Skinning your TTT in epoxy and fiberglass

[aggie79]

I'm still trying to decide if I should cut out the doors before laying the strips or after. I'm half afraid that if I do it after, they won't line up when I hang the doors. (Any advice would be appreciated!)

HKBB, You might want to consider routing the door in your main panel first, but leave like 4 tabs (or uncut areas) about an inch long near each corner, then strip it as one unit. This way you only have to cut through the short areas, you can use the preliminary cuts to guide your router for the final cuts, and the strips will all line up perfectly.

Just a thought and a variation on techniques I have seen used here before.

Hi Lena,

I did a similar technique as KC said. The interior of my teardrop is engineered flooring (the plywood type; not the fiberboard type) and I wanted the strips to line up. The pictures below show how I did this. (Click on them to see a larger images.)

The clearance I needed between the door opening and the door was 1/4". (I wrapped the door opening and the door with aluminum trim which brought down the finished clearance to 1/8".) In my plywood framing - actually MDO framing - I cut the opening with a 1/4" top bearing template bit using the 1/4" MDF template I made as a guide. For most of the opening, I routed through the full depth. I did leave some "tabs" - areas marked in red - where I only routed partially through the MDO to keep the door framing connected to the sidewall framing.



I then applied the engineered flooring running continous through the door opening.



This is what it looked like on the back side (outside of the teardrop) before cutting the door.



I then used a jig saw to rough cut the door from the rest of the sidewall keeping the cut line approximately in the center of the opening.



I don't have any pictures of this step, but I used a router and template bit to clean-up the edges around the door and the door opening. The bearing in the template bit ran against the 1/4" clearance that I previously routed except where I left the tabs. In the tab areas, I clamped a straight piece of scrap and used that as the template.



On other thing, as slow as I work, it was going to be a long time before I ever got around to finishing the doors. (Actually it was about 2 years later.) To keep the doors from warping, I clamped them together and stood them up vertically.

Take care,
Tom

[HKBB]

Thanks, Tom. Those pictures sure make it clear! I was just out in my garage getting out some underlayment to make a template for my door. It started raining, so I guess I'll just be doing "templating" today, for the door, porthole windows, and maybe get the design for the tongue box together. Stupid rain...

(Sidenote - Tom is the one who warned me about the oil-stain/epoxy issue. Whew!)

Becky, I already have the epoxy rollers, but have a feeling I'll go through them and need more. I'll DEFINITELY be trying out those foam trim rollers. Those epoxy rollers look nice, but who wants to pay a lot of money for something that is eventually going to wind up in the trash?

And WW, I just had to laugh when you said "Shoot for lower weight on the next one". I'm looking at all these pieces parts in my garage, and I already know I'm going to build another one. I guess I'll make all my mistakes on this one, and then when I recover from this build, I'll start the next.

But don't tell my husband that - he's expecting a hand-built jon boat first! http://youtu.be/gHvyUkTTsLM

[TrailerEd]

To be honest with you all....I started out with a lot of lofty and high falootin ideas about how this had to be so and so, the trailer had to be so so and the shell had to be so so and the dimensions had to be so so. If I was starting over tomorrow I would get a Harbor Frieght 4x8 frame, throw a floor on it, put up some solid 3/4" walls, fiberglass and paint the whole thing and go camping. And then maybe someday in the future, with that experience under my belt, a teardrop to play with in the meantime, and time to work out every detail of my ideal build in advance, I'd do one that was "just so and so." (Newbies....are you listening?) But I'm committed now (or should be) so I'll just keep moving forward with what I'm doing.[/quote]


Hi all,
I realize this thread is an older one and I, being a newbie, am enjoying the wisdom gained by reading thru the experience of so many on this site.
I have been working on the ultimate idea of an "All Wood" teardrop, right down to the frame.
Being a woodworker all my life I can see this being a work of art in my mind and therefore by trying to perfect it all the way, could take years to build. UGH and then I would be much older before I got the real teardrop camping experience.
My point is, Sorry takes me a while to get to the point, I am thinking the same way as above for a very first build:
"I would get a Harbor Frieght 4x8 frame, throw a floor on it, put up some solid 3/4" walls, fiberglass and paint the whole thing and go camping."

Is there wisdom in getting one built to get some real experience under my belt before taking on a real Dream Build? Not to mention; I wanna go camping in it!!!!
I have heard many woes of the Harbor Freight trailers? Mostly about the axles and bearings.
As well many woes over wood trailers? Mainly the up keep and to glass or not to glass?
I need some advice from the Experienced Ones!! To build a so, so one or not? Harbor Freight or not?

Thanks in advance.

[tony.latham]

Is there wisdom in getting one built to get some real experience under my belt before taking on a real Dream Build?

I think this crank-one out plan is perhaps a good idea. Especially if you want to get out in the sticks. We had a 4x10' for years and built a 5x10 in 2013 and included the fixes. I've heard my wife say, "I love this thing," while cooking meals twice now.

