GR8ADV
Explorer
You are very correct; I often use those words incorrectly. Most of the rif raf don't care. I bet you are fun guy to hang out with in a bar... heck how about if we just focus on the compliment.
Last edited:
AND YET AGAIN: Paul and Mike Try to Build a Hard-Sided Do-It-All ADV Trailer
- Thread starter mhiscox
- Start date
You are very correct; I often use those words incorrectly. Most of the rif raf don't care. I bet you are fun guy to hang out with in a bar... heck how about if we just focus on the compliment.
PaulJensen
Custom Builder
20
(above) The trailer is close to being done by me, and turned back over to Mike who will finish it, inside and out...Bigger tires, hitch upgrade, awning mounts, etc...
(above) First off, sorry for the distracting backgrounds... Here is the curbside view, all folded up...
(above) Different, but not extreme like the Australians do...
(above) Mike designed this to be a series of compromises...Low wind resistance on the highway, vs. weathertightness being one of them...Here we have the side walls folded down, the hitch wall folded up, and half of the rear doors folded up... It has been pointed out before, the interior is built to get wet...The folded down walls will not keep your crackers crunchy... A tensioned tarp, that can double as an awning, can go over the folded down walls if the weather goes to wet... The glass in the folded down walls is 1/8" custom tempered, siliconed and push-pointed to the wall... The glass shop installed the glass....The initial plan was to use plastic for the windows, but the glass shop said, tempered glass, in this thickness, installed this way would be lighter, stronger, non-yellowing, scratchproof, less expensive and most important, bond better to the painted frames than plastic...
(above) Supporting the walls as they are folded down are the piano hinges on the pods, at the ends there is a rim around the end walls and doors, and double 1x4's between the pods... Fine for highway time, but I suggest having every panel vertical at all other times... It just makes sense...
(above) Still to be done is gasketing around the openings, including the flat horizontal end wall rims... I probably wouldn't do if it it was mine, but to some, that might be important... I would prefer to tarp it if conditions say so...Dust as well as water...
(above) Let's set up the trailer...On the roof top tent plywood platform, are fold-down wood stops to hold the walls in place...They do the obvious, and also allow the walls to fold out and lay on top of the pods when you want it that way...
(above) To the inside...
(above) Inside, the walls lift up, and the fold-down wood stops, keep the wall vertical... I went with oversize wood because the trailer will flex and the tolerances of the panels need to allow for that flexing... If gasketing is wanted, there is typically 1/2" at the vertical gap between wall and rack...
(above) On the hitch end, on the ceiling are the 1/2" x 2" x 4" cedar twist bolts that hold the end panels tight to the ceiling... A 7/16" bolt, into a T-nut can be wrenched to be guaranteed tight... The cedar is soft enough to not scratch the painted panels...
(above) With the twin twist bolts loosened, the wall panel drops down and a single barrel bolt keeps it secured... Not bank vault secure at this point, but good enough to turn over to Mike for him to supplement if he feel like that is important... Honestly, locks keep honest people honest... if someone is intent to get in, it's going to happen... As has been said before, it's a matter of rationalizing the compromises...
(above) At the rear doors, the same configuration of twist bolts hold the upper rear doors tight to the ceiling... They get loosened individually to allow each door to drop, then an eye bolt, into a T-nut keep the upper door in alignment with the fixed lower door hinge... Very important...
(above) A barrel bolt between the doors keep them together... You can also see the rim that supports the folded down side walls... The door latch is a simple, lockable storm door lock...See above regarding security...
(above) Depending on the weather, you have options...
(above) Kind of homey with the doors this way...
(above) The clearances of the folding panels was tight, and I needed to raise the roof 1/2" to get everything to clear... The rear doors then had a 1/2" gap between the upper and lower...This allows a beveled drip cap to shed water out...
Alignment of the rear doors was as challenging to my skills as I have had in a long time... I finally got it aligned and workable with consistent tolerances after repeated opening and closing... In use, out in the wild, I see this as an attention to detail the user must pay attention to... To have the doors work as well as the design allows, the rear should be square... To do that is pretty simple... First, try to find a level place to park, then adjust the side to side level with the twin screw jacks that come along with the trailer... Again design compromises with hopefully simple solutions... Learn to do it the same every time, no problems...
The set-up takes about five minutes to open, six to shut...
(above) At the hitch end, a similar drip cap was installed...
Not done yet, but close...
(above) The trailer is close to being done by me, and turned back over to Mike who will finish it, inside and out...Bigger tires, hitch upgrade, awning mounts, etc...
(above) First off, sorry for the distracting backgrounds... Here is the curbside view, all folded up...
(above) Different, but not extreme like the Australians do...
(above) Mike designed this to be a series of compromises...Low wind resistance on the highway, vs. weathertightness being one of them...Here we have the side walls folded down, the hitch wall folded up, and half of the rear doors folded up... It has been pointed out before, the interior is built to get wet...The folded down walls will not keep your crackers crunchy... A tensioned tarp, that can double as an awning, can go over the folded down walls if the weather goes to wet... The glass in the folded down walls is 1/8" custom tempered, siliconed and push-pointed to the wall... The glass shop installed the glass....The initial plan was to use plastic for the windows, but the glass shop said, tempered glass, in this thickness, installed this way would be lighter, stronger, non-yellowing, scratchproof, less expensive and most important, bond better to the painted frames than plastic...
