Blog

8/10/2007

Finally got the axle thing worked out. I decided rather than buying the hybrid axle (Dexter #9 with hubs from a #10) to just go ahead and by the number 10 axle and use 2000# rubber. When done I'm hoping to have the trailer weigh in somewhere around 1000-1200 lbs and while this is light for the axle I think it will ride ok loaded a little over 50%. Well see in 4 weeks. Delivery time unless I want to pay truck freight of around 125.00 (I think I'll wait).

8/15/2007

I realize that I need someplace to put this thing over the winter so I bought a canvas carport / garage from Costco for $170.00 It's kind of flimsy and I'm not sure if it will make it through the winter. If I could get just two seasons out of it I will be happy.

8/17/2007

Only two days and the wind blew the thing over and broke a few of the supports. Sure is nice to have this welder to fix problems like this.

8/21/2007

I've been wondering how I was going to flip that over by myself... Then it finally hit me, stick a round pipe in the tongue and rotate the whole thing from the back. It worked like a big engine stand. I hope to get the stabilizers mounted by this weekend.

8/22/2007

I had time after work to weld on the 2 back stabilizers. I decided to just fasten them to the gussets which I think worked out pretty good. When they are folded up they come up even with the top of the frame and when down the only part that sticks out beyond the frame is the foot, so hopefully there will be no stubbed toes moving around in the dark.

9/09/2007

The axle finally arrived in Spokane this Friday. I picked it up on the way home from work and installed it on the frame Friday night. The tongue weight seemed a bit high which got me thinking about how I mounted, or more precisely, where I mounted it. It seemed to me at first that the pivot point would be right at the axle. But after thinking about it, the actual point that pivots is at the wheel and that is what I need to use to calculate the proper weight distribution. It sure is easier welding things onto something rather than trying to remove them. I must have spent 2 hours getting everything back to the way it was so I could weld it in the right position.

Everything is attached now and I took it for a test drive this evening. The thing rides very nice. I'm glad I waited for the torsion axle, it's worth the money. The original tongue weight was around 75 lbs and I know it's less but I haven't weighed it yet. (I don't think Kim likes me using her nice scale outside for this, lol)

After mounting the tires I see that the height of the trailer is about 2" higher than I had calculated. The problem is the stabilizers where already barely long enough and now don't even touch the ground when fully extended. Something had to be done, but what? I figured I could cut the stabilizers just above the foot and add some 1" angle iron to get the needed inches. I wasn't sure how it would look, but it's not too bad.

9/18/07

I've been working on getting the lighting for the trailer. I like what the LED's look like and wanted to spend the extra money to have LED's for everything on the trailer. To do the tail lights I needed to have them above 15" to be legal and since I needed to have a bumper any ways I thought it would be a good idea to incorporate the lighting into a bumper design. So for the last 2 nights I have been grinding and cutting and grinding and sanding and filing and just basically working my ass off trying to fabricate a solid bumper that will house my lighting. I will post some pictures when I get them painted but for now I'm just happy to be done with the hard part.

Speaking of lighting I now wish I had kept this thing under 80 inches wide. Something I hadn't thought about is the fact of the extra requirements for lighting trailers over 80" wide. I need 2 additional lights on either fender for clearance lights and a 3 light bar at the back to indicate a wide trailer. I'm thinking that for the moment, and being in Idaho, that I could probably get away without the additional lights but if we travel through other states I will have to attach the additional lights.

I've got the safety chain (or rather safety cable) and just need to weld it onto the frame.

I would like to have the trailer portion done, if possible, by the end of this week so I can look into starting the floor and more interesting parts. The last hurdle on the frame is going to be trying to get a wheel well to cover these massive tires. I saw some Jeep like fenders but they only go about 10" wide and these tires are a lot closer to 12" so I may have to fabricate those too. If I do, I think aluminum would be the way to go.

9/27/07

I've made the brackets to hold the lights and will act like a solid bumper if I back into anything. When I went to mount them I knelt down to align them with the frame and noticed something. The heat from welding the axle onto the frame had sucked it down about a good inch or so and that was only in 41 inches of travel. I was really bummed and thought about how I was going to live with that kind of difference when I went to install the walls.

I decided that it had to be fixed and it seemed to me that cutting the frame and re positioning the back end so everything was level was going to be the easiest fix. So I cut through the top of the 2" tube and re welded it. I just hope my welding is good!

So now the lights are all mounted and the plugs installed. The harder parts I fear are going to be coming up soon. It would be nice to get some of the woodworking done while its still warm enough for the glue to hold.

Here's how everything looks behind the Toyota.

10/08/07

I picked up the 1/2 inch acx ply for the exterior walls 3-4x8 sheets and the 4 5x5 baltic birch 1/4 inch inside plywood from Windsor Plywood in Spokane. Must have been in there for a couple hours looking at all the different kinds of wood and trying to make up my mind. The fact that the baltic birch could be gotten in 5x5 lengths made my mind up.

The work is starting on the walls. I had no idea that the ellipse was going to be such a pain to layout, let alone cut out. The whole thing was made worse considering that the outer walls and inner walls are made from 2 separate pieces of plywood that have to be joined together.

