Snuzie Cube

[DrewsBrews]

Attached the back rail. Near complete with the perimeter except for the small front rail that will tie in right at the junction from tongue bars to the angled sections of rail.



Then started dorking around with placement of floor support bars to see if I need one more. Ill probably try again tomorrow now that I have a better idea of axle placement. I'm rather amazed at the strength of 1.5" x1/8" steel angle for being less than 1.25lb per foot. Though I bumped it up to 2" angle near the spring mount points to better handle the racking forces in turns.

[bartek]

When I was doing my axle placement research I found this rule of thumb in this thread: viewtopic.php?f=21&t=420&start=15

34.5" from rear bumper for a 4x8' teardrop; then add 6" for each additional foot of lenght after the 8'.

Now, in my case this was 46.5 inches from the back. I did all the math in the world, calculated weights of all the components, added up momentums, came up with 44 inches from the back.
Now when built, it turns out the trailer is front heavy and I had to move battery to the galley to help things a little:) Should have gone with 46.5"

[DrewsBrews]

When I was doing my axle placement research I found this rule of thumb in this thread: viewtopic.php?f=21&t=420&start=15

34.5" from rear bumper for a 4x8' teardrop; then add 6" for each additional foot of lenght after the 8'.

Now, in my case this was 46.5 inches from the back. I did all the math in the world, calculated weights of all the components, added up momentums, came up with 44 inches from the back.
Now when built, it turns out the trailer is front heavy and I had to move battery to the galley to help things a little:) Should have gone with 46.5"

I was leaning towards 16" back from center which would be 44" from the rear, but may bump it a couple inches forward now that you mention it... when I calculate that, even in a scenario where I remove the 40lb AC from the front and full load in the rear(120lb-factoring in the weight of shelving, counter and awning plus extra stored items in transit) Im right at 10% tongue weight. AC plus any items on the front rack brings it up from there. Thanks!

[DrewsBrews]

Mini update for today:
I measured and cut four of the inner cross braces as well as the rear hitch brace pieces. I ended up picking up another 2" angle piece to use where the rear hitch brace pieces will attach to. This allows me to move one more 1.5" angle piece to the front. Dang steel ain't cheap anymore. A 6ft section of 2" angle steel is $30 at home depot.

Was enough use of the cutoff wheel I had to put out a smoldering fire in my shirt... Burned a decent hole in both my pullover and tshirt. I get so focused I guess I ignore that burning sensation lol.

[DrewsBrews]

Welded up the four cross bars this evening that I cut yesterday, including the supports for the rear hitch. Still have a few more to add but starting to look like something. I noticed quite a bit of flex still when picking up the tongue. Due to the angle of the tongue bars it causes an axial torque down the side rails.. Flexing the top outward and bottom inward. I think Ill need to add an additional brace to mitigate this.

[DrewsBrews]

[lfhoward]

Good progress on the frame!

[QueticoBill]

I hope you never have to defend your registration which I assume is based on the HF kit. Looks like a great custom home built frame.

[DrewsBrews]

I hope you never have to defend your registration which I assume is based on the HF kit. Looks like a great custom home built frame.

I'm sure I'll be registering it as a homebuilt. Fortunately Ohio is rather friendly to this.

I got the frame kit from a guy on craigslist. He unboxed it and let it sit around in his garage for a while but never built it and thus never registered it. So any of the paperwork to register it as a HF trailer is long gone. By this point, to me, it is now just raw materials... I am not using any of the mechanical parts from the kit for this build: New coupler, axle and springs. Not the most efficient way to do it, but I've been planning on building something for a long time and my plans morphed quite a bit over that time... Just trying to do the best with what I've got.

I may save the other parts for some other build some day. I've also been rather enamored by the simple slim storage box idea with a rack on top for bikes, kayaks, or rooftop tent. Or just do a minimalist tear build for a friend to be able to tag along.

[DrewsBrews]

Added in a few more braces.. Ran out of primer so different color. Things stiffened up quite a bit but could be better to handle the tongue loading.. so I'm still adding a final big brace to tie the front corners together. After that, just have the spring brackets to do then hopefully done with the welding.



The tongue basket idea might be out unless I modify it quite a bit. It is the harbor freight ATV hitch basket. I measured 49"x21.5" but the website says 46"x18.5"?? It would probably be too restrictive on turn angle. Not as much as I would have thought, but still too much for my comfort.

[DrewsBrews]

Final brace in place. Much happier with the stiffness when picking it all up by the coupler.



Next up: Attach the spring brackets, grind down welds that would interfere with the floor, and paint. Though some rain is coming in.

[DrewsBrews]

Redid some of the cross bars to simplify things, attached the spring hangers last night.. Then welded on the stabilizers this evening (kinda forgot about those for a while).



Tractor supply had 12" galvanized 5-lug wheels on sale for $21ea shipped to the store so I have 3x to pick up tomorrow. Then I can mount the T-radials I've already got.

I have a pair of silver mod style wheels, but when I dug them out of storage they were 4 lug... I got 5lug hubs for this project. Oah well.. Ill add them to the pile of other trailer stuff to save for another project.

[DrewsBrews]

Mocked up the axle with the HF wheels.



Picked up the new wheels and spooned the tires this evening. Got lucky and my tiny 12v compressor managed to seat the beads on one of the tires. Didn't get so lucky on the others.

[DrewsBrews]

Nice n shiny wheels now. They should dull out pretty quickly to a similar color as the silver plastic boat trailer fenders I have. Need to make some mounts for the fenders.. Unfortunately more welding. Ready to get this frame done and move on to the woodworking stuff Im more used to.



I messed up a bit on the spring hangers and spaced them out a bit more on one side than the other on the rails. Fortunately, the spring brackets on the axle are spaced slightly off to so if I flip the axle around it should all even out.

[DrewsBrews]

Picked up a load of radiata pine for roof spars and floor framing. Knot free and pretty dang straight. Costs a pretty penny though and I bet I'll need more. I don't think covid affected the pricing a whole bunch (maybe 10-15% more than normal) for this premium grade stuff.

I had a load of 5'x plywood shipped-in a while ago. First go, one of the 5x10 3/4" sheets for the side walls must have been the bottom garbage sheet on the stack. Returned and reordered. Next one came from a different shipment location so was a completely different product. I would have taken it but I think they banged the forklift into it stacking stuff on top of it so the edge was damaged. Hopefully 3rd time I can get something I can work with. Honestly I wouldn't recommend Menards for special order on this kind of stuff. I checked with a local place but they could only source half of what I was looking for at near $30 a sheet more.. Probably a better product anyway (baltic burch vs acx)... but $137 for a 5'x10'x3/4" sheet seems pretty steep to me.