Loadstar Trailer: Check Out The Modifications We Did

Do you own a Loadstar Trailer or something similar?

Check out all the modifications we did on this Loadstar trailer.

The Loadstar Trailer

In this video, we’re going to be working on a custom-built trailer. The owner has brought in. It’s a Loadstar trailer, built in Perth. It’s got off-road suspension on it so it’s a pretty hard-core unit. We’ve got a Loadstar trailer for work that we’ve had since 2005 and it’s been great.

So he’s added stuff to it as he’s gone along. He’s got an outboard engine holder and a big storage box at the front. It also has the canopy on. He’s spent a lot of money with Drifta Camper. They’re a company over in Gloucester, New South Wales. They do some awesome four-wheel driving accessories and camping stuff.

He’s got the big awning up there that goes all the way around. And also he’s got some kitchen and a drawer out the back. Now they don’t use ball bearings on a lot of their stuff. So especially in WA, when you’ve got sand flicking in the back or Lancelin where it’s really blowy or something, when you slide it out, the bearings don’t get any so you can just hose it all out. And it’s all back to good again.

The Needs

The Loadstar trailer has got a Joolca hot water system, but the owner wants us to put a couple of bells and whistles on it. One of them is the gas system. So we’ve got a bayonet at the front, bayonet at the back. The one at the front is probably for the hot water system. One at the back is for a barbecue or something like that. So that’d be good.

He’s also got no way of storing water, except from Jerry cans, and that gets a bit old after a while. So he’s bought a couple of Dunn and Watson 80-liter water tanks that he’s asked me to fit. We thought, “You could just do that yourself, mate. You’re a bit handy and stuff like that.” But we could see why now. There’s brake cables that we’ve got to try to avoid. So it’s going to be quite a difficult job to get them up in there. And we’re probably going to put a pump out the front, that the auto electrician can connect up. So he can get all that working with the Joolca.

The Gas

Now the easiest part of this build was the gas side of things. all we’ve done is put a gas regulator towards the rear of the camper right next to where the 4.5 kg bottle is. We put a bayonet at the back to run a stove later on in the kitchen. And then we’ve run the gas main up and underneath the top of this camper, where it’s out of the way so the bushes can’t get to it. And then we stuck another bayonet at the front for the Joolca hot water system with the all-important dust plug.

The Tanks

The next thing is the water tanks. They are a bit more difficult. Now when we fitted the rear tank, we got all the fittings on there, we noticed that it was just too close to the axle and it wouldn’t fit. So we had to trim the bike holder at the back about 50mm on a bit of an angle. And that gave us about another 50 mm. So it’s a good distance away from the axle now, as the axle moves up and down near the water tank.

So once that was done, we had to move on to the front tank. Now the front tank runs front to back because we had the brake cables and it just wouldn’t fit width-wise. Now each one of these Dunn and Watson water tanks have five holes either side. So we have used the five bolts to go all the way up through the checker plate to bolt that in place. So we bolted the back one in place. Now the front one we just sort of got in place, and then we ran all the hoses. So there’s two filler hoses, two breather hoses, and two suction hoses. And all those fed up together and went along the top of the front tank. So it kept it protected, up out of the way, ran along, once it was all in position, then we could jack it up and tighten it up and leave it, once in place.

It was quite hard to get the holes right, because of the Drifta drawers that go in and out. We just want to make sure that we didn’t bring it right up where the bolt comes through, where the drawer runners are, because that would be a bit annoying.

The Valve

We show you a three-way working valve. So this one here from the front tank, this is from the back tank and then they can turn it over. This is what they have on all the Jayco caravans so you can empty your front one first or your back one. Whatever you decide to do on the day. So that’s nice and tucked up and quite easy to reach too.

Now when it came to the filler points of where to fill the tanks up, we had a couple of options. We were thinking of maybe putting it on the side of the toolbox at the front, but if you’re going to fill up with your barbecue, that chews up a bit of room. And then we noticed there was a gap in between the front of the trailer and the toolbox. And when we put the filler in place there, it fitted all right.

So then all we had to do is make up a bracket on the side with a couple of holes in it. And then that is all sikaflexed in there with the screws and then we’ve pop-riveted it on the side. We’ve made up a little plaque to say front and back to know which tank is what and how you’re filling it up. And that means all the breather hoses and the filler hoses can all run down in between, nice and smooth, and then on top of the main tank. So it’s just very easy to fill as well.

Now, as you can see, we’ve left it on a bit of an angle backwards. The reason for that is we wanted to get a switch to turn the pump on and off. It’s waterproof.

The Tap and Fittings

We’ve also installed a little tap down there. So after you’ve finished hooking up your trailer or doing a bit of work, you can just wash your hands quickly with a bit of soap and turn it off and get on your way again.

And you’re probably wondering, “What is this here?” This is what they call the quick-release water fitting. There’s pressure on at the moment. So a fitting can go into that and that’s the fitting that we use with a hose barb on it, and that goes straight up into the Joolca and then it can start running. It sucks the water out of the tank through the pump and puts it out the Joolca.

