Now the fun starts

[MickinOz]

could remove the middle braces and replace them with some steel angle

Thought about it, but no.
Reckon I will just bolt some brackets on.

[MickinOz]

So there I was, just saddling up on the motorcycle to head on out to the motocross track to see if any of the boys from the Barossa have turned up this arvo ready for the vintage scrambles tomorrow.
Ol' mate walking his dog down the street crosses the road and walks up the driveway.
"G'day," he says. "did my eyes deceive me, or did you really have a teardrop trailer hooked on the ute yesterday?"
(And he used the American "trailer" not the Aussie "camper")
"Why yes, you may have seen it, I had it out yesterday."
"If it isn't too much trouble, could I have a look at it?"

So we opened the shed and took a look. Bit of a discussion about how, what, where, why, ensued.
I explained that the original impetus to build it was sleeping on the ground at the Yongala footy oval, and deciding on New Years Day 2019 that I was over the aforesaid ground snoozing.
He mentioned he has a motorhome and he's had enough of the upkeep and maintenance, running costs, difficulty finding parking, etc.

Reckons a teardrop might be just the thing, the longest they go away these days is 3 days.
"I could build one", he says, "I've got plenty of machinery."

Then he asks, "what you doing with that trailer out front."
"Building another," says I.

Then he says, "You should bring the plywood up to my place and cut it on the CNC router."

Whaatt?????
"you have a CNC machine?"
"Yeah, I built it. Building computer controlled machines is my hobby"
"I just got my one of my machines to talk, so now it explains to people what it is doing, so I don't have to."
"I've got a CNC router for aluminium and timber, a couple or three laser engravers, home built 3D printer, all sorts of stuff."

"Where do you live?" I asked.

"#17, just down the street, you wave when you drive past"
(I live at #28)
"We could cut all your hatch frames, etc."

"Dontcha have to have a file?"
"Yeah, I can write that. I did a CAD course back when I was still working and ended up teaching it at TAFE."

"I've got mig and tig too, if you need it. If you do a 3rd one, you should make the next trailer from scratch."

With that, 77 year old Reg took his leave, with a "be sure to drop in and check out my machines."

I'm in Shock. Awe. Disbelief. My mind is boggling.

[pchast]

Good neighbors are a treasure!

[TimC]

You lucky bugger Mick! Sounds like fun.

[MickinOz]

Sometimes, I think far too much, and obsess to the point of crippling indecision, where others just pick a course of action and move on.
The worst times are when I tell myself to just get on with it, then second guess the "hasty" decisions later.

Yesterday, I fabricated some steel L brackets (just galvanised steel angle cut from square posts) for securing my floor flame to the trailer.
For the purposes of positioning them and working it all out, I simply screwed the foot of the angle to the top of the trailer frame with 2 x 14G hex head teks (5/16 drive - big muthas).

First thing yesterday, though, I went and had my second Covid jab.
I'm more than 60 years old, so I get the one that is called Astrazeneca here in Oz.
The first one knocked me flat on my arse, and I regret to advise the second is giving me grief too.
I don't feel like I've been run over by a triple road train this time, just a single trailer 18 wheeler.

So this morning I wake about 6:30 am, not at all happy. I decide on a bit of a sleep in, even though today is grandson baby-sitting day while the DIL goes to work.
So, its about 8 am, I come round long enough to hear the DIL dropping off the baby.
That's when I hear BANG, and one corner of the bed hits the floor.
There I am with my feet higher than my head, and the sinking feeling my day of lounging around goo-ing and gaa-ing at the grandkid just turned to poop.

A bracket broke off the headframe of the bed.
So I pulled it apart and took it outside for a look. The bracket has broken out of the steel tube frame. The tube is pretty thin. I traipsed off to the hardware store in search of some nice thin rods that won't take a lot current to melt.
I ended up with some 2mm 6013 electrodes that say they are good for mild and galvanised steel and need 40-60 amps.

I successfully welded the broken out piece back in at 40 amps, without burning any holes. Squirted the welded area with some paint that vaguely matches the original, and job done.

