"TrailTop" modular trailer building components

[jscherb]

When I went to the junkyard to get the gas struts the other day, I also picked up the rear barn door from an old postal Jeep for $20. Once or twice a year a postal will show up in this junkyard, I've bought several of these doors for other projects in the past.



This door could be used on a Jeep-tub TrailTop with a rear door, although being all steel it's a bit heavy, so you'd need to build the tub and TrailTop appropriately for the weight.



The small inset drawing above is a "Double Dinoot" 8' 3" tub; the photo is my 7' 5" all metal Jeep-tub trailer.

[jscherb]

Here are two options I'm considering for latching/locking the hatch.

1. Simple RV-style flip latches. I used these on the cover for the military trailer project and they've worked out really well. The ones I used are adjustable, and they have a hasp for a padlock.



They'd mount like this:



These would be very easy for a DIY installation.

2. A locking T-handle. I used one of these on the front hatch on the Safari Overland Camper prototype.



There's a bit of mechanism inside the hatch to get installed, here's a shot of the inside of the hatch of the Safari camper prototype.





I think I'll probably do the T-handle, although the RV latches are appealing because of their simplicity for the DIY-er.

Your input on this is very welcome, if there's a better option I've missed please let me know.

[KCStudly]

Some people have had problems getting the T-handle latch style to seal well enough. Either the gasket is compressed enough and the rods can still go in the holes, or not (skilled builders with well fitting parts seem to have less trouble with this; hatches with spring back, extra thick gaskets compensating for pour fit seem to struggle). I think the biggest attraction to them is the vintage appearance and one step operation in use (twist and lift as one action).

With the style of draw down latches you show, you can adjust the tension to pull the hatch into the gasket and there is no big issue with getting them to align and hook up before the gasket is compressed. That's why I chose the draw latches for my build. The draw back is that you need a separate handle to lift and it takes three actions (undo first latch, undo second latch, move to center handle and lift).

[Hardryder56]

I might be totally off base here but could a garage door type T-handle lock set up be used by shortening the lock bars?
KC: if you mount the latches close enough to each other I bet you could catch them both at the same time.
Tom

[jscherb]

Some people have had problems getting the T-handle latch style to seal well enough. Either the gasket is compressed enough and the rods can still go in the holes, or not (skilled builders with well fitting parts seem to have less trouble with this; hatches with spring back, extra thick gaskets compensating for pour fit seem to struggle). I think the biggest attraction to them is the vintage appearance and one step operation in use (twist and lift as one action).

With the style of draw down latches you show, you can adjust the tension to pull the hatch into the gasket and there is no big issue with getting them to align and hook up before the gasket is compressed. That's why I chose the draw latches for my build. The draw back is that you need a separate handle to lift and it takes three actions (undo first latch, undo second latch, move to center handle and lift).

KC,
I agree with pretty much everything you said. There's really no adjustment with the t-handle latch, so either it's right or it's not. I suppose there could be movable blocks on the inside of the edge where it latches to provide some adjustment, but in any case it wouldn't provide the ease of adjustment that the RV-style draw latches provide.

But a separate handle isn't always needed with the draw latches, I don't have a separate handle on the cover for my military trailer, all it takes is a little tug upwards on one of the latches and then the gas struts go into action and the cover can be lifted with just one finger. The struts I've got installed on the TrailTop proof-of-concept work just about as easily, so I think it would be just fine without an extra handle.



One other area that the draw latches might be less convenient would be locking - they have a hasp for a padlock, which might be a little more trouble than a keyed t-handle, and the padlock(s) might rattle.

But the draw latches are far easier for the DIY-er to install and the adjustability is great.

There are plusses and minuses for both, I guess it's really a personal preference thing.

Tom - none of my garages have t-handles, so I'm not familiar enough with them to know how they'd work out in this application.

