Steel Raindrop Build

[YuGun]

Vow Ä°t is very beautiful vw...

[16vvincent]

Vow Ä°t is very beautiful vw...

Thanks YuGun:

Okay, time for an update. I figured out what I was going to do to acheive what I wanted for the area above the interior cabinets. I had mentioned that I wanted that area to hold a stereo and pair of speakers. So here it is;

And I think that I will just let the photos tell the story.

















From above you can see that there is a area sectioned off. This is for the wiring. The two openings are: top for the stereo. bottom for the trailer control panel. All the control wiring will be routed up to this panel.



From the kitchen (back) side:



And from the interior:

[16vvincent]

And time to build some kitchen sliding drawers / storage:

Again, just going to let the photos tell the story.







Where they are going:







And with the slides mounted:







And a drawer for the stove cabinet:

[parnold]

Looking Good!

[2bits]

I'm loving that!!! I like your use of hardwoods in alot of it. It really eliminates having to worry about hiding the end grain!

[Trentb]

Another watercooled VW guy..yay!

Going to have to keep an eye on this thread.

[Dusty82]

I like your stereo console a lot. That'll be a nice, clean install. I do have a question though - what's the purpose of the slide-out that's extended in this pic?



Is it sized/designed to hold something special?

[16vvincent]

Got the doors all cut, routed and mounted:



Using a router to square off the edges and make matching doors.



Then drilled some holes, rounded off the edges of the holes and all the sides of the doors.



And mounted:









And as to what will fit in the smaller slide outs:



I will probably use the stove side as a spice / seasoning drawer and perhaps use the other side as a wine rack. Still undecided.

And (of course) had to put doors on the stove cabinet openings:

[droid_ca]

wow this trailer is looking wonderful lots of good ideas you have

[Classic Finn]

Very Nice Im enjoying your thread very much. What did you use to round off the edges of the cabinet doors? Did you router them?

[Ageless]

A master of metalwork and woodwork; 2 things dear to me.

Congrats!!

[16vvincent]

Did you router them?

Yes. Just a simple 1/4 round bit and did both sides. I still have to finish them off with sand paper and am still deciding on the stain color and type (water or oil based)

And ageless, I don't know about the master of woodworking. I am pretty good with metal, but am still learning with wood.

But thanks for all the compliments!

[16vvincent]

Soooo, I was asked a little while ago as to what I was going to do with the narrow verticle drawers. Well, today I made the answer.

It took me a few days to find the stuff that I wanted in those drawers, on the stove side, I wanted to put spices. But I wanted spice grinders. Nothing beats freshly ground spice.



I found the spice grinders at Trader Joes for $2 each. The caps are removable and I can put any spice in the grinder that I want. I built the drawer to hold 6 of the grinders.

For the other side, I was thinking of doing a wine rack, but thought that the amount of movement that the trailer would have may cause the bottles to break. So instead I made a glass rack.
The wine glasses are plastic from Cost Plus World Market and look pretty decent ($4 ea) and there is only room for two. Considering that there will probably be only 2 wine drinkers traveling with the trailer, that works.



And then, finally, I added a spice rack holder to the under stove drawer. The spice containers are again from Cost Plus and were $4 for the set of 4.



I still have to build a retainer bar for the high ball glasses, but the drawers are close to finished.

[16vvincent]

Well this weekend I weighted the trailer.
I did it to both see if I am close to where I want to / hope to be and to figure out where I am going to mount the axle.

First the weights:
As the trailer sits with no skin, no interior skin, no glass and no batteries the trailer weights 693 pounds. The batteries will weight around 30 each and the generator weights 60 pounds. That leaves me just under 200 pounds for the axle and skins et al, to keep the trailer under 1000. If I can keep her under 1200 pounds with everything in her, I will be very happy:

How did I weight it?
I used several bathroom scales, 1 under each corner with a jack stand between the trailer and the scale (each). 4 scales.

And then I weighted her with 1 scale under each rear corner and one under the tongue. 3 scales. The difference between the two measurements was 5 pounds. That is almost entirely due to an uneven garage floor.

Then I placed 2 jack stands under where I thought the CL (Center Line) of the rear axle should be (this is purely trial and error) and put a scale on a jack and under the tongue.





Once I got a tongue weight close to where I wanted, I measured where the jack stands were. That will be the CL of the rear axle.
Tongue weight is at 75 pounds (w/o generator) and 125 pounds (with generator).
Both numbers are livable, although I may move the axle back 1 more inch from the present location.

I also managed to figure out the taillamps and how they would be mounted.



I am hoping to have the frame in paint this weekend. We shall see.

[S. Heisley]

This is shaping up to be one really nice trailer...beautiful work.