So the welder is out, the trailer is just there, the frame has been lifted off.
Why not ditch my reservations about welding brackets, and stitch weld the brackets while we have everything set up?
The rod are only 2mm, but the metal to be welded is only 2.0mm to 2.5mm, let's do this.
So away I went. We are outside, the wind is blowing a bit, so ventilation is good.
I managed to put down welds that don't look fantastic, but I am confident they are fully adhered, and will make the attachment to the trailer at least as strong as the attachment to the timber.

But, I forgot to grind off the zinc.
This is where the second guessing started.
Fortunately, before I disappeared too far down the internet rabbit warren, I found the Galvanisers Association of Australia.
They say oversize manual metal arc welds burn off the galvanising, minimising weld porosity, and the minimal amount of contained zinc produces welds equivalent in strength to welds made on ungalvanised steel.
Phew!
https://gaa.com.au/welding/

[MickinOz]

The floor is through bolted at the rear, and the front brackets are bolted in place. These side brackets mostly about stopping things from flexing, I think.
I reckon 3 inches of weld per bracket is enough.

[MickinOz]

Got the plywood on the floor frame today. Glued and screwed 12mm hardwood marine grade plywood to 70 x 30mm structural pine.
The pine crossmembers are on edge on 405mm (16 inch) centres.
Not expecting a lot of flexing.
No pics, I went as fast as I could, then immediately took it around to my mouther's to put it under the carport, as rain was forecast.
s I lay here in Ol' #1 on the banks of the Rocky River, listening to the rain on the roof, I'm glad I did.

[PaulC]

Got the plywood on the floor frame today. Glued and screwed 12mm hardwood marine grade plywood to 70 x 30mm structural pine.
The pine crossmembers are on edge on 405mm (16 inch) centres.
Not expecting a lot of flexing.
No pics, I went as fast as I could, then immediately took it around to my mouther's to put it under the carport, as rain was forecast.
s I lay here in Ol' #1 on the banks of the Rocky River, listening to the rain on the roof, I'm glad I did.

Mick, sounds like you are close to me.. Laura

Cheers
Paul

[MickinOz]

Got the plywood on the floor frame today. Glued and screwed 12mm hardwood marine grade plywood to 70 x 30mm structural pine.
The pine crossmembers are on edge on 405mm (16 inch) centres.
Not expecting a lot of flexing.
No pics, I went as fast as I could, then immediately took it around to my mouther's to put it under the carport, as rain was forecast.
s I lay here in Ol' #1 on the banks of the Rocky River, listening to the rain on the roof, I'm glad I did.

Mick, sounds like you are close to me.. Laura

Cheers
Paul

Thredgold's Crossing. Keep it to yourself.
Lovely little spot, so quiet it was kinda spooky at first. Especially when all the critters in the creek all fall silent at once every now and then.
So far I've done Yongala Pub, Lawrie Park, Bowman Park, Auburn, that little limestone quarry at the top of Collaby Hill, Thredgold's.
Looking at White Cliffs Reserve, Caltowie RV Park for a feed at the pub, Bunyip Park at Koolunga, Telowie gorge. I'd like to camp in Little Hell Road in Gemein Gorge, but I don't think the trailer will make it in.
I like that little creek crossing on the way in to Tarcowie, will be reconnoiter that one soon, see if there is somewhere to free camp.
Aim is to do the out of the way roadside clearings and things outside of the fire ban season, then do RV and Caravan Parks during the season.

[MickinOz]

Haven't done much work on #2.
Used #1 a couple times for overnighters.
I did bring the chassis back from my mother's place long enough to run the trimmer bit around the perimeter of the floor to true the plywood to the floor frame. Then I changed bits and ran a 5-6mm rabbet across the back. Basically cutting away the plywood 6mm compared to the floor frame. This is where the bottom D seal for the hatch will go.
Then I gave the floor a double coat of the mix. I started at one end, and painted my way around the whole floor until I'd done two laps.
Then the rain threatened again, so it's back around mum's sheltering under her carport.

So about 4 hours work since last update.

