JayGull

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Edwin, any more updates and pictures of your progress?

Jay

Edwin

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Not much. The bottom box is fully sheeted now. The top needs a little more detail work providing solid nailers and more frame area to glue to. I am at the details point with the front top. It slightly slopes forward on the three angled sides. By the weekend it will be fully sheeted and ready for the finish sanding on the water proof seam. I'll do another picture when its fully sheeted.
Got some other news earlier this week. Our group at work is supposed to find out monday if we get laid off or farmed out to different (remote) bosses. I'm not worried about finding another job. But it will probably be about a %50 pay cut. We'll get by. We only have one car payment. Everything else is paid for. Yesterday my wife had a steroid injection for a long running back pain problem. This dr looks promising, neuro-surgeon. He's the 4th specialist we've seen over the last three years. He said she would hurt for a couple of days before noticing any difference.
Edwin

dadsdesigns

My Feedback: (1)

Your woodworking looks great. I really like the extended front area. I built a unit called the Aerolodge. I designed it to fit the trailer frame you are using. My main concern was weight. I wanted the smallest one to be able to be pulled by anything. I strongly believed gas was going to be an issue last year. It just took a year longer but we have 3.00 gas now.

samparfitt

My Feedback: (43)

Here's another option if you can find an old 'popup' camper.
Last week, my neighbor gave this to me: the inside got wet and it was all mildew and nasty and too expensive to redo.
It took about 2 hours to gut her.
6'X10'.
My favorite four letter word: 'free'!
That white piece is a table that has one leg and hooks on a metal catch on the side of the outside wall.
It has 110 volt outlets so I can just plug in the chargers without taking the planes out.
Next step is to get her ready to hold planes.

Edwin

My Feedback: (2)

Ya know. Those popup campers dried up pretty quick when I was looking. Years ago it seemed like there were tons of them all over the place. I gave up looking early this year and decided I couldnt wait any longer.
Well, didnt get as far as I would have liked but I'm down to one piece to glue to the top forward piece of the lid. Should have it done by tomarrow. Then I'll do a picture and start on the painting.
Edwin

JayGull

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Edwin, what are you planing on doing with the seams and corners?

Jay

Edwin

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I have a picture back in post 24 of the seam. Its a stepped seam. I'll be using 2 gaskets (upper and lower) which should provide a good water tight seal. I'll need to do a liquid sealent first, then paint, then install the gaskets. I'll test it with a water spray nosel. Tomorrow I'll weigh the lid to see how much a gas assisted lift would need to work with.
Still looking at various paint schemes. At the moment, I like all cub yellow with the black lightening bolts on the sides. I may need to make a carport to store this thing in. We had some hellatious hail a few weeks back. Golf ball size at our house but others got tennis and baseball sizes. I think that would have gone right through this luann wood.
Last night as I was looking at it, I noticed that if I flipped the lid over and glassed it I would have a fishing boat.
Edwin

Edwin

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Sheeting is finished. I discovered if I have any cracks in seams anyplace I can squirt some gorilla glue in then hit it with a light touch of water from an atomizer. Fills the voids pretty good. Will do some more finish sanding tomarrow and probably paint this weekend. Supposed to rain friday.
Edwin

adrenalnjunky

My Feedback: (18)

Looking nice Edwin! I need to go start sheeting mine - need to make a few more cuts in the luan - then start building the lid.

trailer needs to come along quick now - just bought another big plane to have to carry to the field.

Edwin

My Feedback: (2)

Ready for paint. The tongue weight came in at 40lbs.
[edit] I also weighed the force needed to open and lift the lid. It came out to 46lbs. Heavier than I wanted but acceptable. A gas assisted lift would help that.
Edwin

Edwin

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Its primered inside and out. Got the license plate today. Since it was a kit they called it a home made trailer, which I guess it is. I spec'd it at 500 lbs so the registration came out to $55.75. About what I figured. Tonight I'm starting on the color. Hope to be putting the wiring in by this weekend.
Edwin

Edwin

My Feedback: (2)

What is it with bugs and fresh paint!!!
I got the first coat of color on tonight.
Edwin

dottney

My Feedback: (2)

I've been considering a trailer to haul planes when I go to flying events. The HF 4x8 trailer is intriguing. My question is how well does a light weight trailer haul & how light is too light? I'm afraid that it might bounce around as you drive.. Something on the order of the one Dadsdesign did is what I'm thinking about, not too big and probably pretty light weight.
BTW I have very limited experience pulling trailers. I have a Honda CRV so I know that will pull a small trailer with no problems. A light weight trailer would enable me to unhitch and shove the thing in place if I can't back it in place. Like I said I'm pretty trailer-challenged.[]
Thanks guys,
Dave

Edwin

My Feedback: (2)

