The CrowsWing - Offroad Teardrop Trailer
- Thread starter jim65wagon
- Start date
Mark Harley
Expedition Leader
Awesome!
Were the guys at the trailer plant as amazed with your build as we are?
You two have some serious skills!
Were the guys at the trailer plant as amazed with your build as we are?
You two have some serious skills!
VanIsle_Greg
I think I need a bigger truck!
That trailer chassis is just plain sexy...loving the buffed checker plate look, will stand up well to road bits hitting it. I think I am going to have a panel fabbed up for the front of my trailer as it is PEPPERED with stone chips right now. Beautiful work!!
loren85022
Explorer
(This photo is private.
Oops! You don't have permission to view this photo.)
Am I the only one Flickr is denying my rightful access to this build? Thumbnails just aren't enough. And I have a Flickr account even..
Oops! You don't have permission to view this photo.)
Am I the only one Flickr is denying my rightful access to this build? Thumbnails just aren't enough. And I have a Flickr account even..
jim65wagon
Well-known member
Try again, my flickr account has been set on private for years. I never thought that maybe someone would want to clicky and see a large as life version of any of the pictures. For this set of pics, I changed the settings so you can see them.....
jim65wagon
Well-known member
Well, here I am again, late for the update! We've had a busy week, though and quite a bit has been done, although you will have to wait another day or ten for this weeks update (we're tired and the pictures are on the camera yet) I can give you last weekends goings on.
.
We started off badly, we both worked last (last, last not this past) Saturday, so not much got done, Sunday and Monday we rolled through OKish. Things didn't go as quickly as we had planned, but they did go, so that in itself is progress.
.
I started off by routing (this was actually Friday night, trying to get a jump on the weekend) a few channels in the plywood to run some wiring for the porch lights and their switches. The porch lights are from Northern Tool and are the Truckstar LED Utility lights . You know, when you route through styrofoam you make snow foam (snoam?), it's not as tasty as the real thing but it sure looks the part.
.
.
After work Saturday, we put the new frame on jacks and removed the tires. We had plans to work around the fenders, but much to our surprise they were bolted on and not welded. I not so quickly removed them, in preparation.
.
.
Sunday morning was spent dismantling everything you have seen built until now. Then the slow process of installing it all back on the frame began in earnest.
Since the tongue box is permanent to the trailer we had to add a seal to it for the trailer bulkhead. With some electrical slated for the tongue box and holes in both the box and the bulkhead, we had to seal it somehow. We are using a combination of: Butyl tape directly to the tongue box, VW fender welt to the tape. This will give us a nice transition between the box and the trailer, and then a bead of 3M Marine adhesive/sealant #4200.
.
The bulkhead went on first, follow by the floor and basement divider. The floor is sealed to the trailer floor with butyl tape, and bolted down to the frame via 8 1/4" aluminum angle brackets.
.
While I was under the trailer fighting brackets and bolts, Madeline helped our future a little by making a paper template of the styofoam inserts in the walls.
.
The walls finally got the basement doors cut out and went on the frame.
.
The kitchen looks really bare at this point.
.
Because it's all piled up in the garage.
.
The base cabinet frame
.
The electrical chase
.
The upper cabinet
.
and the drawers
.
and doors
.
all got installed permanently with many bolts and screws. It doesn't look any different than it did 2 weeks ago, really, other than the frame below it of course.
Then came the interior cabinets
.
and their face frames, doors and hardware went in.
.
.
Then it was finally time to install the hatch.
Now you see it
.
Now you don't
.
The front view gives a nice idea of how the basic black on aluminum is going to look. Yeah, I know most of you don't like and wouldn't have a vehicle or trailer in black, but I love it.
The red cables are 1/0 welding cable (a little overkill, but it was in the garage from another project) to run battery power from the tongue box to the Blue Sea fuse block in the electrical chase. The white wire is a 12/3 marine grade wire for the 120v refrigerator outlet in the kitchen. If we're in a campground (or a driveway) we can run the fridge straight off 120 household electricity.
.
The parting 3/4 shot
.
We started off badly, we both worked last (last, last not this past) Saturday, so not much got done, Sunday and Monday we rolled through OKish. Things didn't go as quickly as we had planned, but they did go, so that in itself is progress.
.
I started off by routing (this was actually Friday night, trying to get a jump on the weekend) a few channels in the plywood to run some wiring for the porch lights and their switches. The porch lights are from Northern Tool and are the Truckstar LED Utility lights . You know, when you route through styrofoam you make snow foam (snoam?), it's not as tasty as the real thing but it sure looks the part.
.
.
After work Saturday, we put the new frame on jacks and removed the tires. We had plans to work around the fenders, but much to our surprise they were bolted on and not welded. I not so quickly removed them, in preparation.
.
.
Sunday morning was spent dismantling everything you have seen built until now. Then the slow process of installing it all back on the frame began in earnest.
Since the tongue box is permanent to the trailer we had to add a seal to it for the trailer bulkhead. With some electrical slated for the tongue box and holes in both the box and the bulkhead, we had to seal it somehow. We are using a combination of: Butyl tape directly to the tongue box, VW fender welt to the tape. This will give us a nice transition between the box and the trailer, and then a bead of 3M Marine adhesive/sealant #4200.
.
The bulkhead went on first, follow by the floor and basement divider. The floor is sealed to the trailer floor with butyl tape, and bolted down to the frame via 8 1/4" aluminum angle brackets.
.
While I was under the trailer fighting brackets and bolts, Madeline helped our future a little by making a paper template of the styofoam inserts in the walls.
.
The walls finally got the basement doors cut out and went on the frame.
.
The kitchen looks really bare at this point.
.
Because it's all piled up in the garage.
.
The base cabinet frame
.
The electrical chase
.
The upper cabinet
.
and the drawers
.
and doors
.
all got installed permanently with many bolts and screws. It doesn't look any different than it did 2 weeks ago, really, other than the frame below it of course.
Then came the interior cabinets
.
and their face frames, doors and hardware went in.
.
.
Then it was finally time to install the hatch.
Now you see it
.
Now you don't
.
The front view gives a nice idea of how the basic black on aluminum is going to look. Yeah, I know most of you don't like and wouldn't have a vehicle or trailer in black, but I love it.
The red cables are 1/0 welding cable (a little overkill, but it was in the garage from another project) to run battery power from the tongue box to the Blue Sea fuse block in the electrical chase. The white wire is a 12/3 marine grade wire for the 120v refrigerator outlet in the kitchen. If we're in a campground (or a driveway) we can run the fridge straight off 120 household electricity.
.
The parting 3/4 shot
C'mon along good.Your workmanship is amazing! Could you post a pic of the galley door and how it rests on the walls? I have a thread started to figure out how people seal the galley door . Your hatch design is similar to the one I will use on my build and any input would be appreciated. Thanks in advance. Derek
Nice job, as usual.