Mini popup toy hauler (using rooftop tent)

[DrewsBrews]

Having some time to reflect on the project.... Some stuff is more convenience than need like the batteryless 12v system with exterior lighting, tongue box, and attached awning. I may temporarily hold off on those bells and whistles to get it initially usable. If so, I may already be past the half way point on this initial version. I've just got the few items to install on the storage box for it to be weather resistant, ready to hold gear and support the tent. Then I'll cut up and weld the angle iron for the side rails of the utility bed (toy) portion, install the side panels and decking. At that point it will just need trailer lighting to be ready for weighing and inspection.

Of course there are small projects in between here and there. Such as getting appropriate lash on the wheel bearings. I will also need to fabricate a short single-step ladder for the tent. Because a 2ft drop will not let the existing ladder extend at all. The wife already didn't like the narrow rungs on it. I think I can build a nicer-to-use one out of 3 pieces of 2" angle iron and a chunk of deck board.. Rather than permanently modifying the existing one. Helps for tent resale value if that ever becomes necessary. Hope for the best, plan for the worst ya know.

 

[DrewsBrews]

Trying to get things done in between weekend plans. I got the other side hatch installed yesterday. It was so humid I got drenched in sweat and bailed out after that. Then we got some more hard rains overnight and it collapsed the awning even more.

I did more looking around in storage and found the 2nd exterior light, but still can't find the other static vent. I'll order another I suppose. They are relatively inexpensive.

Also, when I was building the trailer frame for the original design I added some steel spacer plates where the cross rails were not at the same level as the perimeter rails. The two up front rails have thick 1/4" spacers and not quite in correct spots to fully support the box. You can kind of see them in this pic.

I'm planning to grind off those welds to remove them and replace with continuous strips of the spare HDPE. There are thinner spacers on the rails in front and behind the axle. Those will be under the deck boards. But I may remove them and add HDPE strips there too.

 

[DrewsBrews]

Not a whole lot to take pics of today. I did grind off the welds on all the spacers I had previously added, then clean up the spots to touch up with paint. Then I cut spacer strips out of the HDPE and drilled for the box mounting holes. I didn't think that was too exciting to get a pic of. So I moved the box back and dropped bolts in all the box mounting holes to verify everything lined up enough for that to happen.

I had to go to Menards to get another can of the black tractor spray paint. While I was there I looked at what they had in stock for roof pipe boots to seal the hole/s that will be cut for the A/C duct out of the box and into the tent floor. Menards only seemed to have a boot for rubber roofing that might work, but it was near $50 yikes. I found home depot carries boots for metal roofing, which was pretty much exactly what I was looking for and cheaper..

It has alot of sealing ribs. Seems like a well engineered piece. I just need to figure out what I should use as a sealant between the rubber and HDPE. I used silicone for the hatch doors. But I'm not sure it would work so well in this instance. I've got butyl tape. That might be similar to the caulking they typically use on these.

I marked out and drilled holes in the forward support bracket for the A/C unit. Still working out exactly how the bolts will be installed though. I also drilled some screw holes through the rear mount into the top rear corners of the unit. Hoping it will reduce the movement of the unit in all the mounting. I want to add some gasketing at the exhaust opening too. That will go on the list for next shopping trip.

 

[DrewsBrews]

Today I started looking into getting the A/C fully secured in the mounting. I bent the feet out a little to slip some bolts in with washers. Unfortunately the bolts are too long to fit when sliding the A/C unit into place. I'll need to get shorter, and maybe smaller diameter ones so there is more wiggle room.

Intended to go in these mount holes

One of the upper rear corner holes I drilled:

Hole location in the mount, you might also notice the gasket tape I added around the inner perimeter:

Then I installed the shore power hookup box and drilled and riveted the top panel down. 93 holes drilled and as many rivets installed by hand today. Well, I stepped up a few bit sizes so more like around 280 holes drilled. There was a thunderclap and drizzle as I started gathering up the rivet stems. Guess it is time to pack it in. My hands are worn out for the day anyway. But the box is finally fully enclosed!

I'm adding up probably over 300 rivets in the box. Then there are the side rails to clad for the flatbed section. Might end up with near 500 rivets in it by the time I'm done.
Might have to call this one "The Roadie" due to it's similar look to instrument road/flight cases.

 

[DrewsBrews]

Rain stopped and I was bored after dinner so I went ahead and installed the exterior lights and the one vent I have. I figured I'd be tempted to waste time installing them tomorrow anyway.

