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Hi all and welcome to TheWoodHaven2 brought into the 21st Century, kicking and screaming! We all have Alasdair to thank for the vast bulk of the heavy lifting to get us here, no more so than me because he's taken away a huge burden of responsibility from my shoulders and brought us to this new shiny home, with all your previous content (hopefully) still intact! Please peruse and feed back. There is still plenty to do, like changing the colour scheme, adding the banner graphic, tweaking the odd setting here and there so I have added a new thread in the 'Technical Issues, Bugs and Feature Requests' forum for you to add any issues you find, any missing settings or just anything you'd like to see added/removed from the feature set that Xenforo offers. We will get to everything over the coming weeks so please be patient, but add anything at all to the thread I mention above and we promise to get to them over the next few days/weeks/months. In the meantime, please enjoy!
Mike builds a teardrop (finished........but.......)
- Thread starter Mike G
- Start date
Mike G
Petrified Pine
I fixed on the hatch side pieces. These are the offcuts from the main side pieces, just glued and cleaned up. With access only from one side, cleaning up in the concave surface involved only a card scraper........and bulk timber removal isn't what they were designed for. Oh for a compass plane! Anyway, here's what it looks like with the hatch propped roughly in place:
The white wood showing will be ebonised, and with a black seal going in the gap I think the join will be quite unobtrusive.
I don't think I've shown a view of the back yet:
Obviously the hatch is missing its black edge trim.....but fear not, it's under construction:
The white wood showing will be ebonised, and with a black seal going in the gap I think the join will be quite unobtrusive.
I don't think I've shown a view of the back yet:
Obviously the hatch is missing its black edge trim.....but fear not, it's under construction:
Woolf
Seedling
Please do
I posted a link to your thread on a thread about “When carpenters go camping”
I think it’ll get wider coverage in the caravan section
Dr.Al
Old Oak
If you'd have asked before I came away to France I could have lent you mine: it doesn't get used much & I'm sure postage wouldn't cost that much.
Karookop
Seedling
Thanks Mike, yes hopefully in future we can have a braai - little piece of South African culture on your stoep! And then the chance to see your great little Koets in real life. I will bring real Karoo lamb.
Mike G
Petrified Pine
It's finished, with qualifications, of course.
I haven't posted for the last few weeks because watching varnish dry isn't terribly exciting. Anyway, it turns out there was a lot more to do than I thought.
We left things with most of the epoxy work done. I needed to get to hatch to the same level of "finished" as the rest of the teardrop, which meant doing the oak trim and ebonising it. You previously saw it under construction in the workshop, so here it is bent into place and epoxied onto the hatch:
I then ebonised it in place, a couple of times, wiping down soon after applying the vinegar & steel-wool solution. I let this dry for a couple of days, then applied the first coat of epoxy...then took the dog for a walk. When I got back, this had happened:
Those are blisters in the epoxy, and needless to say, they shouldn't be there. After a bit of thought, I applied a second coat. I did this because I knew that I'd have to be sanding all those blisters out, and I didn't want to sand through the epoxy and damage the ebonising. It worked out sort-of alright-ish, if you squint. There are two or three minor places where bare wood got exposed. I built up 3 or 4 more layers of epoxy, so now the entire cedar-stripped part of the exterior was at the same stage: epoxied, and ready for, varnish. I did the black edge details with epoxy, too, and had to mask off the black from the cedar beforehand:
I had worried about the seal grooves for quite a while. How was I going to prevent them being filled in with epoxy? I bought some plasticine:
It turned out to be an absolute nightmare trying to fully fill the grooves, cut off the excess, and smooth to level with the surface of the wood. One groove in one door took an hour for 2 of us. I abandoned that plan, and went for hot glue instead. I started with just glue, and then swapped to string-plus-glue, on the grounds that it might help with removal, and it certainly reduced the amount of plastic glue sticks I was getting through:
That amounted to losing a day, in a day...
