Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

As I said in the newbie section I am starting on a 5x10 Kenskill with art-deco interior. The frame is underway

It is not as much overkill as it seems. The tubing is 1x3 and 2x3 14 gauge. About 4 ounces per foot lighter than 2x2x 11 gauge with more vertical strength. About 160 lbs at this stage. I also will not use a wood frame under the floor, self tapping screws holding 1/2 ply to the frame. I have ordered 1400# Flexiride half axles. I wanted to try them and, although 22 degrees down should be fine for a ride height, I like the idea of adjustability. Naturally there are some things I would have done differently and I just started

Jim

Carter wrote:Naturally there are some things I would have done differently and I just started

It will become a recurring theme (at least it has for me). Keep up the good work and keep the pictures coming.

I believe the Kenskill was about 4x 9'4". Mine will be 5 x 10. I love the profile but may pull out the curve by the galley countertop a bit for more room and less shin knock. I am also playing around with the axle location. The original location seems a bit far back for 10-12% tounge weight using Andrew's calculator. Changes will be subtle, I don't want to spoil the classic looks

Jim

Carter,

You look like you are having lots of fun. Good, that is what it is all about

Great Job

John

I really like the Kenskill profile and will be following your build closely.

By the way, I also really like the TTT in your album. Not to derail this thread, but can you say how you joined/seamed the roof aluminum on it?

Jim,

Are you doing your own welding?

Mike...

"Are you doing your own welding?"

Mike,
Yes, I got carried away and bought a MIG machine a couple of weeks ago. Designed my frame and am having fun learning to weld on it. Did a little a few years ago and am teaching myself on this frame. Not doing bad. If you need a little buzz I'm in the neighborhood (welding, not alcohol, although I may have a beer in the fridge) . Good way to become a "donating member"

Jim

Aggie 79,
Just used the 4 foot wide aluminum crosswise on the body. started at the lowest point and lapped it as I went to the highest. figured it out so I had the center of a sheet at the highest point, everything else was downhill, water doesn't run the other way. Also used silicone on all the joints, but don't trust it, prefer physics.

Jim

John,
The tandem drop is over the edge, gotta love that. In another life long ago, I was a truck driver, you know I love tandems.

Jim

I'm moving along slowly. I want to use an A frame type jack to keep the outside of the tounge clean and leave room for a box if I decide I want one. The different tounge design is to push the jack away from the hitch so my pickup tailgate will clear. Mostly done on this side except mounting the axle(s) and jack. I'm still not sure where I want the hub faces so I ordered Flexiride 1400# half axles. A couple of weeks ago there was no information on them at all except that the ride height is adjustable. They showed up and I set to work measuring them up and doing a .dxf drawing. I sent that to Angib for his collection. He told me that UCF added lots of information to their site at recently. http://www.ucfamerica.com/tech.html Southwest wheel in Texas is the only distributer that I can find. The tag on them says they are made by Axis Products in Elkhart. Thats about 150 miles from me. They were shipped to Texas and back to me. About 2000 expensive miles. I can email the .dxf if anyone wants it. Please PM me
Jim

PS. for the people that live in temperate portions of the world that red machine on the right in the second picture is a "Snow Blower" It, the Lawn Mower, the gas cans and the spare propane bottle go outside while I am making sparks.

I've considered these axles as they would work well with a drop floor. I wonder, though, about alignment.

What is the process in mounting these? Is a bar (supplied by the builder) required to connect them to get them aligned?

or...

Can they be offset so that on wheel is closer to the front of the trailer than the other? This could help smooth the ride or may just be useful in laying out the floor plan. Of course it would help with a dropped floor.

I'll be watching this build closely.

I plan on just clamping the square tube to a straight edge while getting them aligned. Flexiride puts .5 degrees of toe in on their full axles. I will probably do that by putting a .087 shim between the axle tubes and the straight edge at one end of the tube. I will double check my math before welding. A dealer in Canada offeres pre-drilled mounting plates to weld to the frame and bolt to the half axles. Southwest Tire, the US dealer, didn't have what I was talking about, I will have to make my own. I suppose you could stagger them on the trailer but I would think long and hard about it. You could introduce some handling problems. I probably wouldn't use these again without a specific reason. They are more work than the full axle to install. The only advantage is that you can change your mind about the hub face width.

Carter wrote:PS. for the people that live in temperate portions of the world that red machine on the right in the second picture is a "Snow Blower" It, the Lawn Mower, the gas cans and the spare propane bottle go outside while I am making sparks.

Recognized it right away!!! Can't say that I miss owning one any more. In the past four years.... the most I have had to remove is a 1/2" off the windshield of the truck. Usually it's just scraping the frozen rain off though!!

Over here in Britain, half-axles are the normal way to to build a trailer and full axles are rarely used by home-builders.

Carter, your plan to clamp the half-axles to a straight beam is what we do here - pre-drill and bolt the mounting plates to the half-axles first (using the half-axle bolt holes as a drilling jig), then align the half-axles and tack weld the mounting plates in position - this avoids trying to get overly accurate about drilling the bolt holes.

Offsetting the half-axles (a little bit) shouldn't cause any problem - front-wheel drive Renault cars for many years had left and right wheelbases differ by a couple of inches so that the rear trailing arm torsion bars could overlap each other - I think there was a US vehicle that did the same thing.

Andrew

I didn't mean to imply that it was my plan to stagger the axles, only to bring up that it seemed possible and that there may be advantages.


I am definitely more comfortable going that direction, though, after Andrew's comments. But only if necessary.


And thanks for the described mounting methods. Thanks