Beginning to put the trailer back together.

     In the last post, Doug and Rob are helping me with the welding and installing the new surge braking system. We had to cut off the old hitch and make provisions for the new one.
     The next thing we need to do was to "flip" the axle, meaning that we lowered the wheels or raised the trailer to give it more ground clearance.

While Doug worked on the new hitch, Rob set up to weld on the new plates on the top of the axle.

     Once the axle plates were welding into place, the new break lines were installed and connected
to the new hitch.

  




 Now we are ready to install the new floor. I opted for plywood boxes instead of the old sheet metal wheel enclosures to gain more space inside above the wheels. As you will see later this added more space under the sink and bench for more drawer space.  

I mounted the framing and insulation to trailer frame than applied the plywood and venal floor covering to the plywood deck. We are now ready to set up the new walls. The inside of the wall frames are already paneled.


  The walls are up and bolted to the floor.  we can now start the interior woodwork and cabinets.

    















The plumbing needs to be located in order to plan the cabinet space and location of the drawers. I want to add more useful drawers and storage spaces.

      








The Kitchen counter is prepared for the cook stove and sink.




 I installed the shower pan in the back left corner and the grey water storage tank under the frame.










The water lines are located and the Water heater is located on the front left of the trailer.


The sink and shower dump into the holding tank.  The fresh water storage in in front under the forward bunk area.

I replaced the doors on the upper cabinets with sliders. and prepared for electrical breakers in the end of the upper cabinets. We will put the inverter and batteries under the bench seat on the right side to help balance the weight.

The camper will sleep six if they are real cozy. The back bunk is a bench seat for the table which will be mounted there. I replaced all the storage spaces with drawers when ever I could.

   All the windows were in good shape and I was able to find the replacement closing seals for the windows.







 This is about all I have to update you on right now. So I will close. I hope to make more progress  in the next week or so.

Re framing the Kit Companion Trailer

     In the last post we had the siding stripped off the camper and the roofing removed. Before we took the rest of the camper apart, I set up a temporary 8' X 16' working top over some saw horses.







 This is the left side frame and the right side is laid out on top and all the opening locations are carefully measured so the siding and windows will fit the new framing. A quick check with the windows and entry door in the rough openings before the interior paneling is applied to the inside of framed walls.

        After the walls and roof framing are carefully reproduced we started the rest of the demolition. We stripped every thing down to the floor. 

       I don't need to point out that the original construction of the trailer was not high quality. I did not expect the thing to literally fall apart into lot of trash.










       This is the floor framing after the plywood is stripped off.  The trailer did have a solid sheet of galvanized metal under the wood framing that was in excellent condition so the wood was striped off and cleaned up for the new floor.








The sheet metal was then fastened to the underside of the new floor framing.

The new floor is now set aside so we can now work on the trailer frame and braking system.












The trailer brakes have not been working for a very long time as the surge brake reservoir was clogged mud and oil. The pads were still usable but every thing else had to be rebuilt.









Another trip to the local trailer shop to get a new hitch and brake parts.







 With the help of my two boys who spent their Saturday last week to help me with the welding. We were able to install the new hitch and brake lines as well as add stabilizers the camper behind the wheels. We added receivers through the rear bumper for extra cargo or bikes and stuff. 











We reinforced the trailer frame with some new metal and added support for a grey water tank,



 I have ran out of pictures to show for now so I will sign off and next time we will finish repair to the floor, install the vinyl over the floor and start the re assembly of walls and the interior.

Have a great day,




























  

   Revisit the beginning of this story.

           I don't remember where I left off the last post, but I was not loading pictures properly an so I deleted most of what I did before, so consider this a restart for this blog.

     As you can see in the photos below, the most damage was inside the rear storage compartment. It might have been because the door was installed so that it dropped down for easy access. This would then allow water easy access also. As we began to take the trailer apart the more damage became evident.

   This was only the first day so you see that this is going to be a major repair. What makes this so exciting for me is that I get to totally rebuild this trailer.  My daughter was not happy with me at this point because she was planning to go camping in a couple of weeks. My daughter realized that her dreams of this wonder camper were shattered.  Although it didn't take her long to realize that the trailer was not safe after any amount of positive thinking.

     As we continued to take the trailer apart we could see the many areas where water was getting into the wood at corners and joints. Water damage was evident around every window and port opening.

     The aluminum siding had to be taken off from the bottom up as it was installed from the top down.
The aluminum siding was in very good shape and only a few pieces will have to be replaced. I will likely strip the paint and keep in in a bright aluminum finish. Than it will look like the "Air Stream", huh?









      After the skin is removed, I will carefully dimension the location of everything so it can be rebuilt exactly as it was and so that the siding can be replaced to match the openings and the windows will fit back where they were before.
        In the rear storage closet, we will add a 24" shower and try to make provisions for a portable toilet.  See the small box opening in the center closet. I think that will work for the location of a roll out shelf to hold the toilet, we will keep you posted on that.

 

I'm going to leave it here for now. I will start the fabrication of the new walls, the floor and the roof framing as they will need to be completely rebuilt.