Bear's Lair

...ask your questions in the appropriate forums BUT document your build here...preferably in a single thread...dates for updates, are appreciated....

Re: Bear's Lair West Texas

Postby KCStudly » Thu Jun 23, 2016 11:06 am

Yes, the hitch pin clips are available with rounded clips, a la D-shaped (as per the ^ link), as well as square or rectangular clips. For your closet rod props, the round ones would look nice, I think. It just becomes a question of pin size and length that are readily available vs. the rest of your set up.
KC
My Build: The Poet Creek Express Hybrid Foamie

Poet Creek Or Bust
Engineering the TLAR way - "That Looks About Right"
TnTTT ORIGINAL 200A LANTERN CLUB = "The 200A Gang"
Green Lantern Corpsmen
User avatar
KCStudly
Donating Member
 
Posts: 9610
Images: 8169
Joined: Mon Feb 06, 2012 10:18 pm
Location: Southeastern CT, USA

Re: Bear's Lair West Texas

Postby Nobes » Thu Jun 23, 2016 1:27 pm

There is a tractor supply just down the road from my office, so I found some at lunch. I picked up pins that are round not D-shaped. I agree they will look better with the dowels. The smallest they had were 1/4" pins, which is larger than I wanted to go, but I think it will work. I also grabbed some eye bolts to put on the tongue board for tie-down straps. Then I went to an auto supply store and got two round license plate lights. My son, who has driven lots of trailers while I am very inexperienced, says my license plate mounted under a taillight on the side of the trailer WILL get whacked off. So, I am going to recess the plate and lights in my to-be-constructed bumper. I have two half-dollar sized round lights, one for each side. Wiring should be very easy. I think they will look sharp--and they were less than $4 each. I will most likely not have the bumper done for my first trip, and that will be one of the first things to be added afterwards.
Nobes
Teardrop Master
 
Posts: 214
Images: 508
Joined: Sun Dec 20, 2015 5:01 am

Re: Bear's Lair West Texas

Postby KCStudly » Thu Jun 23, 2016 2:24 pm

Be sure that your lic. plt. lights don't shine rearward. The light cutoff needs to be directed across the plate like the hooded style that I have been using (superbrightleds.com).
KC
My Build: The Poet Creek Express Hybrid Foamie

Poet Creek Or Bust
Engineering the TLAR way - "That Looks About Right"
TnTTT ORIGINAL 200A LANTERN CLUB = "The 200A Gang"
Green Lantern Corpsmen
User avatar
KCStudly
Donating Member
 
Posts: 9610
Images: 8169
Joined: Mon Feb 06, 2012 10:18 pm
Location: Southeastern CT, USA
Top

Re: Bear's Lair West Texas

Postby Nobes » Thu Jun 23, 2016 3:36 pm

https://d2jocyn8o0ggnq.cloudfront.net/a ... 108800.jpg

round, half-sphere, shielded/directional light. That picture is not all that great but that's basically it.
Nobes
Teardrop Master
 
Posts: 214
Images: 508
Joined: Sun Dec 20, 2015 5:01 am
Top

Re: Bear's Lair West Texas

Postby KCStudly » Thu Jun 23, 2016 6:55 pm

Excellent! Not sure why I didn't picture that from you original description. Just checking. :thumbsup:
KC
My Build: The Poet Creek Express Hybrid Foamie

Poet Creek Or Bust
Engineering the TLAR way - "That Looks About Right"
TnTTT ORIGINAL 200A LANTERN CLUB = "The 200A Gang"
Green Lantern Corpsmen
User avatar
KCStudly
Donating Member
 
Posts: 9610
Images: 8169
Joined: Mon Feb 06, 2012 10:18 pm
Location: Southeastern CT, USA
Top

Re: Bear's Lair West Texas

Postby Nobes » Mon Jun 27, 2016 11:42 am

I'm still kicking the can down the road.

Thursday:
Fixed the tongue board by moving it forward about 4". The battery box now fits on it nicely, but the board now has 4 extra holes. I think I'm going to put 4 bolts in them just to hide them, and eventually it will be 'fixed' when I build a new one. The current one is 48x15, and the new one will be 36x20. I also put in eye bolts and found a couple of bungee cords that fit perfectly to hold my batt box down. One nice thing about the tongue board is that it really stiffens up the whole tongue part of this cheap little trailer.

Got the ball attached to the trailer hitch. And the hitch attached to the truck.

