If you build teardrops look here...

[goteardropgo]

Hi All, this is my first post. I've been stalking the forum for some time now, getting lots of good ideas for my build. I have a few questions about my build approach and looking for some suggestions/feedback.

The back story
Always wanted a teardrop trailer and now looks like I'm on my way. A friend of mine works at a shop that manufactures pressure washer trailers. Occasionally they have customers turn in trailers for upgrades. In this case, a customer turned in a unit so beat up they decided to just scrape it. They sold the unit to me for $200 just so they could get it out of their shop. Turns out the trailer itself is in pretty good shape. So we stripped it down, salvaged what we could and a bada bing bada boom I have a trailer frame.

The trailer I started with was narrow and I wanted at least a double sized bed. So I've added to the frame to widen it and we welded on fenders (old fenders were a bit beat up). The trailer frame is now 5 x 9 with a portion of the fender as part of the platform (axle is 5 feet wide).

Now there are a few problems with my frame. 1. Not all the frame portions are level. they aren't bad but I'm not sure I can just slap on the plywood platform and move on. To try and get the platform nice and level I plan to put 1x3 wood strips on top the frame and sand them until I can get the frame level. these strips will be attached to the plywood platform.

Question:
1. Is there an adhesive people like to use in addition to bolts to glue the platform to the frame?
2. How close does this have to be? Will I notice slumps of flaws?

[twisted lines]

Welcome to Amazon Anonymous

1 . Loctite PL3x

2 . Looks good from my house.

[edgeau]

Temp variations will make the frame change at different rate to wood so don't try to glue, just bolt. If the variation is small just use some extra washers to pack up the low spots

Sent from my Pixel 3 using Tapatalk

[goteardropgo]

Amazon anonymous? afraid I don't follow.

Washers....hummmm...that's a good idea.

[tony.latham]

Amazon anonymous?

Unless you live across the pond, UPS will be dropping stuff off from Amazon several times a week. And thus you should join AA.

Is there an adhesive people like to use in addition to bolts to glue the platform to the frame?

I can't recall anyone gluing and bolting their cabin down. I used six 3/8" bolts and if I recall correctly, that gives me somewhere north of 20,000 pounds of shear strength. I'm not telling you to not do it, but it's not normally done and I've never heard of a cabin come off the chassis.

T

[halfdome, Danny]

Wow, 20,000 #.
I use about 24 bolts on my cabin to chassis , wonder what that equates to ?
Danny

[twisted lines]

I can't recall anyone gluing and bolting their cabin down.
T

I did

[tony.latham]

Wow, 20,000 #.
I use about 24 bolts on my cabin to chassis , wonder what that equates to ?

Well, mine is actually 29,418 pounds. If those were 3/8" Grade 2, your shear strength is 117,672 pounds.

Tim, aka Noseoil mentioned this a while back:

https://nucor-fastener.com/Files/PDFs/TechDataSheets/TDS_013_Shear_Strength.pdf

I did

And it's still there.



Tony

[working on it]

Well, mine is actually 29,418 pounds. If those were 3/8" Grade 2, your shear strength is 117,672 pounds.

* Like the OP's trailer, my TTT started out as a salvaged, small, derelict trailer. I couldn't give it away. So, I started building, but with visions of strength and durability over-riding common sense, and normal building practices. My wife was to use this trailer solo camping, I thought, so I wanted it to be a tank.

* No one wants their trailer to come apart on the highway, on bad roads, nor during a violent thunderstorm. It seems that some of us (myself, intentionally) may have gone overboard trying to secure our home-built cabin structures to the trailer frame, which had already been massively transformed. My original frame was small and broken, so the corrective build-up and over-build-up started on day one. After the initial <200 lb frame had received another 150 lbs of steel and larger wheels, then the floor became the next addition.

* Eight x 3/8" carriage bolts (in the cross-members), plus thirty-eight # 10 Tek screws (around the perimeter of the 4 8 frame)...all thru 11 gauge steel, probably has a pull-through value of 68924 lbs. Then, if I factor in the 48 feet of 3/8" beaded PL adhesive between the plywood and frame, the bond strength added is around 113184 lbs (at 524 psi when fully cured...subject to substrate failure of the Birch plywood-to-steel interface) = 181478 lbs of force needed to remove my decking. Certainly strong enough, even for my over-built "tank" of a trailer.

carriage and teks.png (337.88 KiB) Viewed 1908 times

* With that much strength as a base to build on, I followed up in the same manner with 10 more tubes of adhesive, hundreds of 1/4" carriage bolts + fender washers + ny-locks, and dozens of steel corner and gusseted angle brackets to attach the 3/4" thick walls and roof to that floor (not to mention the additional interior framing added later. Similarly, I beefed up the already strengthened frame a year after it was first used, and put in an all-new HD axle and suspension parts.

