New to the group and I need HELP

[danmary]

Hi.. Dan and Mary here. We live in St. George, Utah in a home without much extra space. I bought a HF 4X8 folding trailer some time back because of no storage for a full trailer.. Now we want to start using it for camping... along the lines of a teardrop.. but this is where it gets a bit harder... I would love to make the camper so I can take it apart quickly and stack it flat up against the wall and use the trailer when ever I have to as a trailer... I have been giving the shape some thought.. and by using flat panels instead of curved ones would make the assembly easy. Using trailer roof clamps to hold the wall, ends and roof on should be possible too. Some screws and nut certs and some help finding doors and windows and I think it might work. If anyone has ever tried building one like that, let me know...

[kayakdlk]

Welcome to the forum. I don't recall one like you mention, Several have a slide out body but then you would need more room. My first thought is what would keep it from leaking but then I have seen several with soft vinyl roofs. So perhaps you could overlaps the roof on the sides and snap it on to keep the rain out and then remove the soft roof and take down sides like you said. Use a few screwed in spars across the tops to stabilize the roof. Hopefully others will join in and give you more ideas

Dan

[danmary]

Thanks for he welcome... and the information. I was planning on using a tongue and groove type of overlap to make it waterproof at the sides and top... and use the hurricane hinge at each 90 degree or less on the top... question about the hurricane hinge... can it slide apart if slid left/right if the hinge is horizontal?
I have used trailer roof clamps... like the ones from my old Jayco trailer... to do other type of clamping... and was thinking of using them to pull the top down tight to the sides and more than likely use nuts and bolts to hold the side and front walls to the floor.... like I said this is just me thinking about how I could do to make this happen.
Dan

[KennethW]

Just brain storming. What about having the galley wall and part of the front wall fold down(hinged with tube type seals) then the side wall fold on top of that. With a few struts (closet poles) across the top One could use truck tarp material and snaps for the roof and roll-up hatch. One could use a 18"x48" card table with the legs cut short for the galley counter. Just some off the top of my head thoughts. Good luck

[Jdw2717]

My father made a large knock apart table for tool shows using house door hinges. All you had to do was line up the hinges and insert the pins. Take down was simple. Just knock out the pins and disassemble. You could maybe use this style with some safety attachment points with foamie walls. Just a thought.

[danmary]

I use to have a 4x4 HF trailer. I made a top that could come off that used removable door hinges. I am just going through everything I can find to get ideas to help me get this made..
Thanks for all the info... it all is good
Dan

[aggie79]

There was a knockdown, take apart trailer on this forum a ways back. Let me dust off the cobwebs in my mind and see if I can find a link.

[aggie79]

There was a knockdown, take apart trailer on this forum a ways back. Let me dust off the cobwebs in my mind and see if I can find a link.

Here's a DIY example: http://www.tnttt.com/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=56075

Here's a commercially-built trailer: http://www.tealinternational.com/TailFeather/

Hope this helps.