Applied 'black goo' to the underside of the wall that extends below the deck. Also applied it liberally to my arms and hair. It came out of my hair easily, but there are still spots on my arms, 3 days later.

Added additional metal straps connecting the trailer and the camper. I was confident that I had plenty of connection strength before, but this was cheap insurance. Since my deck is a 1x4 above the trailer, I can't just bolt directly to the trailer like most people do (another consequence of having a trailer narrower than my build, which I would change if given the chance to start over). So, I now have some T-straps connecting the metal trailer cross-members to the 1x4s under the deck, as well as the previously installed metal straps connecting the sides of the trailer to the 1x4s.

Friday:
Worked on electrical a long, long time--only to have the lights not come on. I tried using the same wiring that came with the trailer, and had to solder a few pieces together to get the required length, all to save $25, the cost of new wires. Penny wise and pound foolish. I didn't think the actual wires were the problem, but I wasn't sure what the problem was. Finally I said forget it I'll get back to this later. Lots of time and effort for no results. Again.

Then I cleaned up the inside of the trailer and with the help of the lovely and gracious Mrs. Nobes put the mattress in. We bought a 9" memory foam and expected it to 'pop' out of its wrappings. It didn't pop, it just slowly uncurled. Before it was uncurled all the way we realized it was upside down, so we got it turned the right way. The next morning it had expanded a lot, and by Sunday morning it had expanded all the way. We put it in early because I have heard that these things can sometimes give off an odor for quite a few days, but this one didn't at all so we could have waited. Oh well, it's in now.

Saturday:
Installed the passenger doors. Here's where I wish I had waited to put in the mattress. The doors were easily installed, but screwing in the inside trim ring with a mattress in place was difficult. We added the butyl putty tape on the doors and screwed them in and they work. I still need to install the 'rain gutter' over the doors. Speaking of that piece, it is the exact same shape as the door. I think it would look a lot better if it was more of a curve above the door. Has anyone tried changing the bend in these things? I got these doors from Frank Bear/Vintage Technologies. My concern is that the piece might break or the paint/finish might be affected.

Then we went on to the hatch. I had 3 guys helping me. Problems abounded.

Problem 1: The hurricane hinge was too short. I ordered it long ago, and gave the wrong measurement. The hinge is 63" and my roof is 65." I strongly considered stopping and ordering a new one, which wouldn't get here till tomorrow at the earliest. We finally decided to go ahead and install it.

Problem 2: My hatch isn't perfectly square. Neither is my trailer. Add those 2 together, and there were some 'fitment issues.' We considered fitting the hatch in the space and leaving a larger than optimal gap between the hatch and the roof, allowing the hinge to cover the gap, but finally decided it would be better to install the hinge pieces firmly on the hatch and the roof, so we did so.

Problem 3: We installed the hinge piece on the hatch first, then tried to put the roof piece on to confirm we had done it correctly. We had NOT done it correctly. We unscrewed it, got all the butyl putty off, re-applied the putty tape, and screwed it on again. Then we put the roof piece of the hinge back on and held it up to the roof, where we found...

Problem 4: There is a 1/4" vertical gap between the hinge and the roof. So, off we went to Lowe's to buy a 1/4" aluminum bar. After applying that to the hinge, it sat in the right place. We also picked up longer SS screws. We broke off one drill bit drilling through the aluminum bar, and we twisted off several screws trying to get it all screwed onto the roof, but finally the thing was attached to the roof and the hatch.

And the hatch opened and closed! And fit in the opening! But now there were 2 more problems.

Problem 5: The bottom of the inner hatch, the 2" wide part, doesn't sit on the floor. It floats just over it, about 1" high. So, I need to glue up some wood to make a piece that will fill this gap. Fairly easy problem to solve.

Problem 6: When I built the hatch, I skinned it with plywood. Obviously. The skin needed to be 65"+ wide to go all the way to edges of the walls. Again, I should have measured THRICE not just TWICE. The plan was to make the skin over wide, so that I would trim it to the correct width with the router and a trim bit once installed on the camper. Unfortunately, I actually made it just 'almost' wide enough. One side goes to the edge of the camper wall and the other side is just a hair--or 2--short. I realized this after I had glassed the hatch and thus ordered metal trim so I could cut off the skin at the vertical ribs and install metal trim on the edges, figuring the metal would go far enough out. Unfortunately, I don't think the metal would change much--it would pretty much extend as far as the wood ply skin does now. My original plan was an all-wood look, so for now I have left the wood edges intact and I will install the metal at some point if I need to. It doesn't look horrible, in fact it is just fine. I look at it and this error jumps out at me, but someone who has not built one of these says 'what are you talking about?' I know this because several neighbors stopped by during hatch installation and made that exact comment when I pointed out the situation.

