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The placement of your hatch brackets is critical. Under say 11 1/2″ will not allow the springs to compress enough for the hatch to close completely; More than say 12″ will cause the spring/hatch bracket to interfere with the left side of the galley unit. I spent an hour or more establishing this as fact before drilling any holes. I suggest the following procedure: mount your bulkhead brackets and put the springs on them and the hatch brackets on the springs. Find by trial and error the right length stick to hold your hatch up to the height that places one of your hatch brackets the prescribed 11 3/4″ from the hatch stiffener (market with blue tape). With your hatch propped up hold the first hatch bracket up in position and square and drill through its screw holes through the hatch. Temporarily bolt this bracket to the hatch and without removing the prop stick, hold the other bracket in position and drill through it. Remove brackets andncoat holes with epoxy.
The length of you arm should not influence where those brackets end up for the very important reasons stated above.
NO!!! 13 3/8″ is too short. They should be cut to 13 3/4″ and19 1/2″. Of this I am ABSOLUTELY SURE. If you cut them to 13 3/8″, you WILL be asking CLC to send two more.. My kit, hardware and build are exactly like everybody else’s. The ideal length is as long as you can get them without interfering with the door frame in the open position.
There is a second important issue with the doors: The rebate in the stiffener (upon which the lower door fairlead mounts) is 6mm (1/4″) too much putting the lower fairlead too close to the gasket surface and most importantly 6mm closer than the upper door fairlead is. Even if you make this up with a piece of 6mm plywood (cut to the shape of the rebate for aesthetics) ,as I did only after puncturing my door skin with the supplied screws, you will still need 1/1\6″ of washers under the lower and upper door fairlead to get your doors flush with the camper shell top and bottom when closed and rods arecalculated/When this isndone everything is peachy. The CLC folks claim you can just throw a bunch of washers in; but they really ought to correct this issue and their advice because a stack of washers 8mm high is damned high and a hell of a lot of washers. Close study of the prototype pictures in the manual shows zero rebate in the door stiffener. They need to admit they goofed by 6mm when they calculated/introduced the rebate.
No, its not too high for roof racks. I have just installed both fan hatch and racks (both purchased from CLC). There is however only 3/8″ -1/2″ clearance between the center of the hatch and a straight line between the tops of the load bars. If a kayak is dead center over the hatch, the hatch needs to stay closed. Alternatively if one has kayaks on Autoloaders (on their side, one each side, for example) the hatch should be more functional without removing kayaks.
I put my rubber washers under the metal washers on the inside of the fender, so the metal of the fender is in direct contact with the trailer side rail. I really like the trailer. I already owned a Harbor Freight trailer, but the Trailed looks super strong in comparison and there are all kinds of options to mount stuff to it with the extra T bolts they provide. Its the real deal.
By the way, I was successful at raising my teardrop about 2″ above the trailer on temporary cinderblocks and styrofoam blocks to move the trailer slightly forward to drill my holes from underneath. This was quicker and easier than rounding up a quorum of friends to flip the teardrop on its back. Actually I built the whole teardrop with no outside help. I am at the varnishing and electronics installation phase.
Yeah,80ftlbs seemed like a lot, but I did it. And don’t forget to retorque them after 25 miles. I forgot with my Harbor Freight trailer and by the time I got to CLC to pick up my kits (300 miles) Ed noticed that one of my lug nuts was half off (but then again I doubt I ever torqued those Harbor Freight nuts to 80 ftlbs). I just nonchalantly took my adjustable wrench out from behind the driver’s seat and tightened them all up a bit, and drove 300 miles home.
Hey Bob,
Looking at your pictures I note that your fenders look like they are not in the lowest bolt hole position. It is easy, but you will find that, if so, you will need to lower them to avoid interference with the teardrop which is slightly wider than the Trailex frame. You do NOT need to remove the tires to do this.
Eric
Looks great! I got the free shipping but not the spare; will likely get a spare and that’s where it’ll go. I got the 12″ tires, so I have room underneath the trailer for a storage box. You know, for the fake palm tree or folding chairs.
I believe, based on my fibeglassing experience and ,having completed that step, that wetting out the overlap area and eliminating or bubbles from the butt block fillets and wetting out the transom will be much easier with only 12″ overlap. And that long 10″ strip of extra fiberglass will come in handy for something. I ran a strip across the inside of the roof in front of the hatch.
I overlapped 12″, but I actually believe (just personal opinion) that the camper bottom is so strong that you are really only glassing it for road debris ding protection and strength at its joint with the shell. I’d be willing to bet that no overlap or maybe just a 1″ overlap on one camper bottom side panel or the other would be just as strong. If I do a second camper that’s what I’d do.
Acting on the suggestion of another forum member, I got two Thermorest Mondo King 3D mattresses. They are 4″ high and selfinflating. You can adjust firmness. I have very good experience with much thinner Thermorest. The downside: cost ($210 each).
From what John reports, the Iwatani radiates very little heat to the side and is safe near wood epoxy. I haven’t used mine yet, butnI believe thatmthe galley flat is more than deep enough. You get more but out of butane and the canisters are available in hardware stores or the internet. If one is still worried, one could easily make a metal heat deflector.
Finding a glue is the second problem. I hate this spell check or whatevernit is that keeps changing what I type before I post my messages.
Fritz,
What is “all tread”? Do you mean a piece of threaded rod threaded into the cap on one end and a knob on the other end? If so you will need to jettison your baffle, which is held in place by the nut. The only problem I see with that is if you are in your camper andmitmis raining cats andndogs andmyou wish to open your vent, there will be no baffle to keep rain water fro coming through your vent. The baffle is essential mission critical to prevent leaks. The second problem is finding angle that will stick to ABS plastic. If there is an answer to these problems, your idea is attractive.
I am guessing that if you throw a towel on top of the galley hatch for padding in case of contact, you can just let the gas springs open the hatch against the kayak. This would be higher than horizontal, plenty high enough for access.
Now that I’ve done it I have some important =modifications/corrections to my first post. I d<span style=”line-height: 1.5;”>idn’t glass the bosses; they are not large enough to round the corners enough to get the glass to conform. No biggy. The gutter covers/protects them well.</span>
I did not drill 1/4″ holes and use waxed rods as locator pins. Instead I used the gutter as a template and carefully marked the center of each bolt position on each <span style=”line-height: 1.5;”>boss with an awl. Then on a drill press I drilled 5/64″ holes at those locations. I then located the bosses over the paper template taped to the camper and drilled with the same bit now in my cordless drill (5/64″) though those holes, through the paper template, and through the camper roof (I first had to enlarge the boss footprint on the paper template). Remember, the holes are up, the gutter faces down. These holes are for small finish nails which I used as “locator pins” ( a boatbuilder trick that Russell Brown and I like and use a lot) to hold the bosses in exactly the intended position until the epoxy/cellofil cures. Its probably intentional but the mating surface of the bosses is cupped more than the curvature of the roof – so one needs to be sure there is enough glue in the center (fore and aft), or 4200 caulk if doing it the hymnal way. With the nails, no weights or clamping is needed. While I was at it I then slathered the first coat of epoxy over the bosses, finish nails and all. The nails will come out with visegrips tomorrow morning and the holes they leave will be enlarged to 1/4″ and coated twice with epoxy. All holes in okoume should receive two coats of epoxy.</span>
By the way, the warning in the hymnal about the bolt positions possibly being off , should be heeded! That’s why I used the paper template only for boss positioning not hole location – and was glad I did. Paper shrinks, printers vary in speed/accuracy – who knows.
