Well, I don't know if the Teardrop Gods have smiled on me for a change or what but here's the story. Yesterday, I kept checking here for replies as to what I should check and I THANK EVERYONE for responding to this thread. You have all taught me some valuable insite into how to adjust and double check everything.
I took a few hours off, rode my dirtbike around the neighborhood to clear my head while I thought about all these replies. Believe it or not, I checked my Carpenter's Square based on the suggestion here and sure enough my square failed the test miserably....4 times. After testing on a piece of MDF, I found that the line I struck was off by 1/8" of an inch when I flipped the square over and compared. I did not want to think that I had a bad square but I did. The square was part of the problem though. ANyway, my wife is a quilter and she has about 20 specialy rulers and squares she uses in quilting. I grabbed a few of her right angle plastic squares, went back and check the wall from front to back to see where the deviation began. The front was perfect and just passed the door cutout, the wall began to bow out just slightly.
After I checked it with another square, I found it to be the same based on the pencil mark where I noted wall was beginning to bow. So, I unbolted all the carriage bolts that hold the Teardrop to the trailer and began to push on the teardrop to see if I could shift it around a bit. The Asphalt Emulsion makes it almost impossible once it dries. I broke the seal of the AE with a flat edge screwdriver and loosened the subfloor assembly from the main floor. I was able to push teardrop with some coercing from my big rubber mallet and pounded, moving the whole tear over just slightly. I figured this couldn't hurt since I left a little wiggle room inside the trailer's angle iron main side rails. After straining and pushing, the Teardrop seemed to creek just a bit and then it settled. I went back, redrilled the floor holes to allow for the shift in the Teardrop so I could get the 3/8" Carriage Bolts back through the floor and angle iron. I retightened everything and went back checking the wall again with 4 different squares and the result was an improvement of about 1/8". I was still off by an 1/8th.
When working with wood, moisture can sometimes be your friend. I took a spray bottle of cold water, and doused the bowed wall on the outside. I put the buldhead back in and screwed it to the floor this time. I went ahead and glued and screwed in the last roof spar before the hatch opening. I decided to use a full 2x4 to give the hatch hinges something to bite into. I applied the glue to each end of the hatch spar and then got my tie-downs and then ratched them as tight as I could to pull the walls in while the hatch spar glue set up overnight. I redoused the wall with water hoping the moisture would help the wood bend and give in the direction I wanted it to go.
I woke up bright and early this morning, went to the garage to check on the progress to see if Gremlins had attacked my Teardrop in the night. I took the 4 squares and began checking the wall from front to back again and found the wall had pulled into line somehow and I was barely a fraction of a 1/16" of an inch off. A VAST improvement over the 1/2" discrepency yesterday. I took the tie down off and checked everywhere and found it to be almost spot on. After getting the good news, I set the Tie Down back into place and cranked it back up to hold everything until I get back to work later today.
The goal for today is to install the 3 last lower spars under the hatch. After those 3 are done, all spars will be finished and ready for inside ceiling skinning. I did put my trailer back up on jackstands and levelled it last night so it's up off the ground and seemingly square.
So far, the Teardrop Gods have blessed me with an overnight miracle. Thanks to all you guys for your help!!!
by BobR » Sun Jul 22, 2007 5:08 pm 
