A huge thanks to Bob on the Visa owners Facebook page, who posted the details on his tongue box...they say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and Bob should feel flattered :) The box is a truck box from Lowe's and I think it looks great with the diamond plate on the front of the trailer. We can stow our Flojet macerator and hose along with the pack of Lynx leveling blocks, and for now the single stock battery and the towing mirrors (the mirrors will need to find another home when we upgrade batteries.) We installed trays for dual group 27 batteries, so we're keeping an eye out for a good price. Until then we will "run what we brung."
We also installed a power tongue jack. I've always kind of poo-pooed the idea since we're strong able bodied folks who enjoy a little extra workout here and there...but with the up-down of the Equalizer hitch procedure and a lost bracelet because I took it off to do the cranking (and set it on top of the tonneau cover on the truck and forgot about it - major OOPS!) we decided to just do it. We bought a Husky HB3000 and it has a built in plug guard for the power cord when it is being stored. Since we wanted to use that feature we left the propane tanks where they were on the tongue and didn't move them forward for the box install...but the big plastic cover for them won't fit in this configuration, so I have a vinyl zip-up cover on order. If we decide we don't like it we can always move the propane forward and remove the plug guard and use the big cover again. So we'll see..I'll add a pic when the cover arrives.
The Hoppy Hitch Level still fits too, so that was good - I really like it! (it is the hockey puck looking thing in front of the jack...it has the cover on in the pic.)
So, in doing some research it sounds about 50/50 whether or not people like to cover their power jacks to protect from weather when being stored. I saw a cool idea on RV.net where someone used an inverted wastebasket and installed some hooks to store the safety chains on when stored...looked like a great idea to me so I copied it. Note the drainage holes drilled in the lip so water doesn't collect and get gunky.
Addendum: so we needed to move the L brackets for the Equalizer Hitch in order to add the box, still within their specs for minimum recommended distance from the hitch. But after towing for a bit, we both agreed that we could feel the difference and decided to get the L's back to the original spot. Kevin made a little deck with cutouts for the brackets that we then attached to the frame then attached the box to it. Nice and solid, and the ride is better again.
We also installed a power tongue jack. I've always kind of poo-pooed the idea since we're strong able bodied folks who enjoy a little extra workout here and there...but with the up-down of the Equalizer hitch procedure and a lost bracelet because I took it off to do the cranking (and set it on top of the tonneau cover on the truck and forgot about it - major OOPS!) we decided to just do it. We bought a Husky HB3000 and it has a built in plug guard for the power cord when it is being stored. Since we wanted to use that feature we left the propane tanks where they were on the tongue and didn't move them forward for the box install...but the big plastic cover for them won't fit in this configuration, so I have a vinyl zip-up cover on order. If we decide we don't like it we can always move the propane forward and remove the plug guard and use the big cover again. So we'll see..I'll add a pic when the cover arrives.
The Hoppy Hitch Level still fits too, so that was good - I really like it! (it is the hockey puck looking thing in front of the jack...it has the cover on in the pic.)
So, in doing some research it sounds about 50/50 whether or not people like to cover their power jacks to protect from weather when being stored. I saw a cool idea on RV.net where someone used an inverted wastebasket and installed some hooks to store the safety chains on when stored...looked like a great idea to me so I copied it. Note the drainage holes drilled in the lip so water doesn't collect and get gunky.
And lastly, a couple of niceties in the chains and emergency break-away switch: hooks for the chains and a coiled line for the emergency break-away line:
The vinyl propane cover arrived and fits very nicely! Here's the end result:
And it even fits with enough space for the wastebasket cover:
