removable cabin

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removable cabin

Postby chamm1963 » Thu Oct 06, 2016 1:56 pm

this will be my first build i`m thinking about making building a weekender and making it removable from the trailer .
i`ll be building Mike Schneider`s light weight weekender
http://www.mikenchell.com/weekender/index.html and was wondering if using t nuts would be strong enough to bolt
the cross members to the frame ??
i have other uses for the trailer and would like to not have more then one trailer

thanks
Chuck Hammell
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Re: removable cabin

Postby drhill » Thu Oct 06, 2016 6:00 pm

I see this is your first post so welcome to the site. There are lots of experienced builders here to give advise and the camping season is coming to an end so we have time. Actually in Alberta the season has ended and we may get some white precipitation tomorrow.

Using tee nuts would be fine as far as strength is concerned. The loads are not that high. The rule of thumb to remember is that a 100 mph wind produces a force of 30 lbs/ft2. So the flat front of a 5' x 4' trailer at 100 mph would be 600 lbs. But the tow vehicle will take most of that force. A 1/4" grade 2 (lowest grade) bolt has a safe shear loading of 200 pounds at the root of the threads or 370 lbs for the full cross section. So really just 1- 1/4" bolt in each corner would be enough. I used 2 in each corner.

The problem I see with tee nuts is that I assume you would drill holes through the floor and frame and install the tee nut from the top. This would be an easy installation but after you remove the cabin and go back to install it, you will have a heck of a time getting it perfectly aligned with all the holes. If you type "removable" into the search box on this page you will see some posts from people who have built or thought about building removable campers. My own experience has been good. Actually just yesterday I took the camper off my trailer and hauled a load of gravel for a pizza oven foundation. Removing and replacing the camper isn't something you wouldn't want to do everyday but if you don't have an excess of space for trailers and can group your utility trailer uses into the non-camping season then this is a great solution.

Some people have gone to great expense to mount fancy jacks on to their campers similar to truck campers and some just slide the camper on and off with a winch or brute force. In my opinion a controllable lifting of the camper with a hydraulic, screw or scissor jack is a safe economical method of doing the job. Also, it is best to use a trailer without side rails as those will just get in the way. I didn't do a build thread but a bit of a post build thread and it is here: http://tnttt.com/viewtopic.php?f=50&t=61318 If you have a look at that, look near the bottom of the page for the "wife saver bolts" that I used to hold down the camper. There is also some good information there about how I remove and replace the camper.

Good luck and have fun with your build.
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Re: removable cabin

Postby chamm1963 » Thu Oct 06, 2016 6:53 pm

i was thinking about making some kind of alignment tabs on the trailer
2 in front 2 on the side and 2 in the rear so that the camper would line right up to the holes .
as for the t nuts i would be using the riveted type so they can`t push out .
i like the idea of your so called wife safer bolts kind of like a large u bolt
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Re: removable cabin

Postby drhill » Thu Oct 06, 2016 8:16 pm

Those alignment tabs should do the trick for you. I haven't used tee nuts too much and hadn't heard of the riveted ones. I had a look at the Rockler site to find out about them.

One advantage of bolting from the top is that you can use nylock nuts, but a guess using blue locktite with the tee nuts would take care of the concern on things vibrating loose.
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Re: removable cabin

Postby chamm1963 » Fri Oct 07, 2016 5:21 pm

pick up my trailer today from harbor freight
got a real good deal on it. it was $279 but i had a 20% off coupon
the store manager tried not letting me use it on the trailer
but ha ha on him the coupon said nothing about not being able to use it
for a trailer ..
paying $238 out the door for a $279 trailer ..priceless
happy level at 100% priceless i win ...lol
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Re: removable cabin

Postby Padilen » Fri Oct 07, 2016 7:42 pm

That's cool, most have restrictions on them now.


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