Homestead Texas Project Trailer

So the cabin has become one big tool shed.
Tools, material, parts and more tools cover most of the cabin floor.
In June, Kit and I have taken a week of vacation to finish out the cabin - which means the tools and materials, etc. need to go somewhere else.

Travis and I have been talking about building a mobile shop/tool storage unit, to the point where we actually bought a trailer last year to be the foundation of said shop/storage unit.
The time had come to move that project to the head of the list.

I'm calling it the "Project Trailer" because it's likely to be present at every project we undertake.
The Project Trailer will be a central location for generator, air compressor, tools and materials that we can take anywhere on the farm to build - you know - Projects!

 
 
The first wall is up. The trailer bed itself has been leveled fore and aft and side to side, and blocked in place. Now when we raise walls we can make them plumb and level.
 
 
 
All walls up, sheathing begins. Kit and Tammy painted some sheets of OSB we had left over from the cabin construction (roof) and it will weather quite well.
 
 
 
The back will be mostly door - a 32" exterior metal door that we can lock up. A small shelf of deck was left to accommodate steps.
 
 
 
More sheathing complete.
 
 
 
The generator was mounted to the trailer frame in front of the enclosure. This will help with exhaust and noise. We will mount a roof on hinges and swing it up to fuel the generator, swing it down to shed water and protect the generator from the weather.
 
 
 
On the back end a shelf was built to support the compressor (and help counterbalance all the weight of the generator on the front end). Similar weather protection will be built up around the compressor.
Note on the previous two pictures the nearly full-length windows we have created. Clear roof panels mounted sideways will provide plenty of light inside after we build the roof, and the beauty of it is they will not hamper use of interior studs for tool storage. Windows would have been,
1) More expensive
2) Negated any tool storage where the windows were
3) Enough windows to provide the same light as this arrangement would have taken up most of the above-bench height storage.
Also, as pictured here, the Project Trailer will remind you of old west wagons, moving settlers and all their worldly possessions to a new home - and needing every square inch of the wagon, internal and external, to do it. They hung pots and pans, we'll hang tools and such.
You can see where we already have employed external storage for those things we want close to hand (power cords close to the generator). This will be refined as we go...
 
 
 
We will also make use of the outside of the Project Trailer to mount a hinged workbench which will also be arranged to seat the "chop saw" and have a smooth, level bench at the level of the saw. material long and short will be laid on the bench and cut to length.

There will be electrical plugs inside and out to service any power tool we need to use on any side or end of the trailer. The generator will feed these plugs via power connection to the front wall, and feed the compressor via dedicated power line direct from generator to compressor. Floodlights will be mounted to provide the ability to continue work after the sun goes down.

 
6/5/2016
 
 
 
So we hit it hard this weekend to finish up the mobile shop.
We banged together some simple trusses and framed up a roof.
 
 
 
Some trimming required.
 
 
 

 
 
 
Cut and fit, cut and fit, repeat until one of us says, "Good enough!"
 
 
 

The generator cover is mounted, hinged to swing up to service it.

 
 
 
Then, the Big Test. Can we move it?
Note I removed the all-but-useless shelf under the compressor and it now rests on a single 2x4, and is strapped to the back wall.
I wired an outside plug to the back so that the compressor runs on a dedicated 30-amp circuit from the generator. The other 30-amp generator plug will service the rest of the shop.
 
 
 
Turned out to be a non-event. The little ATV towed it just fine.
 
 
 

We need to add gable ends and bird-blocking, but it's pretty well dried in.
This side will get a fold down bench for the chop saw, and we'll add roofing to the ends of the trusses to provide more cover.
No doubt many small refinements will find their way into the Project Trailer as we play "what if" games and from actual use and finding deficits in the design.

Stay tuned to see what else we come up with!
 
6/14/2016
Some mid-week update.
 
 
 
7/3/2016
July 4th weekend additions.
 
 
 
 
 
Back To Homestead Texas Home
Ground Breaking
Clearing For The Cabin
Labor Day
Labor Day II
The Tractor
The Tractor Barn
The Cabin
The Truck Patch
The Bee Yard
The Hay Field
The Tractor Barn
The Pasture