4x8 foamie for motorcycle

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4x8 foamie for motorcycle

Postby nagnificent » Wed May 11, 2016 1:39 pm

Hi guys, I have been reading a lot from this site and learning tons for a little while now. Didn't say anything, cause I just was soaking it all in. I gotta say that u guys are all awesome and I can only hope that my build will come out as nice as all of yours. I am making a foamie with a wood floor that is sandwhiched with a luan sheet, 1/2 inch insulation sheet and then a 5/8" plywood sheet. I glued it all together using the glidden gripper and that was a mistake, it didn't take very well, which I was surprised having seen the video comparisons with that and how well it worked. The center portion took, but not the long edges, so I decided to trim it by 2" on each side and just put my walls along side the floor rather than on top. That seemed to work well. Then it seems that murphy's law has gotten me over here in NM. The desert where it hardly rains and we have been in drought for how long? Well, of course now that I have a project going on outside, it has rained insane. And I had nothing to cover my floor with, Boohooo, the top layer of plywood hadn't been waterproofed yet, or covered by canvas. And it got major damage and a lot of areas that were popping up and looking yucky. :cry: So I decided to remove the top layer and have been sanding like a maniac for the last two days, it's looking much better, And I think its good that I took some weight off of it anyway, that sucker was so so heavy. I have bought a tarp since then and now it's covered all the time, just in case. I am very worried about weight since I will be pulling it with my Harley triglide. I am building it on a HF 4x8 trailer, and was able to remove a lot of weight from that since I won't be bending it for storage and have no need for the wheels or the springs for that matter either. But unfortunately all the weight I was able to remove I just added again when I put a torsion axle on it. I'm going for safer and steadier, but???? still worried about that. However, the floor will be the only heavy part of my build, all the rest will be minimal wood. i'm gonna try to get away without framing the door or windows and use hollow wall screws in the foam. Fingers crossed. I have both walls made so far, and the door cut out of one, and the door itself is almost complete. I have skinned it so far with sheets and glue, but it looks not as good as I hoped, There are small bubbles here and there, I tried the iron trick and messed up a couple of spots and it turned brown and got worse, dang, I keep messing up. So working on fixing that now. yucko. The other project I have going now is gluing one of my windows to make it firm, it had loosened up with age, it is a plexiglass sliding window that I took off an old camper my cousin made me, I sold all the parts except for three. I decided not to keep the windows being glass and metal, they were nice, but very heavy. I still have yet to make the hole in the other wall where this plexiglass window will go, and I am going to make another one for the front, one that is hinged on wood and will go up and down. I have read that it isn't a good idea to have a window there, but plexiglass harder to break and being a woman that will be traveling alone with my dog, I wanna be able to see every which way around me in my surroundings. Especially my bike which will be in front of the trailer. I have the chassis sitting up on bricks and wood now, waiting for my brakes to come, 7" electric brakes with new hubs and drums, and I will use the tires that came with the trailer, 12". I'm on a tight budget, so getting parts a little at a time. I need to buy the stabilizer for the front still, but will borrow the stabilizers from my big camping trailer for the rest, they will be much lighter than applying those heavier steel ones to the back, I just hope they are as safe. I actually did have a question, on my torsion axle I have noticed that it is getting small rust spots in the areas that were welded, do I need to paint it with some rustoleum, or is the rest of the metal safe under there as is? Once I apply the brakes and wire for the lights and all that under the chasis, then I will bolt the floor down, I bought some heavy duty bolts and thought I might use the u bolts that came with the trailer also, they are smaller, but I think they will do the trick with the larger ones down there also. I have the one inch foam for the roof, but haven't even thought of that yet, till I get all the walls done and am ready to glue them to the floor, I think I will do that after I get my galley all in place too. It will be just easier to get too, without having to crouch and kneel. I am just obsessed with this build, I have amazed myself even. lol. I didn't make a template for the walls or door, I just looked at all your trailers and went out and drew it on the foam, then I cut it out with a small hand held hack saw, and that seemed to give me the cleanest cut. I tried it will a long razer blade tool, but that didn't work so well, as u continue to cut it just is so uneven. As I said earlier, it took apart an old trailer my cousin had, and I still have a sink, the popup springs and the sliding glass door. I have never seen a small sliding glass door like this in my life, and a man that came to buy some of the parts I had, was speechless when he saw it. He said that he remodels and sells vintage trailers all the time, up to 60 a year even. And he said he has never seen a door like this. I think it is so awesome, and he did too, but didn't buy it due to the fact that all the trailers he is working on now are too large for it. The door is 4 feet tall and 5 feet wide, perfect for the back of a teardrop, or side, as u step up u walk through the door. if I wasn't so concerned about weight I would put it on my trailer. I'm not sure if anyone on this site would be interested in a sliding door on their trailer. I will post some pics of the stuff I have left, and I will start taking some pics of my build and start posting those as well. The part that has been the hardest for me so far is the door, OMG it has been a nightmare and I still pray it doesn't leak when I actually install it. Then again, I am terrified of the hatch, and I'm not close to that yet. did buy a hurricane hinge, but I admit that I am very intimidated. I think that I will do it the easier way of gluing the whole thing down and then cutting the hatch part out after, that might be easier for me, especially since I don't have that many clamps and my tools as well as my skills are limited. But honestly the major motivating factor was my husbands and parents reaction when I said I wanted to build my own trailer, They looked at me like there was no way that I could do it. Of course my husband made negative comments as well, So I said to myself, "Self, u r gonna make one BAD### trailer!" hahaha. Thus, I am trying even harder to make it as perfect as I possibly can on my own. Well, all this yapping has me away from working on my build, so away I go and sorry I typed your eyes off.
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Re: 4x8 foamie for motorcycle

