Jeremy from Janesville, WI Build Journal

[KCStudly]

Keep it simple. Stick build them out of the same materials that you use for your walls.

Mine are 1x2 cedar with 5 mm Okoume ply. I was advised to lay them flat during storage and they have not warped at all, so I am happy.

On the flip side, manufactured doors tend to have larger windows, some even have integrated screen doors, like the ones that come on WAZAT's.

Apparently a 36 inch tall door appears to be the std. for large TD doors, so maybe it's just me that likes a little more.

[5speedsoffury]

Hi all

I see the my build is starting to rack up the views. I am excited today because the wife just locked down a full time job and now I can have a little Teardrop cash to spend out of the budget. I think first items are going to be a hitch for the 14 Forester. I am set to go with a Curt hitch since the Subaru hitches are way too pricey even with my employee pricing. Then I need to finish out the frame tongue extension. I hope to get the hitch on order soon and that way I can haul the trailer the 1 mile to Menards or a little further if needed for hauling larger supplies home. Plus the trailer might just be making a longer journey up to Richland Center area where my parents live to get a custom addition to the frame up front so I have support for the 15 inches of floor going forward on the trailer. I hope to make some big strides here soon as the budget builds back up but in the mean time I have been hammering away at my Sketchup, reading forums and looking up all the goodies I need/ want for the build. I just hope I don't blow through my budget too quickly! Before I go traveling with the trailer I really want to get the bearings regreased with some better wheel bearing grease and get the temporary lights mounted that came with the kit.

Just a quick question for the masses. I have the Northern Tool Ironton branded 5 x 8 trailer. Should I consider finding some better hubs for highway travel or will the current ones that came stock work out ok. Also are the tires fine for just around the state travel? Most camping trips I go on for the weekends are only max of 2-3 hours with longer trips ranging up to 6 hours of road travel. I don't mind avoiding the interstate traffic but if a few simple additions/ purchases can get the trailer rolling better I am all ears.

That is it for now!

Jeremy

[5speedsoffury]

Keep it simple. Stick build them out of the same materials that you use for your walls.

Mine are 1x2 cedar with 5 mm Okoume ply. I was advised to lay them flat during storage and they have not warped at all, so I am happy.

On the flip side, manufactured doors tend to have larger windows, some even have integrated screen doors, like the ones that come on WAZAT's.

Apparently a 36 inch tall door appears to be the std. for large TD doors, so maybe it's just me that likes a little more.

Thanks KC I appreciate your input on this I will try to do some more figuring for now. I need to get my paws on a Kreg. I anxiously await the time I can click the go button on Amazon for that. I just got in my last few items to finish up my shopsmith restoration so I need to concentrate on completing that and then I will be set for some work on the tear!


Jeremy

[bobhenry]

I can highly recommend the Kreg style jig sold by Harbor Freight. It's all metal style is extremely durable. I just finished haloing 19 cabinet doors with #1 pine 1x 2 1/2.

I installed 152 1 1/4 screws in the frames in the 4 days I took to remodel Mom's kitchen. I did stick with the true Kreg screws as I didn't like the knock off substitutes but the jig worked flawlessly.

[TimC]

I have redrawn the the Sketchup I have of my design quite a bit. I am leaning towards a stick built sandwich wall style build with a canvas exterior. I am curious about fiberglass but am not sure about that and canvas seems to be the more economical coating for the exterior.

I of course need to sketch the framing for the rear hatch and add in some cross supports for the rear hatch gate. That will come after I post this... oh joy cabinets

The wife keeps saying leave room for a kid bunk. OH Boy


Some dimensions
outside floor length 9' 3 3/8"
outside floor width (no siding) 5' 8.5"
Top of Trailer Frame to top of Fantastic Fan lid 5' 3"

Please chime in with your thoughts and encouragement! I appreciate it all!

Jeremy

teardrop side view of frame.png

Hi Jeremy,

Your design looks great. I agree with KC about the door height. Mine are 40" inside dimensions from threshold to head and going in an out while building has been pretty easy for this 50 something body to navigate. Good luck and take your time. The few times I rushed into tasks I spent more time fixing mistakes. It's looking like my build will go well into this fall if not winter.

