Ok here we go First time build.

[new leaf]

Hello all i have made a start today.

I have had my boat trailer sandblasted and i have primed it,still have the cross bars to weld in.I thought i would make a start with the sides.

They will be 3000 mm long by 1500 mm.

[KCStudly]

Cool!

But I have to rib you a little (can't resist), by my calculation 3000 x 1500 meters is almost 2 miles long x a mile wide! (I'm sure you meant mm).

Welcome to the forum, you have officially been gigged!

[new leaf]

Thank you for your reply.

Yes that's wright it's going to be the biggest teardrop ever.

[Sheddie]

Hi Marcus,
Good to see you have made a start on both the camper and the journal.
Keep it goind and good luck with the build. Keep the stories and photos coming.
Frank.

[Sheddie]

Hi Marcus,
We hunted all over the place to find ready made doors and like any one else in NZ struck a blank. I did eventually find a Co in Whangarei that do doors for boats etc, so I called in to see him and told him what I wanted. I told him I wanted, I think about 26" x 36" with opening windows. He hit a few buttons on the computer and said $1800.00, each
We had also seen some in Australia, that were quite a bit less than that, but didn't like the way they worked. They were about AUS$690.00 each plus freight. Also note that freight from Australia is no cheaper than from US.
We had spotted the doors listed in www.golittleguy.com then if you go to the tab that says store, then parts and you will find replacement doors. They have gone up since we bought ours two years ago, to US$695.00 for the pair. At the time we paid US$532.00 for freight and we didn't have to pay GST, but I think they are a bit stricter on that now. We are extremely pleased with the quality and ease of fitting and if we were to build another would go that way again. Little Guy were very helpful, especially when they realised that we already had an idea about freight costs, and the doors were here in a week.
Frank

[pchast]

Did you check out horse trailer feeding doors?

[Sheddie]

Did you check out horse trailer feeding doors?

Just had a look now. They may be a bit cheaper, but they don't appear to have an inside handle, dead lock, insulation, bug screens, or inner liner. Besides that, when tipped up the right way to use in a TD they are usually only 30" high, whereas the TD doors are 36". As the shipping cost to this side of the world would be the same either way, that would be too much of a compromise. But thanks for the suggestion.
By the way Marcus, if you would like a hands on look at our doors, you are welcome to come visit. Birkdale is not all that far from Whangarei.
Frank.

[new leaf]

Hi Frank

When you got your doors did you give them a call or did you fill the form out on the web site.
I might have to call as when filling the form out and i get to the end ready to pay and New Zealand is not on the list of places to send too.
Things are coming together quite well and will get some photos up very soon.

Marcus

[Sheddie]

Hi Marcus,
Good to here things are happening.
I just typed up a bundle of info for you, saved it to draft while I looked something up, came back to it and it had disappeared into cyber space.
Here we go again.
From memory we also looked at the online form then ended up phoning them, to get a quote for the doors including shipping to NZ.
At first they said we wouldn't want them as the shipping to NZ would be too expensive, but when they realised that on this side of the world we know about shipping costs, they got things under way. We did our payment by credit card, sending them the details in several parts by separate emails. The doors appear to be made by Hehr, but I have not found them on their web site, I assume they are specialist supply only.
There are other manufacturers/suppliers of similar doors over there,https://www.google.co.nz/search?q=teardrop+doors&biw=1152&bih=601&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=FEZDVJaxCczv8gXc5IGQCA&sqi=2&ved=0CCgQ7Ak
but I like the quality of these doors, they are secure and weather tight and it worked out well for us.
Have a look at this link, it is full of the usual advertising poop https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0sQBpaH5f4&list=UUjOKOyKbV_Hev-JfHUuThcw but if you go in about 7.30min you will see the difference between the old and the new doors. We have the new doors.
Frank.
It worked this time.

[new leaf]

Wow that's cool.
Thank you for taking the time to do that for me.I have not had a look at the links let but was going to ask what did you use for the wood that goes across from one side to the other,I've been to bunnings but can't seem to find the best wood for it.Has to be light and strong.strong. I've just finished working on the teardrop for the day and took some photos to show .

I'm trying to get the photos up,i'll keep working on it.

[Sheddie]

Hi Marcus,
the cross beams I used were 45x21mm treated radiata pine. I got them from Demolition Supermarket in Whangarei. They had a big bundle of them in 3m lengths, so cut in half they were bang on for two from each length. You need to be selective picking the ones you want. You need to pot an eye down them to see that they are not bent or twisted. You need long straight grain with no knots. If the grain curls off to the side, that is where it will snap. We used aluminium composite sign board for cladding and by the time it is glued on to the beams and you glue in the inner liner it becomes very rigid, and where the cladding curves around at the front it creates its own support and becomes as solid as the proverbial brick
I see that you have some more photos on your gallery. I have found the easiest way to get photos on your posts is to put them on your gallery then from there to your post. Pick the photo you want, open it, highlight then copy the Image-URL: from below the photo. Open your post, click where you want to place the photo, click on "Img" at the top of the typing box, then paste Image-URL: between ][.

[Sheddie]

Hi Marcus,
I hope you have had a wonderful Christmas, and that the new year treats you and your loved ones well.
How is progress on the build, we must be due for some updates?
As I mentioned on the photo, the adhesive we used wax Holdfast Fix All HG. It was the one that Ullrich recommended for the job. As well as an adhesive it is a good gap sealer.

2014-12-28 15.22.42 (640x360).jpg (118.45 KiB) Viewed 1315 times

Frank.