Now the fun starts

[MickinOz]

Day 1
Buy trailer and strip.

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[twisted lines]

Mick I was joking about #2

[MickinOz]

Heck, I wasn't.
It's been on my radar for a while.
I figured I needed a hobby now I've stepped away from work. Hopefully a paying hobby.
Australian Facebook pages are flooded with hopefuls looking for cheap teardrops since overseas travel dried up, and I figured I could do a reasonably quick build and make a small profit. It will be basic. Minimal cabinetry, homemade doors, aimed at people who want to step up from tent camping, and can't afford a commercial unit.
The other day I dropped into the local boat dealership to say g'day to the owner, who I went to school with.
After chatting about the fishing and local industry for a while (he's also the Mayor) he said "I hope you've got something to keep you busy."
I mentioned teardrops, and left with a boat trailer.
Price was right and its in reasonable nick. Registration is current, although the owner who had it there on consignment is stuck in Western Australia at the moment due to Covid travel restrictions, so I may have to wait a while to get the papers.
Unfortunately, running a spirit level over it, I find it isn't very straight. Boat trailers don't have to be, because the adjustable rollers and bilge boards take care of all that.
It'll need spacers at the right rear corner or the front left corner to bolt the floor down flat without a twist. I'm going to get Ol' #1 out of the shed tomorrow and run this trailer in so I can measure properly from the flat(ish) garage floor.
Getting a trailer even close to suitable is hard, so I will make it work.
I've already decided to use marine ply for the walls this time. The marine ply is genuine 8 x 4, so that gives me 3/4 of an inch more height to play with.
Metric plywood is 1200 mm wide, imported 4 foot marine ply is 1220mm.
With that in mind, I'll probably follow the generic Benroy plans and bring the sides down at least part way down over the frame rails. This will at least hide the spacers and thus disguise the fact the frame is a bit twisted. The frame rails are 5 feet across, exactly queen bed width.
I'm now poring over the generic Benroy plans, which is how I come to posting here at 2:30 am.
The problem I foresee with marine ply is that it is usually made from dense hardwood which, while it is much better than pine structural ply for weather resistance, has a lower insulating value than pine. Trouble is, I don't want to build double skinned walls. Still thinking about that.
I may be able to find some hoop pine plywood - lighter and better insulator.
But for the floor, there will be a Bunnings run very shortly.

[Bezoar]

Folks say #2 is better because you know the mistakes you make on the first one, so it should be fun! I'll enjoy watching it come together. Plus, you won't have to work around those pesky hours at work!

[TimC]

Retired!

So this will be a two week project...

[DrewsBrews]

Someone literally ran over the corner of my harbor freight utility trailer while in the hardware store parking lot. I bent it back by putting a log under the corner and jumping on the frame until satisfied. I know those HF frames are flimsy, but I raised the drooping corner by several inches very easily. With a more stout frame; I wouldn't be surprised if one could get a half inch or so of twist out with strategic placement of blocks and brute force.

[MickinOz]

Believe me, I tried.
Unfortunately, my 20t Hydraulic jack popped a seal and took no more part in the discussion.

I think I'm fighting two or three weld distortions - where they welded on the front spring hanger, the front crossmember and the rear guide for the leaf spring.
I even tried the old trick of running some high amp arc welder beads across the rail to use weld shrinkage to pull it back the other way.
Nope, all that did was burn off some of my galvanising and give me a job grinding off the bead.

Picture is when I resorted to trying my 3t trolley jack.
So I had an I beam, with a piece of train rail at the front, a chain sling at the point I wanted to flex the rail, and a jack at the end.
Not a hope.

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My mother has now returned home from her vacation to the seaside, so I will kick around her place tomorrow and see what treasures my dad left us.
Maybe there'll be a decent jack, and another dog chain. I only have one, but I'll try pulling it from the top if I can get hold of another chain and a jack that actually works. I may get desperate and pull the jack out of my pipe bender. If 16t won't get it..........

[MickinOz]

Well, I dragged Ol' #1 out of the shed and pushed the new trailer in.

With a decent flat floor to measure from, I'm looking at the front left and rear right corners being down relative to the front right and rear left corners.
Neither frame rail is perfectly straight. Each has some welding distortion where the middle crossmember and the spring hanger is welded on.

Nett, about 15 - 20mm of twist. Not from damage, just manufacturing tolerances/error.
It seems a lot I know, and some on here would no doubt start again.
That isn't an option for me.
I will make a flat floor, and distribute the spacing required so that about 8mm is place at front left and right rear.
That's about 3/8" on opposite corners.
With the walls carried down below the timber floor frame to just overlap the steel frame, should be able to conceal the mismatch.

