"TrailTop" modular trailer building components

[jscherb]

I've posted drawings earlier showing how the side walls of a TrailTop could be insulated and finished off with nice interior panels, here's how you'd do it for the hatch. The hatch structure is designed so that insulation can be added, followed by a cover panel of 1/8" plywood. The interior panel would also hide the latch mechanism and cables. For illustration purposes, in the drawing below I'm showing insulation in part of the hatch, but of course you'd want to insulate the whole thing:



I'm showing fiberglass insulation in this drawing because it would be easier to fit to the curved interior of the hatch than styrofoam panels.

[Hardryder56]

Jeff,
It has been discovered that if you heat foam boards to 190 degrees or slightly higher you can bend them into curved pieces and once cooled they hold that shape. I did a "down and dirty" experiment using wet towels heated in a microwave oven, that might have worked by my MW was not up to the task. I did pour boiling water over the towels and the foam bend nicely for me. I think it would be best to bend the foam off the door so as to not warp the hatch.
Tom

[jscherb]

I've been doing a little more design detail work on the TrailTop pop-up/tilt-up idea. Here's a simple tilt-up camper top concept for a Dinoot/Jeep-tub trailer, made from TrailTop parts.



The mechanism is very simple, it's pretty much the same as the hardware I installed on the military trailer cover - hinges, two struts with some simple brackets to mount them to, and a couple of latches. Except the cover would be hinged from the front rather than the side as it is on the military trailer:



The fabric parts would snap on to the cover and the tub.

[mallymal]

This just gets better and better....

It's probably a trade secret you aren't prepared to reveal, but I can't imagine how as a "hobbyist" fibreglasser (as you call yourself) you have managed to make such perfect moulds..... The straight sections look tricky enough, but the curves... Wow

[jscherb]

This just gets better and better....

Thank you very much

It's probably a trade secret you aren't prepared to reveal, but I can't imagine how as a "hobbyist" fibreglasser (as you call yourself) you have managed to make such perfect moulds..... The straight sections look tricky enough, but the curves... Wow

I have no "trade secrets", after all I'm not in a trade - this is a hobby for me .

I'm not sure if I've posted these photos here before, but they show the basic steps involved in making a mold. The quick answer would be "careful woodworking", but here's the long answer...

The first thing is to make "mold masters" - other fiberglass people may call them "plugs" or "models", but basically a master is a perfect original of the part you want to mold. There are many ways to make masters, but in the case of the TrailTop parts, the most effective way for me to do it was by making them out of wood. Depending on the part I'm trying to make, wood may or may not be the right material to make the masters. In the case of the TrailTop parts it was, but I've made masters out of metal and out of fiberglass for other projects. You can use pretty much anything that you can make the required shape out of.

For the curved parts, I used what I guess could be called the "stripwood canoe" method - narrow strips of wood bent over forms to make the basic shape. The photo below shows the master for the 36" radius curve under construction - the strips have been applied over the forms, but not sanded yet:



Once that's done, the strips are sanded and filled as necessary with automotive body filler until the surface is smooth, then coats of sanding sealer are applied. This next photo shows all three of the TrailTop framework masters with the sealer applied:



The sanding sealer is then smoothed by more sanding with finer sandpaper, and when they're smooth enough, several coats of epoxy are sprayed on:



If I were making production molds, there would be more finishing steps to result in a mirror-smooth finish, but since I'm making molds for prototype parts, the epoxy finish is adequate.

After the epoxy has cured a few days, the masters are prepped with mold release wax, followed by a few coats of PVA mold release applied via spray gun. When the PVA has dried (about an hour), polyester gel coat is sprayed on the masters with a gel coat gun. The gel coat is orange, and it's called "tooling gel coat", which is tougher than the ordinary white gel coat that's used to make the actual parts. The gel coat cures for about 2 hours, and then layers of fiberglass mat soaked with polyester resin are built up on top of the gel coat:



That whole mess cures overnight and then the molds are popped off the masters, they're shown in this next photo immediately off the masters, before the rough edges have been trimmed or the mold release washed off:



In many cases the molds would then be ready to make final parts, but these molds are two-part molds because of the undercuts in the profile of the parts that would lock them into a single part mold. So these molds have bolt-on forms for the recessed flanges. I made the flange forms out of wood because these aren't production molds and wood will suffice for several dozens of parts, but for production these forms would also be made of fiberglass.



Once the molds get to this stage, they're ready to polish at bit and make as many parts as I need.

There's nothing about it that can't be done in a modest home workshop, and the only special tool that's a good idea to have is the gel coat "dump gun", they're only about $120 and require an air source such as a compressor.

