Beer Wagon naked frame photos posted Oct 03 10

[atahoekid]

OK, so I guess I am now committed to building the "Beer Wagon" (not that it's a bad thing). I picked up a trailer frame from a guy who had stripped the pop-up off of it. He had planned to rebuild the pop-up but came to the realization that it was way too complicated and way too much work. That's good news for me. It was dark by the time I got the trailer, which has no lights, home. Pictures will follow tomorrow.

The frame is a bit narrower and shorter than I wanted so, I need to rework some of my planning or think about extending the trailer.

I probably won't get much work done on it before the snow flies up here and I have to put it into storage. I'm thinking I should just get the lighting on it and register the trailer. As soon as it starts looking like spring, I'll bring it out of storage and start work on it in earnest.

Plans include a queen size bed, a catalytic heater, inboard wheels, a fresh water and grey water tank, a stereo ipod player, a 12v system with a deep cycle battery and battery tender charger. I'll finish the exterior much like planovet did his Little Switzerland and of course it wouldn't be a Beer Wagon unless I put in a beer tap so I can enjoy my homebrew while I'm enjoying the great outdoors

To date: $200.00, 0 hrs of actual work, 3 hours of driving

Time for a celebration beer

[PhotoGuy]

sounds good. your one step ahead of me. Still looking for my frame

[atahoekid]

I think I got lucky. When I found it on Craig's list on Friday afternoon and contacted the seller someone had already contacted him and said he was coming by to look at it right away. I figured it was gone. Well the guy never showed (bought a motorhome instead, huh?) and I jumped at it. I rarely look at Craigslist but for some reason did on Friday. Got a great price too! Keep looking and hopefully you'll get lucky too!

[down under tech]

Hi TK: Welcome to the forum !!! You have a trailer frame and now you have the fever, the Teardrop fever that is. Where did you get the frame from? I live in Reno and I am building my first TD. What is it, are you afraid of a little snow? We all know that it doesn't snow at Tahoe. For thoes that don't know about Lake Tahoe, when it snows up there, it is measured by how many feet of snow fell not by the inch. Do you have a plan of which style TD you are going to build? You will have a great time building the "Beer Wagon".

Good luck and take a lot of pictures to post to keep us up to speed on how it is going...

[atahoekid]

Hi TK: Welcome to the forum !!! You have a trailer frame and now you have the fever, the Teardrop fever that is. Where did you get the frame from? I live in Reno and I am building my first TD. What is it, are you afraid of a little snow? We all know that it doesn't snow at Tahoe. For thoes that don't know about Lake Tahoe, when it snows up there, it is measured by how many feet of snow fell not by the inch. Do you have a plan of which style TD you are going to build? You will have a great time building the "Beer Wagon".

Good luck and take a lot of pictures to post to keep us up to speed on how it is going...

I found my frame on Craigslist. A guy in Hidden Valley had stripped it down from the tent trailer that it used to be. I figure there should be another one around the Reno/Lake Tahoe area somewhere with all the outdoors people we seem to have around here

Yeah, I think the snow is going to present a few build issues along the way, so I'm hoping for a long fall and a late winter arrival, but with all the rain this weekend, I think the weather is going to do otherwise. I've lived up here 11 years now and this is the hardest I've seen it ever rain for an extended period.

When I first started thinking about doing the build, my wife made me promise that I would get certain items on the honey-do list done first. So for marital harmony and preservation of my hearing, I'll be working on that during the winter and start building the TD at the first sign of spring. I took some pics of the bare frame earlier, so I'll soon post those, but I think it'll be a while before any real progress occurs

My plans are based on the Mega Mini that is mentioned on this site in a few places. I really like the angular lines even though this is "teardrop" site. I've always tended to be unconventional, so this ain't a new thing

[teardrop_focus]

Time for a celebration beer...

No beer for you until we see some pics here in this thread.

[atahoekid]

OK, so nothing real exciting yet. Just a couple photos of the stripped down frame that I bought




The mfgs tag says the original tent trailer was built in 1988. There look to be some weak joints and welds so I'll be working with my neighbor to strengthen it by rewelding and maybe adding a piece or two of iron. It will be wire brushed, primed and painted, I might move the axle back a bit, and I'd like to go to 14 inch wheels but I don't know if that's going to cause problems for the torsion axles. I'll post something in the trailer frame forum and get an answer from the knowledgeable folks around this place. Depending on the final design I come up with I might extend the frame just a bit. It needs lighting before I can license it (it was a bit scary towing it home in the dark last night) but the frame is in good shape overall.

I know sometimes that I buy things in haste so I was a bit worried about it overnight till I took a good look at it again in the daylight

I think I got a good deal and now my minds' really racing with design ideas and I'm trying to capture them on paper. Yeah, I'm a dead tree guy when it comes to design work. It's probably the handiest thing I ever learned in high school. Working in autocad just doesn't feel right to me and I'm too impatient to sit down and read the instructions. Some guys took auto shop and woodworking, I took drafting. I need a set of shop drawings to work from. Not a full set but something more than a napkin sketch like Doug works from. I am amazed by his work! If I can get anywhere near the quality of his work I will be thrilled to death

[mcspin50]

Great score on the trailer! It's good to have neighbors who weld. Hope you're able to make some progress over the winter.
I currently occupy both sides of our double garage with my teardrop build, but I have been told that one side of the garage needs to be vacated before scraping needs to be done to remove frost from his windshield on early Minnesota winter mornings. Guess I better get my bu** in gear.
BTW, I temporarily installed this...



...on my work bench. I use it to entice my 21-year-old son to help. It will be removed to the teardrop when the time is appropriate.

Good luck on your build!

[2bits]

I took drafting too, I didn't learn any wood working until a couple years before I built the Teardrop! That looks like a great frame to start from, and I wouldn't think going to a 14" wheel would have any ill effects.