"TrailTop" modular trailer topper building components
- Thread starter jscherb
- Start date
jscherb
Expedition Leader
Over the past three years it's spent time outside uncovered, in the garage, and outside covered with a custom-fitted cover I sewed from an inexpensive Harbor Freight tarp. It has been exposed to plenty of weather.
The plywood I used is inexpensive underlayment-grade 1/4" plywood I picked up at Lowes. I used the same thing on the TrailTop teardrop prototype, in this photo you can see the lettering and grid marks printed on the underside of the plywood that identifies it as underlayment...
Also interested, but your email is not listed anywhere on your profile. Please post contact info.
Jack
jscherb
Expedition Leader
Clicking on a user ID at the top left of any post will offer a "Send Email" option, if that user has enabled it (which I have):
It is enabled in "Settings/General Settings", and it's a checkbox called "Receive Email from Other Members". I don't believe the sender of the email has to enable anything special, I believe only the recipient has to enable it.
I get emails regularly from members of this forum, so I assume this feature is working.
EDIT: It may be that a user has to have a certain number of posts before the email feature is made visible, so if you don't see it when you click on my user ID that's probably why. If that's the case then you can try my email address, it's of the form "firstname.lastname@gmail.com", my first name is Jeff and my last name is my user ID without my first initial.
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jscherb
Expedition Leader
Thank you very much.
All of the curved parts in the examples and concept drawings in this thread are homemade fiberglass parts that I call the "TrailTop" modular system. I made the molds, those are described earlier and along the way in the thread, and molded the parts in my home garage. Here's a sampling of some of the different TrailTop parts I've made (and there are additional sizes/angles not shown in these photos)...
The straight pieces are 8' long when they come out of the mold, the straight pieces in the photos above were cut to length for a specific project.
Titanpat57
Expedition Leader
I'm still in awe over the quality and workmanship.
jscherb
Expedition Leader
Thank you very much.
One of my original goals of this project was to create parts that would have a seamless look when assembled and finished, so unfortunately this was one of those projects where accuracy and quality wasn't optional - if the mold master patterns weren't accurate and high quality, the molds wouldn't be accurate enough so the parts made in them would assemble to a final seamless look. And all the molds had to be made to consistent standards so the any of the parts could be assembled in any combination and work well together. It was a lot of work, but I'm very happy with how all of the system parts worked out.
I've got a few more components I plan to add to the system at some point but many other projects and priorities have gotten in the way of doing that.
jscherb
Expedition Leader
I can mold all the fiberglass components needed to assemble a TrailDog shell, but no, a complete kit of those parts has not been offered for sale. It's a great idea though, I'd love to see complete components kits for a range of trailer shells on the market, and the TrailDog would probably be a good one to do in kit form.
jscherb
Expedition Leader
I'm planning another project using TrailTop parts, so I'm molding the parts I'll need. An 8' straight section I molded yesterday is standing against the trailer in the background, it's fresh out of the mold and hasn't been trimmed or the mold release washed off yet. I'll make one more straight section in the mold in the foreground this morning. I'll post concept drawings of the new project shortly.
rnArmy
Adventurer
I can mold all the fiberglass components needed to assemble a TrailDog shell, but no, a complete kit of those parts has not been offered for sale. It's a great idea though, I'd love to see complete components kits for a range of trailer shells on the market, and the TrailDog would probably be a good one to do in kit form.
As usual - awesome. That's something I could pull behind my four-cylinder Jeep TJ for overlanding, and it might even get my wife to think about joining me on an Jeep adventure.
jscherb
Expedition Leader
Thanks Paul.
Trailtop construction is fairly light, pretty much any small camper made with TrailTop components would be within the towing capacity of a 4 cylinder TJ. This Trailtop teardrop shell adds about two hundred pounds to the trailer underneath; Dinoot j-series tub trailers on HF frames typically weigh in at about 500 lbs, so that combo is light enough for plenty of gear and will still be within the TJ's capacity.
I popped a second Trailtop straight rail out of the mold this morning.
Concept drawings of the new project to come soon.