My Epiphany - Sanding - Sanding - Sanding

[Martiangod]

Maybe someone can tell me, is there an all-in-one package that can handle both solar, and 120 volt charging systems? .

There is but they wont come cheap, most are designed for off grid living
Something like this
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0056GXGEA/?tag=jaaotest-20
Now if you were near hear the guy I bought the out of new unit fantastic fan has one for sale with the remote control panel for $350 Canadian, His name is Alex, was awesome to deal with, lived in hard to find address, thought I might not find him or get lost and he drove 40 miles out to meet me on highway

Don't know if he'd ship or not But $350 is an awesome price for this unit

http://hamilton.kijiji.ca/c-cars-vehicl ... Z350644435

[parnold]

Had half a day of nice weather today, and since I took a long weekend from work I got a couple things done. I had two new tires mounted and started painting the wheels.

I thought I was being real smart, and got a gallon of overspray mask. It's commonly used in auto body shops, they spray the parts of the car where they don't want overspray to damage the paint. Simple one coat application, wash off with water. Well.. it didn't work so I had an hour or so of scrubbing the paint off the brand new tires. And in case you're wondering was I smart enough to try it out on the inboard sides of the wheels first.... NO. Tomorrow I will have to touch up the paint on the outboard sides, and paint the inboard sides. Hopefully will have time to do more sandblasting on the frame, and begin applying Chassis Saver paint to the frame.

I bought a vernier caliper today, so I can take a hub off and measure the spindle. I need this measurement to order the brakes. I originally had hopes that I would get the wheels back on, and make a trip to the lumber yard, but it looks like those hopes were a little over ambitious.

I'm 99.9% set on this design.

[parnold]

i now have my frame sandblasted, painted, and undercoated. The new tires are on, and I took off all four levelers, and bought two new levelers for the back corners. I decided it was just too much work to try to restore the old rusted ones with their broken springs. My hope it to go to the lumber yard tomorrow for my first batch of wood. I spent almost the entire day today planning all the details of my floor. I made an accurate sketchup model of the trailer frame, then a model of the floor, making sure that I would have studs to attach bed, cabinets, seating etc. Then I figured out how to cut the sheet of plywood for the framing, and lastly, how to cut the underside, and flooring out of 4x8 sheets.



The "studs" will be cut from 3/4 cabinet grade plywood, and will be glued using 1/4 ply laid into the 1/4 grooves I will cut into them. I purchased a 1/4 groove cutter for my router. The bit cuts a 9/16" deep groove into the edges of the plywood. I will be using a very minimal amount of fasteners for the framing. Below is a crude picture showing what I am not explaining so well.

[aratman]

I like this so much that I am going to do a similar lay out. Funny how I laid these things out 50 times and never came up with this.

[myoung]

Hi, Paul,

I'm not understanding the floor 'studs' and why fabricating them out of plywood is preferable or desirable when ordinary 3/4-inch framing stock is so commonly available.

Is this framing being laid on top of the plywood floor only to be covered by more plywood to form a sandwich or is this framing beneath the plywood floor? If the former, then the splined joints would be unnecessary. If the latter, then I don't understand why you simply don't cut as few transverse pieces of plywood as possible and then join the pieces with wood strips glued and screwed over the joints. That would seem sufficient without any need for the studs.

For example, the floor of my trailer is comprised of just three pieces of 3/4-inch plywood with each of the two joints covered by 1-foot wide plywood strips screwed and glued to the underside of the floor. The floor was than bolted with 4 bolts each fore and aft to the frame. That's it. There is very little frame beneath my floor but the 3/4-inch plywood is sufficiently strong that no flexing is evident even over unsupported areas around the perimeter that overlaps the frame, mostly because the walls and interior framing adds considerable rigidity.

I guess all will be clear when you post some photos later.

[parnold]

The floor, will basically be like a hollow core door. 1/8 luan on the bottom, and 1/2 inch ply on top. My thought with doing this rather than 3/4 ply was just for insulation value, both thermal, and sound. I was also thinking it might be a few pounds lighter, but now that I'm thinking about it, I could probably shave weight by going with ply that was 11/16 instead of 3/4.

Am I overthinking this?

[myoung]

The floor, will basically be like a hollow core door. 1/8 luan on the bottom, and 1/2 inch ply on top. My thought with doing this rather than 3/4 ply was just for insulation value, both thermal, and sound. I was also thinking it might be a few pounds lighter, but now that I'm thinking about it, I could probably shave weight by going with ply that was 11/16 instead of 3/4.

Am I overthinking this?

