My jetski-camper trailer build

[WFO Speedracer]

Trust me your post didn't stop the build from progressing, my hernia surgery did that at least temporarily, but I am nothing if not resourceful so that won't stop me either.

I drilled a hole in the rear door for an eye bolt, then I backed it up with a large fender washer and through -bolted it, with the help of the cherry picker I was able to get the rear door opened and lifted up where I can continue working on this.

I will glue in a dowel rod later to fill the hole back in then glass over it , the hydraulic lift supports and brackets have been ordered to address the rear door situation, they will be in sometime next week., I will also be working on the rear door latch and snowmobile hood straps have to be installed on the top to keep the doors closed tightly.

In the interim I have a lot of work I can do to finish out the interior, more wood pieces have to be added to screw the panels to, panels have to be cut and the other window trim piece has to be finished.

 

[WFO Speedracer]

So most of the stuff is finally here, I say most because two of the brackets never showed up, the two that did are not heavy duty enough for my tastes either , basically flimsy Ebay BS , so on to plan B.

I looked through my pile of stainless and ran across this bracket, I can see two ball stud brackets in there just waiting to be freed, and so I made it happen this morning, I still have to drill and tap the tubing for the other two ball studs and I will most likely weld an 8mm nut over the drilled and tapped hole but this should get the door opening enough to proceed with the build.

I will know for sure later today, the trailer is at my house so I will have to wait on the welding till I can transport it to the shop next week.

 

[WFO Speedracer]

It opens and it closes ok but not effortlessly, it needs lots of adjustment, also the weight of the door was apparently significant because it bowed the top inward quite a bit.

I will have to make a metal brace to solve the bowing issue and it must be done before adjusting the door to make it fit properly, The bowing itself is not that big of an issue , a floor jack inside with a 2x4 and a couple of sunny days will straighten it right back out.

 

[Harbor]

I discovered the “Red Green Show” recently, check out his Handy Man corner segment, pretty funny..

Your Trailer is coming along good, but that rear door got me

 

[WFO Speedracer]

Red could probably come up with an easier solution to this than me, I am just a high school graduate with a backyard redneck engineering degree, if you don't have a mill use a side grinder, no drill press, use a hand drill, GIT ER DUN !

Before I go any farther down this rabbit hole I am going to drill and tap some more holes, then move the hinges to different locations and see how they respond, it may be as simple as moving the pivot point to the correct location and then everything is golden , there are other ways of making this work I have already come up with, but this one cost zero dollars , the simplest approach is usually the best approach and any solution will take time waiting on parts and more fabrication time to complete.

 

[WFO Speedracer]

I did a quickie relocation on the hinges and got most of the funkiness out of it , I can only go about another 1/4" right now but when I get the top brace built I can go out at least another 1/2" possibly 3/4"and that just might do it, so far the hinge is still double jointed, it may have to stay that way or it may all straighten out after I make the top brace, at the moment I can simply tighten down the bolt on the hinge to make one end unmovable so it's easy enough to check out.

 

[WFO Speedracer]

I am really tired of messing with these hinges, I am making the rear brace now and I am thinking of other options, the first thing that came to mind was hood hinges off an import car, those would usually just be a hinge with no spring and hoods open in a similar fashion to this rear door so that may be an option , plenty of them on Ebay with free shipping and free returns. I might try a set off of my Geo tracker or my Honda Civic and see how that goes.

 

[WFO Speedracer]

I did end up making the rear brace for the trailer but haven't installed it, then I had to put this project on hold for a minute due to the hip replacement surgery , while towing it out to the welding shop a brand new tire blew out on the right side .
.
As it turns out there was not sufficient clearance between the trailer and the tire so I will have to cut the axle apart and extend it or build a new one , I am not sure what that entails just yet .

It would be really nice if I could just cut the spindles out and weld them back farther out on the axle but we will see , first I have to figure out how I am pulling the axle out of this thing I have an idea on that one just haven't tried it yet.

I may possibly just build a new rear door, I am not happy with this one at all.

The reason I am posting this now is because I am going to make one last push to finish this before it gets busy here again.