Steel spars

[2bits]

Mike, I found the pic on this site so maybe the owner will chime in. I stumbled across it when I was building my teardrop and I try to snag photos of any unique idea whether it applies to me or not at the time. I think the guy actually worked at the shop which helps. I have friends who weld and I plan to pick up the trade as well.

I do believe it was steel and treated in some way for rust. If memory serves it was powder coated but I don't want to get to lyin. No idea what size, but personally I would think to defer to the original teardrops that used angle, but mixing aluminum and steel/iron isn't always wonderful so I was thinking using this as a blurry picture and sticking with the standardized cargo trailer construction method, just lightened up for a teardrop. i.e. Z or H posts might work great for a Tear while they might be considered "harbor freight" quality for cargo trailer quality. I would guess that going with a square tube, one would have excellent rigidity with 1/16 though...

[aggie79]

That's close to what I had been kicking around but it has a lot more framing members than what I was thinking about. The sidewall would be a perimeter "hoop" with two verticals and two horizontals for the door opening. Sidewalls would sheathed on the inside and the bulkhead wall interior shelf/cabinet and floor would be riveted or bonded (hub) to the sidewalls. Instead of a hatch the galley would pull out from the side on sliders. Electrical would be minimal with wiring in surface mount raceways.

[2bits]

That sounds good to me Tom, Right along the lines of what I was thinking. The recommendations for Z and H posts is 16" separations max, and the cheapie way is 24" Sections, so for a low roof teardrop 24" sections might be fine and for a standy I would do 16". For the square tube that you are talking about what you described might work fine!

[2bits]

Just to revive this idea, I have the go ahead from my welder buddy who will do it for free or at least a case of beer (good to have friends like that). When I started to think serious, I went to the box store to decide what would be best to use and I found the 1x1 16ga square tube to be overkill. I will be doing my next teardrop on a Harbor Freight trailer and decided that 1/2 x 1/2 16ga square tube is way plenty strong enough (and way cheaper too). For the profile curve, I won't worry about bending square tube, I will use a 1" wide 1/8" thick strip across the top. the extra width and thickness will be strong and will hold it's shape nicely. Just tack the first spar at the front and bent it down to the next and tack it, and so on.

I will be starting the build immediately after getting moved which I am hoping to happen within 2 mo. I started a build thread if you wanted to subscribe so an alert pops up once I start building. I plan for it to be a 2 month build. Getting rid of everything I didn't use on my last build, No galley or hatch, one door, minimal shelving, and no 12v or 110v, just a power strip.

http://www.tnttt.com/viewtopic.php?f=50&t=50693