* My trailer now weighs 11x its' original weight (and has cost probably 11x what I paid for it 30+ years ago =$50), when travel-ready. It seems that it is never to be completed, as I modify it after every trip. That's probably the part of this experience that I like the most. Even if the starting point is not what you'd like, it's the struggle to overcome the imperfections that is what I value most highly.

trailer progress in stages.jpg (250.66 KiB) Viewed 1908 times

[Sparksalot]

I used 13 bolts for the cabin to the frame. I don't recall the reason now, but i've had good luck since 2008.

[goteardropgo]

Thanks all for your replies.

1. Get the frame set up, wired and painted. Check
2. Make the platform. I'm going to use 1x3 wood strips and washers to achieve a nice level platform. Then I'll attach plywood to the 1x3 strips, glue/staple them together (wood to wood). Then take the whole platform and bolt it to the frame with some screws (anywhere between 4 to 13 screws). Last, I'll stable/glue on a nice finished 1/4 inch ash ply (give it a nice look). Platform and floor done.
3. Prop up some walls. Probably go with = aluminium skin, 1/4 or thinner ply, 3/4 ply (skeletonized), form in the openings/gaps, 1/4 or thinner inside ply for a nice interior finish.
4. work out any add on's (Cabinets, wiring...)
5. Roof and so on.

How'm I tracking?

My worries:
1. I don't know a thing about electrical except that it shocks me when I touch it.
2. I don't know how wide my walls need to be for the doors and windows I want to install (guess I'll guess I'll get a 1 1/4 deep door window?). No matter really cause I doubt I'll cut the openings for them without leaving at least a nice 1/4 gap to allow wind, rain and bugs to come through.
3. I'm scared to death this thing is gonna look like one of those cardboard box homeless shelter things you see under the freeway over pass (maybe worse) cause I can't cut a straight line to save my life.

I'm worried all the other kids are gonna look at my project and laugh.

[tony.latham]

I don't know a thing about electrical except that it shocks me when I touch it.

I'm a 12V guy so electrical is an easy deal. We've never missed 120 volts while camping. (We're camping.)

I run a 12 AWG two-wire cable from the battery to the fuse block. That wire is fused at the battery with a 15 amp fuse.



That's a Blue Seas fuse block with a negative bus bar. The black wire on the right is the negative from the battery. The fat red wire is the positive from the battery.

From the fuse block, each appliance (fan, lights, USB etc.) gets its own 14 AWG two-wire cable (red/black).



Simple.

Tony

[goteardropgo]

Thank you Tony.

Ok, first, what's 12 volt? What's ac/dc (besides an awesome rock band)? Whats an invertor (is it like a flux capacitor)?

Here's what I wanna do...

I would like to have an air conditioning unit (powered only when connected to shore power), a shore power outlet outside the trailer so I can "hook up" to power (so I can run more appliances when parked next to a house or something), outlets inside dedicated for shore power and outlets inside dedicated for battery power use. I'd like enough battery power available for some small LED lights inside, to run a small coffee maker or a toaster and to charge phones through usb ports. Also use battery to run some external lights (door light and some floods - knowing the LED floods can only be on for a short period of time before really taxing the battery life). I'd like a power gauge inside so I can tell when the batteries will die.
A dream would be the ability to install a solar panel and charge the batteries in this fashion and charge the batteries via shore power (charge up both ways). I am not interested in charging via the car (I have not wired the trailer to do this and prefer not to).

I don't plan to build a galley because I doubt I'll ever use it the way it's intended (and I can focus on complicating my build in other ways).

Are my POWER plans possible?

[edgeau]

It is all possible, but there is a lot to get your head around if you are starting from zero. Have a read of the electrical secrets part of the forum. Here is a quick primer. AC is Alternating Current, (shore power) 110v in the US, 240v here in Australia, either one will kill you so respect it. DC is direct current, most run 12v the same as a car. This has positive and negative as the electric current only runs one way. By convention red wires are positive and black negative but the electricity doesn't care what colour the wire is so always check. An inverter is a device that you feed 12v DC and get out 110v or 240v AC. This lets you run household appliances from a battery. (For a short while ) From what you describe you don't want an inverter anyway. You do need a decent charge controller that will take AC shore or solar DC to charge the battery. There are whole threads on calculating the power draw of all your gadgets and sizing the appropriate battery.

Did I mention shore power can kill you? Here in Australia it is actually illegal to DIY that bit, we have to have a licensed electrician do it. I believe there is no such requirement in the US but find someone knowledgeable to help or stick with 12v DC.

Sent from my Pixel 3 using Tapatalk

[noseoil]

It's simple enough to do both with a teardrop. My wife required an air conditioner for camping (we were living in Tucson & it gets pretty hot there), so I had to do the 12v & 110v system. We have a shore power outlet for hookups at a camp ground (and a small Yamaha 2000 watt generator for the boonies).

PD4045 (look up Progressive Dynamics online) is a panel which uses the battery & a shore power connection for the distribution. It also has an converter, so the battery will charge if necessary when it's hooked up. Not rocket science, but it requires a bit of thought. Just make sure to test each circuit as you go to stay out of trouble. Take a look at my build log to see what I did (good luck finding it, but it's there somewhere...)