Problem 7: I need to apply some of the fiberglass resin to the edges of the hatch ply skin, plus a few other sundry places on the camper.

At the end of the day, working all day in close to if not over 100 degree west Texas sun, I was exhausted. We started the hatch at 10 and ended at 6. We all went to eat and several of my helpers said 'hey let's go to a baseball game!' We have 2A minor league team in town. I said y'all go ahead, I'm going home. I went home, crawled in bed, made a few lists of things to do on the build and to take next weekend, because that's what I do I make lists, and by 8:30 I was asleep. At some point I got up and turned off the lights and at some point my family came home.

Sunday:
I woke up at 6 and said I might as well get after it before it gets too hot. So I started re-wiring the lights, this time using the $25 package of wire I had previously purchased. This time, I ran ground wires into the wiring connector and everything worked. I have read lots of posters say "independently ground your lights to the trailer." But when I do this, they don't work. When I run the ground wires with the ground wire in the harness, it's all good. So, I once again soldered all the wires.

Hey by the way if you solder stuff, the shiny part of your solder tool gets HOT. I know this because at one point I grabbed that--still don't know why I grabbed it, but I sure did--and I got some pretty good burns on my left forefinger and thumb. The same finger I had surgery on in January. It's a good thing it was that finger, because it only half way works anyway, so no great loss. Dang that hurt.

But in the end: The lights WORK! I also went ahead and got the vent fan wired and connected to the battery and it is fully functional as well. I drilled a hole in the batt box just under the lid, ran the wires through the hole, and put some of the excess putty from all the Saturday screw-ups over the hole. Hopefully that will keep it dry on the inside.

After that I put some trim on the lower front of the camper, where the roof meets the trailer. I read a bit on how to solve some of my hatch issues, and decided to scrap the T-handle locks I have and get some of the hinge/strap/lock variety, and actually found a nice set at Lowe's. With that decision, I went ahead and put metal trim over a small gap in the back of the floor where it meets a piece of wood trim I installed that covers the back of the trailer. This trim is visible when you open the hatch and look at the galley floor. Eventually, I will have gas struts to make it easier to open the hatch, but for now I am installing large dowels using closet rod holders and pins to keep everything in place. I successfully put one of my two closet rod dowels in and then discovered that the second one, in its planned location, will keep my galley drawers from opening. Problem 8.

Right now many of you are saying 'see, dude, that's why it's good to have this thing we call a PLAN and not just build by the seat of your pants.' Yeah, yeah, whatever. I'm re-building this galley anyway so I'll get it right on the next go-round. For now I think I will put the second support up on top of the counter. The first one looks good--I had to cut an angle at the top and it came out great.

So, to be 'campable,' I have 3 things to do:

Weatherstrip in the galley
Lock the hatch
Glass resin on the edges of the hatch lid and few other spots

There are still several other things that would be good to get done, but I MUST do those 3.

And, since I am now using different locks, I have
Problem 9: There are holes in the hatch where the previous locks were going to be placed. To cover these up, we bought cool handles featuring a Texas Star. I will used some of the wood that has glass on it that used to be where the vent fan is now as backer behind the handles. I think it will look great.

We went ahead and put sheets on the bed, and put in all the pretty stuff the lovely and gracious Mrs. Nobes made--quilt, pillowcases, little cute pillow, stuff-bags, window curtains--and it all looks amazing. The galley might leak, but in the cabin we will be snug as the proverbial bug.

NOW: Problem 10. I went to jury duty this morning. I have to go back after lunch to face the lawyers. If I get picked for a jury, and the trial goes through Friday, that kinda screws up my plans of leaving early so there's plenty of time for the drive and potential unknown problems and slower driving and set up at the campground...and I should be used to this sort of thing by now, shouldn't I?
Nobes
Teardrop Master
 
Posts: 214
Images: 508
Joined: Sun Dec 20, 2015 5:01 am
Top

Re: Bear's Lair West Texas

Postby plectrudis » Mon Jun 27, 2016 10:04 pm

Dude: PICTURES. I want to see the lovely & gracious Mrs N's handiwork, not to mention your fiberglassed exterior.