So far, I've stripped the frame of all the boat bits, done some measuring and thinking, and painted the wheels.
How the paint will go, I don't know.
The galvanised wheels had a fairly rough textured surface.

Hoping to score some ol' skool wheels before I'm done, anyway.
I notice the brand new powder coated wheels I put on Ol' #1 have already started losing their gloss.

Floor slightly more of a challenge than last time. Last time, the floor had to span rails that were about 1300mm inside to inside.
I framed it with 70 x 35 pine and topped it with 15mm pine plywood. No insulation. No bottom skin to contribute strength.
I never notice any flex at all.

This time the floor has to span about 1420mm inside to inside. I was thinking of still doing the 70 x 35 frame, but using 12mm marine plywood.
The marine ply is hardwood, so I'm expecting it won't have any more potential to flex than 15mm pine.
But still, it has to span a little more.

So I've been looking at designs.
The Benroy profile floats my boat, and I actually think curves are easier than just "chamfered" front and back corners.
But, the Benroy compound rear curve did take a bit more work and thinking.

I find myself interested in the Rimple.
As drawn, It's got a 24 inch radius curve at each end.
I used the 24 inch curve on Ol' #1, and I reckon I could knock a couple inches off that curve and still easily bend the plywood.
So I'd make the front maybe 22".
Then, to get a smidgeon closer to the Benroy shape, maybe make the rear curve a touch more than 24".
Perhaps 26".
Drew it out to see what it looks like:

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[MickinOz]

The Rimple is firming up as the hot favourite profile in my mind.
Barely discernible differences in the profile to a Benroy for us less experienced teardroppers, but to my mind slightly easier to build.

I want to proceed along the lines Edgeau did - cut out the doors and use the piece cut out for the door.
He used 12mm marine ply for the walls, which is great, because I was hoping that the 12mm hardwood marine ply that is readily available from Bunnings would do the job.
My perception, which I can't yet confirm, is that 12mm marine ply would be as stiff as the 15mm and 17mm pine structural ply I used last time, straighter, less prone to warpage, more weather resistant, require less filling and prep before painting, and would probably not weigh any more than the softwood structural ply.
The doors on I used on Ol' #1 are really heavy, probably more than 1/2 sheet each.

I want to use better material for the roof skinning too, looking at the 6mm marine ply. I'd use 4mm like a guy from work did, if Bunnings had it, but the thinnest they carry in full sheets is 6mm.

I bent my front curve by cutting the sheet to size, laying it on a table, covering it with a big beach towel, then saturating that with boiling water.
The pine structural ply was a piece of pie to bend around a 600mm curve then. I want to go a bit tighter curve, 550mm or possible 500mm, and I'm sure the structural ply will do it.
So I I'll give the 6mm marine ply a try, but I'll swap to pine structural ply if I must.

So the things I want to achieve in no particular order:
* more robust materials. Ol #1 is fine, but I'm aware of what materials were used and what maintenance is required to ensure its longevity. Not the best idea for something I want to sell.
* less complicated build, so no extending the sheets with scarfs, stick closer to stock sizes, use materials that need less bracing, simpler curve on the hatch, etc.
* watch the weight - homemade doors and 8 foot length will help, so will paying more attention to the galley layout. The drawer slides I used for the fridge/cooler slide are remarkably heavy for example, and the galley counter in Ol' #1 is 15mm structural ply.
It can just as easily be 12mm structural ply.
* keep a lid on costs. May sound counter productive to then talk about marine plywood but, a 12mm hardwood marine ply sheet is only $15 more than a 17mm structural plywood sheet. Then, it will require less polyurethane to seal it.
I prefer the colour of pine ply, so I think all ply except the walls and skin will be structural ply, not marine ply.
Anyway, a Bunnings run is scheduled for this weekend.

[MickinOz]

Spewin! Just typed up a description of today's Bunnings run. (That'd be make your list, hook up your trailer, set your alarm, and drive 120 miles one way to the Big Green Shed for materials.) The computer ate my homework.

So here is the abbreviated version.

I bought:
4 x 12mm marine ply sheets.
4 x 6mm marine ply sheets.
12 x 1.8m sticks of 42 x 19 DAR pine for spars and other framing.
2 x 1.8m sticks of 42 x 42 DAR pine for double width spars where skinning sheets need to join.
2 x 4 litre cans of exterior grade polyurethane. I took the advice of someone on the forum - no need for marine grade poly at $134 a can, when you are going to paint it.
$68 a can exterior grade will do.

