Raindrop / Paddlehead Style "Sleepy Time Girl"

[Big Dave]

Well, after a several year hiatus of my base frame collecting dust in our material rack I decided to pull it out and put the axle on. A few weeks after that my wife made reservations at a campground in Myrtle Beach for July 4th week and gave me the "we need to have it done by then" motivational speech. Here we go:

The plan:
Off-road/military style 5ft wide x 11ft long Raindrop/Paddlehead style. I am planning on it being for campgrounds only. The wife is a good sport, but she draws the line at porta-potties. The off-road look is mainly so it doesn't look so tiny behind our full size truck tow vehicles, I have a Silverado and the wife has a crew-cab Titan.

I'd like to thank Paddlehead for being so helpful answering questions and taking so many pictures of his build. My trailer will hopefully be the same shape, but not as complex (hopefully).

The frame is 2" x 2" x 1/8" square around the perimeter and tongue. The braces across the middle are 2 x 2 x 1/8" angle. I built the axle with a stub kit from Northern. The wheels are Cragar Soft 8's in a Jeep pattern and are 15x7.

Somewhere I have earlier pictures, but that was 2 computers and 3 phones ago, if I can find them I will post them.

Here's my slightly overbuilt fender:

It will be covered in diamond plate eventually, I wanted it strong enough to stand on.

[aggie79]

Hi Dave,

Somehow I missed your earlier build pictures. Very nice frame. (I wish I knew how to weld.) I love the raindrop design. Can't wait to see your build progress.

Take care,
Tom

[droid_ca]

I like the way your building this
Keep up the good work
this will be one to follow for sure to get some ideas from

[Big Dave]

Thanks Tom, this was my first welding project. It's not hard, the difficulty is making it look pretty without spending hours grinding. There's a chart on the inside panel of the welder that gives you a pretty good idea of where the settings need to be for different thickness of metal. From there it's just a matter of getting a feel for your hand speed. I bought a Hobart Handler 175 for about $500, that was a factory second (it had a ding in the case). The guys on this forum were really helpful, they actually found me the deal on the welder. http://www.hobartwelders.com/weldtalk/

[Big Dave]

Tonight I took my little Haier 5200 btu a/c unit apart. I'm planning on mounting the unit in a tongue box. It look like I can just lengthen a about 6 wires and move the control panel and the thermostat through the front wall and into the cabin. Muahahaha

[Big Dave]

Thanks Droid! Btw, feel free I would be honored.

[LDK]

Nice frame. You're off to a good start!

[Big Dave]

Here are some pictures of the floor progress,




I'm using 3/4" CDX for the bottom layer, the studs are 3/4" (23/32") and 1/4" (11/32") glued together with titebond 3. This gives me a void a touch deeper than the 1" foam. I will hit it with a belt sander before to even it out gluing the top layer on. If I was to do it over I would have used the Advantech waterproof OSB that was looking at. The CDX was the only exterior ply I could source locally and I wasn't expecting the size of the voids in the layers. 1" foam is probably is probably overkill, but I'm going to be taking it skiing and camping in the worst winter storms I can find.

[Captain Monkeyshines]

Cool! This should be a fun build to watch! Having fenders you can stand on will be a plus. I would like to see a drawing of the profile as I'm not sure what a Rainhead/Paddledrop looks like!

Your workshop looks huge!....and what's with a the vinyl(?) rolls?

[Big Dave]

Yeah, those are rolls of vinyl. I own a sign a shop and I'm building it in our installation bay. The shop is about 2500 sqft, so there is plenty of elbow room, plus I don't have to haul all of my tools back and forth.

The raindrop style is a Camp Inn model : http://tinycamper.com/raindrop560ultra.htm

Paddlehead is a member here: http://www.tnttt.com/gallery/album.php?album_id=2076
His is closer to what I'm building.

I got the floor bolted down with some 3/8" T-nuts and got the floor insulation glues in place yesterday.

[Big Dave]

I didn't get as much done this weekend as I hoped. Our shop cat disappeared for about 5 hours today, so most of my day was spent walking in circles around our shop. Thankfully he did come out of hiding eventually, he spent his day chasing birds in the neighborhood behind our shop.
I did get the insulation glued in and the studs sanded down to the height of the foam.

A mechanic buddy brought me a Mustang spare, it fits perfectly!


I built a mount to hold the spare. My wife says I spend too much time on things no one will ever see. At least if I get a flat it the mount will cheer me up.


Here it is welded in place.

[Martiangod]

Lookin great, sign shop should provide you with access to some great material for the build.
And you can print your own decals....I wish

[canned o minimum]

Yer wife says you spend too much time on thangs nobody will ever see ??? Ask HER why she wears them frilly underthangs ...we men do it differently don't we ?

BTW... Great lookin tire hanger !!!


"If we can't laugh at ourselves, we shouldn't laugh at others" !

[Dan & Julie CO]

Wow great build!! thanks for sharing

[mezmo]

Nice design and execution of the spare tire mount -

But -

Isn't it a bit inaccessible?

Cheers,
Norm/mezmo