Did have a bit of a win, though.
A local upholsterer bought himself a camper trailer, quite cheaply. This left him room for upgrades, and one of those was to fit a domestic inner spring mattress.
He advertised the old foam mattress on Facebook and the missus happened to see it.
Around I went.

Do you want it delivered?
No, I brought my ute.
Can, you pay upfront?
Yes of course.
Suppose you want me to help you carry it to the ute?
Yes please.

Alright, since you don't want me to deliver it, or hold it 'til unemployment benefits day, etc, or screw me around in any other way, and since you tested it properly by laying on it instead of just grabbing a corner of the foam and grizzling that it seems a bit soft/hard/whatever, and ya haven't even mentioned haggling over the $40 asking price, you can have it for $30.

Woohoo. Its a full 60 inch by 80 inch queensize foam mattress 6 inches thick.
From a 2012 model camper. I used the same size mattress in Ol' #1. It cost $320 from Clarke Rubber in a 20% off sale.

We have a Vax wet and dry vacuum cleaner. So I gave the mattress a runover with the carpet cleaning attachment.
Came up great.

[rjgimp]

Nice score, mate!

[MickinOz]

My schedule has been delayed by, among other things, a rare event - rain!

Have found my way around a lawn mower carby.
Agreed to mow a lawn for a friend, so I dragged my lawn mower out after 6 years of non-use.
It wasn't going anywhere until I cleaned the jet and the emulsion tube, and unstuck the float needle.
Dead simple carby compared to the Mikuni VMSS on my SR500 Yamaha.

Reg from up the street dropped by yesterday - he tells me he has cut out and welded his chassis since we last spoke and is just awaiting his axles and springs.
Ol' mate don't mess around.

I've had a bit of an E-bay spree. I have a stainless steel piano hinge coming. I'm going to try the method I've seen where you lay a rubber gasket under the hinge and screw it down.
I also bought powder coated stainless steel butt hinges for the doors.
Fixed pin. I think they are the same ones my son bought for his house, in which case they will have almost no play in them.
Haven't really settled on a latch solution for the doors yet.

I found time this afternoon to draw my design out on a side wall sheet.
I'm happy with the layout. will probably start cutting tomorrow.

[MickinOz]

Left side.JPG (95.5 KiB) Viewed 776 times

When I built Ol #1, it was prolly 3 or 4 weekends between dragging the wall sheets off the pile and finishing with a cut wall.
This weekend I have the first wall cut out, and will do the second when I've finished lunch.
I bought a new Ryobi jigsaw, as my very old secondhand when I got it Makita tends to wander all over the joint.
What a difference a good saw makes!
Still put the router on a compass and trimmed the curves, but I could have gotten through without it if I didn't own one.

Its basically a Rimple, but I reduced the front curve to 22 inches and increased the rear curve to 26 inches.
I reckon the asymmetry makes it a bit more Benroy-ish.
Vents and door hinges turned up today.
Checked hinges with a magnet. They aren't magnetic and are too heavy to be aluminium.
I'm thinking they really might be 304 stainless steel under that black powder coating.

[MickinOz]

Is it possible that Thumper is even more intelligent than his impossibly handsome face suggests?
He woke me at 4am.
I got up thinking he needed to go outside, but he didn't.
I decided to hit the head, anyway, which is when I heard the light rain.
The floor of the trailer was sitting upside down on the chassis. I gave the underside 2 coats of the mix yesterday afternoon.
"She'll be right, son," I said to my youngest. "We'll put it right way up tomorrow after the poly dries. No rain between here and South Africa, surely."

On hearing the rain, I woke my son and we muscled the floor in under the carport, and stood her up on one edge so the water will drain.
Decided that the shed would muffle most of the noise, and fired up the compressor to blow a fair bit of the water out.
Checking Willy Weather, it said we'd had 0.2mm rain starting at 4 am.
I swear the dog said to himself, "Geez, it's started raining, I better go tell Dad."
He's now leveraging his "Who's a good doggie?" status sleeping on the end of my bed.
I'll let him get away with it until sunup at least.

Thumper.JPG (42.15 KiB) Viewed 745 times

[TimC]

Good boy Thumper!