Turkeys Tear (all finished and tested)

[Wild Turkey NZ]

a picture says a thousand words.

Well it all starts with a plan.
My plan is to build a super light weight tear to go behind my 1.3 Suzuki samuri and well insulated for those cold alpine nights.
i want to build it all for under $1000. it will require lots of scrounging and lots of patience to "acquire" every thing i need.

so here is the plan drawn to scale. this will be what the entire project is based off:

the rest is in my head.

first score was the trailer. spent a long time looking for some good bearing and springs so i could build the frame to fit a board. i struggled to find all the parts for less than $200 NZD. talking to the neighbor about my proposed project and he told me about an old trailer in the scrub down the back of his farm so i shot down there and jacked it up tested the bearings and they were sweet. i cleaned out the small forest that was growing in the back of it, hooked it up to the tractor and drug it home.

the old man was not impressed with it but i could see the potential in the old girl. when i measured it up the width was exactly 1200 wide and with a bit of modification would be long enough too. the neighbor wanted $60 for it and i was feeling rich so i bought it.

stripped it down:


made a spare tire cradle for under the draw bar. it will limit my off road capability but if i get into trouble it can come right off a. plus it keeps the weight forward and low down so it wont blow over in the vicious central otago winds:


welded a nut to a bit of old agbeam. this will be the keeper for the spare tire cradle which come on and off with one bolt.


got a cheap sand blaster to clean off the old muck so its ready to paint:

for $25 it works bloody well!

i painted the high wearing parts with a zink under coat and primer before a mat blak rust kill paint. cost about $100 for all the paint and some bolts:


the trailer frame ready to get a caravan ontop:

the mud guards are made from an old plastic barrel i had. they had the right shape arc to them and they wont rust and dont need paint.
i also made a wooden insert out of some old decking. i need it because the trailer was very flexible without it and it gives me something to screw the floor to.

Now that i know that i have a trailer the wood work can begin!!
i managed to get a pile if treated pine that was used in an orchard.FOR FREE. woop woop:

the length was 1500 and after the nails were cut out and the timer was cleaned up a bit i had 1250ish lengths with minimal knots:

i made about 30meters but turns out i needed almost 3 times that. the advantage of plans aye .

time to spend money . i got 2 sheets of 3mm MDF(walls), 1sheet of 6mm MDF (cabinets,shelves) and 1 sheet of 19mm treated 7ply (floor). about $150 all up. the real kicker was the ply, $120
now the fun begins.

I drew the curve on tho the 3mm mdf using a long thin stick as a guide. this helped me follow a natural curve and hot have any sharp corners. i cut out the 3mm with a jig saw and stared laying out the outerframe:

i rounded the outer frame off with a router following the 3mm MDF then
i layed out where the door would be and where the shelves and walls would be:

time to fix the sides to the floor!!!

putting in the roof braces:

the structure wasnot very ridged at this point of i put the foot board in to stiffen it up for when i made the back door:

back door made and in place this was surprisingly easy to get it all to line up.


i put a angled brace on it for when i take it off to put the inner lining (3mm MDF ):

I sarted making the cabinet that is accessed from the inside:

these are the beginning of the cabinet doors the will have a tongue and groove panel put in it and the wood work will have a french wax polish rather than poly.

Ive got the first coat of paint (old house paint) on and scored some insulation from a old pack house so its all coming together!
Thats what im upto so far, its been 3 weeks work off and on.
Im taking a trip into town to pick up all the wiring bits and pieces and the aluminium for the cladding and i plan to really get stuck into it now to finish it off. lots of details and small work to do now and that's gonna take me some time.

peace

[mezmo]

Welcome to the forum Wild Turkey !

It looks like you have a plan and are going full-
steam ahead with it. That trailer/chassis was a
great find - and - better for it to be put to a good
use there for you, than to just be sitting around slowly
rusting.

Good luck with the rest of your build.

Cheers,
Norm/mezmo

[Junkboy999]

Super good start so far.

Trimming and finishing ( from what I have seen ) usually takes longer than framing. Keep pluggin away and
keep us posted.

[KCStudly]

Nice light weight looking frame for a good deal, too. Good on you mate.

Welcome and thanks for sharing; keep those pics coming. We like 'da pics.

Where in N-Zed are you? I spent 1982 in NZ (Auckland) and was fortunate to travel around a bit, too.

[Wild Turkey NZ]

cheers guys.
Im in the sunny bay of plenty planning on heading back to the mainland (the south island).

I started painting. got some old ceiling paint givent to me. was the wrong colour but it will work great as a primer/sealer for me.
I put one coat on the MDF on the inside of the walls as a bit of a sealer to protect against condensation hopfully.

I also scored a heap of foam insulation out of an old packhouse. i love freebies

It was 70mm thick so i set up a hot wire to rip it to 35mm (wall thickness). bit of steel wire streched across some plywood at the correct heigh and you have a clean way of cutting foam insulation:

all cleaned up ready to be cut to size:

and the roof fully insulated:

[AlgoDan]

Hello and welcome aboard Wild Turkey. By the looks and progress of your build, you will be camping next weekend..good job mate.
Also keep those pictures coming....

