AlgoDan wrote:Hello and welcome aboard, plenty of great info and people on this forum. We love pics of the build process, so we'll be waiting. Good luck
Warning: You just said that to a guy that owns a DSLR, you might get picture overload from me.
Although I
hate the built in picture managing. I know it's sometimes best to keep the pictures hosted by the forum, so people can browse the galleries, but as far as I can find, it requires you upload each picture one by one (no selecting 10 pictures at once), and they have to be resized to 640x480. I'll use Flickr, as I do on the other forum I'm active in. Much quicker, no need to resize, easy to copy links that are already in BBCode. Rant over.
Well, here we go. I slid the axle mount back until the front top hole of the mount lined up with the carriage bolt hole in the front of the rear side rail. This will put my axle at 38" from the rear, or 40% for my planned 8' TD, which is a "
reasonable compromise for an average teardrop".
Positioning The Axle Mount by
jseyfert3, on Flickr
Following
Nobody's plans here, I put one of the middle crossbeams inside the side rail. This will provide the support between the front and rear side rails that the axle mount provided before I shifted it back. I decided to align it so that the rear of the two bottom middle holes lined up over the carriage bolt hole show in the above picture.
Since the second of the trailer's crossbeams will be in the same position on the left front and rear side rails, I will have a shaped 1x4 or 2x4 to take the place of them, similar to what Nobody did.
Crossbeam Clamped, Ready to Drill by
jseyfert3, on Flickr
The first hole I drilled. I used Titanium-Nitrate coated drill bits, which are the called "Titanium" and have a gold color. I first used a center punch to get a spot for the bit to go, then I step drilled with 3/16", 5/16", and 7/16" drill bits, applying thread cutting oil three to four times per hole. I used a hand drill and went slow with liberal pressure. The bit had a tendency to jam up near the bottom of the hole, if that happened I had to back it out, apply some oil, and use high speed and very light pressure to clear the jam. A drill press would have been preferred, but I do not own one at this time. Overall it went fine.
First Hole by
jseyfert3, on Flickr
Next I drilled the hole for the outside edge, rear side carriage bolt on the axle mount. I used a scratch awl to make the cross in the paint you see, to line up the center punch, then used the punch to make the tiny hole in the center.
Carrage Bolt, Rear Axle Mount on Side (1) by
jseyfert3, on Flickr
Step drilled as described above.
Carrage Bolt, Rear Axle Mount on Side (2) by
jseyfert3, on Flickr
The crossbeam which is now a side rail support is too long, it will interfere with one and/or both of the front-middle or rear-middle cross beams, depending how you positioned it. As I positioned it, it interferes with the rear-middle crossbeam. I marked it with a sharpie. Note I had bolted the side rail, inner crossbeam, and axle mount together on accident. Don't do this, as it has to be unbolted to remove the inned crossbeam for cutting. Or (now I think of it) just measure and cut before you drill the bolt holes in the first place, that works too...
Needs to be Cut (1) by
jseyfert3, on Flickr
Removed and marked all the way around.
Needs to be Cut (2) by
jseyfert3, on Flickr
I also marked on this and other parts with orientation and piece information. Because I was modifying parts, cutting and drilling holes, I did not want to put the wrong piece in the wrong place and drill wrong holes on it later.
Can't Get Mixed Up Now by
jseyfert3, on Flickr
After cutting the both the left and right inner crossbeams with a cutoff wheel on an angle grinder, I re-assembled the parts and checked fit. Looks good!
Cut and Fits by
jseyfert3, on Flickr
Then I had to loosen the three bolts I had installed, cause I couldn't fit in the front side rail on with them tight... After doing that, I aligned everything by clamping, and tightened the three bolts I installed previously. You can barely see the joint between the right front and right rear side rails, almost exactly in line with the left of the shock mount.
Time to Assemble by
jseyfert3, on Flickr
This picture shows both right side rails together, as well as the axle mount and all three bolts I installed previously. The frontmost bolt is one of the longer bolts 10x30 mm bolt supplied with the kit, while the other two are the two carriage bolts, all three being used in the holes in the axle mount as per the plans. I didn't drill any holes in the axle mount (yet, anyway), only in the side rail and inner crossbeam.
You can also see the two bolt holes in the angle iron on the topmost part of the axle mount. These holes are next.
Drilling Front Axle Mount Holes (1) by
jseyfert3, on Flickr
Nice chips. After drilling a 3/16" starting hole part way, I experimented by switching to the 7/16" bit instead of step drilling. Worked fine, just took longer. I'll stick to step drilling until I get a drill press.
Drilling Front Axle Mount Holes (2) by
jseyfert3, on Flickr
And finally, the right front and rear side rails where assembled, along with a shifted axle mount. You can see the two bolts and nuts at the front of the axle mount, in the holes I drilled above. Even with the added thickness of the crossbeam inside, the supplied (and specified) 10x25 mm bolts were long enough, just barely. I'm not quite done with this, the inner crossbeam need to have a side and bottom hole drilled and bolted near the front of it, and perhaps one on the rear, on the bottom near the side bolt near the end I cut off. This will need 2-3 more bolts, so I'll be getting some more grade 8.8 ten mm bolts and nuts from the local hardware store. Unfortunately, nylon locknuts are sparse for the metric bolts, so the new bolts may just have regular nuts and Loctite. Not a problem, just means if I bolt something and need to unbolt it cause I forgot something, like I did today already, I'll have to re-apply Loctite. Not a big deal.
Right Side, Finished by
jseyfert3, on Flickr
Tomorrow: Drill a the holes and bolt as I mentioned (pics). After that, repeat everything in mirror image on the left rail (no pics). Then start the assembly process (pics). They say starting is half the battle, so I'm off to a good start. But I'm going to spend half as much time working as I do taking pictures and writing my build thread.