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I use Cincinnati Insurance Co., but I think they are a local/regional firm so you may not find an agent depending on where you live.
ken
I insured mine as a “trailer” through my auto insurance agent. I told him what it was and I declared a replacement value as a basis for the premium amount. I don’t remember what the additional premium was but it was nominal.
I built mine a couple of years ago and followed Friz’s advice to buy the harbor freight trailer. I’ve seen so many small trailers in the breakdown lane with wheels taken off (I assume for bearing replacement) I didn’t want to use the 12″ wheels. I bought a set of 15″ wheels. I bought a set of fenders with enclosed back sides from a local trailer manufacturer. but, no good deed goes unpunished. the 15″ wheels were wide enough that they rubbed on the frame. on the advice of a friend I bought a set of 1 1/4″ wheel spacers. I also bought a set of what Northern Equipment calls “high-speed hubs”, although there is no spec on the speed rating. the wheel spacer of course puts the wheels 1 1/4″away from the bearing, so there might be a slight lateral load on the bearing, but since the trailer is so light I’ve disregarded this as a potential problem. I also use bearing buddies to make sure the bearings are greased. I’ve only put about 1000 miles on the trailer but have never felt the bearings get hot.
I kept pretty good track of my time and I came up with 250 hours. as I mentioned in an earlier post, I had a couple of helpers in the big glassing steps but I didn’t count the helpers’ hours in the 250. even if you have a helper, I would think you’ll be close to 250 hours of your time not counting the helper’s time.
what model number of Thule racks did you buy? and do they attach to the TD by drilling holes in the roof?
thanks
thanks for the pictures.
I helped my son put solar panels, converter, inverter/charger into his Sprinter. we learned from lots of reading on the internet that some brands of solar panel converters work much more efficiently at higher voltages. we wired his two panel in series, after making sure the converter we had purchased would handle the doubled voltage. if/when we add panels 3 and 4 we will go with a series/parallel arrangement, maintaining the voltage at 24v nominal/40v max.
ken
I replaced one of the stock gas springs with a 30# version. it holds the hatch in the open position just fine. but remember the Ideal Gas Law from high school chemistry–when it gets cold the force exerted by the gas is lower, so if you will use the camper in the winter you might want to replace both springs with 30# versions.
ken
I will echo the advice to have helpers when you do the big ‘glassing job–two layers of fiberglas/epoxy on the top of the cabin and one layer of fiberglas/epoxy on the sides. I had my son and his girlfriend, who both had prior experience in glas/epoxy (repairing paddle boards) to help. one of us mixed small batches of epoxy and the other two rolled and tipped the epoxy. which brings to mind a caution on ambient temperature: remember from chemistry class that reaction rate (and the curing of epoxy is a chemical reaction) doubles with every 18 degrees F increase in temperature. hopefully you have an air conditioned garage/workshop. otherwise, wait until fall to do the big epoxy jobs. if you can’t wait, and have a space with windows, invest in a cheap window A/C unit. you’ll end up spending $3000+ on the project so another $200 or so on a window AC will be a good investment. I found that if the temp was over 75 degrees you really don’t have much time to get the epoxy rolled and tipped before it begins to set up.
for applying epoxy, I used Wix brand 1/8″ nap foam rollers. the “bible” talks about “roll and tip”. after you roll on the epoxy you’ll end up with tiny air bubbles. as soon as you roll on the epoxy in a small area, use a foam brush (I mostly used 2″ foam brushes) to smooth out the epoxy. this removed most of the bubbles. this will reduce the amount of sanding that you will need to do to remove the “holidays” (I guess that’s a boatbuilder term for the pits that remain from the epoxy bubbles after they dry out). the same advice applies to your 4-5 coats of varnish at the end of the project.
I found that Home Depot sells 7″ Wix 1/8″ foam rollers at a very good price. they don’t carry them in most stores but you can order them for free delivery to your closest store. it’s been a couple of years since my build but IIRC I used at least 2 dozen rollers.
good luck!
I don’t have any suggestions about the door leaks, but what I did with the mushroom vents was to put a strip of Frost King foam inside the cap so when the cap is snugged down the foam seals against the inner part of the vent. haven’t had any water intrusion.
ken
to close the loop:
after the galley flat joint failure back in 8/17, as I said in one of my first posts in this thread I didn’t like the idea of trying to get screws centered in the 3/8 plywood from underneath. I reglued (epoxy) the joint and used a bottle jack with a piece of 2×4 as cribbing to secure the galley flat to the bulkhead while curing. after the joint cured, I used fiberglas tape and epoxy on both the inside and outside corners of the joint.
then, because I didn’t want to tempt fate, and didn’t want to lift a 60-lb battery up high enough to get it into the battery box compartment of the galley, I built a holder out of 1″ aluminum angle and long carriage bolts and mounted it on the underside of the floor. the lead-acid battery I had used for shakedown was an old trolling motor battery that was pretty well shot, so I bought a 100 amp hr AGM battery. the bottom of the battery is higher than the axle so I have no concerns about ground clearance. 50 amp hrs of usable capacity will be plenty for the few times I’m camping without access to shore power. if that assumption proves wrong I’ll spend the big bucks on a 100 amp hr Li-ion battery that can be repeatedly safely discharged almost fully.
my 2 cents worth:
a quick google search of the aluma utility trailer shows that the one you may be looking at is 54″ x 8 ft. the length is right but the CLC teardrop is 60 inches wide, so won’t fit between the tires/fenders. my local Aluma dealer’s website quotes the price as roughly $1800 which is mighty steep.
several of us here have bought and been happy with the Northern Tool “Ultra-Tow” 5×8 aluminum trailer, currently listed at $749 with free shipping. I determined that the frame was just a bit too long (I didn’t want to be knocking my shins on the corners of the aluminum frame) but it was simple as pie to cut the frame members to length with a powered jig saw.
I also have the NT aluminum trailer, which in my case came with 12″ wheels. I didn’t want to be one of the dead trailers at the side of the road with burned-out bearings, so I bought a set of what NT calls “high-speed” hubs, and got a pair of 15″ wheels/tires. I had already planned to get a pair of fenders that would accommodate the larger tires, but when I tried to mount the 15’s I found that the tires rubbed the frame of the trailer (no good deed goes unpunished). so I bought a pair of 1 1/4″ spacers which bolted to the hubs, and in turn mounted the wheels onto the spacers.
