So the last trailer has been retired and we spent the summer discussing what we could do to make our 3rd project trailer for the 2017 season even better. Like the season before we kept a clipboard and wrote down comments about what worked and what we wished we had, and then tallied it all up and fired it off to Mirage at the end of the season. They spent the summer digesting it and just let me know last week that the new trailer is ready to be laid up and manufactured.
To get this new thread up and running, let me share with you the comments I sent to Mirage on June 22nd of this year. These were the top 30 comments that I extracted from our Notebooks and passed along to the Mirage Design Team who will be working on the 3rd prototype.
Please remember, the whole point of this trailer is to TEST out new feature and concepts to see if they work in the real world. Mirage is doing their very best to build a better and better trailer each season based on the REAL WORLD FIRST HAND comments of SnoWest, its members, and other Mirage Trailer Owners.
====
Here are my notes from last season.
Some are from me, many are from others that rode with me.
Several of these appear over and over again in my notebook from the year from both myself and my riders.
I hope these comments are of value to you sir. It has been a real pleasure to allowed to work with you and your company thus far.
1.
The hanger hooks that we installed on the ceiling need to move away from the wall and a little bit more toward the center line of the trailer so that Jackets and Bibs do NOT make contact with WET MUDDY boots on the boot dryer.
2.
The factory glides that are installed on top of the wheel wells need to come inward towards the center of the trailer more. Given the keel design of all modern skies, there are none that could ever put the Skag anywhere near the wall side of the slide, but all of them can drag along the very narrow section of the exposed metal portion of the Wheel Well that is left uncovered.
3.
Add a Glove Dryer Rack inside of the large Hot Box. Right now we just pile everyone's gloves in the hot box along with the helmets, and they all get dry if we run the heater long enough, but a separate rack would speed things up ALOT!
4.
The hooks we installed beneath the dryer box need to be Raised up higher to allow better clearance for the sleds, we found we were frequently hitting anything that was left hanging on them while we were loading or unloading the sleds..
5.
Add Helmet Hangers of some sort across the back of the hot box. Like the glove rack mentioned above, if there were some HOOKS on the inside of the hot box we could lift the helmets UP in the box making more room for other "stuff" and getting better ventilation to dry them out at the same time!
6.
Route some heat through the primary Hot Box into the 2nd storage box to make it a Hot Box as well. With 5 riders there is a TON of wet gear to be dried every day, and the main Hot Box was ALWAYS packed full!
7.
MORE SHELF RACKS.
Honestly, I don't think it is possible to have TOO MUCH SHELF SPACE. That rack gets used 100% of the time and its always FULL.
8.
Not sure if this is possible or not, But. It would be really nice if the fold down couch mounting point was NOT over the wheel well. Try though I may, I have managed to hit that thing time and time again. This happened on the first trailer and on the 2nd trailer. Maybe use a mounting PLATE that spans two spars to better stabilize the mount against the wall of the trailer and prevent it from so easily hit??
9.
If the couches get separated from each other, install a fold up bench in between them with a couple USB ports so people can sit down and place their electronics right next to them while plugged into the wall for charging. Pretty much 100% of the time anyone came into the trailer from a ride the first thing they did was PLUG IN their Radio/Video/Phone.
10.
The bottom protective clothing on the couches are getting scratched by the spindles of the sleds as they pass in front of the couch going over the wheel wells. Not a clue how to solve this problem, but it would increase the value of the trailer over the years if this could be better protected.
11.
Add another fold up shelf to the rear of the 2nd couch. End of the ride, sleds get parked outside of the trailer, everyone comes in the trailer, couches get folded down, tables get folded up, and the undressing process begins. Like the shelves, the tables instantly are COVERED with gear. Its probably not possible to have too much table space in the trailer.
12.
The new shelf that you created and mounted above the couch is a little bit TOO high. We found it hard to see down into to locate smaller items. Might be nice to lower it down just a couple inches, just enough to see into the bottom of the shelf.