The following day I applied only 2 coats of epoxy in these non-exposed locations, but with the temperatures falling as we moved into autumn, that was about the limit for a day of epoxying anyway. It just dries slower as the weather cools.
It then took half the following day to strip the glue and the plasticine out of the grooves (the plasticine was a dream to remove). I wish I had used stronger string, because I kept breaking it:
In the midst of all the epoxy shenanigans, I made some packers for the door hinges. These I could epoxy in the workshop, with the heater on, and thus I got 3 coats on quickly:
And again, whilst waiting for epoxy to dry, I made a little cover for the electrics in the hatch (you'll see those later). Here's the box/ lid thingy:
Epoxy is never a finish finish. It isn't UV resistant, and to be honest, no mater how carefully you apply it and "tip" it, it doesn't run out nicely like true wood finishes do. I was going to be applying Epifanes 2 part high-gloss polyurethane varnish, with is another marine product. You prepare epoxy for a finish by sanding.
And sanding.
And sanding.
Eighty grit, then 120, then 160, then 220. It's an endlessly tedious job, made easier by DaveL's (huge) random orbital sander:
I did 3 coats of the varnish, which doesn't need sanding between coats unless you leave it more than 48 hours from the previous coat. You're watching the weather really closely at this stage, because there are temperature limits to consider, but humidity is far more important. You just can't apply it if it is raining, or is going to rain in the drying period. The result looks pretty good in photos:
....but to be honest, I'll be sanding down and re-finishing some time next summer.
When the hatch varnish had dried I could move on to the final assembly of all the various components, starting with the hurricane hinge (AKA a snail hinge, or a catering hinge). It consists of 2 continuous aluminium extrusions which interlock in a clever and watertight manner. These need cutting and drilling prior to fitting:
I've over 50 photos left to post, but the forum is running so slowly that I'll leave the rest until things are back to normal. This post has taken nearly 2 hours to put together.
I haven't posted for the last few weeks because watching varnish dry isn't terribly exciting. Anyway, it turns out there was a lot more to do than I thought.
We left things with most of the epoxy work done. I needed to get to hatch to the same level of "finished" as the rest of the teardrop, which meant doing the oak trim and ebonising it. You previously saw it under construction in the workshop, so here it is bent into place and epoxied onto the hatch:
I then ebonised it in place, a couple of times, wiping down soon after applying the vinegar & steel-wool solution. I let this dry for a couple of days, then applied the first coat of epoxy...then took the dog for a walk. When I got back, this had happened:
Those are blisters in the epoxy, and needless to say, they shouldn't be there. After a bit of thought, I applied a second coat. I did this because I knew that I'd have to be sanding all those blisters out, and I didn't want to sand through the epoxy and damage the ebonising. It worked out sort-of alright-ish, if you squint. There are two or three minor places where bare wood got exposed. I built up 3 or 4 more layers of epoxy, so now the entire cedar-stripped part of the exterior was at the same stage: epoxied, and ready for, varnish. I did the black edge details with epoxy, too, and had to mask off the black from the cedar beforehand:
I had worried about the seal grooves for quite a while. How was I going to prevent them being filled in with epoxy? I bought some plasticine:
It turned out to be an absolute nightmare trying to fully fill the grooves, cut off the excess, and smooth to level with the surface of the wood. One groove in one door took an hour for 2 of us. I abandoned that plan, and went for hot glue instead. I started with just glue, and then swapped to string-plus-glue, on the grounds that it might help with removal, and it certainly reduced the amount of plastic glue sticks I was getting through:
That amounted to losing a day, in a day...
The following day I applied only 2 coats of epoxy in these non-exposed locations, but with the temperatures falling as we moved into autumn, that was about the limit for a day of epoxying anyway. It just dries slower as the weather cools.
