I am new to the forum and I am finally getting started on my long awaited build!
For a little background on me here is what I recently posted on the newbie column:
My name is Brian, and I am a mechanical engineering student at the University of Alabama. I spend most weekends traveling and getting involved in more outdoor sports than I should. My biggest time commitment is whitewater kayaking and I have been the president of the whitewater kayaking club at the university for three years now. I met my fiancee in the kayak club and she is a crucial part of many of the trips. I have always considered myself handy, and thanks to my dad, I have had access to a garage full of tools since I was a kid. For the last couple years, I have worked as a mechanical engineering co-op at Nucor Steel in Tuscaloosa AL where I have picked up valuable steel fabrication skills.
I have always enjoyed camping for recreation, but now most of the camping I do is a primitive place to stay after a day on the river. After packing up one too many wet tents, I decided one day that there has to be an easier way to camp. I went back and forth with designs for a couple years until I discovered the world of teardrop trailers. After finding this site and a final month of heavy research, I am starting my build. This will be my last summer with a flexible schedule and I am hoping to finish my little camper before school starts back in August.
My build is a 5' by 9.5' benroy and I am starting from scratch. Both tow vehicles in the family are 4 cylinders so I am being conscious of weight and adding electric brakes. With the absurd amount of kayaks that I transport, I am adding a yakima roof rack for extra roof capacity.
I cant express how helpful this forum has been with my design process, and I hope that others can learn from my mistakes over the next few months!
Here is a very preliminary CAD dwg of my build:
The exterior dimensions are 5' by 9.5' and I plan to include a few extras. I am building in a removable Yakima roof rack for hauling kayaks. I am also adding a basement between the doors that has two removable hatches. On of the hatches will turn into a table which will allow the bed to also act as a booth.
Here is my design for the chassis that I am currently fabricating:
I am using a flexride 2000# axle. If flexride axles are build to the exact width of the outside box frame then there will be a couple inch gap between the inside of the tires and the outside wall. To reduce the gap, I replaced a section of the box frame with an overlapping section of heavy duty angle on the inside of the box frame. I also drilled multiple holes so that the axle can be moved to 5 locations over 16 inches. This will allow me to dial in the tongue weight when the trailer is finished. The basement is shown by the orange rectangle.
Anyways here are a couple pictures of the first day of real fabrication:
With how uneven my garage floor is it took me nearly 4 hours to get the box frame squared how I wanted it!
I just got in a bunch of parts from eTrailer so tomorrow is going to be a good day!
