Lightweight TD Refurb after losing hatch...

[KCStudly]

Loved the slide show! Very nice pictures and it looked like you had fun, despite the troubles with the hatch.

Your repairs and upgrades look swell, too!

[halfdome, Danny]

Jon, looks like you did a bang up job of repairing, replacing (the hatch) and modifying what you disliked, IE the fan.


Makes me happy to see who got the tongue handle I donated, as it didn't fit on my latest build. Danny

[Larry C]

Jon,
Sorry to hear about your mishaps, but it looks like you had a great trip anyway! your perseverance in repairing you trailer has paid off. It looks better than new!! I really like the new skin color. I never really liked the look of raw aluminum with natural wood on Teardrops. The dark color looks much better, at least to my eye.
Your build is closer to mine than probably any other. I am still not very far along, but I am trying to get back at it. One thing really peaks my interest is how well your tongue and axle attachments held up over thousands of miles? I believe your tongue was just bolted to the floor and your axle was also bolted to the floor. I am not sure if your tongue was connected to the the axle at all.
Your tongue/axle design is a radical compared to the norm as is mine, and I am curious about your thoughts on this spartan approach? Did you have any issues at all? What would you do different?
BTW/ your slide show was very professional, and I enjoyed it! I hope to follow your route in the future.

Larry C

[Oldragbaggers]

Jon, I was sorry to see that you had the hatch mishap, but as I watched your beautiful slide show it made me smile to see how you just went on and had a great trip, hatch or no hatch. That's the spirit!!! And your rebuild is beautiful, I think even better than the original and the original was very nice. You have made a beautiful recovery. I really enjoyed your slide show. That looked like an amazing trip and you are quite the photographer. What kind of camera did you use?

[jonw]

Thanks everyone for your kind comments.

Danny: Thanks for contributing the handle - it found a good home.

Larry: The tongue is bolted thru the floor with 2x3in. steel plate washers on the inside to help spread the load. The tongue is not connected to the axle. The 3/4in marine plywood floor is so stiff and strong I didn't think it was necessary and I figured I could always connect them later with some angle steel if needed.

The axle is bolted through the floor and a 2x2 cleat that also connects the floor to the wall, which also spreads out the axle load.

At the beginning of each season I check the nuts on both the tongue and axle for tightness. The first time I could tighten them down a little although they weren't loose. Not so after that.

I've had zero issues and would not hesitate to build this way again for a lightweight tear, but only if I were using marine ply again. As you can see from the picture of the underneath spare tire, after two years use and just back from a 9800 mile trip the bottom is still looking great and doesn't require any attention.

Becky: my camera is a 12.1 megapixel Canon PowerShot digital Elph 100HS. Takes great pictures and is quite small to carry around. I rarely use it on auto preferring to set the white balance myself to (usually) sunny or shade. I mostly only use the flash for fill in outdoors if the sun is behind the subject, preferring to use available light whenever possible. I have an underwater housing for it and take it on scuba diving trips as well. And it shoots great HD video. I think it was less than $200 on Amazon.

Canon makes a bunch of different models in this form factor, some better than others. You need to do your homework to find which ones are better. Check out reviews at sites like http://www.imaging-resource.com/, http://www.steves-digicams.com/, and http://www.dpreview.com/

Hope this helps!

[Kaz]

Nice Job! Let me know if your up to visitor's. Could really use a visual and advice from someone that has actually built one. I have been wondering where to get 5 x10 plywood and aluminum skin.

[jonw]

Nice Job! Let me know if your up to visitor's. Could really use a visual and advice from someone that has actually built one. I have been wondering where to get 5 x10 plywood and aluminum skin.

Thanks. Just PM me if you'd like to swing by sometime...