It then took half the following day to strip the glue and the plasticine out of the grooves (the plasticine was a dream to remove). I wish I had used stronger string, because I kept breaking it:
In the midst of all the epoxy shenanigans, I made some packers for the door hinges. These I could epoxy in the workshop, with the heater on, and thus I got 3 coats on quickly:
And again, whilst waiting for epoxy to dry, I made a little cover for the electrics in the hatch (you'll see those later). Here's the box/ lid thingy:
Epoxy is never a finish finish. It isn't UV resistant, and to be honest, no mater how carefully you apply it and "tip" it, it doesn't run out nicely like true wood finishes do. I was going to be applying Epifanes 2 part high-gloss polyurethane varnish, with is another marine product. You prepare epoxy for a finish by sanding.
And sanding.
And sanding.
Eighty grit, then 120, then 160, then 220. It's an endlessly tedious job, made easier by DaveL's (huge) random orbital sander:
I did 3 coats of the varnish, which doesn't need sanding between coats unless you leave it more than 48 hours from the previous coat. You're watching the weather really closely at this stage, because there are temperature limits to consider, but humidity is far more important. You just can't apply it if it is raining, or is going to rain in the drying period. The result looks pretty good in photos:
....but to be honest, I'll be sanding down and re-finishing some time next summer.
When the hatch varnish had dried I could move on to the final assembly of all the various components, starting with the hurricane hinge (AKA a snail hinge, or a catering hinge). It consists of 2 continuous aluminium extrusions which interlock in a clever and watertight manner. These need cutting and drilling prior to fitting:
I've over 50 photos left to post, but the forum is running so slowly that I'll leave the rest until things are back to normal. This post has taken nearly 2 hours to put together.
You must be close to planning the first outing.
Mike G
Petrified Pine
Well, although we could use it tonight there's a bureaucratic obstacle to that. More in due course.
Mike G
Petrified Pine
Hurricane hinges divert all the water to the ends, and if poorly fitted this can direct water in through any gaps where the hinge meets the outside of the bodywork. The standard procedure is to overhang the hinge by about 1/2":
Those are just dry-fit photos. Mounting the hinges permanently is a big moment, because there is no adjustment whatever. If the door doesn't close properly, you've just got to live with it.
I hung the doors. The stainless steel hinges needed to be packed out because of the external door surround:
Again, that's just a trial fit, and stainless steel screws will be used when it's done permanently. One door fitted perfectly, the other needed a tweak.
The hurricane hinge and the frame it fixes to is subject to a lot of stress from force of the gas struts (more on those later), which are so powerful that it is utterly impossible to compress them even a mm by hand. They are in essence trying to push the hinge off the body of the vehicle, so I fastened the hinge with around 20 2" screws per half, and of course sealed it to the bodywork with Hippo 3 low modulous filler/ adhesive:
It works!
Having fitted the doors, they were blowing around in the wind, so I had to fit (again, temporarily) the door furniture:
It's a bit agricultural on the inside, but this combination was the only thing I could find which worked, in 2 or 3 weeks of nightly searching. The big advantage is that all three doors (2 doors and the hatch) are on the same key.
I'll have to take a photo of the hatch locking mechanism, as I seem to have overlooked that. Here I am chopping out a mortice for the central of the 3 locking points:
At that stage I was working on the assumption that the hatch would be pulled tight against its seals by the locking mechanism. It didn't work out that way, but that's the explanation for the "slope" to the mortice.
I had the major problem of not being able to mark the contact points for the locking mechanism directly. Luckily, I had some plasticine left over:
I fitted the latch seals:
The light has caught that oddly. The parallel seals are both the same colour (black). You might also note the 3 holes in the hatch lining, which are access to the wiring for the vehicle lights.
I took a deep breath and cut a hole through the body:
This is for the electrical hook up, which charges the leisure battery:
I had finally done with all the epoxy and varnish, and this little mound of ruined brushes and rollers is the evidence:
I fitted the roof light:
...and the sink:
The sink had only a vertical edge of stainless steel, which I didn't consider gave me enough surface area to get a decent seal using a sealant/ adhesive. I found a roll of butyl tape in my stores, and used that instead. I weighted it down for 2 or 3 days, but there's no means of physically holding the sink down to the worktop, so I'll be watching that junction with interest. The waste from the sink wouldn't quite clear the drawer below, so I had to adjust the back corner:
I had bought some adjustable gas struts, and questioned them carefully about the criteria for locating the pivot points. It's more complex than you'd imagine. I'd deliberately left lots of frame timber behind this area so I had plenty of flexibility for pivot locations:
Again, temporarily screwed with ordinary wood screws, in the assumption that it might need to move. Note the cardboard template for locating the complimentary pivot on the other side of the kitchen.