My sympathies about the electrical. We had almost the exact same experience with our trailer lights, but in our case, the solution was to ground it to a screw in the trailer frame rather than whatever approach the user manual had told us to use. Who knows why, but it works now, and I'm grateful.

I was feeling pretty tough for having worked 3 hours in this weather--but you were out in it all day Sunday! My hat's off to you. You're a trooper.
User avatar
plectrudis
Teardrop Master
 
Posts: 117
Images: 98
Joined: Tue Mar 10, 2015 3:12 pm
Location: central Texas
Top

Re: Bear's Lair West Texas

Postby Nobes » Tue Jun 28, 2016 8:47 am

You mean my sterling prose isn't enough? I didn't hit that perfect mix of humor, pathos, and riveting storytelling?
I'm crushed.

Almost done. I will try really really hard to get pix up before we leave Friday. Then more next week after the shake down trip.

Last night I installed the 2nd support rod and exterior rear handles. I went over the sides again and using a chisel I removed more drips and high spots. I added putty at various spots where water penetration might be likely or where wood was exposed. And, I glued up a blank to add to the back side of the hatch so it will rest on the deck. Actually, I glued up 2. The first one was made up of a few boards I had laying around, but it was a victim of that hole 'measure twice glue once' thing. So, I had to plane a piece of ash to 3/4, then rip it to 2.5", then cross cut to 63", then glue and clamp. Then clean up the mess from the planer. Today I will take it to final dimension and sand and stain it, then late this evening put some poly on it and install it Wednesday.

At the end of the night, after sitting in my 'pondering chair' a while (I don't remember which of you used that phrase, but it's great) and with a little encouragement from the lovely and gracious Mrs. Nobes, I decided where the weatherstripping will go. My problem is once again craftsmanship: the gap at the top of the hatch is wider than the gap at the bottom. I am going to install 2 layers at the top/larger gap. No idea if that will work, frankly I have my doubts, but I will try. If it doesn't, well I will figure that out then. I install that tonight, followed by the locks. I still need to put one more set of hooks in the cabin for hang up clothes.

Tomorrow morning I will get up early to paint some fiberglass resin on the sides and a few other spots one last time, and Wednesday night The Bear's Lair gets a test drive.
Nobes
Teardrop Master
 
Posts: 214
Images: 508
Joined: Sun Dec 20, 2015 5:01 am
Top

Re: Bear's Lair West Texas

Postby Nobes » Wed Jun 29, 2016 9:54 am

I'm changing the name of this &^%$+@##$% thing to Frustration. It's turning into a boat. A land yacht. You know what a boat is, right? A hole in the water that you pour money in.

I got out of jury duty yesterday afternoon and headed home, thinking about hatch weather stripping. I passed an auto parts store, and quickly (but not dangerously, my company says SAFETY FIRST) turned around. I have previously mentioned that somehow I have a larger gap at the top of the hatch opening than the bottom. I know, how could that happen? Weird, right? Anyway, I was considering running a solid line of the weather strip I bought from Frank Bear, followed by a second layer along the larger gap. It's hard to imagine that would actually do the job. In the auto parts store I found some bigger stuff, made for water not dust like most of the stuff you see at Lowe's, so I bought it. $40.

I put it on and it sticks like crazy and it fills the big gap beautifully--but the bottom of the hatch won't close as well. It closes, but there's twice as much distance now from the exterior of the hatch to the edge of the galley wall.

Which means, of course, my locks don't work. Like I said, Frustration. My locks are 4.5" on one side and about 1.5" on the other with a hinge in between. Under the longer side is the locking mechanism. The idea is you screw the locking mechanism on the hatch door, the little side on the wall, and flip the long section over the lock and voila your hatch is secure. With the Frank Bear weather strip, I could just get screws into wall using the holes on the small side farthest from the hinge. Now, with the bigger gap, my cool chrome $8 lock doesn't fit at all.

So it was back to the store. Home Depot this time to see what they have. They have nothing that is big enough that looks good, so I bought a crappy zinc-plated hinged lock. It's about 3" on each side of the hinge with a slot and metal loop on one side. You screw the loop onto one side and the flat side of the hinged piece on the other side. The slot fits over the loop, you put a lock on the loop, and your door is locked. I bought 2 of them and 2 of the smallest locks I could find, then 2 blank electrical outlet covers to place below these ugly things to hopefully keep the locks from scratching the sides of the TD. I picked up some of the small D insulation as well to put in the roof portion of the hurricane hinge as recommended by Grant Whip. $50.

