Scot's Track Shack - finishing touches - updated 4/26/12

[Facemeltingly Epic]

Cool Build! How about masking off some letters or some graphic on the rear hatch when you paint it and leaving the letters wood grain?

Maybe I missed it, is your floor 1/2" ply too?
Any Plans to insulate?

Looking forward to seeing your progress!

That's a neat idea. Except I don't know what to put there...

Yes, the floor is 1/2" ply. At this point I don't plan to insulate this one, but I'm considering it for the next build, whenever THAT may be.

[jeprovo]

That's a neat idea. Except I don't know what to put there...

Maybe the outline of your favorite track, or home track. Frame it in black, with the infield wood grain.

Though of a trailer name yet?
How about Race-Inn, Speed-Inn or Track-Inn?

[Facemeltingly Epic]

Maybe the outline of your favorite track, or home track. Frame it in black, with the infield wood grain.

Though of a trailer name yet?
How about Race-Inn, Speed-Inn or Track-Inn?

I like how you think!

I was leaning towards either Casa Carrera or Track Toad.

[Deryk the Pirate]

Looking Great man! I think Im going to order a door lock like yours... the porch/screen door handle i have i dont like....if I lock it and press the button a few times it unlocks.

[jeprovo]

... Casa Carrera ...

That name is a total winner!!

[Facemeltingly Epic]

Nothing to report construction-wise, but I have taken the trailer on a couple more trips since building and installing the hatch. I took it to Laguna Seca the last weekend of April and today I just came back from the AMA West Coast Moto Jam at Infineon. Silly me, I took my camera on both trips and didn't snap a single picture!

The trailer seems less sensitive to the slipstream of other vehicles with the hatch installed, and it is nice being able to haul stuff in the galley now. I found out while loading up this last Friday that I can put enough weight in the galley to significantly lighten the tongue; I had a full 28-quart cooler and a case of bottled water back there. The tongue went from 70lb empty to under 50lb (at a loaded weight of about 700! ). I wound up hauling the bottled water in the cabin, and based on that I think I will probably mount the battery on the tongue when I get around to that.

We had significant overnight rain at Infineon, and I am pleased to report the cabin does not leak. Even with the roof vent open, I got no water in the cabin. I did get some in the galley, but considering I don't have any seals back there at all it was not much and it all just beaded up where it landed.

Even though it's obvious to even a casual observer that my trailer isn't finished, I still got lots of people complimenting it and asking me questions about it. It seems to be a good conversation starter...

Next week it's another run out to Laguna. I'm going to try and get the hatch painted before I take off.

[Facemeltingly Epic]

It seems now that I have a usable travel trailer, it has gotten exponentially harder to find the motivation to work on it...

But after a weekend at Laguna Seca with some rather high winds, I did get some decent hatch supports built. I built them similar to what a couple other folks have done here (St. Patron's build comes to mind first), using door stops and EMT conduit.







I really am gonna paint the hatch to match the body. Honest.

BTW, my most recent road trip was to Sears Point for the Sonoma Historics, during which the trailer was subjected to the worst rain it has encountered yet. I had no leaks while I was sleeping (I usually close the hatch when I turn in for the night), but we had rain that lasted from 10pm one night to almost nine the following morning. I did wind up with some water on the floor of the cabin, which I'm pretty sure came in under the rear bulkhead while I was making my breakfast. I caulked it with RTV after I got home. Hatch seals aren't as much of a priority now that the rainy season is pretty much over, but I do need to get them done before fall.

[Wolffarmer]

If you think keeping the rain out is hard. Now you get to try to keep the dust out. Good luck.



Randy

[StPatron]

Lookin' good!

And, you're already able to use it. Good plan.

[Facemeltingly Epic]

I have finally painted the hatch! Honestly, it had adequate protection with nothing other than CPES on it, but I finally decided it had to match the rest of the trailer.



And this is what I came up with for securing the hatch supports when they're not in use.



This will make lowering the hatch considerably easier.

And tomorrow, as soon as I'm off work I am on the road again. I'm heading up to Sears Point for NASCAR, baby!

[Facemeltingly Epic]

Some of you might recall that I mentioned putting a cabinet with sliding doors in the galley of my trailer. My initial attempt of making doors begain with a sheet of 1/4" birch plywood from Lowe's that was so badly warped I couldn't use it for that purpose. I finally made another trip to Southern Lumber for a new sheet of plywood for that purpose.

