Scrounger

[Dirke]

Well, I think I am ready to get started on my build. Thanks to everyone for all the advice. Here is my trailer that a friend gave me

So far I haven't been able to get it home because of all the snow, not to mention the 50 gallons of frozen water in the boat. I did manage to get the wheels off so I could put new tires on. It's a good thing I did because the valve stems just crumbled as I was cleaning the rims. Today I got them painted and tomorrow I hope to drop them off at the tire place for some new rubber.

A friend gave me a bunch of wood and I may start building the walls while I wait to get the trailer.

Dirk

[Dean in Ct.]

Springtime is the right time for building!

[Dirke]

Here one of the windows I got from the junkyard. From an old conversion van. Only $20 a piece if I took them out myself.

[Junkboy999]

Nice windows. There so many scrap yards here in wichita but I have not found any ones with RVs in them.
Keep scrounging up the goods.

I have to ask about your avatar picture. Is that from James Gardner form a Hogan’s Heros exposed?

[Junkboy999]

La Grande Evasion - James Garner. sorry it was driving me qrazy where I seen that picture before.

[Dirke]

The Great Escape- one of my favorite movies. The windows came out of a conversion van not an RV. Just check the local auto junkyard and bring your tools.

[Dirke]

I got the rims all cleaned up and painted then put some new rubber on them. It was $93 all together. I hated spending that much but I figure the tires are pretty important, not to mention I wouldn't be able to get the trailer home to work on it without them. Here are some before and after pictures:



Total spent so far: $132

[Dirke]

Well, I decided to put all that free wood to use and started building my frame. I was going to do foam or plywood but with all the free stuff I decided to change things and make a frame to cover with FRP with foam insulation on the inside. Here are a few picks of what I have so far:

Getting started:


Now I finally see what it is going to look like!


Here is a detail of the corners. I think I may have to redo those with a bandsaw as my jigsaw didn't cut so straight. Overall I am happy with how the corner turned out.


In case you are wondering, there are a couple of skateboarding ramps in my basement. Another hobby of mine.

[KCStudly]

Money on tires was well spent. You won't regret it.

I have found that when using the jig saw it is best to stay a little wide of the line and then either use a router template that has been hand faired, or just sand up to the line by hand with a hard block. By doing the template or that last bit by hand you can really feel any undulations. The hard block behind the sand paper makes sure that you are only taking from the high spots and not the lows. Also, it is much harder to make a mistake hand sanding, whereas you can get in trouble quickly with a power tool.

Progress looks good.

[Junkboy999]

I’ll have to check into van windows now. Ha ha ha. Interesting way to do the corners.
That is thinking inside the box.

[Dirke]

There is a distinct advantage to having a friend with a band saw. I cut the corners and the interior curves for the door frame perfectly the first time. Here they are all screwed in and glued in.



My next step is to figure out how I want to mount the window. I am thinking I will use a piece of plywood and mount that onto a couple of 2x2s. I may start on the other wall while I mull it over.

Dirk

[Dirke]

Well, I finally got the trailer home! It took a while for the snow to melt enough to get it out. I still had to chop out some big chunks of ice. The boat had been sitting so long there was a tree growing out of the middle that was almost 3 inches around! Unfortunately, the boat is in no condition to be salvaged. (Sorry Cowboy) so I am going to have to dispose of it. About the only thing I can save are the windows which my wife wants to use to make a sunbox for the garden.

On a good note, the trailer pulled very well and the new tires seemed to be great. Sorry no pictures. I haven't had too much time to work on things as we have been trying to get the garden going as well and that is pretty time sensitive.

Dirk

[campmaster-k]

Good work so far. Keep the pics rolling!

[Dirke]

Well I spent all day Saturday with a sawzall and managed to get everything chopped down to size and removed from the trailer. I didn't want to junk the boat (sorry Cowboy) but it was way too far gone to salvage. I did put an ad in the paper but nobody wanted it. Our Spring trash pickup is next week so I figured I had better get this done so I wasn't saddled with it for another year.

Here is the final piles. So much was waterlogged it got to be quite heavy.

[Dirke]

Well the frame looks pretty good overall. I need to get started on cleaning it up so I can paint it. I want to take it to a friends house and have him check the welds for me. The tongue is 10' long and very heavy. I am going to cut it in half before I mount it back on the trailer. I figure I will have about 3' out in case I want to mount a box or gas tank there at some point. One nice bonus, there are predrilled holes to allow the axle to be moved further back and it is pretty easy to do. I will have to see how it pulls and then determine the best position. For now I am going to leave it where it is.