Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

Pretty sweet looking Honda in the yard there. Lots of people wish they had those back.
We had one of the worst fire seasons ever last year. This year record snowfalls and flooding. The most rain I have seen in 25yrs. It is amazing how fast the land recovers. The elk and deer are very healthy and a lot of ranchers are smiling again.
Finishing the interior makes a big difference in comfort level and will probably help to get you better half out there with you. Most men are half coyote and could live in a cardboard box, but the ladies like something a little nicer. But honestly, they are the reason we do most of the things we do, so.....

McDave

McDave wrote:Pretty sweet looking Honda in the yard there. Lots of people wish they had those back.
We had one of the worst fire seasons ever last year. This year record snowfalls and flooding. The most rain I have seen in 25yrs. It is amazing how fast the land recovers. The elk and deer are very healthy and a lot of ranchers are smiling again.
Finishing the interior makes a big difference in comfort level and will probably help to get you better half out there with you. Most men are half coyote and could live in a cardboard box, but the ladies like something a little nicer. But honestly, they are the reason we do most of the things we do, so.....

McDave

Thank you sir, just picked it up last weekend on a whim. My grandfather had several Honda trail bikes and would never let us ride them, so it's something I've wanted for a long time but simply have no justification for! It's a 1970 Trail 90. Runs good, considering the amount of oil it burns. Needs new rings, so an engine rebuild will be in it's future. Thankfully these little things and cheap and easy to work on so it should be a good little project. Plus it'll be a good platform to teach her how to ride on.




The lady has definitely become more interested in helping with the camper since it's starting to resemble something she'd sleep in, finally. I don't think I addressed the window coverings she made for it yet. She came up with a simple yet effective solution for offering some privacy, shade and yet the ability to cinch them up and let the air flow through the windows when open.

She picked a nice fleece material. Helps promote a cozy feeling inside and offers a little insulation for the window.




She sewed velcro strips on so they could easily be removed and washed when needed.




Folding them up and out of the way is done simply by rolling/folding up the bottom and using the extra strap of fabric to tie it up.




I really like the way they turned out.

Jake

jmanscotch, Howdy;

...and she sews???? Dude ya got a keeper!!! , !!

hank

Side walls and carpet in.

I commented also on the ExPo thread, but wanted to say this has bee inspiring. love to see more pics/updates.

Charly wrote:I commented also on the ExPo thread, but wanted to say this has bee inspiring. love to see more pics/updates.

Thank you sir. I don't have much to update lately. Life had been super busy between picking up some weekend work at the job, to getting engaged to planning a vacation to Costa Rica this week.

As some may know, I sold my last trailer to help save for funds to purchase a ring. While it still took me a while to get around to it, we went camping this weekend and I popped the question. Don't worry, after nearly 5 years of dating, she said yes.



We went to a nice spot above Turquoise lake in Leadville, CO. Didn't get the spot I wanted with lake views, long story there, but it was still a decent spot. For some reason I don't have pictures on my phone of the actual main view to the north, just the one to the south...but it overlooked a valley and was quite the sight.





I've been working on the fenders some, scratching the purchased set and working on building my own.

I started with fabbing up the main fender supports and adding a little kick out on the front side.




I probably won't be back to working on them for a few weeks though.

Something I did notice while prepping for this weekend's trip is my Lock N Roll hitch is twisted.




I talked to a nice gentleman at Lock-N-Roll and he said these rotation limiting units are discontinued due to the fact that they had been known to twist like this. He said the cause is jackknifing the trailer (usually while backing) then the tongue on the trailer drops and when you pull forward again, the T shank side of things just binds and twists. While I haven't backed the trailer in this scenario, I have made U-turns that have put the trailer nearly 90 degrees to the truck and that must have been when it happened.

That said, they offered to send me whichever Lock-N-Roll setup I wanted as a replacement, free of charge. So I was pretty satisfied with their willingness to stand behind their product without question. Great company in my opinion.

Being the curious fella I am, I hooked up the trailer and jackknifed it to try to see how this occurred. It was also a chance to show the 90 degree clearance between the truck and trailer, as I had intended by design when extending the trailer tongue.





That'll be it for a few weeks, I'll see what gets done after we get back from our first vacation of our adult lives (thus much needed!).

Jake

CONGRATULATIONS!

jmanscotch, Howdy;

Ya, what did I say earlier, them ones what can sew are keepers ... !

, , , , !!!

hank

Nice! I liked everything I saw. Oh yeah, nice work on that trailer and awesome planning for the tongue extension and hitch set up. Best wishes for a long and prosperous marriage. Congratulations!

McDave

Appreciate it fellas, I knew she was the one when we meet years ago, not sure why I dilly dallied so long but I'm glad she stuck around

Well, I finally got around to finishing my fenders.

I started with some 1.5" square tube. A little big for a mere fender, but it's metal I had left over and I decided to use it simply to save another run to the shop and some money.

I framed out the basic shape, trying to get the complex angle to fit right after cutting everything with the inaccurate angle grinder.



A lot of work later, they were fully framed and ready to be covered. I found some scrap 14 gauge sheet metal I had from my last trailer and went about building an inside skirt to the fender. Since my fenders don't mount right up against the trailer, I needed a skirt to keep mud from flinging onto the trailer as well as be a barrier for a blown tire, which won't allow the rubber to rip into the soft aluminum trailer side. The sheet metal I had wasn't tall enough to cover the entire fender in one piece, so I stitched together two smaller strips.



Once that was complete for both sides, I placed the fenders back in place on their supports and welded them down.



Finished with a nice coat of bed liner



For some reason, the fenders came out a little more narrow than I had originally planned, so this week I'll trim back the fender supports to match the fender stick out and reweld some new end caps on and repaint.



They came out pretty nice if you ask me

Next is the front landing jack support and shovel/axe mount I'm finishing up, then back to the interior.

Jake

Are you going to do anything to keep gravel/etc from getting down between the trailer wall and the fender?

Ottsville wrote:Are you going to do anything to keep gravel/etc from getting down between the trailer wall and the fender?

Not planning on it thus far...I may regret that but we'll see. The space is about an inch wide, which should be wide enough to let most small objects to exit rearward over time and avoid big items from getting stuck there...time will tell if it presents a common problem.

BADASS TRAILER!
Nice work Jake.

McDave

Trimmed up the fender mounts so they don't stick out any more




Then onto finishing the jack, axe and shovel mount on the front landing.

I had to start by cutting away the expanded metal on the landing to get access to weld in a cross support to base everything off of.




Then built up the mount. It's crazy beefy for what it actually does, but I had extra 2x3 tube and so that's what it was built with. Welded on the two jack mounts and predrilled the holes for the 4 quickfist mounts on the back. Then I went ahead and mocked everything up before painting.







Up next, rebuilding the stupid back door.

Jake