Long story short, I saved maybe forty cents buying that sheet of birch at Lowe's as opposed to buying it at Southern. And I actually spent less on what I did use for my doors.



I made my sliding doors from a sheet of 1/4" mahogany instead. This was partly because it was the first 2'x4' sheet I pulled out of the rack and wasn't a wholly conscious decision, at least until I noticed it was a bit less expensive than birch.

I also got my first coat of paint on the doors and the interior of the cabinet.





Both will be getting a second coat. The paint inside the cabinet is pretty thin, and while I got pretty decent coverage on the doors I'd like to hit them with a roller to cover up the brush marks.

I'm also in the process of making a platform on the tongue, which will be where I mount the battery when I get around to doing the 12v electricals. And that will be soon; now that it's summer I'd really like having a functioning Fan-Tastic vent!

Nothing like my dad wanting to reclaim his power tools to get a fella working...

[Facemeltingly Epic]

I have made a start on the 12v electricals in my trailer.





As you can see, it's not terribly elaborate. All I have wired to the battery right now is the Fan-Tastic vent, and I must say that last weekend at Thunderhill the fan came in quite handy. Once it cooled off during the night, I actually woke up to shut it off. I will wire up lights in the interior and the galley at a later date.

I have also begun painting the interior.





What you see here is basically what I could get done with a 9" roller. Most of the rest will be done with a 3" roller and a brush.

During my last trip up to Thunderhill, I noticed that having the additional weight of the battery on the tongue did a lot to make the trailer more stable. I made most of the trip at 65-70 mph unless I hit anything above a light breeze. This did come with a slight penalty in fuel consumption; I averaged "only" 22 mpg for this trip.

And lastly, I have finally decided on a name for my trailer - the Track Shack.

[Facemeltingly Epic]

I don't have any pictures to go with this update...

I'm still working on painting the cabin. It has turned out to be more of a project than I originally thought. I have so far used about a gallon and a half of semi-gloss white paint, and I'm still not finished. Remember the cheap plywood I bought at Lowe's for this project that I don't ever plan to buy again if I do another project? It has a nearly insatiable thirst for paint!

That said, the areas where I have gotten enough paint look pretty decent. Part of what makes this job time-consuming stems from my decision to not do an inner skin for the ceiling; the consequence of this is that I have a LOT of corners and edges to paint!

I have to use the trailer this coming weekend; it'll be a 24 Hours of LeMons race at Thunderhill. Hopefully I'll have the paint work done by then, but I'm not holding my breath...

[Facemeltingly Epic]

Oh, mercy me! It has been THREE MONTHS since I've updated my build journal! Some of that is laziness, most of it is because a) I have enough done on the trailer that I can use it and not spend as much time working on it; and b) up until a couple weekends ago, I've been using the trailer quite a bit.

About a month ago, I finally got around to installing interior lighting in the trailer. I went with LED fixtures; they cost a lot up front, but they produce plenty of light and don't use a lot of power.

This is the fixture in the cabin. In retrospect I could have gone with a single-array fixture and still had plenty of light (and a bit more money in my pocket).



This is the fixture in the galley.



And this is a convincing argument for doing insulated walls on my next build, as I could hide nearly all of that wiring! OTOH, I would have to work out an electrical schematic in advance, but that isn't too big a deal.

Also, at long last I have my checkerboard curtains!





My mother finally found some black-and-white checked fabric, and bought enough to make a pillowcase as well. Now it finally has some race decor (and will get a little more once I get my Senna poster put up inside the cabin).



My next project? Mounting taillights on the hatch...



Last time I took the trailer out, I was trying to back it into a spot and hit a van. I wound up denting the rear bumper on the van and breaking off the left taillight. What you see in the photo above is what I resorted to just to get the trailer home. I got a shelf bracket at Walmart (pretty much the only place resembling a hardware store in Willows, CA that I know of) into which I drilled holes for the studs on the taillight. I then zip-tied it onto the trailer frame. I had to stop once to replace a broken zip tie but otherwise it made it home fine. Needless to say, the taillight didn't work on the whole trip.

I'll try to post updates in a more timely fashion from here on out.

[Wolffarmer]

Welcome back Face Melt.

That is about the most interesting tail light mount I have seen. And as I have farmed or been around farms all my life that is saying a lot.



I put a florescent light in the cabin of mine. At that time I had not seen any LED lights I really liked. And before I put some LEDs in I sure would like to see if I like them. I like to set and read when the weather is cold/wet out so good light is important to me.

Randy