Big Woody Build - St. Pete, FL

[toconnor602]

.......And so it begins. I decided to build a teardrop about 5 months ago and have been planning since. I bought plans from "Big Woody Campers". I'll link to them, if allowed. The only change I am making is expanding to a 5' X 8' instead of the 4' wide. The plans were easy to get through. I really like how they have their plans laid out, they have the right amount of detail, but not too wordy. I have read through them 3 times so far while mapping out my build plan and creating my parts list (posted shortly).

I really appreciate all the members that took the time to respond to my questions and I hope a few people learn from my experiences along the way!

[toconnor602]

While reading through the plans I was making note of all the items I would need throughout the build and taking inventory of what I already had. Thankfully I already had a majority of the necessary tools. Below is a list of all the items I need for my build out, I researched best price and have links for each part if needed.

I saw an ad from Harbor Freight with the 10' x 10' pop-up canopy I will be using to expand my work area on sale. Typically $200 - on sale for $54. I decided now was the time to start building, sure its 90 something degrees out....but I figured it only going to get cooler from here. I went on a shopping spree online. The majority of the items were purchased from:

BoltDepot.com
Harborfreight.com
Amazon.com
Northern Tool

[toconnor602]

Parts List Continued...

[toconnor602]

Sunday August 21, 2016 - Preparing the Work Space

Now that I made the leap... its time to start going! I live in a small 1900's bungalow and the garage is exactly the same - nice and small, so I am trying to maximize as much space as possible. My wife and I have recently completed a few projects so thankfully that freed up some room in the garage. I spent 8 hours out on the garage organizing and cleaning and de-cluttering on Sunday. I bought a few Ironton Organizers and Peg boards to try and get my most commonly used tools readily accessible.

The camper is going to be stored in the garage during the build. It should fit in with 1 1/2 foot on each side. I bought the 10' x 10' canopy to setup in the driveway, thinking I will wheel out the trailer and double my work area.

[toconnor602]

Monday August 22 - Wednesday August 24 - No work; My wife was leaving on Wednesday to go to Italy for 10 days with my sister, so I put the project to the side, spent time with her and collected the boxes of supplies that began piling up at my house.

Thursday August 25, 2016 - More Organizing! Also my Birthday. Left work at about 3:30. I took the package I received from BoltDepot and started to organize out the 1,000 different type of hardware I will be using. I am placing them all in the bins on the wall for easy access. I bought a small workbench for about $75 (2' x 4'). Spent the next few hours putting that together and general organizing. Overall I am pleased with the workbench, pretty simple and sturdy.

[toconnor602]

Friday August 26, 2016 - More Organizing

Worked from home today, made it out to the garage around 4pm. More boxes came in, its like Christmas ever day this week! I went through every toolbox, bin & bag of parts we had either around the house or in the garage and organized everything. I moved one of the shelves to the other side of the garage by the wall bins and made room for the workbench by the door of the garage. Preparing for the 3 boxes being delivered from Harbor Freight on Saturday!

[toconnor602]

Saturday August 27 - 29, 2016 - Down Time

Tuesday August 30, 2016 - Drove up to Tampa Florida to pick up my trailer. I went with the Ironton 5x8 trailer. Got back to the house a little late so only had time to unload the boxes and place in the garage.

Wednesday August 31, 2016 - Trailer Time

Started out in the workshop around 4pm. Started unpacking all the boxes for the trailer. Laid out all the parts and read through the instructions a few times. The instructions for this trailer are not very detailed and the parts are not well labeled either. Started out by finger tightening all the bolts and got the base complete, leaf springs on and axle attached. I THEN realized that they have me building this trailer upside down and will have to flip it over at some point. I decided to remove the leaf spring and axle (did this to reduce weight since it is a one man show going on over here) and turn the base over placing it on some buckets I had laying around. Went to put the axle back on and realized it was going to be a pain in the butt, so decided to turn the frame over again and build it upside as recommended in the first place.

Finished up around 8pm: axle & tires on and tightened down, all bolts slighty snug, I did this to make it sturdy when flipping over (will loosen once I get the trailer right side up to square it).

Have Tropical Storm Hermine coming through today, so just hoping the power stays on and I can get out there and finish up the trailer. The pictures below will show the small workspace I am operating with. Once the trailer is upright and the weather cooperates I will be able to wheel it to the driveway to open up the workshop for all the woodwork coming up.

[toconnor602]

Thursday September 1, 2016: More Trailer Work

Tropical Storm Hermine turned into CAT 1 Hurricane Hermine. Can't stop the build though. (my house is the little blue dot on the right in the first picture).

Now that the frame was put together i decided I would try to flip it over by myself. Went to Home Depot and bought a few furniture dollies and a few more 5 gallon buckets to sit the trailer on. The plan was to put the furniture dollies on one side, stand the trailer up, roll it over and set it down (Picture 2). When i started to lift it the dollies were not stable and i lost confidence in the plan, so I called a friend and he came over and helped me flip it.

