piratexpress1369a
Explorer
Are you still going to use rivets also
Base Camp Trailer Build
- Thread starter rwingnut
- Start date
piratexpress1369a
Explorer
Ok cool
rwingnut
Observer
Sheet Metal
It seemed to take a long time until we finally got some warm weather. It snowed 2 weeks ago and I need 70 degrees for this adhesive tape to work. In the mean time I did some test pieces with this tape. I learned that temperature was critical. The one's I did at 65 deg. I was able to peel apart. But, the ones I let bake in my car while I was at work were rock solid. There is an adhesion accelerator that is supposed to be used at low temperatures but I didn't figure that out till too late. I thought it was more for rough surface finish. Oh well, we had a nice warm weekend. I was able to get surface temperatures above 90 without any trouble. The first day I applied all the tape. First, I laid out the tape and rolled it with a roller, then let it warm up in the sun and rolled it again, then again.
A friend and I had brain-stormed this process weeks ago and had the whole thing planned out. Amazingly, everything went exactly as planned. Here's some pics of the process.
This jig is for keeping the panel flat against the frame as the upper lip made contact. We peeled the backing off the lip first, moved it into position, then peeled the rest of the panel back and remove the backing.
This tape (3M CV62F and CV45F) worked well. It had a little forgiveness if you didn't contact too much and apply pressure you could separate the 2 pieces again, but my planning of the process didn't require that. Because the sheet metal will mostly bend in one axis at a time, I made sure to keep it arced away and perpendicular to the direction that I was laying it out. The 3M application notes for this product where simple and thorough and I followed them exactly. I did a light scotch bright to the painted surface and cleaned everything with 50% isopropol alcohol. But, time will tell how well this stuff holds up. So far, I'm happy with it. This was definitely a 2 person job and my friend's help was invaluable.
Next up, I'll use a clear silicon caulk on all the edges then it's final assembly. Getting close.
It seemed to take a long time until we finally got some warm weather. It snowed 2 weeks ago and I need 70 degrees for this adhesive tape to work. In the mean time I did some test pieces with this tape. I learned that temperature was critical. The one's I did at 65 deg. I was able to peel apart. But, the ones I let bake in my car while I was at work were rock solid. There is an adhesion accelerator that is supposed to be used at low temperatures but I didn't figure that out till too late. I thought it was more for rough surface finish. Oh well, we had a nice warm weekend. I was able to get surface temperatures above 90 without any trouble. The first day I applied all the tape. First, I laid out the tape and rolled it with a roller, then let it warm up in the sun and rolled it again, then again.
A friend and I had brain-stormed this process weeks ago and had the whole thing planned out. Amazingly, everything went exactly as planned. Here's some pics of the process.
This jig is for keeping the panel flat against the frame as the upper lip made contact. We peeled the backing off the lip first, moved it into position, then peeled the rest of the panel back and remove the backing.
This tape (3M CV62F and CV45F) worked well. It had a little forgiveness if you didn't contact too much and apply pressure you could separate the 2 pieces again, but my planning of the process didn't require that. Because the sheet metal will mostly bend in one axis at a time, I made sure to keep it arced away and perpendicular to the direction that I was laying it out. The 3M application notes for this product where simple and thorough and I followed them exactly. I did a light scotch bright to the painted surface and cleaned everything with 50% isopropol alcohol. But, time will tell how well this stuff holds up. So far, I'm happy with it. This was definitely a 2 person job and my friend's help was invaluable.
Next up, I'll use a clear silicon caulk on all the edges then it's final assembly. Getting close.
Overland_Brandon
Observer
That is incredible. Can you imagine telling one of our fathers that you were using tape to hold together your trailer?
This is such a cool build! I can testify to the strength of that 3M tape, we used it at a sign shop that I used to work at, most of our jobs were build to spec and the designers would spec the fastening processes too. Structural adhesives and 3M tape were the two main ways we fastened sheet products (alpolic, sheet aluminum, etc.) to welded frames.
rwingnut
Observer
DONE! (... for now)
My trailer is done, for now. It's usable and we're ready to hit the trail. I have plans for building out a kitchen in the rear tailgate, a sliding cooler rack in the front, and water tanks. But that will happen this winter. It's time to hit the trails.
Assembly went pretty quick. I've had a pile of completed parts waiting for the weather to get warm enough to do the sheet metal. Now that that is done, putting everything together was trouble free.
I had created a little 'Basecamp' logo that I put on my drawing template. As I was doing the design and build, that logo grew on me. So, I had some vinyl decals cut. Decal Junky could use my svg export from Draftsight and they have reasonable prices for no minimum order.
Thanks for all the great comments. This has been a fun build. I'll post some action pictures soon. We've got plans for exploring the Zuni mountains and we hope to celebrate my daughter's 2nd birthday in the Pecos wilderness.
