Before anybody starts hassling me about starting a new trailer before I've actually finished the first, let me explain.
My old Plymouth Voyager is pretty much on it's last legs, and money was fairly tight over the winter because we didn't have anyone renting our house in Portland. So, rather than re-insuring the van when it's time came due in February, I took it off the road. This leaves us as a one car household, and the one car is a 2000 1.6 litre Acura EL (basically a Honda Civic). This means that if I want to go to the
Recumbent Retreat in Astoria this August, I'm going to need a new trailer. A much lighter trailer! So, the Decotear is born
Based on a free pop-up frame received from a generous Craigslist poster, and built with 1/2" ply sides and floor, the Decotear will have no galley, no electricity, and no side doors. Basically it's going to be a toy hauler for my recumbent bikes, that I'll sleep in at night. I'll skin the sides with aluminum, and am thinking of doing a vinyl top. Here's the concept drawing:
I have only one month to have the trailer campable, as I leave on August 13th for Oregon. Why'd I wait so long to start you ask? Am I simply a glutton for punishment? Well, there might be some truth to that
, but there's also the fact that I promised my wife that I'd re-build the back deck before we went on our trip
I finished the deck last night, so after work today it was time to start the trailer.
So far I've started trimming off some of the excess crossbars from the donor frame. It was about six feet wide to start off, but the main rails are only fifty inches outside to outside. The length is a perfect eight feet, so that's good. This is what the frame looks like right now:
I've also got the first coat of epoxy on the inside floor, and I've marked out the first side for cutting.
Tomorrow, the plan is:
get the first side cut out, and cleaned up.
use the router to cut the second side, using the first one as template.
put a coat of epoxy on both sides, and a second coat on the floor.
Wish me luck, I'm gonna need it.
-Greg
Give a person a fish and you feed them for a day; teach a person to use the Internet and they won't bother you for weeks.