Mark Harley
Expedition Leader
Love this build! Looking forward to the finished product.
Happy New Year from the Harleyhouse.
Happy New Year from the Harleyhouse.
Coleman Colorado Frankenstein Trailer Project
- Thread starter DblD
- Start date
DblD
Adventurer
Beautiful (60 degree) January day in southern Missouri. I got a good amount of work done on the Fraken-lorado.
I had originally wanted to do the interior walls in some sort of wainscoting. I thought this would give a cottage look. The wainscoting didn’t work out the way I wanted so I went with MDF vinyl wall covering like you would see in a manufactured home. I put the non texture side out to make a good waterproof wall covering that can be cleaned and maybe painted at some point in the future.
Before putting up the interior walls I glued some foam insulation into the voids. Crazy to try and insulate a tent trailer – yea, I agree. The foam is more to give some rigidity to the sheet metal.
I got the aluminum caps screwed and glue in place. The port and starboard aluminum caps serve as rails on which the bed slides.
It’s at this point I need to make a confession. I measured the Colorado a half dozen times to make sure I got all the dimensions transferred correctly to the new trailer. I should have measured another time or two. I ended up making the new trailer .5 inch wider than the original Colorado.
No big deal right?
WRONG!
The bed will not slide on rails that are .5 an inch farther apart on the new trailer.
#$%&!!!
No project is complete without a few stumbling blocks. This was a major screw up on my part and I was afraid it would mean tearing apart the trailer to fix. After throwing a few tools around and more than a few obscenities, I came up with a solution.
A .25in aluminum spacer was welded to arms that the bed sides on. The arms were then riveted to either side of the bed. The fix seems to work well and I got the bed installed on the new trailer.
All for now, hopefully the weather will cooperate and I can get another good weekend or two.
dd
I had originally wanted to do the interior walls in some sort of wainscoting. I thought this would give a cottage look. The wainscoting didn’t work out the way I wanted so I went with MDF vinyl wall covering like you would see in a manufactured home. I put the non texture side out to make a good waterproof wall covering that can be cleaned and maybe painted at some point in the future.
Before putting up the interior walls I glued some foam insulation into the voids. Crazy to try and insulate a tent trailer – yea, I agree. The foam is more to give some rigidity to the sheet metal.
I got the aluminum caps screwed and glue in place. The port and starboard aluminum caps serve as rails on which the bed slides.
It’s at this point I need to make a confession. I measured the Colorado a half dozen times to make sure I got all the dimensions transferred correctly to the new trailer. I should have measured another time or two. I ended up making the new trailer .5 inch wider than the original Colorado.
No big deal right?
WRONG!
The bed will not slide on rails that are .5 an inch farther apart on the new trailer.
#$%&!!!
No project is complete without a few stumbling blocks. This was a major screw up on my part and I was afraid it would mean tearing apart the trailer to fix. After throwing a few tools around and more than a few obscenities, I came up with a solution.
A .25in aluminum spacer was welded to arms that the bed sides on. The arms were then riveted to either side of the bed. The fix seems to work well and I got the bed installed on the new trailer.
All for now, hopefully the weather will cooperate and I can get another good weekend or two.
dd
98OzarksRunner
Adventurer
Looking good Dave.
Mark Harley
Expedition Leader
Looking great!
I can't tell you how many times I have measured a project three, four times and in the end somehow my tape measure has stretched or shrunk.
I always plan for the worst and hope for the best.
I can't tell you how many times I have measured a project three, four times and in the end somehow my tape measure has stretched or shrunk.
I always plan for the worst and hope for the best.
Yay, looks like you're getting somewhere with the bed on there! :wings: And spacers are always the answer.
The other thing the foam adds is some noise isolation from the strange sheetmetal sounds you'd be getting in the wind. I think it was a good decision to shove some in there.
The other thing the foam adds is some noise isolation from the strange sheetmetal sounds you'd be getting in the wind. I think it was a good decision to shove some in there.
VanIsle_Greg
I think I need a bigger truck!
Kool. Looking good.
DblD
Adventurer
Today I was able to get the second seat box mounted and the flooring completed. For flooring I decided on vinyl plank. The flooring was designed to be floating and not glued to the subfloor. I wasn’t so keen on not attaching the flooring to the trailer so I used some construction adhesive on the planks and glued them down to the plywood. I’m pretty happy with how the floor turned out and I think with some quarter round trim it will finish out nicely. Here are few pictures.
dd
dd
Mark Harley
Expedition Leader
Coming together just fine!
Jr_Explorer
Explorer
Updates?
Backroad Explorer
Adventurer
X2
DblD
Adventurer
No big updates to report.
I’ve been sweating the small stuff on the Colorado the past few weeks. I’ve got LED taillights and side marker lights wired up, re-worked the military safety chains, and have had some welding done for the leveling jacks. Last week I made a call to Bear Creek Canvas. Thank you to AnzaJeep and Jet Noise for the tip on Bear Creek. I ordered up a new canvas in tan. I need a weekend with nothing else going on and some decent weather. St Patty’s Day Parade is scheduled for this Saturday and Sunday is looking cold and rainy.
Garrison Keeler has a monolog about the month of March being Gods way of showing non drinkers what a hangover feels like.
As soon as I have some updates I’ll post up some photos.
New goal is to be camping in this thing The first part of April. There, I’ve put it in writing. Now I must follow thru.
dd
DblD
Adventurer
Here are a few pictures of the recent work.
This is how the trailer will roll when hitched to the Toyota. The trailer sits pretty close to level when hooked up.
The support rods will drop down from the bed when deployed. The ends of the support pieces will sit in these curved cups.
Once we get to the campsite jacks will be deployed and attached to the points on the forward corners. Wheels will be chocked and some sort of jack stands will be used at the rear of the trailer. The forward jacks will be used to level the trailer.
Here’s the access point in the rear of the trailer. I will be able to access the rear storage even when the tent is folded down.
dd
This is how the trailer will roll when hitched to the Toyota. The trailer sits pretty close to level when hooked up.
The support rods will drop down from the bed when deployed. The ends of the support pieces will sit in these curved cups.
Once we get to the campsite jacks will be deployed and attached to the points on the forward corners. Wheels will be chocked and some sort of jack stands will be used at the rear of the trailer. The forward jacks will be used to level the trailer.
Here’s the access point in the rear of the trailer. I will be able to access the rear storage even when the tent is folded down.
dd
DblD
Adventurer
The access door came from ColawRV on I44 near Carthage Missouri.
http://colawrvsalvage.com/
It’s sort of a Valhalla of a place to someone cobbling together an RV or pop-up camper. It’s like a pick and pull salvage yard but with every size, shape and configuration of camping vessel. I went to the office and asked if they had any access panels. The guy grinned and took me out back to a pile of no less than 1200 access doors and frames. I really didn’t have in mind what size I wanted, I just went in to see what they had. About an hour later and $16.00; I left with two panels that I thought might work. No idea what they are off of. The one I ended up using measures about 13x13”. The other one measures about 12x20”.
dd