From the north... a 5x9 for three.

[Jonnythecanuck]

And so it begins...

My plan is to build a 5x9 teardrop with a bunk for myself, my wife, and 2 year old daughter. It will be a custom build, heavily influenced by random trailers I have seen here, and with the help of Tony Latham's book.

Here is a 4'x8' angle iron utility trailer I build last year, carrying a few hundred pounds of the bones of the yet to be named teardrop. A little salty from the trip into the city...


The image below is the basic frame plan. 2" square tubing, 1/8" walled.


I really liked the idea of the removable coupler in Tony's book. We do plan to camp in some pretty remote areas and it would be great to not have to worry about the trailer.
I pretty much followed his design with the exception of welding a 5/8" hitch pin through the tongue. It is probably completely unnecessary, but ah well.







I am currently keeping my eyes open for a good, used Mig welder, but all I have for now is a AC/DC Hobart stick welder. I find stick welding 1/8" steel with 7018 rods challenging near edges/small gaps. I am only am amateur welder, although I do have experience from welding classes in trade school and the build of my utility trailer .

To confirm settings, I ran some fillets on scrap 1/8" steel and beat them to hell and back with a mallet. I etched a weld to see how it penetrated. It is much easier to see the darker weld in person. For some reason it doesn't show the vertical penetration well in the photo. My angle was a bit off too.



More to come

[RJ Howell]

Nice beginning!

[Jonnythecanuck]

I did some more destructive testing with some welds today. I haven't decided if I will just stick weld the whole trailer, or wait until I can pick up a MIG welder. I would like a MIG welder anyway to be able to do sheet metal and thinner stuff. 1/8" is about the absolute thinnest I can do with stick at my skill level.

In the video I have a piece of 2"x2" square welded on only two sides only to a piece of 1/8" angle. Mangled but seems adequately fused to the base material.

Before:


After:





If there are any real welders out there, I would really appreciate some help with bridging the gaps when butting the end up to the side of a tube. I haven't attempted it yet, but know I will have to keep a super short arc, concentrate on the corner, and just catch the edge. I can already hear the sound of blowing through the edge though.

Would it be helpful to fill the gap first? Either by a series of small tacks, or a rod with the flux knocked off? I really would appreciate any tips.

[NevadaBlue]

Your welds look fine to me.

IMO, on that butt joint you showed, weld the top and bottom first. Then run a fast pass along the corner of the open joint. Might take 2 or 3 passes with cleanup between of course. You are doing fine, I think.

[Socal Tom]

Make sure you grind the edge to fit tight, and if you grind a bit of an angle into them for the weld to sit in, you get a cleaner weld.

[BigDave_185]

Do a search for a j or whip type pattern. Hold the wire/puddle/metal high on the vertical piece for a tit longer then you do on the bottom.

Remember to push instead of pull the puddle and like other have said you already proven the strength. Looks great


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[Jonnythecanuck]

Thanks a lot for the feedback. I'll cut some more coupons and practice that T joint.

[swoody126]

And so it begins...


More to come

it may just be the way this image shows up on my screen butt...

as i look at this pic what my eyes are seeing is an imbalance in the amount of penetration in the two pieces being joined

there seems to be more penetration in the bottom piece

to my eyes this indicates the rod was pointed more downward thus penetrating the bottom piece deeper

ideally the rod should bisect any angle being joined if the two pieces are equal or nearly equal in mass

penetration of aprox/up to 1/2 the mass is the target i aim for in an ideal world

your piece of square tubing that was malletized w/ vigor PASSED the ultimate test which is to withstand violence

the realistic bottom line is that your welds stand up to the worst case scenario and that will ultimately be tested on the road over many miles

just comments from an old man

sw

[tony.latham]

It will be a custom build, heavily influenced by random trailers...

I'm already learning stuff from this discussion on welding so I'm eager to watch your build progress.

(I think your chassis will be fine, even if you beat it with a sledge.)



Tony

[featherliteCT1]

canuck, I grew up around a lot of welding, and know basic theory, but am not a welder myself, so no help from me. But I have always wanted to learn. I thoroughly enjoyed viewing your photos and reading your commentary … the video test was especially entertaining. The comments others made were icing on the cake. I too learned a lot. Thanks for posting!

[Jonnythecanuck]

swoody126: Thanks for the honest feedback and I agree 100% that I missed the 45 degree angle. I am trying to etch the welds with phosphoric acid based rust remover. I believe the concentration may be too low as I am not getting much contrast at all so I am going to look for something else. Would you expect much deeper penetration with a low penetrating rod like a 7018? I'm running these 3/32" rods at 85ish amps, and I'm concerned about blowing through if I go much higher.

For comparison, here is an etching of a 3 pass weld with 1/8" 7018 rods from an absolute pro and one of my favourite youtube instructors.
https://www.weldingtipsandtricks.com/7018-tee.html


I practiced welding tube to tube in a T joint today. I dealt with the gap at the rounded corners by first laying a pass concentrating on the rounded corner while just catching the end of the other piece. I then welded a second pass reaching deeper into the edge. Damn, that's hard to explain. Here's some photos.




Again, tough to see the etching but you can make out the two passes if you look closely. Based on this etch, I'm confident I will have a very strong joint using this method but.... I can't guarantee there won't be more destructive testing.

There will also be redundancy in the design of the frame, such as gusseted corners doubling as rear jack brackets, a 3 piece tongue, the 5/8" pin in addition to the weld on the removable coupler, etc.

Now, just for fun.. here are the welds on a commercially produced $1500 utility trailer I spotted at Canadian Tire.

[Jonnythecanuck]

It will be a custom build, heavily influenced by random trailers...

I'm already learning stuff from this discussion on welding so I'm eager to watch your build progress.

(I think your chassis will be fine, even if you beat it with a sledge.)



Tony

When I say random trailers, what I really mean is that I pretty much shamelessly copied your design.

I'm really enjoying your book, Tony. Thanks for taking the time to write it!

[swoody126]

like i said it looks from your destructive testing like your welding is good r nuff

definitely better than the welding on the commercial unit pictured

one trick i used to share w/ my middle schoolers is to turn your work so you can weld horizontally whenever possible

sometimes an old fashioned wooden bench can be of help when your work is a bit higher

a sky hook(hung from ceiling joists braced in the attic) w/ a pully system can aid in raising one end or the other

a kid's swing set frame also works well in situations like this

BON CHANCE

sw

[tony.latham]

I'm really enjoying your book, Tony. Thanks for taking the time to write it!

I appreciate that. I hope it reduces some of your building struggles.

Tony

[Jonnythecanuck]

Slow going between work and life, but finally a bit of progress on the frame.

Cut and tacked the frame together. The frame is square to within 1/16" and 2 tacks placed on each surface.



The ends of the longitudinals were left long so I won't be stick welding on a ~.115" edge. After welding I will zip flush-ish (+ ~1/8") and cap.

Messy garage selfie.