Quazi-ultralight the undertaking

[aggie79]

Rog,

You're making great progress!

Regarding your floor, my teardrop is 58" wide. With 2" x 2" frame rails, that leaves a span of 54" for the floor. I only have two crossmembers on the trailer. My floor is 1/4"-3/4"-1/4" insulated sandwich. The 1x2 floor framing is about 16" on center.

You may want to consider is the top thickness of plywood. When I step on the floor, there is no deflection for the 54" span, but I do feel a slight sag when I step on the 1/4" plywood between the 16" spacing. (I do weigh around 200#.) Of course, once the teardrop is finished I won't be stepping on the floor. You might keep the 1/8" flooring, but reduce the floor framing in size to 3/4" x 3/4" and space it at 12" on center to avoid this situation.

For your frame rails, I think your idea will work. The farther along I get in my build, the more convinced I am that most of us way overbuild our teardrops. The "box" is incredibly strong once all the walls, bulkheads, floor, and roof structure is fastened together. The trailer is just there to give the axle something to fasten to and to tie the axle to the tongue.

Tom

[RogHodge]

Thanks Tom- You are right about the materials- 1/8 looks so flimsy but once some ¾ is sandwiched between two sheets it becomes very solid.
So here is what I have done recently- I needed to remove a portion of the rail that was near the folding portion, see page/picture one. So I cut one foot from each of the rails- from the middle. Used an old bed rail for the angle filler- drilled new holes and bolted it all together. Now I need to disassemble clean paint and reassemble. I rebuilt the springs as per Rob’s tutorial, so those are ready to go.
I would paint but it is too cold and I don’t have heat in my “shop.â€

[RogHodge]

After a short holiday break I did a little more work-
Disassembled the frame, cleaned it up and painted it. Santa brought me a compressor and brad nailer. I thought I would go to HF and buy a spray gun. Seemed to work fine. Now I can buy paint in quarts and save a few bucks over the spray cans. At least that is my belief. When it comes time to paint the body of this thing the gun should be a BIG help. The frame looks better now. I might bolt it together today if I get the urge.

[teardrop_focus]

Rog, C O N G R A T S ! on getting underway. And props to Scott for a cool rendering.

Quazi-ultralight’ the undertaking

If I may, if you're looking to build light in weight, you might not need all that steel for your chassis. Take the pic of yours quoted below and build Andrew's/angib's Ultralight chassis:

RogHodge

Mr. Stewart- you are my hero- Yes it will be 4’ wide...

Please forgive me if it seems I've tossed a wrench into your works... If not, then, carry on!

[georgedombeck]

Glad to see someone else building the ultralight. Mine is four foot wide as well. I did use a complete frame under mine as I had the steel and I am a professional welder. I am having a blast with mine and cant wait to get the floor on. george

[RogHodge]

Chris-
I thought about the ‘ultra’ portion of the ultra light and I don’t have the confidence to go that route. I don’t need to have absolute minimal weight- light yes, ultra light unnecessary.

Then there is George- I was moving in a direction that I felt good about and you had to bring up the 4’ vs 5’ question(again)…. Why must you torment me so? You seem to have settled on 4’ and now I am leaning toward 5’. I’ll use it mostly for myself but if I want to take my wife along at times- like a overnight at the beach- the extra room could be good. I have two vehicles that might be used to tow- both are around 5’ wide (Most cars probably are).
Simple math would lead a person to believe that an extra foot would only add a few bucks and a few pounds- but the complexity will go exponential. Wheel wells, extra seems, overhangs in all directions, on and on it goes.
As I have mentioned before I covet your feedback and no monkey wrench in the works is possible- I enjoy the thought process and ignore what I don’t need.

[teardrop_focus]

I understand your concerns, Rog... and engineering-wise, one must build within one's knowledge base and comfort level.

[RogHodge]

Frame now rebuilt! A wonder to behold isn’t it.

[georgedombeck]

Looks really nice. g

[bve]

OK frame is done, on to the sawdust already, chop, chop.

Just kidding of course, I'm itching to build right now but it's too cold up here to do anything but watch others.

This frame looks good, being a bolt together though I'd probably want at least one cross member in there - but that's just me.

[S. Heisley]

Yea! Rog!

I think working on the frame (bolt together) was the hardest part for me because I had never tackled anything like that before...a little unnerving.
And, here you are, making an innovative frame from scratch? Pat yourself on the back!

[aggie79]

Frame now rebuilt! A wonder to behold isn’t it.

Looking good Rog! Well done, on the frame mods.

[48Rob]

Rog,

When you get done building your trailer and stand back thinking about the whole experience, you'll be very happy that you took the time and expended the effort to rebuild the foundation, instead of just building on "some old used trailer".

Great piece of mind, and satisfaction!

Rob

[DasBaldGuy]

Looking good! I love the paint/color of the frame (that HF orange always made me cringe).

Also, I wanted to let you know that your thread and the photos finally made me decide to switch from 8" to 12" and place the axle on top of the Springs.

Thanks, good luck and...

Rock on!

[RogHodge]

Thanks for the encouragement-

The standard red HF trailer did look… well standard. I will get to the sawdust eventually- with the ebb and flow of business I need to wait for some cash to flow.

My thought is to use the Box store’s “kiln dried studsâ€