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My Other Projects
My SCA Life
My Other Life
travellers have passed this way...
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How Big Is Stuff, Anyway?
As part of the planning process, I've gone a bit crazy with the tape measure
in our current trailer, plus poking about on the Web, and herewith are the
results of my investigations and suchlike.
| As a side note, these are automotive
tires, not RV tires. I strongly recommend you NOT use automotive tires; the
reason is that RV tires are designed to take a lot more sideways thrusts, due to
the face that the RVs they're holding up are about as aerodynamic as a brick and
their sides make great 'sails'. If I'd have read the trailer's manual, I'd have
known it need load range "B" tires, which it will have before
I sell it. For the vardo I'll use either load range "B" or
"C" tires, depending on what the final weight is. Here's a
couple of very useful sites on tires:
http://www.newrver.com/publish/readtires.shtml
http://www.racelinecentral.com/tires_sidewall.html
http://www.dualport.com/bustech/load_tires.html
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How big is a wheel, anyway? Well, you can get a lot of info from the tire. My
current trailer has P175/80R13 tires.
Okay, so how big is that?
P175/80R13 breaks down as follows:
- P - passenger vehicle rated; i.e, not suited for RVs. Not even
vardos.
- 175 - tire width, in millimeters. So just under 7 inches wide (175
÷ 25.4)
- 80 - aspect ratio. This is a percentage of the width, and gives the
height of the tire, from the tread to the rim. Therefore, the height of my
trailer's tires is 175mm x 80% = 140 mm, or just about exactly 5-1/2 inches.
- R - radial
- 13 - the diameter of the rim, in inches.
So overall, my trailer's wheels are just about exactly 24 inches tall (tread to rim,
rim diameter and rim back out to tread), and just under 7 inches wide.
For the vardo, I want slightly larger tires. My van
has 15-inch rims with P195/75R15 tires, which means the tread is just over 7-1/2 inches wide and
has a height of 146 mm or again, just about exactly 5-1/2 inches. Since the rims
are 2 inches wider, this means a trailer with these size tires will stand about
an inch higher than the 13-inch rim. Now the trick will be to find RV tires with
that tire profile.
The frame currently sits about 11 or 12 inches (it's hard to measure as the
parking area isn't level) above the ground. That'll do for now.
Amenities
- Propane
A 20-lb propane bottle is about 12 inches in diameter, and
stands 17 inches tall, including the valve & protective frame around it at
the top.
- Batteries
An automotive or marine deep cycle battery is 8
inches wide and 12 inches long, and stands 10 inches high, allowing for
clearance for the terminal posts
- Water tank
The fresh water tank in my trailer is 18 US gallons,
measures 16-1/2 inches wide by 26 inches long, and is 10 inches high. From an RV
tank supplier's website (http://www.tank-depot.com/browse.aspx?id=9),
here's some prospective tank dimensions, weights, capacities and costs:
| Height (in.) |
Width
(in.) |
Length
(in.) |
Capacity
(US gal) |
Empty Weight
(lbs) |
Weight
of H2O
(lbs)* |
Full
Weight
(lbs) |
Cost |
P/N |
| 13-1/4 |
14-3/8 |
48-3/8 |
36 |
30 |
300.6 |
330.6 |
$151.00 |
R-RV6w |
| 12 |
20 |
48 |
48 |
70 |
400.8 |
470.8 |
175.00 |
R-RV9W |
| 13 |
20 |
58 |
58 |
70 |
484.3 |
554.3 |
195.00 |
R-RV43W |
| 15-1/2 |
22 |
54 |
75 |
102 |
626.3 |
728.3 |
215.00 |
R-RV61W |
1 US gal of fresh water weighs approx. 8.35 lbs.
- Grey water holding tank
I also want to have one of these onboard as well;
here's some representative sizes from the same source:
| Height (in.) |
Width
(in.) |
Length
(in.) |
Capacity
(US gal) |
Empty Weight
(lbs) |
Cost |
P/N |
| 8 |
10-1/2 |
23 |
27-3/4 |
20 |
30 |
$161.87 |
R-1H |
| 11 |
12 |
22 |
22 |
21 |
30 |
172.66 |
R-56H |
| 10-1/2 |
12 |
22 |
28 |
26 |
30 |
161.87 |
R-54H |
| 7-3/4 |
9 |
22 |
46 |
30 |
70 |
215.82 |
R-39H |
| 10-1/2 |
12 |
16 |
46 |
33 |
30 |
194.24 |
R-52H |
I'll see how the arrangement works out and work with some of these as typical
dimensions. As long as I'm not getting too crowded for space, I should be able
to make allowances between the design phase and what I can actually purchase
from local RV suppliers.
- Refrigerator
Oh boy, there's a ton of 'em. My trailer has an old Dometic RM24, which has
an internal volume of about 2 cubic feet. However, that's just to say I
don't want to go much smaller than that if I can avoid it. Here's a table of
representative sizes of gas refrigerators from a couple of manufacturers:
Height
(in.) |
Width
(in.) |
Depth
(in.) |
Volume
(cu. ft.) |
Weight
(lbs) |
Power |
Maker / Model |
| 21 |
17-3/4 |
21-1/2 |
1.9 |
49 |
LPG / 110 Vac / 12 Vdc |
Dometic RM 2193 |
| 21 |
19-1/4 |
24 |
2.5 |
51 |
LPG / 110 Vac / 12 Vdc |
Dometic RM4223 |
| 20-5/8 |
17-1/2 |
21-1/4 |
1.7 |
39 |
LPG / 110 Vac / 12 Vdc |
Norcold 323T |
| 21 |
19-3/8 |
24 |
2.4 |
45 |
LPG / 12 Vdc |
Norcold N260 |
| 29-3/4 |
20-1/2 |
21-3/8 |
2.7 |
63 |
LPG / 110 Vac / 12 Vdc |
Norcold N300 |
All of these seem to fall within a certain size range, so again I can work
with approximate sizes for now and then finalize once I actually have a
refrigerator. Given the costs of these things new, though, I think I'll see what
I can get reconditioned.
Stuff Needing Storage
At the moment, I have stuff which I have to unpack from the trailer whenever
we set up. It'd be nice to have a storage compartment to hold it all, accessible
from the outside so that we don't have to get it out of our way if (when) I get
lost and arrive late. Or on a road trip to, say, Pennsic.
The list, so far, consists of:
- Round table
- Trestle table
- Camp chair, bagged (each)
- Day shade
- Ground mat, folded
- Cooler chest
- Rubbermaid box (each)
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36 in. dia.
67-1/4 in.
42 in.
42 in.
42 in.
27 in.
24 in. |
17-1/2 in.
8 in. dia.
12 in. dia.
24 in.
16 in.
16 in. |
1 in.
3 in.
3 in.
18 in.
9 in. |
2 |
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The Bill So Far
Thinkin' and dreamin',
Starin' and schemin' |
|
|
| Horse brasses (16 Sep 07) |
|
10.00 |
| TOTAL to date (05-Jul-2007
) |
$10.00 |
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