After a trip back from Zion she said, "It's not that big of deal coming home now."

"Huh?" I asked. "What?"

"The mattress in our teardrop is as good as our bed."


Glass or no glass? I'd lean towards the glass with Raka's UV epoxy. http://store.raka.com/uvepoxysystem.aspx Or just go with it and no glass. But sealing that edge... perhaps just glass it.

You could do the wall layup while flat, install, and hit the roof/wall edge with a bias cut tape once it's up. Probably take three more days for this.

Tony

[daveesl77]

On the HF 4x8. I have one and here are things I saw and fixed/modified.

The axle is fine, as good as any. Bearings are fine, but you can replace them if you want. The biggest problem people seem to have with these is that they think the bearings are "pre greased". They are not! There is some weirdo jelly-like substance in them for storage purposes, it is not lubricant. Even the directions tell folks to clean this out and repack, but they don't and burn up the bearings. I repack every bearing I have no matter what. It is easy, I'm old school so I use my palm and some high quality grease and takes maybe 10 minutes per bearing. I've never had a failure, ever.

It is a bolt together trailer and I did bolt mine together. I then bought a cheap wire welder and proceeded to weld every joint and left the bolts in place. The bolts are probably fine, but for me, spending a day welding this puppy up just made sense to me.

The paint is, well, cheap. I sanded mine down and coated with a good quality engine paint, black.

Trailer tongue. I really do not like this "foldable" tongue system. Mind you, this isn't the folding trailer, but for whatever reason the tongue is attached with pivots and pins. I have seen some pics on the pin shackles breaking loose and can see how it happens. For me, I added in a 2x2 square steel tube, running from the 2nd cross member back, through the joining member (turned upside down) and then extended out 18 inches. This tube is bolted and welded and creates a composite "A" tongue, much stronger.

So, the trailer cost me $308 out the door (with coupon), the welder was $120 with good wire. Paint I already had. Steel tube was $30. Spent maybe 3 days total in the build and modifications and feel totally confident in it.

dave

[TrailerEd]

Is there wisdom in getting one built to get some real experience under my belt before taking on a real Dream Build?

I think this crank-one out plan is perhaps a good idea. Especially if you want to get out in the sticks. We had a 4x10' for years and built a 5x10 in 2013 and included the fixes. I've heard my wife say, "I love this thing," while cooking meals twice now.

After a trip back from Zion she said, "It's not that big of deal coming home now."

"Huh?" I asked. "What?"

"The mattress in our teardrop is as good as our bed."


Glass or no glass? I'd lean towards the glass with Raka's UV epoxy. http://store.raka.com/uvepoxysystem.aspx Or just go with it and no glass. But sealing that edge... perhaps just glass it.

Thanks for the input. I am thinking the same thing! I think that approach is exactly what I have been thinking.
Where in Idaho? My son and his family moved to Hayden last summer. We are planning to go up this summer to see them again.

You could do the wall layup while flat, install, and hit the roof/wall edge with a bias cut tape once it's up. Probably take three more days for this.

Tony

[TrailerEd]

On the HF 4x8. I have one and here are things I saw and fixed/modified.

The axle is fine, as good as any. Bearings are fine, but you can replace them if you want. The biggest problem people seem to have with these is that they think the bearings are "pre greased". They are not! There is some weirdo jelly-like substance in them for storage purposes, it is not lubricant. Even the directions tell folks to clean this out and repack, but they don't and burn up the bearings. I repack every bearing I have no matter what. It is easy, I'm old school so I use my palm and some high quality grease and takes maybe 10 minutes per bearing. I've never had a failure, ever.

It is a bolt together trailer and I did bolt mine together. I then bought a cheap wire welder and proceeded to weld every joint and left the bolts in place. The bolts are probably fine, but for me, spending a day welding this puppy up just made sense to me.

The paint is, well, cheap. I sanded mine down and coated with a good quality engine paint, black.

Trailer tongue. I really do not like this "foldable" tongue system. Mind you, this isn't the folding trailer, but for whatever reason the tongue is attached with pivots and pins. I have seen some pics on the pin shackles breaking loose and can see how it happens. For me, I added in a 2x2 square steel tube, running from the 2nd cross member back, through the joining member (turned upside down) and then extended out 18 inches. This tube is bolted and welded and creates a composite "A" tongue, much stronger.

So, the trailer cost me $308 out the door (with coupon), the welder was $120 with good wire. Paint I already had. Steel tube was $30. Spent maybe 3 days total in the build and modifications and feel totally confident in it.

dave

Dave,
Thank you very much. That is the most straight up information on the H.F. trailer a guy can ask for. And, thank you for the sound experience on what to do to make the trailer mods in an effective manner. I believe you have sealed the deal for me. It's time to get one built that we can enjoy. Then work on the ideal trailer over time. I appreciate you taking the time to reply in depth.
This site is just full of great people who seem to love helping others out. Thanks!

Did you use the 1090lb or the 1720lb trailer?
Ed