Thanks to those who replied. With the usual last minute rush before Christmas I managed to sort a few things out before we took off to Jervis Bay NSW for 2.5 weeks bush camping.
1. I replaced the main mattress with a great outdoors ultra rest royal self inflating mattress 2000 x 1600 x 150mm thick & the kids side with a coleman queen size 2000 x 1550 x 100mm thick & we all slept
well & the lid of the Trak Shak closed no problem (Thanks Bucky for the tip of folding up)
2. Will address the gas struts early this year (re-gassing?)
3. I also found part of the leak problem with water in the storage area being from water dripping down the face of the bed case & tracking in between the tail gates so I will replace the rubber seals shortly as for the plywood lid I have left my 3.6m tinny on top to shelter it from the weather .
I hope to go to the Illawarra camping show to
check out the boat racks on a few campers to see if I can get some ideas.
I wired up two SLA 200 amp batteries & mounted them in front where the jerries normally sit one either side.
I ran two evakool fridges with 2 weeks meat & supplies in them 1 x 60l 1 x 47l & 6 off 21 led strip lights that I taped to the tent frame, 2 over the kids bed 2 over our bed & 2 in the main area wired through a fused 6 gang switch panel 2 lights per switch & 3 ciggy socket outlets for tv/video.dvd.
I ran the wires up to the front of the camper under the mattress to an anderson plug through the bottom over the battery, I tuck the switch board in between the foot of the mattress when folding up camper.
We use a Primus hot water heater for showers & washing up and managed to get 10 days out of the batteries before the fridges cut out. This was a trial to see what we were capable of getting out of the batteries with a 80 watt Unisolar panel topping up, the weather was mainly sunny with 2 or 3 overcast days & 1 day of rain. So as a result Happy Campers
I wired up anderson plugs on all 4 corners of the trailer and intend to put 2 weatherproof ciggy sockets at the front of the trailer above batteries for the versalite & make up a light frame that slides up over the kitchen area to put another 21 led light about 300mm above the stove area which we use outside of the tent, It also has to slide down into the kitchen box for closing & clear the sliding bench, does anyone else have a solution?
Things still to do----storage rack/tub over “A” frame for bulky but light - shade cloth 1 @ 7000 x 3500 with a 2100 x 1800 cut out to sit under camper and 2 @ 3500 x 4500 for under the tarp outdoor area & tarp 1 @ 7000 x 9000 mounted to the front tailgate----bike rack mount under back of trailer for kids bikes----outboard mount for 18hp tohatsu (next to spare mounted on front tailgate)----Wind up legs/jockey wheel for rear of trailer (Thanks Lyn -Mrs Al for the idea)----third room design----
Any other tip/tricks to share ??
Thanks in advance
Michael H