[5speedsoffury]

I can highly recommend the Kreg style jig sold by Harbor Freight. It's all metal style is extremely durable. I just finished haloing 19 cabinet doors with #1 pine 1x 2 1/2.

I installed 152 1 1/4 screws in the frames in the 4 days I took to remodel Mom's kitchen. I did stick with the true Kreg screws as I didn't like the knock off substitutes but the jig worked flawlessly.

Bob,
I was lucky enough to receive the Kreg K4 Master System for my birthday this past weekend! I am going to order some bulk 1.25" screws for the 3/4 inch poplar I will be using as framing. Thanks for the heads up though!

Jeremy

[5speedsoffury]

Hi Jeremy,

Your design looks great. I agree with KC about the door height. Mine are 40" inside dimensions from threshold to head and going in an out while building has been pretty easy for this 50 something body to navigate. Good luck and take your time. The few times I rushed into tasks I spent more time fixing mistakes. It's looking like my build will go well into this fall if not winter.

Tim,
Thanks for the advice on the doors. I am wondering if there are 40" Tall production doors available!? I am still hesitant to build doors for cost of materials and mistakes vs doing a hole cut and installing a perfect premade door.

Jeremy

[skinnedknuckles]

Hi Jeremy from across the river on the northwest side of Janesville,
Its great that you are putting a lot of thought into your camper there is a wealth of knowledge on this forum Did you by chance go to the car show at the Elks club last Sunday? There was a nice larger teardrop camper there that was built by Dave from LKQ, it is his second teardrop that he built. This one is a stand up tear with a large galley area ( dang I wish that I would have taken a few pictures ) designed after a 1940 model. I am with KC about the placement of the door opening as to where the top of the mattress will be so the backs of your legs won't get hurt. More ideas can be had next month up by Necedah, Wis at the Juneau county Castle Rock park for the Camp inn campout ( look in the Midwest area gathering section of this forum ) . You may want to go with a bigger tire/hub assembly just to keep the speeds down and make better wheel /tire selection available to you ,I have seen different postings about this on the forum. I personally went with a custom width 3500# axle just so I have bigger bearings , 5 bolt hubs and a better selection of tires and wheels. We have quite a few places in the area to buy items that you will need to make your trailer dream come true I am finally starting to finish up my teardrop and hope to have it ready for CICO even though I may have to pull it up there with my deuce and a half army truck since the ratrod won't be ready. And if you need any ideas just let me know ,I 'm only a block from Bails Watering Hole.
Paul

Hey Bob Henry I won't have to run around with a battery like I did back at CRA

[5speedsoffury]

Hi Jeremy from across the river on the northwest side of Janesville,
Its great that you are putting a lot of thought into your camper there is a wealth of knowledge on this forum Did you by chance go to the car show at the Elks club last Sunday? There was a nice larger teardrop camper there that was built by Dave from LKQ, it is his second teardrop that he built. This one is a stand up tear with a large galley area ( dang I wish that I would have taken a few pictures ) designed after a 1940 model. I am with KC about the placement of the door opening as to where the top of the mattress will be so the backs of your legs won't get hurt. More ideas can be had next month up by Necedah, Wis at the Juneau county Castle Rock park for the Camp inn campout ( look in the Midwest area gathering section of this forum ) . You may want to go with a bigger tire/hub assembly just to keep the speeds down and make better wheel /tire selection available to you ,I have seen different postings about this on the forum. I personally went with a custom width 3500# axle just so I have bigger bearings , 5 bolt hubs and a better selection of tires and wheels. We have quite a few places in the area to buy items that you will need to make your trailer dream come true I am finally starting to finish up my teardrop and hope to have it ready for CICO even though I may have to pull it up there with my deuce and a half army truck since the ratrod won't be ready. And if you need any ideas just let me know ,I 'm only a block from Bails Watering Hole.
Paul

Hey Bob Henry I won't have to run around with a battery like I did back at CRA

Hey Paul!

I am amazed by how much there is to read here. I have not read the same thing twice and have the yellow stickies of links and tips/tricks pasted all over my computer screen. I have another guy at work who is planning a teardrop build and brought in a picture on his cell phone of a giant woodie he saw this weekend. This possibly is the one you are talking about. From the picture it looked like a large trailer/ could have been a standie. I am definitely going to have to check the info in the Camp Inn campout! I hope it is not on a weekend I am away or tied up.

