New start.

[stephent]

There's no welds done back yet. It's "almost" ready, but not quite ready to weld back. And Philip is correct...there's mostly a lot of hit n miss welds on the frame, but it stayed together well since it's build date of Oct, 81. Like the ends of the C-channel is only welded on the top/bottom and few have any in the long part of the C's... But this is just ready to clean a bunch and weld back up. If you notice the large pencil mark on the outside rail...that's the 8' mark from the rear. I think I will just put a 2"x2"x 1/8" angle across the 8' mark for the cabin and use the heavy crossmember to help support a front goodie box.. The frame weight is down to 320 pds or slightly less and there's still 60-70 more pounds to remove...so it's good.
With the factory heavy plating in the siderail C-channel open area there's not much way of this frame going south if I do my part on the small sections like in the pics.. It will be welded more then the factory did.. lol

[stephent]

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It's been a while, but I got it stripped down to a bare frame..cut back to what size I wanted. And re-welded the whole front A-tongue back shorter. Added a couple pieces of 1/8" x 2"x2" angle from the tongue angling under the tongue A-frame part to 2' back on the frame. Put a 1/2" exterior rated ply deck on it after a couple of heavy insurance coats of "the Mix". Put the trailer light kit on.. got the title and license. And took it out and around the country side to shake it down...changed the hubs out to no brakes with new bearings too.. removed the surge hydraulic brake assembly on the tongue. And took it out to town today and loaded some 3/8" plywood for the walls. It pulls straight... the deck and corners of the trailer are within 1/16" of square... new tires,,and hubs and bearings.. Tires seem very balanced and round even... the Chinese tires and rims are getting better I guess.. we managed to get up to 68mph and it seemed like it wasn't back there on gas mileage (still 34mpg) . Will be a different story when it gets more facing the wind when it's built though.. The fenders are temporary old tubs from the pop-up.

[stephent]

Drug the plywood off the trailer and cut it to modified Benroy...but a 24" front radius. Regular back. Still needs door cut out but looked like rain so I took both sides to my shop to work on them out there. It's a start.. Now to figure out if I want thin 1" sides and top or 1 1/2" by turning the "studs".. The side looks pinched in at bottom edges cuz it's tilted out on that wire to hold it upright.

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[stephent]

It's been slowly progressing. As time and money allows. And family visiting and if the sinus bug don't bite again. I'm regretting the Ragweed blooming now. But progressing still.
I have the yard kind of cleaned up from the demolition of the pop-up. I took the scrap alum into the scrap yard and got almost 70% what I gave for the trailer to start with. Even with today's low alum prices. I took the sides out to my shop to work on. Sides are sandwich 7/16" CDX outers, with 3/4" spars/studs and then 1/8" interior Luan. Outer is stained a Honey Oak with some dark Red Mahogany mixed in for some reddish tones and then one coat of thinned stain and 50% reduction of "the Mix". Interior wall is plain jane Honey Oak stain, with one coat over the stain of Marine
Spar Varnish/Poly.
Panels weigh 54/55 pounds with the Wiley windows cut in (door is included in right side weight) Trailer weight with the deck on and primer painted--lights-wiring, etc is 340 pds now.
Top panels are ready to install in one piece......they are lapped with some 1/8" ply reinforcing and all glued up to extend all the way back to the hatch hinge spars area. Not any finish on them yet. Probably will slap a few coats of "the Mix" on the top outside after the poly glue sets for a day or two. Then it's 2 coats of Kool Seal type roofing on the top. Nother month maybe?
Left side upside down.

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Right side, the galley shelf attachments are mirrored with bracing/spars inside the wall.

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Slowly but surely.

[stephent]

Some progress.... mounted sidewalls and interior roof and spars.. Insulated it with 1" rigid insulation. Had to cover it cuz I was getting tired.. I think I chatched up to the flu Friday nite about midnite. Nother story...nother time.
It's square!...waddya know.

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Looking at the inside shot I think I need to go get that TBII run before it sets tight..