13.
Consider raising the height of the boot dryer. Frequently find that the sled's handlebars hit the tips of the boots if they are ON the dryer when the sled is being loaded or unloaded.
14.
Ice build up on the floor of the trailer continues to be a challenge on multi-Day trips. Not sure how to solve this, but its a real slippery issue for both riders and sleds. Having the SuperTrax Superglides is a GODSEND to walk on and NOT slip!!
15.
The prototype rear door joint cover was a great idea, but it did not work particularly well. The membrane will need a much better mounting system like a continuous rail to hold both sides down. Over time we found that it "pooched" out in between the mounting screws. Also, because it folded DOWN it would regularly fill up with snow/mud and have to be swept out before the rear door could be closed. If it was made of a heavier thicker material it might be able to flex UP all the time and not catch any debris. Long term I think this will be a GREAT addition to your trailers, but just needs a different material and mount.
16.
Ice on the Polybead floor made it a real challenge to drive the sleds in and out of the trailer. Saw a lot of track spin this year. Wished I had installed some traction strips in this trailer like we did in the previous one. We need to direct some of that heat coming from the huge furnace DOWN to the floor somehow...
17.
Several times this year we found that we had hit the maximum height on the trailer jack when taking the trailer off the truck hitch. I have both an extended foot and trailer jack stands, but I am wondering if it wouldn't be easier to just have a slightly taller jack to begin with?
18.
Any chance we could upgrade the Heater Exhaust Vents? Sometimes those little buggers were a REAL challenge to get properly aligned and fully opened at the same time. They work well for small fingers, but not so much for large ones like mine.
19.
In general the ceiling hooks are a HUGE success. I would add MORE of them going to the rear of the trailer, and to the FRONT of the trailer where there is the most heat. Also, if it is possible, add a small bend to create a LIP at the end of the hook. More than once we found items hung would fall off while driving home on highways after a good bump. A lip "might" stop that.
20.
The auxiliary rear heater works great. Everyone rather LOVED being able to stand in front of it for an added blast of heat when they needed to take the chill off. Not sure if its possible, but it would have been more useful in keeping the rear floor of the trailer clear of ice if we could move it FORWARD a foot or two in the trailer to spread out the heat better.
21.
WITHOUT EXCEPTION, MORE USB PORTS!
5 guys riding.
5 GoPro video Cams
5 BCA Radios
5 Cell Phones
All of them HUNGRY for a USB port to recharge. Every single time we got into the trailer it was a FIGHT to see who got the charging station~!
22.
Anyway to PROGRAM the heater to turn on to PRE-HEAT the trailer at a specific time? Several of the riders left notes asking if it would be possible to have the trailer heat fire up at say 5:00pm knowing full well that they scheduled their ride based on Sunset times and how sweet it would be to come back to a WARM TRAILER.
23.
Allow the ability of one of the fans to be switched into reverse to blow cold dry air INTO the trailer (rather than just Exhausting) to help better control Humidity and to more rapidly expel 2 stroke smoke.
24.
Have a light switch at the rear of the trailer so when the tail gait gets lowered its possible to turn on some light without having to go into a black trailer at night and find the forward switches.
25.
The driver side rear lift cable is completely slack when the gate is locked closed. Passenger side is taught. It only happens in the very last inch of travel and has NO impact on the gate whatsoever, but it probably needs to be slightly tightened.
26.
Found we were getting a lot of abrasion on the wall beneath the hot boxes where we are hanging our Avi packs from the packs swinging left to right while in transit. Maybe use a slightly different material for that one panel?
27.
All the wheel caps on the tires rusted.
28.
All the plastic corners on the floor battery box cover have broken off. Might do better to just make the entire cover out of metal?
29.
The exterior walls on the front V-Nose seemed to lose their flat shape after the first long haul on the highway. Not sure if there is a way to use a thicker/stronger material, but the wind pressure seems to be causing them to bow and take up a very slightly wavy look to them.
