Tear build without a plan

[Oldragbaggers]

Best of luck to you with your build Kuhndog. Like you said, no turning back now. It's a blast, just go with it. The creativity that can come from not having yourself locked into an inflexible plan is the best part, imho.

[91kuhndog]

You're absolutely right Becky. For me, I'm a planner though. Being in aircraft maintenance for 25 years, we operate under very structured schedules. BTW.... this is adictive. I got home this afternoon and tackled some of the things I had on the list for next weekend. Oh well, no plans, no schedule, all fun! Plus, we received our furlough notices this afternoon to start in a month! Looks like I'll have a lot of spare time to work on this one.



This afternoon, removed the springs & flipped to axle to the top and cut the 2.5" spacer out of the ride height. With the lowering job this afternoon, I'm now a full 4" lower to the ground than I was when I started.





After the height issue was taken care of, I removed all the lights, the wiring harness, cut the stake pockets off the side rail, and removed the fenders. I also made the stabilizer brackets after I lost my sun light so I'll have to weld those in later. I'n adding 20" to the front of the trailer to give me a total of 9.5' of cabin length... because I can! Since I dont have plans, I'll have to do some more planning on how I'm going to accomodate the additional 18". Hopefully tomorrow, I'll get those stabilizers installed and the front 20" section started.

[91kuhndog]

rollin on! Another afternoon of being able to make sparks. albiet minor, I'm making some progress. This build so far has cost $220. $70 for the 4 levelers, $80 in steel, $70 for the coupler, safety chains, jack, and spring perches. Here are a few more pictures of tonights work.


I order a pair plus one set of wheels for the teardrop last night along with a pair of fenders. I stayed with 12" wheels to keep the deck lower to the ground. The next build will utilize a drop spindled axle to keep the deck hight as low as possible.


As I was squaring everything up, I realized the front cross beam was bent on the ends. So I used a little foce to pull it back up.


THe rear levelers mounted up nice on 2" angle. I welded two braces back to back so the levelers could be mounted on a more stable mount.



stretching the frame out 19". since I cut the rear of the trailer off, I still wanted a 9' TD.


lost my daylight! Until the weekend, I'm getting about 2 hours each afternoon to build. Once I get to a spot where I can make sawdust, I'll be able to work later in the garage.

[Oldragbaggers]

BTW.... this is adictive. I got home this afternoon and tackled some of the things I had on the list for next weekend. Oh well, no plans, no schedule, all fun!

You are SO RIGHT!! And I can totally relate to this statement. I remember how excited I was when I was working on my frame. Sometimes I would get home from work and grab a can of spray paint and just start spraying, still wearing the suit I wore to work. I couldn't help myself!!

[91kuhndog]

LOL... thats so true. Im working half a day tomorrow so I can come home to finish the welding and metal work. I hope to have the deck on it by mid week so I can start my side profiles. Once the weather breaks though, i have to stop to finish another project.... my Club Car golf cart. It's 90% done but needs paint and the sindshield and seats... but for now, the TD wins!~

[91kuhndog]

Sorry, no pix... trailer is done. Painting will happen Monday afternoon. Hopefully, the deck will begin to take shape Tuesday or Wednesday.

[91kuhndog]

OK, so I had about 4 hours this afternoon to work on the TD. This week, because I have no plans and I'm kind of drifting along, "winging it", I changed course. I'm now going to use the 12" wheels on the next BBQ smoker I'm building and I've bought three 16" 5 star Ford Mustang wheels for the TD.


I managed to "stretch" the plywood to achieve the 52" width and allow for the 108" length. Using Oak to support the joint added a lot of strength. 2 coats of Spar/mineral spirit mix to the bottom of the deck and tomorrow, I'll apply a liberal coating of "Liquid Rubber to the bottom of the flooring.




Because I'm going from a 12" to a 16" wheel, I'm going to have to build a new axle. This new axle utilizes a 4" drop spindle and I'm going to install it on top of the springs to keep the deck height below 15".


The axle build here is the lazy man's build.... i.e., I'm welding up one side, mounting the hub, wheel, and u-bolt kit to get my accruate deminsions, then I'll replicate to the other side. Due to the odd dish on these wheels, this saves me a lot of time on tha axle build and simplifies things.

For tomorrow, I'll get the rubber on the bottom of the deck and get the deck mounted on the frame. I should be able to get my side designs cut out... and get my 1/2" plywood hollowed out and insulation cut! NO HURRY but I have to work Darlington Raceway, Mothers Day Weekend for the squadron on base (fundraiser for the Christmas Party) and this WILL be my sleeping arangement! So whether it's done or not, It has to be sleepable in 8 weeks!

[KCStudly]

Looking good!

Crazy you, making your own drop spindle axle.

My first reaction was, "What? No way. Doesn't make sense to risk it and go to all that trouble vs. the cost to just buy one." But then I had bought, like, seven of them surplus from a previous employer for $625, took my two for $125 and sold the rest, so my perspective may be skewed.

Looks like you have done a fine job of it, but maybe spent a bit of time... and there is an unknown risk of failure.

The factory drop axles that I have seen close up always have a generous radius between the top of the axle tube and the inside rise of the spindle casting/forging. You may want to consider adding some gussets to the sharp notch that your pictures show between the top of your axle tube and inside of your spindle risers.