I wanted to bend 1/4" pieces of pines (1x4's that were ripped to 1/4" pieces) but that didn't work to well. The wood would barely make the bend without breaking and it was just a pain in the butt. Instead I cut 1x4's to fit the profile. It's kind of ugly, but hell it's going to be in the walls so besides you guys reading this, no one will ever know how bad it looks. lol.

I'm out of town for two days but bought more clamps and am hoping that in a week I should have the walls pretty complete. I need to plan my door more precisely and figure out what kind of wiring needs to be in the walls, but I see some real progress here.

10/22/07

It's been a little while since I've updated things here. With winter coming fast it's been a bit of a race to get things glued up as quickly as I can so I don't have to heat the tent in order for this stuff to cure. I'm hoping I can get all the epoxying done and walls up before it goes below freezing, especially in the day time.

I did buy a forced air propane heater that really heats the place up when needed. It will run for about 14 hours on a 5 gal tank of LP. To fill the tank runs about 13.00 so I am really trying hard not to use it much. Right now things are staying about 40deg or so and the glue and epoxy (cold curing) are working ok for now.

Over the previous weekend I was able to frame, insulate and mostly glue my walls together. I had trouble finding 3/4" foam so I had a bright idea of using wonder foam in the walls and then trim the stuff once it got hard. Two problems; first the cost. I bought 4 cans thinking that that would be enough to do both walls. After using up 2 cans and getting only about 4 sq ft done I saw I had a problem. The other thing is that stuff is hard as hell to cut in 3 foot sections. I made a big serrated knife out of a ruler which did work but in no way is it worth the trouble. After calling around I found the 3/4" foam I needed and then made some real progress.

My main goal this weekend was to finish up the walls and get them hung. I decided that it would make more sense to go ahead and epoxy the walls while I had them down. I know I need to get the bottom edge real good since it will be exposed to the water kicked up from the roadway. I also wanted to get the top edges even though they should be covered by the roof section. I don't want any water getting in here. I have been applying epoxy but things are very slow. I only have the tent to do the work (I don't dare do this inside the house, this stuff is STICKY) so I have to do one wall at at time and then wait a good 24 hours for it to cure.

As of today I have both walls with a single coat on them. I'm going out of town again and when I get back they should be ready to get mounted. I may apply another coat of epoxy to the bottom edge yet, just to be safe. I'll have to see how things look when I get back.

11/04/07

I've been able to get the walls up and this thing is starting to actually look like something. The process took the whole weekend and with the cold I had to bring it into the covered tarp and run the heater for the epoxy to finish curing.

This weekend I had hoped to get the inside skinned but needed to put up the front and rear bulkhead to do it. It turned out to be more of a hassle than I had thought and took me the whole weekend to get the two bulkheads and front shelving installed. Sometime in the next week I will have the front skinned on the inside and start working on the back again.

05/07/08

Well, I didn't get as much done in the winter as I had hoped. We had a LOT of snow this year. I have started things again in the last couple of weeks and have managed to get the Interior skin installed and glued down. I roughed in the Fantastic Fan to see how well it works and I think we will be very happy with it. I've changed the way I am going to light the cabin and unfortunately will have to fill the holes I've already drilled for the wiring. The LED lights I had made when mounted where I wanted them (where you wont hit your head) they will be shinning right at the top of our heads. So, I decided to try a flush mount LED (1-watt) and move them forward so they will shine down more from the top than behind.

The table top was looking real good with 4 coats of epoxy (speaking of which I have switched to RAKA 350 non blush and am so much happier) but I needed to sand it down to make everything level and the shine completely went away. I'm not sure if it wasn't quite cured all the way or if I need to go beyond the 220 grit and wet sand to get the shine that I'm hoping for.

05/19/08

I took Friday off to work on the roof and we got quite a bit done. I laid down a layer of epoxy on all the spars and the tops of the walls. The workability of the slow curing non blush epoxy from RAKA gave me a good couple of hours before it set. Earlier in the week we laid together 3 sheets of the 1/8" ply with scarf joints. We took it out and laid it in from the back and I used finishing nails to clamp the skin down while the epoxy cured. Since there will be another ply atop this one, I'm not too worried about the nails. I think it will seal up just fine.

I've framed both the doors and have put two coats of epoxy on the first. Here's a picture of it with the window roughed in. I still need to brush on about 3 coats of PolyCrylic on the interior before I can fit the window in for good and install the hardware.

I'm headed back out of town for a few days so things are stopped at the moment. I still hope to have this on the road in a month or so (not finished, but campable.)

05/18/09

Okay, well it's been about a year and I haven't done squat... The weather is starting to get nice and I plan on at least getting this mobile this summer. I've got one door mounted and they actaully work so I know that I should be ok on the second. The other door is in the shed getting the multiple coats of epoxy to keep the water out so it's kind of slow going (it takes 24 hours for every coat to cure). I hope to have the final door on in a weekend or two then all that will be left is the back hatch then it will be at the very least usable if not pretty.