Connecting the Hot Water System

Make sure that the pump switch is on. You can check by just turning the tap on. Grab the Joolca HOTTAP. He’s going to make up a bracket. There’s a new one on the market now that you can pop it in and lock it in there with even a padlock. So it’s not permanently fixed anymore, which is a great idea. So, we’ll just hang it over the top. That’d be fine for the moment. Grab your gas hose. Remove your dust plug, pop that out. Pop the hose in. Now, this hose is live now but no gas will come out because of the quick-release. That just pops onto the bottom. Slide on, like that.

Then you get your 8mm hose that we’ve got from Bunnings. You can get this hose connector at Bunnings too. They’re great for the Joolcas to go on. And then we’ve got the barb fitting. You always put that on first, the cold clips. And then you just pop off the little stopper there so you can get access to that. Now, before you plug that in, get your shower ready. So Joolca shower, we haven’t set it up properly, but anyway, you’ll get the understanding. That goes onto the hot side of things like that, clips on. So that’s the hot feed and get your shower there. If it all works correctly, when we plug this in, it’ll start pushing water through the Joolca.

Connected

So she’s fired up, and she stopped because the little switch down here is off. If we turn that on, the water starts coming out. Plenty of flow, about 32-34 degrees. So hot enough to have a shower now. So you can go up to nearly 40 degrees.

You can see inside the little Topargee flow meter that’s counting down the liters. So your wife can know how much water left that she can use for a shower.

Packing Up the Hot Water System

Turn it off. Unplug the cold line that just releases the pressure on it. Then you can unplug the hot.

Now, if you ever have it like that, there’s the Joolca pump as well. So you can plug that into the cold line. Chuck that into a stream. Turn this pump on, and then you can pump water from a stream that’s probably not worth drinking. You wouldn’t want to drink it, but it’s fine to have a shower. And then you can have a good shower for as long as you like. So that’s a really good option for this as well. But anyway, we’ll take the gas off, put the dust plug back on, little twist, roll the hose up like so. Joolca is off, give it a shake and you can chuck it back in the box.

Pump Setup

It’s got the Shurflo pump. They’re a great little unit, very quiet. We’ve been really happy with these. Here’s a suction line that comes through. That goes from the two tanks. Then it comes up over here. You’ve got the pre-filter, which takes out all the debris before it gets into your pump, really protects it. And then it jumps up to the mains pressure or the higher pressure join gas fittings that rolls around here.

You can see here’s at the Topargee flow meter. It’s got the little propeller inside that. So it’s good that this protects that as well. And then it heads off. It’s got a T, one goes up to the quick-release fitting for the Joolca and the other one goes down for that hose tap that I showed you before.

The Switch

Now, this is all the backend of the switch you can see here. The switch is on the other side to turn it off. It’s a nice waterproof switch. And then it’s got all the wiring loom and everything connected into that for the switch and also the Topargee flow meter to supply power for that. It heads into this conduit that goes up outside the toolbox here, nicely sealed and then up under there. And that goes into the main bit of the trailer. And that’s where the Topargee flow meter is installed.

The Flow Meter

Then if you turn the tap on, it’ll fire up and it will start counting down and tell you how many liters is left. So great way of doing it. It just runs down. We think these things are so important if you’re off camping because you’re always struggling with the water. If you are going to have enough when you’re showering, etc.. And you’d hate on the last few days to say to your wife, “Oh, take it easy on the water.” And when you get home, you might have 80-90 liters left where she could have had a really long shower and really enjoyed it.

And then you can see at the end of where it comes out of the pump out of the wiring loom, we’ve got an Anderson plug and the all-important fuse. Now the Anderson plug is really good because you can just buy one of those battery boxes. And most of them have this. You can plug it straight in and you’re good to go. You can put it back in your house, charge it and everything. Fuse is really important too.

Electrics

Now you probably look at all this and go, “Wow, that’s a really neat job you’ve done.” We actually didn’t do it. We’d love to figure out how to do all this stuff with soldering wires and fuses and all that stuff. But we went down to a mate, Darryl at Forrestfield Auto Electrics. We drew him a little diagram and said, “We want a switch up here, the pump here. We want a Topargee that has to have power to it, and the switch with light on it and then turn it on with a pump.” And we drew it all for him and how long it had to be, about 500 with a nice Anderson plug on the end of it. And then the next day came back and he give me this. It just looks amazing.

Great wiring loom. We’re not sure if he did it or he just told one of his guys. They’re all great out there. But if you want to get your stuff done, draw him a diagram, drop it off. And then he’ll sort it out for you. So yeah, Darryl, Forrestfield Auto Electrics, don’t forget him. He’s great at all this sort of stuff.

Interested?

So if you’ve been out camping with the family with a Loadstar Trailer or something similar, and you think, “Yeah, some of these pain points would be good to iron out.” You can give us a call, especially if you live in WA. Happy to help.