On a side note and as a precautionary reference, this angular offset (gusset effect) on the Dexter drop spindle axles that I used for my car hauler/flat bed trailer caused me a bit of trouble when I miscalculated the hub face to frame rail clearance vs. the drop spindle angled back clearance vs. height of suspended frame rail/spindle riser clearance. Even though I modified the hub face to hub face length of my found axles to set the tire to frame rail clearance, I ended up having to make tapered notches with boxing plates in the outside faces of the main frame tubes to prevent the spindle risers from hitting the main rails. To reinforce the main rails I also added heavy (i.e. thick) fish plates on the inside walls of the frame tubes to reinforce these notches.

Very high stresses involved in offsetting the spindle loads. Cantilevered beam effect multiplied.

I am a firm believer in triangulation.

[91kuhndog]

Thanks for the feedback KC, I build a lot of these for use under lowrider motorcycle trailers and BBQ smokers and your right... I still had to ground down and add the top gusset to support the joint... as far as cost goes though, These pre-fabbed spindles already cut for a 4" drop set me back $10 ea and I had the 2x2x1/4" box in the steel pile. So this morning, even with the little stuff like a u-bolt kit, 2 loaded hubs, and what little steel i have in it, I'm sitting at about $80. The best 4" drop I could find locally was at Northen Tool but it was only available in a 60" wide application (without ordering). I didnt have a desire to buy-then-modify an axle.

Time should become my friend soon as I'm catching up on my side job of custom build mailbox posts and custom cornhole boards... both of which make me want to pull my hair out sometimes. Once I get the side walls up, I hope to get this thing rolling quick since I'll be able to build all the cabinets in the shop, then attach.

ONce I get the axle and wheels under it this afternoon, I'll post the pix!

[91kuhndog]

OK, I worked all afternoon yesterday and ended up cleaning up in the dark last night. I made some progress yesterday but paid the price for working outside onthe first warm day of the year. We got up to 80* and I worked in the sun all day, I'm burnt bad... but I'll recover! Here are a few pix of what I got done.




This was a major time spongue for the past three weeks... I built this for our church. It's done and awaiting pick-up!


Here's a better picture of the wheels... I like them and since I had no plans to use anything larger than the 12" wheels I ordered off the internet last week, these work better!


Here's a shot with the deck all assembled and painted. I used a gallon of Spar/mineral spirits nixxed together. It was all dried this morning so I rolled two coats of Rustoleum enamel over the spar. I'll save the liquid roof for another project.

This week, I'm planning on getting the deck shimmed and leveled to the trailer, my initial side siloette's cut out and I hope to get the 1/2" side's all insulated and the 1/4" finished oak glued to the sides. I did pick up my poplar last night from the local lumber yard so I can start cutting and glueing all my ribs. Weather pending, I'll post as I can.

-Brad

[91kuhndog]

Rain Rain, go away! I scheduled a 5 day weekend so I could work on the TD and it's rained the last two.... to the tune of 5.5" of rain. I need good weather tomorrow and Tuesday to get some stuff done or this weekend will be a wash

I pinpointed a name for this build.... when I pulled the tarp off the trailer Friday afternoon, Palmetto bugs scrambled, about 2 dozen of them! Google Palmetto bugs, they're 2" long roach looking bugs. So we have a name, "Palmetto Bug"!

[91kuhndog]

OK, so after a week of nasty weather and about 8" of rain, we've dried out and I'm back on the build. I got about 5 hours in today and hope to get a few hours in tomorrow. I got my plywood sides cut today and the center wall section started as well. I also got all the ribs ripped and cut to length as well as the 2x4 oak rib that'll hinge my hatch door.




I got all the kitchen laid out to see what my clearances were going to be. With the fridge, I'm going ot have plenty of space to add a cabinet for pans and a nice drawer to hold my 1# propane cylinders.


the wall pictured behind the dridge is now covered in 1/4" oak plywood and insulated. I put 2 110V outlets in the wall, one for the AC and one for the refrigerator. The other outlets will be in the cabinets above and accessable to both the kitchen and the cabin area.

Sunday, after church, I'm planning on finishing the door cut outs in the side walls as well as getting the walls attached to the trailer with some ribs installed to shore the walls up. I hope to have this baby dried in by the end of next weekend, that way I can start pulling wires and installing electrical outlets and light fixtures.

[91kuhndog]

OK, I got about 3 hours in today... BTW, Happy Easter everyone! I got the interior 5mm oak panels glued and stapled to the side walls and figured out my actual measurements for my cross-members or ribs. The small wall behind the fridge is coming back off as I've decided to run that wall all the way to the ceiling so I can keep my 110V and 12V wiring hidden in it. I have my door holes cut, now all I need are to the doors from Frank Bear and I'll be in business! This week, I plan on building my center wall, finishing out one side of that.... the kitchen side so I can move forward with making my kitchen countertop and base cabinets. Once I get the walls stood up, ribs in, and base cabinets installed, I can start pulling wires! This week could be a great week for assembly! Lets see what mother nature has in store for me!

[bonnie]

The best way to build an inexpensive camper is to not keep track.

That's so true.

[Woodstramp]

That is the way we built our TTT....just jumped in. Just basic needs on some notebook paper, then went at it.

The nice thing about no plan is the surprizes, good and bad. Carry on...you're doing fine.