THE Teardrop Explorer

[PubUltraStar]

After a week on the mold, I took 2 test pieces off. There was the anticipated spring back, but I have a bungie attached to help keep its' shape. The red oak piece is for the hatch, and the poplar piece is for the tongue box lid. I steamed a few more pieces today, and clamped to the templates. Suppose to get the trailer this week!!!

[harleykamper]

OK, well this is going to be a great build!! With your attention to detail it can't look anything but AMAZING. Get going.......I wanna see

[PubUltraStar]

One of the things that I didn't anticipate is all the tools that I'd be upgrading during this project. I've added a Dewalt Planer, Bosch Table Saw, and today a new Bosch Plunge router. I get rewards points from my health insurance company and cashed in the previous years' points today for $300 in amazon gift cards. I was able to order my Fantasic Fan, a new top bearing dado router bit, and the plunge router using those gift cards. So, the benefits of upgrading many items in my shop will be with me long after the teardrop is done. I'm sure Home Depot, Lowe's, Menards, and Harbor Freight are happy that I've started this build, as I can't go into any of those places without getting something. Trailer is suppose to be ready tomorrow for pick up, and I'm all set in my shop to get it going. This post is just a warning for new teardrop builders that alternate expenses come up, and new tools seems to be a big part of that. Speaking of Harbor Freight, I thought I'd share a link to a webpage that has all the HF Coupons, in case people didn't need another excuse for going in there:

http://slickdeals.net/f/1276399-Harbor-Freight-Coupon-Thread

[_Ryan_]

Makes me think of this!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5cneCgNA9U

I hear you about the tools. Lowes and Home Depot are like Disney Land to me these days!

[PubUltraStar]

Building a tear is anything but "Fast times"

[PubUltraStar]

I was hoping to dedicate this weekend to building out the deck on the new trailer, but alas, another delay. Looks like I might not get the trailer until Sunday. I'm trying to be patient, but this is getting very frustrating. When you pay for something, and all you get is excuses, it is very annoying. I realize the having a torsion axle with brakes isn't something this specific trailer dealer normally does, but that is the excuse you gave last month. Make a call and figure it out. Ugh. On the other hand, since I'll be winning the Powerball on Saturday, I'll have more time to dedicate to the teardrop build.

[KCStudly]

It is always frustrating not knowing if it is an honest mistake/misjudgement/outside of their control issue, or a matter of incompetence/neglect/piss poor planning.

To this I can only say, unless you have reason to believe otherwise, give them the benefit of doubt. They have accepted a challenge that was beyond your capability on the risk of making a profit/meeting the estimated deadline/making the customer happy and coming in under budget.

If they are the low bidder and gave you a sense of "hack", maybe someone else should have been given the job. If you felt good about their abilities and have confidence that you will ultimately get what you want/need/desired for the agreed price, then maybe it is not such a bad thing to wait for it to be right.

It's a dog eat dog world out there and all of the vendors are trying to do their best to get the business and get the job done; sometimes the goals are ambitious; sometimes the results are worth it.

Check my thread and other posts for my thoughts on why everything always takes longer than planned.

I ramble, but I hope that my thoughts help curb your angst and that everything works out for you in the end.

[PubUltraStar]

...unless you have reason to believe otherwise, give them the benefit of doubt. They have accepted a challenge that was beyond your capability on the risk of making a profit/meeting the estimated deadline/making the customer happy and coming in under budget.

I'm usually a very patient person, but it's nice to have a forum like this to vent frustrations. The problem that I have with the trailer build is that I ordered it on 2/20. Before that, I had been working with the builder for over 3 months ensuring everything was set to go. He told me that it would take a month to build. No problem, as I didn't have the weather, time, or space at the time to deal with the trailer in my garage. I wasn't upset after the first delay, as they said that getting the torsion axle was new to them, and that they needed to order it. Fine by me, but they sat on that information for another month before ordering. That's just poor planning, and not an excuse that's good for business. I can continue to work on other parts of the project while I wait, but the trailer is pretty much the main component that's holding up my build. I didn't have any fantasy of getting the teardrop done before the end of the summer, but my weekends are currently free and I'm ready to build. Hopefully, the trailer won'd have anything wrong with it when it arrives.

On a positive note, my Fantastic Fan arrived today from Amazon courtesy of my health insurance fitness points. Looks like this will be sitting in the box for a while, but accumulating parts is fun!

[KCStudly]

You have every right to be upset! Guess I missed (...or more likely lost track of ) some of the details.

[PubUltraStar]

Yeah! The trailer was ready for pickup today. Boo! There were some alterations from the plan. Yeah! I'm not sending it back and I'll deal with the changes. Boo! I need to hold off on installing the deck to ensure that the changes don't come back and affect me later. Yeah! The trailer made it home without incident. This is an almost identical trailer to the Atma Travelear, with some minor tweaks and modifications. Thanks Dave for the use of the plans. Anyway, here are the pics.

Shown here with temporary 15" tires. You can see the 1.25" receivers on the sides at the rear.


Stabilizer Jacks


Receiver on the back for bike rack


Tongue with attachment tabs


Attachment Tabs from below


Attachment Tabs from above with 3/8" mounting hole


Flexiride Torsion Axle with Brake


Tongue Connector


Another top view


Width verification spot on

[_Ryan_]

And so it begins! Say goodbye to your free time! I'm looking forward to this build!

[PubUltraStar]

Tongue Box Construction: I plan on housing a ClimateRight or Petcool in the tongue box. I had the base and the sides cut during the CNC process. Bending the wood will take the most amount of time, so the box will take at least 10 weeks to build.



I plan on priming and painting the interior of the box before attaching the bent pieces.




Tongue Box lid will have a curved shape and also use wood bent using the steam box. I'll fill it with foam, epoxy it to give the lid a rigid frame to attach the wood.








My plan is to fill the inside of the lid with foam, which will be shaved down so the entire lid is smooth. This will provide a better surface to mount the bent wood. No one will ever see the inside of the lid, and foam is very light. I needed to create some make-shift walls so that the foam would not just run out all over the floor. Duct tape is not pretty, but it did the to hold the foam in place.


After using a surfoam to shave off the excess foam, you can now see the shape of the lid box sitting on top of the box frame. The foam didn't set nicely in some areas as I was too impatient to wait for warmer temperatures. I plan on adding more foam, and it's supposed to warm up nicely in the next couple of days


Here is the box and lid sitting on it's new home. Imagine the box and lid wrapped in White and Red Oak.


I've taken the first piece off the mold that will go on the tongue box for a test fit. The Red Oak kept its shape pretty well.


The bottom piece is shown here clamped to the unfinished tongue box. Each piece is 3" wide, so it will take over 8 pieces, each needing a week to cure in the mold to finish the bottom half of the box. The plan is to use epoxy to help set the shape of each piece with no visible screws on the outside.

[KCStudly]

You're nuts! But this is going to be epic.

[danlott]

You're nuts! But this is going to be epic.

Ditto

Dan

[PubUltraStar]

Worked on the Tongue Box lid tonight. I had added a second round of foam to fill in some of the gaps, and used the surfoam to shape it down.






I finished by adding a layer of Epoxy to harden the surface and seal the wood. This will give a more rigid surface to glue the wood pieces to. I plan on attaching the initial pieces this weekend once this has dried. I need to cut a back piece by using flush bit on the router. this back piece will be the structure for the hinge that will allow the lid to open and close. I can picture this clearly in my head, so I'm hoping that everyone see's a method to my madness.