Meanwhile in the Netherlands,...

[smeerkees]

Luckily, at last i found some decent doorhinges. That was less easy than i expected.
Than i designed and made some brackets to mount the doorhinges to.
I found a kind of threaded bush system witch looks great to me. This way you can re-use the same threadhole bushes when needed.
Now to create it so i can mount the hinges flush to the outer teardroptrailer skin.

PICTURES!

[smeerkees]

Ok, some foto's extra to see the perspective better.

The 1st. picture shows 2 brackets (the left one upside down) to show the situation.
the 2nd. picture shows how the end result should be.

[smeerkees]

Meanwhile today i have contacted:

Vintage Technologies
on: www. teardroptrailerparts.com

I found some beautifull vintage style door and hatch latches plus chrome handles and locks.

That set would look SUPER on my teardrop trailer.
Exact the style i have in mind.
Now i hope they ship orders to the Netherlands...
Patiently waiting for their answer.

Thing is this kind of parts is very hard to find here in Europe.
There are some modern styled systems, but that is not what i am looking for.

First of all you have a far bigger history in older type of trailers and caravans, also because the distances you travel in the USA are much bigger.
Second of all you have a far bigger history in building things yourself, although maybe partially also out of nescessatty.

In that respect are there much more possibilities to find products like this in the USA compared to Europe.
Also for instance you have a much wider area of tools available in the USA. For sure the little bit more specialised kind of tools.

Well enough rambling for today.
Hope to see you soon.

Greetz, Smeerkees.

[Hepcat]

Great to see your progress after a similar construction break as mine...
What are you going to use for insulation material, and how are you going to attach interior panels and furniture to the metal frame?

And I did not fail to notice that your frame is painted...Oranje!

[JasenC]

Those are some heavy duty hinges, they'll work well.

The build looks great.

[smeerkees]

Hello everybody,

Here some answers

@ Hepcat: You asked what kind of insulation i want to use. Well, not sure yet, but not a "wool" type of insulation, It will sag to the bottem of the teardrop eventually.
And not a "styrofoam" kind of insulation. Althoug very light and some with good insulation property's you cant bend the plates or you have to mitercut dozens of strips
with a hot wire to make a convex bend.
However some day's ago i found a type of plate called PIR. It stands for polycyanuraat (in dutch). I don't know yet how much you can bend those plates, and if you can buy them
in 25mm thickness (1 inch).
If you have a better idea please tell me. I mean thats what we are here for on the site.

You asked me how i would attach interior panels and furniture to the metal frame. Anwer: i have to make a lot of brackets, and weld them to the frame.
Then use a sort of screw system. (not completly sure yet). Most important is that it must be de-mountable, and not rattling while driving.

Reason for not already mounted a lot of the interior is that now i can still change a little in the design. Mostley tiny things, but still neccesary.

You noticed the orange color of the frame, that is pure coincident. I needed a good brushable kind of metal primer. coincidently this type is orange.
I realy have to use a good primer. Blank steel in that cold barn is rusty within 1 month. And when neccessary i can remove the primer with a flapdisk.
It is pretty hard, and not sticky. (The black top coat however..... ).

@ Jason, Yeah, the hinges are pretty heavy, but they have NO play in the separate hinge parts witch is important to me, and were basicly nearly the only type of hinge available in the
Netherlands with the length i need.
The hinge brackets are ready and welded to the frame. I hope to take some pictures this coming week.

Greetz for now everybody, SmeerKees.

[tony.latham]

And not a "styrofoam" kind of insulation. Althoug very light and some with good insulation property's you cant bend the plates or you have to mitercut dozens of strips...

A bunch of kerf cuts works well with foam board.







Tony

[smeerkees]

Hello Tony Latham,

Seing you sawing polystyreen with a circular saw works much better than i thought. You can even bend it a little.

Hmm, have to keep this in mind. Seems to work well.

I had something a little different in mind.

It is a very old sample piece but you get the picture.
It is a type of foam with an aluminum foly sticked on it.
Apperently out of the automotive world, good bendable, also light, and 1 inch thick. Someone insulated his van with it.
But not sure of the isolation property's and the glue quality on the foam yet.

[smeerkees]

Here a little update.

Lately i have welded the hinge brackets on the frame.
PICTURES:

With enough dept for threatbushes to install, so i can mount the hinges flush to the aluminum skin.
And also a little space from the doors edge for mounting edge molding strips.

Greetz for now,
Smeerkees.

[Marcogs]

Very fu.....ing nice.
Good to see another Dutchie building a TD.
Do you have an idea of the total weight if finnished?

Gr. Marco (the dutch build)

[smeerkees]

Very fu.....ing nice.
Good to see another Dutchie building a TD.
Do you have an idea of the total weight if finnished?

Gr. Marco (the dutch build)

Hello Marco,

I can give you an astimate of weight. In march of '21 i weighted the project on a truck scale.
At that moment the trailer weighted 380 kg. That included the spare wheel plus housingbracket and underfloor storingspace.
Since than i added storingspace hatch on the floor, doorframes, hatch frame, and the non structural wood parts inside.
At the moment my guess of weight would be around 450kg. The eventual weight would be somewhere around 550kg. (ish)

Goal is to stay in total under 750kg. So i can use the teardrop trailer with a "white licence plate".
In the Netherlands u can drive a small trailer including load under 750 kg. with a "white licenseplate". That means you can use a (white) licenseplate with the correspondent platenumber of the
pulling vehicle.

When u would haul sand, a total weight of 750 kg. is not much, however with a teardroptrailer (or small caravan) u (the driver of the car) are the "load" of the teardroptrailer and when driving u are in the car, and not in the trailer.
Ofcourse u can not acceed a certain maximum of total weight (car + trailer) but with normal sized car + small trailer u are way under that maximum (train) weight.

Ofcourse the max. loading rate of your axle, and braking system load must acceed the maximum (lawfull) weight +load of the teardroptrailer.
In my case that's not a problem at all.

But remember when you build a teardroptrailer weight add's up fast!

Greetz, smeerkees.

[noseoil]

"But remember when you build a tear drop trailer weight add's up fast!"

This is a true statement. I had estimated my build at 1200# (545kg), but when I finally weighed it, the actual number was 1660# (754kg). I ended up putting on a new heavier axle with 10" brakes, which was a good idea when we had to make a "panic stop" during a trip through a large city on the highway.

No matter what you think, a trip to the scale makes sense to find out what is the real weight.

[smeerkees]

Hi everyone,

Soon new content and new pictures.

Greetz, Kees.

[smeerkees]

Hello everybody,

Wow that was some time ago since my last update.

Well, that was partially because of illness on my side,
first a kidneystone that took some time and 3 weeks later i twisted a kneecap out of it's socket...

Also took way more time to get the screwbushings (?) on the exact correct place. And by that i mean wayyyyy more time.

But at last succes, so here are some pictures to explain some more.
Con. side of this fastening methode, it takes a lot of time to get it right,
but the pro. side is when you do need to mount a new screwbushing you just drill the old one out, and "rivet" a new one in.

As i already had to do twice..

Ok, pictures!

[smeerkees]

For engineering purposes i used normal m8 bolts. hardness 8.8
but in the end i will swapp them for some nicer ones as in the pictures.

The nicer ones are also one hardness type higher. hardness 10.9
I have tried to get those nicer bolts in m8 the torx type + the higher hardness type 10.9 but no luck.
But this will do. I think the end result looks pretty nice.