Noob from SW Oklahoma

[Social_Joe]

Introductions are hard. Fair warning, this is all stream of conciousness writing

Hi,

My name is Joe, I live near Lawton, OK. I'm a gearhead/car geek/design nut/collector of retro things. As far as cars goes, I mainly focus on VW's; both old school aircooled and watercooled versions. I have had everything from a 68 Beetle to an 05 GTI. I also geek on 80-96 Ford trucks, I have the 83 my grandfather bought new for my mom and I inheirited and a few others around (they're soooo cheap...). For a few years I had a '68 Buick Electra with 100k original miles... such a beast, it's in Germany now. I'm a fairly competent carpenter as well.

1.5 years ago we graduated from the ghetto/rent house and bought a house with what I'd consider my "dream shop" behind it and I absolutely love tinkering in it. My ladyfriend and I have serious wanderlust, take random roadtrips, and have wanted to build a TD for at least the last three years and finally I decided I'd bite the bullet. I'm selling one of my dubs (88 16V Scirocco) since I'm finally finishing the engine build for my Beetle after nearly 6 years and will have funds to get going on a TD project.

To that end, last weekend I had to drive up to OKC to give my friend a fridge for his and his lady's new house, I also had some spare $$$ from selling parts of one of the trucks. Seemed like a great exuse to pick up an old pop up trailer frame since I had to drive a truck anyway. I drug home a likely late 60's vintage Camp Craft Capri that had been stripped for use as a trash/scrap trailer... grand total of $100. Since then I have stripped it down to the frame, made sure I could find replacement wheel bearings (although I destroyed one of the dust caps not realizing they SCREW INTO the hub... weird, but a Ford truck dust cap is an easy friction fit), and I unbolted the shackles to see how much drop I could get. The trailer currently measures 4' wide on the frame rails, 6.5' wide total and a 106" long + the tongue. My intent is to narrow it down to about 4.5' (just inside the tires) and bob the end to 8' to get the proportions right. I'm also going to need to rebuild the tongue. Did I mention I've never welded in my life until last night?!?!

To that end, I spent the remaining parts money and purchased a China Freight Flux Core welder, helmet, gloves, and Lincoln wire; and I'm using the scrap 1" tube from the trailer sides to teach myself. It's a skill I've REALLY wanted to pick up for over a decade and I finally have an excuse.

Hopefully this weekend I'll get to work on the trailer frame a bit.

My goal is to built it light and low to go behind my GTI. It has a rated capacity of 1300 kg (2800ish lbs) with brakes and 600kg without brakes. The car is lowered so I want the trailer to be similar and I'd like to keep the overall height of the TD to about 54" so it's near even with the GTI's roof. With the shackle drop, I measured about 9" under the frame rail, so with 4' sides, it should work out well. I'm still beating design ideas around in my head as far as how extensive it will be, I do know it WILL have a/c and electricity (likely 12V and 110). I'm thinking laminated walls (1/4" outer skin, 3/4" framing, 1/4" inner skin) and I'd like to make Scotty-Style siding for it with a metal brake. This will be a long term project especially with my Beetle coming back online, but it's something I've wanted to do for a very long time and I'm really excited. I need to start building sketchup models and making drawings soon... I need to get the ideas in my head onto paper.

I'm seriously impressed with the ingenuity and community I see around here and hope to continue to learn from the forums and maybe even contribute a bit myself.

Anyway, pics.

Ugly as sin, but $100 with a solid drop axle and 15" wheels










Tow Vehicle She's 8 years old and the newest car I've ever owned... it gets babied. I'm going to be ordering a Class I (2000/200) receiver for it within the next few weeks as I need to flat tow my Beetle to Tulsa to finish the motor build.

[TPMcGinty]

Welcome! With your experience building a teardrop should be a breeze. Have fun!

[pchast]

Hi and welcome.

Do yourself a favor and buy some better wire for that welder. I was
amazed at the difference it made. I'm no welder either but use the
same unit to stick things together.

[cjkrause]

Welcome from Texas and good luck w the project

[tac422]

Welcome to the site !
That looks like a great start for your project, I'm looking forward to watching your build.

[bc toys]

Welcome to this great site, Sense you are from Ok there is a big gathering in Bevers Bend. I think its in April but you can look down in gatherings and find it, great bunch of people got to meet most of them last year had a blast camping with them. Well keep pics coming and good luck with the welding and your build.

[Social_Joe]

Welcome! With your experience building a teardrop should be a breeze. Have fun!

Thanks, as long as I don't get too carried away, haha.

Hi and welcome.

Do yourself a favor and buy some better wire for that welder. I was
amazed at the difference it made. I'm no welder either but use the
same unit to stick things together.

The first thing I did after I bought it was drive across the street to Home Depot and buy some Lincoln wire. I also bought an auto dimming helmet with it. I've messed around with it quite a bit the last two nights and for someone with no hands on welding experience using a bargain basement welder, I'm pretty impressed to be honest. I even welded up a frame crack on the trailer last night.

Welcome from Texas and good luck w the project

Thanks. I often drive 40 miles south to Burkburnett, TX to buy Fat Tire like a free man.

Welcome to the site !
That looks like a great start for your project, I'm looking forward to watching your build.

Thanks!

Welcome to this great site, Sense you are from Ok there is a big gathering in Bevers Bend. I think its in April but you can look down in gatherings and find it, great bunch of people got to meet most of them last year had a blast camping with them. Well keep pics coming and good luck with the welding and your build.

