Offroad Teardrop - SawTooth XL

[GeoTracker90]

Shocks are mounted... Gabriel 81676 from Autozone. $14.99 ea. They are a replacement shock for the M416 trailer, CJ2A, CJ3B, CJ5 etc...

More updates this weekend...

Looking better and better all the time. Thanks for posting up the information on the shocks. I'm sure that I've seen it before, but this time I'm writing it down for future use.

Mike

 

[stomperxj]

Looking better and better all the time.
Mike

Thanks Mike...

Frame is painted and deck is undercoated... Next big step is going to be walls I think. I need to update a few things on my 3d model and then I'll be ready to go buy some more sheets of ply...

 

[highlandercj-7]

That dupli-color is going to peel off the ply-wood with in a couple years. Ask me how I know lol...

 

[mog]

That dupli-color is going to peel off the ply-wood with in a couple years. Ask me how I know lol...

How do you know?
I ask because I'm planning on doing the same thing. Do you think the wood should be printed with 'normal' paint first to help with bonding? I painted a plywood cover for the back of my truck and then coated with brush on bed liner, and it has held up for 5+ years now. The truck is garaged so only 'in-use' exposure to rain, etc but no problems except for one small area were the plywood itself delaminated unrelated to the bedliner. Your experience would be appreciated.

 

[stomperxj]

That dupli-color is going to peel off the ply-wood with in a couple years. Ask me how I know lol...

How do you know?
I ask because I'm planning on doing the same thing. Do you think the wood should be printed with 'normal' paint first to help with bonding? I painted a plywood cover for the back of my truck and then coated with brush on bed liner, and it has held up for 5+ years now. The truck is garaged so only 'in-use' exposure to rain, etc but no problems except for one small area were the plywood itself delaminated unrelated to the bedliner. Your experience would be appreciated.

Yeah from what I saw this weekend, that bedliner isnt coming off any time soon. It stuck to the wood quite well and even soaked into the wood some. If it comes off at all in 5 years, I'll be surprised. Brand new fresh, clean ply, a thin first coat and 2 more coats after that. I think its going to hold up pretty good. I'll eat my words if it doesnt though...

 

[GeoTracker90]

If needed down the road you can always go back and coat it with asphalt emulsion. Although painting that stuff on the underside of the trailer may be a messy proposition. None the less it will do a good job of protecting the wood. Ask me how I know.

Mike

 

[mog]

The only extra thing I am going to do on this built is to seal the edges of the plywood with a layer of resin and fiberglass. That should make sure they are totally sealed and reinforce the edges, since my floors are removable. I painted the plywood prior to applying the bedliner since I wanted both the top and bottom sealed, and it used a lot less bedliner material doing it that way.

BTW awesome +++ built!

 

[highlandercj-7]

I put it onto the bottom of my Daughters wagon like that and it started to peel off from the moisture. I hope yours does not do it but don't be suprised if it does. I would think that your better off with using a oil based paint made for wood. The duplicolor stuff is made for metal and is a lacquer IIRC. It has worked great on most every thing I put it on (I been using it for 8 years) the things I found it does NOT stick good on is TJ fender flares, aluminum diamond plate, and wood lol. It is extremely UV unstable, I use spray bombs to top coat it and it makes it survive longer.

 

[stomperxj]

Well I went and bought some wood for the walls. I looked at CDX, ACX and Baltic Birch. CDX is garbage, ACX is pretty good and the BB is some high quality stuff... so I bought BB for the walls and ACX for the bulkhead. That birch is beautiful wood... Anyway... pics:

Starting to rout out insulation pockets. I opted to not laminate 1/2 and 1/4 and just bought 3/4". You can also see i routed grooves for the bulkhead and galley counter:

Hopefully I can get the other wall cut and routed this week...

 

[stomperxj]

Well I came to my senses and decided to ditch the 1/2" CDX deck and inner fender wells and rebuild it all out of 3/4" ACX. I never really liked the 1/2" and finally decided to do the rebuild. I will hopefully knock it all out this weekend. I am constructing it differently too. I'm running a single sheet down the middle and lap jointing small pieces on the frame/body extensions...

Pics:

More this weekend...

 

[madp]

Your Build looks really cool. I work for a company called trailerworks, we build Vintage inspired teardrop trailers, <shameless plug www. retrotraveler.com> we make then pretty similar to your design, I just thought I would share a few of our “trade secrets” we have learned along the way. First off BASF makes a product called Sonolastic NP1, it’s a tube sealant available in a wide range of colors and about 4-5 bucks a tube, and you can get it online. It is will stick to just about anything its take about 12 hours to fully dry but it remains flexible for ever. Just use denatured alcohol to clean up.
Also we use a Butyl backed foil tape anywhere where the wood sidewalls/floor and frame meet.
And if it is not too late, while your painted plywood bottom will hold up for some time, if you want it to last forever get a piece of Galvalume sheet metal and put it underneath your wood base, the Galvalume is light and not the expensive and will last forever.
I hope some of that helps make your build go a little smoother. That is going to be one sweet trailer when it’s done!

 

[Photog]

Your Build looks really cool. I work for a company called trailerworks, we build Vintage inspired teardrop trailers, <shameless plug www. retrotraveler.com> we make then pretty similar to your design, I just thought I would share a few of our “trade secrets” we have learned along the way. First off BASF makes a product called Sonolastic NP1, it’s a tube sealant available in a wide range of colors and about 4-5 bucks a tube, and you can get it online. It is will stick to just about anything its take about 12 hours to fully dry but it remains flexible for ever. Just use denatured alcohol to clean up.
Also we use a Butyl backed foil tape anywhere where the wood sidewalls/floor and frame meet.
And if it is not too late, while your painted plywood bottom will hold up for some time, if you want it to last forever get a piece of Galvalume sheet metal and put it underneath your wood base, the Galvalume is light and not the expensive and will last forever.
I hope some of that helps make your build go a little smoother. That is going to be one sweet trailer when it’s done!

That is a nice bit of information, for many different projects. Thanks for posing it, and being so helpful.

Also, welcome to the Expedition Portal. Your first post is a winner.!:wavey:

 

[mrwizard]

wow, very cool build! i'm pretty new to the forum, but not new to wheeling and expedition builds. this is a great trailer. the best part about taking it slow is that all your ideas get thought through thoroughly.

also cool that you're in kuna...i lived in boise for four years before moving to illinois for my master's work a little over a year ago. was back this summer and floated indian creek for the first time! didn't even know it was there the whole time i was living there. the wife and i are headed back that way this spring when i wrap things up out here. anyway, keep up the nice work!

russell

 

[stomperxj]

wow, very cool build! i'm pretty new to the forum, but not new to wheeling and expedition builds. this is a great trailer. the best part about taking it slow is that all your ideas get thought through thoroughly.

also cool that you're in kuna...i lived in boise for four years before moving to illinois for my master's work a little over a year ago. was back this summer and floated indian creek for the first time! didn't even know it was there the whole time i was living there. the wife and i are headed back that way this spring when i wrap things up out here. anyway, keep up the nice work!

russell

Hey thanks Russell - Drop me a line when you are back through here if you want to take a looksee in person... Indian Creek is definitely a fun float trip... I grew up in Kuna so I've been down many times...

Jess

 

[stomperxj]

The floor is glued, drilled and bolted, fender wells are glued and screwed. I also cut some foam out for the mattress. I'm going to use the foam shown and probably 1" of dense foam under it.

First pocket holes! The Kreg jig works awesome...


That's it for this weekend... Hopefully I can get the other wall cut out this week...