As far as the build I am set on the shape and dimensions of the outside but boy oh boy am I ever debating wall construction. I am thinking of going more foam than wood. Basically just making a skeleton of sorts for the spars to attach to and getting certain hard points mounted in to beef up the structure and not add too much weight. I think that with some handy work and a kreg I can make a solid foamie hybrid that I feel confident in. The most important thing is to stay low weight. I really don't want to have to add trailer brakes and the like but if it comes down to it I guess that will have to be taken in stride (brakes needed over 1000 lbs and with 1500 lbs max towing). I am going to do some more checking on tires but I don't want to have to spend a fortune. Who knows though. The plans/ build are still young in development and I think about this creation every waking hour.

I promise to get some picture updates soon. my 1/8" filler came in for the center rails. I went with some hdpe black plastic and will trim strips and use some sort of adhesive to stick it to the top of the rails. This Thursday I have off so that will be my teardrop time to do the filler and go purchase the tongue extension and front piece of c channel to make my rectangle for the cabin extension over the A arms of the trailer. Fun Fun!

Jeremy


Jeremy

[TimC]

Hi Jeremy,

Your design looks great. I agree with KC about the door height. Mine are 40" inside dimensions from threshold to head and going in an out while building has been pretty easy for this 50 something body to navigate. Good luck and take your time. The few times I rushed into tasks I spent more time fixing mistakes. It's looking like my build will go well into this fall if not winter.

Tim,
Thanks for the advice on the doors. I am wondering if there are 40" Tall production doors available!? I am still hesitant to build doors for cost of materials and mistakes vs doing a hole cut and installing a perfect premade door.

Jeremy

Jeremy,

The decision on doors for me came down to cost. I like Mike's signature line (mikeschn), "The quality is remembered long after the price is forgotten, so build your teardrop with the best materials...". So, I 'forgot" the price before spending the money and built my own quality doors and cabinets. Does that make sense? Anyway,

In reference to the difficulty of building vs buying your doors, my door frames were designed into the wall sandwich and thus were easy to cut out. As far as simplicity of production doors, you probably still have to design a "frame" in the wall to anchor the door even with its own aluminum frame. Yes, a little less complicated, but still a frame. Incorporating some hardwood hinge points, a Wiley window hole "frame" and latch support points weren't much additional work. Of course the inside door jambs for the weatherstripping along with a couple layers of epoxy to seal the wood were additional tasks that take some time and effort. It really comes down to how much money you budget and how much of a DIYer you are. I look back at some of the things I originally was going to purchase, like interior and galley cabinets and door windows, and feel good about how the ones I built look. I chose Wiley windows for low cost, simplicity and their unique appeal. I'm even going to incorporate a screen panel to replace the glass when needed. The Wileys are just one more curiosity about the TD design that I like. I can be proud to say I made those and here is how they work and no, you wont find a production window anything like it. I just love designing, building and will love using and showing off my TD. Of course I would never be this far in my build without the awesome advice found here, so keep asking questions. I can't wait to get this one done to go camping and start TD #2...

The door frame...

[5speedsoffury]

(
...)
Jeremy,

The decision on doors for me came down to cost. I like Mike's signature line (mikeschn), "The quality is remembered long after the price is forgotten, so build your teardrop with the best materials...". So, I 'forgot" the price before spending the money and built my own quality doors and cabinets. Does that make sense? Anyway,

In reference to the difficulty of building vs buying your doors, my door frames were designed into the wall sandwich and thus were easy to cut out. As far as simplicity of production doors, you probably still have to design a "frame" in the wall to anchor the door even with its own aluminum frame. Yes, a little less complicated, but still a frame. Incorporating some hardwood hinge points, a Wiley window hole "frame" and latch support points weren't much additional work. Of course the inside door jambs for the weatherstripping along with a couple layers of epoxy to seal the wood were additional tasks that take some time and effort. It really comes down to how much money you budget and how much of a DIYer you are. I look back at some of the things I originally was going to purchase, like interior and galley cabinets and door windows, and feel good about how the ones I built look. I chose Wiley windows for low cost, simplicity and their unique appeal. I'm even going to incorporate a screen panel to replace the glass when needed. The Wileys are just one more curiosity about the TD design that I like. I can be proud to say I made those and here is how they work and no, you wont find a production window anything like it. I just love designing, building and will love using and showing off my TD. Of course I would never be this far in my build without the awesome advice found here, so keep asking questions. I can't wait to get this one done to go camping and start TD #2...
(...)

