You guys are going to be a bad influence on me

[printer]

Where the heck did I get the idea that I wanted a trailer? Must have seen something online and the spark was lit. In the Great White North, haven't been camping in 35 years. Now I remember, I was thinking of traveling to some music festivals as a way to make retirement more interesting. I have a Kia Optima (Hyundai Sonata) and they are not recommended for towing, seen limits of 900lbs when I did. So I am thinking of building something within that limit. Of course I want 10lbs fitting in a 5lb bag, we will see how that will go.

As a start I am looking for a lightweight trailer design to get an idea how heavy a frame to make. I want the width to be 5' with wheels inboard and would like to stretch the space to 10', possibly rear entry. I want to try a solid popup, the top shell nested in the lower when traveling. I think I see some foam in my future. I am fairly handy, can weld and been building stuff for myself for as long as I can remember. That is the short story, I'll start a thread for the longer one once I get a better idea what I will be doing.
Fred

[Bill n Robi]

Welcome to the club!

We hit several music festivals each year.

[tony.latham]

You guys are going to be a bad influence...

It's damn near as if we all come to this house to shoot up.

T

[printer]

Reminds me of in my younger days some workmates went to one of the guy's house after the bars were closed and continued having a good time. Being a rowdy bunch someone decided to do some wrestling moves on the other guy. Ended up with some smashed furniture, I don't think it will come to that here.

[rjgimp]

Welcome to the asylum!

Given the parameters you have to work with, I'd say foam is definitely in your future. I have seen a few builds around here in the 5' by 10' size range that ended up well under 1000# so I think most of what you seek is absolutely doable. Some are finding the hardside popup concept in foam a bit challenging because the strength of a foam build is in creating a solid box. The open box design required for a popup is fairly weak structurally. There are at least a couple active threads attempting to noodle out a solution for that problem.

May the odds be ever in your favor.

[printer]

Just picked up a folding trailer frame with 8" wheels. I wanted to go 12" but there you go. 52" between the rails and 8' long. I may rethink things a little. Another option is to go for 12" wheels, a store has them for $70 and today is the last day of the sale. On the pop up thing, I was going to do a stick/foam construction. The inner shell would have nuts inserted at the top lip, the outer shell would have a wood 'ring' around the top and bottom of the shell. When up quick work with a portable drill would fasten bolts through the outer shell into the nuts in the inner. When the shell is down the top would also have bolt holes around the circumference and bolts would secure the upper shell to the inner. For good measure the lower inner shell would have nuts for the outer shell to mate with. So when traveling the two shells would be bolted together at the top and the bottoms.

At least that was the theory. I had other ideas but now that I have this frame it will focus me a little. When you design something the possibilities are endless, once one or two parameters are selected it narrows the options you take. I am thinking it might be time to start a build thread. Not sure where though yet.