I'll post more this winter when I start building out the kitchen. I'll also post as I come up with things I'd do different next time. So far, the only thing on that list is a different damper configuration. There seems to be less roll damping than I'd like. That is due to the shocks being too far inboard. I was worried about clearance with the springs, but I have plenty of room. So far, it doesn't seem to mater on the road. But we'll see how it does loaded up.
My trailer is done, for now. It's usable and we're ready to hit the trail. I have plans for building out a kitchen in the rear tailgate, a sliding cooler rack in the front, and water tanks. But that will happen this winter. It's time to hit the trails.
Assembly went pretty quick. I've had a pile of completed parts waiting for the weather to get warm enough to do the sheet metal. Now that that is done, putting everything together was trouble free.
I had created a little 'Basecamp' logo that I put on my drawing template. As I was doing the design and build, that logo grew on me. So, I had some vinyl decals cut. Decal Junky could use my svg export from Draftsight and they have reasonable prices for no minimum order.
Thanks for all the great comments. This has been a fun build. I'll post some action pictures soon. We've got plans for exploring the Zuni mountains and we hope to celebrate my daughter's 2nd birthday in the Pecos wilderness.
I'll post more this winter when I start building out the kitchen. I'll also post as I come up with things I'd do different next time. So far, the only thing on that list is a different damper configuration. There seems to be less roll damping than I'd like. That is due to the shocks being too far inboard. I was worried about clearance with the springs, but I have plenty of room. So far, it doesn't seem to mater on the road. But we'll see how it does loaded up.
piratexpress1369a
Explorer
Turned out great. .love the logo
Overland_Brandon
Observer
Freaking Awesome!
rwingnut
Observer
First Outing
Took her out on her maiden voyage to the Pecos Wilderness, part of the Santa Fe National Forest. While I was building this trailer, I kept thinking 'Wow, this thing is big'. As I started packing it was amazing to see how small it got. But, it was much easier to pack than the FJ. My wife appreciated how easy it was to get to stuff and setup camp and I'm sure our greyhound appreciated having the back of the FJ to himself.
We found a few trails that allowed dispersed camping so we took off exploring. The trail that we selected ended up being rougher than I was aiming for a first outing, but well within what I designed to. This resulted in us not seeing another person on this trail so that was great. All of our equipment rode well, nothing got banged up, and the trailer handled well on the road and trail.
Found our camp site.
I discovered a problem with my lower spring mount on this trip. I made a threaded pin that I installed in the bottom of the spring that fit in a hole in the spring perch. Bouncing around on the trail, this occasionally popped out. I could drop the stabilizer legs, release pressure in the spring, put the spring back into position and re-inflate. Took 3 or 4 minutes but it was annoying. I've since retrofitted a mount that securely attaches the spring to the perch.
I think our next trip will be to the Zuni Mountains next weekend or the following.
Took her out on her maiden voyage to the Pecos Wilderness, part of the Santa Fe National Forest. While I was building this trailer, I kept thinking 'Wow, this thing is big'. As I started packing it was amazing to see how small it got.
But, it was much easier to pack than the FJ. My wife appreciated how easy it was to get to stuff and setup camp and I'm sure our greyhound appreciated having the back of the FJ to himself.We found a few trails that allowed dispersed camping so we took off exploring. The trail that we selected ended up being rougher than I was aiming for a first outing, but well within what I designed to. This resulted in us not seeing another person on this trail so that was great. All of our equipment rode well, nothing got banged up, and the trailer handled well on the road and trail.
Found our camp site.
I discovered a problem with my lower spring mount on this trip. I made a threaded pin that I installed in the bottom of the spring that fit in a hole in the spring perch. Bouncing around on the trail, this occasionally popped out. I could drop the stabilizer legs, release pressure in the spring, put the spring back into position and re-inflate. Took 3 or 4 minutes but it was annoying. I've since retrofitted a mount that securely attaches the spring to the perch.
I think our next trip will be to the Zuni Mountains next weekend or the following.
piratexpress1369a
Explorer
Looks good hope you had a good time camping
calicamper
Expedition Leader
Hmmm. Your front opening gate idea, just cleared up a design idea I'm mulling over. Thanks! Cool trailer. I'm formulating a build plan for a RTT road focused campgear trailer for my dad. Tow rig is a Infinity G35. So going light and for road performance. Thinking single PWC trailer as the platform.
rwingnut
Observer
Update
I thought I'd provide a little feedback about how things have been working so far and what I'm planning next.
