bigger R&D lab, they gave away a bunch of beautiful display setups and I grabbed this one.

It's 3/8 Plexiglas with an image on the back and then a white background.

They were probably back illuminated on a display in a store I guess.

A little work with the jigsaw and it's all set.

[EllPea in CA]

Originally Posted by AlanKilian

They were probably back illuminated on a display in a store I guess.

Man, I’d be tempted to put a light under that thing! (I know the ice chest would cast a shadow, but still…)

[AlanKilian]

I designed and 3D printed a new plug for the cooler so I can attach a hose and valve to drain the water out through the bottom of the camper without removing the cooler from its mount.

It looks and fits great.

We'll see later of it's watertight.

I kept the old plug unmodified so if it springs a leak, I can replace it with the original plug.

(Yes, the first photos show a plug where the screw-threads are 0.7 inches too long. I'll be dipped if I know how that happened on just that one CAD update, but in the final photo I adjusted the design and reprinted to the correct length.)

[Perryb67]

Originally Posted by AlanKilian

(No desire to get into towball-weight fights here, I just read this: http://www.sunbuster.net.au/wp-conte...allarticle.pdf and I know I NEED to stay under 350" for the car, but I want to be significantly less than that as I expect it would be like 22% of a 1,500 pound trailer.)

That article was last updated in June 2015. It's an excellent article and the TSC is great unless you have a module or electrical failure. I wonder if there have been any updates recently?

Enjoy,

Perry

[AlanKilian]

I just finished installing the trailer brake unit, so I moved on to coolers again.

Installing one cooler and a mostly-full propane take, I got 120 pounds tongue weight.
Filling that cooler half-full with water to simulate a full-load of food and ice jumped to 170 pounds.

So I estimate 220 pounds for the second cooler and water since it's not quite as far forward.

That seems acceptable since:
- My ball-limit is 350 pounds.
- I have NOTHING in the back of the trailer and we usually have tent, bags, cushions, chairs. (And sometimes 8 gallons of water)

I'll get the second cooler in and actually fill the trailer packed as usual and get a weight in a few weeks.

[AlanKilian]

Fun fact: Physics will kick you in the rear end whenever she feels like it.

After testing the tongue weight, I tossed the plastic hose out the door to drain the cooler and water was running out of it.

30 minutes later, there was no more water coming out, so I decided to open up the cooler to see what remained in the bottom.

But I couldn't get it open.

???

No, I hadn't forgotten to undo the latches, and it wasn't partly pushed in and blocking the lid from opening.

Draining the water had pulled a vacuum inside the cooler and since it's got a nice gasket in the lit, there was no way I was getting that lid opened.

So I lifted up the open end of the hose, and there was a 5-minute long GLUG GLUG GLUG GLUG GLUG as the cooler inhaled a ton of air.

THEN I opened the lid and tossed the hose out again.

It had probably drained 10% of the water out before pulling a low enough pressure to keep more water from flowing out.

I'm going to have to carry a stick to prop the lid open 1/32" while draining I guess.

You learn something new every day. (At least I do!)

[AlanKilian]

I think this project is coming to completion.

I designed and 3D printed two latches so that the cooler can't roll out on the drawer slides while we are traveling. They just rotate up to unlatch and the screw is tight enough so they stay up. (Of course, the photos are rotated 90-degrees. Grrrr....)

It looks like they are going to work great.

First trip June 1 to Vermont. I'll let you know of any success or failures.

[AlanKilian]

A little more 3D printing and this Tupperware will be able to hang on to the lip of the cooler and our hamburger buns won't have to go swimming in the melted ice!

[AlanKilian]

First road trip was great with a bit of a failure.

The slide-out prevention latches both failed, the cooler slid out on the rails and bounced around bending the rails. :-(

So we removed the cooler and placed it in the location for the second cooler and went with that for this trip.

We left with 4 bags of ice and returned after 3.5 days with probably 2 bags still as ice, so I now officially love these coolers. I think they are going to work wonderfully for our needs.

Also, getting the cooler in and out is impossible, so they will become permanent and we'll need to clean them in place.

The drain hoses with valves on the outside of the camper are going to work perfectly.

So, ordering new drawer slides (US$56) and I'll do a reinstall and figure out something else to make sure it can't slide out while driving.

[cawilson]

Great project! I really like your 3D printed components, do you upload your designs to thingiverse by any chance?

[AlanKilian]

Originally Posted by cawilson

Great project! I really like your 3D printed components, do you upload your designs to thingiverse by any chance?

I never thought anyone would have any use for my designs so I've never uploaded any of them.

They are all freely available as 3d CAD models at the OnShape website so anyone can modify them if they find a useful model. Unfortunately, OnShape has a terrible search function and you can't search by author, so the odds of you finding one of my models is nil. If there's one you'd like to modify, I'll send you a link. OnShape is free and 100% online, so you don't have to download or install anything. It all runs in a browser. You do need to create a free account with them.

If there's a model you like, let me know and I'll send the .stl to you.