"Jackal" 5x10 TD Running water.

[JmsCaverly]

Hi James, just wondering about the hatch to fridge top corner clearance. Is there enough room to mount the hatch & miss the corner with the depth of the ribs & skin? It just looks very close to me.

Noseoil, I thought the same thing about the hatch rib clearance, until I realized all of the roof spars are sitting on top of the walls; so I assume the hatch ribs will also be over the edges of the galley walls.

KCStudly is absolutely correct although it looks close the hatch wont come into contact with any parts inside the galley. The 1/4" skin that will be the inside of the hatch will be on top of the walls that are present now. What isnt there yet is the 1/2" ply that will skin the exterior walls prior to laying out the aluminum. That will sit about 1 3/4" higher than the current wall to house the hatch within the walls. I have plans for an aluminum drip that will catch any and all water that could possibly get by the seals.

The build is looking good now & wiring looks like it should be there for the duration. Loads of fun, isn't it? Glad progress is moving forward, as once in a while my progress goes in the other direction, but it's all good. Just keep plugging away at it!

Thanks for the kind words, I can only hope that my 'drop will come out as nice as yours has!!!!

I guess that means that there will be blocking in between the tail ends of the spars and whatever exterior skin is used will have to be about 49-1/2 or 50 inches tall/wide. (?)

In total the hatch will be just shy of 59" wide, and the hieght is 49 from the floor to the hinge and the curve is 62 3/8".

KCStudly I've read over your build a couple of times and never noticed your from Southeastern CT. I grew up in Montville my whole life till I left for the service. Where abouts in s.e. CT are you form?

You woodworking guys just amaze me with your talents!
Brian

AND you sir have done some amazing metal work that I couldnt even begin to comprehend.

[KCStudly]

Believe it or not, Mecca is located in Montville; north end, Oakdale postal zone right near the Bozrah line.

I live across the river a little north of the SUBASE.

Where about in Montville were you?

[JmsCaverly]

That's funny I was home a few weeks ago and my uncle lives off of RT163 I probably drive right by Mecca!

I lived on Gallivan Lane off of RT32, once I left for college my parents moved up to Moosup and have been there for 10 years or so.

[KCStudly]

Small world. Sometimes I stop for coffee or at the Ho-De-Po on 32 and cut across Gallivan and go up Fitch Hill and Raymond Hill to get to the shop.

That big house up on the top of Raymond Hill, the one with the really nice dry stacked stone wall about 1/2 a mile long, all along the front of the huge open lot? They had the wall redone. One guy working alone picking away at it, took him like 3 or 4 years to complete. Like eating an elephant. It came out way nicer than the first wall, which was already pretty nice, but I wonder how much it costs to replace a 50k$ wall with another much more expensive one?

[JmsCaverly]

You know it's funny you say that because my brother ended up buying some of that old stone to finish off his stone wall up in Dainelson. It sure did turn out really nice I think he must feel the same about his stone wall like we do about our teardrops. I wonder if there's a forum out there like this one for colonial stone wall building???

[KCStudly]

Small world, and after posting that I had a deja vu moment like we had this discussion before!

[JmsCaverly]

Small world, and after posting that I had a deja vu moment like we had this discussion before!

I like moments like that , they leave you wondering if they really did happen or not.



So after 20 hours on the road and just over 1200 miles the aluminum is in the garage



I have to say it was not an easy thing to find someone with a decent price on the size sheets I needed and completely forget about color. So that will be my next challenge trying to figure out if I really want to paint it or not. But for the price I paid for these sheets it just couldn't be beat even with the gas I spent for the drive was still cheaper than anyone local in the Sacramento area. But I want seamless sides and well let's face it 60"x144"x.040 wasn't going to be cheap anyway, but lucky being military we know people from all over and even some that have a family owned metal fab company up in Portland, OR. The drive was well worth it.

I also picked up all the final sheets of ply I needed for the side walls I plan on working those this afternoon just as soon as my Pats are done giving a whooping. (The sorry Tennessee fans) I'll post later this evening of that work.

[JmsCaverly]

That was nice, I got a chance to really put in some good work time with the Jackal and even the wife helped a little bit. I got some solid work done up which I'm really please with.



Finally setting up the side walls and prepping for setting in the aluminum.



I got the first sheet laid on for the roof. I belt sanded the edges to met flush with the spars in the roof and for the first fitting the roof ply is sitting rather well so now I can just pull it off to seal the ply down.