Those are just dry-fit photos. Mounting the hinges permanently is a big moment, because there is no adjustment whatever. If the door doesn't close properly, you've just got to live with it.
I hung the doors. The stainless steel hinges needed to be packed out because of the external door surround:
Again, that's just a trial fit, and stainless steel screws will be used when it's done permanently. One door fitted perfectly, the other needed a tweak.
The hurricane hinge and the frame it fixes to is subject to a lot of stress from force of the gas struts (more on those later), which are so powerful that it is utterly impossible to compress them even a mm by hand. They are in essence trying to push the hinge off the body of the vehicle, so I fastened the hinge with around 20 2" screws per half, and of course sealed it to the bodywork with Hippo 3 low modulous filler/ adhesive:
It works!
Having fitted the doors, they were blowing around in the wind, so I had to fit (again, temporarily) the door furniture:
It's a bit agricultural on the inside, but this combination was the only thing I could find which worked, in 2 or 3 weeks of nightly searching. The big advantage is that all three doors (2 doors and the hatch) are on the same key.
I'll have to take a photo of the hatch locking mechanism, as I seem to have overlooked that. Here I am chopping out a mortice for the central of the 3 locking points:
At that stage I was working on the assumption that the hatch would be pulled tight against its seals by the locking mechanism. It didn't work out that way, but that's the explanation for the "slope" to the mortice.
I had the major problem of not being able to mark the contact points for the locking mechanism directly. Luckily, I had some plasticine left over:
I fitted the latch seals:
The light has caught that oddly. The parallel seals are both the same colour (black). You might also note the 3 holes in the hatch lining, which are access to the wiring for the vehicle lights.
I took a deep breath and cut a hole through the body:
This is for the electrical hook up, which charges the leisure battery:
I had finally done with all the epoxy and varnish, and this little mound of ruined brushes and rollers is the evidence:
I fitted the roof light:
...and the sink:
The sink had only a vertical edge of stainless steel, which I didn't consider gave me enough surface area to get a decent seal using a sealant/ adhesive. I found a roll of butyl tape in my stores, and used that instead. I weighted it down for 2 or 3 days, but there's no means of physically holding the sink down to the worktop, so I'll be watching that junction with interest. The waste from the sink wouldn't quite clear the drawer below, so I had to adjust the back corner:
I had bought some adjustable gas struts, and questioned them carefully about the criteria for locating the pivot points. It's more complex than you'd imagine. I'd deliberately left lots of frame timber behind this area so I had plenty of flexibility for pivot locations:
Again, temporarily screwed with ordinary wood screws, in the assumption that it might need to move. Note the cardboard template for locating the complimentary pivot on the other side of the kitchen.
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Still no mud guards?
DaveL
Old Oak
Mike now has some spacers for the mud guard mounts, I printed them during the week.
Mike G
Petrified Pine
It took a lot of very careful measuring and calculating before I was confident enough to fit the top brackets for the struts, but when I did, they fitted first time:
Note all the wiring.