 

[DrewsBrews]

I have an 8' wide awning that is designed to be roof rack mounted. I thought I might be able to leave it off for now. But, part of it's mounting solution will need to be taken into account when I am fabricating the side rails of the flatbed. I have been racking my brain trying to decide how far forward or back I want to mount it. Then also where the mounting would go in order to not interfere with the tent opening and closing. Most options would at least block the side window rain fly from being extended.

My idea is to attach the awning to vertical poles that can extend up to above head height from a lower "travel mode" height. Those poles would attach to angle iron brackets (with u-bolts or bolt straps likely). These brackets would then be attach to the rest of the trailer. Those brackets will need to extend farther out than the tent's 6-7" side overhang.. Or less if I offset the tent a few inches towards the opposite side. Which actually may be needed to prevent the closed awning from pushing the total trailer width over 80".

I just measured the awning a few minutes ago and that opened a new option: The mounting rail is 100". That is a few inches longer than the tent is when opened. So I may be able to exploit that and attach the poles right at the ends of the awning mounting rail and just barely clear both corners of the tent when opened.

Next question I had for myself is "What do I actually use as extendable poles to mount the awning to?"....

-First thought was some sort of sectioned removable tube. The awning could mount to small stub tubes that fit into, or around, the end of permanently mounted tubes on the trailer. Then for extending to usable height, the awning would be pulled out, and extra tube sections would be inserted. Finally, the awning would be re-installed into the tops of those. Great! but where do you find that kind of tube for a reasonable price? I couldn't find many options.

-Next idea: Nesting/telescoping 2 different sizes of tubing such as EMT conduit. A combination of 1/2" and 3/4" or 3/4" and 1" EMT would slide down inside one another and secured with a bolt through both tubes. Remove the bolt, extend then re-install the bolt in a higher hole to hold it in that position. Simple! I almost came back to this idea.

-Almost there? Final idea was to use extendable paint roller extension poles. The kind that use a button lock or cam lock, since twist lock wouldn't work. Nice idea, but would require figuring out a mounting solution to the awning, as normally there is that odd large screw thread at the end. And a little expensive ($50 for two)

-Then I had an epiphany today. The awning that was just destroyed uses telescoping legs. They should be able to do the job for free and with much less engineering and fabrication than other solutions. Turns out they are perfect length for the job. Once extended they have 3 different height settings which, on the trailer, would start from "a little low but high enough" up to ~9" taller at the highest setting. PERFECT!

Now I just need to convince my butt to go back out in the heat and start cutting up this steel for the side rails.

 

[DrewsBrews]

So I did make it outside. Marked up the steel and cut it.

laying it out to verify lengths are correct.

The bar along the bottom edge of the box will brace the ends of the deck boards and support mounting of things such as wheel chocks and strap points. I picked up this neat lay-flat wheel chock to use for a motorcycle.

Lastly I picked up the composite deck boards so I have a better idea of the actual board dimensions.

 

[DrewsBrews]

The marine 15A breaker came in along with the "toggle guard" I ordered for it.

Simple panel mount with included screws. Screw terminals too. I'll probably mount it in a little project box.

 

[DrewsBrews]

Spent the day prepping the steel and welding it up. After the photos were taken I added brackets for the rear awning pole, but I should have held off. Earlier was nice and overcast, but the sun came out and heat started to get to me. The last welds suffered. I'm using flux core, which splatters quite a bit even with flipped polarity. So you've got to cover up (jeans + black cotton welding jacket, blek). Currently trying to get some paint on it before it rusts up.

Starting to visually fill out now.

 

[DrewsBrews]

The wife took Friday off so we came up with the idea to make a trip up to Kelley's Island (OH) for the weekend to visit some of her family that lives on the island. I slept in the tent to get more familiar with it, still on the back of the truck . The wife doesn't like climbing down the height so she slept in a spare bed indoors.

Highlights:

There are some massive glacial grooves on the island.. Apparently the largest and most accessible in the world.

Then we did some kite flying on the beach.. Always good flying by the water since the breeze is so steady.

 

[DrewsBrews]

After a couple week hiatus I started work on it again. Today I drilled bolt holes to mount the side rails. The ends feel surprisingly robust for being only attached at the bottom with a couple bolts.

I mocked up one of the canopy legs on the mounting bars to show the idea.

Then installed the rear static vent. It had been raining for a while and started to get very steamy out.

