I friend of mine has approached me about building an enclosed trailer
for him. After checking at the rental places I see the roof supports are
shaped like a U with wings. Something like this --__-- does anyone know
of a source for this and how do I make a gentle curve to it so the roof
will shed water.


--
Posted via Mailgate.ORG Server - http://www.Mailgate.ORG

On Tue, 2 Sep 2003 16:30:19 +0000 (UTC), "Doug Arthurs"
wrote:

I friend of mine has approached me about building an enclosed trailer
for him. After checking at the rental places I see the roof supports are
shaped like a U with wings. Something like this --__-- does anyone know
of a source for this and how do I make a gentle curve to it so the roof
will shed water.


--
Posted via Mailgate.ORG Server - http://www.Mailgate.ORG
Possibly a gentle bend to some rebar would work with a straight leg on
each end to fit down into a couple of screweyes or eyebolts.
Ken.

try lucky b
www.luckyb.com
good luck.

LSMW

"Kenneth W. Sterling" wrote in message
...
On Tue, 2 Sep 2003 16:30:19 +0000 (UTC), "Doug Arthurs"
wrote:

I friend of mine has approached me about building an enclosed trailer
for him. After checking at the rental places I see the roof supports are
shaped like a U with wings. Something like this --__-- does anyone know
of a source for this and how do I make a gentle curve to it so the roof
will shed water.


--
Posted via Mailgate.ORG Server - http://www.Mailgate.ORG
Possibly a gentle bend to some rebar would work with a straight leg on
each end to fit down into a couple of screweyes or eyebolts.
Ken.

An awful lot of enclosed trailers, including my own, have flat roofs. If
you think about it, the odds of the trailer ever being parked level are
pretty slim, and water sheds off just fine. they also are typically one
piece aluminium for the top - no seams.

Brian


"LSMW" wrote in message
nk.net...
try lucky b
www.luckyb.com
good luck.

LSMW

"Kenneth W. Sterling" wrote in message
...
On Tue, 2 Sep 2003 16:30:19 +0000 (UTC), "Doug Arthurs"
wrote:

I friend of mine has approached me about building an enclosed trailer
for him. After checking at the rental places I see the roof supports
are
shaped like a U with wings. Something like this --__-- does anyone
know
of a source for this and how do I make a gentle curve to it so the roof
will shed water.


--
Posted via Mailgate.ORG Server - http://www.Mailgate.ORG
Possibly a gentle bend to some rebar would work with a straight leg on
each end to fit down into a couple of screweyes or eyebolts.
Ken.

"Brian" wrote in message ...
An awful lot of enclosed trailers, including my own, have flat roofs. If
you think about it, the odds of the trailer ever being parked level are
pretty slim, and water sheds off just fine. they also are typically one
piece aluminium for the top - no seams.

Brian


"LSMW" wrote in message
nk.net...
try lucky b
www.luckyb.com

--
Posted via Mailgate.ORG Server - http://www.Mailgate.ORG
Possibly a gentle bend to some rebar would work with a straight leg on
each end to fit down into a couple of screweyes or eyebolts.
Ken.

First a giant no to Ken's concept. Nobody would consider trying to
drill and rivet rebar for a roof arch. It is absolutly the worst
structural shape for the application. Roof arches are usually done on
a three wheel ring roller and just a little crown is put in. Brian has
a very interesting piece of aluminum on top of his trailer. 8' x 20'
with no seams. I think he needs to look again because this would be
tough to buy. I have seen the arch tubing bandsawed in a notched
configuration and then bent. Looked absolutely awful and I walked
away from that trailer builder figuring if he didn't know what he was
doing in the roof area I sure didn't want his frame. I don't know
where to send you for bending square tubing but be careful about
listening to bad advice on RCM. Leigh@MarMachine

On 10 Sep 2003 20:12:11 -0700, (Leigh Knudson)
wrote:


First a giant no to Ken's concept. Nobody would consider trying to
drill and rivet rebar for a roof arch. It is absolutly the worst
structural shape for the application. Roof arches are usually done on
a three wheel ring roller and just a little crown is put in. Brian has
a very interesting piece of aluminum on top of his trailer. 8' x 20'
with no seams. I think he needs to look again because this would be
tough to buy. I have seen the arch tubing bandsawed in a notched
configuration and then bent. Looked absolutely awful and I walked
away from that trailer builder figuring if he didn't know what he was
doing in the roof area I sure didn't want his frame. I don't know
where to send you for bending square tubing but be careful about
listening to bad advice on RCM. Leigh@MarMachine
IIRC aluminium roof sheets for trailers are made up of low profile
corrugated (1/4" max.) sheets running the short way, lock seamed and
sealed along the joints and supplied to the builder in a roll. The
roof sheet is unrolled onto the slightly arched plywood, mastic coated
deck and secured around the edges.
At least this is how my suppliers used to do it before we started
specifying membrane roofing.
Gerry :-)}
London, Canada

On 10 Sep 2003 20:12:11 -0700, (Leigh Knudson)
wrote:

"Brian" wrote in message ...
An awful lot of enclosed trailers, including my own, have flat roofs. If
you think about it, the odds of the trailer ever being parked level are
pretty slim, and water sheds off just fine. they also are typically one
piece aluminium for the top - no seams.