Once upright I measure from corner to corner and the trailer was off by about 1/2". I place a ratchet strap diagonal on the frame and slowly dialed it in. With the bolts slightly snug it only took slight tension on the ratchet strap to get the measurement dead on and square. Once square a lot of wrench work to tighten it all down.

[flbikejunkie]

Good luck with your build. I used the same trailer and it has done well for me these last 3 years. I am just down the coast in Ft Myers.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[toconnor602]

Friday, September 2, 2016 - Finishing The Trailer / Modifications

Hurricane conditions are still in effect. I watched a video of modifications and picked a few I thought made sense.

First: was the safety chain location. The instructions show to hook the chain to the top bolt near the coupler. Trying to get a wrench in the tighten down the bolt and the logistics of getting the chain on then washer and nut was to much of a PITA so I hooked it to the horizontal bolt on the front of the coupler. I don't see this as an issue. if the trailer comes off the hitch and and I have to rely on the safety chain I will have bigger issues to worry about. (Pic 1).

Second: The Northern Tools trailer comes with some wicked fender attachments. There is a brutal 90 degree corner that is waiting to attack your shin. This is located near where the door is going to be located. I took the grinder to it and cut it at a 45. I only did this on the leading edge. Still deciding if I want to do the trailing edge as well. (Pic 2)

Third: Electrical. All of the electrical connectors that come with the Northern Tool Trailer are crap. I bought some butt connectors and heat shrink wrap. In addition to the electrical components I drilled out where the screws were supposed to hold in the side indicator and use machine screws and bolts to hold the light on. (i did this with the ground wire as well.

Hooked it up to the car and everything worked!! Overall, really happy with the trailer. great buy especially when you don't have to pay for shipping

[toconnor602]

Good luck with your build. I used the same trailer and it has done well for me these last 3 years. I am just down the coast in Ft Myers.


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Thanks!..Hopefully we'll run into each other once I'm done with this journey.

[toconnor602]

Saturday September 3, 2016 - Deck Work - Part 1

It was still raining in the morning, went to Home Depot and picked up some 1/2" Plywood. Sorely disappointed when I put it on the trailer, really warped. Not sure if there was a run on plywood before the storm or they just don't have good product. Headed to the lumberyard near my house. Bought some marine grade plywood, decided I'm just going to get all the wood from the lumberyard. I will spend more but it will be worth it.

Since the cross members on the trailer are bolted under the side rails there is a 1/8" difference. I added some aluminum to the cross members to avoid any sag. (Pic 1).

Put on 2 coats of primer, lined up my decks boards and marked the location of the bolts on the trailer. Used a Forstner Bit, went down 1/4" to ensure the deck boards would sit flush on the frame. Since I was going down 1/4" and I am using only 1/2" plywood i made a mark on the bit so I would not go all the way through. worked well. (Pic 2).

Laid the boards back on the trailer and marked my hole locations that will be used to hold the deck down. Also lined up the middle spar hole locations since these will not be crucial to the end result being square. (Pic 3) primed sides facing the ground.

[aggie79]

Very nice progress! (You appear to be very organized - something I am not.) Keep the pictures coming!

[toconnor602]

Saturday, September 3, 2016 - Deck Work (Part 2)

Watching Paint Dry - well into the evening. I put as many coats of the automotive undercoating as possible. Thankfully I bought the water based undercoating and it was dry enough to put another coat on top within an hour. Once all dry I placed a generous amount of silicone adhesive on the frame, reset the boards, placed all the bolts in to ensure alignment, clamped down the corners and used ratchet straps to apply pressure to the center. I would have secured the bolts down, but I didn't have enough hands.

Sunday, September 4, 2016 - Off Day....Sort of.

The wife is heading back from her trip to Italy so I worked on getting the house in order so she wouldn't come home to a disaster zone, literally, as the storm covered our yard in debris from the trees.

[toconnor602]

Monday, September 5, 2016 - Deck Framing

What may not seem like a lot of work, turns out to be a tedious project. Cut and measured my header and footer. My side walls will be sitting directly on the deck leaving me 58.5" to work with on the inside. Of course the boards are not perfectly straight, the first chalk lines I put down (with help from my wife....nice to have a helper ) were off by 1/8th"....not sure how I managed that and my center bolt location will not hit the header or footer since they are only 1.5" each. Had to do some improvising. Clamp down..adjust...reclamp...adjust more. Ratchet straps, buffer blocks & bar clamps came in very useful when raw manpower wasn't enough to bend boards.

I set the canopy up in the driveway to work under today. It was nice to block the sun. Soon a little drizzle came through and it worked perfectly.... shortly after a ridiculous downpour hit out of nowhere. aS I scrambled to put away the chop saw and table saw to fit the trailer back in the garage it took on quite a bit of water. I grabbed out the leaf blower and blew out all the water once the trailer was out of the rain. Really glad I decided to go with the marine grade plywood, If I would have just gone with the treated plywood from H.D. the whole thing probably would have disintegrated.

Ended up with Header, Footer and 1 Side Stringer complete.