Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

Very very nice. your gonna have to show me how to ride up the ramp backward. That could be handy.

McDave

I love all those stickers in the garage. Always get a few with just about any dirt bike related purchase. My tool boxes and storage cabinets in the garage at home are full of them. It is like wallpaper.
:-)

Those bikes look great in there!

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Took a break for a few weeks, but now I'm back at it.


I previously built this shower cart (on it's side in photo) to hold a Triton Hot Water on Demand unit and a propane tank. We recycle when possible, so here it is getting measured for the next life.




A little trimming, grinding, and welding(not done yet) and I think we have the start of a drawer for the ARB cooler. It was juuust wide enough.




I went ahead and splurged for the $25 ARB tie down set and I think I'll be glad I did.

Will have more parts and pieces, but here is the general vision.

So with the ARB fridge sitting on the shelf it doesn't have a lot of support, so I routed out small divets for the "feet" to sit in.

Here's a shot with two done.




The fridge can sit down into these four holes providing a little more fore and aft support in addition to the tie-downs.

It's been a bit hot in TX, so I took a break for a few weeks. We've had some rainy days the last few weeks and I'm back at the trailer build. This ARB-refrigerator drawer is taking me some time, but I'm nearly done.

I was looking for a way to keep the drawer in place while in motion, so a buddy suggested one of these tire-carrier parts that they often use in bumper builds. It's available off ruffstuff.com (https://www.ruffstuffspecialties.com/catalog/R2215.html)




Here are the parts almost in place.




The threaded rod provides an extension, so you can grip over the top of the front of the drawer and pull up to release.




Paint, weld, paint, and add the ARB attachment points. They're supposed to be bolted in, but I went ahead and ground of the protective coating and permanently attached them.




To attach the slides I put one mounting screw in the very front while making sure that those mounting points were parallel. I then extend the drawers and use a few blocks of wood to get the whole assembly a few inches off the ground. I then used a few blocks of wood and washers to jack up the back of the drawer until it was in the "middle" of the slide mounting points on the back. The drawer is hand built and is not exactly square. It's out by about an 1/8th of an inch, so the right rear was a little high and the left rear a litte low, but by using this method I can "center" the drawer in the slides and the slides are almost exactly parallel to each other. This gives smooth operation once installed.




Here's a shot of mounting the 1st slide....




The nearly finished product awaiting a painted wood top. It now has no rock back-n-forth or side to side on a seemingly flat surface (top of work bench or garage floor). Fingers crossed!



The slides are 36" 250lb from Orr & Orr.

Looks great

PigTrail, Howdy;

Great work, excellent problem solving. Enjoy watching you pull it all together.

hank

Went on a bunch of trips in July, but now back to work on this guy. Finally getting that ARB fridge mounted into place.

The wall-mount was easy. Screw 3/4" plywood to the wall and mount slide directly to that. Stable. Done.

The outside was a little trickier, but worked out well. I'll let the pictures do the talkin.






Might not be obvious from the photo below, but the trailer walls aren't straight, even over a 36" run.




Sooo I made some shims to help keep the slides straight.




The 1st test load...




Now to start with the cabinet build. Here's what I'm thinking...










This seating design needs some help, but I still have time.

Pig Trail, Howdy;

Couldn't think of a more convenient location for a roll-out Barley Pop container.
Re. the sofa, looking forward to what you come up with there.
Great job, runnin' outta s , but I'm sure I'll find more somewhere's around here .

hank

Sometimes the build is steaming along and you're making progress. And other times you just have panels, parts, and pieces of projects tossed everywhere. Even if you're trying to stay organized you start another project while you're waiting for caulk, paint or something else to dry and that cascades into another and a touch-up here and that trim you wanted to install. Wait, what was I doing and how is it time for dinner already? This is fun.

So here are the parts that inspired that paragraph...




Thinking something like this...




Starting to look like a seat with plenty of storage for clothing layers, etc.




Painted and caulked.




Lid in place.




Got this 48" piano hinge off big-A for $18 delivered. How do they do that?







Everything installed, but the backing.




Finished look...

Oh boy, I feel like we're in tall cotton with in-home AC!




However, I have several questions about vents that I need your help with. In the front, driver's side of my trailer is a spot where the stud width is a little wider and there is this vent.



Is that suitable for use as my AC intake vent? I have one of the dometic fridge vents as used by FLboy and others on their AC systems, but would rather not use two if I don't need it. In the photo below you can see that vent next to the AC. Could I install the dometic vent below the already cut circular hole and separate the two with insulation? Would that intake (circular hole) provide enough airflow? Should I just get on with it and stack two of the dometic vents? Any help and thoughts are very much appreciated!

The unit I purchased is 5000 BTU, but I'm going to leave room in case I want to go bigger. My total area is a little smaller than others since our trailer has a "garage" that is separated from the living area by an insulated wall. Thanks in advance for your thoughts on AC venting.

PigTrail, Howdy;

Only thing I can think is to read the owners manual to see if you can find the amount of cubic feet
of air that is required for normal operation. If it ain't in the manual I'm sure that there is a phone #
that you can call for that information. Dometic is fairly good about those questions from my experience.

hank

Is that about 6" diameter? Probably ok for intake but more is always better. You definitely want to the exhaust cut out as big as the condenser and then sealed with a gasket of some kind, foam etc. so you are sure to get rid of hot air, and a good seal at the room side so not to lose cold air or draw hot or outside air into cabin. Treating the same air as much as possible as opposed to treating new air is the main point here. Be sure to plan for some type of drainage, the condensate can build up and over flow the pan which is ok if it drains outside but not ok if it leaks into trailer. Some units use the condensate to splash onto the condenser to remove more heat, that is an important function on smaller BTU units. But you may still need an overflow plan.

McDave

Calculate the square inches of all those slits in the ac unit. The thing I would be afraid of with that vent is, even if you could cut the hole bigger, the outside vent cover does not have a very big opening. If your vents are anything like the ones on my trailer they only have about 2.5 square inches for air flow. If you cut out all the slats in the vent you're still under 6 square inches. That's like a 2 3/4" id hose. Might be enough, but I wouldn't think so.