4x4x4doors
Explorer
I've got one of the original Little Guy teardrops. It's actually a 2005 4wide Deluxe with the "Nascar" package (which amounts to graphics).
The "Deluxe" means it had alloy wheels, a spare tire and a small cabinet on the cross bulkhead and a small shelf to use as a kitchen. Its pretty simple and plain but adequate for my purposes.
Its generally used for the occasional forest service campground. I bought it to get off the ground when a hotel or motel wasn't practical and because I seem to be able to bring the rain whenever I pitch a ground tent. My friends hated to see me bringing the ground tent out.
DSCF1234 by RKHolman, on Flickr
The axle under it is rated at 2000# which is way too much for its 660# weight. The trailer just isn't heavy enough to compress the suspension. I installed larger tires and lowered the pressure to about 18 psi to give some suspension to it. Very little clearance between the tire and fender but it isn't needed.
I drug it all over Nevada with the Desert Expedition III crowd in 2013 and bounced it a bit too hard and the shelf in the rear separated from its hinges and broke a few things on its way down. I cleaned up the mess and put the shelf on my to-do list. Finally got around to tackling that this fall.
So we pulled it into the garage this fall with intentions to clean it up a bit and replace the shelf. And that's when the scope began creeping....
Part of the reason the shelf had turned loose was because the side support for it was made of formica-covered particle board which had begun to disintegrate because it had gotten wet. How did that happen? Started looking and found that the cross bulkhead (also made of coated particle board) was soft. Moving up it turns out the water had been coming in around a screw hole in the roof. The screw in the hole was corroded. The original Little Guy folks had decided to add piece of trim in front of the hatch hinge to redirect water away from the hinge. Probably not a bad idea but executed poorly. The additional trim was not installed flat so that it would seal. As a result, it created a hidden pocket where water (and melting snow/ice) could set until it evaporated or found its way through in the plywood to the structure.
Pulled out the soft particle board. Found that both sides had some rot in the plywood backing the FRP that makes up the outer shell. Also had rotted the 2x4 cross member that holds the roof and anchors the rear hatch. So now the job requires removing the roof panel as well.
As long as we had everything apart and accessible, I re-worked the 12 VDC lighting with the battery going upfront, wires rerouted to be hidden and added some circuits that add some lower intensity outside lighting, including setting a circuit to light the running lights from the battery which should be handy for moving around at night without inducing night blindedness.
I did get the new hinge onto the rear shelf today and we're down to some trim pieces and cleanup. I'm a newly converted fan of Gorilla Glue.
And all I wanted to do was replace that silly hinge!
The "Deluxe" means it had alloy wheels, a spare tire and a small cabinet on the cross bulkhead and a small shelf to use as a kitchen. Its pretty simple and plain but adequate for my purposes.
Its generally used for the occasional forest service campground. I bought it to get off the ground when a hotel or motel wasn't practical and because I seem to be able to bring the rain whenever I pitch a ground tent. My friends hated to see me bringing the ground tent out.
DSCF1234 by RKHolman, on FlickrThe axle under it is rated at 2000# which is way too much for its 660# weight. The trailer just isn't heavy enough to compress the suspension. I installed larger tires and lowered the pressure to about 18 psi to give some suspension to it. Very little clearance between the tire and fender but it isn't needed.
I drug it all over Nevada with the Desert Expedition III crowd in 2013 and bounced it a bit too hard and the shelf in the rear separated from its hinges and broke a few things on its way down. I cleaned up the mess and put the shelf on my to-do list. Finally got around to tackling that this fall.
So we pulled it into the garage this fall with intentions to clean it up a bit and replace the shelf. And that's when the scope began creeping....
Part of the reason the shelf had turned loose was because the side support for it was made of formica-covered particle board which had begun to disintegrate because it had gotten wet. How did that happen? Started looking and found that the cross bulkhead (also made of coated particle board) was soft. Moving up it turns out the water had been coming in around a screw hole in the roof. The screw in the hole was corroded. The original Little Guy folks had decided to add piece of trim in front of the hatch hinge to redirect water away from the hinge. Probably not a bad idea but executed poorly. The additional trim was not installed flat so that it would seal. As a result, it created a hidden pocket where water (and melting snow/ice) could set until it evaporated or found its way through in the plywood to the structure.
Pulled out the soft particle board. Found that both sides had some rot in the plywood backing the FRP that makes up the outer shell. Also had rotted the 2x4 cross member that holds the roof and anchors the rear hatch. So now the job requires removing the roof panel as well.
As long as we had everything apart and accessible, I re-worked the 12 VDC lighting with the battery going upfront, wires rerouted to be hidden and added some circuits that add some lower intensity outside lighting, including setting a circuit to light the running lights from the battery which should be handy for moving around at night without inducing night blindedness.
I did get the new hinge onto the rear shelf today and we're down to some trim pieces and cleanup. I'm a newly converted fan of Gorilla Glue.
And all I wanted to do was replace that silly hinge!
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