Jasen's 6x10 squaredrop

[JasenC]

Wow RJ glad you got through it hopefully with no long term issues.

[JasenC]

In the in-between time of the trailer parts wondering their way to my place via the scenic route over the past 5 months, I've scavenged up some materials.
Plenty of nice straight spruce/pine/fir (whitewood) 2x4's from Dunn lbr.
The company truckdriver/tool pen mngr. texted me the other day, said he ran across some steel down at the shop they were going to scrap that I might want.
3 pcs totaling 41' of 1/4x3x1.5" channel, worth about $400 right now around here.
I do have a little wire wheel work ahead of me, but it's all surface rust, no scaling.





Seeing I'm building a 6x10 on a 5x8 NT trailer, I'm now thinking of replacing the A frame and front and rear cross bars with this.
Or if the 3 lengths work with minimal waste I may buy enough steel to build the full perimeter and A frame. But I have to watch the budget,
I'm not making any sacrifices elsewhere, this is already an upgrade and we're only doing camp ground camping.
I wanted a semi tough rear bumper anyway, and the front, well as you know, it will just be all the stronger and more stable for towing.

[JasenC]

Got the bed frame sorted out.
I'm going with a convertible sofa arrangement, but haven't been happy with anything I had designed up to this point from an ease of use point seeing there's not a lot of elbow room inside the camper.
Was scouring the interwebnet today for some inspiration when I ran across the Tokyo tri fold futon frame. This was actually designed by William Bouwer a woodworking back in the 70's, so technically it's a Bouwer bed, who actually invented the modern folding futon frame. I couldn't find any detail on it other than a couple pictures and a video from the futon shop where I discovered it and one little thing on Pinterest.
I'll have to build a mock up to fine tune the dimensions, it's a bit of guess work at this point.





Youtube link shows how simply slick it is.
https://youtu.be/IoTBXPt9cU4

[JasenC]

Getting close to starting.
Prices on lumber has dropped a bit, going to see if the lumber yard I typically use for work will give me the companies jobber price on sheet goods, I already scavenged plenty of 2x materials off a few of my job sites, scored a bunch of scrap cabinet plywood for the gally etc. from my buddy the runs the cabinet shop.

I spent 7-8 hrs this weekend organizing the garage, I now have 11' 9" W, that was the challenge, and 17' D of floor space. My table saw, band saw and jointer are on wheels so I can shift them around off the side wall or even push them outside if/when I need a little more elbow room plus I can always haul the camper into the side yard where I can put up a poly tarp between the rafter tails and fence.

Going to rip most all my 2x4 studs in half for walls/floor and band saw my curved roof spars before I put the trailer together. Figure I'll run all my 2x's through the planer so they are all a tad thicker than the ridged foam (room for construction adhesive) to make sure my wall laminations go smoothly.

[JasenC]

Hear ye hear ye,
On the 1st day of the 6th month in the year of our lord 2022 The build has begun.

I've been designing off the specs EZ posted on the NT trailer, which are spot on, Thanks EZ.
Today I put the frame box together so I could lay out the new location of the axle and frame cross bars as I am extending it by 2'. It's sitting at 20 3/4" off the floor on the jack stands, which is 3/4" high per EZ's specs.
I'm going 65/35 on the axle location, the trailer uses 2 C channel cross bars at the axle, I'm replacing those with 1 pieces of the 3" 1/4 wall channel iron I scored at work. Once I get it all bolted up I'm going to break out the welder and go at it then pull all the bolts. Despite NT includes nylock nuts, I'll feel better not thinking about a bolt working loose in the future, besides it'll just make the frame all the more rigid.
I also scored, from work, an old 2"x3"x 84" table saw fence guide rail to use as a rear bumper and seeing I now have an extra cross bar from the OE axle location, I will use that to extend the side frame rails to 10' and hang my bumper off of those.
Also mocked up the spare tire location. I plan(ed) to use a GM spare tire cable hoist but I don't have the top clearance, but if I relocate the hoist back behind the front frame rail, mount it horizontal and use a pulley to get the cable where I want it, I think it'll still work, this will leave 12" clearance from tire to the ground. There will be a triangular tongue box taking up most of the tongue, the propane tank, diesel heater and 160W solar panels will go in there plus some extra storage. I'm still undecided about putting in some 6-8" deep in floor storage bins in the first frame bay. I could cut those in easy enough at a later date if I choose, I'll at least plan for that in my floor framing. My concern is the camper will overhang the side rails by 8" on either side so cutting out structural framing might leave me a weak spot at the door.
The Sketchup drawing also shows my fresh/gray water tank (16/10 gal) locations. I placed the fresh water tank on the right side as my mechanical closet is at the left rear corner where I'll have the battery, on demand W/H, Inverter, converter, power management etc. this should pretty well balance those two locations out.
It's a bit tight in my garage but about 4' of the width is being taken up by my scavenged materials.