The groove in the underside of the tongue box lid had got gunked up with the 8 or 10 coats of bilge paint, and cleared wasn't ready for accepting a seal:
I used my little groove-cleaning tool, and cleared it out:
It took a long, long time to wire this 8 terminal connector up, connecting the running light wires (indicators, side lights, brake lights etc) to the cable which connects to the car via a plug by the tow hook. Annoyingly, you only get one shot at it. It can't be taken apart once it's been pushed together. And that was to cause issues later:
I spent a long time tying loose cables up with little pads which hold zip ties. The top of the kitchen cupboards were incredibly difficult to reach into with the necessary two hands. I could have done with a tame leprechaun:
Having got the wiring connected up, I could now re-fit the kitchen cupboard face-frame. but first, it needed a hole in it to get around the cable flexible conduit:
Unfortunately, the natural shape taken by the duct fouled the cabinet door:
This meant shaping a notch out of the frame above:
Quite a lot of work happened under the floor of the teardrop, with fixing 3 cables and a gas line into place. This meant I could then fit the hob (note the masking tape for the sealant), and check that it worked:
What I didn't take a photo of was the additional tie-down strap over the gas bottle in the tongue box, as suggested by one or two on here. I'll take on if I can remember.
When you have spent a very long time setting up a wiring system, with no real knowledge of what you are doing, it can take a while to build up the nerve to make the system live. I rang my electrician buddy and got his advice before I finally attached the leads to the battery (note the orange gas line at the top of the photo under the fuses):
No sparks, no drama, and a few things worked. A couple didn't:
The battery monitor worked, which was nice. But there were no lights in the kitchen, and the cigar-lighter socket for the water pump plug also didn't come live. The latter I just took off and just put back together, and it worked fine. The saga of the former was covered elsewhere on the forum, and it's because of the forum that I was able to rectify the problem by replacing the light switch. There are now lights everywhere:
Note the red light under the door. This seemed like a good idea if you have to get up in the night and don't want to blind yourself with a strong light. It just gently shows you the way back to the door. I also fitted a red light in the kitchen. Those who have cooked outdoors know how many insects end up in your food if you cook with a bright white light above the cooker:
And here is the main kitchen light working:
You can see the switches in the panel in the middle, to the left of the blue battery monitor screen.
Having wired up the main vehicle lights, I fitted the covering panels to the access holes in the hatch:
This is a big one. Now that just about everything was fitted, I wanted to check whether I needed to move the wheels backwards or forwards to get the trailer properly balanced. I put 30 kg of bricks in the kitchen area to simulate food, drink, pots and pans and plates etc, and then weighed the tongue weight:
It's a complete fluke that it turned out that the wheels were in the right place. I could now bolt them in properly (8 bolts instead of the 3 previously holding them)......and that would allow me to fit the mudguards.
Not everything is finished. I need to fold some brass to make a nice cover for this mess:
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Mike G
Petrified Pine
Patience, Andy!
Mike G
Petrified Pine
You know you're getting near the end when you're fitting curtains"
They still need a hook in the middle of the top to stop the sag. Not every teardrop has William Morris fabric for curtains. I had little part in these, other than giving my wife the dimensions.
I fitted the solar panel:
That's half-way through the process. There is a cable-entry cover in place now, and DaveL has printed me some neat little washer things for screwing the panel down.
I fitted the plastic mudguards by guessing at the spacing, making some blocks to locate the mudguards, and then screwing through some plastic spacers (c/o DaveL) into the frame behind the bodywork:
There are lots of little bits left to do, such as surrounds/ linings for the windows and rooflight:
The biggest remaining job though is to build 2 awnings. One for each side. These are going to be quite a thing, so stay tuned!
They still need a hook in the middle of the top to stop the sag. Not every teardrop has William Morris fabric for curtains. I had little part in these, other than giving my wife the dimensions.
I fitted the solar panel:
That's half-way through the process. There is a cable-entry cover in place now, and DaveL has printed me some neat little washer things for screwing the panel down.
I fitted the plastic mudguards by guessing at the spacing, making some blocks to locate the mudguards, and then screwing through some plastic spacers (c/o DaveL) into the frame behind the bodywork:
There are lots of little bits left to do, such as surrounds/ linings for the windows and rooflight:
The biggest remaining job though is to build 2 awnings. One for each side. These are going to be quite a thing, so stay tuned!
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MattS
Nordic Pine
Building awnings, that’ll be interesting! Fitting with the traditional materials I assume they’ll be cotton?
Mike G
Petrified Pine
No, they'll be modern materials. It's got to be as light as possible.
