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truckasaurus · 01-02-2018, 07:55 PM

It took 4 half days to load the original interior and all the new parts and materials I have back into the trailer for her relocation trip this coming weekend! Luckily it only hovered around -50 with wind chill for the first day, yup I picked the coldest days possible.

This evening I took her to a CAT scale for the first time. I appreciate I only have less than half of a story but my Tundra came in at 7060 (with >300 lbs in the bed) and the trailer axles were 3860 lbs. Tongue weight on my scale 750 lbs. I'm running the Anderson hitch so I'd speculate I'm moving about 200 lbs or less off the tongue when I tension it up but I really just wanted to see how heavy the tongue was.

If I had time for a re weigh with the Anderson cranked that would be good but I feel pretty OK about getting on the road to Athens.

HiHoAgRV · 01-03-2018, 05:09 PM

Have a safe trip! Looking forward to a longer season for you to build out that awesome trailer.

FC7039 · 01-03-2018, 10:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by truckasaurus

It took 4 half days to load the original interior and all the new parts and materials I have back into the trailer for her relocation trip this coming weekend! Luckily it only hovered around -50 with wind chill for the first day, yup I picked the coldest days possible.

This evening I took her to a CAT scale for the first time. I appreciate I only have less than half of a story but my Tundra came in at 7060 (with >300 lbs in the bed) and the trailer axles were 3860 lbs. Tongue weight on my scale 750 lbs. I'm running the Anderson hitch so I'd speculate I'm moving about 200 lbs or less off the tongue when I tension it up but I really just wanted to see how heavy the tongue was.

If I had time for a re weigh with the Anderson cranked that would be good but I feel pretty OK about getting on the road to Athens.

My 2005 Tundra weighed 4950.

Jim & Susan · 01-04-2018, 06:22 PM

Safe travels on your trip down our way. It's only slightly warmer here this week. Supposed to be +15 in the morning at our house. For Georgia, that's a nightmare.

Jim

truckasaurus · 01-17-2018, 08:24 PM

Made it. 3 and a bit days drive down. The first two were pretty sucky being so far below freezing. Crossing the border went OK although we noticed the front wrap around panel was deflecting too much from wind pressure so we reinforced it with some Walmart clamps and aluminum channel which killed a little time and I'd bet we'll replace that panel.

2200 miles averaged about 10.8 mpg cruising between 30 and 75 mph.

Interesting factoid is that the winery we stayed at outside Liberty MO neither had wine nor food so we took a recommendation and went into "town" pretty late to a microbrewery, it turns out that we can in fact slink under a 9'6" bridge.....and park across most of the downtown angle parking :-)

The trailer towed amazingly well and was even treated to her first ever wash before settling in to a new spot just outside Athens.

Nothing fell off and no one got hurt.

A few more weeks in Canada and we can fly back down and get organized.

**Rocinante** · 01-17-2018, 08:37 PM

The trailer exterior is gorgeous, just fantastic. Amazing job.

utee94 · 01-18-2018, 03:45 PM

Just beautiful work. Wow!

truckasaurus · 12-24-2018, 12:56 PM

No trailer progress but our new home construction is about to start. I'm hoping to get something like the attached picnic structure that I saw locally, but bigger, for the trailer if there's anything left in the budget....

7+ years from trailer purchase, nights camping 0.

BeeandJosh · 05-07-2019, 12:53 PM

I couldn't sleep and stumbled upon reading your whole renovation thread. We got a 1960 that was also titled as a Sovereign and ended up being a custom 33-35'. As you know, not a whole lot of information out there.
Thanks for the detailed share of your labor of love! You are giving us major inspiration.

truckasaurus · 03-22-2020, 01:07 PM

Yup, 2 more years down. At last we have the trailer home. I'm going to replace the front panel, again, as it has a couple of small dents in it but aside from that she's faired pretty well for sitting in a field for 26 months.

I leased a 2020 Tundra ManVan (Crewmax) just until the Cybertruck is here and it does a decent job of moving the beast.

Jim & Susan · 03-22-2020, 02:50 PM

Sweet, nice to see you back. Warm weather is here, time to get to work! Holler if you need something. I'll send my son-in-law over. They live in Athens and he needs a hobby.