So while letting the ply set up and relax a bit to its new shape I got a chance to start the mock up for the hatch which I can not put off any longer.



I'm hoping this hatch won't give me any issues and just go on nice and easy, so far I don't like the way it sits on top of the side walls but I think with the seals and the drip edge. I'm going to wait till I've done the exterior walls to play with it any more so I can be sure of a nice smooth fit.

[JmsCaverly]

The hatch is coming along nice it doesn't look like much now but I had to get everything right for the seals to sit how I want them. I plan to have a double seal on on top of the outer wall and one on the lower wall.





I used a couple of small hinges I had laying around to mock up the hatch while I wait for the mail to deliver my hurricane hinge. But now that I have finally have the outer roof on for good I can now skin the hatch too.

I worked all week to get the outer walls trimmed and glued up to they are now on for good. I can now get up my utility corner. It will have city/gravity water cable hook up and of course 110V power.





The last thing I got a chance to do today was the sealing of the wood along the hatch I feel like this is going to be a critical area to keep water out of and if water does get in I want to give a path to follow. I was talking to my father-in-law and he gave me a few ideas one of which I'm using. It's just a spar varnish diluted with mineral spirits to penetrate the wood after two maybe three coats I'll use just the varnish. Right now it's just a clear but I do plan to use a black top coat to keep the area uniformed.



The only reason it's taped off is for the black top coat I really don't want that black on anything else but this on area.

Tomorrow will be a big day for me I have my welder friend coming over to help out with the fenders, and I want to get the fantastic fan mock fitted. And start on the doors although I might wait till next week when the windows and door latches get here to dive into those.

[JmsCaverly]

My buddy came by today to help me out with all the welding for the fender mounts.



We had to get creative to hold them in place so I could mock up where I wanted them to sit without getting in the way of welding.



They may look light over kill using 2" tubing but I wanted you use something that I know can hold a bunch of weight. I.e. Me with either a bike or a kayak, or what have you. After everything was done both my friend and I stood on the upper portion of the fender roughly 350 lbs and it held even with a bit of bouncing happening, I know that way more than I'll ever have in my hands being put on the roof but piece of mind is always nice.



And the end result is some pretty cool fenders that I can stand on to get to the bike rack that I will make at the end of the build.



While I only have pics of one side both sides are the same.



That last thing I have does anyone have links to pages with home made doors I have started mine and I would like to see how some of you guys have done yours. I know there are some really good ideas out there!

[KCStudly]

Here's where I started building my doors: TPCE Door Construction.

Back up a few entries to see the wall frame work, which is more or less just the door surround. You will want to know the details on the seals and any trim you plan to use before you start making any radii. To determine the door corner radii I started with the minimum bend radius that I was comfortable with for the actual trim seal I plan to use. I tested it and found the inner radius that I was comfortable with to where the seal did not crease or kink. Then I stepped that out, increasing the radius to the edge of the door (i.e. used the same center point for all of the concentric radii; inner door seal flange, door corner and jamb). Details of the inner seal flange and spacers comes later in the build after the inner wall skins were added.

I haven't yet done the outer skin or finalized the window installation as I am waiting until the walls have been skinned and the fiberglass work is done in the jamb areas to double check final fit. If I end up having to shave a tad off of the hinge side of the door I want to do that before they have been glassed.

Since I am using fiberglass as my outer skin I don't have any exterior trim to account for, so your mileage may vary.

[dales133]

This is coming along nicely.
Will start to come togeter quickly now

[JmsCaverly]

This is coming along nicely.
Will start to come togeter quickly now

Thanks you sir! I'm ready for all the 8 hrs work days of little projects to turn the corner and see a finished teardrop.

[JmsCaverly]

KC thanks for the info I always love reading you build page there's so much good stuff on there and the detail is just stunning.

My doors will be a bit more of a simplified plan as I want to utilize the cut outs I have from the walls just as long as the havent warped. I want to do something like with my walls I'm just up in the air about how to do the aluminum trim work. The bending makes me nervous and I really have no clue how to bend aluminum without kinking it. And my walls are a bit thicker than most (1 1/2") and the doors will (1 1/4") to make room for the inner seals.

Here's a quick drawing for the visual people

[Sarge 51]

Good looking trailer. Bending aluminum can be a challenge but what I have found is aluminum like any other metal bends nicer with heat. Two issues are not to much heat and having a way to hang on to it when its hot. Good luck

Jon