I have lots of experience pulling heavier trailers. Mostly travel trailers, boats, flat beds with tractors and round bails on them. Pretty limited with light weight stuff. This will be the lightest I've ever pulled. I did a test tow down the street and back and had absolutly no bouncing. I think it has more to do with tire balance. Of course, on a dirt road or a real bad paved road it might be a problem but if you just slow down and make sure everything is secured inside I'm speculating it will be managable. I dont have the funds right now for a fancy torque rod suspension custom trailer so I'll HAVE to make this work. I only plan on using it for local use. Dont think its practical for long distance hauling. My goal in this project was to be able to use a small car (my honda civic) to tow this with. If the car cant handle it, I'll look into a compact suv. A little sacrifice in milage but I can still fly. I got withdrawels bad right now. Electric just isnt doing it for me.
One other thing, I've been able to man-handle this trailer pretty easy in and out of the garage. The only problem is getting it up the garage door step but a running start usually solves that. The area in front of my garage is gravel not paved and it still moves relatively easy.
Edwin

Edwin

My Feedback: (2)

Last coat of base paint on. Will be doing a black cub style lightning bolt about mid week. Also bought the spring latches from an RV place, they're used on tent campers. Had to order some 35lb gas assisted lifts for the top.
Edwin

adrenalnjunky

My Feedback: (18)

can you post a pic of how you mount your gas lifts? I have my trailer about done, all sheeting was completed yesterday - now I'm at a standstill until I can get my metal skins purchased and installed.

Edwin

My Feedback: (2)

No problem. I hope to do that some time next weekend. Where did you get the metal skins from? I was thinking of doing that but went this way for now. I figure I'll have to build another in 4 or 5 years. Will try to make it even more lighter and apply any mods to fix what I dont like about this one. I cant believe how easy it is to move around. I'm still gonna be on the lookout for a tent camper to gut. That just seems like the best way to go. I cant wait to get started on doing the inside layout, tiedowns, prop storage and fuel can storage.
Edwin

dadsdesigns

My Feedback: (1)

How much does it weigh? A heads up on the gas struts. Depending on how you mount them they can be applying their full pressure on the hinge and rear wall when the top is closed.

Edwin

My Feedback: (2)

My guess is the lid weighs around 50lbs. Thats based on using my fish scale to hold up one side with the other side resting like it was on hinges. And my wife is able to help me when I need to flip it. Feels super light to me. I have no idea how much the whole trailer weighs but I would speculate that the box top and bottom is about 110lbs and the trailer is around 150lbs. Should still be well below my target of 500lbs loaded. Back in post 24 you can see how I constructed the hinge mounts, that should hold up pretty good. Its basically pine 1x4 straddled by a 1x2 rib on each side. Glued with gorrilla glue and nailed with 2" brads. The 1x4 are the same length as the walls so they are also fastened to the top and bottom rails. Didnt want any bowing out on the walls.
Edwin

Edwin

My Feedback: (2)

Outside finished. Still waiting on the gas assisted lifts. Need to do inside hold downs for field stuff and planes.
Edwin

Oops! How did that happen. Heres the pic I ment to show.

Edwin

My Feedback: (2)

Couldnt stand it. Had to do some pre-placement. I think I'll put a rail along the sides about 2" above the floor so I can hook bungies up. The middle will get some sunken handles that I can reach to pass the bungies thru and then hook them on the other side rail. I'm going to place a low wall in the blunt nose to separate the flight box and battery box. Will also have some tie-downs in there to prevent the box and battery from jumping up on rough roads. For now, I'll use poles to hold the top up. But I'll have to make some deep pockets in the lid so they cant be accidently knocked down. That would be a disaster. The planes are my Bandito Grande, Rascall 110, and a Phaeton 90.
Edwin

GAP-RCU

If you're not worried about tongue weight, maybe you can add a small storage/tool box to the front frame to carry your flight box & flightline gear. That would open up some more storage room in the main trailer box and would idealy separate the high mass items (starters) from the low mass items (balsa).

Looks good! Gary

Edwin

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I thought about that in the beginning. But went with the blunt nose instead. The pictures show the inside layout. Some 1/2" cpvc was run along both sides for bungie access. The top 1"pvc with pipe insulation is from my truck cut down to fit the trailer and they remove easily to get at the fuses. The towel socks keep the wings from being smudged with whatever that stuff is on the pipe insulation. I'll be making some long bungie cord thats easy stretch to hold the wings down like I did in the truck. The front section is boxed off and holds my pit box, paper towels, starter battery, starter, and air compressor. All I have left to do is make the bungies for the wings, fix up the lid poles, and mount the spare undernieth the back. That'll take some weight off the tongue. Tongue weight is up to about 60lbs loaded up the way you see it. I also want to put an aluminum stone guard on the lower box nose for better protection. Later I'll figure out some kind of 12v system to charge while I drive. The honda civic is limited in that area so I'm gonna sell it. I did a test tow today using my wifes 98 Ranger and it passed with flying colors. No balance bounce or fish tailing. The stiff suspension doesnt seem to be a problem. Its no worse than when I hauled my planes in my truck. It is a one ton dually with a hell of a stiff suspension. So I'm not concerned with trailer bounce at all.
Edwin

GAP-RCU

Hehe... now that you're nearly finished...

My neighbor just put a For Sale sign on his pop-up. A 1987 Starcraft, asking $600. It's still servicable as a camper, so I'd guess the price is more than you'd want to pay. All the same, I had to smile at the coincidence with your project! Round Rock is not far from you, though, in case you'd like more info.

Gary

Edwin

My Feedback: (2)

Yeah! Thats a more than I want to pay.
[edit]
I figure a rough guess at about $500 invested to get to this point.
Edwin