One Swell Trailer

[GeoTracker90]

Glad you are back after it looking forward to updates-

Thanks stomperxj! I'm hoping to keep things rolling now that I've picked it back up again. I'll keep moving forwards as the money for supplies is available. (I might need to sell a kidney.) LOL

 

[1store]

Life is swell again your back at it . I know that bad .Your build has been very informing

 

[GeoTracker90]

I figured that I hadn't better loose any momentum again. I ended up taking a half day off from work on Friday. I was able to take care of some things around the house, but I was also able to gather up some of this:





I ended up grabbing a stick of 1" x 2" rectangle tube, a stick of 1.5" square tube, and two 5' x 10' sheets of 16 gauge sheet metal. I wasted no time last night and quickly started working on framing out the rest of the main box perimeter. The side walls and everything except for the base of the main box frame is made out of the 1.5" square tube with a 0.065" wall thickness. The base of the main box is fabricated from the 1" x 2" rectangle tube, also with a 0.065" wall thickness. I could have gone with a thicker wall on the tubing, but I believe that there will be additional strength in the assembly as the framework is skinned with the 16 gauge sheet metal.

 

[Titanpat57]

Great to see this back up and running....keep the updates coming!:victory:

 

[GeoTracker90]

Great to see this back up and running....keep the updates coming!:victory:

OK Titanpat57, you asked for it. Hang on.

 

[GeoTracker90]

Safety Third!

One thing to always remember while working on your trailer is this: SAFETY THIRD!

As I was welding cross members in the floor of the main box I ended up resting my arm on the previous weld. I could feel the heat but didn't think too much about it until I was done and looked at me sleeve. In the daylight I could faintly see the flame, and quickly blew it out.





I was truly amazed that my heavy canvas shirt had caught on fire! I was even more amazed that I didn't burn my arm, and there was hardly any singed hair either. I'm usually wearing a leather cape/sleeves when I'm welding, but right now they're on loan to my son for his High School welding class. I guess I had better be a little more careful until I get my leathers back.

As I mentioned above, I was adding cross members to the floor of the main box. Well I had one cross member for the trailer frame that I didn't get welded in last year. When I checked the fit of the piece I had cut last year I found it to be just a bit too wide for the trailer frame.





It's situations just like this that make me love my band saw. I couldn't cut this thin of a sliver with a standard chop saw, and using a cut-off wheel or a flap disc in an angle grinder is enough to make me loose my hearing and my sanity. This band saw was one of the best things I've picked up for under $100.

 

[GeoTracker90]

Are You Mocking Me?

With the main box perimeter welded in place and with the floor cross members welded in I just had to hook the trailer up. I was real interested to see just how tall it was going to sit when compared to the tow vehicle.














The Trailblazer won't necessarily be the primary tow vehicle, but it was handy and at least gave me a reference point. I like the height of the trailer. With the box 36" tall it will be easy to see in the rear view mirror as well as providing extra storage for all of the goodies. My plan is to use my '94 S-10 Blazer as I explore the wilds of Idaho, Utah and surrounding states. Because of this I made sure to use the same steel wheels on the trailer as I have on the little Blazer.

Now, I'm still waiting on the machinist to get time to work over the trailing arm suspension brackets. For now a chunk of 4x4 wooden post will have to work as a stand in for the airbag.





I was actually just guessing on the length of the wood block and I was surprised that the height was so close to the height of the unpressurized air bag. Man I'm getting excited to see this suspension in action. Ha, ha.

Another reason I wanted to get the main box dimensions set and to have the trailer hooked up was that I wanted to get an idea of how I wanted to lay everything out.








I went through a few different arrangements as I worked out how to place everything. I was thinking of having the kitchen in the rear of the trailer, but as I looked at things more and more I decided to change plans. Instead, the kitchen will be on a slide out on the passenger side of the trailer in front of the fender. At the back the cooler will be on a slide out. The rear door will be hinged on the driver's side. This will allow the cook to have access to everything from the passenger side of the trailer.

Moving back on the passenger side, I should have enough room to mount an on demand 6L water heater inside of a Pelican case. Behind that I'll probably have the 10 lb propane tank. That should cover things on the passenger side of the trailer. Unless I think of doing something different that is.

On the tongue of the trailer I'm contemplating making a custom electrical box / fuel can mount. If you remember my first models of the trailer you may remember that the front of the main box was angled instead of being flat. The more I thought about that design the more I decided that it just wasn't worth all the extra effort. It would have made the storage space an odd shape and it would have been less efficient overall. So after an internal design review, an executive decision was made to change the design of the main box.

Now with that out of the way, I took a second look at how I wanted to use the space on the tongue of the trailer. In the pictures above you can see that I looked at two different positions for the fuel cans. I think I've settled on the position shown in the last picture. I really like the look of having the fuel cans following the angle of the tongue. I'm toying with the idea of building the fuel can mounts into the the tongue box. I need to start working on the design and see what I come up with.

No matter what I come up with, I think it's going to be awesome!!!

 

[indiedog]

You paid $100 for a metal bandsaw!!!?? Now I'm envious.

Good to see you back on it.

 

[GeoTracker90]

You paid $100 for a metal bandsaw!!!?? Now I'm envious.

Good to see you back on it.

indiedog, would it make you less envious if I told you I actually paid only $75 for the band saw? :wings:

Just so you guys know, I'm not dropping the project again, but you probably won't see any updates from me this weekend. My niece is graduating from University and starting today I'll have family around through the rest of the week and weekend. And the next weekend I may be taking a quick trip to Zion's National Park to go climb Angel's Landing. (Trying to get down there before it gets too hot.)

