Joe's Teardrop Build

[western traveler]

Looking good Joe.

You may already know about glazing compound. We used it on our boat projects to fill those small nicks, blade cuts etc. when we were close but not quite happy with the finish. What we used was epoxy based with fiberglass’s in it. Super easy to sand. May not be what you need but we were painting out for a glass like finish so every little nick and imperfection showed. If you are going with the Bed liner finish it may be unnecessary. I know Bondo and a few other companies make similar...

[JoeGrz]

Looking good Joe.

You may already know about glazing compound. We used it on our boat projects to fill those small nicks, blade cuts etc. when we were close but not quite happy with the finish. What we used was epoxy based with fiberglass’s in it. Super easy to sand. May not be what you need but we were painting out for a glass like finish so every little nick and imperfection showed. If you are going with the Bed liner finish it may be unnecessary. I know Bondo and a few other companies make similar...

I did not know about glazing compound. The original plan was to use the thickened epoxy that Tony describes. I made one attempt and I didn't get it thick enough, it ran and left the spots that still needed filling. The hatch reconstruction used up my epoxy so I went the body filler way. Looking at it, I have one more spot to fill so I will use the last of the filler.

Not a lot done on the trailer. I spent the week in Colorado enjoying the change in scenery. I have completed some welding and will hopefully weld the chassis this weekend. If the weather cooperates, I may end up putting on the bed liner. I have some other things to take care of before a 5 day bike ride next week. I hope to make progress this weekend. We'll see what I can actually get done.

Short update but nothing has changed

[JoeGrz]

I don't have as much to report as I had hoped. I did start welding my frame Friday. From best I can tell, it is reasonably flat and square. I welded the outside square Friday with the intention of dropping in and securing the mid-supports on Saturday with the possibility of getting the tongue. Finish up with the rest of it on Sunday. that was the plan at least. When I went to drop in the two supports, they wouldn't go in. It turns out the final shape of the frame was hour glass shaped. I spent the better part of my available time Saturday figuring out how to spread the two sides out to get the middle beams in. I ended up stacking several 4x4s then placing my bottle jack on the stack and a final 4x4 long way to push up on the opposite side of the frame. I was able to spread it out enough to get each piece in. After the pieces were in place, I let the frame spring back and hold them in place to weld them. Here is a picture of the frame

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You will notice that both cross members are 2x2 square tubes instead of one of those being an angle. It turns out there is a first step to measure twice and cut once. The first step is check your dimensions three times. Measuring two or three times doesn't help if the dimension in your head is wrong. Fortunately, I had some of the 20 ft length of tube left over. Also fortunate I had forgotten about it. I had intended to cut pieces off for welding practice. It is just about ready for the tongue to be put on. I still have the fillet welds on the interior supports to put on. I ran out of time so they are up next when I get the welder out. You wonder why it stopped on Saturday with this wonderful 4 day weekend to work with? RAIN! or at least the threat of heavy rain and severe weather. It doesn't rain much in the Texas Panhandle so to have two days, all day, of strong storms forecast really threw off my plans. The sad thing is it didn't rain Sunday until late. Just threatened. That little space where the frame is in the picture above is where my wife's little Miata goes at night and when the weather is threatening to do it damage. I did manage to get out last night for an hour or so and continue to work on my drawer boxes.
Saturday was a nice day. I had really hoped to turn my teardrop cabin blue. I have this tree beside my house that has little white flowers. It decided to drop its petals this weekend. I figured I would put off the final finish so that I wouldn't have a blue and white teardrop. Today it rained so nothing more was done.

[western traveler]

Joe,
As frustrating as the rain and struggles may feel, it has to be gratifying to be building your own trailer. It is coming along.
WT

[JoeGrz]

Sorry for the delay updating. It has been a very busy few weeks. the first week of June I went for a little bike ride in Oklahoma and Kansas. Spent a day at home running errands and getting everything in shape before flying off for work. Last weekend I got back after it and tonight is the first chance I have had to post something

IT'S BLUE!!!

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My son wanted to see how the finished product might look

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The plan was not to finish the cabin for a couple weeks. I was going to make progress on the chassis. Here is how I got to finishing the cabin instead of working on the frame.
Back in the beginning of May, I had a little money to apply to the teardrop and the next big expense I had was the mattress. Off to the Foam Factory site I went and ordered a mattress as Tony did for his build. A week and a half later it showed up and the packing list had a little note on it that said something like it needs to be unpacked in 14 days or it may damage the mattress. I thought to myself, I wish they told me that before I bought it. I would have put it off if I had known. A couple days later and I'm in the Colorado Rockies and unpacking the mattress slipped my mind. Fast forward to my business trip. To kill time on the airplane on the way home, I started reviewing the book to see what else I need to do and try to make sure I don't miss something. I get to the part where Tony describes the mattress and says something about not ordering the mattress until your ready for it since it may get damaged if rolled up too long. Oh Snap!! It's been a month! What am I going to do? I thought about unrolling it in the house. No place to put it and it will be a real devil to get in to the cabin. The only thing I could come up that was a viable solution was to finish the cabin and unroll it in there. The mattress is unrolled and fluffing up or whatever foam does. At this time, everything appears good and the mattress feels like it will be real comfortable once the teardrop heads out into the wild. That's why the cabin is finished and not the chassis.

Last night, I started welding on the tongue beam. I placed it and welded the bottom welds. Today, after the errands, I put the top welds and the first of the mounting angles. I will have pictures later

Western Traveler, You're right! It is very gratifying to be building my own trailer. Especially when it crosses one of those point that really shows the transformation going from a pile of parts or assemblies to something noticeably different

[GarthB]

That thing looks awesome Joe! You've got a lot to be proud of. I'm looking forward to watching you finish it out.

