Sleepin Around, New Zealand. The Build

[felixx]

reading this post earlier, then took Anglia to the shops to get missus wine and alternator shat itself

I blame you!

[Sheddie]

Every old pommy car i had with smiths gauges were pretty erratic but i agree with the previous post the generators cause more misbehaving than alternators *disclaimer*I don't even pretend to look like an auto electrician

Just as well the Snipes instruments are Jaeger. It only has a Smiths clock and that hasn't worked for years.

[dales133]

Lol well there ya go then

[Sheddie]

I fitted the door mirrors on the Snipe and I'm very happy with them. It took a bit of head scratching before I decided on the exact position. After all, once the holes have been drilled to bolt them on is is not easy to move them and fill the holes.

2015-04-04 18.38.48 (640x480).jpg (218.44 KiB) Viewed 4026 times

As far as the charging system in the car went on our trip. As I had said earlier that the new regulator hadn't stopped the ammeter flicking. I then fitted a new field relay (slightly higher amp than the old one) and that seemed to settle it down. Only problem we had was when travelling home in atrocious weather, with the lights on, the wipers on, the stereo playing and the chiller plugged in, the alternator was struggling to keep up. I could solve the problem by pulling it all out and replacing the alternator with a modern one (with about 2 to 3 times the output) but I like to keep this car original. It was my Dads car and we have had it from nearly new.

[Sheddie]

We have found that things are moving around in the galley a bit.
The BBQ has bounced out of its rear hanger a few times so a slide bolt was an easy fix.


Next thing was that the magnetic catch on the chiller drawer was not strong enough to hold it, when bouncing along the road.
I didn't want to put a slide bolt on the front of the drawer and it was going to be awkward to access a catch hidden behind the face of the drawer.
After hunting through the hardware shops I went digging through a few boxes in the shed and found this. In a former life it was a stand on an electric fry pan.



I re-bent the handle, and added a couple of blocks inside the drawer


I also put an alloy angle on the wall for the block to slide under to stop any bouncing.
We have just had a return trip to Hamilton (600kms) and all worked well.

Dale had been wanting another tea towel holder in the galley, so I made her one of those glass marble ones.
I used a couple of scrap pieces of mahogany and found an old glass marble.

I started by clamping another scrap of timber to it and drilling a 16mm hole on an angle for the marble.

The other piece of mahogany I cut a step out of at less than the 16mm so that the marble will not fall out.

Then glue and screw them together, sand everything smooth, apply a coat of varnish.

And there you have it! A glass marble tea towel holder.

[noseoil]

Frank, great ideas are still percolating with your build. Nice job on those finishing touches! Really like the tea towel holder, especially the marble.

[Sheddie]

Thanks Tim. The tea towel holder is a natty little device. We had bought one a while ago that a friend of a friend, down country, had made and had that on the other side of the galley. Dale wanted another one, so I made this one. Now I might have to make another one to match it as the old one is slightly different in shape and different wood. The old one can go in the cabin somewhere.

[GerryAttrick]

Frank,

Just starting my research to build a TT when I retire in about 4 months. I have had a look at a few designs but keep coming back to your one as a good base.

I probably missed it in your write up and I'll go back and have another read but to save time what was the dimension of your trailer. I am 178 cm tall and thought I could probably get away with an 8x5 self built (just love the mix of metric and imperial). I need to measure up a Kingsize mattress as I am not sure I can get 'Er Indoors' to downgrade to a Queensize I'll need to work out how to get that in place without building the bodywork around it!!

Like you I am in to car restoration and if I get the trailer built now and decked I could use it to transport my Healey 3000 (minus engine, gearbox and running gear) to my retirement home when we move.

My thoughts are 2.5m x1.5m in 50 x 50x3mm box section tube but maybe use 3mm angle iron for the intermediate cross pieces. Would you think this would be strong enough based on your design. The floor would be a double skin box identical to yours probably 2.7m long . I know this is not the most economic in terms of available sheet sizes butr I am OK with the extra expense to make sure it is not too claustrophobic.

I'd love to have a look at your TT 'in the flesh" and maybe if I am up that way I can make contact


Alan

[dales133]

Hey Alan was just reading your post.
I built mine in aussie ,im kiwi though; jut thought id give you some measurements ect to mull over.
Mine is 2.7 long by 1600 wide overall.
Inside dimensions are 1540 x 2050 witch fits a NZ size queen with some tuck in room riund the sides
My galleys a bit deeper than normal but galley set ups totay differnt to normal so you could knock some off the lenght or add it inside.
I cant remeber what width a king is but you might be pushing it width wise to stay legal.
I used the same doors as frank and youll get a quality foam matress through the doors no probs
My chasis is 75x50x3 but 50x50x3 could work too

[GerryAttrick]

Thanks Dale,
Looks like I am in the ballpark anyway and as you say I can add or lose a bit as necessary. I think the NZ regs are a bit more free than VicRoads but I don't want to go too wide and being as it will be a camper I think a Queen might be OK as we are both on the smaller side. Galleywise I am considering one of those combined sink/gas hobs with an Engle or Waeco freezer unit. I'll just use a smaller gas bottle - maybe a 9kg as we are unlikely to be far from a fill station here.

