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______..............___Teardrop Trailer Page 5

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Framing for Sides -- The following pictures will display how I framed the sides.

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I clamped the particle board/wafer board template to the side of the frame and used some braces to make it perpendicular to the frame. On the side of the template I drew lines where I wanted all of my perpendicular and horizontal frame members to go. I laid these out on 16 inch center or less and have marks on the template where the roof sheeting will piece together so that there will be roof supports in the proper places to support these seams.

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I then cut 1 X 1 X .060 square tubing for the framing and held it to the outline with clamps and welded them into place (at my drawn lines) being careful to keep everything square.

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This shows the detail of the framing for the wheel-wells that will stick inside the body. Remember some of the fender will be inside the body walls and about 3 inches will stick outside the body walls so that there will be visible fenders on the finished trailer. After I insulate the wheel-wells there will be 48 inches between them for the mattress. Above, behind and ahead of the wheel-wells the finished inside width dimension will be 59 1/4 inch (outside body is 61 1/4 inches). I will have some room for storage on the inside walls of the trailer next to the bed on both sides.

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In the preceding picture I left the frame members 3/16 of an inch down from (inside of) the top and ends of the template as I used 3/16 X 1 inch flat bar stock to finish framing the sides. I wrapped this flat stock around the 1 X 1 frame members and kept it flush with the template. This went fairly fast (about 1 hour per side), but a little slow as it is important to exactly follow the contour of the trailer with this piece as it will determine the final profile. The template is also only 47 1/4 inchs from top to bottom as the finished 20 gauge for the sides will wrape over the top and bottom and ends by about 3/8's inch. For this reason the lenght is 9 feet 11 1/2 inches so that my 4 X 10 Sheets will work for the sides.

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Another picture of the framing detail.

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Another picture of the framing detail.

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Another picture of the framing detail.

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Now I have the left side finished and moved my template to the right side. You can see the marks on the template to show the location of the framing members. I drilled 1/8 inch holes in the template to transfer these marks to the other side of the template so I could use it to frame the right side of the trailer.

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This shows the finished left side and the right side finished, but with the template still in place.

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These last pictures show the trailer outside. In these pictures the larger 15" wheeel/tires are mounted, but the axle is in the location for the smaller wheels, so the clearance for the fenders is not as it will be when the axle is moved under the springs for these wheels and tires.

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