Build Journal: All Aluminum Bare Bones Tiny Travel Trailer

[ssuuki19]

Ok so I think I've settled on a standard for all my pics thats suitable for the forum.. I went back and changed all the other ones.
Here we go, only allowed three pics per post so I'll do the 8 pics in sequence:

cabin from the front

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cabin from the starboard

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close-up of port side slider from the front

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[ssuuki19]

underbelly with port and starboard sliders (umm, can you say ice fishing??)

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starboard half-axle mounting approach showing u-bolts and wheel spacer adapter to fit 14" car rims (lens angle makes it look not square)

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another pic of starboard half-axle to show the mounting approach so the sliders can clear

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[ssuuki19]

underside of port half-axle to show mounting approach (edit april 2020 - the half axles lasted 22,000 kms or 13,333 miles overloaded)

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underside of trailer tongue to show approach to strengthen and triangulate (not finished yet)

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[ssuuki19]

Whatever bedliner product you choose to use make sure the smell eventually goes away. Some stink when hot for quite a while.

During' this build journal I am going to report what I've done/wrecked today. The idea about using truck bed liner on the interior was discarded for the voc reason and its weight, although I found a supplier willing to do it. Was totally loving the idea of aluminum/xps/bedliner sandwich for strength, rigity, and waterproofness. It seems as usual, gonna end up building heavy (who was the nutbar who threw out 600lbs?!?, oh yea that was me ) but still aggressive on the bare bones weight. I have been 'stalling' taking it to the scale. No more stalling, we will get a baseline weight after the weekend festivities and whatnot.

[dancam]

Nice to see this starting back up again

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[ssuuki19]

Acoustic insulation panels have arrived, haven't un-crated them yet.
Today the trailer tongue mounting points were beefed up with stainless hardware (so my novice cold welds are redundant, ahem). A 1000lb boat winch was installed at the front of the tongue, and three eye-hooks were installed at the front bottom of the cabin. With a rope through the eye-hooks and a carabiner connected to the winch the cabin can now be pulled onto the trailer just like a boat. To offload, 4 spring hinged tie-downs will be used on the rear end. With all 7 of these tie down points the cabin can now be offloaded by tying to a tree or another car hitch, anything stationary, and it can be carried by 4 ppl with rope loops. I dream about offloading it onto a layer of straw bales when its stationary for awhile.
Anywho, heres the pics for the day. Enjoy!

three eye hooks at the bottom of the front

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winch mounting approach, rims cleaned up

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current state of affairs on the trailer - note the 4 stainless steel bolts on the tongue vertices (5th one hidden by the winch)

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Oh I forgot to mention one thing... that handle on the winch is perfect for moving the trailer as its off to the side and its laterally strong (tried to bend it in a vice) but pivots a bit in freewheel mode, but you can lock it either direction for upgrade pulls and downgrade pushes (driveway is a downgrade). Now the trailer has a 'tongue handle'
[Edit: broke the direction pin bolt, drilled it out and replaced it with a bigger bolt, haven't lubed it yet]

[ssuuki19]

So today for the first time, the cabin section was winched onto the trailer. It worked quite well. As the winch got taught on the caribiner the trailer frame shored up against the tree stump piece that you've seen in the pics. And the cabin section slid like a slider, this is great news. Might put carpet on the trailer frame edges. Here are the first three pics in the sequence:

closeup of the winch

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first test of the winching approach

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the dang thing just crawled its way on to the trailer

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[ssuuki19]

So what I learned today is by blocking the trailer at pretty much the right height, the weight transfer to the trailer frame was quite seamless. The rails did have a 'self aligning' effect and from there it winched really well, I don't think the 1000 pound winch was pushed too much. But I might try some 2:1 setups to put less stress on it. You can see in the pics that I forgot to 'centre' the caribiner so the winch strap was a bit out of alignment, but still worked fine nonetheless.
So another obstacle overcome! There was a distinct possibility that the exposed bolt heads from the stainless steel bolts on the frame would line up with the underside aluminum rivets, but luckily this was not the case, so there were no scraping issues (whew, the clearance tolerance right now is pretty much nil). Raising the height by a few mm will take care of any hangup issues in the field, I figure. Here is the rest of the successful winching:

aaand there we go (actually in the field it can go a foot to two feet more to get the tongue weight right)

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and another pic of the completed weight transfer to the trailer

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ready to roll, boat style! (well with some tie down hardware tbd)

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[ssuuki19]

Insulation arrived at build site. Time to make some big decisions and get the windows and doors mounted! Got my rivet gun back this past wknd so pretty much ready to roll.. er... rivet.

time to take a look at these sound dampening insulation panels! pics soon

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[crpngdth2001]

Looks great so far!


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[ssuuki19]

Much appreciated!, I hope ppl who read my thread when I thought I could do it in a year are still reading my thread like I do from for re-edits. You see, this machine might actually do what it sought to do, at least no deal breakers are seen today.... soooo its all looking like there aren't any show stoppers in the rest of the build, there was one last gaggler - the cargo door hinge. [Edit: found 3" .061 aluminum piano hinge no worries, all is well, see pics below somewhere]

[ssuuki19]

Should I do the moon window at the front, or the giant full sized rv passenger door first?

[ssuuki19]

Did the front window first, it was tougher because the 1/8" .375" grip alum-alum rivets don't have much pull when you set them so I used a lot in order to compress the butyl tape. On the inside 4 triangular notched brackets were added to the corners. Honestly it just sort of worked out well, I more than doubled the rivets to compress that ring, and have the butyl tape pushed out completely around the perimeter. The rivets along the top and bottom go through the 1/8" square tube so the window is set solid. Rivets were each dipped in sikkaseal, as well as the back of the brackets (using a toothbrush). The sealant acts like a glue too, its great to hold pieces in place while drilling, etc. So window 1 done, three more and two doors to go. Tomorrow, the excess butyl tape will be scraped off flush, and a bead of sikka-seal will be done on both sides to complete the install. Heres the pics:

inside view

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close-up of bracket idea

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window from the front, had to move rivets up and down best I could do was make it symmetrical

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[ssuuki19]

So today two of the Lil' Bear crankout windows were installed. These windows were pretty straightforward to install because they were pre-fit, just to tolerance. The butyl tape is amazing, its like playdough you can re-use the squishout and whatnot. A 1/4" bead of sikkaseal was added to the inside corner perimeter of the windows because it will help when sealing the inside. Standard 3/16" alum alum rivets, I decided to add horizontal rivets on both windows to ensure the butyl tape squished out, again, its awesome stuff, but I'm still figuring it out. The 3/16" rivets have a pretty sweet amount of pull to them - they were able to squish the butyl tape, just fine. I love that sound now, when a good pop rivet goes in. All went well, gave the windows a water wipe, they are easy to clean. Took some pics:

first lil' bear crankout window install with butyl tape, sikkaseal, rivets

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the two driver side windows installed

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this is the view from the galley (cargo door opens up to make umbrella in rainy times)

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[ssuuki19]

So today the final window was installed. Pretty much same method - butyl tape, sikkaseal, rivets. Seems to work pretty great with the aluminum rivets. I'm getting faster at it too. Ooh almost forgot, today the aluminum piano hinge was purchased and brought to the build site. Here's the pics for the day:

read that if you put similar windows on both sides it creates the 'illusion' of space

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just a nice pic of the Lil' Bear 30" window

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the view from the galley towards the door (next up...)

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