Frameless and all wood

[Hamcan]

Dave, very artdeco tear you have going there! Looking v. good, you will not be meeting yourself coming down the road, definitely one of a kind.

JG

[Nic]

First of all that is one cool camper!! Those front supports look so neat. Im a big fan of art deco. So my question. Is there any such thing as an easy wooden "frame"? Im about done with my first tear (my prototype) and im wanting to build a seccond one for my sister. The only thing is even the HF trailer is a chunk of change for a first purchase. And she is in no hurry to drop the money on a frame anytime soon. She will pull with a Honda Accord and will not be on any rough roads. So any ideas on a cheap and or easy frame, wood or metal would be awsome. Thanks guys.

[dwgriff1]

My computer is acting up now, so it will be the first of the week before I can give a good answer, but I will.

It is not all that difficult.

dave

[Todah Tear]

dwgriff1,

That tear is bea-u-ti-ful!!!!

Todah

[dwgriff1]

Some theory:

Get a hollow core door. Put it between two sawhorses that are 6' apart. Sit on the door. It will safely hold you, unless you are a bigun. Take the door apart and there is a 1/8" skin on both sides a very small frame around the edge and some stuff in the middle. That middle stuff may look like egg cartons, or it might be a few very thin pieces of wood, but there is almost nothing inside that door.

Imagine building your own. Use 1/8 plywood on both sides with some sort of a frame inside. I original plan was to make the floor insides a grid of thin wood, but Andrew (the engineer) told me I'd gain more strength if I ran all of the ribs side to side, and not the long way.

So my floor is a frame 1" thick (made so I could get insulation inside, and fill it just full) with a stronger frame around the edge. I did put a double layer of 1/8" plywood on the inside, but otherwise the whole teardrop is made of a single layer of 1/8" plywood.

I made outisde frame with quite a bit of Oak framing, so I would have strong points to anchor the axle and the sides. The tongue went all the way back and the side rigs were attatched to the tongue with stub tennons as well as glue.

I made all of the panels (even those that could be 3/4" plywood) of this frame and panel and I believe I have huge strngths.

If we were building really large structures it might be different, but for a 5 b y 8, there is still way more strength than necessary.

The weak point, as Andrew pointed out correctly, is the point where the oak tongue meets the tear body. That is the reason for the bent wood, to give it the additional strength necessary.

If it looks Art Deco or Art Noveau, that is fine, but the idea was just to brace what was a 1 by 3 1/2" oak tongue.

Right now I am going tent camping. The tear is ready except I don't have the running lights wired in, so this will be one last tent trip!

New pics next week!

dave

[dwgriff1]

By the way, thank you Todah and thank you JG.

dave

[apratt]

Dave that is a beautifull teardrop you have. Yes I agree with what you say about door panels. Having foam glued panel makes it more than plenty strong enough in my opinion.

[BrwBier]

Very elegant looking bracing on the front. That would look good even if it was not needed for support.
Brwbier

[Steve Frederick]

Very very cool T/D there, Dave!
Very nice wood working!! The bracing in the front..For the tongue? Is very cool also!
Got some shots of the interior??

[Nic]

dwgriff1,

That tear is bea-u-ti-ful!!!!

Todah

So is YOURS! Those two windows are very cool.

[Nic]

Hey Dave, When you post more pictures... do you have any detail pix of your frame build? Close ups?

[angib]

Has it been mentioned on this forum before? Tiny Tears (John Blewett) has an all-wood teardrop build manual available. Even in the list of contents he mentions vacuum bagging, so I don't think this is an easy alternative to using a metal chassis, but if anyone gets it, let's have a review.

John counts as an expert in my book, as he has built an all-wood trailer. Admittedly the axle came off it because he made a schoolboy error, forgetting the fairly low peel strength of composites, but that just makes him more knowledgeable on the subject than the rest of us!



Andrew

[Arne]

"John counts as an expert in my book, as he has built an all-wood trailer. Admittedly the axle came off it because he made a schoolboy error, forgetting the fairly low peel strength of composites, but that just makes him more knowledgeable on the subject than the rest of us!"

Andrew, do you mean the axle supports were not through-bolted to the body/floor? I could use more explanation... thank you.

[angib]

Arne,

I am running from memory on what John wrote sometime, somewhere about the axle coming off - and of course that memory ain't too precise a tool no more. Now I can't even find the picture of the bottom damage, and I'm sure I saw that earlier today!

Time for bed.

Andrew

[asianflava]

I've seen the damage pics also but I can't seem to find them either. Maybe he took them off the site?