Ok, cool. I'll check that out. I also noticed the noob from NW OK and another member from Duncan which is about an hour from here. One thing I enjoy about online forums is the real community, for sure.

--

Last night I cut off all the rusted in screws, welded up a split in the tailing edge of the frame rail and started laying out the cut lines. Amazingly the axle is 57" from the front edge of the trailer, so I can bob the back 10" off to get a 8' trailer and have near perfect proportions as far as axle placement. I've been toying with designs, I really want it to be LOW... to the point I considered making the frame deeper by using 1" square tube to build 4" lower sides that the wood side panels would attach to and make a really neat looking swept under side profile, but unless I did a drop floor or was trying to hide other things like tanks, it's really unneccesary extra weight. Btw, if I did do that I'd have about 4" of clearance... yes I'd need to weld casters to the back edge of the trailer. Bear in mind I can't clear a Fosters can on it's side in my GTI... it's a sickness But I do want to be able to get the camper into camp sites even if I have to position it by hand... so practicality will probably win that battle, lol. I'm going to check on getting some 2x3 tube this weekend to start re-engineering the tongue too.

Also as far as integrating a small window unit. The most obvious placement is on the tonque with a tongue box to hide it, but that puts weight on the tongue in addition to a 12V battery and noise near my head. I've seen people put them at the back in the galley area. If I did that I'd probably duct the side vents through the bottom the trailer and have venting of some form through the back hatch for the exhaust.... Thoughts? I don't want to do freestanding/ducted, I want it installed/integral to the TD.

This is really alot of fun thus far... I've wanted to weld since I was a kid and I've always wanted to build my own trailer... go figure. Thanks for the hospitality

[Social_Joe]

The result of this weekend's shenanigans... bobbed 10", narrowed 25.5"; result 57.5" x 8' with the axle about 38" from the tail. I need to notch the sides where the drop axle comes up as the clearance is VERY small there, that will require making a small frame for the trailer sidewall to go over it too, no big deal. I started on drilling the shackles to lower it, but ran out of time thanks to fighting with a cheapo cordless drill pushing a 1/2" bit (my 50 year old corded only has a 3/8" chuck). I need to acquire new 9/16" spring bolts and bushing to finish that up right and then some new square tube to rebuild the tongue. I'm going to wait to mount the coupler until I have the receiver on the car so I can get the height perfect.

Any tips on which website has the best deals on trailer hardware? Shackle bolts, bushings, bearings, u-bolts.

Guess I should start a build thread...

[Vedette]

Welcome to the Forum
Thanks for the great pictures!
You look like you are doing just fine!
|I too would have suggested better wire for your welder (flux core is not great, nor fun??)
As I weld every day, I always recommend to friends buying a welder that they get the "best one they can" as you normally only have to buy one that you will probably have for the rest of your life. And use argon/Co2 mix gas!
Migs make heroes out of all of us!
But that being said, you look like you have a handle on your build and you are going to have a great time with it.
I know I did! The trick is.....stay with it. Even when it starts taking longer than you think it was going to.
The Bug may get pushed back (my Studebaker did) because this does become an addiction!
There is a lot of great info here (especially in the Electrical section).
Another word of advice......don't cheap out on your converter. Spend good money the first time so you don't have to buy things twice.
There are some great deals on new converters on eBay!
Ask questions here on the Forum as much as you can and stay in General discussion so you don't get lost.
Good Roads
Brian & Sandi
PS
We have one season of Teardrop Camping under our belt now and 10,000 miles on Miss Piggy and ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT and the wonderful people we have met so far!

[Social_Joe]

Thanks for the input. The welder was cheap enough to grab in a pinch, I fully intend to eventually upgrade when I find a good deal. So far it's working well for me, of course my ignorance is my bliss, haha.

So this confused me. The springs on this trailer were set at an angle. If looked at from above and behind the axle, they looked like this /-\. Strangely though the front hangars were welded at that same angle... but the rear shackles weren't vertically aligned. According to a guy I talked to today, it was common into the 70's for small trailers to be built that way to correct for the crown of the road... beats me. See the pics. After realizing a few things... I took the sawzall to the frame: one it's been abused to death, two the frame is made of crazy thin tubing, three a single 20' joint of 2x2x1/8 to fix the tongue would run me $40 and with one more stick I could build an entire new frame, four after welding up three frame rail cracks one had started to re-open from frame fatigue... so it's gone to scrap pile heaven. This weekend I have to prep my Scirocco to ship it to GA, but I'll get back into this soon. I'm going to re-use the axle/hub/wheel/spring assembly and the nice old Atwood trailer jack. I just need to re-bush the spring eyes.













I will be towing the Beetle to Tulsa the wkd of Columbus Day to finish the motor. The full Beetle Build may take a second seat, but it will be running and have a motor. I keep wondering about the sense of building a TD, but I love to travel and have wanted to have a microcamper for years to take with me on our adventures. Only live once I suppose. Every time I get a little discouraged I look at state/national park maps and the KOA website, then think of friends I have in far-flung places and the enthusiasm returns... and I just love building things.

I also found a guy near here that's liquidating a HUGE stock of NOS RV windows... and I got these jaluise style ones from him. I intend to narrow them down a bit, but aren't they wonderfully retro?
http://tnttt.com/viewtopic.php?f=52&t=57512