Don't worry though. I'm real anxious to start skinning the box and continue making progress.

 

[GeoTracker90]

Hey there guys! I was lucky enough to have my parents come by to visit from April 6th through April 10th, so as you can expect the trailer build took a back seat for that weekend. Now that being said, don't think that the trailer was forgotten about either. On Sunday, the 10th, I took Mom and Dad out and we found our way to Fall Creek Falls just before Swan Valley, Idaho. After hanging out at the falls for a while we had to get some dessert - square ice cream cones at the Swan Valley gas station. From there we jumped over to Victor, Idaho and then back through Driggs and home to Rexburg.

Everything was timed just right. We weren't blinded by the setting sun, but instead we were treated to a spectacular sunset with a rain storm between us and the setting sun.





While I was on the Sunday drive I saw a number of places that I want to go explore once the trailer is finished off. It's kind of sad, but there are so many areas right close to home that I haven't visited yet. It's time to change that I think.

This weekend I decided to take advantage of the National Park Service's free entry in celebration of the Park Service's 100th birthday. With Yellowstone only about 90 minutes away it was a natural choice.














If you look close, you can see the hoof prints of the bison in stream bed in the last photo above. I must say that this is the best time to visit Yellowstone. The crowds haven't arrived yet and so there is easy access to the attractions and no struggle to find parking, and very minimal wildlife inspired traffic jams. Once again, as I was out exploring the area, I kept thinking of places I want to go explore further once the the trailer and tow vehicle are all set up and ready to go.

So what does a guy do for the trailer when he's been spending his weekends exploring instead of building? Why he buys more parts for the trailer. It's the only logical thing to do.











I know, it's not much, but it does get me some what closer to the finish line. And no, I'm not putting 20 marker lights on the trailer. Buying them 10 at a time just makes the best sense. I'll probably add marker lights to the top corners of the main box, just because I'll have plenty to go around.

Now I also ordered the first of two 10 gallon water tanks. I figure that by having two tanks I'll have some redundancy. As the saying goes two is one, one is none. With the water split between the two tanks I won't be totally out of water should something unfortunate happen to one of them. By grabbing one of the two water tanks for now I'll be able to start laying out positioning of things within the trailer box.

Little steps, I know, but it's the little steps that will keep this project going along. And that's what it's all about - keeping it going.

 

[GeoTracker90]

Yesterday I was researching different awning ideas. Ideally I would like to have an awning that extends over the passenger side of the trailer to cover the kitchen area. In looking at things I've considered building my own version of a Hannibal awning.





The nice thing about this design is that it is free standing without the need of any support poles. When not in use the awning material comes off of the framework, the outermost bar is detached and the side arms fold back for travel.

I did come across one other awning idea that has raised my interest as well. This one is a DYI roll out awning.




DIY Roll Out Awning


If you follow the link above you will find the details of how to build this roll out awning. In looking at it there isn't anything too difficult about building this awning set up either.

No matter which style of awning I end up settling on I will probably have a friend that does upholstery sew up the tarp for the awning out of a material such as Sunbrella.




2015-2016 Sunbrella Shade Fabric Picture Book

One of the nice things about using a material like this will be the durability and the variety of colors available. I'm partial to the orange hues myself.

 

[GeoTracker90]

Gathering more and more parts all the time. Today I ordered up the tabs that I'm going to be using to attach the main box to the trailer frame. Previously I had mentioned using some body mount tabs from A&A. Yeah, I forgot about them and ordered some 90 degree Trick Tabs from TabZone. Honestly I had TabZone pop into my head and as I was looking at the tabs I thought that they looked different than what I had been considering but I ordered them anyway. These tabs were only $1.60 each plus the shipping. I ended up ordering 20 of the tabs and I'll have extras left over in case I come up with some other clever ideas on how to use them. So here are the tabs that I ended up pulling the trigger on.




TabZone 90* Trick Tabs


If the guys at TabZone can get them boxed and out the door today there's a slight chance that I will get them here on Friday. If that's the case I just might end up getting the main box and the frame married up over the weekend. If nothing else I will end up going through and finish welding all of the joints that are still missing a few welds here and there. Who knows, I might even bend up some sheet metal as well.

 

[stomperxj]

Cool. I haven't bought anything from Tabzone yet but they have a lot of neat stuff. Prices seem really good too-

 

[GeoTracker90]

Cool. I haven't bought anything from Tabzone yet but they have a lot of neat stuff. Prices seem really good too-

Yeah, they've got some great products and pricing. I've used them as a supplier before and I've always had a good transaction with them.

 

[GeoTracker90]

My 10 gallon water tank arrived. I'm actually going to be running two of these tanks, but I wanted to get one of them so that I could verify that the tanks would fit where I'm planning.

One of the planned advantages of running two tanks is reduced amount of sloshing compared to having one larger tank.




10 Gallon Water Tank - Amazon


Of course I'mm need a way of getting the water into the tank. For that I'm thinking of a marine deck fill.





Additionally I'll need to vent the tanks as well. I think that this on might just work well.





When it's all said and done I'm thinking that I'll plumb the two water tanks with a selection valve so that I only draw off of one tank at a time. If I do that it will help me to know when one of the tanks is empty. I'll have to kick things around and see what direction this aspect of the build goes. Wish me luck!!!