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I’m curious if Citristrip would help get the paint off quicker? I had to strip paint off my doors due to a poor job on my part of thinning the paint. The citristrip took it off quite easily and without issue. I also had to get some spilled paint off of a wooden deck that had baked on over a summer… citristrip + pressure washer made it an easy job. Might be worth considering if you have a large amount to remove… and then of course, sand the metal to prep. 😉
I’m digging the progress… and I’m especially digging your hinge solution. It’s looking good. I finally got to use mine for the first time a few weeks ago. It was so much fun and well worth the time put in.
Wow, that’s a great idea for the hatch closure. I wonder if riveting a ‘strike’ plate on the under side of the galley gutter lip would be sufficient? In either case, well done, I like it.
I varnished the bulkhead and the cabin shelf… but not the rest since I have the liner and put in carpet tiles on the floor.
If I remember correctly, CLC prototyped the camper on that specific trailer, right? And of course, they included the bunks as part of the kit for the purpose of fitting on narrower trailers. So surely it’s been tested?
Personally, I had considered going this route at the beginning. But I decided against it as my biggest concern was stability and highway travel. I don’t think the camper alone would be too much for it, but I put the roof rack system on mine with the intention of throwing a kayak or two up there, or other ‘stuff’. Not a lot of weight, but it would shift the center of gravity enough to make me uneasy.
Another thing to consider is how much higher the camper might be sitting as a result of using the bunks on a trailer with 12″ tires (If I remember correctly, that’s what the HF trailer uses?). Would it potentially put the galley at an uncomfortable/inconvenient height for you? Also, would it make it more difficult to get in and out of the camper? FWIW, I’m 6’1″ and I’m using the CLC trailer with 12″ tires. I wish it sat a little lower for these reasons. I can’t imagine that you can mount the axle overslung with that trailer and still maintain clearances on the shell? This is a preference thing of course, but it could also contribute to the overall stability and usability of the camper, IMO.
I think that all trailers that are not the CLC official one will need SOME form of modification, whether it is extending the tongue, moving the axle or even shortening. So, if you’re willing to take that on, then I wouldn’t let it be factor. But my opinion is that I think you’d probably be better served with a trailer that is a bit wider, but that’s just my opinion based off my needs and concerns. And FWIW, @friz used the Northern Tool 5×8 and made some mods to it and has had some great results. While I know it is a bit more expensive than the HF trailer, something like it in either construction (aluminum or steel) might be worth considering.
Hope this helps. 🙂
@tentnomore – I flipped my axle this past weekend. I was not happy with the reduced clearance between the tire and the bolt on top of the fender (I was measuring about 3/4″). Also, since as you mentioned you have to go to the lowest mount points on the L-bracket, I found that it interfered with the side of the camper as well. I attempted ‘bending the bracket out a little bit, but ultimately nothing I could do was enough to get it away from the camper enough to make me comfortable. So, I ended up putting the axle back into it’s original configuration. :-/ Oh well. Hopefully someone else has had lunch with this and can provide some insight on how to do it while maintaining adequate clearance for both the tires and the camper shell.
Thanks @ArtisticAdam, I’ll likely be flipping it this weekend. Did you have any issues with the wheel fenders? Did you have to move them up a little for clearance? Right now, mine are mounted at the lowest setting. I don’t think it would interfere with the shell if I had to go up, but was definitely curious.
-Adam
I’m considering moving my axle from underslung to overslung on my 12″ Trailex as well. Does anyone have any pointers? Or perhaps pictures they’d be willing to share?
I’m digging the hinges. Nice work! I had wanted to do something similar but couldn’t make it work. As well, good idea with putting a spacer on the doors when aligning them. I did something similar and it helped. Though my doors aren’t perfect, I think it certainly could have been worse if I hadn’t put something to simulate the gap. It’s looking good.
FWIW, I considering the same and so I asked the guys at Waterlust how much they paid for their finish work. They stated it was about $1,000. They recommended just driving it around from place to place once you’re ready for that step and see what you can get.
Varnish can be hard, especially if the temps are extreme. I found that I got the best results from thinning higher than 10% (which tends to be the upper end). And then I just applied more coats. Another approach I saw was ‘wiping’ the varnish. It takes considerably more coats, is a bit less known technique.
Good luck!
Yeah, you’ll want to keep those inside edges touching and not overlapping. It doesn’t have to be ‘perfect’ as you will be filling the gaps with thickened epoxy in later steps. But you definitely don’t want it to be overlapped. Personally, I had issues with this as well. Per the instructions I didn’t glass that joint past the cut lines. But as a result I found that one side was being very difficult and would break the CA glue. Ultimately, I did what @ArtisticAdam did and simply put in a stitch to hold it in place and that solved the problem.
-Adam
Sure, I’ll do what I can.
Here are some pictures. I didn’t take many of the mistake as I wasn’t too proud of it. 😉
Ok, so, here’s what happened. If you look in the first and second picture, where the quarter panel meets the side panels. You’ll notice a significant space (1/4″ to 3/8″) where the side panels extend past the quarter panels. The issue I was having is that when I was trying to line up the inside edges of the panels, like every other joint had been done, there was a significant gap between the galley flat and the quarter panel. As well, the quarter panel was not able to ‘touch’ the galley flat in order to be tacked down. I looked around for pictures in the manual for whether it was correct or not, but couldn’t find anything and it just seemed like too large of a gap for the fillet. I knew it was wrong at the time but figured maybe something was a just a little off elsewhere in the build and that I could just adjust as necessary with sanding, planing, etc. So, I got it as close as I could and epoxied it in place. Only after the epoxy cured did I find a picture buried deep in the manual in I think the ‘extras’ sections that answered my questions. But at that point it was too late.
I considered simply cutting off the excess, but I was concerned about messing something else up. So, to ‘fix’ it… I used fairing compound (the green stuff) to build up the space between the overhang of the side panel and the quarter panel. I beat myself up over it for about two weeks, but had originally considered painting the transom, quarter and #4 panels anyway, so I was forced in to it.
Now that it is painted you can’t tell there was ever a mistake there… but I certainly don’t recommend anyone follow my lead on this one. I just tried to make the best of a dumb mistake. 🙂
FWIW, I’ve struggled the entire build with the ‘imperfections’ I’ve introduced. I’m very detail oriented and a little obsessive about these kinds of things. But I’ve learned to let some of them go and to just accept them as learning experiences. As I’ve noticed through feedback from friends, family and strangers that I’m the ONLY one that will ever notice about 99% of them. Though, I’d be lying if I said I didn’t have a ‘list’ of things to come back to. 😉
Use Google Photos to post pics if you can like you did in your previous thread. I’ve found using their ‘link’ share option to be the most reliable for my purposes.
As for the back quarter panels. I also had trouble with them. I felt like the hymnal wasn’t as detailed on this topic as it should have been. As such I made mistakes that to this day drive me nuts. I was able to ‘cover it up’ but it still drives me crazy to think about. So, I’d recommend contacting CLC to see if they have anything to offer. They’ve always been pretty responsive when I’ve called them.
-Adam
