Superlegerra -ish 5x9 foamy - First Trip!

[GPW]

L’, how much clearance do you have between fender and tire ??? With the wheels on the ground... weight added , and no weight ... ??? That should give you a pretty good idea of how much to notch ...

[jseyfert3]

Don't forget room for shock movement/tire expansion. Yesterday I was on some fairly rough roads and the teardrop went airborne at least once hitting a good sized pothole (that county must not have had enough revenue to maintain the highway in good shape. It was a state highway, the state should step in and help...oh wait, it's broke Illinois!) Unlike you I didn't remove any leafs, tires at 40 PSI. I'd still imagine they are going to compress before the teardrop goes airborne, and they will compress more with a leaf removed.

[lthomas987]

Don't forget room for shock movement/tire expansion. Yesterday I was on some fairly rough roads and the teardrop went airborne at least once hitting a good sized pothole (that county must not have had enough revenue to maintain the highway in good shape. It was a state highway, the state should step in and help...oh wait, it's broke Illinois!) Unlike you I didn't remove any leafs, tires at 40 PSI. I'd still imagine they are going to compress before the teardrop goes airborne, and they will compress more with a leaf removed.

Yeah the airborne trailer happened to me with a 300 lb snow thrower and wheels at 40psi. That is why I pulled the leaf. Now when I put a heavy adult 270lbs on the trailer the springs actually flex. They didn't before.

I hadn't accounted for heat expansion of the tire.

I am thinking like 1 to 1.5" gap with 500 lbs on the trailer.

Does that seem sufficient?

[jseyfert3]

Honestly I have no clue. And I wasn't thinking heat expansion, but centrifugal force expansion.

I think the default fenders only have an 1.5" gap or so though, but I can't remember for sure. The axle can only physically move up so much, about an inch to and inch and a quarter, before it hits the frame.

[lthomas987]

So I live in Minnesota. I don't currently camp in the cold. I would consider it if it wasn't so cold. Has anybody insulated the floor of a foamy? Does it make a big difference if you've had both insulated and uninsulated floors in the past? I was thinking of building my floor as 1/2" OSB on 2x4s to get it up over the wheels (with 1x6 sides) So I could just glue some sheets of foam between the 2x4 "joists" pretty easily. But now is the time if I'm going to do it. While it's easy to get at.

But I keep thinking that with a couple inches of foam mattress on the floor how much difference could insulating make?

[PKCSPT]

I live in Minnesota and do a bit of winter camping, once a year.
My floor and walls are not insulated, the walls are plywood with carpet covering them. The mattress seems to do a good job with insulating the floor for me. I do however camp where I have electric for my little heater.

[jseyfert3]

You should be more then fine with 1x4s instead of 2x4 floor joists.

[lthomas987]

You should be more then fine with 1x4s instead of 2x4 floor joists.

Yeah, BUT I have a stack of leftover 2x4.

[KCStudly]

Anyway to rip them in half, perhaps re-saw on a band saw?

I just made a rip fence for my little band saw and it worked pretty good for making a long notch cut in a piece of 2x2 cedar (I'll be posting some more details and pics in my build thread after loading up the pics).

[jseyfert3]

You should be more then fine with 1x4s instead of 2x4 floor joists.

Yeah, BUT I have a stack of leftover 2x4.

Good point, as long as weight is not a huge concern.

[lthomas987]

You should be more then fine with 1x4s instead of 2x4 floor joists.

Yeah, BUT I have a stack of leftover 2x4.

Good point, as long as weight is not a huge concern.

The difference is 37 lbs vs 18. So not the end of the world.

[Shar]

On the question of whether to insulate the floor, some people on this site have said that with an uninsulated floor, they had moisture condensing under their mattress. That's why I'm insulating mine. It's like what happens if you put a mattress on a concrete floor in a basement- it gets wet underneath. This might depend on the climate, of course. $.02

[lthomas987]

Right then insulation for under the floor. The last thing I want is a mattress mildewing due to condensation I didn't notice. I think I might just use 1" insulation though.

So I got my deck all glued and screwed together last night and this morning. It's not screwed down to the trailer yet. Probably tomorrow morning first thing. I will go fetch insulation and glue it in place, then screw the deck down. Unless I decide in favor of more waterproofing (but at some point a person has transcended rationality on that point and I might be approaching that point).

I also grafted an additional 12" onto the side pieces for my trailer. I offset them down a bit so my front curve SHOULD if I understand what I am doing run into the bottom of the side boards, and look like I had a clue.

I'm going with a modified Superleggera profile, as it met with approval from the boss. The only change I'm really making besides stretching it to closer to 9 feet long is the front radius on the bottom is 11" in the original plans, which having just curved 1" foam to an 11" radius for the bike-drop I didn't really want to try in 2" foam. Is the plan.

Some quick math ala the Kerf's sticky http://tnttt.com/viewtopic.php?f=55&t=44081 tells me the outside of the curve is like 23.5" and the inside is 22" which means that over the 23.5" I need to remove 1.5" of foam on the inside of the curve. Given the 1/8" kerf on my table saw blade... that's 12 slots or one every 2" or there abouts. So that seems moderately reasonable. I'll probably actually cut a few extra kerfs and do them at like 1.5" spacing to make it a bit easier to bend.

They're gluing up in the garage where they should stay nice and dry. Tomorrow after I screw the deck to the trailer frame I'll probably go draw the curves and tape them so I can stare at them for a few days before cutting.

[lthomas987]

Here are some photos

I am in love with the forstner bit! Made cutting out those holes for the bolts that stick up from the HF trailer super easy and neat!

Here's the deck upside down and off the trailer. The span at the back especially is a bit long between joists, but since it's under the foot end of the TD I'm not too worried.

I might go cut foam today to insulate the bottom but the temp is currently like 35 in my garage and it is pouring rain so it's not like I could glue it up if I wanted to. I did go out and buy it this morning though.


Last night before it got cold I glued extensions on the end of my side walls. I could go draw those today and maybe cut them too so when I get everything turned upright I could really make some tracks. We'll see how much cold and rain saps my motivation. I'm even feeling sorry for the duck nesting in my front bed right outside my door.

[KCStudly]

Good progress!

I think you are past the "initial planning" stage. (If you go back and edit the subject line in your first post in this thread it will show that in the index and default to that for future posts).

When cutting out your profiles, if you used GG for the extension piece, be aware that the GG is tougher than the foam. It can affect your cut and any sanding that you may need to do. My advice would be to cut the seem as accurately as you can but leave a little foam outside your line around it. It is easy to sand the foam to the line, but if the GG seam needs sanding what tends to happen is the adjacent foam gets sanded away first leaving the GG proud. At least that has been my experience.