[tony.latham]

IT'S BLUE!!!

Tony

[western traveler]

Joe, that looks great!

[JoeGrz]

Thanks everyone for the encouragement. I really do appreciate it. This weekend saw triple digit heat and minimal motivation. I did little things during the day and in the evening, when the sun was not directly above, I pushed out the frame and did a little welding. Starting with the frame, the straight piece of the tongue is secured on all sides and 5 of 6 of the mounting tabs are attached. I wanted to place the two diagonals to finish the tongue but I had to wait. When I first started accumulating the parts for the chassis, I picked up a 6 inch receiver. It made sense to me since I was going to slide it on and weld around the edges. fast forward to this weekend. I was really studying the photographs and liked the way the two diagonals provided additional hold on the receiver. That kind of put that on hold until I picked up the 12 inch receiver today. Maybe I'll get that on this weekend. The other task of note completed was the wiring for the solar. I obtained from Amazon a SAE receptacle that mounts on the side of the cabin. When I get to my destination, I can pop out my solar panel, unroll the 20 ft of cable and plug it in. With all this, I picked up a converter from the solar connector, MC-4 I think, to the SAE. My battery now has a full charge. I have the two clamps installed to latch the hatch in place, the two coat hooks on the inside and my fan is wired and operates. Basically, I worked in the garage until I got hot, ran inside and cooled off for a little while, then went back outside and made a little more progress. Easy things, hopefully, coming up are handle for the hatch to lift it up and the license plate light. Neither one of these things are drilled. I got carried away and went straight into painting last weekend. I do have a picture with a tape laid out on the hatch showing where all the spars are. Hopefully everything will be where it looks like. the other thing I did this weekend was to see how may different bags of screws I could buy. It seems like every screw that I selected for use got changed once it installed. I don't like the way that head looks or this one isn't quite long enough for what I want. And of course, each time was a separate trip.

No pictures today, the little details don't make interesting pictures.

[JoeGrz]

Last night I found a problem that I'm not sure how to solve. My upper mount plates have deformed. Here is the worst one of the pair

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I'm not sure how I should solve this problem. There are three things that I can think of that would cause this. One - The strut is too long and instead of stopping when the hatch opens fully, it pushes past the ball and lifting it off. Two - The strut is too strong and again pushes past the ball lifting it off. Three - The plate is not strong enough to restrain the strut.
The strut is a 20 inch strut with a 100 pound force. I can buy a weaker strut. I can get a 20 inch 80 lb strut. I'm not sure, without doing some math, if that will keep it from deforming. Unfortunately, I would need to get some help to figure out the right math to do. I do pipe flow and heat transfer. I have coworkers that deal with plates and fasteners.
I could get a shorter strut. I would have to see what lengths are available but maybe I can find one that is a little shorter and maybe won't try to push past the ball.
Another option would be to change the stud mounting. I found a round base that secures around the stud instead of above the stud. I also received a threaded stud with the strut. I could thread that into a t-nut like the screws holding the existing plates and place some washers to distribute the load and keep from damaging the wood.
My best guess is a shorter strut and/or not as strong. To the best of my knowledge the dimensions are as specified. That may be something else I need to check. I can't see how 10 pounds alone would make that much difference.
Any other ideas would be appreciated

[GarthB]

I can't speak from experience to say that they're any better since I have yet to install mine, but I purchased 90# struts, linked below. If I had to bet, I'd bet that your theory about yours being too strong is correct.

https://www.mcmaster.com/4138T58-4138T589/

[Minics04]

My gas Strut brackets bend occasionally, too. I think the brackets are made of too cheap of metal. I keep a couple of spares on hand and change them out when they bend.

Not a great solution, but it works. I was thinking about running bolts through the brackets to stiffen up, but have not completed that yet.

Just my

[Graniterich]

One reason I use these
https://www.allegiscorp.com/LARGE-DOOR-PROP?page=1

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[tony.latham]

I'm not sure how I should solve this problem.

I've got a query out to another builder that had this problem. I'll let you know.

Tony

[Tom&Shelly]

Last night I found a problem that I'm not sure how to solve. My upper mount plates have deformed. Here is the worst one of the pair

20210622_182905 small.jpg

I'm not sure how I should solve this problem. There are three things that I can think of that would cause this. One - The strut is too long and instead of stopping when the hatch opens fully, it pushes past the ball and lifting it off. Two - The strut is too strong and again pushes past the ball lifting it off. Three - The plate is not strong enough to restrain the strut.
The strut is a 20 inch strut with a 100 pound force. I can buy a weaker strut. I can get a 20 inch 80 lb strut. I'm not sure, without doing some math, if that will keep it from deforming. Unfortunately, I would need to get some help to figure out the right math to do. I do pipe flow and heat transfer. I have coworkers that deal with plates and fasteners.
I could get a shorter strut. I would have to see what lengths are available but maybe I can find one that is a little shorter and maybe won't try to push past the ball.
Another option would be to change the stud mounting. I found a round base that secures around the stud instead of above the stud. I also received a threaded stud with the strut. I could thread that into a t-nut like the screws holding the existing plates and place some washers to distribute the load and keep from damaging the wood.
My best guess is a shorter strut and/or not as strong. To the best of my knowledge the dimensions are as specified. That may be something else I need to check. I can't see how 10 pounds alone would make that much difference.
Any other ideas would be appreciated

I'm an electrical engineer, not a mechanical engineer, so keep that in mind when reading this! Looks to me like the plate deformed while the hatch was closed (or else it would just push the hatch higher). So you might look at the compressed end of the struts' stroke. So you may want to look for struts with a smaller maximum compression length. I don't think you want to compress them to their maximum. Struts with a lower force are also a good idea, as long as they support the hatch weight.

Just my thoughts.

Tom