Ben's Teardrop Trailer

and other things...

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Back in Business

I’ve really struggled with continuing the trailer build over the past couple of months. We dabbled with biscuit jointing the base floor together and lining the underside with undertile felt (it’s more of an experiment than a known method of road spray protection).

The actual biscuit jointing went well, but I didn’t think about the extra width and length the felt would add to the already tight fit. So I got annoyed with it and put my foot through the joint. We also learnt that bitumen adhesive is sticky stuff. Word from the wise, don’t apply it at 10pm in a pitch dark car park unless you really know your plan and you aren’t so tired that you lose your temper!

Now summer is ending, I have more free time to work on the trailer, although the new season brings wet weather and less daylight in the evenings. This wouldn’t be a issue if I had a garage; but I don’t. The space doesn’t have enough room to get the trailer in or store large components for longer than a few days. I was left with two options: rent or buy. I couldn’t afford to rent a commercial/industrial unit - it’s just not feasible. I had offers of garages from friends, but again the renting cost would just eat an unnecessary hole into my budget. So after a lot of thought, the only real option was to buy a tent garage, or big gazebo, or a marquee. So I did!

(Instructions said “Needs 3 people”. For what? I was home alone all weekend)

It’s big and I had a mild panic about the neighbours kicking off. But to their credit they all seem OK with it. For now at least.

Lastly, I had to beef up the guylines. The pitiful string that was supplied wasn’t up to much, so paracord and some sort of tensioner were needed. I scrounged around the junk shelf at the space (have I linked it enough yet? - if you’re in Southampton check it out) and found some copper pipe. A bit of sawing, filing, drilling and neon orange(?!) spray paint produced just what was needed.

(Sorry DB. I have more barrels now, so you can have this one back)

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Took the trailer on a long drive at the weekend. After 80 miles the only issue was a loose mudguard. The nuts were biting through the plastic. Nothing a washer couldn't fix.

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Move to Tumblr

If you’re a regular reader, you’ll notice I’ve moved the blog from Wordpress to Tumblr. Talking to a few of you, more photos is a popular request. The free Wordpress will eventually cap the media uploads and I don’t really want to pay, so Tumblr is a better option. It was better to move everything now than in a few months time, assuming that I keep this up.

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Brakes and Mudguards

With my newly sharpened drill bits I put three holes in the crossbar in front of the axle, to steady the break equaliser. The axle came with a ready made plate but it was more convenient to drill into the existing chassis. Using the equaliser plate and the threaded bar, I marked out the centre hole for the bar and the left and right bowden cables.

And attached the first Bowden cable 

Nuts hold the cable sleeves and threaded bar to the crossbar. The cables fit to the equaliser bar with nuts each side.

The other end of the cable fits to a hook inside the triangular thingy, and the sleeve push-fits over to top to lock everything in place.

I had to strip the cables off and switch them over to the opposite sides of the equaliser because the cables are too long. They are now cable tied to the base of the axle, so they are accessible in the future. Lastly I took the angle grinder to the excess rod (not shown in photos).

I didn’t know how to do any of this before I did it. I spoke to trailer manufacturers and used guides from Avonride and Indespension - I’m not intending for this to be a guide!

Lastly I fitted the mudguards back on and added a u-bolt to hold up the brake rod. Then I took it on a test drive to get some waste wood, for this and other projects. Reduce, reuse, recycle!

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Putting the chassis together (more)

I bought another couple of drill bits before I did some research. Turns out you're supposed to drill metal slowly! But learning as I go along is the best part of the build so far. I didn't plan on learning to sharpen drill bits, but now I can which is great.

The build has sped up now that I have a sort of plan and access to the right tools. Today I have finished drilling the holes for the axle brackets and attached it before attaching the wheels. Once one was done, the others got easier. We measured the distance between the coupling and the axle ends to make sure that it was placed square to the wheels.

We had to mark the locations for the holes with nail varnish (her idea!) before drilling, as the chassis is painted black. Once the top set of holes were drilled, we painted the bottom of the bolt in white nail varnish and put it through the top hole, stamping the bottom level at the same time to mark the location of the next drill. Smart!

I'm hoping to get the brakes sorted tomorrow, so that I can spend the weekend planning the rest of the build.

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Putting the chassis together

Although it’s nowhere near finished, I finally managed to get the trailer back to Southampton on Sunday. The axle brackets were welded on Tuesday so I can now work on it in the evenings, which is a big change.

