Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

New build.



The master plan (seriously...this is the only drawing needed).

Hey, it's not easy using a second pencil for a straight edge.

Gorilla Glue on index finger.

Prem

Prem wrote:

The master plan (seriously...this is the only drawing needed).
Prem

Prem - sometimes That's more than what some even start out with! No put that drawing in a clear plastic baggie for future reference lest you be tempted to mail it to someone!

Hey, I like it! Looks like a good start to me!

AL in Asheville

S and Al,

Hey, it's not calculus, right? It's sculpture: one just starts shaping it with a mental model of how it's supposed to work and look.

Here's a photo of the start of ROUND TAIL:



(There might be a $25 1956 Shasta, a $3 angle iron bed frame from the Goodwill and rot-proof, leftover, red cedar fencing involved in this project so far.)

Prem

So, you're finally announcing your new build! This looks very interesting! You can bet I'll be watching.

Any guesses what that taped line is for?

Prem

Tailfins!!

Ageless,

You send me the tail fins from a '59 Caddy with the bullet tail lights and I'll install them on this trailer.

But no. Guess again. Hint: See how the groove between the tape lines glistens.

Prem

Construction under way






Medium Density Overlay plywood (MDO, 3/8 inch w/ 7 laminates)



Axle

Prem

Hey Sharon, want me to send this crew over to help on your trailer?


Walls going up, one sheet at a time.

Notes: The front wall, the side walls and the wheel wells are bolted directly to the steel framework. The plywood floor is bolted down to steel framework also. Strips of MDO plywood cover the butt joints of plywood sheets. They are pre-drilled, glued and clamped with dry-wall screws, then the screws are removed when the glue is dry and replaced with stainless steel, flat head stove bolts and lock nuts. Wall thickness is net 1 inch, so is each butt joint once it has the stove bolts with the lock nuts. Red cedar 1 x 1.5-inch strips are glued and bronze boat nails thru the plywood to serve as nailers for the interior plywood. The 1 x 1.5-inch nailers are spaced at regular intervals for sheet foam insulation between them. The one inch-square aluminum tube bolted to angle iron at rear is the light bar to carry the LED tail lights. the angled-up tail is so that nothing ever drags off-roading or going in and out of steep parking lots/driveways. the tail is round as a compromise between eliminating the airflow vortex on the back of a flat-tail trailer and the trailer's overall length. (To bring the tail to a point would have required another foot and a half of length that would have been almost unusable as interior space.)

Prem

A 1 x 2 (notched for pencil) as a beam compass to draw the front curve:



Prem

Prem wrote:

Hey Sharon, want me to send this crew over to help on your trailer?

HaHa! Prem, you're trying to nudge me out of hiding. I kinda like being a "lone builder". Okay, I'll post progress on my thread just for you.

You're faster than me, probably because you know what you're doing. (I contemplate my navel with each step and still sometimes mess up!)

OK, call me a stickler for detail as I did spend 36 years as a toolmaker. The word 'compass' is wrong. Any time you use a bar of any type to strike an arc; it's a 'trammel'

Sharon,

YoU toTally crack mE up!

Ageless,

Really?

Dictionary.com defines "trammel" as:

2. an instrument for drawing ellipses.
3. Also called tram. a device used to align or adjust parts of a machine.

I struck a simple arc, not an elipse.

Prem

Ageless,

You're still on the hook to figure out what the glistening line is between the tape. Ideas???



Prem