Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

First post of a pic of the trailer. It is a 8.5 X 18 Rock Solid Cargo trailer from Douglass Georgia. Tandem 5200 lb axle with radial tires, .030 Aluminum skin, 1 x 1 1/2 steel tubing in walls and ceiling, floor joists on 12 inch centers, wall on 16 inch centers and ceiling on 24 inch centers and is slightly arched so the ceiling is not totally flat. Roof is one piece with no vents or holes. Extended tongue, V front, barn doors on back and we had the 36" entry door moved to 30" from front corner. Also got exterior led running lights on trailer. Empty weight 3000 Lbs.

Front

Passenge Side

Ris....I'm a light-weight small trailer foamie guy myself, but if I were going big, I'd go with a Vee or Dropped Vee CTC as you are doing.......Enjoy your build. jd

Very Nice! I'm looking forward to following your build.

Sounds like you will be cutting no corners ... looking good!

Congrats on the the new trailer... Lots of fun on the horizon!

Here is a pic of the inside of the trailer before deconstruction.


Here is the insulating of the ceiling. One inch of insulation on ceiling with Strips for nailing 1/4 lauan to ceiling.


We will be putting 2" of insulation in the ceiling and 1.5" on the walls. We have 1" between the ceiling trusses , they stay up by themselves. Next we will screw wood 1x2 strips into the steel trusses every 2 feet running the full 18 ft of the trailer put the 2nd layer of insulation between the wood strips and then screw the 1/4" lauan to the 1x2 wood strips. We are using the polystyrene rigid 4x8 sheets cutting them as necessary.

Option 2 is what I chose when I converted our CT during the winter of 2014/5. Screwing the luan to the plywood strips creates a thermal break, so screwheads do not sweat like they would if you chose your option 1. Pictures are in my build link below.

My wife and I have been fulltiming in our converted CT since Feb 2016.

Hope this helps.

Sorry but the pictures below went missing when Tiny Pics folded up.
Thanks for all your comments. Doug, I went with your suggestion about running the wood strips for the second layer of insulation. The area between the two center 1" x 1.5" wood strips is where I will run my electric for the ceiling lights. In this pic there is an inch of insulation installed and another inch will bring the insulation flush with the wood strips and it run front to back of trailer. The offset piece of wood you see at the rear of the trailer is because the wire for one of the running lights is right in line where it should go so we moved it over 2 inches. We used a laser to get the wood strips straight from back to front.
Also someone mentioned using a table saw for cutting the SPX insulation and that works great.

We also added a few extra 1"x1.5 " inch metal studs which we bought from a local welding shop. We put 2 screws top and bottom from the outside through the top aluminum band, through the ceiling edge metal into the metal studs and did the same at the bottom at floor level. We added these where there will be interior walls. They were put in before we did the ceiling. The metal stud with the groove in the middle was an original the one to the right is one we added.

The double screws close together are the ones we added to hold the stud at the top.

The two close together are the ones we added at the bottom to hold the metal stud. We also called Rock Solid trailers and requested they send us 35 screws the same color of the exterior aluminum and they sent them to us. We then put that line of screws all around the trailer at floor level. We should have asked for 50. That is why the stud screws are shiny instead of the wall color

We are thinking of using 1/4" luan plywood painted white for the ceiling. Any comments about this would be appreciated.

Richard

Richard:

I installed 1/4" plywood on the ceiling painted white. To cover the seam down the middle of our trailer, I ripped 1/4" ply into 1.5" strips and pinned them in place, also painted white. Can't remember if I put any pictures up...will check tomorrow and if not I'll add one or two pics.

Hope this helps.

We got the second layer of 1" insulation in the ceiling over the holiday weekend. The first layer was put up running the width of the trailer between the trusses. This second layer was put up running the length of the trailer. We put gorilla glue construction adhesive on the metal ceiling trusses, put up the insulation and held it tight by screwing wood strips temporary across the insulation until the glue dried.
Putting gorilla glue on metal truss.


Ceiling with wood strips holding up 2nd layer of insulation.


We are very fortunate to have an open pole barn to work under. The open part of the barn is about 36 ft. long and 28 ft. wide. Our next task is to cut the studs and put framing in for the windows. This is the scary part for us. I know everyone gets to this point and is hesitant but you have to cut the hole in the skin for the window at some point. Think we will put the windows in the doors first, then the side wall windows. We will definitely use templates.

Excellent progress!

Looking good !!!!

NEED HELP PLEASE!! We are doing the windows in the next week or so in the side walls. Should I frame the window with the correct thickness of wood by cutting out plywood to tightly fit the window, then attach the plywood to the metal studs and framing I will have to place in the wall. Or should I just frame the opening after cutting the metal stud in the wall, put in insulation, then the interior plywood and just cut the shape of the window and using the correct trim ring put the window in. We have the windows and trim rings on hand just not sure of the best way to put in the window. Thanks for your help.
Richard

i cut the plywood to fit the window first, intalled it then cut out the skin. it seemed the simplest way to do it

ris, Howdy;

Haven't done a window yet but there IS a niffty thread at the top
of this section that deals with the questions a lot of folks have, it
may be helpful;
viewtopic.php?f=42&t=32504
Not saying it answers ALL the questions but it might be helpful.

hank