Tonight was the first opportunity I’ve had to start putting it together. The axle seemed to be the most logical place to start as it’s easier to position it squarely without the coupling attached – important because if it’s not at 90° the tyres will wear abnormally and cause problems when towing. We used a ratchet strap to measure the distances and adjusted until both sides matched. I marked the hole locations ready for drilling.

I only managed to drill one and a half locations before the drill blunted. It was going so well (I even drilled pilot holes! – which those of you who know me from SMI will know rarely happens). It was too late to buy another one tonight so I’ll have to wait until next week. To be continued…

(Once it’s road legal again, i’ll rub down the rust and repaint it. There’s some more grinding and welding to be done to neaten it up too.)

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Trailer Spec

As this is my first build, I don’t know what the weight is going to be like. I have a VW Golf, which I am going to use to tow it. It can pull an un-braked trailer up to 600kg or a braked up to 1600kg, or something like that. I’ve opted for braked, which will increase the price and may well be massively over spec’ed, but it’s the safest choice for a novice.

I chose to go with Autow’s 1300kg braked axle and their cheapest pressed coupling. Luckily the braking system is all made by Knott, which is reputable and has parts available. I did look at suspension units and box steel for an axle, but it cost more and I need to keep that side of the project down where I can.

I had to alter my design for fixing the axle to the trailer, due to a problem with the length of the axle and the fixing points, but once ordered it was fabricated in less than two weeks. It came with Bowden cables but nothing else. I had no idea I needed threaded rod and an equaliser, but that’s sorted now.

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Wheels

The original tyres were perished, the wheel rims were rusty on the inside and had flaky silver paint on the outside. I took them to my local tyre place to get the tyres off and disposed of.

I rubbed the rust and paint off both sides, and painted them black. New tyres have been fitted and now they’re good to go.

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Bare Bones

The first step was to get the trailer road legal. Everything was rusty or perished and I couldn’t find replacement parts for the existing brake system, as most of the technology has moved on. Realising that only the frame work and wheel rims were salvageable I began removing the rubbish.

The coupling was held on by four bolts, but the nuts had rusted and they rounded quickly, so I had to use a nut splitter to get them off.

I then cut the brake rods and links, followed by the axle and suspension arms. The latter was the hardest bit. I’d never used an angle grinder before and it took a few shattered cutting and worn grinding discs before I got the hang of it, and made some real progress.

A few weekends later I rubbed the frame down ready for painting. I used wire drill brushes (which I wouldn’t recommend) and a grinding disc – totally wrong as I found a month later, while watching the welder at work use a flap disc to shape an edge. At least I know what to use next time.

I used Hammerite Direct to Rust paint – even though I’d taken most of the rust off, I don’t want to have to do it again any time soon – a couple of coats and it looked good.

(The rusted parts of the frame in the picture will later be removed)

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Salvage History

This is what I started with (except it had wheels and an old skool coupling). It’s a chassis from a 1960s Thomson Caravan. Thanks to the Thomson T-line History website, I used the serial number on the chassis plate to find out what it was likely to have been – something like this:

A 1969 T-line “Glen” (the one on the right). Yuck!

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First Post

I suppose the first post for most blog writers is the most awkward, nervous and overly optimistic. How do you write something that encapsulates everything your blog is going to be, without being sure that you fully know where it is going to go?? I don’t know, so I’ll just use this opportunity to explain what has happened so far.

In May 2015 I began thinking about building a teardrop trailer, so I can have a warmer alternative to camping during the fringes of the comfortable camping season. Like many of my ideas it was a pipe dream, until (July 2015) I came across a 1960s caravan chassis, rusting the in bushes of a family friend’s workshop yard. The project began. Or so I thought.

The chassis was at my family home, 80 miles from where I live, so I could only work on it at weekends when I wasn’t busy. It had surface rust, the brakes didn’t work, the tyres were perished, and the coupling was old and rusty. I had a lot of research to do and plans to draw up.

In the following year I have managed to remove the coupling, cut off the axle and brakes, rub down and paint the chassis, get axle plates fabricated, rub down and paint the wheel rims, and order a custom braked axle and coupling. About 3 days work! Now I am at the point where I need to move it to my own house, so that I can properly focus on it.

They say good things come to those who wait – I’m not sure how it’s going to turn out but I know that it’s going to take a long time!