Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

I'm on a steep learning curve, so any advice is great. I'm building a slightly modified Cubby. I didn't cut it down so it is 8 ft still. I'm doing shelves instead of cabinets to cut down on weight. I didn't move the chassis.

I just finished the wood deck for it. Here are my questions.
1. Where should I put the spare tire? I have a large cooler and stove I'm putting in the galley (see album) which when loaded will weigh a lot, so I'm concerned about the amount of weight in the tail. Where on the underside should I mount the spare tire for best weight distribution?
2. What are fender washers and why and how do I use them for the underside insulation? Any pics anyone!
3. It says to glue in the insulation after putting on the asphalt emulsion. Will the glue stick to the sticky asphalt?

Thanks, I'll try to post some pics later today or tomarrow. I'm moving my build to the new house construction site today. Should be fun! All the good tools are there.

thobbs wrote:I'm on a steep learning curve, so any advice is great. I'm building a slightly modified Cubby. I didn't cut it down so it is 8 ft still. I'm doing shelves instead of cabinets to cut down on weight. I didn't move the chassis.

I just finished the wood deck for it. Here are my questions.
1. Where should I put the spare tire? I have a large cooler and stove I'm putting in the galley (see album) which when loaded will weigh a lot, so I'm concerned about the amount of weight in the tail. Where on the underside should I mount the spare tire for best weight distribution?
2. What are fender washers and why and how do I use them for the underside insulation? Any pics anyone!
3. It says to glue in the insulation after putting on the asphalt emulsion. Will the glue stick to the sticky asphalt?

Thanks, I'll try to post some pics later today or tomarrow. I'm moving my build to the new house construction site today. Should be fun! All the good tools are there.

1) I wouldn't worry too much about the weight of a tire. Stick it in your car trunk.

2) You can just use large washers so when you screw the insulation in, the heads of the screws don't rip into the insulation, and it secures it better. As a matter of fact, I didn't even DO mine yet.

3) I don't remember the Cubby plans telling you that you have to glue it in. Just get a tight fit, use some screws and washers, and you'll be fine. Also, you can even stick the insulation in there while the asphalt emulsion is drying, but if you ever want to do anything down there down the road, in the future, that might be a little messy.

But really, there's not a whole lot that can go wrong here.

Hi Thobbs!

I built the Cubby plan last summer/fall and did the full 8 ft. also.

1. I put the spare where it is shown on the cubby plan: between the front and second rail under the trailer. It really didn't add much weight from what I can tell. Depending on where your axle is, you might be able to put it under there, but back behind the second rail....just make sure you can reach it and make sure your axle won't hit it.

2. I'm with Ira on this one. Fender washers are just big washers with smaller holes in the middle.

3. I have insulation left over from my project because I didn't go back and insulate the bottom. I ended up getting a memory foam mattress from walmart that covers the entire floor of the trailer. I figure that 6 inches of foam mattress will insulate just fine for me. If you do insulate, I wouldn't bother with the glue. Just screw it up there with the fender washers.

Good luck.

I put my spare on the tongue.

...fixed it for ya Red..........................................MJ

While in a National Park this spring, I met a tear builder/owner from arouind Victoria, British Columbia. He was aware of this grouop but wasn't a member.

When asked about the spare. He said he kept good tires on the trailer and never had a problem and didn't carry a spare at all.

I went to the trouble of adapting the trailer to match the car so one spare would work for both.

But, when i think about it, I have three trailers and only one has a spare, and I never carry it!

dave

I am doing the Cubby, and on my bottom I glued the insulation , then used screws and washers, THEN did the asphalt emulsion over all of it.

Like most everything else, then I see a note on the board about insulating it anyway... I will have a 6"+ foam mattress inside, so that's plenty insulation. I figured what I installed on the bottom will be more like protection from road debris.

I used Henry's asphalt emulsion, almost half a gallon.

Looks like out of all the ways to insulate/not insulate the bottom of their trailer, Julie has followed the most recognized path. Just putting a mattress directly on an uninsulated floor will result in condensation between the floor and mattress, and then it will make those nice black mold spots on the mattress bottom. Of course there are exceptions, maybe you will be one of them. Thobbs, as far as not moving your chassis, did you mean axle? If you did, you might consider putting that spare under or on the tongue, and If you put the battery on the tongue, get a big one

A loose spare will either be left home, or will be a pain to carry. On all my trailers, I hang the spare underneath. It is a pain to get them off and on, but so far I have not had to take them off.

However, I don't agree with the philosophy that I haven't ever needed one so I won't carry one. Some day, some time, I might... and I want it with me. But I'm a bit anal about not being stuck somewhere without a needed part I really thought I should have with me.. that is also why I carry 2 sets of wheel bearings and the tools to change them.... on, and a 12v air compressor.. which did save my bacon on more than one occasion.

Since someone pointed out that IRG is less than 2 months away, I had to get cracking on my preperations. I plan on just getting a white spoke trailer trie and keeping it in the back of the SUV. I'll probably only carry it on trips longer than 50mi.

Wow! Thanks for all your help. And yes I did mean the axle I was going to get some pics today but spent the day in the ER having stitches put in my 5 yr olds forehead. I'll see what I can get done next week!

Mrs. Dog and I grappled with that problem. We're building generally from the Cubby 8-foot plans. We didn't use a Harbor Freight trailer but had one welded up for us out of 2-inch tube steel for about the same price. (!!$$!$!)

For this trailer, we're going to:

1) keep the spare in the back of the car

2) keep a can of flat repair and a 12v compresser in the rig.

Don't know which.

Next trailer (yeah, we're doing that already), we're going to have one of the cross-members of the frame moved to allow the spare to attach to the bottom side of the trailer in the back like the Cubby plan shows.

I vote for the SoCal set-up.

Now, whats this "IRG".

I carry a spare with my trailer all the time. Had a friend lose a tire on his boat left it on the side of the highway for about 40 mins, long story short someone else had a spare and now has a boat.