Friday, Feb 04, 2011 at 20:21
Judging from what I see when I go camping here in the US, and from the pictures on this site, the average US trailer (caravan) has much smaller wheels and tires (say 14" or 15" wheels) and much lower ground clearance than what is common in Australia. You can raise it up a little with bigger wheels and tires, but eventually the tires will start rubbing on the underbody. Also, expect a very simple axle with leaf springs. What most manufacturers probably have in mind is highway use, with maybe 5 km of gravel at 50 km/h or 2 km of dirt road at 25 km/h at the very end of the trip.
One simple tip, while you are browsing US dealer sites and dreaming: trailers wider than 2 m will have three
little red lights in a row on the back along the top edge; something like
this in location 7 in
this chart . 2.5 m seems to be the "magic number" for Australia, but at least the three lights will tell you that you are getting up there in width.
The incoming electric service will be 120 V at either 15 A (a small pop-up trailer) or 30 A (mid-size trailer, entry-level RV), or 120/240 V at 50 A (huge trailers and big RVs). A 15 A service may not have a breaker inside the vehicle. The 30 A and 50 A
services will have a circuit breaker box inside the vehicle, which will have anywhere from two to six 15 A breakers in it. A big trailer with 50 A service will *not* have any 240 V appliances except for possibly the air conditioner. US 240 V service comes from a 240 V center-tapped transformer, so you get 120 V from the center to the ends, and that is what most everything will run on. This is mostly academic as you probably need to replace all of it with Australian spec hardware anyway.
The cable from the breaker box to the individual 120 V light switches, receptacles, appliances, etc will have three 14 AWG wires - hot (black), neutral (white), and safety ground/earth (bare or green). The insulation may be rated for 300 V or 600 V. (14 American Wire Gauge is just a tiny bit over 2 mm^2.) The laws of physics say that this wire is totally fine for 240 V, 15 A service, but the laws of your state may vary. :) If an inspector requires the local color code on the wires, or wants the right words stamped on the outer jacket, you'll have to re-do all the 120 V wiring.
You will also have to get good at making up cover or filler plates for things that don't go in the same size hole. The 120 V switches and receptacles fit in standardized boxes which are not the same size as Australian ones.
Things may not be as bad on the 12 volt side. You will probably have to change the connector that goes to the tow vehicle. Also, a lot of smaller trailers in the US will be set up with the brake light and turn signal combined on the same filament, to match what was once the most common arrangement for cars and trucks here. If you have to have separate brake and turn signal lamps, you will get to run another wire all the way from the tongue to the rear.
In my limited experience, it is rare for small to medium sized trailers to have a battery. There is sometimes a 120 V to 12 V power supply installed, so that when you are plugged into 120 V, you can still use the 12 V lamps, appliances, etc, but if you have no mains power, you have to be plugged into the tow vehicle to have 12 V.
The propane bottles often ride on the tongue of the trailer. There is usually a flexible hose from the bottle to somewhere on the frame of the trailer, where it changes to solid pipe. I don't know whether they use flare fittings, tapered threads, or what.
As to the question of "why so cheap?" - I think the general standard of construction is part of it. There is also the simple fact that a manufacturer in the US has 307 million potential customers instead of 22 million. :) Also, the RV/trailer industry in the US has been hit pretty hard by the recession; their
trade association claims the industry has had over 50% layoffs since 2007, which also means they probably have a bunch of inventory to get rid of.
Standard disclaimers apply; I don't get money or other consideration from anyone I have linked to.
I hope this helps!
Matt R.
AnswerID:
444217