Sunday, January 4, 2009

Teardrop trailer construction 19

WE ARE DONE! Well not quite, but we are done enough to start using the trailer. We are going to register it tomorrow so we can start pulling it around. It will be nice to be able to bring it home from the shop and work on little things in the evenings.We installed the gas lifts this weekend. I guess it is better to be lucky than smart. Hit the installation perfectly the first try. Not bad for not having any instructions. We bought these from a company that had gone out of business and was liquidating inventory. They work great. We lift the lid about 12" and the lid slowly opens the rest of the way. It is easy to put down without any effort at all. They work better than we ever dreamed.

As you can tell we had to replace the leather straps on our trunk. The black genuine leather straps broke after the first weekend. We discovered in the small print that the genuine leather had some man made fibers. What it really had was a microscopic leather veneer with cardboard interior. We didn't buy "made in China" the second time. We also installed some sash locks to pull the lid down tight and keep it secure.

This is a side view showing how the trailer looks with the trunk complete.

We installed a lid stay so we could access the box without holding the lid up by hand. We also put in the battery tie downs so the battery doesn't bounce all over the place. This picture seems a little strange in it's color because the flash is bouncing.
Side view of the completed trailer.

This picture shows the fold down stabilizers. There are four, one for each corner. They will make it nice when the wind blows so you are not rocking all over the place.
This picture shows the undercarriage after it was all sealed with rubberized coating. We used this product so it would be easy to recoat when neccessary.
We have a few minor things to complete yet. Our punch list is as follows:
Complete the plumbing hook up to the pump.
Add a light in the trunk lid.
Insulate the ice chest in the front trunk
Complete the oven insulation and slide out
Clean the overspray off the roof vent
Putty, seal and weatherstrip the door frames
Not much to do as you can tell. A good morning for the both of us and we will have everything done.

Well for those who have been following our build, we hope to see you on the road somewhere. We will be happy to give you a closer view. We will be adding to this blog as we add things to the trailer and hope to put up blogs about our trips.
PS. We did get the trailer licensed on Monday. We pulled it over to purgatory flats and had it inspected. It was great on the road. It was funny how much smaller the trailer looked on the back of the truck. Got a few comments from people along the way. Quite frankly it is exciting to have the trailer this far along. It creates new enthusiasm to finish the minor details.