[Andrew]

Hi Bill,

Thanks for your kind words on the build finish – I think I must have exceeded 250 hrs but I didn’t keep a log so have no proof. I also think I experienced some strange distortion in the time-space continuum, possibly triggered by my orbital sander. Whenever I was sanding, time seemed to pass incredibly slowly and progress with the project appeared almost imperceptible!

Your trailer sounds good and anything that gives a smoother ride will be a great bonus. After my first couple of trips I had to re-think the galley in order to devise methods of keeping everything in place during transit. The bumpy ride caused absolutely everything to find a new home, mostly in the gap between the galley module and teardrop wall.

The lithium battery is probably a sound investment too. They are supposed to last a lot longer than conventional ones so pay off better in the long run. I had to buy an AGM battery to mount it on it’s side underneath the trailer and that was pretty expensive compared to a standard lead-acid, so your choice of lithium ion is a good one I think.

Good luck with your build and I’d love to see your mods when you are ready to share them.

Andrew

[Andrew]

Wow stretchMike, that’s a fantastic repair job, well done. Your heart must have sank when the damage was done but you must be delighted with the repair. I have noted your technique for future use in other woodwork projects.

[Andrew]

Hi PatandRay,

It is Western Flyer who has created that rather impressive canopy, not me – I wish I had! Looking forward to seeing more detail when he has refined it further.

[Andrew]

Thanks PatandRay and Western Flyer – those suggestions sound like really good ideas and are clearly working well for you. I like the mod for the sauce bottles too Western Flyer – wish I’d seen that before I constructed the galley module!

Wester Flyer – your canopy looks really interesting and after a couple of rainy trips I’ve been thinking about ways to provide more cover at the back. Have you used sleeves over the galley lid pistons to prevent closing? Could you possibly share any pictures and details about the cover? It looks really smart and it would be great to learn from your experiences.

Thanks again for your tips.

[Andrew]

Hi Helibuff,

The openings are: 20 x 36 cm
Inside the storage box is: 40 x 56 x 17 cm

The dimensions of the were controlled for me by the space I had between the metal bars of the trailer. I wanted to keep the openings relatively small so as not to weaken the floor too much. The boxes were constructed using the same epoxy fillet and taping approach as the rest of the trailer and attached to the underside of the trailer using fillets and tape on the outside only. It was too tricky to apply fillets on the inside of the box where it joined the teardrop floor.

Hope this helps.

 

[Andrew]

@Johannes, that’s a good trailer. I like the large rectangle free from any cross-bars. My trailer had only small rectangular areas rather than one big area. I installed some under floor storage and that was made much harder by the limited space that I had to work with within the frame of the trailer. Having one big area would have been much better.

@strikerguy, since you mention storage space I thought I’d mention the underfloor storage that I added to my TD. This post covers my original questions to other forum members and the final photos of what I ended up doing.

Something else that might be of interest in terms of saving space was the installation of my leisure battery under the caravan. I got the idea from this post and did much the same as Friz. You need a particular type of battery to mount it on its side which is more expensive, but it is out of the way and the weight is very close to the axle so doesn’t impact the balance of the teardrop much.

Below is a picture of the battery underneath the TD, though it isn’t a brilliant picture I’m afraid!

Hope your planning is going well @strikerguy and your build is going smoothly @johannes. Oh, and good luck figuring out the best time to buy with regard to Brexit! If you ever figure out what is going on please let me know!

Kind regards,
Andrew

[Andrew]

Hi,

I just thought I’d update this post now that my TD is complete. I did put the under floor storage very similar tot he designs I posted above. I made the access hatch smaller than the storage space itself and carefully cut the holes so that I could use the cut-outs for the hatch covers. After a couple of trips now the space has proved really useful and I’m really glad I did it. I don’t have a storage box on the front so all storage space is at a premium.

Thanks for your help along the way. Seeing what other people have done and getting ideas from you all has been a great help.

Andrew

[Andrew]

Hi strikerguy & Johannes,

I have recently finished my build and live in the UK – I went on my first trip last weekend and was very pleased. It took me about 9 months and took many hours! I didn’t record the hours but I’m sure it was more than the stated 250. I went for the varnished wood finish which took a great deal of sanding time!

I worked with a local trailer company and we designed a trailer for it on which the teardrop sits nicely and drives really well. I only have a small car so am both relieved and pleased with how it tows.

It is a great project but not without it’s challenges – well worth it in the end though.

If I can help at all please just leave a message here. This forum is supposed to notify you of posts to threads you are involved with but I have never received one so I keep looking back periodically. I you have an email for direct (and therefore quicker communication) let me know.

Kind regards,
Andrew

[Andrew]

Hi Virginia Overlander.

i have now finished the TD and the doors did not spring out and do not need the strap to tension them. They fit really nicely.

i did apply the stiffeners before cutting out the doors, as well as the extra layer of glass fibre on the inside of the door as shown above.

I aligned the door stiffeners on the inside of the caravan using some short steel rods of about 10cm long by 1.5mm diameter. I used one of the alignment holes at the bottom of the stiffener and drilled another through the stiffener and shell toward the front of the stiffener. Because the rods are rigid, unlike the copper wire, they keep the stiffener aligned correctly to allow the stiffener to be glued accurately in place.

I used part of a (UK) mains plug which has a grub screw that holds the rod tightly. With one of these on the outside of the camper the other one on the inside can be used to pull against the rod, and with glue on the stiffener, it can be braced against the shell and the second gripper slid up against the stiffener to firmly hold the stiffener in place.

I left the ‘clamps’ and rods in place until the glue cured. To get the rods out I heated them with a blow torch until the epoxy softened and the rods could be pulled out. Take care when heating the rods to avoid scorching the wood, like I did! It is safer to heat the rod from the inside just in case. The hot rod didn’t scorch the wood it was me pointing the flame towards the wood that was the problem – I only did it once!

Clean up the oozing glue before it sets of course.

Hope this helps.

Andrew

 

[Andrew]

Hi Bob,

Your tip about fitting the door stiffeners before cutting the doors out sounds like a really good idea. I have added an extra layer of glass fibre and some carbon fibre strands I had lying around but wondered about applying your fix too? I have no idea if the carbon fibre will have any effect but thought I’d throw it in the mix!

How effective was your fix when you came to cut the doors out?

I’m just about to glass the exterior now so a way off cutting doors out, though I’m really keen to avoid the use of straps to fix the door fit and if doing things now can avoid that I’d like to give it a go.

Thanks,

Andrew

[Andrew]

Hi Jon,

Your solution to the problem of maintaining door shape sounds good. I wondered if you had any further news about the knock-on effects of adding the fibre glass as you did?

I’m going to give it a go, but thought I’d ask if you have any further advice in light of any further work that you may have done on the doors since your post.

Thanks,

Andrw

[Andrew]

Thanks very much for the measurements PopeyeTheTrailerMan, after all this feedback I feel much happier about doing this, it has been a real help to me.

Boardwalk; your floor and hatches look really great. Do you mind me asking how much clearance you left between the bottom of your boxes and the ground and has it proved to be enough?

Thanks again for all the comments & photos.

[Andrew]

Thanks western_flyer and ArtisticAdam, they are both really good suggestions. I hadn’t thought of making the hatch smaller than the storage space as with the marine hatches. That makes me much more comfortable about doing it because I’m not cutting such a big hole in the floor and weakening it. I really appreciate your posts, thanks.

[Author]

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