Details, Details, and More Welding

Well today marks the completion of beefing up the trailer and correcting mistakes from the builder with a welder.

The winds here have been terrible with gusts reaching over 50 mph.  It has made work slow and made me have severe asthma attacks.  Arthur is amazing and pushed through the wind and rain.  They are such great folks and I can't say enough great things about their work and work ethic.

Arthur worked into the dark during one of the return trips.

Talk about lighting up a dark space, it's cool to watch them work at night.

Arthur snugged up the tongue and put in cross bars to make it bullet proof.

Arthur worked through the rain to finish the trailer.

The finished tongue!  Isn't that pretty?  Talk about a difference the basket will give us a bit more storage space too.

Reinforced corners and stabilizer jacks.  They extended the tongue back further and gave it additional welds to reinforce it.

The tongue box fits back beautifully and we have space underneath.

Painted with the reflective stickers in place.

The new stamped trailer ID tag in place that can't be painted over.  Crybaby painted over our original tag that came on the trailer.

During some downtime and with my husband being my arms I was able to finally complete our solar box.

Closed it can be used as a coffee table.

The lid slides out along with the 1/2 inch insulation to allow for solar charging.

The legs are removable so it can be stored flat.  I have to admit I've had the materials for a year but never the time.  I'm glad the solar panel is now out of the original cardboard box.  It feels so good to have this one done.

Here's my plus project.  I've been forced indoors quite a bit so I took the time to make the Blue Guppy a skirt.

I took a trip down to the fabric district about a year ago to pick up outdoor fabric and ended up buying the whole role...yes role not bolt.  It's a lot of fabric but I have more plans for it.  This was the easy start.

The skirt helps keep our gear we place under the trailer out of sight.  It gives it a more polished look.  These are some of the projects I wanted to work on when we got our trailer but had to put them on the back burner to fix all the issues we had with the trailer.  

I can't wait to work on more of them to really give the Guppy some unique personality.  Seeing how she's looking makes me want to camp.  

Well it's time to sign off here but not without giving you the welder's Facebook page address.  www.facebook.com/IFABMobile

Stay safe and happy camping.

Fixing and Beefing Up the Trailer

Hello everyone!  It's been awhile since I blogged about the Money Pit.  I'd like to say that it's because we finished the repairs but no, I've been taking it slower because of my health.  A few weeks ago I noticed our tongue looked like it was flexing up more than before.

When we purchased this trailer Crybaby/Surfside Trailers told us they prided themselves in their work and one thing they did to all the Harbor Frieght trailers was weld them so they were stronger.  Great, we wanted to be as strong and safe on the road as possible and we planned to have our trailer for a lifetime.  Well we learned like everything else this was untrue.

This is how Crybaby welded the trailer, the welds rusted, broke, or weren't even done.

We found out the trailer that was used is a folding trailer.  This pin was to keeping the tongue from folding and held on with one bolt on each side.

While we were having this work done we decided to have all the other undercarriage issues fixed too.  When I climbed under to take photos I was not surprised of what I found. We found a 2x4 sitting cockeyed at the tail end of the trailer, screws protruding through the floor, our under bed storage made of thin aluminum glued in, our spare tire mount pop rivited into 2x4s so it can't hold any weight, and the undercarriage sloppily sprayed with black paint under the guise it was waterproofing.  Another laundry list of repairs to be worked on and I'm starting to think they will never end.

This is the right side rear undercarriage, this part of the 2x4 sits on the trailer frame.

This is the left side rear undercarriage, you can see the 2x4 floor frame doesn't sit on the trailer frame here.

Screws coming through the floor.  This is sprayed with black paint to make it look like it was sealed.

This is the floor for our under bed storage, it is a thin piece of aluminum glued in.  We can't put anything under the bed for fear it will break.

This is our spare tire mount another extra we paid good money for that we can't use and have to spend more money on to fix.

Instead of curling into a ball and crying I pulled up my boots and set to work on the issues.  This was going to take bringing in a professional for repairs because I don't weld and with my industrial asthma I couldn't if I wanted to.  

In comes the professional, Arthur and his wife Bonnie.  I can't say enough nice things about them.  They are professional, work hard, super friendly, and did I mention MOBILE!  We didn't have to drive the trailer across the county they can to us.

Everything they needed including materials they brought.

You can see how much Arthur had to straighten the tongue before he could make it stronger.

Once it was straight he went to work on building it stronger so it could be welding to the frame.

Once it was finished the tongue was welded to the frame.  Now the tongue is bolted and welded and cannot fold anymore.

The tongue is solid now.  It isn't finished yet so keep reading.

Arthur added corner brackets welded to the frame, this trailer is not going to flex anywhere.

The trailer sits perfect now, level and strong.  I took the week until the welder returns to make cabinet doors for the cabin shelves to keep it looking tidier.  I also made a stamped VIN plate for the tongue and cabin to replace the sticker that was on the tongue.

I'm only showing part of it, it's twelve inches and I put blue paint in the numbers to bring them out.

The cabinet doors mirror the other doors in the trailer.  I had a lot of scraps around that came in handy for these.

Now this makes the cabin polished! We now have our own cubbies to put our things and we don't have to worry about it bouncing out on the road or what people see when they look inside.

Boy has this come a long way from when the shelves and cabin were falling apart.  This is the craftsmanship I would be selling not the Mickey Mouse whatever could be thrown together junk we received.  

The welder will be back later in the week to finish off the trailer repairs.  Once he is done I'll blog with the finished work along with the details I'm adding in after.  Stay tuned!  

Until next time have a safe and happy camp.