Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

I currently have teh fender flush up against the body of Charley. This leaves teh wheel sticking out about an inch inch half. so i was thinking about putting spacers between the fender and teh body helping center the fender over teh wheel. Is it ok to have a space between fender and the body or should i attempt to fill it in with plywood backing or something else.

My personal thought would be if you try to rig something up, it will look rigged. Just use spacers and let the gap be there.

I think I saw a thead on widening a fender on here somewhere. You got a nice looking trailer so I would be either be looking for a wider fender or makeing that one about 2" wider.Larry

It may not fit the design of your teardrop, but on mine I built a spacer assembly that is attached to the body and the fender is attached to it. Here's a picture of it:



My build journal has more details if you're interested...

I like that Jon, that looks like the way i may go. I could also make the top of the space a little higher than the fender and make it an attachment point for one end of a table.

how much space you have between the wall and the back side of the tire?

About 2 inches

This past summer I built a tandem axle dump trailer and I have my fenders spaced out from the sides 1 1/2". I like it because I can clean behind them instead of having crud and road crap get in there and cause things to rust prematurely.

I was thinking you could get rims with more backspace, and leave the fender where it is.

Jiminsav wrote:I was thinking you could get rims with more backspace, and leave the fender where it is.

+1

Try a higher offset wheel to pull the tire closer to the body/under the fender.

Get a shorter axle made to your specs. I got mine from Dexter, $130 including shipping.

http://www.dexteraxle.com/

yeah its a 74 ich axel if i recall and it should of gone with 72. my calculations were off. thought about changing it out for a shorter axel. I will be pulling the fenders and tires off to finish the wood and painting and all that other fun stuff. Keeping the tires I have because they match the Jeep. I am thinking I will see what new fenders I can find that are a little bit bigger. if that doesnt work look at spacing it.

Gremlin suggested I see if someone can make me new fenders, and make them out of diamond plating like the Jeep. that is a possibility. Lots of trailer talk over dinner. I love it.

I have the same problem-- it's my first build, and I wasn't quite sure how wide my trailer would end up, and not wanting my axle too short, I bought it arguably a couple inches too long. My wheels stick out just about like yours with the fender mounted tightly against the side of the trailer.

I was thinking about floating the fenders out there away from the wall. I already have the fenders and wall drilled for mounting bolts, with T-nuts installed in the plywood outer wall. The ply sits half an inch outside the chassis, so I was already going to cut spacers from aluminum tubing to thread the bottom two mounting bolts through, below the plywood walls and into the chassis, just to cover the raw industrial exposed thread look. So I can use the same trick to cover the threads, set the spacing, and extend the fenders away from the wall, centering them over the wheels. I just worried that might not be sturdy enough.

Then I saw this pic, in LDK's Camp Critter build journal:





That mounting bracket can be fabricated as strong as necessary and will provide all the support needed while the aluminum tubing and mounting bolts will locate the fenders exactly where I want them. So that's what I'm thinking I'll try, but I haven't done it yet.

--Mike C.

I'd think that you would have to be very careful to keep that style of bracket out of the side wall of the tire. It looks like it sorta "cuts the corner off" where it jumps from the vertical at the inside lip across to the flat where it bolts in the center. Also, the bead roll (which is a very good method of stiffing flat material) is facing in stealing another 1/4" or so of clearance.

That would not work at all on my small boat trailer.

I'm sure that you can use the idea and make something that will work for you, so long as you allow for the suspension travel and some deflection in and out (both tire side wall flex and a small amount of axle walk, if using leaf springs).

I had the same problem with my fenders. I had custom fenders made for the tear at fendersnmore in santa fe springs ca. They did a great job and it was easy to figure out what size I needed on their website. If they are too far from where you are maybe they know someone closer to where you are.