Kenskill style build in Delavan, WI (Now Cub Modern)

[breb]

Makes you gain a new respect for the forces of nature. Some day we will have to compare notes. I have some tails of the same nature. I suppose you need to go shopping this weekend for new short's. I tried my plumbing today with switch wired
and grabbed the battery out of the lawn tractor. All worked except the packing at the bottom of the sink so I stuffed it with some plumbers putty , not sure it will stop the leak. Will have to setup that test again. I started this afternoon with cutting two ribs for the hatch. I really don't have a solid direction on this part of the build. Every time I look at the variables on the offset on the hinge and start adding up the different dimensions. I lose the total picture. It's time to jump in the pool, sink or swim.

[Mr. Lahey]

breb- You might be over thinking the whole hatch hinge and seal thing. I do that to myself too. Post a pic or two of what you are "stuck or lost" on. It's what I do here when get twisted up.

Are you trying to seal the hatch to the side wall or do you have a seal rail and channel like I do?

Offset hinge should be fairly straight forward install. Lifts hatch 1/4 inch from roof line and side wall to allow for gasket gap at side wall and hatch.

Post up some info. Maybe I can help or confuse you more. Never know till you ask.

Remember you're not lost. Just someplace you've never been before is all.

[breb]

I will post a pic but at this time I don't have anything to show. I only have a couple of those ribs cut and like you posted I maybe getting to far ahead of myself in my thought's of the hinge. The side wall needs a 45 degree relief and that is how I'm getting the extra wide T-trim to cover more of the seal. As this takes place I'm calculating the height at witch the hinge jack's up the hatch. I believe this will work but instead of playing with a lot clearness i have put myself in a corner where i will be tight at some point of the hatch to wall. You can see the build out piece I'm talking about and the 45 degree relief.
That is the intersecting point to the wall and the hatch that will be close. This all derives from a extra thick wall in my galley. I have seen the wide wall application on vintage technologies web sight but to me it is very vague in it's depiction of the trim over trim. I am thinking a .250 thick piece for the bump out under that part of the trim to shift will get me to where it is acceptable.

[breb]

This is the moch-up I did the other day. Sub out the white vinyl for a rubber seal and you can see I'm trying to reach the outer limits of the trim where the seal would be. You also can see the additional piece behind the the flange of the T-trim. I think my 45 degree will be a little larger than what you see in the moch-up . I've got the hatch part sitting 5/16 up to simulate the offset of hinge. Plus the addition of hatch and roof skin . So this is what I'm contending with. It does have my full attention .

[Mr. Lahey]

Well I see a few weak points in where you're headed with this. I would tell you to scrap the whole train of thought there. Since you have not made the hatch yet it's not too late.

Reason I say that is water is such sneaky stuff. It won't take much to sneak past that seal the way it's set up now. Wind driven rain, slight misalignment of hatch to seal, etc. Once it's past the seal your doomed. You will get water in that spiffy galley you built. In your mock up that 45 degree wall cut will actually help the water into the galley.

I think you could modify your hatch and walls to use Steve Fredricks hatch seal method. Or a modified version of it.

See this thread for some great pictures of his system:

http://tnttt.com/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=61506

If you look at the first pic in that thread, I think you should mull over a way to make that raised lip on the inside edge of the galley wall. That way the water can't get in because it's blocked by that wall. It has no choice but to run down the dam wall and out the bottom. You could add a curved piece to your wall to follow the profile to create the water dam. Better yet as thick as your wall is, maybe router into the wall from the outside surface, but leave enough of the inside galley surface to create the water dam as you see in that thread.

The way the system works it the weatherstrip would seal on top of that water dam wall. The seal goes up in the hatch.
Even if you still sealed it at the outer edge, you would be way better off with that water dam wall in your seal design.

Maybe look at it from a whole fresh direction?

Kick it around. Post back some thoughts. Good luck with it.

[breb]

Mr. lahey I totally have gone through that Steve Fredric process three years ago and have discussed it with others and decided on this route. Nothing wrong with that process and it appears to be a strong stop measure for water intrusion. I'm totally invested in this plan. This method is used by variety of other teardrop builders and I don't want to change the game plan. To me it's a matter of working out the details to achieve a good result. Today was finish cutting the other 2 ribs and than routering them , using the #1 rib as my template. Last thing in the afternoon was to line them up with spacers and ran a straight edge across them just to see the line up. I totally consider all the feed back and information that I receive from your post's and from others. This is how I work through the problems I run into during the build process. Its all good!

Tomorrow is a lost day. I'll be helping a brother in law move some things ( Port Washington)and don't think I will be back in time to do any TD work.

[Mr. Lahey]

I know what you me about sticking with a path chosen. Fair enough.
The mock up you made is helpful for sure. With the method and materials you have chosen I think you have assembled them in the best way possible.
You're right...time to jump in the pool.

[breb]

Wow caught your other post on the new acquisition. Thumb's up on the new tool box. An open palette for organizing your tools into something efficient and stored. Room in there for a sleeping bag? looks like it's got super potential.

