Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

by **tvlawyer** » Sat Feb 05, 2011 10:52 am

Being too cash-poor to pursue my first love of flight, and presently stuck "between" motorcycles, I decided I needed a new, less expensive hobby. So, I've decided to build a Cubby 4x8 teardrop.

I hope my finished trailer captures the visual charm of the aircraft of the golden age of commercial aviation. Thus, the trailer is named DC (as in DC-3, etc.), TT (for teardrop trailer.)

I know this forum will be an invaluable tool in this project, and I look forward to learning from all of you and sharing what I learn along the way.

Away we go....

The early stages of assembly of a Harbor Freight 4x8, 1720 lb trailer.

I decided to weld the two halves of the frame together. Here, I've ground the area around the seam down to bare metal. After some marginally acceptable welding, I drove a 1/2 inch bolt through the cross-member just for extra security.

Klaatu barada nikto!

My makeshift paint booth.

First coat of Rustoleum aluminum color paint applied with an HVLP sprayer I picked up at Harbor Freight for $15. The second coat applied with a foam brush looked even better.

Underside of assembled deck.

Underside of deck coated with Henry's 107 asphalt emulsion. Working with this stuff is a nightmare unless the ambient temperature is at least 50 degrees.

Foam sheet insulation under the deck.

Aligning the assembled deck on the frame. Tomorrow I'll start bolting the deck to the trailer frame.

by **tvlawyer** » Sat Feb 05, 2011 11:29 pm

Gear down and locked!

by **Miriam C.** » Sat Feb 05, 2011 11:51 pm

It's all up from here. Looking forward to the updates. :thumbsup:

by **droid_ca** » Sun Feb 06, 2011 12:11 am

looking good so far

by **eamarquardt** » Sun Feb 06, 2011 1:13 am

Larry,

Not to be pendantic but the entire quote is:

Gort, Klaatu Barada Nikto. Klaatu Barada Nikto.

And it was spoken by Patricia Neal as Helen Benson

If in doubt:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIaxSxEqKtA

It gives me chills just to watch it!

You do ERISA?

Cheers,

Gus

by **tvlawyer** » Tue Feb 08, 2011 8:57 am

Gus:

ERISA is the most complex (and boring) legal subject I've ever encountered. Despite many hours of study on the subject, I still have only a bare working knowledge of it. One of the several reasons I stopped taking injury cases several years ago was the hassles caused by benefit providers seeking reimbursement under ERISA.

If I still handled accident cases I'd probably be buying a camper rather than building one!

Larry.

by **planovet** » Tue Feb 08, 2011 9:14 am

tvlawyer wrote:

I think you just found your avatar picture. :lol:

by **Judeyramone** » Tue Feb 08, 2011 2:09 pm

...and presently stuck "between" motorcycles...

Details, please.

by **tvlawyer** » Tue Feb 15, 2011 9:21 pm

This weekend (2/13/11) I plotted the profile from the Cubby plans onto two plywood sheets clamped together. After the rough cut, I ended up with this.

Today (2/15/11) I used a belt sander to contour the edges to the profile outline. Something didn't look right when I stepped back a few feet to look at the profile. I carefully compared the plan to my finished work and could see that somewhere, my plotting went awry.

Light bulb went off in my head! If I project the profile drawing onto my sidewalls, I can see exactly where I went wrong. Voila!

You can clearly see where I went wrong in the "northwest" quadrant of the profile. Using a Sharpie, I traced the projected profile onto the plywood. Here's what saw when I turned the garage lights on.

As you can see, my plotting and cutting was not so bad, except for that upper left section. Tomorrow, I'll cut off the offending area with the RotoZip, sand the entire edge, and I should end up with sidewalls that match the drawing quite nicely.