Edwin

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They wont let me take the display apart. Can the hubs be replaced with 5 bolt hubs. Replacing a whole axle with one from TSC is about $110. I still havent found a 4 bolt 12" spare yet. Dont want to buy the frame if its gonna cost a bunch extra to make it practical. Anybody know where to get a spare for one?
Edwin

2slow2matter

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As long as you can find the bearings that will fit your 5 bolt hub, and the axle spindle, then you won't have any problems at all. You have to find out the OD of the spindle, and the ID of the hub bearing races. Kind of hard to do if you can't inspect it first...

Edwin

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I'm good. Found a spare at Wally World. Kinda high price but cheaper than replaceing a bunch of other stuff. The tires on the trailer are 4.8x12. The spare I got was 5.3x12. They had 4.8, just guessed wrong. Either way, the frames are on sale down here for awhile for $229 so I'm going to get one tomarrow. Another trailer build will soon be on the way. The tow car is gonna be a honda civic. I'm targetting total loaded weight to be around 500lbs. My truck is just not practical for the 72 mile round trip to the flying field, its a 99 F350 dually diesel 4x4. Good for hauling round bails and tractors on the flat bed and the travel trailer.

We have a real good bearing shop in town. All you have to give them is the old bearing and the new hub and they can match up anything. Maybe in the future I might need it, but not now.
Edwin

Kmot

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Save 10%:

http://ww2.harborfreightusa.com/show...eid=214&email=

Edwin

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Yeah! I got one of those flyers last time I was in the store. I thought I read it wasnt good with another sale. Need to check.
Edwin

Edwin

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Well I bought the trailer kit last saturday and put it together. Chinese QA being what it is there was a hole that didnt line up for the tongue pin allowing the frame to fold up. Since I wont be folding the frame I didnt worry about it. I'm gonna just weld it permenently in place. It tows nice and straight so no other tweeking is needed. I just need to take the wheels off and regrease them. They didnt put very much in the bearings. The box will be 49"W x 120"L x ~40"H. That'll what I have and into the future.

Next step is to get the wood. Pressure treated 1/2" for the deck and luan for the skin. Dont know yet about the frame. I'm gonna use silicon as a seal and 1" brads to attach the luan skins to a frame. Then come back with screws on 1/16" thick aluminum angle for the corners and edges. Will have a clam shell top for access like others have done here already.

Its just gonna be a basic daily hauler. If I want to do anything more than a couple hundred miles for a trip very often, I'll get a bigger trailer with shop hookups in it.
Edwin

clscale-RCU

My Feedback: (7)

check out www.northerntool.com

They might have a 12" tire that fits....

I had a similar red 4 x 8 folding trailer several years ago, I then built a 4 foot tall enclosed enclosed trailer bos from plywood and bolted it to the frame with 12" wheels and it worked great. I then put a door on the back. The wood enclosed trailer was put together with wood glue and drywall screws and then painted. Believe it or not it survived several trips in the Oregon area with heavy rains and never leaked. I kept it stored in a garage so the wood never rotted. I had to raise the fenders however.

Good luck, Northern as a pretty good selection of spare parts, tires and other stuff for trailers.

adrenalnjunky

My Feedback: (18)

I bought the same trailer a month ago, and I agree that some of the QA could have been better. My box had a rear frame rail that had the 1RL sticker on it, but it was actually a 1RR part - so I had 2 right sides. I built the rest of the trailer and rolled it out into the yard. Took 13 business days for the correct part to get to me, but I'm guessing it came straight from Asia so that's not terrible. Now that it's assembled, I'm designing the rest. I'm hoping to even use metal siding on mine like one of the bigger enclosed Pace or Haulmark type trailer.

