To say it was love at first sight was an understatement. I was one of many who stopped to take a peek at the trailer and asked the owner all sorts of questions. She was the builder and was very gracious (something I've since found is a pretty universal quality with teardrop folks) I decided right then and there that I'd build one somehow.
It took some time... Since then, I battled a Shingles attack that damned near took out my eyesight and then have stepped in to help after my Dad had a bad stroke. So I joined this forum about a year ago, but with all the hospital visits and such, it's been a slow but steady process of unfolding as is possible at that moment. Such is life... The good part? Things have gotten better and we're doing A-ok. It's all about adjustments and being patient.
Somewhere in that three-year stretch, I was able to get going with the project and I purchased the Kuffel Creek plans as a good reference but plan to (as many others have) diverge and make my own interpretation of a tear come to reality.
The puller will be my 2005 Fastback Mustang. I'm looking at hitching solutions and will be getting that all worked out soon.
The worst part of this is deciding what I want to go with. I've made the initial decision after much pondering to go with a design that offers me as much headroom as possible and allows for some extra features to compliment one of the main missions of this vehicle which will be to hold my paranormal research gear and provide a base of operations when I take it out on cases as well as to just travel and enjoy life between cases.
Yes... I hunt ghosts and that is why she will be christened the "GhostRider" (as I am the founder of Ghost Rider Investigations of course!) and will certainly get a custom paint job to have the appropriate look and feel for such a mystery machine
Of course, a Tasmanian Devil, Scooby Doo and the Addams Family will somehow find expression in that paint job!
I'm thinking it'll be really cool to have patch panels to hook all our video and audio feeds into the data recorders that I'm wanting to have installed into a small area of the galley to run the feeds. Lucky for me that most of the electronics needed will be small, but I do want to have as large a monitor as possible inside so me or members of my team can watch goings-on from the comfort of the trailer. I'm debating how I'll get my Coleman generator on board, but I'll find a way since I've got to power all of this stuff somehow, but that's in the future!
The photo below documents the start of the build...
The mistakes were aplenty and, as a half-Portuguese/half-Scottish man, I was very creative in my occasional but impassioned and colorful metaphors...
There was much in the way of wrenching, un-wrenching and then finally as realization that I'd need to have a space to do the work so that's on tap for the next phase of the construction. I also realized I'm going to need lots and lots of coffee and a chair to ponder great thoughts in as I stare at this creation.
As you can see in the photos, this is a a Red Trailer model SJ-8350 that I was in the process of assembling earlier this spring. The trailer is actually complete now and I'm pondering next moves. I'll post a photo later, but I'm in the process now of getting the wood-working going.
At this point, I'm realizing I'm no welder and am looking at how to make it so that the trailer does not do it's folding act, since I have no intention of ever doing that with it. I'll look around at what others have done with the Red Trailer models like this and see what to do...
I've been paying close attention to Terry and Sue Landis's build in these journals and it's fairly close to my thinking with where I want to go. So I'll definitely be paying attention as they finish their build and have it serve as an inspiration to my upcoming winter build.
I liked Terry's raising of the deck and then putting things on top of that along with the inset corner welds that tie the entire box to the trailer with the bolts the way he did. I am thinking of having some creative storage options so I can store extras under the mattress with inset storage bays.
So, with that, I'll end it here and then document the next steps this coming weekend with the trip to Home Depot for wood and goodies.
Jon
http://paranormal.ghost-rider-investigations.com for our Ghost-hunting site for this interested
