Offroad teardrop build

97kurt

Adventurer
Started building this a few weeks ago and have only had a few hours each weekend and maybe 30min at night to work on it. Gonna be a very slow build.

A friend of mine has a socal 459 tear drop so I have stolen a few dimensions from his setup and will use them on mine. The trailer base is 54" x 110" and will have an independent suspension with air-ride 2500 bags with monroe shocks.

Wheels and tires will match my 4runner so I will have 315/75 r16 (35") good year duratracs on it.

Also I wanted to thank all the people that replied to my stupid questions over the past 2 months on this board.

Day 1, trailer arrived. Some assembly required. 3 sticks of 2x2 .120 and one of 2x2 .250
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Lots of chopping
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Not bad for the first day, frame is laid out. Tongue needs some work.
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De-burred the seam in the .250 wall tube so I can get the spindles to fit.
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Used a rotabroach to drill holes for the plug welds. Amazed by these cutters, almost makes drilling enjoyable.
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Had to heat the .250 wall tube and freeze the spindles over night to make them fit.
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First side slid in perfectly, second side I had to hit with an air hammer to full seat. As is they are not going anywhere.
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Building the arms was not fun. To save money I used the 2x2 .120 material that I already had on hand. If I could do it again I would use 1.75" or heavy wall 1.5". But this will do. Using YJ bushings with DOM sleeves that I purchased from WFO concepts.
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Squaring everything was a PITA, learned how un-level and sloped my garage floor was. Got everything in to about 1/16 of being square, but after welding that turned into 1/8. Not happy but should be fine.
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Began getting the arms aligned onto the axle. I will cut the center out of the axle after its aligned to the frame and the brackets are fully welded.
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And a preview of the air bags and retainers that will be using.
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PCO6

Adventurer
"Some assembly required". (lol) That's the best way!

Good luck with your build. You're off to a great start!
 

97kurt

Adventurer
Axle alignment was not fun, took two days, some cursing, a laser level and some more cursing. Main issue was dealing with the weight and angle of the axle with the arms welded to them. Ended up adding some cheat plates to the frame which made it a breeze to setup and prevented it from wandering.

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Cut the center out and now I have two arms. Had to add another cross member to support the top of the air bags. Once it was tacked in place things started to look pretty good.

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And this is where it sits today.

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Waiting on some fittings for the air bags and brackets to attach the brake backing plates to the arms. Hopefully this weekend I will figure out shock mounts and maybe complete the tongue.
 

97kurt

Adventurer
Been a rough week, lost a 3.5 year old boxer to lung cancer last weekend. Trying to stay busy to keep my mind off things.

Found some brake backing plate mounts on ebay for square tube. They were cheap enough and the seller sent them super fast so that saved me some time and I avoided setting up the plasma for another week.
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Kinda completed the tongue, did a square notch for the first time and I am not sure I like it. But this leaves me room for the junction box for the electrical at least. Also using a receiver hitch at the tongue so I can switch from a standard coupler to a 3 axis one later.
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Fast forward to last night, shock mounting. On the left we have more travel but a less effective shock (7" of travel) On the right we have less travel but a more effective shock (4" of travel). Im gonna go with the mount setup on the left and see how that goes.
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97kurt

Adventurer
Well, long time without posting. Fenders proved harder than I had anticipated. Still not happy with the way they turned out but they work. Hoping to find some inner fender material this week, otherwise I will just use some thin sheet metal or aluminum sheet. Was hoping to find some rubber sheet or plastic.

Had a friend come over to lend a hand, as he setup the bearings and brakes, I knocked out the wiring and got the temporary brake lights installed. Other than a license plate mount this is ready to head to the DMV for inspection so I can make it legal.

Got about 5psi in the bags right now and they are really soft, the shocks are doing little to nothing at this angle so I will probably try and correct that before I start the floor of the teardrop.

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97kurt

Adventurer
Looks great so far. What did you treat the frame with?


Rustoleum hammered spray paint. Did a coat of the orange primer first though. Fenders are spray on bedliner which came out so so.. I may strip then and use durabak again later on. Underside of the fenders I did spray bedliner and a coat of black plasti-dip.
 

stomperxj

Explorer
I used the Gabriel 81676 from Autozone. $20 ea and they seemed to work well. I'd also move your shock mount to the back of the arm and 1 crossmember back like this:
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97kurt

Adventurer
Yeah, the monroe ones were not long enough to be mounted like that. I'll check out the ones you listed, hopefully they are in stock somewhere in town.
 

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