Postby pchast » Wed May 11, 2016 8:27 pm

Welcome! :D
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Re: 4x8 foamie for motorcycle

Postby celticquetzel » Thu May 12, 2016 11:04 pm

I'll be starting a foamie in the fall. By myself. You go girl!
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Re: 4x8 foamie for motorcycle

Postby nagnificent » Thu May 12, 2016 11:49 pm

Thank you so much, I'm sorry that was so long. And as I went back and read it, I realized how negative that sounded. My parents and husband teased me about it, it wasn't as negative as they way I typed it sounded. I really wish you luck on your build. Mine is coming along slow but sure.
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Re: 4x8 foamie for motorcycle

Postby rowerwet » Fri May 13, 2016 4:28 pm

Welcome, it would be easier to find and answer questions you might have if you broke your post into paragraphs.
It definitely makes it easier to read :lol:
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Re: 4x8 foamie for motorcycle

Postby nagnificent » Fri Jun 24, 2016 12:48 am

rowerwet wrote:Welcome, it would be easier to find and answer questions you might have if you broke your post into paragraphs.
It definitely makes it easier to read :lol:


No kidding huh? I was even like pheeewww when I read it myself. :lol:

I do have a few questions for u expert trailer builders. I haven't necessarily made mistakes, but I am learning as I go and have had to rethink several things. I initially made everything for a 4x8 trailer, using the HF trailer. I was ready to put it all together and viola skinning time, but for some reason i got stuck, I don't know if this has happened to anyone else, but i just could not continue for some reason and i couldn't figure it out. then my mom came by and looked at it one day, and she said that looks kinda big for a motorcycle to pull, it seems the ones i have seen are smaller than that. POW :shock:

That was it, I was subconsciously worried about that. Now that i know what it is, I am back at it full time again. I cut the trailer down by a foot and a half, and took one foot off the floor as well. The walls have been redone and now I only have to move the axle up forward. Since my TV is a Harley, I am gonna move it up to 40 percent. that should be ok for a bike right?

But as I am doing that I am looking at the trailer and wondering if I can remove another bar. Initially i removed one bar, fixed the trailer so that it no longer folds in half, removed the legs and wheels as well as the springs and spring supports. I thought I was doing good removing all that weight, but then i brought home the torsion axle i had made and it weighs at least a hundred pounds, so there goes all that weight i thought i was removing, lol.

So what does anyone think about this, would it be ok if i remove one more bar, and just have one bar smack dead center. The floor is gonna hang over a small bit in front and back. The floor is 3/4 foam sandwiched with luan and 5/8 plywood. I am going to borrow a welding machine and weld all the corners, bolts and connections, to make it extra sturdy. The axle itself is between the front and back making it stronger at the area that was meant to bend. I think if i do remove the other bar, then i will place a couple of hollow steal bars that i drilled holes into to reinforce the area of bend in the trailer. What advise does anyone have for this, does this sound like a terrible idea, and would i be better off leaving it with the number of bars that it has now.
142782142791142789 these are pictures of how it looks now.
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