LostCajun wrote:DanCam,
Thoroughly enjoyed your build, thanks for taking the time to journal all the bumps in building (these will help me tremendously). And the Success! of getting it done....
I also enjoyed your travels, great memories for you and your family...(my Dad took me across the USA three times in my school age years....first two times were half car camping and half motels....or back in those days....it was motor lodges....second trip was a station wagon with a lot of blankets....third trip was 4 weeks of me driving with dad in the passenger seat and stopping at every possible thing of interest...of course he was obligated to carry the obligatory 500 lbs of beer all by himself...we were pulling a 18 foot Terry with a 71 Buick Skylark...he smoothed down the lobes of camshafts on it and a 74 Monte Carlo....) of course the rest of the family was with us....
I mentioned my early road trips....to wish the same for your family....looks like you have planted the seed with your children and given them so much more than a trip of a lifetime....but many life building lessons....
This is the second time I have been through your build, I am sure it won't be the last time....
I would love to travel where you have just been...I don't think there is enough of anything left for me to make that trip, thanks for letting me take it with you.
Thanks! I should say to never build a foamie like mine. I havent taken photos of the damage yet. But my bottom half is a long box with no top and a full hight hole in the back wall. Upper half is a box with no bottom and a full hight hole in the back wall... things vibrate a lot going down rough roads if they arent a solid cube and we ended up with a lot of paint cracking at the weakest points from all the flex. My trailer frame had some flex as well.
I am glad you can enjoy the scenery of where i went even though you cant be there, thats part of the reason were doing this blog. It was great to hear of your adventures, i hope i am able and willing to keep doing cool and fun stuff like this with our kids.
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DanCam,
I was wondering about two open boxes half filled with stuff bouncing around on roads....I guess you answered that question....
I was going to incorporate cabinets to create 'framing' for ridgitiy and strength....I might even add some ribs now and add a trapeze over the bed to help me get out of it...and when I travel the cargo all secured will effectively become part of the structure...
I have a lot of trailering experience and yes.....things not on a stable platform tend move around and a platform that is not stable will flex.....
I am imagining that my from the store 5x8 carryon without modifications is a foam wrecker....without more bracing and enough weight it will beat to death anything put on it....while my 34 foot 12k lb behemoth is so stable (with proper weight distribution hitch properly set up and the right truck) that one only had only to do minimum of additional protection to anything placed in the trailer.....I am imagining that the big trailer had a minimum of flex....looking at the way it has been put together is helping me to design my integral cabinetry to add strength and minimize flex....(I have a good view of the way my big trailer was put together from all the demolition and rebuilding I have done in the 12 years I have had it....the last 7 years living in it....
I am also looking at my welded alum boat.....the decks and live wells and console are all a part of the anti flex design.....when I was making modification to it 5 years ago.....I was going to totally remove the live well....until I realized that the live well sides were actually replacing one of the ribs.....that would have been a mistake.....(so a cabinet should be able to replace a RIB....in a foam trailer as well).....
I did managed to chop up my boat quite a bit to make it fit me.....but I left in enough of the triangles and arc's to brace for slamming those waves....
So....I am eagerly waiting for your pictures of the damage and your ideas....I am going to try to prevent as much as that as I can....
Craig