Dan’s mods

[DanielBoondock]

Meta thread of small mods and things I got for the trailer and found worked well, for your entertainment and interest …

First up, the Kelty Trash Pak garbage bag

 

It’s big and fits perfectly attached to the front Seabiscuit box. Made to attach to a back spare tires or other places, there’s lots of strapping so plenty of options. If animals are around you can hang it or put it in the truck. It’s waterproof, super sturdy and big enough to separate out compose vegetable scraps, recycling and trash. Quick, it’s been discontinued and is on sale for $90, so get it while you can if interested from Kelty, REI or or favorite outlet. 

Second in that picture is the Icon Trailer lock. If you follow lock picking - like the Lock Picking Lawyer channel where he picks hitch locks in under a minutes, you’ll know that most locks don’t slow anybody down who has a little determination. Brute force they can drill out, either the cylinder or the body. This lock is nearly immune to all that. Case hardened steel with a structure that’s hard to cut. Anti drill spinner on the lock, and a tumbler system that’s very difficult to pick. In addition I have a chain around the wheels that’s similarly hard to remove, I’ll detail that later. 

Finally in that picture is CG Gear RV mat over by the door. It’s double layer loose woven plastic material that was designed for helicopter temporary pads for the US Air Force. They needed something that could be thrown down in the field apparently which wouldn't  hold dirt or sand. Indeed it just drops through and it always stays clean. 

[DanielBoondock]

Lighting is everything … Oliver does a fantastic job with lighting, there’s a ridiculous amount of it in such a small trailer, but it’s all white. Not restful at night, a reddish light just like a campfire does wonders for slowing you down at the end of the day before going to sleep. And the problem is LED’s are just too actinic, you can’t get a bare LED to soften up, but is there a way? Philips figured it out with the Hue system.

I think Hue lights work by having an inner phospher coating. So, use tuned LED’s to excite the phosphor which then gives broadband emission. At any rate its the only LED’s I’ve seen that look good. We’ve got them all over the house and my family is addicted to the soft, warm reddish glow at night. Here’s what I did in the trailer. Now the theory of lighting says three levels ideally. Upper, middle and lower. Oliver follows this, except the upper lights are down spots, ideally you have up spots and the ceiling reflects. Here you can easily get two level lighting with Hue

Get a Hue bridge and these lamps. Two desk lamps (for the twin), one for bedside and the other for the dinette. The lampshade looks dark green but that’s reflection, it’s all a soft matching white. Internal battery and you can plug in the charger to the TV plug as shown

 

Two Hue under bed down lights to illuminate the floor. This is surprisingly pleasing and effective, just hide the wires under the carpet and use the plug as shown. Attach with two 3M Commander velcro-velcro non permanent strips and they’ll stay in place for travel. No internal battery, must be powered. 

 

And corner of the kitchen. Again battery powered, you can see the charger cable which plugs into the kitchen overhead socket

What these do is give soft, out of your eyes ambient light that - while it’s white here during the day - can change color to dark reddish at night. The placement is perfect to cover all the major hidden areas and it creates a triangle of coverage. I can’t tell you how comforting it is to come into a strange place and have your trailer interior lit up with such soft perfect lighting. 

Then for the outside get the party lights - all controlled by the same Hue bridge (link to the item as I don’t have them set up at the moment. Put them under the awning, suction cups on the side, etc. Plug into the outdoor socket. 

https://www.amazon.com/Philips-Hue-Festavia-Ambiance-Dimmable/dp/B0FML94K5G

These aren’t cheap but you get what you pay for!