More work on the roof rack.
Started off by welding the bars for the roof basket. Nothing fancy. Just took my time measuring everything a couple times to make sure everything would come out properly.
Everything was tacked in place. I hold everything in place with a few tack welds so that I can remeasure and make sure it is good after all the pieces are in place.
Measured all the way around, then I measured across to make sure it was square. But sadly in the end it was not perfect. I was off by 1mm :Wow1:
Was going to just scrap everything, due to being off by 1mm, but decided I might as well keep going
So I then welded everything up properly and was ready for the next step.....which was me having a heart attack hauling the roof tent up on the trailer by myself. Oh yes, I am sure it would have been fun to watch.
Roof tent fits very nicely up there. I will be keeping the tent a bit farther back on the trailer so that it is directly over the axle to help keep things balanced. That left me with space up near the front which was perfect for the next thing I wanted to do. Since I live up north and we have a lot of trees, and the tent sits up high, I decided it would be a good idea to built a sort of brush guard for the front of the trailer. This will stop branches from smashing into the tent and damaging it, which I do not want since the tent is not cheap. So away I went.
I made it just a little bit taller than the tent. While this will not completely protect the tent, it will at least grab a lot of branches and help push them up and over the tent. Naturally I only tacked everything in place first to make sure it was what I wanted. A hell of a lot easier cutting a tack weld and readjusting a part then having to completely cut it apart.
Though I didn't like just the two arms and decided to add another in the center for added protection and strength.
Then I decided to start working on the doors. As I stated earlier, once I put the rack on the top, the doors would not open properly anymore. As you can see here in these pictures.
To make it so that the doors will open wider I need to install a second hinge. Now there are many ways you can go around this including a way to remove the doors when you need to access them. But not very practical and a pain in the ***. You can install some standard door hinges. But you would need to install a couple of them and you risk warping/twisting/damaging the doors every time you open them, as the metal is somewhat flimsy and you would only have strength in the couple of places you have hinges installed. Another way would be to install a piano hinge. You can pick these up at most hardware stores, and they are not too expensive. Though the problem with this on my trailer is that the doors are curved and have ridges in them (for strength). This will made it hard to install the piano hinge. And one main problem I will face is that every time it rains the water will pour through the hinge and into the trailer. Naturally the hinge will also rust after a while, likely making it hard to open. But anyone who has seen my projects before knows I have a plan for just about everything
I am going to install a long hinge made of.........rubber. The hinge will be one long piece and run from one end to the other. It will be held down on both sides of the door with exterior silicon and rivets or bolts.
So I went off to the hardware store looking for a piece of thick rubber, about 7feet long and 2.5-4.5inches wide. I first looked at some weather gasket material they put around garage doors to close the gap. But I couldn't find anything wider than 1.5inches. Then I found the bottom gasket for the garage doors which is slid into a track and forms a "U" at the bottom to help keep things weather tight. The stuff wasn't too expensive, was 3inches wide and I could get it as long as I wanted. Only problem is that the rubber wasn't as thick as I wanted. It is strong, but I was afraid it would rip under heavy use. But since I didn't see anything else that was reasonable, I picked it up. I also found some thick rubber floor matting I could have used, but I would have needed to buy 14 feet of the stuff which was also 4 feet wide (I needed 2.5-4.5inches wide). But the 14 feet would have cost me nearly $170, so I decided against it.
While I was there I decided to look around to see if I needed anything else. While going through the tile flooring section I found something even better than the garage door gasket. I bought some of this.
Its the stuff you see in schools, government buildings, offices as a black plastic baseboard. It is very strong, thick, yet flexible (made to be folded around corners). It also came in several different colors (sadly no OD green, but I will live with black), 4inch width and lengths of either 8feet or 20 feet. Plus the stuff is pretty cheap. Was $7 for 8feet. You could also buy it with adhesive on it, but I bought the one without it as I will be putting on silicon near the edges (where this has the adhesive in the middle) and bolting it down. Plus the one with adhesive was $4 more.
This will work perfectly as it is flexible, strong and weatherproof. I will be putting one piece on the outside of the door and one on the inside (bought 4 boxes of the stuff in total). For the extra few bucks it is worth putting it on both the inside and outside as I would prefer to keep my stuff inside the trailer dry.