(above) Supporting the walls as they are folded down are the piano hinges on the pods, at the ends there is a rim around the end walls and doors, and double 1x4's between the pods... Fine for highway time, but I suggest having every panel vertical at all other times... It just makes sense...
(above) Still to be done is gasketing around the openings, including the flat horizontal end wall rims... I probably wouldn't do if it it was mine, but to some, that might be important... I would prefer to tarp it if conditions say so...Dust as well as water...
(above) Let's set up the trailer...On the roof top tent plywood platform, are fold-down wood stops to hold the walls in place...They do the obvious, and also allow the walls to fold out and lay on top of the pods when you want it that way...
(above) To the inside...
(above) Inside, the walls lift up, and the fold-down wood stops, keep the wall vertical... I went with oversize wood because the trailer will flex and the tolerances of the panels need to allow for that flexing... If gasketing is wanted, there is typically 1/2" at the vertical gap between wall and rack...
(above) On the hitch end, on the ceiling are the 1/2" x 2" x 4" cedar twist bolts that hold the end panels tight to the ceiling... A 7/16" bolt, into a T-nut can be wrenched to be guaranteed tight... The cedar is soft enough to not scratch the painted panels...
(above) With the twin twist bolts loosened, the wall panel drops down and a single barrel bolt keeps it secured... Not bank vault secure at this point, but good enough to turn over to Mike for him to supplement if he feel like that is important... Honestly, locks keep honest people honest... if someone is intent to get in, it's going to happen... As has been said before, it's a matter of rationalizing the compromises...
(above) At the rear doors, the same configuration of twist bolts hold the upper rear doors tight to the ceiling... They get loosened individually to allow each door to drop, then an eye bolt, into a T-nut keep the upper door in alignment with the fixed lower door hinge... Very important...
(above) A barrel bolt between the doors keep them together... You can also see the rim that supports the folded down side walls... The door latch is a simple, lockable storm door lock...See above regarding security...
(above) Depending on the weather, you have options...
(above) Kind of homey with the doors this way...
(above) The clearances of the folding panels was tight, and I needed to raise the roof 1/2" to get everything to clear... The rear doors then had a 1/2" gap between the upper and lower...This allows a beveled drip cap to shed water out...
Alignment of the rear doors was as challenging to my skills as I have had in a long time... I finally got it aligned and workable with consistent tolerances after repeated opening and closing... In use, out in the wild, I see this as an attention to detail the user must pay attention to... To have the doors work as well as the design allows, the rear should be square... To do that is pretty simple... First, try to find a level place to park, then adjust the side to side level with the twin screw jacks that come along with the trailer... Again design compromises with hopefully simple solutions... Learn to do it the same every time, no problems...
The set-up takes about five minutes to open, six to shut...
(above) At the hitch end, a similar drip cap was installed...
Not done yet, but close...
spressomon
Expedition Leader
I always enjoy following along on your build processes Paul & Mike; always learn some new trick!
Any plan for keeping road/trail grit from blasting the front side of the trailer?
Any plan for keeping road/trail grit from blasting the front side of the trailer?
mhiscox
Expedition Leader
They'll probably be a good-sized nose box to protect the front. Then we can worry how to protect the nose box.
PaulJensen
Custom Builder
I made the decision to have it on the lower doors because if it was on the upper doors the ceiling twist bolts would be lower on the ceiling and more likely to be something you could bump your head into...
No drip groove, no big deal, it's sealed to the lower door...
PaulJensen
Custom Builder
The doors do lay flush... I think they have enough weight to stay flat at freeway speed... If not, a length of rope can solve a myriad of temporary problems...
PaulJensen
Custom Builder
Mike's tevevision cabinet is a 10' wide ceiling... Impressive...
southpier
Expedition Leader
I meant this TV cabinet. but we'll keep this thread alive yet.
mhiscox
Expedition Leader
Alive, and back in my custody . . .
It's a strange looking thing, but so far, it looks like it's going to be very workable. I was messing around with it yesterday when we had a brisk, cold wind, and the simple action of raising/dropping the wall sections (which goes really quickly; faster by far than snapping up canvas) made the interior quite pleasant. My initial impression is that building the hard sides to block the wind, cold and noise was a good move.
The trailer tows really well and tracks splendidly, and the Sequoia didn't have any problems. With the walls down and the tent up in the breeze, you really couldn't feel any air management issues. I'm still thinking about putting actuators on to raise and lower the tent platform, though I know myself well enough to admit that I'd be doing it mostly so the trailer didn't look so weird when being towed rather than because it would solve any problem.
Paul's moving on to his next scheduled project, so it's down to me to finish off the inside and install all of the plumbing, electrical, propane and other systems. The good news is that I probably can manage it fine, but the bad news is that it will likely take a while. Paul works on this stuff as a daily job and thus puts in lots of hours, whereas I'll be working on it pretty much when there's nothing else going on I need to/I'd rather deal with.
So expect a bit of a hiatus while I decide about the actuators and some other things, and then build out enough stuff to warrant a post or two.
So far, so good, though. A check of what we've got now versus the "wish list" at the start of the project shows that we've accomplished many capabilities and haven't had to give up on any of the "still to be dones."