As of current I don't fly anything bigger/longer than a U-Can Do 60 (69" tip to tail - relatively wide elevator) - I'm using it to decide if I'm going to build 4x8 or approx 63" wide. I don't anticipate me ever getting into anything bigger than some of the 72-74" aerobatic planes - I can't afford a 50cc or bigger setup until the wife finishes going back to school :-)

One thing I did - since mine won't fold either, I didn't even use the hinge brackets. I had a bunch of extra 1/2 x 3/8 bolts and locknuts, so I bolted the center frame members to each other.

I also didn't use the 1 - 7/8" coupler that came in the kit - every other trailer I own is a 2" ball, and it would have cost me more to buy a new receiver and 1-7/8" trailer ball than it cost to replace the coupler with a 2" model. (~$16 for the coupler, vs. $25-30)

I also had to splurge - bought a set of LED taillights that will be flush mounted on the box, and LED side marker lights.

Edwin

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Yeah! I chunked the hinges also. Had some steel 1/8"x1 1/4" laying around and put that in place of the hinges. I've got the deck down and the lower frame done. About half way done with the top. Its going to be a clam shell type hinged setup. The top of the shell is curved so no water will stand on it. The skins will be luann wood painted with outside latex paint. Been thinking about painting it cub yellow with the black lightning bolt. The average person on the road wouldnt know if it ment anything or not. Take a look at your wheels and hubs. The holes on my wheels dont line up exactly with the hub bolts. I can see gaps in the rim holes even after they were tightened. I did a test tow with it and it didnt bounce around so I guess they did whatever they had to to get it lined up. I'll need to mark it so they'll go on the same. Its looking like the total finished cost might be around $550, doesnt include the registration. Im planning on making 5 "U" slots to hold 1" pvc (with pipe insulation) to hold the wings in the top section. When I open the top and prop it up, I take out the wings then remove the 1" pvc, then remove the fuses. When you close the top, there will be blocks that hold the 1" pvc in place so they wont jump out of the cradle while driving. I'm still debating on what to do about the tail lights. I want them flush too, but its not that important at the moment.

I'm just starting into giant scale (about 2 years now) so I wanted a box that would handle a future 1/3 scale super cub and the big Don Smith B-29. Thats about as big as I'll get. Just looking at it, I'll bet I could fit two 90" warbirds and a couple of .60 sized warbirds at once.

The build is going faster than I expected. I hope to be painting it by next weekend. Then I gotta get a hitch for the honda civic.
Edwin

Edwin

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Progress pictures. Three days on the wood work to get to this point.
Edwin

Edwin

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I forgot to mention that the lower box is shown with the cap for the top box sitting on it. The box will be about 36" tall.
Edwin

adrenalnjunky

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The only thing I would suggest would be on your wing rack idea -- I thought about having a couple of separate cross members like you are planning as well, but if I made a framework out of PVC, I figure I could move the framework without having to load-unload the wings every time I wanted access to the bottom layer. That way I could raise/lower the top sections and the wings move with it.

Edwin

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Another person was thinking of doing that also. Still considering it since I have time before I get to that point.

There will be a delay on all modeling activities for a little bit. We were away for the weekend and when we got home discovered a hose break for the comode. Flooded my bathroom and adjoining bed/computer room. I have oak wood flooring throughout our little house and tile in the bathroom. Still holding our breath and hoping the wood flooring isnt damaged. I think it only ran for about 5 hours or so. No way to tell. But it DID wash the texture off the ceiling where it constantly sprayed on it. Right down to taking the tape off the seam. Just raw sheet rock exposed. Got a LOT of work to do to fix it.
Edwin

scalebirdman

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Looks like you are going to be a busy boy Edwin! I'd have given you my harbor freight trailer if I knew you were looking for one. Only would have cost you $800.00 in gas to come and get it I purchased a 6x12 enclosed trailer to replace my harbor freight trailer, as I was running out of room on that one. The only problem is that it really cuts into the gas mileage, even when Tim tows it with his truck. So as long as we are going to the local fields we still just toss the planes into the back of the trucks.

Edwin

My Feedback: (2)

Howdy Robert,
The real disaster in all this is my plans collection got a little wet. After I turned off the water I followed it straight to the closet that stored all my plans. The 1/3 scale cub and dean lasik A-10 plans were in tubes and were'nt damaged. The Ziroli SBD got wet on the end a little so it got the most attention at drying imediately. All my others will eventally be ok.

Yep! $800 sounds about right. I'm looking at about an all up loaded weight of 500lbs. I expect to lose some on mileage but still get better than 25 mpg. But I hate this honda civic so much that we're gonna get rid of it and get something that sits a little higher up. Hurts the back too much getting out of it. Like pulling yourself out of a wheelbarrow.

Robert, sent you a pm. Not plane related.
Edwin

adrenalnjunky

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I started cutting and gluing mine yesterday as well. I'm keeping a running spreadsheet of all expenditures, and I'm thinking I'll be at about the $700- 800 range when I'm done as well.

I was just playing with some of my airframes on the blank 4x8 sheet I'm going to use as a floor, and it looks lkie I'l be able to carry a u-can-do 60 (long sucker), and a couple of 60/90 size airframes prety well, and my flight boxes, and maybe my 1/8th scale monster truck.

this trailer is going to double as a camping gear hauler - so far I'm really happy with how it's going.

scalebirdman

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Edwin, Sorry to hear about your water damage. Got your PM... thanks. My current project is putting together an Ultra-rc 92" Zero. I'm posting my progress on the thread in this forum. Once that one's done, it's time to stop building and get flying!.

Edwin

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I've been watching your zero project. Looks really good.

Well, gotta go rip out the base boards and drill holes in the sheet rock.
Edwin

Edwin

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Pictures of the top shell, back end, and corner detail. Look closely at the one with the clamp. I placed seran wrap over the lip to keep gorilla glue off.
Edwin

scalebirdman

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Edwin, looking good, but I'm curious; why so large a trailer, your planes never last long enough for you to have more than 1 or 2 to fly at a time?

adrenalnjunky

My Feedback: (18)

ouch lol.

Are you going to hinge yours at the front or on the side? I'm thinking at the front, but then I'm worried about access to anything stored at the front of the trailer.

My sidewalls are 24" - that's the highedst I wanted to go, acuse any higher I would have trouble reaching in to strap down airframes and such. I'm still contemplating making the rear end open up, even if it requires unbolting the center of the rear end.

Edwin

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Wisenhiemers everywhere you look <g>. I know I'll never live down crashing during practice the day before that contest. I like to keep the rascal 110 wing together. And after the TF gs thunderbolt I'll be doing a 1/3 scale PA-18. Someday, my dream plane is a Don Smith 169" B-29. The fuse on IT is 99". I also like to take more than one plane to the field, ...when I DO get the chance to fly. Mine is going to be hinged on the side. I have chronic back problems (surgery fused 3 vertebra together a few years ago) and even though I think I'm doing ok now, I know in the future, bending over is going to be a problem. So 18" is my height. I thought about making the back removable too. Still may do that but at a later date. I was thinking more of a slide in panel that would be screwed to help make it water tight. Thats become a big issue for me in the last few days. Right now the lid frame weighs about 15 lbs.

Robert,
Has the Comet flown yet? Tim said he gave it back to you.
Edwin

scalebirdman

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Haven't flown the Comet yet. After we got it all together we decided the chineese push rod for the elevator allowed too much flex, so I need to replace it. To do that I have to cut an access hatch in the rear of the fuse. Weather sux for this weekend, and then I'm off with the family to Hawaii for a week, so it will be at least a couple of weeks yet to get it into the air.

Edwin

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More done tonight. The front lid is framed with detail shots of the seam lip to prevent water leaks and hinge mounting blocks. The lip seam will get some gasket material in there to make it water tight. The lip was made out of 5/8"x3/4" trim wood.
Edwin

Edwin

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The back 8' is sheeted now. And an inside shot.
Edwin