Cabinetman
Sequoia
- Joined
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- Lincolnshire Wolds + Massachusetts
- Name
- Ian
What I find incredible on this build is that unlike the manufacturers of caravans you haven’t had the luxury of being able to practice and experiment on a prototype, so many shapes and the complicated fitting of dozens of bits that have to interact and fit together without hitting each other, it’s a testament to the amount of pre planning and thought before you started Mike. Well done indeed, and it looks fantastic!
Love finding the right catch position using plasticine, I shall file that away!
Ian
Love finding the right catch position using plasticine, I shall file that away!
Ian
Cabinetman
Sequoia
- Joined
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- Messages
- 5,837
- Reaction score
- 1,476
- Location
- Lincolnshire Wolds + Massachusetts
- Name
- Ian
Re the awnings, when I was making a deckchairs a few years ago I came across a lightweight but extremely strong Terylene? fabric that’s used in marine settings for roofs and covers as well as for lorry tarps, I’m sorry I don’t have a name and the company I bought from is no longer trading but it might give you a start point.
Ian
Edit, one name that comes up is Sunbrella.
Ian
Edit, one name that comes up is Sunbrella.
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That is guaranteed to turn some heads whenever you take it out.
Mike G
Petrified Pine
There is an issue I raised but didn't follow up on. The trailer needs to pass the IVA test...a roadworthiness check.....before it can be used on the road. I couldn't book the test until the trailer was all-but ready for testing, because if they offer you a test in the next few days you have to be ready for it. Unfortunately, the earliest test date I can get is December 1st in Norwich. That means any chance to use the teardrop this autumn is gone. I had a tentative trip in mind to the South West, via Bristol, bumping into one or two forumites along the way, but that has had to be cancelled.
But think on this: I haven't towed anything for 30 years. The letter of the law says I can't tow this trailer until I head to the testing station, where I will have to reverse it in through a doorway. I have to start off on a two hour drive without knowing if the trailer will behave properly when I get to speed, which I consider to be fundamentally dangerous. I also have to know, before the test, that it is within weight limits, so it needs to go to a weigh bridge....but I'm strictly not allowed to tow it there. The law, as we know, is an ass, so if someone happens to see me driving around the local village hall car park trying to reverse between 2 cones, just pretend you haven't seen me.
But think on this: I haven't towed anything for 30 years. The letter of the law says I can't tow this trailer until I head to the testing station, where I will have to reverse it in through a doorway. I have to start off on a two hour drive without knowing if the trailer will behave properly when I get to speed, which I consider to be fundamentally dangerous. I also have to know, before the test, that it is within weight limits, so it needs to go to a weigh bridge....but I'm strictly not allowed to tow it there. The law, as we know, is an ass, so if someone happens to see me driving around the local village hall car park trying to reverse between 2 cones, just pretend you haven't seen me.
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SamQ aka Ah! Q!
Old Oak
Eh??? I've towed for over thirty years...never heard of this. Is it a new 'woke' requirement?
Mike G
Petrified Pine
No. There was a cut off date ( I think it may have been 2012??), after which any new trailer must have a VIN plate and a type approval or IVA test. Anything built before then can carry on as before, unless significantly modified. If you've bought a trailer after that date, it will have been type-approved and have a VIN plate.
Lons
Old Oak
It looks absolutely superb Mike but that's a long way to tow an unknown entity for a test. The good thing is you know it's not going to fall apart.
Being pedantic and I'm sure you already know that to get an accurate noseweight you need the coupling head fitted and would normally use a length of wood from that down on to the scales rather than the jockey wheel but your method is close enough and any difference would just be slightly more nose weight which is a good thing.
Regarding Vin plates I seem to remember that coming in way back in the eighties though that could have initially been caravans. I'll have to look that up now.
Being pedantic and I'm sure you already know that to get an accurate noseweight you need the coupling head fitted and would normally use a length of wood from that down on to the scales rather than the jockey wheel but your method is close enough and any difference would just be slightly more nose weight which is a good thing.