In my humble opinion, I do believe that you are overthinking this. 3/4-inch plywood as a floor would be quite thermal resistant. Much of the interior with be cabinetry that could have insulated bottoms as I did with little effort because the cabinet framing could be 3/4-inch thick screwed to the floor. Also, the interior floor could have a covering of carpet tiles, rugs, or the foam stuff that I used. Each of these materials has insulating properties.

Also, putting thin luan on the underside exposed to weather, dirt, and rocks even though covered with that black tar-like stuff, will still be a weak structural material and one subject to easy damage or decay or warping and separation. Perhaps others have experience with this sandwich construction for a floor, but to me it seems way too complicated and quite unnecessary.

Have a look at some of the pictures of my build for the floor and the perimeter framing with insulation to see what I mean. Here are a couple:



See how the framing forms a natural box in which you could put 3/4-inch insulation and then cover it with thin plywood (I used 5mm).

[parnold]

Mike:

The couple of times that I camped in the cold with my current tear, I was unhappy with the 3/4 ply walls. It didn't matter that the inside of the trailer was 70 degrees, the walls were cold, and anywhere near the walls felt cold. I am so set on not having this problem with this trailer, that I guess I'm over thinking the floor. For example, while I am laying in bed, it really doesn't matter if the floor is cold. I had thought about a linoleum or tile floor, but a foam backed carpet would give me a little insulation.

You probably saved me about 15 hours of work there Mike!

[myoung]

Paul,

Thinking is certainly time well spent. Glad that it might save you some time so that you can get on the road that much sooner.

With dense foam insulation in the walls, the thermal resistance should be superior to plywood alone. A nice down or down and feather duvet works well too.

[crumbruiser]

I like this so much that I am going to do a similar lay out. Funny how I laid these things out 50 times and never came up with this.

The drawer kitchen is really a great idea.
I've laid mine out and am still changing it as I build. I don't follow plans very well anyway.
Frnk

[crumbruiser]

Like Mike did does seem to be the way to go. I was going to do the sandwich as you are describing but it was really a pain. I ended up putting 1 1/2 inch foam inside the frame and put down a 11/16" floor on top of that. I'm going to turn some of the 5mm luan into fender washers to help hold the foam in the floor in place. I don't have pics of that in my journal, I haven't had the desire to crawl on the ground to put the bolts through the floor yet . I'm in central Ohio, I too know what a cold floor and walls feel like, I don't like it!
Frank

[PcHistorian]

I love that pull out kitchen.
my walls came insulated (part of the vinyl siding thing) but the floor and ceiling were just the bare 1/2" particle board. my soffits are fully vented also, so closing them up helped. I was amazed what a 5/8 piece of insulation did, floor and ceiling. It was cold winter in Detroit outside and a work light had me down to t-shirt inside. (my trailer sits outside, no garage for it.) Although this summer I'm planning on putting the floor insulation underneath instead of inside on top. Although, that does pad it a bit, too.

p.s. the slouch comes from the "SLide out kitchen from under the cOUCH"?

[parnold]

p.s. the slouch comes from the "SLide out kitchen from under the cOUCH"?

I like that!

[parnold]

Pictures tomorrow, or later today as the case may be.. I promise.

I had one of those incredibly frustrating days today. Trip to the box store this morning for lumber, uneventful. Got home, got out the special bit for my router that cuts a 1/4" groove in the edge of the plywood. I thought this would be a good solution at joining the ply for my floor. Only problem the bit required a 1/2" collet, and my router had a 1/4" collet. Trip #2 to the box store for a new router. Back home and start "grooving" the ply. I bought a sheet of 1/4" ply for the biscuit part, so I ripped a 1" strip, and test fit it. Now the steam is coming out of my ears, because this stuff that was labeled as 1/4" is really only 5.2 mm, and 1/4" is 6.3 mm. Trip #3 to the box store, and I bought 24' for lattice that was 1/4".

Did I mention that the box store is a twenty five minute drive each way!

Tomorrow the floor will be attached to the frame and undercoated. I will build a temporary table to work on my wall framing, and I will have my wall profile done. The wall studs will be made of cabinet grade plywood, 23/64", and from the strips that I have cut so far, very few if any voids.

It was two years ago I built my first tear, but I think I have aged twenty years, boy was I tired tonight. So my solution was a little fire and some

[KCStudly]

Well congrats on the progress that you did make, anyway, and I am sure I speak for us all when I say that we are looking forward to da pics.

Lumber sizing can be a real pain, but once you get familiarized with it, it's not so bad. Not nearly as bad as my inability to eyeball pipe sizes!!! Geez, I have gotten that wrong enough times to know that if I don't see a clearly labeled valve or fitting in place that I must measure and check the pipe size chart before making any call outs.