I thought you might have some pix up of your build but obviously too busy "glamping" with the end result?

[dales133]

Not finished yet!
Build thread is "ok here we go"
Might give you some ideas

[Sheddie]

Hi Alan, and welcome to the site
It is great to see more Kiwis catching the teardrop bug, especially those who are in to cars as well. I can picture in my mind the sight of a tear drop hooked to the back of an Austin Healey 3000, would look amazing
My trailer frame is 2915 x 1454. I used 50 x 50 x 3 galtube and got the whole thing out of two lengths.
The camper body is 3000 x 1500 overall. I went with those dimensions to fit the materials I intended using. The sheets I used for the sides are 3m long and the sheet for the roof is 1.5m wide. That way I could put the roof sheet on without joins (or potential leak points).
Interior width is 1445 and we could have squeezed a queen in there, but with the double it allows tuck space down the sides. We got the mattress from "beds-r-us" and it is a standard size, called a double long, meaning that instead of 1.8m like a standard double it is 2m like a queen. I am 1.8 tall and neither of us are slim. We have a super king at home but don't find it a problem in the camper. After all, you are not likely to roll out of bed
It won't roll up and shove through the door like foam so I have allowed for the lower part of the galley to be easily removed, take out the bottom of the galley bulkhead and should you ever need to, it slides out the back.
I will pm with details for contact so if you want a chat, or pop up for a visit.

[Ned]

Sorry to jump in, but you're welcome to come have a look at my teardrop if you like. I'm in Auckland, and my teardrop is 1500 wide, 2700 long and 1200 tall. Sleeping area is nice and long because i'm 6'5" and wanted leg room!. You're welcome to come have a look, have a lie down and see if the size works for you. I went with 1500 wide for the same reaso n as sheddie, the sheets of aluminium and wood i used all came in 1500 wide so required no trimming and seams.

PM me if you wanna come to Remuera and have a look

Ned

[GerryAttrick]

Thanks Ned - will send pm

[Sheddie]

Brakes
Some time ago we decided that brakes would be a nice addition to the teardrop.
I wasn't all that concerned about not having them as I take it cautiously and allow more space for the fact that there is more mass to stop.
Dale on the other hand spent several years working for an insurance company as a motor vehicle insurance claims handler. They specalise in high risk vehicle cover. She had delt with quite a few claims involving trailers taking over control of the tow vehicle. One was a trike towing a teardrop.

Behind the Humber Super Snipe or the Nissan Xtrail it is not much problem, they are a bit big vehicles with decent brakes, but the two Capris are a lot lighter.
One thing I had noticed on the way home from our second trip to the South Island was that the front tyres on the old '62 Capri were getting a lot of wear on the outside edges. I know that the alignment on it is not perfect, due to a little bit of play in the steering idler, but this tyre wear was more than normal. The thing that I put it down to was the extra load being put on the outside of the front tyres when braking on corners when going down hills.
Our teardrop is fitted with a #9 Dexter torflex axle. They are not very common in New Zealand and finding components for them here at a reasonable price is not easy. The companies that were listing parts for Dexter seem to only have parts for the larger axles that would be on large caravans and 5th wheels imported from the USA.
I looked at the possibility of adapting locally available parts, but because of the Dexter having a parallel instead of a tapered stub axle the bearings in a local hub wouldn't work. I decided to go with electric rather than hydraulic or mechanical so that I could retain the ball coupling that we had, rather than fitting a big ugly override unit. I went on line and found Red Neck in the USA and sorted out all the components that I would need, including the mounting brackets for the backing plates. I emailed them to check that they were the correct parts for our axle and to get a price for shipping to New Zealand. The brake parts were about $350 our dollars, but UPS wanted about NZ$1300.00 postage At that rate I even looked at the thought of flying over to get them. After a lot of hunting on the net we found "You Shop". Part of New Zealand Post, they have a depot in Portland Oregon. You get the items sent to them, they load it in to containers with everyone else's stuff and fly it to NZ. That ended up about NZ $180.00 and they were here in about a week.

All the parts required. New hubs and drums, bearings, seals and dust caps. Backing plates with the shoes and magnets all fitted and the mounting brackets to go on the stub axles

Jacked up and wheels off.

Axle removed

Axle on the work bench, ie. A couple of short planks over the chassis of the truck I have been working on.

The mounting brackets for the backing plates attached and all painted ready to put back under the teardrop.

Also stripped back the paint on the back of the truck cab.

Axle in and backing plates fitted.

Drums/hubs fitted, now just need to fit the controller and do the wiring.

Rolled the teardrop out of the shed and sprayed the primer on the back of the cab.

This is one of the projects that has been keeping me busy over the last couple of years.
This is my old work truck. The corogated steel deck was getting a bit rusty. I chiseled the old decking off, but the side rails were a bit sad where the decking attached.

Easy solytion for that in the end was to cut out the rusty strip and weld in a length of galvanized rectangular hollow.

Ply decking and it is as good as new.