30.
Several times we noticed the spare tire had managed to lower itself down just a tiny bit from the trailer.? Just needed a turn of the crank to resolve.
To get this new thread up and running, let me share with you the comments I sent to Mirage on June 22nd of this year. These were the top 30 comments that I extracted from our Notebooks and passed along to the Mirage Design Team who will be working on the 3rd prototype.
Please remember, the whole point of this trailer is to TEST out new feature and concepts to see if they work in the real world. Mirage is doing their very best to build a better and better trailer each season based on the REAL WORLD FIRST HAND comments of SnoWest, its members, and other Mirage Trailer Owners.
====
Here are my notes from last season.
Some are from me, many are from others that rode with me.
Several of these appear over and over again in my notebook from the year from both myself and my riders.
I hope these comments are of value to you sir. It has been a real pleasure to allowed to work with you and your company thus far.
1.
The hanger hooks that we installed on the ceiling need to move away from the wall and a little bit more toward the center line of the trailer so that Jackets and Bibs do NOT make contact with WET MUDDY boots on the boot dryer.
2.
The factory glides that are installed on top of the wheel wells need to come inward towards the center of the trailer more. Given the keel design of all modern skies, there are none that could ever put the Skag anywhere near the wall side of the slide, but all of them can drag along the very narrow section of the exposed metal portion of the Wheel Well that is left uncovered.
3.
Add a Glove Dryer Rack inside of the large Hot Box. Right now we just pile everyone's gloves in the hot box along with the helmets, and they all get dry if we run the heater long enough, but a separate rack would speed things up ALOT!
4.
The hooks we installed beneath the dryer box need to be Raised up higher to allow better clearance for the sleds, we found we were frequently hitting anything that was left hanging on them while we were loading or unloading the sleds..
5.
Add Helmet Hangers of some sort across the back of the hot box. Like the glove rack mentioned above, if there were some HOOKS on the inside of the hot box we could lift the helmets UP in the box making more room for other "stuff" and getting better ventilation to dry them out at the same time!
6.
Route some heat through the primary Hot Box into the 2nd storage box to make it a Hot Box as well. With 5 riders there is a TON of wet gear to be dried every day, and the main Hot Box was ALWAYS packed full!
7.
MORE SHELF RACKS.
Honestly, I don't think it is possible to have TOO MUCH SHELF SPACE. That rack gets used 100% of the time and its always FULL.
8.
Not sure if this is possible or not, But. It would be really nice if the fold down couch mounting point was NOT over the wheel well. Try though I may, I have managed to hit that thing time and time again. This happened on the first trailer and on the 2nd trailer. Maybe use a mounting PLATE that spans two spars to better stabilize the mount against the wall of the trailer and prevent it from so easily hit??
9.
If the couches get separated from each other, install a fold up bench in between them with a couple USB ports so people can sit down and place their electronics right next to them while plugged into the wall for charging. Pretty much 100% of the time anyone came into the trailer from a ride the first thing they did was PLUG IN their Radio/Video/Phone.
10.
The bottom protective clothing on the couches are getting scratched by the spindles of the sleds as they pass in front of the couch going over the wheel wells. Not a clue how to solve this problem, but it would increase the value of the trailer over the years if this could be better protected.
11.
Add another fold up shelf to the rear of the 2nd couch. End of the ride, sleds get parked outside of the trailer, everyone comes in the trailer, couches get folded down, tables get folded up, and the undressing process begins. Like the shelves, the tables instantly are COVERED with gear. Its probably not possible to have too much table space in the trailer.
12.
The new shelf that you created and mounted above the couch is a little bit TOO high. We found it hard to see down into to locate smaller items. Might be nice to lower it down just a couple inches, just enough to see into the bottom of the shelf.
13.
Consider raising the height of the boot dryer. Frequently find that the sled's handlebars hit the tips of the boots if they are ON the dryer when the sled is being loaded or unloaded.
