First Trip with the Tin Roof Woody

[Joseph]

Hi all,

I'm writing from the research center at Greenfield Village where I was very pleased to meet Rhonda & her beautiful Benroy yesterday. I don't have time to read all the messages so if Rhonda beats me to this, here it is again. Mike, you wanted to know what mine finally weighed - fully loaded but without water, 620 lbs. I'll only carry maybe five gallons in the tank when I do finally fill it, so add forty to that.

Anyway, she towed like a dream - I was a bit concerned about the bearings due to discussions on Pam's board and when I checked them after about thirty miles, they were a bit warm but not alarmingly so. A hundred miles later I checked them again and they had actually cooled off a bit - guess it was a sort of break-in period. Anyway, camped on Lake Erie Saturday night at East Harbor State Park in Ohio - first stay in a regular campground in about thirty years! Now she's parked in "Camp Asphalt" (which I'm told is pronounced "ash-phault" up here), a corner of the staff parking lot with a fence on two sides, since the place they had planned for the campers is flooded out. It's really not bad, though two big citronella candles don't make much of a campfire. OTOH, there are NO bugs - unlike Lake Erie, where the mayflies covered EVERYTHING!

More to follow when I get back next weekend.

Joseph

[OurStuff4You]

You beat me to it Joseph! It was great meeting you too and I wish I was going to be there to hear your presentation. We had a wonderful weekend with our tear in the Village. The nice thing about the village is if you're part of an event like this they let you camp right on the grounds - even leaving open their bathroom facilities for the campers. What a cool opportunity. We blew it tho and should have taken a picture of the two of us to post on the site ... uhhh, then again .. maybe we were smart! LOL

Have a great conference and have fun with that tear. They tow like a dream don't they?!

Rhonda

[R Keller]

Joseph,

First of all, congratulations!

Second, you've got to let me in on your secret about how you managed to subtract weight from your trailer! I'd love to do that on mine! My final weight estimates kept climbing up for a while there, though I've pretty much nailed it down now.

I think I remember a few weeks back that you estimated the final weight of your trailer at 700 lbs, so great job to get it at 640 fully loaded no less.

Have fun on the road.

Rik

[Joseph]

First of all, congratulations!
Second, you've got to let me in on your secret about how you managed to subtract weight from your trailer!

Hey Rik,

Thanks! The trick is in being brutally honest with yourself in your estimations and always estimate on the high side rather than the low.

Joseph

[beverlyt]

Joseph,
Glad to hear your "teardrop" towed like a dream! I can barely wait for our first trip with ours in a few weeks.
We'll be meeting up with a few others, including Mike and Michelle! Can't wait to meet these wonderful folks in person! (Can't wait to see another teardrop other than our own too!)
Looking forward to hearing about your next trip....
Bev

[Joseph]

And now, to borrow a page from Paul Harvey, the rest of the story.

The Tinroof Woody has completed her maiden voyage of 1,120 miles with no problems with either the 12" wheels or the Chinese bearings. Despite the fact that it doesn't leak in a torrential downpour while standing still, it's quite another matter when being towed through one at 65-70 mph - apparently I'm getting water blown through the doors. Easy fix as soon as I get to a hardware store - just need to weatherstrip the doors. Thought I could get away without doing so, but apparently not.

"Camp Asphalt" proved once again that a good camp depends more on the people in it than the scenery - had a GREAT time with about a dozen other folks who were camping for the conference rather than stay in the boot camp style open-bay dorms (boys in one, girls in another), or at the Holiday Inn for $99 a night.

Headed out yesterday afternoon about 4:30 and drove through massive thunderstorms. Wound up "camped" between two eighteen-wheelers at one of the service stops on the Ohio Turnpike. When it's dark and you're tired, scenery doesn't amount to much. Fortunately, since it was warm enough to lay on top of the bed without getting into it, I didn't notice that the edges of the sheets by the doors were soaked until this morning - I'd have spent a pretty restless night had I known, not that I could do a thing about it. The mattress is now drying out and we've had another torrential thunderstorm. Went out and checked a little while ago - bone dry - so it's definitely only a problem when the trailer is moving.

I won't go on about Greenfield Village or the Henry Ford Museum save to say that they are both truly incredible and well worth the trip!

Joseph

[Shrug53]

It is great to hear that the 12" wheels work ok. I have been debating whther or not to use one of those Harbor Frieght trailers for my first build just because of the wheel size.
Congrats on that first, very long run! Must have been a blast!

[OurStuff4You]

Glad to hear you made it home safely Joseph. We're off in our tear this weekend again ... they're just so much fun!

Rhonda

[Joseph]

Posted a couple of pictures from the maiden voyage.

Joseph

[Steve Frederick]

Nice pictures! Am I gonna have to get some pet flamingos?? The Tear looks really nice, even at "camp asphalt". Nice work!

[Joseph]

Nice pictures! Am I gonna have to get some pet flamingos?? The Tear looks really nice, even at "camp asphalt". Nice work!

Thanks! The flamingos are optional, though "Nothing says elegance like a pair of pink flamingos." (Hunter Hampton, owner of the Airstream Yahoo group.) I'll admit they go better with a beach theme tear like Gage's than with an Andirondack theme like mine, though I have seen several yards in the Adirondacks sporting flamingos. Speaking of which, here’s the new quilt and sheet set I just ordered for it. They're on backorder but I still have the polarfleece that I comandeered from the back of the couch to use in the meantime.

Joseph

[BufordT]

Tear turned out Great Joseph. Glad you enjoyed your campout.

Bufordt

[angib]

Or is that "Nothing says elegance and independence like a pair of pink flamingoes set against a background of aluminum"?

Here is a flyer from my (British) bank - so you can see the idea is widespread.



Andrew