[Wild Turkey NZ]

Well slow going lately i think i was a bit ambitious to think i could finish it soo quick.

I took the guts out of an old computer scanner, turns out its a 12v florescent light unit. here it is:

it looks a little bit rough but ill use it as a light for inside the inner cabinet, it pumps out a bit of light and doesn't draw much current at all.
here it is in place and turned on:

ready to scan some luggage!!

i also bought an old oil cooler, this will be used as a radiator for my heater unit. hot water will circulate through this and be heated by a wetback in a fireplace/cooker. i will use 12v computer fans to blow the air through and a pump to circulate the water. anybody tried to heat a tear with this kind of setup? and know of any efficient 12v pumps that work well for this?:


here is the cabinet in place and ready to go camping:

the door will hang by a chain that can be unhooked if need be:


I also went into the city to buy the aluminium for the outer skin.... and now im really, really poor so the tear is on hold while i do some casual labor to save up for the side door hinges. might have to make my own...

peace

[KCStudly]

Progress is progress. Keep digging.

[Wild Turkey NZ]

well its been a slow week.
finished the wiring.

i used hot glue on the backs of all the switches and where the wires go through holes in the framing. this should stop any connections from vibrating loose:

I got the roof skinned. cant do much more until i get the tail lights and hinges.

also major milestone!!!
i got the cabin onto the trailer. its not screwed down yet but i can get an idea of the balance and weight of the whole thing. woop woop.

in celebration i messed around with the insulation. hmm what a waste of time but it was worth it.

after burning all that time i thought i would crack on and start the doors. i dont know where the hing reinforcements need to be but i can sort that out later when they arrive.

does any body know a good product for bonding the aluminium to wood? that time is coming up quick.

[S. Heisley]

I think that's kinda cute!

[KCStudly]

My theory on the hinge and latch location (at least for a 2 separate hinge and single latch) is that the hinges should be as close to the top and bottom of the door as practicle (without looking funny) and that the latch should be as close to the middle of the door (without messing up the location of the window too badly). my reasoning is that this will minimize the amount of flex that might otherwise cause leaks.

That way the top and bottom corners of the latch side of the door get as much rigidity as possible from the door frame, whereas if you put the latch lower or higher, or the hinges closer together it would increase the "span" to one or both of these farthest points and might allow more flex.

$0.02 for what it is worth.

You are making good progress and it is looking great!

[Wild Turkey NZ]

got some goodies in the mail today:

Led tail lights wire and a plug.i also got my 4 hinges which are exactly what i needed to get on with getting some more sawdust made. Thanks Trademe!

i decided to mount my hinges so that hey were 80mm from the top and bottom. no reason really just looked all good. thanks KCStudly for the advise. I am going to bolt the hinges on with s/s bolts and nylock nuts. they will be bolted there the packers that are being glued on here:


now that i know where the packers for the hinge go i can get the sides on this beast. oops forgot to cut out the door:


due to a change in plans half way through construction i have a 3mm gap to deal with on all four corners. so good old epoxy to the rescue. i mixed it with some saw dust to make it go further. i also used it to seal all the screw heads to stop them touching or sweating against the alloy. dont know if this is an issue or not.


getting very close to putting the ali on. anybody know a good glue to bond aluminium to ply wood, remain slightly flexable but be very thin, and have a slow...ish drying time in order to get the sheet on in one go and move it around for a while. any ideas would be appreciated.

[AlgoDan]

Wow making good progress, moving right along and you will be camping soon.

[Wild Turkey NZ]

progress has been slow but steady.
i have decided to use F3 contact adhesive to bond the aluminium to the ply.

got the doors cut out of the plywood sides. also got plywood on the back door. makes it look like a real caravan!!!

another big moment.
I put the tail lights, number plate and rego card on so i can go get a warrant of fitness (inspection to see if the vehical is road worthy. needs to happen once a year) i am going to get a warrant before i put any aluminium on because in the likely event that the trailer structure does not pass warrant i will need to take the camper off of it and there is less chance of stuffing up my shiny aluminium.

ready to go for its maiden voyage.

i put a sneaky little hatch in the back door for doing up the tail lights wiring and keeping contraband.


started cutting out the aluminium.i did this on a friends guillotine. i thought the lines would be a bit straighter than cutting with a jig saw. it was a neat old guillotine, i wish i got a photo of it. also the window glass is roughly in position just need to cut a hole for it:


i have been thinking of ways to discourage water from getting into my tear if it gets past the seals. i cut a small V groove in the outer edge of the door frame to try to act as a gutter. ill let u all know if it works.


so now im waiting for glue and epoxy to set so i started to work on some of the smaller more detailed components. here i am making some vents to go near my feet.
its times like these i wish i was back at my old job programming the CNC. something like this could be spat out in minuets but alas an half an hour later...

hopefully the local hardware shop has the glue i want tomorrow and i can continue using glue drying time to do the small efforty stuff. its a good system.
peace

[AlgoDan]

Looking good and it wont be long now....