"TrailTop" modular trailer building components

[jscherb]

I finished up the assembly of the basic TrailTop teardrop shell this morning by bolting on the roof panel and installing the hatch.

[jscherb]

One of my design criteria for the TrailTop parts is the ability to support loads on the roof, such as a rack basket or a roof-top tent. I'll be installing and testing both of those over the next few days, but the first step is my standard 225-lb. gorilla test...



There were no signs of stress or any movement of the shell with this load on the roof. Next I'll test the rack basket and roof-top tent.

[jscherb]

My son and I testing out the interior. There's plenty of room inside for a pair of 6' 6" goons like us .

[dogscats]

Looking great . Did you add any adhesive yet. Dose not look like it . Would that make it a lot stronger ? When do you plan to do the water test?

[jscherb]

Looking great . Did you add any adhesive yet. Dose not look like it . Would that make it a lot stronger ? When do you plan to do the water test?

I didn't use any adhesive, I only used machine screws and wood screws for assembly because I'm going to take it apart and store it away to make room for other projects as soon as I do some more strength testing on it. Tomorrow I'll mount a cargo rack on top with about 350 lbs., and also a roof-top tent, more photos then. The shell is very strong and rigid, and yes adhesive would make it even stronger.

[wagondude]

That sure lookes like a solid "proof of concept" to me. That makes one heck of a nice looking camper body. I could see these things popping up like mushrooms in spring.

[jscherb]

That sure lookes like a solid "proof of concept" to me. That makes one heck of a nice looking camper body. I could see these things popping up like mushrooms in spring.

Thank you. I'm pleased with how it's all going together, no surprises, everything is working according to the design plan.

[jscherb]

I drew this concept early in the project... based on the photo of the two 6' 6" goons sitting in the trailer in yesterday's post, I'd say there's enough headroom to build a sleeping platform something like this:

[jscherb]

Trying out a Wrangler side-swing tailgate with a StoreGate storage compartment/trail table installed:

[jscherb]

I installed a roof rack and rack basket on the TrailTop to do some more weight testing. This first photo shows the basic roof rack bolted to the top of the shell. When I built the shell, I added blind nuts to two of the roof cross-ribs for this rack, so the rack screws in from the top.



I use this basic rack for carrying things like plywood on my military trailer, it's got extension bars for that purpose, and it's also designed to be a base for a rack basket and a roof-top tent. The next photo shows the rack basket attached to the base rack, and loaded with a spare tire and a Hi-Lift style jack.



And in this next photo, it's loaded with all of the above, plus the 225-lb. gorilla.



The total weight on top of the shell is somewhere between 325 and 350 pounds, which is more than twice what the TrailTop shell weighs - the shell is only about 150 lbs. The gorilla also did some bouncing up and down while up there to simulate the trailer going over bumps with a load on the roof; no problem.

The shell supports this weight very nicely - there's no flexing, creaking or movement of the shell when I climb up there with all this weight. Considering that the only structure in the shell besides the TrailTop fiberglass framing parts and the 1/4" plywood skin are the three 2x2 cross-ribs in the roof, and considering this prototype is only bolted together at the moment, I'm very pleased with how the strength of the TrailTop assembly has worked out.



Next... the rack basket comes off and the roof-top tent gets installed. Photos later.

[jscherb]

Installing a roof-top tent on the TrailTop worked out great.

The supermodel lounging in the tent is my wife, and she's wondering why if we own a couple of trailers and the roof-top tent, we always stay in hotels when we travel .







Upstairs for the kids, downstairs for mom and dad?



Windows are needed downstairs, but not having any actual windows handy, I printed one out and taped it on:



The tent all packed up for travel:

[Hardryder56]

Jeff,
That whole package looks great. Somebody had better make it worth your while to take it to production. I can see that being used for a production run of ready made toppers and a run of Do It Yourself ones. Excellent design and construction. What's next on your "to do" list?
Tom

[jscherb]

Jeff,
That whole package looks great. Somebody had better make it worth your while to take it to production. I can see that being used for a production run of ready made toppers and a run of Do It Yourself ones. Excellent design and construction. What's next on your "to do" list?
Tom

Tom,
Thank you. I've learned what I wanted to from this proof-of-concept, so now I'll remove it from the yellow trailer and put it aside - I plan to use the trailer for a second TrailTop proof-of-concept of a very different style so I need to free up the trailer.
Jeff

[jscherb]

The plywood I used for the TrailTop skin is inexpensive floor underlayment; it's got a grid pattern printed on one side (see the inside views of the shell), and the outside is primed, so it looks pretty good once it's assembled, even though it will need a more weatherproof final finish:



One cool way to finish off the exterior would be to apply a weatherproof paint to the plywood, and then apply a photo-mural, something like this one I found on eBay (http://www.ebay.com/itm/Tropical-Sunset ... 4179640beb):



Here it is applied through a little bit of photo-editing:



There are lots of mural decals available on eBay. The seller of the sunset one above said they could print it at a custom size to fit this TrailTop perfectly for no extra charge.

I've left the TrailTop fiberglass parts in white for the illustration above, but you might paint the parts yellow to match the tub...

[jscherb]

Over the last few days I molded a set of TrailTop parts for a second TrailTop proof-of-concept build: