The CrowsWing - Offroad Teardrop Trailer

[jim65wagon]

I've enjoyed watching the craftsmanship. I'm building a severe offroad teardrop. I'm doing it a bit different with a steel upper framework. I noticed in an early pix, a door you plan to use. Did you get it from the guy on ebay or did you find the actual manufacturer. I plan on building about a dozen trailers in my "spare" time and don't really like paying retail. .

We got the doors from Ebay. The seller is Vintek1958 which is the ebay store for Frank Bear Vintage Technologies, supplier of tons of teardrop parts, and of answers to just about any teardrop question you can think of.......

[Haggis]

While waiting for further updates, getting bored with the merits of Metric or English measurements and realizing that updates might be awhile as James and Elizabeth are in a hyper trailer building mode trying to get the Crowswing in a "campable" state for a trip next week (?), I was checking out Elizabeth's build thread over on the T&TTT site. It is interesting to see the different perspective and writing style that Beth has and the different response that those folks have that over there. It's an entertaining thread for sure and Elizabeth has a way cooler avatar than Jim's. Though if I were you James, I'd be keepin' an eye on that guy Captain Monkeyshines guy on the T&TTT board. I think he's a bit smitten with your wife.

[jim65wagon]

...as James and Elizabeth are in a hyper trailer building mode trying to get the Crowswing in a "campable" state for a trip next week (?), I was checking out Elizabeth's build thread over on the T&TTT site. It is interesting to see the different perspective and writing style that Beth has and the different response that those folks have that over there. It's an entertaining thread for sure and Elizabeth has a way cooler avatar than Jim's. Though if I were you James, I'd be keepin' an eye on that guy Captain Monkeyshines guy on the T&TTT board. I think he's a bit smitten with your wife.

Hyper building mode, indeed. We spent the last bit of time in a frantic go-to-work-all-day, come home, work-on-the-trailer-til-10PM-eat supper-sleep-repeat cycle. My last real update was on the 5th and we've been running ever since.....I have snuck in a few hopefully witty replies to the metrical vs american english weights and measures portion of the show.
.
We did manage campabilty, but I won't let you see that yet. Suffice it to say, the trailer is mostly waterproof, it tows well, and it survived the 1300 mile shakedown (to Indiana and back) with only minor issues......and we have no pictures to prove it. Whitney K over on the T&TTT board managed one cell phone pic of it, and we're trying to get him to post it for us, hopefully he will......otherwise no one will believe us!
.
.....of course Elizabeth has a cooler avatar......she rocks!
.
as for the Captain....I have no worries of some phony internet psycho who uses some lame stuffed sock monkey for an avatar......he probably lives in his parents basement and plays Everquest Online when he's not dreaming of building a teardrop with a beautiful blonde!
.
The build had to get the outside of the hatch skinned with flashing, and diamond plate

.

.
then skinned with some mill finished aluminum, and the insert trim molding riveted on

.

.
The hatch got flipped and the inside sheathed

.
Vinyl trim was installed on each side of the channel of the hatch wall......this was originally supposed to be aluminum trim, but we ran across some measurement issues with the wall thickness and channel gap. The vinyl solved that issue

.
We bought this winged D molding to fill the gap in the wall and seal to the hatch

.
Pressed in and filling the void

.
The Z channel for the basement doors was sealed with black goo (3M 4200) and screwed to the opening to form a door frame

.

.
The doorstep installed in the kitchen

.
The hatch got re-re-installed

.
and some 120lb gas struts installed. Our measurements turned out to be not so accurate, and these didn't hold up the door......we're currently refiguring and modifying the struts and mounting locations......

.
Beth worked on the countertop, making some nice oak rails with a layer of plywood and hardibacker board

.
Hardibacker board? Isn't that for tile? Why, yes. Yes it is for tile. Specifically, some Verde Butterfly Granite tile

.
.....sorry, you'll have to wait for complete pictures of one of the few granite tiled kitchens in a teardrop, we haven't taken thise yet. Will it be durable? I do not know, but it survived some really rough (I was worried for the truck and trailer both!) portions of I64 in Kentucky, and some rough backroads in Indiana, so it should be.....
.
The cat has been spending her time watching bird feeder videos on youtube....

[Haggis]

Paparazzi pic from the T&TTT site...

[Mark Harley]

Great build! You should be proud.

[lordhelmet]

WOW, Phenomenal build. That is very, very impressive. I wish I had your skills.

[cobound]

Impressive, incredible...wow!

Nicely done,

B

[GregB_00XJ]

Looking great, especially out of the garage/driveway! Bet that felt good!

[jim65wagon]

See how this works? I post a few things, peeps reply, and then I wait a loooong time before I post again. Since the Indiana trip we've been whittling away at issues we've found or just completing things we've left unfinished. Pictures will come along eventually, but you'll probably have to wait until after our trip to the Little Juniata this weekend.

I'll give you a rundown, though:
New hatch struts 150lbs each, longer than the old ones and angled better. Kitchen hatch opens and stays that way!
Reinstalled fridge door, it nearly fell off out to Indiana, but some Loctite and lock washers should fix that (we'll see!)
Locking catches on the kitchen drawers, they won't open on the road now!
Weatherstripped the tongue box
Installed nicer LED clearance lights
Fixed the fender clearance light that got a wire ripped out during the shakedown.
Installed the water tank, and plumbed/wired the water pump and the SprayAway water system.
Rerewired clearance lights....I thought my original wiring was the issue with some lights not working.....it wasn't.

For further clarification: When we picked up the trailer it had backup lights, they worked fine plugged in to the truck. For the Indiana trip (after I tied into the trailer harness for the clearance lights and the license plate lights), the reverse lights blew a fuse in the truck. My short term fix was simply to detach the backup wiring at the truck. With this I had all the original trailer lights (minus reverse lights), the license plate lights, and one clearance light!

Today I spent a lot of time trying to figure out where I went wrong. I tested leads which seemed to point to a faulty ground, (getting 7 volts to the clearance lights). I disconnected and reconnected all the associated wires and grounds. Still 7 volts? WTF? and now I was getting backup lights with the clearance lights! Arrgh!

I decided the backup lights wiring was involved in the issue, so I figured out how to pull out the recessed lights (easy, once you know how! It's the learning without destruction that's hard). The reverse lights ground to the frame. OK that's fine. But guess what? The trailer company was using the white wire on the four flat harness to power the reverse lights. It was my understanding, that the white was the ground, and that's what I had all my grounds tied into.

Disconnecting my grounds and placing them on the frame......voila! Everything works! Reattached the reverse wire on the truck, and the backups work on the trailer, the clearance lights are nice and bright! No fuses blow out! Sweet! That only took all day, but it's done now and I can rest happy.

See what I mean by whittling away? It's time consuming little details that need done and eat the day away.......

someday, you'll get detail pictures......not today

[Glenn]

All those pics of your wife working away....would have been great to see your facial expressions dealing with that wiring! Pain in the *** I'll bet, but glad you got it worked out.