1 x 500g bottle of polyurethane glue. Selleys brand, a little more expensive than Sika Techgrip, but they claim its waterproof and stronger than wood.
This is Oz and, consumer law being what it is, manufacturers seldom make claims they can't back up. I figured it'll work good.

6 x 3m sticks of 70mm x 35mm structural pine for floor frame.
Couple packets of screws.
New Ryobi jigsaw. I want very accurate cuts this time, and my old saw is pretty much cactus.

Total $1175 Australian.
Currently project is sitting at $2075 Australian.
Apart from vents, 12v gear, and hinges and other door furniture, I can pretty much deliver the big wooden box on wheels with what I have so far.

[MickinOz]

The fun has indeed started.
The 6mm sheets of big box store marine ply have proved somewhat dodgey.

A small sample from one of the 6mm sheets didn't survive a water boil test.
A bit of the glue failed.

A soak test of keeping them in water for a couple days went OK, so maybe the small boil test wasn't a representative result.
However, after trying the pieces that have soaked for a couple of days, I don't think I'll be able to bend them.

These were supposed to conform to BS1088, indeed they have the stamp on them, which says no less than 45% of the grain is to run in each direction.
Totaling the layers, it should be a minimum of 45% running longways on the sheet and 55% running across the sheet, or vice versa.
These would be 70/30 at best. The result is these sheets, already stiff hardwood, are greatly resistant to bending the way I want them to.
The two outer veneers were so thin I doubted I'd be able to sand them without going through to the glue layer. This also left me concerned about how strong gluing to the face would be if you are basically glueing to <1mm of material.

The 12mm sheets are much better, and in any case I don't need to bend them, so I have already cut the floor and will use them on the walls as planned.
Thicker outer layers, screwed and glued rather than stapled and glued, I expect these will hold up fine.

A call to the store had them confused. Why would I boil the plywood?
Then they rang back after they contacted the supplier, who apparently said that of course the customer should be able to boil it, that's what "WPB glue" means.

So I can take it back if I want, but I would be using $80 worth of diesel and a whole stressful day to take back $300 of plywood.
The store in question is tight for access, you have to load your plywood panels on a trolley and wheel them out to the carpark to load, which was a PITA. And stressful.
Had to buy it there, the first store I went to was out of stock.
I have decided to keep them and use them where it is less critical, such as inner lining of the cabin, etc.

In the meantime, I went to Port Augusta, where I scored some B/C faced 6.5mm ply for $54 sheet. Good enough for a clear finish.
3 layers, resulting in ~66% of the grain running in my favour.
Product of Chile, slash pine. Can almost bend a sheet by myself, dry. Stamped WBP, so no worries with adding hot water.
Happy now.

Just wrestling with ways to secure the floor frame to the chassis. Can through bolt it at the rear corners. 10mm (3/8") bolts everywhere.
Have clamped brackets to the front with 1/2" u-bolts.

Just along the sides now.
I know people weld on tabs, but I'm trying to avoid that for various reasons.

[MickinOz]

Front brackets a 5mm angle bolted on with 1/2" u-bolts with split washers and nyloc nuts.
A couple of 3/8 carriage bolts through the front frame should see me sleeping OK there.

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Rear will see two 3/8 bolts down through the 12mm ply and 70mm frame timber and the 2.5mm top plate of the frame tube.
Again, I don't think I'll lose sleep there.

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What to do along the sides?
I do have some 10mm rivet nuts I discussed in a post elsewhere.
Maybe I wouldn't lose sleep over drilling the frame to take those?

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[MickinOz]

Sold the winch and winch post off the trailer, so there are few bucks back in the kitty.

Also sold an old Yamaha trail bike that was a "gunna". (Gunna fix her up one day.)
Guy was advertising for parts, so off she went.
More bucks in the hip whippy, even after taking the missus out for lunch today.

Got some more stuff listed on Facebook.

I guess I'll grab Ol' #1 out of the shed, hook her up and go camp somewhere for the night.
That beats straining the brain. No doubt the answer will come to me in the night.

[MickinOz]

Pork steak on the fire pit. Wood smoke improves just about anything.

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[DrewsBrews]

Probably past that point by now... but could remove the middle braces and replace them with some steel angle since you have the tools. That would give the chance to re-plumb the whole thing better and give flat cross bars to attach to instead of the bent ones.