Making parts in the mold is basically the same process as making the molds - prep the molds with wax/mold release, shoot the gel coat (white this time), build up layers of fiberglass soaked in resin, cure overnight, pop the parts out of the molds. This last photo shows the first parts out of the molds, again the photo was taken immediately after the parts were de-molded, before trimming and washing off the mold release:



There's a lot of little details I've left out in this summary description, but those are the highlights of getting from a design to a mold and then to a final part. I'm happy to answer an questions anyone has about the process if anyone wants to know more.

[mallymal]

Thank you , that is truly impressive.

[jscherb]

Using the same parts as the previous post, here's a clamshell roof top tent made from TrailTop parts. The only difference between this and the one in the other posts is that it's got a bottom half of the clamshell instead of sitting on the Jeep-tub trailer, all of the other parts would be the same.



Closed:

[jscherb]

Another way to use TrailTop parts on a Dinoot/Jeep-tub trailer - a hinged hard cover/roof-top-tent platform:



The cover would be hinged and supported with gas struts the same as on my military trailer project.

[jscherb]

And a pop-top on a TrailTop-based camper, again using the same TrailTop and fabric parts as the previous concepts:



I drew a tongue-mounted cargo box on this one, also made from TrailTop parts.

[djb_rh]

Yes, Jeff, I'm stalking you on new forums.

My question with this pop-up concept is do you have anyone lined up that can do the soft parts of this? That is to say let's assume someone steps up and wants to buy your work and make the hard parts, is there a company that could do some of these soft parts en masse? Or is that still a DIY kind of thing?


--Donnie

[jscherb]

Yes, Jeff, I'm stalking you on new forums.

My question with this pop-up concept is do you have anyone lined up that can do the soft parts of this? That is to say let's assume someone steps up and wants to buy your work and make the hard parts, is there a company that could do some of these soft parts en masse? Or is that still a DIY kind of thing?


--Donnie

Hey Donnie,

Nice to see you over here.

I'm designing the soft parts with the idea that they could be manufactured and offered as part of the product. And yes, I have worked with a company in the past which could manufacture the parts, although I'm sure there are others. I don't expect that getting the soft parts manufactured would pose much of a problem.

I don't know at this point if a company will decide to market any of the TrailTop system, and if so, whether they'll want to market the pop-up/soft part aspects of it. We'll have to see how much interest there is in the TrailTop system in general and the pop-up parts specifically in forums like this, and then we'll have to see if any companies want to sign up to market any of it.

Shortly I plan to mold up some more TrailTop parts to build a prototype of the pop-up, and I'll be sewing prototypes of the soft parts, so stay tuned.

[djb_rh]

I'm designing the soft parts with the idea that they could be manufactured and offered as part of the product. And yes, I have worked with a company in the past which could manufacture the parts, although I'm sure there are others. I don't expect that getting the soft parts manufactured would pose much of a problem.

I don't know at this point if a company will decide to market any of the TrailTop system, and if so, whether they'll want to market the pop-up/soft part aspects of it. We'll have to see how much interest there is in the TrailTop system in general and the pop-up parts specifically in forums like this, and then we'll have to see if any companies want to sign up to market any of it.

Shortly I plan to mold up some more TrailTop parts to build a prototype of the pop-up, and I'll be sewing prototypes of the soft parts, so stay tuned.

Just as a quick FYI, I introduced some other folks to your work, here:

http://advrider.com/forums/showthread.p ... 9&page=142

In general, that's a *great* forum for folks interested in Adventure Motorcycling, but that particular forum is a bit of an off-topic board with a few REALLY awesome yet incredibly long threads like this one on lightweight campers. Obviously this forum is even better for that particular topic, but it was worthwhile I thought. Lots of DIY types in that forum, including folks who have done some pretty incredible heavyweight RV builds.

The reason I asked about soft parts is slightly off topic as I have an all aluminum enclosed trailer that's a toyhauler and camper and I really want to create my own add-on to the tailgate area to make that soft enclosed living space (prop the gate up level, assemble tent that attaches to back of trailer on top of it). I'm really interested in getting the equipment to DIY it if I can, but haven't gotten ready to start yet. So if you wouldn't mind doing your documentation magic on how you DIY that part, I'd be grateful. Or if there are other threads I should peruse on that topic around here, I welcome pointers. I feel like the aluminum frame part is easy, the material choice and sewing the rest is the harder part.

And yeah, your plan sounds great. I'd have to really consider building a pop-up camper to insert in the bed of my Brute if it made it all the way to a kit form where I could buy all the hard and soft pieces.


--Donnie

[Hardryder56]

Donnie,
You might want to check with a local boat shop to see if they know anyone who make Bimini Tops for larger power boats as they should be able to guide you in the making of the room add on.
Tom

[Hardryder56]

Donnie,
Jeff did this up for me and I think once his system goes into full scale production I will have a camper on my truck with in a couple of months



Tom

[jscherb]

Donnie,
Jeff did this up for me and I think once his system goes into full scale production I will have a camper on my truck with in a couple of months



Tom

Or like this?