Newbie needs your opinion

[mlsa]

Hello Everybody

I just registered today. I've been reading your forum for the last couple of weeks and I want to thank all of you for posting such great info and for posting such excellent pictures of your work. You all have my admiration.

You now have me wanting a teardrop. BUT..for now I have a harbor freight trailer with a car top carrier that I pull behind my Goldwing Trike. It carries all my camping gear. I need a larger trailer for a tear drop and a place to store it since my garage is full and my boat storage is full.

Being a woodworker, I've wanted to take the car top carrier off the trailer and build a fancy wooden box...Here is the style I will probably end up with:

http://www.classictrailersalesinc.com/a ... /index.htm

I know this isn't a teardrop but you folks are professionals with this type of woodworking and hopefully can answer a few questions for me.

The trailer is 40" wide and 48" long...box length and width. I was thinking of making the sides out of 1/2" plywood and the top out of 3/4" plywood for adding strentgh in case I needed to strap something on top of it. It would have a door on top. It would strictly be for hauling around my camping gear.

Then for the fancy part I was thinking of gluing very thin pieces of wood such as teak, oak, walnut, etc over the outside of the plywood. Of course it would have to be trimmed out. I was also thinking of making a wood railing all around the top of the box. Then sealing everything where it would be waterproof. If you've ever seen a wood stip canoe or kayak..then thats sort of the look I'm thinking of.

Does this sound reasonalble to you folks? Will the 1/2" plywood with thin strips glued to it work? Will this hold up to highway speeds?

Even though weight is always important when pulling a trailer I know folks that pull their camper trailers loaded close to 500Lb with their goldwings.

Thanks for any help or advice you can give me \.

David

[toypusher]

David,

First of all, Welcome to the board!!

I like the look of that trailer. Are you going to use anykind of framing on the inside. If so, you could easily use 1/2" for the sides and the top, I would think. Just use some 3/4" x 2 or 3 and frame it out and then use some poplar for spars to support the top. Actually, if you do that, I think that 1/4" would work fine. Especially since you are then going to cover it in strips too.

Looking forward to some pictures!

[madjack]

...yep, everything Kerry said...I would use epoxy to apply the veneer and seal it...a couple(r3r4) of coats of a spar urethane or auto clearcoat to protect it from UV rays and you will be set to go...with a REALLY nice looking trailer...............
madjack