First, there isn't anything that I've thought, "I should have done that different". Some of that was planning, some of it was luck. I remember reading a thread that someone suggested packing all of your gear in the boxes/bins and design the dimension of the trailer around that. I didn't do that and have since realized how lucky I got. I had gone on the assumption that I could find appropriate plastic bins to fit my gear and the space I had. I learned that there aren't near as many options out there as I thought. My luck resulted in the bins that I ended up with fit end to end between the fenders with 1/2 of inch to spare. There were a couple more things like that just happened to work. That was good advice and I used luck instead. I guess I'd rather be lucky that good.
Our bin/packing system ended up working pretty well. Still refining what goes where. It's easy to setup camp and teardown on quick over-nighters while on the road. We are primarily using the Rubbermaid Toughneck bins. Easy to find, tough, and inexpensive. And, they fit the space perfectly.
After I got the issue sorted out with the lower spring mounts, I've had no problems. We ended up taking it on some good rocky trails in the Zuni Mountain of New Mexico with no worries. It was easy to forget that I had a trailer back there as I was navigating my FJ over the rocks. Everything in the trailer rode well. We also spent 2 weeks on a trip to Yellowstone so we were able to put some miles on it and spend some time living out of it. We drove at highway speeds through a big rain storm and everything stayed dry. I started getting lazy with the packing, leaving a loaf of bread and a roll of paper towels on top of the bins, everything stayed where I left it and stayed dry.
Projects this winter include:
I've started the stove pivot arm and the water system and will post progress with pics soon.
Here's a pic from an over-night at Molas Lake.
I thought I'd provide a little feedback about how things have been working so far and what I'm planning next.
First, there isn't anything that I've thought, "I should have done that different". Some of that was planning, some of it was luck. I remember reading a thread that someone suggested packing all of your gear in the boxes/bins and design the dimension of the trailer around that. I didn't do that and have since realized how lucky I got. I had gone on the assumption that I could find appropriate plastic bins to fit my gear and the space I had. I learned that there aren't near as many options out there as I thought. My luck resulted in the bins that I ended up with fit end to end between the fenders with 1/2 of inch to spare. There were a couple more things like that just happened to work. That was good advice and I used luck instead. I guess I'd rather be lucky that good.
Our bin/packing system ended up working pretty well. Still refining what goes where. It's easy to setup camp and teardown on quick over-nighters while on the road. We are primarily using the Rubbermaid Toughneck bins. Easy to find, tough, and inexpensive. And, they fit the space perfectly.
After I got the issue sorted out with the lower spring mounts, I've had no problems. We ended up taking it on some good rocky trails in the Zuni Mountain of New Mexico with no worries. It was easy to forget that I had a trailer back there as I was navigating my FJ over the rocks. Everything in the trailer rode well. We also spent 2 weeks on a trip to Yellowstone so we were able to put some miles on it and spend some time living out of it. We drove at highway speeds through a big rain storm and everything stayed dry. I started getting lazy with the packing, leaving a loaf of bread and a roll of paper towels on top of the bins, everything stayed where I left it and stayed dry.
Projects this winter include:
- cooler slide - our cooler is big and has to be pulled out onto the front tail gate to open, kind of a pain, as expected
- stove pivot arm - stove is a pain to tear down and setup multiple times a day (bear country), as expected
- water system - using a generic blue water jug for now, need more capacity and more convenience.
I've started the stove pivot arm and the water system and will post progress with pics soon.
Here's a pic from an over-night at Molas Lake.
rwingnut
Observer
Stove Pivot Arm
We have a Camp Chef, Big Gas Grill which is a 3 burner stove that you can put a 2 burner griddle or a 2 burner grill on. It's awesome. But, its a bit big and can be a pain to setup and tear down. My original plan for this trailer was to have a slide or a pivot arm to put it on. With how we've decided to pack, a pivot arm will be the most convenient and space efficient.
I'm using a tire carrier bearing from comp4x4.com that is made for making a spare tire carrier for a Jeep. Here's a picture with the bearing assemble installed.
Here's a picture with the arm laid in place.
I've just started the mounts that I'll attach to the stove. I've also designed the lock and stop that will hold it secure when the arm is pivoted out. We'll see how far I get this weekend.
We have a Camp Chef, Big Gas Grill which is a 3 burner stove that you can put a 2 burner griddle or a 2 burner grill on. It's awesome. But, its a bit big and can be a pain to setup and tear down. My original plan for this trailer was to have a slide or a pivot arm to put it on. With how we've decided to pack, a pivot arm will be the most convenient and space efficient.
I'm using a tire carrier bearing from comp4x4.com that is made for making a spare tire carrier for a Jeep. Here's a picture with the bearing assemble installed.
Here's a picture with the arm laid in place.
I've just started the mounts that I'll attach to the stove. I've also designed the lock and stop that will hold it secure when the arm is pivoted out. We'll see how far I get this weekend.