Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

Well folks, I'm the proud (scared) recipient of a salvaged pop up trailer. It's just the base trailer portion. Someone had already scrapped or parted out the rest. He was going to convert it to a cargo trailer but changed his mind. (He had like 3 trailers there already.) Spent this morning trying to learn SketchUp. Oy, it's been like 30 years since I've down any CAD work. (Think 2D minicomputer, AutoCad predecessor!) So it took me a few hours just to get far enough into the program to do this little diagram. Though the hardest part was actually measuring the trailer. Think, hope I got those right.



Will upload pics in the next few days. Considering this thing is about as old as my CAD skills it's in pretty good condition. Guess since the camper was sitting on it until a couple months ago the trailer wasn't reallyDoes need the areas of surface rust brushed off & the whole thing repainted. Also need to clean, grease & repack bearing. The tires, though not large in diameter, are much wider than I had expected. These are not the dinky things on HF or NT trailers. They seem in good condition & there's even a spare. Plan on keeping them, at least for now.

It's basically 9'10" x 6'4" with a 4' long tongue. Am currently trying to fumble through the 3D stuff to draw a possible design. The exterior dimensions will need to be about 2-4" wider than the frame to accommodate the bed orientation I want.

The big question is should I stick with 10' length or could I push it out to 11' or even 12' long?

And I do already have some salvaged windows for it:

Great going I too will watch yours with interest.

Mary C.

Its a great start Kudzu, I'll be wathing also!

Cliff

What a Great find , a perfect sized trailer ...

Finally took some "Before" pics of the trailer. It's not much & really rather ugly. GPW is right though. It's a great size for my purposes. Think it will make a good base for a little, foamie, toy hauler.





What can't be seen in the above image is that I'd already sanded a section of the front down to bare metal. Dug through the "toy box" and find a stripping bit for the drill. It stripped easily without much pressure but sure was slow. The bare metal can't be seen because by the time I took the pics, 3 days later, it had already started to rust again. We'll just call that a life lesson. So clearly I need to get it under cover & find a faster way to strip it so I can get the primer on post-haste. Guess I'll risk our two EZ Ups for the cause. Would hate to have our winds rip them apart but it needs some shelter.

And toward the end of speeding up the process I bought a new toy!

http://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/ ... _200479063

It should also help grind down some of those broken screws sticking up after I unfortunately broke the heads off while trying to remove them.

Thats a heavy duty trailer compared to mine.
A foamie wont be any work at all for it.
Looks like a good foundation.

Warren

Don’t think you have to strip it all the way to bare metal ... that’s a lot of work and requires it be primed before painting ! I’d just remove the “heavy" and hit it with Rustoleum ...

K, When you get a little section sanded, paint it then, dont wait till you have a large section done, use the primer as you go then when it is all done you can paint the whole thing. You can use Rustoleum and it will inhibit the rust so if there are places corners etc. just spray with Rustoleum there is a primer that is meant just for that!!! check Home Depot!!! On guns we will shine the rust then use gun blue to turn it black. then oil it like crazy. just thought I'd throw that in. Back to the forest of life!!!

Mary C.

K look at getting some POR-15, sand the worst down and use the Por and it bonds with the rust and stops it. I've used it on old cars years ago.

Cliff

Cliff, wow, I forgot all about POR 15 that would be a better idea. just don't work yourself to death you may do more harm or set yourself up for more harm..more rust.

Mary C.

I think Rustoleum may have a 'rust conversion paint'.
Just Google that term and you should be able to find
that and any others besides the POR-15.

I must have missed this thread back when you started it, but your frame looks lots like mine. I understand lots of folks built theirs on the 4 x 8 trailer but couldn't see the wife and I and our two dogs trying to share that space so a tent trailer frame was perfect for us. I stretched my cabin overall length to just about 14 feet. I added a foot and a half or so for the nose and another half foot at the tail. We love our oversized Foamie. I wire brushed the frame and painted it with Rustoleum. It was the messiest part of the job... But the results are worth it

Had already purchased the primer, Rustoleum for rusty metal. So am hoping that will work well for me. Mary, in the future I will be doing as you suggest.

Wasn't really trying to get it down to the bare metal. The wire brush method was just taking so long and we had this funny looking grinding bit in the toy box so I gave it a try. That baby took it down to metal with minimal pressure. It has a very small footprint though & it's harder to control the area I'm sanding when using the drill. So hopefully I'll be more accurate with the angle grinder. Also picked up a 60 grit flap disc at the same time hoping to get a larger area at once. Doubt that will go down to bare metal but should at least get that ugly surface rust off easier than the wire brush.

Will be testing out & playing with the angle grinder today on our porch project. Hoping to get a lot done on the trailer this weekend.

atahoekid wrote:I understand lots of folks built theirs on the 4 x 8 trailer but couldn't see the wife and I and our two dogs trying to share that space so a tent trailer frame was perfect for us. I stretched my cabin overall length to just about 14 feet. I added a foot and a half or so for the nose and another half foot at the tail.

If I can add 2 feet overall then it will be fantastic. When I first started planning a little toy hauler I thought we needed 13-14 feet. After repeated visiting a little, toy hauler for sale in a nearby town, so many visits that the salesmen are now convinced I'll buy it eventually, I realize we could do very well with 11-12 feet.