The Tiny Tillson Teardrop Trailer (T4)

[BLTillson]

One of the best milestones was reached yesterday when I finished the frames and attached the inside paneling to the walls.

Glue here.jpg (183.89 KiB) Viewed 1306 times

Walls up.jpg (237.01 KiB) Viewed 1306 times

So much done and so much to go!

[BLTillson]

On the electrical side of things I have converted my electrical schematic to a wiring diagram. I needed the schematic to understand how things worked in a DC system. I need the wiring diagram to actually build it.

Main Electrical Wiring Diagram.png (159.86 KiB) Viewed 1306 times

[BLTillson]

Greetings all you Teardrop lovers

For any of those you who are following my progress, I'm back! We recently completed a move from southern California and back to our beautiful home in Oregon. When packing kicked into full gear I was forced to pack up the teardrop project for the road. Unfortunately the trailer was not roadworthy so I had to carry it on an auto transport trailer.

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Once we got settled in, which took about 10 weeks, I got reassembled the carport. This is way more important in Oregon due to the rain.

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Carport sweet Carport.jpg (297.48 KiB) Viewed 1234 times

So, after all of that I will be starting back to work. My hope is to have it done by the end of summer. Then we can run it thought some short tests, trials and tweaks locally in preparation for a big trip in the spring. We are talking a couple of months on the road in Idaho, Montana and parts beyond.

[Tom&Shelly]

Glad it made the trip okay! Good luck and enjoy the Summer!


Tom

[BLTillson]

Glad it made the trip okay! Good luck and enjoy the Summer!Tom

Thank you. It's great to be out of the city and back to the beautiful country.

[Greg M]

Time to update your location to “Back in Beautiful Oregon”
Welcome home, glad to see you back at it.

[BLTillson]

Time to update your location to “Back in Beautiful Oregon”
Welcome home, glad to see you back at it.

Oh! Thank you. I missed that in the morass of moving tasks.

[BLTillson]

Moving, Migraines & Mold!

Greeting teardrop community. I am seeing with greater clarity what a labor of love a teardrop trailer can be. It has a unique place in homemade projects because of what it represents, the freedom of the road in a custom made travel trailer, a bedroom and kitchen on wheels and the road ahead.

As I previously posted, last may we moved from San Diego back to our original town in Oregon. The move was very hard on my wife and I. My wife with her back issues and me with chronic migraines and frequent headaches were exacerbated by the massing amount of work that a move is. It took me nine months to finally have a breakthrough with my constant headaches, back and neck issues to be able to start up work on the teardrop.

The first issue I ran into was mold. I had started my project in sunny and dry southern California. After moving to Oregon I put my trailer in its carport but it was no longer wrapped in plastic in hopes I would work on it soon. The months rolled by as we were busy getting back into our life in Oregon. The medical issues also kept me from even thinking about working on the trailer. When I did go out to check on it last month I was shocked and my heart sunk to find that all the exposed wood was covered in a greyish/greenish mold, or mildew. So rather than moving forward I had to clean the mold off and put a mold resistant primer on the whole thing. (See pictures). This ruled out having the interior staying wood because the mold had robbed the wood of its beauty. Since the outside was going to be PMF anyway there was no loss there. That is what the mold resistant primer was for in the first place.

The great news is that though medicine and an exercise routine I have been starting to have better days and I am very happy to be working in the teardrop again. We have late spring as a target for getting it done and then a long trip to Idaho where we hope to move next year. OK, on to the pictures.

This is the trailer with the finished primer coat.

Primer coat inside and out.

Primer Coat.jpg (113.37 KiB) Viewed 887 times

I used; Kilz Mold & Mildew Primer Sealer & Stain Blocker, Interior & Exterior

Kilz

Kilz.png (236.62 KiB) Viewed 887 times

[BLTillson]

Progress was made toward getting the electrical system installation started.
I was working on solving the challenge of getting electrical from the tongue box into the front wall and then up to where the interior panel will be with the fuses, solar controller, charge selector and usage meter.

The pass through is behind the battery.

Electrical box.jpg (142.51 KiB) Viewed 885 times

Conduit from the outside

T4-Electrical Conduit.jpg (67.64 KiB) Viewed 885 times

Electrical access box.

Electrical Access.jpg (98.46 KiB) Viewed 885 times

I have plans for most of the trailer that I made, however like this challenge, I did not engineer every aspect of its construction. This is where custom really takes on a more vital meaning.

It's good to be back at work. Pray that my health holds.

[BLTillson]

One more pic.

Here is my new workspace. Still no garage and now, no sold driveway. My driveway here in Oregon is gravel.

New OR Shop.jpg (152.1 KiB) Viewed 883 times

[KCStudly]

I suggest that you leave the tent flaps open as much as the weather allows. That type of instant shelter will pull moisture up out of the ground and trap it inside.

[BLTillson]

I suggest that you leave the tent flaps open as much as the weather allows. That type of instant shelter will pull moisture up out of the ground and trap it inside.

Unfortunately that is difficult both for security and the fact that it rains 5 out of 7 days here in Oregon this time of year. However, I do appreciate the suggestion. Perhaps I can setup some kind of vent system. My other hope is that this is the final push to get this project finished for spring.

[BLTillson]

I got this far yesterday.

This is the completed wire channel from the tongue box to the cabin.

Wire channel done.jpg (134.23 KiB) Viewed 743 times

[tony.latham]

On the electrical side of things...

The only thing I caught was no disconnect between your panel and the controller. Without that, if you disconnect your battery, you can damage some controllers. Certainly my Renogy works that way.

Tony

[BLTillson]

On the electrical side of things...

The only thing I caught was no disconnect between your panel and the controller. Without that, if you disconnect your battery, you can damage some controllers. Certainly my Renogy works that way.

Tony

Right, thanks, I think we talked about that before. I will take a look and make sure I make the appropriate changes. I had read in other placed that the Renogy was susceptible to that kind of damage.