CARGaerO t'ailer; a hitch-mounted boat tail (Pontiac Vibe)

[Varn]

You will know what you should do once you put it on the road. You really don't have a frame to hold the coroplast stiff. I like your idea and shape but obviously think that you need to have a structure and or multiple mounting points.

Not sure why you hesitate to mount it near the top too. If you take off the luggage rack you will expose plenty of tapped holes in the roof. Hang some brackets and you are good to go.

[Tango Charlie]

Shored up the forward bulkhead with some additional aluminum angle. The coroplast is just too flexible to transfer the weight into the luggage shelf structure. I will look for some straps to hook onto the top of the lift gate. This should keep the tail from sagging away from the car.

[Tango Charlie]

I bought some straps. This project will continue after my last day of work on the 21st. Then I'll have one week (interrupted by Christmas) to finish the t'ailer before we hit the road for Idaho. Got the salamander standing by...

[gone-ot]

...could you possibly devise some way of cinching the whole tailpiece assembly up tight to the car body by pulling itself up tight with the trailer hitch? Use the hitch as the "stationary" anchor to which the tailpiece is slowly & gradually (screw mechanism?) pulled tighter & tighter against the back of the car body?

[Weather Spotter]

That is sort of the idea of the straps. Use them to go to the top hatch crack and back in to cinch it up.

[Rex Hooligan]

Kewl project.

[arcosine]

I strap my bike to the roof of the car with the nylon straps going through the back hatch. Has been OK at 80 mph.

[HydroJim]

Did you get it done in time for your trip?

[Tango Charlie]

No.
I pulled an all-nighter trying. It's one of those things; when a project is 75% complete there's still 90% of work yet to be done. I ended up yanking the whole darn thing off so I can use the cargo platform. We're loaded up and ready to hit the road tomorrow morning. Just a day late...

Lesson learned; coroplast is great for grille blocks and belly panels, but not so great as a replacement for aluminum when you're fabricating a monocoque structure. The flexibility of the coro was a big hang-up in this project.

I ended up not messing with straps. I gaffer-taped it right to the car, which actually proved to be pretty solid. The majority of the time I spent on it this week was putting on the top piece and securing things that had only been tacked in place. The straw that broke the camel's back was the latch for the access door in the rear bulkhead. I just couldn't come up with a quick solution, running on three hours of sleep as I was. And I hadn't even started with the tail lights and rear-view camera.

Ah well. You win some you lose some. Sorry guys. I feel like I've let you down. I'm not sure if I'll try to salvage it when I get home. I'll think about it when we return from Idaho.

[christofoo]

Originally Posted by Tango Charlie

No.
I pulled an all-nighter trying. It's one of those things; when a project is 75% complete there's still 90% of work yet to be done. I ended up yanking the whole darn thing off so I can use the cargo platform. We're loaded up and ready to hit the road tomorrow morning. Just a day late...

Lesson learned; coroplast is great for grille blocks and belly panels, but not so great as a replacement for aluminum when you're fabricating a monocoque structure. The flexibility of the coro was a big hang-up in this project.

I ended up not messing with straps. I gaffer-taped it right to the car, which actually proved to be pretty solid. The majority of the time I spent on it this week was putting on the top piece and securing things that had only been tacked in place. The straw that broke the camel's back was the latch for the access door in the rear bulkhead. I just couldn't come up with a quick solution, running on three hours of sleep as I was. And I hadn't even started with the tail lights and rear-view camera.

Ah well. You win some you lose some. Sorry guys. I feel like I've let you down. I'm not sure if I'll try to salvage it when I get home. I'll think about it when we return from Idaho.

Keep going. It's a good idea. Maybe some structural members could be added? Foam, wood or metal strips come to mind. If it really looks unsalvageable then you'll rebuild in in aluminum? As a reader I don't feel let down until a project stops forever, although of course that's your choice. So you had bugs, so we learn from your mistakes. I say keep up the good work.