As far as NT's build instructions go, they pretty much suck just like everyone says. I laid everything out oriented per the picture, those holes go on the bottom, those holes go up front... When I went to attach the tongue bars, yeah the cross bar was upside down, and would it be to much to ask to put the 16 1.25" bolts in a different bag than the roughly 40 1" bolts and nuts.

[Greg M]

Looks like a good start

[JasenC]

Looks like a good start

Yeah, this all started last summer and now the planets have finally aligned, I ordered the trailer early October.
This weekend I will start prepping all my 2x material, lumber prices are finally starting to drop.
Now I have to take it apart and grind off the paint in key area's for welding.

[JasenC]

Spent the first hour or so of the day trying to breath a little life back into the old Miller Cricket, then gave up, I was wrestling with it about a year ago trying to put a muffler on the truck, the old guy is done. It was old when I picked it up on the cheap about 15 years ago, we did some good projects over the years.
Zipped to Harbor freight, got the last Titanium Flex 125 on the shelf and on sale for $169 to boot, it handled the one 3x1/4" cross bar no problem and it's a tad bit lighter then the Miller, not going to miss luging it around.



Nearly got finished welding up the NT trailer. The cross bars are 2 7/8ish OD and the side rails are 3 1/16ish ID. Need to pick up a little flat bar for filler to finish up the last 10-12 welds and then fab up the bumper which I think I'm going to bolt on, it'll be a lot easier to fix if I back into a tree er somethin,
Haven't decided what I'm doing for the hitch coupling, not going to use the $12 NT one, leaning towards a Curt clam shell style, I know it's overkill at 7K lbs. but I like the positivity of how it works.



Tacked together and squared up.




Tongue welded on


Some of the scavenged 3x1/4" channel at the axle location.

[JasenC]

Who want's to see some pictures.

Almost done with the welding, need to pick up 2' of .1875x2.5 flat bar to make the bumper brackets. Online metals website is under maintenance right now, hoping to get it ordered tonight so I can pick it up seeing I'm working about 15 mins from their warehouse tomorrow. Also ordered a Curt 28302 swivel weld on sidewinder tongue jack from Homedepot for $25 cheaper than Curt w/ free shipping. The Biessy bumper, as my cabinet builder buddy calls it, is done, just need to get the 2.5" mounting tab material, had about 7" of the rail left over to make up the bumper end caps. For those that don't know, Biessy, Biesemeyer makes some of the top tear table saw fences on the market, I scored a 7' guide rail from one, 2x3x1/8" tube.
I gusseted the tongue rails, added a tab for the tongue box floor and boxed in 14" of the frame side rails to beef it up for the bumper. I need to pick up a hole saw to cut the holes so I can actually get the bolts in, and I picked up some shim stock to fill the gaps at the cross bars so I could finish up welding them.

[Hepcat]

So what was your original timeline to finish this build? And can you provide some insights to the interior design?

