side loading, the easy way to make a removeable tear.

[rowerwet]

In my years of lurking, and then becoming a tear builder/owner on this forum, I've seen many people mention making their tear removable so the trailer can do double duty. while some ideas have been more successfull than others, most builders who start with this idea end up deciding it is too much work.
I decided to swap trailers yesterday, I need my strongest frame under my utility trailer, in figuring how to move my tear between trailers, I considered a bunch of ideas. I cannot lift it myself, though, since I didn't build a foamie the first time, it is too heavy.
I wanted to just roll it off, and onto the new frame, but that would mean it would be on the frame backwards, spinning it around on the new frame would be another hassle and potential to damage it.

Parking the frames next to each other gave me the idea.

Remove the tires in the way!
Then I jacked the tear up, inserted rollers (PVC pipe)

and a bunch of pushing and grunting later, the tear was onto the new frame.

If I was making a removable tear, I would also make a dolly to park the tear on, it could have a deck of rollers and casters, or it could just be wood on top like a furniture dolly, (in that case the trolley jack would help in removing the PVC rollers) either way it would have large casters under it to allow me to reposition the tear for storage/backyard camping.
Hope this helps!

[smit0577]

That is a fantastic idea! I would needto pull it off the back rather than the side because of my garage/driveway/alley set up, but rolling it onto a dolly might be the answer! I think a boat winch could help with the 8' of dragging??

How would you propose attaching the cabin to the trailer? If the floor were 2X4s on end, in a plywood sandwich, could you attach eyebolts to the 2X4 faces and use ratchet straps to secure the load to the trailer? Or would that be unpleasant to look at and extremely dangerous? I've used the search function to get ideas for securing the cabin, and found someone's cleat system and heard mention of the straps, but I would need more specific instructions.

Wow, thanks rowerwet. Another great idea! Wow.

[smit0577]

FACEPALM

Of course, ideas for this are all over the forum. Three examples:

viewtopic.php?f=50&t=67555

viewtopic.php?f=29&t=12208

viewtopic.php?f=50&t=61318

I even found a long thread about shear strength or something that made it sound like not a big deal to bolt a pod on a trailer. Its all in the size of the washer.... I have yet to find a post about keeping the moisture and the mosquitoes out of these bolt holes in the teardrop, but I'll keep looking. Probably a big washer would solve that too.

Thanks,

Scott

[rowerwet]

I found it easy to push when the tear was propped on rollers. A group non swiveling casters on the dolly would do almost the same thing.
I would still use bolts to attach the tear to the trailer, I only have four 3/8 bolts for each of my tears with hundreds of miles on both

[smit0577]

Thanks! Do the bolts go through the floor of the cabin, so the head of the bolt is in the cabin or the galley, and the bolt passes through the decking and trailer frame? I'm having trouble imagining it (and having trouble finding the photo on this forum that can "dumb it down" for me). I see lots of "bolt it down" comments, and I imagine that means going right through the floor of the cabin, but it seems awkward to deal with and also a little rough to punch a hole in your floor.

Now I'm prowling around the forum checking out ideas for a 5X8 or 5X10 tear on a 4X8 trailer, so I've added that wrinkle to the desire for a removeable camper.

Thanks again for replying.

[working on it]

Thanks! Do the bolts go through the floor of the cabin, so the head of the bolt is in the cabin or the galley, and the bolt passes through the decking and trailer frame? I'm having trouble imagining it (and having trouble finding the photo on this forum that can "dumb it down" for me). I see lots of "bolt it down" comments, and I imagine that means going right through the floor of the cabin....

Not if you do build it in two stages. I was building a 3/4" plywood structure (bought 5 or six sheets of great pre-sanded 3/4" ply for $125), but I started out with one sheet of 1/2" birch plywood I had stored in one of my outbuildings for 10-12 years. I bolted it to the frame (on the interior frame members, not on the perimeter ones) with eight 3/8" carriage bolts.

birch ply with carriage bolts slightly countersunk.jpg (37.76 KiB) Viewed 533 times

Then, I used a lot of Titebond 2 to glue a sheet of 5mm luan on top. Then, after squaring/clamping the rear of the two sheets together, we (I had help doing this) Tek screwd one edge of the luan to the birch, and used a heavy roll of "shrink-wrap" (I had borrowed from work) with a short pipe inside it, to roll over the luan, and press out any excess glue/air caught between the pieces.

shrink wrap.jpg (27.38 KiB) Viewed 533 times

We slowly "stitched" the pieces together, going forward along the edges. The Tek screws (we use 30-40? in all) went thru both layers of wood into the perimeter metal frame. As I was rolling out the excess glue, I used my body weight to maintain pressure on the completed areas. I maintained the pressure, later, with bags of goat feed, remaining on top for a week, to cure. Finally, I polyurethaned the luan (3-4 coats?) and auto-body undercoated the trailer floor. Even without the main structure on top, this floor can't move!

tek screwed thin luan onto birch ply, polyurethane finish.jpg (48.14 KiB) Viewed 533 times

Not exactly what the OP has in mind, for easy removal.

[rowerwet]

Yes, the bolt heads are on top of the floor, some use elevator bolts for the large flat head, but any bolt works, just use fender washers for more grip under the head.
I believe four bolts is all you need, one pee corner, with nuts under the frame.

[smit0577]

Thanks a lot to you both for the posts. I appreciate it!