#2

[Sparksalot]

Proving again that a teardrop is never finished.

Looks very good, and integrated.

[ghcoe]

Proving again that a teardrop is never finished.

Looks very good, and integrated.

Seems like there is always an improvement to be made. Thanks!

[jakejakejake]

Sometimes when I close my eyes at night all I see is that silly pink panther. Unapprovingly raising his brow at me, judging me, mocking me.

The hot wire cutting looks surgical, and probably a whole lot less dust too. Taking notes.

[ghcoe]

The hot wire cutting looks surgical, and probably a whole lot less dust too. Taking notes.

One of the reasons I like the hot wire, no mess. Just try not to breath in the fumes.

Cutting the foam with a hot wire makes a nice clean cut, yes you could say surgical.

[ghcoe]

Some more improvements to #2 since last update.

Shortly after installing the soft ride spring kit, I noticed some tire wear. Not related to the spring kit but I bent the axle or a spindle on the trail someplace. It was bound to happen, and I am surprised it took that long before I had a issue.

I ordered a 3500lbs axle from Compact Camping Concepts https://compactcampingstore.com/product ... 0-lb-axles . They will make them to the specs you need. You can see the big difference in the two axles.

Axles

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Axles 2

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Piece of cake to install. Unbolt old axle and bolt in new axle.

Installed

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[ghcoe]

I gained quite a bit of lift with the axle swap. The new axle is a bigger diameter and had a spring perch on it which gave me about a 3" gain on lift at the hub. I had ordered the new axle with 5 lug hubs, so it was time to finally move to a 15" trailer wheel/tire.

tire comparison

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This gave me even more lift!

big tire

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I don't think I will be bending any axles with this set up.

[KCStudly]

Kind of why I started out with the big axle, I guess. Looks like you will need much larger fenders for sure now.

[ghcoe]

Kind of why I started out with the big axle, I guess. Looks like you will need much larger fenders for sure now.

They look a bit small, but I have been running them for quite a few trips now. Probably will get something bigger someday.

[ghcoe]

My next foamie accessory is a tongue rack. Basically a rack to hold two Jerry cans and a spare tire for the trailer and also act as a stone guard. I used unistrut, pcv pipe and carriage bolts for the frame. Worked out pretty good.

Tongue Rack

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Tongue Rack 2

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Tongue Rack 3

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[ghcoe]

Once I got the frame built, I bolted it to the trailer tongue. I used self-tapping screws to screw on some indoor/outdoor carpeting to the frame. This made the rack look better and also acts as a stone guard for the trailer and Jerry cans.

Indoor/outdoor carpet

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spare tire

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[KCStudly]

That looks like a pretty tidy solution.

Is the PVC just to protect the plastic jugs from rubbing on threaded rod? Hoping you used nuts on the inside to jam the strut onto the threaded rod, making the rod the thing that takes any loads and not the PVC. Just saying, the PVC doesn't take structural loads well, especially not impacts which tend to shatter it, even more so when exposed to UV light over time.

I'd be interested to see how you keep the jugs from bouncing up; is there a hold down or bungie cord feature?

Again, that looks like a good fit for your rig.

[ghcoe]

That looks like a pretty tidy solution.

Is the PVC just to protect the plastic jugs from rubbing on threaded rod? Hoping you used nuts on the inside to jam the strut onto the threaded rod, making the rod the thing that takes any loads and not the PVC. Just saying, the PVC doesn't take structural loads well, especially not impacts which tend to shatter it, even more so when exposed to UV light over time.

I'd be interested to see how you keep the jugs from bouncing up; is there a hold down or bungie cord feature?

Again, that looks like a good fit for your rig.

The PVC pipe is a spacer and anti rub against the thread on the carriage bolts in some places. I used washers on the inside channel where the PVC comes up against the unistrut. There is not much pressure on the PVC just enough to make it snug. The carpet is wrapped around the PVC pipe so none of the PVC is exposed to UV light.

No hold down or bungie, just gravity. The pockets are pretty deep so I would doubt that they could ever come out of there. A extra bonus is that the fit is pretty tight and when the tanks expand you have to let the air out of the cans to get them out of the pocket.

[ghcoe]

bump

[OP827]

What was your old axle load rating and how heavy is your trailer when you off the road? Although I am not planning for much of off-roading with my current setup, but.. just good to know for my next build plans.

[ghcoe]

What was your old axle load rating and how heavy is your trailer when you off the road? Although I am not planning for much of off-roading with my current setup, but.. just good to know for my next build plans.

The trailer I based this build on was similar to the Harbor Freight 1195# trailer. The axle was pretty light U channel. I am actually surprised it lasted as long as it did.

The trailer is about 550# dry and 750#-800# loaded for a trip. Most of that is water and fuel.