 

[DrewsBrews]

Today I cut and shaped the deck boards to fit. Not attached yet. The one on the ground will be a rear bumper of sorts. So I cut out the square hole for access to the 2" recever I installed at the back of the frame.

I notched the edge pieces around each of the vertical side rail supports. I plan to attach the bottom of the HDPE sheets to these instead of adding even more steel. So they need to be flush.

 

[DrewsBrews]

Overthinking things again...

I had originally hoped to attach the deck boards by putting screws up from underneath. However, after working with the material, I don't have faith that would hold up over time: Since the boards are mostly hollow there is only 1/4"-3/8" of "meat" for screw threads to bite into. The material is a mixture of coarse wood dust and plastic. The two don't have an amazing bond to each other, which makes the localized strength rather weak and brittle. I'd bet the material would be partially pulverized by screw threads passing through. Which would likely only get worse from vibration and movement, leading to the holes stripping out eventually.

I need something that offers some other way of holding it down. Carriage bolts I think will do the trick. Luckily the boards have 2 narrow void sections that should privide ample strength against crushing if I send the bolts down through them..

The small square section on carriage bolts is easy to strip the material out when using nylock nuts due to the movement and twisting force required before they are tight. Planning to use standard nuts to do the initial tighten, then back it up with nylocks. Belt and suspenders; that way hopefully I never need to crawl under and re-tighten them all.

 

[KCStudly]

They make a washer for carriage bolts with a square hole and spiky cleats (like a threaded insert has) to keep the square shoulder from blowing out the hole... or to "restore" a square hole that has stripped out. HoDePo SKU 1002922371 is the 3/8 inch size, for example.

 

[KCStudly]

McMaster-Carr 97449A101 (1/4 inch thru 97449A104 (1/2 inch).

 

[DrewsBrews]

Yeah they carry them at Menards too. I think they call em torque washers. Basically converts a carriage bolt into a toothed elevator bolt. I'd use them for spreading out higher load in scenarios like holding the spare wheel/tire up against the underside of the trailer floor. Should prevent blowing out the floor from the tension and hard bumps.

 

[DrewsBrews]

Today I started out making the cuts for the flip down motorcycle tire chock:

Then measured out where I would like the bolts to go to hold the boards down and drilled them. Finished out the day by starting to place the boards and drill the bolt holes in the frame supports. Easy enough to install the sides first and measure for the center board. From there I am eyeballing the gaps of the boards in between. This is as far as I got before calling it a day.

I just noticed the ends of the boards make little faces. Especially the center board where I forgot the hitch tube would be in the way and drilled holes wider out. It's got nostrils

Ugh, speaking of that hitch tube.. I forgot I bolstered the frame rail above the tube with 1/4" thick flat bar. After everything stacked up I think there was about 1/2" of steel I had to drill through. I'll have to deal with that for a few of the boards on either side of it too

 

[featherliteCT1]

there was about 1/2" of steel I had to drill through

Hope you have a drill sharpener!

 

[DrewsBrews]

Hope you have a drill sharpener!

I get the cheap big bit sets from Menards that have multiples of most sizes. Like This or This when they go on sale. I'm steadily burning through the current set, though I'm suprised how long some of them held on. Hopefully it will get me through this project.

Today I went back over the bolts that attach the box and rails together and to the frame. I originally finger tightened standard nuts to quickly keep things together. So I removed those and installed nylocks. Then I went on to complete drilling out the decking bolt holes in the frame rails. The deck totals 100 holes if I include the wheel chock bolts. yeesh

At least I had a small pork shoulder on the smoker while doing the work. I got to smell it the whole time.

The bolts are just inserted to locate them. I need to pull everything back off to clean out as much of the steel drill shavings as I can so it doesn't stain the boards. Then, after reinstalled, crawl under and get nuts on the bolts. Hopefully I can get that all done tomorrow including the bumper board. I also picked up some D-ring strap points to install.

 

[DrewsBrews]

Installed probably over 200 nuts today. That was tedious especially the bumper board bolts.. The frame rail shape prevented using anything but a crowsfoot wrench on 8 of them. And even then I could only turn it a fraction at a time needing to flip the wrench each time and contort it to get it on the nut. The corner ones were especially bad. I should have held off and picked up regular bolts for the bumper instead of the carriage bolts. I'll replace them once they inevitably loosen up.

I've got some caps to cover the ends of the bumper board, just gotta root around in some bins to find em.