Quote:
Originally Posted by Padgett
Most either increase weight, add height, or reduce ground clearance.
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Actually, I think my proposal can be done without increasing the limiting dimensions of height or ground clearance at all. Measure the difference between the roof height of your AC and the next highest roof protrusion. It's at least 6 inches. Measure the underhang of the spare tire and its holder. Given the known tire width of almost 9 inches, it must be about 10 inches. Now, take those 16 inches and use them more efficiently. You end up with a roof with low-profile vents and nothing taller than those, and a floor with no protrusions whatsoever. So the exercise is taking a bumpy rectangle and making it fit within the same rectangular volume while making it less bumpy, thus increasing the internal volume without exceeding the limiting external dimensions.
Now, let's consider weight. Trailmanor builds on an external steel trailer, like an old fashioned car body fit on top of a separate chassis. It's heavy, rusts, and wastes space. Replace that with an aluminum frame that is integral to the trailer, just as modern automobiles are unibody. We lose some weight from getting rid of all of that steel. It might be necessary to weld the lower frame, for long-term structural stability. But welding aluminum is conventional now, unlike when TM was designed.
Then there is balance. The variable weights that are difficult to control are liquid tanks. TM presently puts fresh water far in front of the axle and gray water far behind it. These can be moved closer to the axle, especially if they are made larger. Batteries, AC, water and air heaters, spare tire can be balanced against each other. Weight of electronics is not significant. Conventional gas bottles will fit inside the subfloor if the internal height is 13 inches, but not 12 inches. They would need to be in their own well-vented enclosure.
No batteries or gas bottles on the A frame mean that it can hold bicycles or other storage, eliminating the issues of a rear receiver and rear bicycle rack. I saw one older TM that had been modified to hold a motorcycle on the front A-frame. Hinging the A-frame to fit the TM in a garage might also be easier with this design. An A-frame that swings up for storage against the front of the TM might be possible.
Add air cylinder shell raise/lower. Torsion bars are still needed, I don't want to have the heavy shell depending only on air cylinders to keep it raised.
Add permanent bed stairs with hinged top and internal storage, and modify cabinetry and wardrobe to work with that. The wardrobe might have an open bottom and lower left side and might nest over the stairs when lowered. Or I might delete the wardrobe or just attach a clothes rod to the ceiling there. There is more inside storage space anyway due to movement of infrastructure to subfloor, and the wardrobe makes the rear bed area a bit claustrophobic and does not work well for storage when lowered. I don't have one in my TM and don't miss it.
So, what storage do you gain? No internal wheel wells, no heater under kitchen cabinet, no infrastructure under street-side couch so that area can all be drawers or cabinetry.
No converter, plumbing, or bathroom vent hardware under shower, so you can expand the tub / shower floor rather than have that bump in the back.
Expand cabinetry/drawers into dead spaces under 4 couch arms and make sure drawers use the depth of the couch space (present ones leave a void behind them, and you think anyone doesn't know that's where you keep your gun, huh?).
I am also thinking about a lower door frame that lifts slightly and then swings in as one piece to close the trailer, rather than the three-piece door. So the motion would be to unlatch the upper door and swing that out, lift the inner door frame and swing it in, latch the inner door frame to the side of the couch, latch the upper door frame closed.
Acoustically insulate the AC and heater (which share air ducts) and their ducts from the living space, and put an s-curve or duct muffler in the ducts after the heater and AC so that noise from them is not transmitted through the ducts. Use flexible insulated ductwork, it's sound absorbing.
I was not proposing this for the new owners of TM to manufacture. All of the intellectual property rights to the TM design are open, and another enterprise can improve on the design and start from a clean slate rather than having TM's history and liabilities.