[JasenC]

This spring, it was supposed to be a winter project.
Ordered the trailer in Oct, only got the frame, shipper lost everything else. Got some more parts in Jan but no axle. NT shipped a new axle which I got that about a month ago.
I'd like to finish it this summer, but there is no rush so it really comes down to how much work wears me out. Can't get any of the drywallers to one of my projects for weeks, they are all behind, so today I hung it all myself to keep the project on schedule, and this old dude is a bit wore out.

Interior I'm playing a lot by ear, see what feels right once the shell is built but I'm thinking of painting the curved ceiling white and applying some dark wood to look like beams, playing with the idea of fabric on the side walls and maybe cedar strips on the front and rear walls seeing I scored a bunch for free. Building a convertible sofa bed frame, a built in dresser kinda thing in the tongue box with what's left above the propane tank which will be about 30"

This is from an earlier design trying to work things out, I went through 6-7 redesigns, but this is still the plan for the dresser/storage, drawers in the middle, flip up TV in the top drawer. triangular swing out drawers on the sides and windows flanking the upper cabinet.



This is basically the current design which I am sticking too, although there are some challenges I'll have to do some mock up to see if they are acually doable.

[JasenC]

Managed to stay out of the garage after a hard 3 days, but I did do a little design work.

Pulled the galley hatch seal design out of my head and sorted out on paper, so to speak.

[JasenC]

Bumper is done and installed, flapper disked and wire wheeled all the welds and shot some primer on all the raw metal.
Ordered the Curt 2" trailer coupler today.
The pick up truck tire winch to hoist my 12" spare tire up into the tongue idea didn't pan out, but at least now I have a spare for my truck.
But I did find a boat trailer winch that is only 4.75x4.75x3" for $20 so I ordered it. Seems a little silly I know, but the only steel I have is the 3" x 1/4 wall channel iron which is really heavy, building something from scratch would cost $60-70 at current steel prices, so a cost savings turns into an unneeded convivence, plus I can use the 26' cable as a lease for the 14lb dog.

[JasenC]

Was up late last night dialing in my framing details (overlaid onto the ext. skin), often running out to the garage to get/double check a measurement or just stare at something. Pretty well sorted out the galley, open hatch will give me 6' 2.25" height, I'm 6'1" In the cabin that leaves me 4' at the walls and 51.5" at the center line, again just a little extra head clearance for me, she's 5'2" see no issue there, overall height is 6'4" 2" taller than my truck. I have a couple ideas how to secure the dishes for travel while using the cabinet above the sink as a dish drainer.
I went to the smaller 32 liter fridge chest from the 40 liter, that put's the counter top at 36.5" down from 39.25" which was important to accommodate she who must be obeyed. To do this I have to cut out the floor at the fridge to just a piece of 1/2" ply and I'll add a couple extra blocks at the frame to support it. Worked it out that we have 5'x19" of counter space which leaves me 7" each for the left side mechanical locker and the the right side storage locker.
Still stuck on the tongue storage, I reduced the width at the back from 48" to 38.5" which keeps it within the foot print of the trailer frame, in the interest of towing maneuverability, That still leaves me enough room to squeeze in the 20lb propane tank, diesel heater and it's fuel tank on the drivers side and about half the space left for storage and the folding 160W solar panel on the pass side. Now I'm planning on doing some in floor storage in the 2nd frame bay, but that's under the foot of the bed which I'm not keen on. Once I get the walls up and roof spars on I'm just going to have to sit in there, stare at it for awhile moving mock up wall panels back and forth and figure out what works best.
Also sorted out the spare tire storage inside the tongue frame.

[JasenC]

Sorry, not pictures of pictures today, posting pictures of actual work.

Got the axel relocated today, it ended up 1/32nd off center
Just need to pull some measurements to make sure the coupler is inline and weld it on. The tongue jack that was due in last Saturday is supposed to be in on Monday.
Once that stuffs on I'll pull the axle back off, it's the only way I can flip the trailer over to work on the bottom side, finish cleaning up some welds and paint it all up.