Finally starting my teardrop offroad trailer build.

[Boss Cherokee]

You are on the same page as I am. Now I just need to find a nice valve that I can ideally bulkhead mount in a 1/2" compressing fitting. It is either that or simply two schrader valves instead of one (probably the way I will go)

You could use big rig air bag valves made by Haldex, or Bendix. Unfortunetly that would cause you to need an on board air comp. and tank. Your ride and sway adjustment would be great and automatic. When one side drops, the weight would increase as the trailer center of gravity leans toward the dropped side. The down side bag would inflate and the upside bag would be dumping air due to the shifted weight, and vice versa, assiting in and antisway like fashion.

 

[old_man]

I ended up using two remote mounted Schrader valves. I have a leak somewhere. One side goes down after a couple of weeks.

 

[DrMoab]

I ended up using two remote mounted Schrader valves. I have a leak somewhere. One side goes down after a couple of weeks.

This is why I'm staying away from airbags.

I love the idea but reliability scares me...especially when I'm 200 miles from anything.

 

[old_man]

The air bag problem seems to have been a simple leaky Schrader valve. A good metal cap fixed it.

Here are some pix of the progress. I have started to skin the frame. Surprisingly, the order that you put things together is fairly complex.

I added some radius tubing to the frame to make the 1/4" ply from without dimples.

The ply is screwed into the frame with counter sunk machine screws. Once the inside ply is added, I will pull the wires, then cut 1" styrofoam before adding the external ply. The outside will be Filon, while the floor and sides will be outdoor carpet. The inside roof will be FRP.

The airbags make the trailer unstable when you are inside. The problem becomes finding a jack setup that will go high enough, not hand down too much when retracted, and won't break the bank is a big problem. Being an engineer and fabricator, I took an old school design and upscaled it for my needs. The jacks will raise the trailer high enough to change a tire or allow it to sit on very uneven ground.

Hopefully I can post the rest of the pix. It seems that Photobucket's user interface got hijacked in the middle of my post.

 

[old_man]

 

[old_man]

I fabbed four of these jacks. I will be welding them in place tomorrow. I just love welding upside down. I think I can get the tires off the ground if I have to.

 

[old_man]

Finally I am going to be back home for about 10 days over Christmas and hope to finish this beast off. I want to be ready to do a Colorado Expedition type run. Here is the body of a post in the Colorado Section

For a long time I have wanted to do a multi-day trip around Colorado. I'm not talking about the hardest trails but a mixture from mild to wild.

It would have to be around the same time as ColoradoFest due to the fact that some of the trails are only open that late in the season.

My thoughts were to start off from Denver, run Red Cone and Radical Hill and camp that evening maybe in Buena Vista. The next day might be to do Taylor Pass to Aspen, have lunch, then south over Pearl Pass to Crested Butte where we would spend the second night.

From there we would head over Scofield Pass and Lead King, staying the night in Marble or Crystal.

From there the options are open. We could even add a day at Holy Cross in between Radical Hill and Taylor Pass.

The point is to do some fun wheeling without trying to trash your rig, see some awesome country, take some pictures and enjoy some camping with friends.

Is there any interest in this? This could most likely be done with a stocker with some help with the exception of Holy Cross.

The whole key is to do a low key, low stress time with maybe even some time to wet a hook along the way.

 

[Fore Wheeler]

:yellclap:

 

[old_man]

It never fails, when you have everything all planned out, something throws a monkey wrench in the gears. I got 12 days home for Christmas...I royally screwed up my back. I finally got a couple of half days of work in with the help of some Percocet and wine coolers and now I am heading back to the frozen north for another 5 weeks. I am to the point where things will come together pretty fast from this point forward. I got the inside roof finished, added some steel tubing, and got the walls cut out and the door mocked in. Now I need to order my lighting and run my wiring before I can really start to button it up.

 

[Fred]

Hey, progress is progress. HNY.

 

[old_man]

If I had another day I could have finished attaching the interior walls, adding the Styrofoam insulation, roughed in the cabinets, and carpeted the interior, but alas I will have to wait another 5 weeks. By then I should have gotten the lights all figured out, ordered, and delivered.

I wouldn't have gotten this much done if I hadn't enlisted my 10 year old grand daughter. She gets in and around in the inside a lot easier than I do.

 

[Bronzewyrm]

im really liking this build. I have done a couple teardrops, and the project "family sleeper" this looks real close to what I had in mind for the next one.

Questions: Did you weigh it before flooring and interior? if so what is it looking like?
Do you have a "maximum weight" of some sort in mind? a target weight all finished up and loaded?
How many people will this platform support when your done? just you? the wife too, how many kids? and for how many days?

Not trying to bust your balls, im a curious fellow when it comes to trailer builds. This looks like it is going to hold up for years to come, I like the front radius profile, and im digging the suspension "tec" in this thread.
I cant wait to see it going down the road, thanks for posting the progress, my cogs are a turning now.

Props man!
Bronze.

 

[old_man]

im really liking this build. I have done a couple teardrops, and the project "family sleeper" this looks real close to what I had in mind for the next one.

Questions: Did you weigh it before flooring and interior? if so what is it looking like?
Do you have a "maximum weight" of some sort in mind? a target weight all finished up and loaded?
How many people will this platform support when your done? just you? the wife too, how many kids? and for how many days?

Not trying to bust your balls, im a curious fellow when it comes to trailer builds. This looks like it is going to hold up for years to come, I like the front radius profile, and im digging the suspension "tec" in this thread.
I cant wait to see it going down the road, thanks for posting the progress, my cogs are a turning now.

Props man!
Bronze.

Surprisingly steel is not all that heavy. I figure it will be about 800-900 pounds when finished.

For the most part, it will be for me mostly, the wife sometimes, and the kids will use it behind their cars to take the grandkids for camping trips.

 

[old_man]

Well I finally got the project back on track. I have been working 12 hour days 6-7 days a week for several months. Not much time or energy left over.

I have finished insulating the shell and putting the plywood on the outside. I hope to have the filon (fiberglass) on by this weekend. I will see if I can follow up with some pix in the next couple of hours.

It never fails. It appears that I have torn my MCL in my left knee. I accidentally hyper extended it. It is tons of fun going up and down the ladder with a bum knee.

The updated goal is to have it pretty much done by New Years.

 

[old_man]

Here is a quick shot of the insulation. I am using 1" Styrofoam. Sorry for the dirty shop but when you only get a couple of minutes at a time..........

Here is a pix of the passenger's side with the plywood underlayment. This will be covered with Filon (fiberglass sheet like used on motorhomes).

Here is a pix of the driver's side. When I get the coins, I will be putting a door on this side as well. I roughed in the opening so it will be an hour job, max.

One of the hardest things was to get the plywood to conform to the radius. I soaked it for multiple days and put it under tension. I even ended up sanding the back side down to allow it to bend better.

These pix are a bit out of date. I hope to get the Filon on before Christmas. Then I need to fabricate the rear hatch. I already have the bent pieces done, I just want to get the rest of the trailer skinned before I do the final fitting on the hatch and weld everything up.

 

[Anak]

Any more progress?

I love what you have done so far.

 

[old_man]

Tons. I will see if I can take some pix today. I am doing the galley at the moment. I have sheeted it with filon on both sides and hope to finish the top today and put in the carpet.

 

[Anak]

I am looking forward to seeing them.

 

[Fore Wheeler]

I am looking forward to seeing them.

X2

 

[GSequoia]

You should also be posting in the Off-Road and Expedition Trailers Facebook group.