[Hardryder56]

Garage door 1.jpg (42.81 KiB) Viewed 5978 times

Jeff,
The T-Handles on my garage door look very similar to the handle/latch arrangement you showed about but uses solid flat bars instead of the cables and pull latches.

[jscherb]

Jeff,
The T-Handles on my garage door look very similar to the handle/latch arrangement you showed about but uses solid flat bars instead of the cables and pull latches.

Looks like it could work. I wonder how much the complete garage lock assembly costs?

What I have on hand here is the complete handle/latch setup from a Jeep CJ-7 hardtop. All of the parts are shown at left below. The nice thing about the latches is that they're designed to be "slam" latches - they've got an angle on the end and they're spring loaded, so all you have to do to latch the hatch is close it - you don't have to turn the handle. The garage door idea wouldn't be a slam operation, although that's not a big deal.

Another thing about the CJ latch assembly is that it's fairly easy to install, and it's lightweight, since it is cable operated. The latches get installed separately from the t-handle and are connected by cables, so some misalignment is ok, which allows for easier installation.



I picked up the latches, cables and mechanism at a junkyard for I think less than $5.00, and a new chrome t-handle with lock and key at Northern Tool for $8.99, so my investment is pretty low.

BTW the RV latches I've got I picked up on eBay at 4 for $19.99. I used only two of them on the military project, so I've also got two of those sitting here in my parts box. I got them in black powdercoat, which I've only seen on eBay. In the RV stores I've only seen white and zinc plated ones.

[Hardryder56]

Jeff,
I thinking using the Jeep style latches would keep the look all the same. As for the garage door lock systems they are removed when you install a garage door opener so they should be available pretty cheap or for free from companies that do the install. I also think unless one was to shim the bar stock carefully there is the chance of a lot of rattles with that system. The "slam latches" and cable would most likely be much less noisy.
Tom

[jscherb]

Here's another way to use TrailTop parts... in most of my TrailTop concept drawings I add a cargo box on the tongue of the trailer, and usually I picture that box being made from diamondplate aluminum. But you could easily build a cargo box to match the camper shell using TrailTop parts:



The concept above uses TrailTop parts for the framing and the same panel material as the camper shell, in this case drawn as birch plywood. But you could also use fiberglass Dinoot parts to make the basic box, and TrailTop parts for the top:

[jscherb]

I decided to install a t-handle with slam latches in the hatch.. I didn't have quite enough time this morning to finish the job, but here are some in-progress photos.

First photo is the hatch sitting on the workbench, you're looking at the inside bottom edge of the hatch.



Next on the left is a closeup of a latch, and on the right is the outside of the hatch on the workbench showing the locking t-handle.



I should be able to get it finalized and back on the camper shell tomorrow.

[MeelisV]

can i buy those elements ?
idea is to build dog transportation trailer for 4.
something different then most trailers in market.

[jscherb]

can i buy those elements ?
idea is to build dog transportation trailer for 4.
something different then most trailers in market.

The TrailTop fiberglass parts are just a hobby project of mine, I don't sell them. They may become available for sale if a company signs up to market them, but at this point don't know if that will happen.

[jscherb]

Someone from Australia suggested that TrailTop parts could be used to build a slide-in camper for a tray-back Ute, like the one pictured below:



So I drew a few quick concepts for him.

A slide-in Ute camper:



A more basic box:



Other shapes/styles are possible with the basic TrailTop framing parts, these are just two quick concept drawings.

[jscherb]

I finished up the basic assembly of the hatch latches today. There's still some final adjustment/trimming to be done on the hatch and latches when the shell assembly gets beyond the clamped together stage, but for now it works fine.



An inside view - I added stainless sheet metal striker plates to the fiberglass side rails of the shell to protect the fiberglass from the slam latches.



In this open view you can see the striker plates.

[jscherb]

Since the TrailTop hatch is a moving part, here's a video of it moving .

The gas struts assist opening enough so I don't have to lift it the entire way. It latches simply by closing the hatch.