Trailswest Trailer Bobbysky Edition Pictures

So I bought a used Trailswest 20' trailer earlier this winter off the classifieds here. It was just a bone stock trailer no Burandt edition or anything other then lights on the interior. I decided before I even bought a trailer that I wanted to make my own fancy trailer the way I wanted it not how the factory thinks it should be built. Also I'm not a huge fan of all the diamond plate in the interior of the Burandt edition. So this is a picture journey of what I built. Heater is a 40k attwood bought directly from trailswest. I would say all in all I have about $1500+/- into it plus a good amount of my labor. With the addition of everything I've done I can still fit 3 163 length sleds no problem and probably could do 3 174 as well. After buying the trailer and adding everything into it, I was still cheaper then buying a brand new stripped down Trailswest trailer.

So I'm not a fan of having the heater sitting the way the factory does with the cabinet sticking pretty far out, always looked like a good head banger. So my line of thinking was to mount the heater vertical to keep it tighter to the wall. The more I thought about it I decided I wanted to hide all the ducting, wiring, and piping, etc.. I hate when things look cobbled together, I like clean and professional, I'm a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to these sorts of things. The biggest problem with building all of this was the angles. With the nose and the slanted floor I had to get creative and measure a lot.

Here is the start of the main cabinent.



Now time to build the bench and dry fit everything.



Now to get the heater all dry fit. Heater is controlled via 4 hour timer and thermostat.







Luckily the trailswest's tongue is basically setup to have propane tanks installed. I went with a bigger dual 7.5gallon tank setup.





After painting the cabinets it was time to get it all fit in it's home. Under both the bench and main cabinet I ran foam to keep water from going underneath as well as where both touch so there was no vibration. Also as you may notice I have installed 6x9 speakers up in the cowling of the trailer, as well as a sub box for the bench. The stereo is run off just a bluetooth dongle connected directly to the amp.



Installed the onboard charger, battery and amplifier for the stereo.





Next was figuring out how to divert the heat. I built in two custom vents one point out into the trailer and the other towards the back. Then on the back of the bench created a custom venting that would blow up towards the coat and helmet racks.









Then I had to build myself a fancy boot and glove drying system, 4" tubing drilled with 1/2" pipe welded to it. Ended up being really compact and didn't protrude further than the cabinet. Probably going to pull down the glove drying portion and adding more spots for gloves, my crew usually have way more soaking gloves at the end of the day then spots. But both boot and glove dryers work awesome.





Last was adding all the 3/4" melamine and having a bench top upholstered. The bench is on a hinge and has a bunch of storage below it. And this is the finished product.







Oh and I also added some lights to the back of the trailer for night loading and unloading. They also come on automatically when I put my truck in reverse. They work awesome.





I also added superglides to the whole trailer as well as L-track for superclamp tie downs and standard strap tie downs. All in all this system has worked near flawless. The only problems I have had is on really cold days after melting the snow of the sleds it ices up the doors and doesn't allow the trailer to drain. I have bought 12v heat tape that I will run along both doors and tie it into the heater so when it runs the tape will run. Also might spray foam the underneath of the trailer. But none the less I feel this setup works perfect for me. If you have any questions ask away I'm more than happy to answer them for you.

Go right ahead, that's why I posted this here. I wanted to show people an alternative way of building these things.

Mono -

Yes it's a 12v furnace. I have never tested how long I could run it without it hooked up to my truck or plugged into shore power. I went with one group 24 agm battery, I have been using agm for different vehicles for years now and am always impressed with how well they work. I have used the trailer heat for hours on end though without it plugged in. I always figured, with my diesel truck hooked up to it, there is an extra battery, and when the truck is running it's charging.

How far does the dual 7.5gallons last is another question I haven't measured exactly. I would imagine in continuous run time you would get 24-36hours. I always run it about 4-5 hours at a time to dry my gear and sled. Start it up when we go to change at the trail head and run it until I get home and then maybe another hour or so after I get home. I can do that for 5-8 rides.

The whole trailer was insulated from the factory except for the floor. As far as getting heat to the back of the trailer you could either run ducting back there or get some 12v fans up high aimed at pushing air towards the back and floor. I do feel that I get good airflow to the back of my trailer but it is 10' shorter than yours so I'm not 100 percent it would fully work for you. I have debated about putting a couple of fans up high just to recirculate hot air back towards the floor to aid melting snow of the sleds and floor. Model number on the atwood is AFLD40. You can call Trailswest and order direct from them, it's a really good price much better than I could find online. It's also the same exact heater they use in the Burandt edition.

Mono Ski said:

Nice work! I've been wanting to do something like this to my trailer! A few questions if you don't mind: I assume the furnace runs on 12 volts - how long will it run without charging the battery? What size is the battery? How long will the system run with the 2 - 7.5 gallon tanks? Did you insulate any part of the trailer? My trailer is 30' long, I wonder if I would need to add a vent that discharges half way down the trailer? Do you feel you get reasonable airflow all the way to the back of the trailer? Would you be willing to share the model number of the Atwood heater? Thanks

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Yes to get the lights to turn on I have wired the the power wire directly on the reverse light wire on the trailer plug as well as to a switch. Works exactly like it should where you can just hit the switch to turn them on or reverse in the truck (doesn't matter if switch is off)

As far as cold air intake. I'm bringing in a certain amount of fresh air but also cabin air, it's not fully sealed of from the inside. It definitely has enough fresh air that it's not robbing oxygen, yet has enough cabin recirculation that it's more efficient then straight fresh air intake. And yes I know the inherent dangers of having it setup this way, but still feel it's much safer then straight using a vent-free heater.

Yes that is correct. I was worried about back feeding power back through the reverse lights of my truck if I was hooked up to the trailer and switched those lights on. After testing it it did nothing to the truck lights, but I think at worse it would just light up the reverse lights on your truck.

NorthMNSledder said:

So if I understand you correct. You have have "loading lights" by a switch in the trailer and no matter were the switch is at you also have "back-up" lights when you put the truck in reverse?

Thanks slick!

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