El Grande!

Shop space! We don't need no stinking shop space! The weather has really treated us well the last couple weeks, but this being Seattle, it will inevitably come to an end soon. In fact, we are expecting a pretty good storm the next couple days. So, tonight Ryan started building what he has affectionally dubbed "El Grande," which will become the Captain's home for the next several months. We sourced this tent at Tarp World here in Seattle because it is reputed to be a design that withstood the ridiculous snow storms we had last year. Although it's unlikely we will see a snow load anywhere near what we had last year, we always get a few good wind storms and the metal construction is pretty strong. The picture below is a half-complete tent. Tomorrow, El Grande gets his legs which will add another five feet to the walls.

Earlier this week Ryan got the running gear removed from the frame and began the big frame clean up with a pressure washing.

We have completed a pretty extensive inspection of the frame and decided on the necessary repairs and upgrades. Fortunately, there is nothing too complicated here. Ryan will rebuild the step (a common problem area in this era of Airstreams), relocate some cross members to accommodate the gray water tank, fabricate the tank mounts and add a spare tire carrier to the A-frame area by replicating a design he has used on his last two trailers. He is also going to add some steel to the inside of the main frame rails at the axle area to provide additional strength for the new torsion axles which I ordered yesterday. And while the trailer is sitting so nice and low to the ground, I'm going to take advantage of every sliver of sunshine to work on the windows and seam sealing so when we put the shell back on I don't immediately start rotting out the new floor.