Tim,

I will definitely looking into the door building adventure. I just got done reading about a fellow forum member putting a dexter axle on the ironton 5x8 trailer identical to my model. I am very interested in this idea. I am not a fan of leaf springs and the slop/ ram/ clatter and general not great handling characteristics they have especially on light trailers. Reading a price quote right around $250 surprised me I figured that the axles would be over $500 there is a Dexter Axle distributer located just north of me by 45 minutes or so. I am definitely going to check into that at some point soon. I really want to get the frame complete right down to fastening on the stabilizer jacks and tongue jack before I really dig into the actual construction of the trailer. One main question I have is how much of the axle can I have out from the frame? I would really like to have the tires out to the side of the trailer. Current trailer width planned to be 69". that means that I would have to have the axle stick out about 5" on each side plus whatever distance I need for tires. 13-14 inch radials. I am not a fan of the 12 inch tires. Plus, I could probably pawn the complete axle off with tires and leaf springs easier than just a bare axle with leaf springs.

OH GOSH so much to think and plan.

For now I just need to complete the few items I have set to get taken care of this week. The axle can come next week... or after I get that purchase paid off for a 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 set of old wood planes I could not just let go on Ebay. Eh I wanted just a 7 but now I got them all for the price of one!

Bed time

Jeremy

[5speedsoffury]

Hi all,

Well the plan was to work on the hitch tomorrow but I got a text from a buddy who needs help cutting down 3 trees locally. I could not turn down the opportunity to make some spare change. So plans have changed.

On another note I got got my HDPE plastic for the cross channel spacing shims. Now I just need to trim it down to strips and secure it. On top I have my recent restoration project. A set of #3 - #7 hand planes.

The plastic shipped to store in 2 4x10 sheets of 3/8" osb hmm wonder what I could use these for? Maybe a set of saw horses? I'm not planning of using osb in the build but I can't let this stuff go to waste!

Jeremy

rsz_2rsz_2015-08-19_21.png (171.39 KiB) Viewed 2547 times

[5speedsoffury]

Hi all,

Yesterday after returning home from a mini vacation to Governor Tommy Thompson State Park I was able to get some garage time. I went down town to the local steel supplier and purchased a 10' length of 2x2 with a 3/16 wall thickness. This will be my tongue extension running from the wider cross member through the front framing of the trailer. I prepped, self etch primed and painted the tubing gloss back to match the trailer.

I also was able to cut out the 1/8 inch thick HDPE sheet plastic spacers for the trailer cross members. I secured the first spacer with a high strength 3m spray adhesive A
and then clamped in place.
That's all for now. More progress to come!

Jeremy

[nhstt]

[quote="5speedsoffury"]Hi all,

Yesterday after returning home from a mini vacation to Governor Tommy Thompson State Park I was able to get some garage time. I went down town to the local steel supplier and purchased a 10' length of 2x2 with a 3/16 wall thickness. This will be my tongue extension running from the wider cross member through the front framing of the trailer. I prepped, self etch primed and painted the tubing gloss back to match the trailer.

I still need to do this on mine. I have a tiny little harbor freight trailer I'll be pulling with an older forester so i'm going with a double bed. Any pictures or links to others with extentions? I need to get this done now so the trailer doesn't miss another season of camping.
Karen at the brooks Bunch

[skinnedknuckles]

Jeremy,
Did you get a price quote for your axle from a place in Madison or Edgerton? The guys from Edgerton were able to give me a good price when I had an axle made to my specs. The guys downtown at the steel place know me, they would get a kick out of hearing about another teardrop coming together in town, that is were I purchased my frame steel , diamond plate and aluminum sheeting , just ask them if they know a guy named Paul that has army trucks, jeeps ,a rat rod and is building a teardrop camper . Good luck on your build . It sounds like you are starting to get things together. Like TimC stated about Mikes' saying , its true once its done and you sit back or in it and look at your work the price kinda is forgotten but the workmanship is there to stay .
Have fun making dust and woodshavings,
Paul