Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

flboy wrote:Well, my trailer is delayed according to manufacturer. The 5,200 lb straight axle is backordered. They are not expecting it until April 2 now and said it would be mid to late April for finish. Guess I will go camping until then.. Taking the 7*18 out for 4 days next week.

Have al the stuff to build except the most important piece! LOL

Yes mine is delayed also but it’s because of the skin. They had white in stock and now they’ve added red but not mine. Hopefully soon.


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Any welder that makes metal hold together is ok in my book!

Looks like it makes a good weld and you ground it down?

If running gas with it make sure you have as little of breeze as possible and other wise you can’t go wrong following this image

https://www.hobartwelders.com/projects- ... lding-tips

It’s all pretty simple to a non professional.


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Thanks.. yes, I ground it down. It was not pretty. It took me a few times just to get the wire feed speed correct and etc.. I will need to work on technique. But I think it will hold.

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Wow! I think it is great that you are learning to weld. I wonder if you could stick a long bar or something into each end of your welded tubes and then apply leveraged force on each tube to see if the welds hold. If the welds hold, I would think that you would then be comfortable with the quality of the welds, at least for your intended use.

Don, I will sell my 6x12 off-road conversion if you would be interested. I need something that will sleep 4 and hold 4 dirt bikes. Considering building a 8.5 x18, or 8.5 x20. My 6x12 holds 3 dirt Ike’s and sleeps 2.

We are all learning flboy. See I made wires today lol
All the IPC training the government requires, I can circuit card solder, micro solder but never had anything I ever made plug in with out someone else giving it the go ahead. The mechanics of it I can do. The understanding of it volts, ohms, amps, loss, insertion loss and gain of RF all boggle the hell out of me.


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BigDave... Nice job on the cables... I see you went with 6 batteries. Can't go wrong with a little more power if you can haul the weight! Great deal on those batteries!


The Army taught me how to solder and Electronics many years ago. I was an Electronic Warfare/Intercept Repairman in the Army before I got out went to college and became an Electrical/Electronics Engineer working in the Avionics Business.. They never taught me to weld however! New skill to learn.

I worked for L3 for many years doing all that on the floor. Predators and reapers and the triton UAV antennas were always on my desk for this or that but the actually functionality of why it worked when I was done was lost on me.

I actually picked those up for the other little trailer in the yard


It’s a friends of mine, he sleeps in it from time to time on the floor, so I picked up two for his one light in the trailer and his future fan. I do have the space and weight for more batteries. I plan on the box the width of the trailer beams and from cross bar to cross bar dead center between the two axles. I’m a long ways off my tow capacity and don’t see me reaching it with four bikes and water


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featherliteCT1 wrote:Wow! I think it is great that you are learning to weld. I wonder if you could stick a long bar or something into each end of your welded tubes and then apply leveraged force on each tube to see if the welds hold. If the welds hold, I would think that you would then be comfortable with the quality of the welds, at least for your intended use.

Good Idea... I will test it out. I think I will scrap this first piece anyhow... It really was just to get my feet wet.. Literally the first time ever welding and I am learning on my own after watching a few YouTube videos... Gotta love the internet.

bdosborn wrote:P.S. Just checked and I think it is Energy Star rated.....

This fridge does have an Energy Star rating. I have no idea what the criteria is however.

In any case, loaded up and in and out several times, it was actually a bit better. Works out to about 36aH over a 24hr period? Not too bad for a $135 fridge. It surely keeps contents cold.



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You'd probably use 18 amp-hrs for a single night. A 100 watt solar panel would probably be enough to keep up with the usage during the day and charge the battery back up, as long as you got good sun all day.

Bruce

Flboy,

My steel supplier has a book that I have misplaced somewhere but

This link will help with weights

http://www.whittingtonsteel.com/Ref-Gui ... Tubing.pdf


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bdosborn wrote:You'd probably use 18 amp-hrs for a single night. A 100 watt solar panel would probably be enough to keep up with the usage during the day and charge the battery back up, as long as you got good sun all day.

Bruce

Agree! I will have 420W with 280aH of LifeP04 in the 6*12 build, so no worries on that... that's why I don't mind going cheap on the fridge. They seem to work well and are reliable when powered with a pure sinewave inverter. Also,I prefer the vertical fridge so I can see what I have without digging. When loaded, not a big deal if some cold air drops out.. thermal mass is what is most important.. 2.5 CU is equivalent to 70L so it is large in those terms.

I have a 4.3Cu Ft (122L) in my 7*18 that I have been using for 4 years and it has been great! Lived in the trailer full time for 3 months last year and it was nice having the larger fridge. I have 800W solar and 225aH usable (FLA batteries) on the 7*18 and the fridge was never really a concern unless I had no sun for a few days.. I tend to use a lot of power on lights, fans, PC, radios, amd etc..

You said you picked up a band saw?? What did ya buy? I have a Rockwell portaband that works pretty slick


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I bought a Bauer from HF. Won't see alot of action.



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