Mod: Add a Trailer Tray to Your Tongue

 This is one of the most popular mods in the Casita community. It adds a storage tray over your propane tanks on the tongue of the trailer. It's a perfect place to put a generator, though people also use it for other purposes.

The tray we used (and that everyone recommends) is the Stromberg Carlson CC-255 Trailer Tray.

It's rated to hold 300lbs, which is a lot. For reference, our new generator (a Westinghouse WGen3600DF with 4650 peak watts, 3600 running watts) weighs 109lbs. 

Potential problems

But keep in mind that this will add to your tongue weight. If you're already near the max tongue weigh for your tow vehicle, you may need to add a weight-distribution hitch. Andersen No-Sway Weight Distribution Hitches are what Casita sells and what most owners recommend.

This tray will also make it harder to access your propane tanks, especially if you have the standard hard cover. There are solutions to this problem, which I think we'll cover in a future post. But the simplest solution is to get a soft cover like this one. That's what we did, but I can't recommend it. Those soft covers are very flimsy and ours started tearing after a day or two on the road. Maybe a more durable soft cover would work better, but we've only tested the one.

The only other downside to adding this trailer tray is that it partially blocks the tongue jack cranking arm. If you have an electric tongue jack, you don't have to worry about this. But if you have a manual tongue jack, you'll need to be careful to avoid busting your knuckles.

Installation

Installation only requires basic hand tools (wrenches and ratchets) and a drill. The instructions are easy enough to follow and total assembly time should be under two hours—maybe even less than an hour if you're quick.

However, the tray is very heavy. I'm 5'11", 185lbs, and in decent shape, and it wasn't easy to lift the box the tray came in. Maria couldn't lift it much at all. After unpacking, it is easier to move the individual pieces. But the main tray is still quite heavy.

If possible, you'll want two people to install this.

Modifications

If you look at the photo, we actually flipped the tray upside down. Normally you would mount the tray so that there is a lip to keep items from sliding off. But our generator is quite large and wouldn't have fit entirely within the boundaries. We flipped the tray so there is no lip, allowing the generator to overhang slightly. This shouldn't be an issue, since we are going to bolt the generator to the tray anyway.

You can also see that the lower front mounting bolts are way too long and hang down very far below the frame. That creates ground clearance issues. Our plan is to use an angle grinder with a cut-off wheel to simply trim the excess length off of those bolts. 

What are your thoughts?

We want this site to be a community and a resource for people looking for information on Casita mods. So comment below with your experiences with this trailer tray and your own tips!