Jim

Atomic_13 · 03-22-2020, 05:46 PM

Welcome back!

57Vintage · 03-22-2020, 05:57 PM

Looking forward to see what you do with the interior.

truckasaurus · 03-25-2020, 06:49 PM

Thanks guys, whilst it's a bit tough when a project gets this drawn out I kinda like opening up all the boxes of stashed parts I'd bought over 2 years back. Today I received Vulkem in the mail and tomorrow should be a delivery of T3 2024 Alclad...groundhog day. I just need to get to the insulation and interior skin in as I think that'll provide new impetus.

Landshark · 03-25-2020, 09:08 PM

Your trailer is STUNNING--absolutely gorgeous. I just found your thread today and spent all evening reading. I can hardly wait to see how you do the interior. It is just so cool that this old Airstream is coming to elegant life again.

Vivian

truckasaurus · 04-18-2020, 07:06 PM

Nothing major today but we did replace the front wrap around skin; again. Same deal, 2024 T3 Alclad .032" from Airpartsinc. I did make one change, instead of the foreword upright stiffeners running from C channel to the bottom of the window I ran them all the way to the top of the window. Next up, the rest of the stiffeners and on to insulation.

I've narrowed my choices down to multiple layers of 1/2" Rmax Polyisocyanite or Thinsulate 600 or maybe a combination of both. I ran a test with the Rmax using a narrow pointed bit in a Dremel mini router and can slice out a nice acute angle V cut allowing the PIC to conform to the Sovereigns curves very well. There's a bit of math involved but I'm going to count that towards my 7 year olds remote Covid schooling if she helps out.

If that goes well, I'll get 12 sheets (4x12) of 5052 H32 .032" and skin the interior then I can finally order the LG 12K mini split and get creative with a tongue mount for it.

duncans · 04-18-2020, 07:50 PM

" Oh, look! Another update on Super Sized Sixty Sovereign!"

I look nearly every day for your posts. My husband tells me that I need to let you know how much I enjoy following everything you do. And now we get to watch progress on the house! Yahoo!

Susan

KK4YZ · 04-19-2020, 04:35 PM

Truckasauras, I just stumbled across this thread and read and enjoyed it from the beginning today. You are truly a fine craftsman. I sure hope you’re enjoying Georgia. Our daughter did her undergrad at UGA and really enjoyed Athens.

If you’re able to, try to join us for the Georgia Mountain Air rally in Hiawassee, GA. It was originally scheduled for this month but will be rescheduled to September due to the Covid thing. Just watch for it in the rally section of the the forum.

Regards,
Jim

truckasaurus · 04-23-2020, 01:45 PM

Thanks Susan, and I have never been to a rally so I will keep my eyes open for info.

truckasaurus · 04-23-2020, 02:59 PM

Preparing to get busy.

Yesterday I picked up 12 sheets of aluminum for the interior, 5052 H32 .032" 48" x 144". I have been buying from Airpartsinc.com and they are awesome but I used Ryerson for this purchase as it worked out at near 1/2 the cost. The downside was I had to rent a trailer to fetch them, the upside is a free bridge for my kids new treehouse.

Today the thermal break material arrived. I opted for an adhesive one side closed cell polyethylene tape in .032" x 3/4", I got 216 yards so that should do all the bows, ribs, window frames, vent frames and channels. Thicker would have been more functional but I don't want puckering around the pop rivets.

I'm going to order the Thinsulate SM600L too. It's been a weird journey getting to this decision and there's clearly no perfect solution but I think this checks most of the boxes and mitigates many of the risks. I like that it looks simple to install and is rated for use in auto, marine & RV's; a good R rating and sound deadening and best of all I never have to look at the awful Prodex snake oil website ever again. For a small project like these trailers the unit cost is high and the shipping is a bit brutal but if anyone near me wants some I could order a full 1500 sq ft roll and it would be very comparable to the alternatives. I think it saves me 125 lbs over using Rmax so that's cool too.

Still, as much as I enjoy ordering stuff now I have to finish up the stiffeners, add some external fittings, a bit of wiring and then make new skins before bonding the insulation in with 3M 90 spray.

I also had my 7 year old work with me in the trailer on the layout today, prepare to be, um, puzzled...