14.
Ice build up on the floor of the trailer continues to be a challenge on multi-Day trips. Not sure how to solve this, but its a real slippery issue for both riders and sleds. Having the SuperTrax Superglides is a GODSEND to walk on and NOT slip!!
15.
The prototype rear door joint cover was a great idea, but it did not work particularly well. The membrane will need a much better mounting system like a continuous rail to hold both sides down. Over time we found that it "pooched" out in between the mounting screws. Also, because it folded DOWN it would regularly fill up with snow/mud and have to be swept out before the rear door could be closed. If it was made of a heavier thicker material it might be able to flex UP all the time and not catch any debris. Long term I think this will be a GREAT addition to your trailers, but just needs a different material and mount.
16.
Ice on the Polybead floor made it a real challenge to drive the sleds in and out of the trailer. Saw a lot of track spin this year. Wished I had installed some traction strips in this trailer like we did in the previous one. We need to direct some of that heat coming from the huge furnace DOWN to the floor somehow...
17.
Several times this year we found that we had hit the maximum height on the trailer jack when taking the trailer off the truck hitch. I have both an extended foot and trailer jack stands, but I am wondering if it wouldn't be easier to just have a slightly taller jack to begin with?
18.
Any chance we could upgrade the Heater Exhaust Vents? Sometimes those little buggers were a REAL challenge to get properly aligned and fully opened at the same time. They work well for small fingers, but not so much for large ones like mine.
19.
In general the ceiling hooks are a HUGE success. I would add MORE of them going to the rear of the trailer, and to the FRONT of the trailer where there is the most heat. Also, if it is possible, add a small bend to create a LIP at the end of the hook. More than once we found items hung would fall off while driving home on highways after a good bump. A lip "might" stop that.
20.
The auxiliary rear heater works great. Everyone rather LOVED being able to stand in front of it for an added blast of heat when they needed to take the chill off. Not sure if its possible, but it would have been more useful in keeping the rear floor of the trailer clear of ice if we could move it FORWARD a foot or two in the trailer to spread out the heat better.
21.
WITHOUT EXCEPTION, MORE USB PORTS!
5 guys riding.
5 GoPro video Cams
5 BCA Radios
5 Cell Phones
All of them HUNGRY for a USB port to recharge. Every single time we got into the trailer it was a FIGHT to see who got the charging station~!
22.
Anyway to PROGRAM the heater to turn on to PRE-HEAT the trailer at a specific time? Several of the riders left notes asking if it would be possible to have the trailer heat fire up at say 5:00pm knowing full well that they scheduled their ride based on Sunset times and how sweet it would be to come back to a WARM TRAILER.
23.
Allow the ability of one of the fans to be switched into reverse to blow cold dry air INTO the trailer (rather than just Exhausting) to help better control Humidity and to more rapidly expel 2 stroke smoke.
24.
Have a light switch at the rear of the trailer so when the tail gait gets lowered its possible to turn on some light without having to go into a black trailer at night and find the forward switches.
25.
The driver side rear lift cable is completely slack when the gate is locked closed. Passenger side is taught. It only happens in the very last inch of travel and has NO impact on the gate whatsoever, but it probably needs to be slightly tightened.
26.
Found we were getting a lot of abrasion on the wall beneath the hot boxes where we are hanging our Avi packs from the packs swinging left to right while in transit. Maybe use a slightly different material for that one panel?
27.
All the wheel caps on the tires rusted.
28.
All the plastic corners on the floor battery box cover have broken off. Might do better to just make the entire cover out of metal?
29.
The exterior walls on the front V-Nose seemed to lose their flat shape after the first long haul on the highway. Not sure if there is a way to use a thicker/stronger material, but the wind pressure seems to be causing them to bow and take up a very slightly wavy look to them.
30.
Several times we noticed the spare tire had managed to lower itself down just a tiny bit from the trailer.? Just needed a turn of the crank to resolve.