[Mr. Lahey]

Thanks. The new tool box tear is really going to work out great for me. As I said in that thread I have wanted to get all my tools in one place, and mobile for some time. This should prove to be perfect for what I want. A big motivator is in 5 years or less I will be moving. It will put me another 30mins or so from the job sites. I'm 5mins away now. I already hate chasing back home after forgotten, or unforeseen tools I need. This will solve that. Plus loading and unloading the truck for each job will be a thing of the past.

Been making great progress on the camper. Finished all construction in the rear. Have all that stuff in back stained and ready to finish. There are 11 cabinet doors in my camper! That's a bunch of staining and finishing. Not to mention finding places to set them while they dry.

Moved to the front and doing some final construction to the front head board cabinet. Enlarged my lower wiring passage holes and installed a panel to mount fuse and terminal blocks too. Couple more shelf s to make and cleats and that cabinet is done. It's one piece so it will just slide in place and finish the front in on shebang.

I don't want to get cocky here and jinx myself. If this keeps up I may beat my goal of being wiring ready before the end season. I would be glad to get a bunch of wiring done before I get froze out of the garage. We shall see.

Have you had much time to work on yours? Finalize seal design and begin your hatch?

[breb]

Yes I have pretty much settled on a path for the galley it's a matter of keep marching forward. I worked on the hatched ribs yesterday doing some marking for today. I found one rib late yesterday that was about a 1/8 to long compared to the other 3.
I need to match to rib #1 and trim off the bottom a little and reset it in the TD and remark it for cutting top and bottom for cross piece. Don't ask how that happened, best guess on my part was I clamped the first set and had to re position the clamps. The other sets for routing were pin nailed in 3 spots to secure position for routing. I'm planning on using pocket holes for intersecting points and probably use the teardrop walls with 1/4 spacers and clamping both left and right outer ribs in place to start attaching top and bottom cross piece's. Well that's how I see it at this point. You know how it goes when you get to the actual process it may change. That should get me to a frame from there it's time to consider tail light position , dome light and how to add the bridging in between rib's. We will see how much gets done out in garage, yesterday I think we set a record for humidity the garage floor was sweating and today with all the over night rain it looks to be the same . Not a fan of the humidity for working on TD.

[Mr. Lahey]

Looks like it's hatch work day for both of us. I just took mine off the camper. Laid it on it's back on my work table. Prior to taking it off I just laid out my tail lights and drilled the mount holes in the hatch. I'll glue up some screw backer blocks over the holes while it's on it's back and easier to get in there. I'll be making a mount point for my galley light as well. First time we are working on similar stuff at similar times.

I've got some router work to trim the hatch skin where it was under the hinge. Also some detail work inside the weatherstrip channel and so forth. Also going to stain and finish hatch inside while it's off too.

The stain work to the cabinets and head board came out awesome. Can't wait to get the finish coats on!

[breb]

Well that got kinda fussy for me on fitting those two outer ribs. I was up and down from basement to the garage feathering off stock to get it where I thought I needed to be. By quarter to 4:00 I was ringing wet . I still need to cut down the middle two ribs. I closed up shop and came in and ordered the hurricane hinge. I also posted a question on building techniques about cutting and keeping those ribs a little larger for the off set on hinge but was advised from vintage technologies to follow the profile of the wall to match.The hinge will take care of the offset. Thought I'd have that framed and screwed together today. Had to use belt sander and trim some stock of the wall which was standing little proud and interfering with the straight edge. I'll tackle rest of it it tomorrow.

[Mr. Lahey]

Well even me Mr. giant garage fan couldn't take it yesterday. Even with the big fan blasting on high I faded fast. I'd work an hour here and half hour there. I come in the house to cool off and dry off. Then go back out for a short session. Don't know if today will be much better. Going to get the first coat of poly on all the wood work this morning. Then make a supply run when it's hot in the afternoon. Time to chase after some stock for all my ceiling/roof spars.

breb-best advice I could give about hatch construction, you are already doing on your own.
Slow, careful, and accurate work will carry you through to a successful finish.

[Staryder61]

Watch the heat and don't overdue it.... supposed to be 99 here today with a heat index of 104-105
can't wait for Fall to roll in....

[breb]

Yesterday was tough building , weather wise. Small progress, the pocket holes were drilled and then dry screwed together. No glue was used yet. Then I started bridging in between. Watching spacing and gap between wall and frame. Won't know till I take clamps off if I have any distortion. Right now I just have 2 clamps at top. Also did a little looking at what I want to use for a locking devise and handle. Not sure whether I'm using lock down on both sides or just one center handle/lock. Not the best weather for you to do your finishing on cabinets. Hope today it starts to dry out, looking forward to the cooler temps.
I think I want to seal all hatch surfaces that are not external with a coat of spar varnish witch I have done in other areas of the trailer and want to continue that sealing in areas I deem necessary. More bridging to go this morning. As far as the slow and accurate goes I've got that nailed. I caught myself staring at the job more than few times.