Brian


"LSMW" wrote in message
nk.net...
try lucky b
www.luckyb.com

--
Posted via Mailgate.ORG Server - http://www.Mailgate.ORG
Possibly a gentle bend to some rebar would work with a straight leg on
each end to fit down into a couple of screweyes or eyebolts.
Ken.

First a giant no to Ken's concept. Nobody would consider trying to
drill and rivet rebar for a roof arch. It is absolutly the worst
structural shape for the application. Roof arches are usually done on
a three wheel ring roller and just a little crown is put in. Brian has
a very interesting piece of aluminum on top of his trailer. 8' x 20'
with no seams. I think he needs to look again because this would be
tough to buy. I have seen the arch tubing bandsawed in a notched
configuration and then bent. Looked absolutely awful and I walked
away from that trailer builder figuring if he didn't know what he was
doing in the roof area I sure didn't want his frame. I don't know
where to send you for bending square tubing but be careful about
listening to bad advice on RCM. Leigh@MarMachine
Gotta reply - nobody said anything about drilling and riveting
anything - or for that matter even what the roof was going to be made
of. I only mentioned the rebar as a shaping medium to get the gentle
crown needed to make the appearance right. The rebar can be used
under a tarp, plywood, sheet steel, sheet aluminum or whatever. The
simplicity of it is that the rebar only has to be slightly bent to
provide the shape and the ends of the rebar can be mounted inside the
trailer in any fashion that will support the bows vertically.
Ken.

Leigh, I guess the concept of a roll of .032" aluminium, 8' wide, is
something you havn't considered. One piece roofs are the standard in the
industry for quality car haulers, at least. This is pretty close to what I
have:
http://www.trailerworld.com/Inventor...ryIte mId=343,
although mine is 102" wide.

Note the spec - "one piece roof". There's actually a good shot of the roof
bows, too.

Brian


"Leigh Knudson" wrote in message
m...
"Brian" wrote in message
...
An awful lot of enclosed trailers, including my own, have flat roofs.
If
you think about it, the odds of the trailer ever being parked level are
pretty slim, and water sheds off just fine. they also are typically one
piece aluminium for the top - no seams.

Brian


"LSMW" wrote in message
nk.net...
try lucky b
www.luckyb.com

--
Posted via Mailgate.ORG Server - http://www.Mailgate.ORG
Possibly a gentle bend to some rebar would work with a straight leg
on
each end to fit down into a couple of screweyes or eyebolts.
Ken.

First a giant no to Ken's concept. Nobody would consider trying to
drill and rivet rebar for a roof arch. It is absolutly the worst
structural shape for the application. Roof arches are usually done on
a three wheel ring roller and just a little crown is put in. Brian has
a very interesting piece of aluminum on top of his trailer. 8' x 20'
with no seams. I think he needs to look again because this would be
tough to buy. I have seen the arch tubing bandsawed in a notched
configuration and then bent. Looked absolutely awful and I walked
away from that trailer builder figuring if he didn't know what he was
doing in the roof area I sure didn't want his frame. I don't know
where to send you for bending square tubing but be careful about
listening to bad advice on RCM. Leigh@MarMachine

"Doug Arthurs" wrote in message news:021a7a2ed3ce41b30b973175cd1da0af.122965@myga te.mailgate.org...
I friend of mine has approached me about building an enclosed trailer
for him. After checking at the rental places I see the roof supports are
shaped like a U with wings. Something like this --__-- does anyone know
of a source for this and how do I make a gentle curve to it so the roof
will shed water.

The trick to bending aluminum square tubing it to first, using two
pieces of round stock ( say 1/4 inch) place one on each side of the
area of the square stock where the bend will be made, one on the "top"
the other on the "bottom" of the bend, put this is a vice and squeeze
the square stock so you have a concaved impression in both sides of
the stock, now you can place the square stock in the tube bender and
bend the square stock without it buckeling or splitting. Just so you
know, I have seen it done at a trailer factory, I have talked with
repair people at the factory and specifically asked how to do this,
this is what they told me....I have yet to try it....but I believe it
works great and is as easy as it sounds....

Good luck.