Aero-1, the build....

[Arne]

I went to the rock quarry to weigh my trailer yesterday.... and it was GONE. The business that is... 2 owners, each with 3 sons who couldn't agree on what to do, so they closed it down... the land is worth a ton of money. It had been in business for 55 years.

A couple of notes. Not sure I would bother with the curved doors. I had to cut them with a skil saw.. yup, cut a curve with a straight blade. I set it to half the depth of my 1.75" doors and cut the curve, then drilled holes through the cut so I could locate it on the other side and make a second cut. I came out okay, but not sure it was worth the trouble.

The 2,000# axle is a bit rough, but not so bad I'm worried about it... I can watch it working in the mirror, an it is 'good enough'.

The 1/8" ply on the roof works fine, except for the flat spot where the vent is mounted. If I had it to do over, I'd curve the whole roof and caulk the gaps on the vent... now I will probably have to sand off the paint in that area and attach a couple of plates made from luan to strengthen that area.

The fenders are 'in transit'... I'm not sure I can get away with traveling through 3 states to get to VT without them, so I may have to cobble on the stock h/f fenders for the trip....

The tv is not installed, but will not be fixed in place. I'll make a bracket to hang an lcd from the house and just take it when needed.

Also, I put an eye-bolt near each door on the outside, so when I wake up, I can put the dog on a rope, open the door and clip her on so she can go outside.

In short, I'm happy with the final result, but still have those little finishing touches to do.

[Arne]

added page 13... dish rack in counter area and fenders (at least they finally got here)...

Have to shorten fenders, pix tomorrow on that one.

[Arne]

Our trip to VT will be based around visiting different swimming holes. I know of quite a few, but found this link while getting our campgrounds set up for the week. Now, all I need is good weather.....

The fenders go on today.. I will not be shortening them. I figure I'd only save about 2 inches (door interference) and it isn't worth the effort....

http://www.vermontdaily.com/panoramas/quarryswim.html

Anyone that visits the area and likes to swim as much as I do should visit this quarry.. on a hot summer day, tough to beat... It is such a nice change from the usual "private property, keep out" we find more and more... oh, and bring a picnic lunch, sit on a rock and have a ball.

I first swam in this quarry about 26 years ago, and 'rediscovered it' 2 years ago..

[Arne]

fenders are on, pic bottom of page 13.....

I think my punch list is just about complete.

Any one looking for similar fenders, I found these at http://tinyurl.com/63x7jj.

I had the ones I mounted ordered and being shipped, then found some round ones that would probably have been a better fit.. but, I like the looks of the 'jeep' type fenders on the t/d.

[Arne]

Well, talk about planning ahead, and what happens when you don't.... I installed the dish rack and stained it.... then I decided to close the hatch... hmmm. paper towel holder hits new dish rack... moved p/t holder to next rib... now hits counter... finally moved p/t holder to left side of galley and now it all fits... at least till I come up with another bright idea.

In no. 1, I used to carry the ez-up on the counter in the galley, but my new space is much smaller. Now I carry the hoses for the petcool there. My honey cut an old towel in half length-wise and created a couple of insulating covers for the sewer pipe.

When I camp I always want a couple of items handy. One is a sharp knife, second is a lighter to light the camp stove. So, I ground about half off the blade of a butcher knife and made a holder for the knife and the lighter. The mistake this time was I should have tucked the lighter into the corner... not near the top of the holder... but, alas, it is glued in place... I might make a new one if after a week I still notice it..

pix at the bottom of page 13.

[Miriam C.]

Great ideas Arne. I really need to get to making permanent places for things. I really like the knife and lighter idea.

[Arne]

Miriam, after camping for a while, we get an idea of what we need often and what we don't. It makes camping so much easier, mentally, to keep those things we need often handy.... I have a cutting board, that won't fit into the dish rack, so I'm going to cut it down to make it fit, as having it out just makes things more convenient... I'm sure after my first trip, I'll come up with a few more things...

In the dish rack will be a bottle of dish soap, a container with dishwashing brush, brillo pad, utensil container, plates, glasses, etc. Those little things that don't take up much room and I can grab quickly. The larger things like my one frying pan and one pot will have to go in the drawer. But now with the dish rack, I actually have quite a bit of room in the little drawer space I built into the tear.

After we get to the campground, I'll try to remember to take a pic of what finally winds up in the dish rack.

I took a 20 mile trip today with the t/d in tow to be sure bearings, etc., all checked out... added a few pics of the tug and t/d at bottom of page 13.

[Arne]

The location of the lighter bothered me.. it was just not right... fixed that, and Kathleen has started to organized the dish rack and drawers for Tuesday's departure.... pix at bottom of pg 13.. nothing special, just minor adjustments.

[Arne]

Always trying to find new uses for unused space in the teardrop trailer, I am going to use space in the hatch cover for a spice rack. I took the hooks off 3 bungee cords and attached them to some brackets I had put on the hatch to strengthen the hinge area. When closed, they will be upside down, so I went with 3 bungee cords.. The center mount is a piece of plastic plumbers strap I had hanging around with holes re drilled for proper spacing.

The old bed spread is there to keep things from bouncing around while traveling..

[01Sport]

Way to use unused space.

[Arne]

The trailer performed flawlessly.... better than I expected... a very short writeup on the aero-1 site... more pix to follow.

tubed on the battenkill river, swam in the marble quarry in Dorset, the vt swimming hole on route 30 under the cover bridge and the s'hole in Putney.... Then the slide on Bromley mountain...... etc.... great time....

[Miriam C.]

The trailer performed flawlessly.... better than I expected... a very short writeup on the aero-1 site... more pix to follow.

tubed on the battenkill river, swam in the marble quarry in Dorset, the vt swimming hole on route 30 under the cover bridge and the s'hole in Putney.... Then the slide on Bromley mountain...... etc.... great time....

Glad you enjoyed your trip Arne. The spice racks are a great idea. One I cannot copy cause mine it too tall. Or I'm too short

Great job!

[Arne]

The results are in. I pulled aero-1 to VT and back (about 300 miles), then another 100 mile round trip yesterday to use as our bed at a friend's lake cottage... a wide variety of conditions: highways (65 mph), side roads, back roads, hills & flat.... I averaged 19 mpg, which is 2-4 better than with tear no. 1 and about 1 mpg less than with no trailer.

It has turned out to be a real winner. a few minor things to do and they are not important to using the trailer. deflectors on the petcool feed/return and I want to paint the wheels.... That's about it.

I am ready for FL in February...

[Arne]

finally got it weighed today.... 1,100 pounds.... about 100 more than I had expected...

That is ready to roll with everything in place, including petcool, microwave, etc...

Went to radio shack. all they had was a 10 watt, 10 ohm resistor. will put that in the fantastic fan and see how it goes.

A few more pix will follow. I'm putting in air deflectors for the petcool and a rear 'kind-of' bumper....

[Arne]

Added pix of petcool feed/return changes in t/d.... new faux rear bumper and resistor added to fantastic fan.