[flbikejunkie]

Looking good

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Tapatalk

[stephent]

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[stephent]

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[stephent]

3 coats of the mix...now 3 coats of clear metal base untinted on the sidewalls. It's shiny. Tomorrow will be the hatch hinge and a couple of coats of elastomeric roof coating on top of the 3 coats of the mix on the roof.

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[rebapuck]

Looks like a camper!! Just the one door?

[stephent]

Yup...one door. No need for 2 doors. I've been a widower for about 8 years now and that's not a problem. And in bear country I don't have anyone to use the side door that isn't being torn apart by a large brown bear to act as bear bait while I get out the torn up door....ie.. bears can run at close to 25-30mph...how fast are you? Bears are fast....a .40cal round goes a little faster. Same goes for errant thinking miscreants who are stupid enuff to wake me from a camping sleep (I love to sleep out in nature but decided this spring I ain't sleeping on the ground anymore) .
It's nothing special but is a personal camper/teardrop for me. It will be used a lot I hope.

[stephent]

ttt_rear-shelves_painted2.JPG (36.86 KiB) Viewed 2585 times

Light tan latex paint on shelving...left over from painting my front room a few years ago. Inside sleeping area is light stain and poly.

[stephent]

galley_lights11-19-2016.JPG (59.32 KiB) Viewed 2522 times

Using a small ceramic heater inside and a electric blanket. Haven't ran across a decent priced 12vdc electric blankie yet for boonie camping. The LED galley strip lights are equivalent to a 125+ watt incandescent. The large box looking thing at the bottom of the pic is the left side table top in it's vertical stored position, which hides the ice cooler and a large storage plastic box with extra "things" in it and a large riding mower 12v battery. There's a 12vdc @ 12 amps AC to DC power supply on the top right shelf space with a small 2-6 amp battery charger next to that. It's switch selectable for 120 volts ac (shore power) or 12 volts dc battery...both 12 volt supplies fused at 10 amps from either source. All lights on is just at 6 amps of draw...72 watts total draw with 19 of those watts being the exhaust fan on high speed......low speed is very quiet and 7.2 watts of consumption. I used a spdt switch and two 10 ohm 10 watt resistors in series in the low speed feed side to the switch/fan. I figure even this small battery will last several days with judicial use with no recharge..
Propane cook stove with the 120 volt toaster-oven and a coffee pot (which is the important thing). It has 2 homebrew outisde lights...left and right each with about 30 watts incandescent equivalent LED lighting power each.. This pic was taken late yesterday evening at just about dark with no flash on the camera. It's bright in the galley area. Time to load this thing up with eats and try er out.

[stephent]

First outing besides a couple hundred showing/testing miles this last month or so. I pulled it up to south central.... Houston, Missouri and then across to Neosho, Mo and then home. Almost 700 miles round trip. Slept one nite at an outside temp of 48 for a low, but the electric 120 volt blankie kept me warm n toasty. The little ceramic heater at 600 watts on low brought it up from mid-50's to 75 degrees in 15 minutes and same for the next morning but from 48 inside to 75. But I was comfy under the electric blanket.. just one blanket on top of the electric blanket.. I slept with the little ceramic heater off cus of the fan noise but it more then likely wouldn't have bothered me...I was tired!
Made coffee the next morning in an old 4 cup 120 volt lectric maker I had around.
The thing pulled great and straight. no fuss...no muss.. tires cool enuff...bearings/hubs actually cold.. One tire is showing more wear then I like though. Almost 1/2 gone already across mostly the middle at the same pressure (55psi) as the left. Weight is within 20 pounds left/right sides. Must be a dud at less then 1000 miles total on it. The left is showing it should run 10K or so.
I slept like a baby in it. Found a few things I will need to add....coffee cup holders right n left inside.. mat to put feet on to keep feet dry outside the door.. coffee cup holders left and right in galley. Trash bag holder inside cabin and galley.
Awning over door would be nice too.. it rained Tues nite where I was parked. Almost loud inside the sleeping cabin, but not like a tin roof for sure.
But other then those things nothing sprang into mind as needful right now..
I like it!

[KennethW]

Sounds like you had a good time.