Regarding Vin plates I seem to remember that coming in way back in the eighties though that could have initially been caravans. I'll have to look that up now.
NickM
Old Oak
It looks great Mike.
I’m currently driving a camper van up the East coast of Australia. I’m very impressed with the rugged, off-road caravans they have here. The classic set up is a big ute with a boat on the roof, towing a big off-road caravan!
Here’s one driving on the beach on K’gari (Fraser Island).
The locals here would marvel at your teardrop.
Awnings are an interesting topic. Our campervan has one and it’s the only thing not covered by the extra insurance cover we paid for. We’re under strict instructions not to use it in rain or wind. Damage can incur a cost of up to AUD1,500!
I’m currently driving a camper van up the East coast of Australia. I’m very impressed with the rugged, off-road caravans they have here. The classic set up is a big ute with a boat on the roof, towing a big off-road caravan!
Here’s one driving on the beach on K’gari (Fraser Island).
The locals here would marvel at your teardrop.
Awnings are an interesting topic. Our campervan has one and it’s the only thing not covered by the extra insurance cover we paid for. We’re under strict instructions not to use it in rain or wind. Damage can incur a cost of up to AUD1,500!
BigMonka
New Shoots
I know it won't happen to your beautiful creation Mike, but what happens if someone's trailer doesn't pass the IVA? I'm guessing you need to arrange a trailer to bring the trailer home on as surely you wouldn't be allowed to do another 2 hour drive with it?!
Mike G
Petrified Pine
I think you're allowed to drive it to-and-from a test centre, as per the MOT. I'm curious as to whether a failure would mean a full re-test, or whether you could just send a photo/ video of the necessary alterations. Indeed, if you're allowed to do alterations on the spot, if for instance they wanted another clip on a cable under the body.
Lons
Old Oak
I'd be surprised if if the test is detailed Mike. For an unbraked trailer it's more likely to be suitability of chassis, wheels and running gear, regulatory electrics and general rigidity. It's usually only roadworthiness and safety for a trailer which yours will be classed as. If it's classed as a caravan then gas and possibly interior electrics would come into it but unlikely.
I bet you'll get some praise and interested questions as the testing guys will have seen nothing even remotely close to yours.
I bet you'll get some praise and interested questions as the testing guys will have seen nothing even remotely close to yours.
SamQ aka Ah! Q!
Old Oak
Thank you Mike. My Penine trailer tent and my Indispension-based trailer well pre-date that.
Slightly bemusing that the legislation change passed me by. Sheesh.
S.
Mike G
Petrified Pine
You're dead right. It's being tested against Trailer 01 standards, which is as you describe (unbraked trailer under 750kg, roadworthiness of chassis, wheels, lights and windows). However, it's a 35 minute test, and a very small trailer, so they'll be looking at it very carefully. There's a grey area I'm worried about, which is that the lights would be invisible if the rear hatch were open. This would be a failure in a normal trailer, but I haven't the first idea why anyone would open the kitchen area of the trailer in the event of a road-side breakdown. We'll see what they say, and I have a solution in mind if they fail me on that.I'd be surprised if if the test is detailed Mike. For an unbraked trailer it's more likely to be suitability of chassis, wheels and running gear, regulatory electrics and general rigidity. It's usually only roadworthiness and safety for a trailer which yours will be classed as. If it's classed as a caravan then gas and possibly interior electrics would come into it but unlikely.
I bet you'll get some praise and interested questions as the testing guys will have seen nothing even remotely close to yours.
Lons
Old Oak
That doesn't seem the basis of a reasonable argument for failure as a breakdown could be due to electrics failure of the towing car so lights and warning flashers are of no use if they can't be activated. A warning triangle and maybe even portable flashing lantern could be worth carrying anyway and you likely have the triangle in your car as standard. Or a trailer board clipped to the back of the chassis.
I have noticed that commercial teardrops tend to have lights visible though.
I have noticed that commercial teardrops tend to have lights visible though.