My local choices are Lowe's, Home Depot, Ace Hardware, and Tractor Supply. That's it. I have a gallon of black goo to return to Tractor Supply, so I went at lunch at found a zinc-plated hinge that is longer on both sides than the chrome one. If I am stuck with it long term, I can paint it black and it will look a little better. It is probably the best option so far. I likely can find something much better online, but it won't be here by Friday. So, the good news is this is only for the first trip, then I get to find something better, fill in holes, make more holes, SPEND MORE MONEY, and install something that will be good long term.

The last thing I did last night was go over the sides carefully and flag with tape each spot that needed touching up. I got up early this morning, before the West Texas heat machine got going, and added resin to all those places.

Theoretically, and I say that with great sarcasm, tonight I will put on locks and go for a test drive. That is, if I can find some couch money to put gas in the TV.
Nobes
Teardrop Master
 
Posts: 214
Images: 508
Joined: Sun Dec 20, 2015 5:01 am
Top

Re: Bear's Lair West Texas

Postby Nobes » Thu Jun 30, 2016 8:39 am

Oh my gosh it works!

I got the locks on last night--they actually only look half bad. Not ideal, but not terrible.

Only one little problem last night (imagine that): I finally punted on the support piece under the hatch. As you know general hatch construction is a curved box, mine is 2" thick, covered by plywood on both sides. On the inside the ply is flush with the box and on the outside the ply extends past the box on 3 sides to form 'wings' that cover the galley wall edges and the deck of the trailer. The bottom of the box is supposed to sit on the deck. The bottom of my box does not extend all the way to deck. When we put the hatch on, one of the guys helping me said it was 1-1.25 inches above the deck.

So, a day or 2 after hatch installation, I planed some ash to 3/4, cut 2 pieces to 2.5" x 63, and glued them together. The next day I cut them to finished length (shorter than the length of the entire 'box' because my closet rod hatch support was in the way--planning strikes again) and cut a bevel on one side that would match up to the curve of the hatch. Then I closed the hatch and peeked in to get a measurement on the thickness of this support piece I would need. I thought it was about 1.25", so I cut off a quarter, laid it on the deck and tried to close the hatch. Too thick. Long story short, I kept shaving and cutting until I was down to FIVE-EIGHTHS, and I thought it was good so I installed it.

Well, it was almost good. I ended up needing to shave the left side a bit more, so block plane to the rescue again. It was already screwed in, so I was going to do the planing in place. This of course required removing the screws--and the one I really needed to pull was totally stripped. Stinking soft SS screws. I ended up drilling out the head and a bit of the shaft. Planing the piece in place, overhead, was, well, not easy. After what I thought was a lot of planing, it still wouldn't close.

At that point, I decided to drill the screw all the way out and chunk the whole idea of a support piece under the hatch. Much consternation later the piece was off and I had scraped all (OK, almost all) the PL glue off the hatch as well. And the hatch closed just fine now. And I wasted a bunch of good wood. And a lot of time.

So, then I hooked it up to the truck, locked the passenger doors, and went for a test drive. I took it over to my son's house and the grandkids got in and walked around, which was awesome. Then I had my son drive it, as he has driven lots of trailers. He said it felt perfectly normal. Woo hoo!

Then the real test of the evening was whether I could back it into the garage. My driveway opens onto an alley, and right across the alley is a retaining wall for my neighbor's yard. So, I had to make two 90 degree turns (off the street, into the drive) in a very, very short space. Somehow I got it done. It took a while, but I was proud that I hit nothing with either the trailer or the truck. Well, I did 'nudge' the retaining wall a couple times with the front of the truck, but there was no damage, so I call that 'not a hit.'

Tonight I'm going to add some weather strip across the bottom wing of the hatch and tie the wiring down so it doesn't fall off the rear C-channel where it sits, and call it campable. We will set up our new 12x12 canopy to be sure we know how to do it, then start packing. 25 hours from right now we are on the road to Ruidoso, NM!
Nobes
Teardrop Master
 
Posts: 214
Images: 508
Joined: Sun Dec 20, 2015 5:01 am
Top

Re: Bear's Lair West Texas

Postby Nobes » Thu Jun 30, 2016 2:41 pm

Catching up on pictures...
142802
Wiring in front of trailer, to be hidden in the roof sandwich

142803
Funky wiring terminal on the cool tail lites I bought. I never could find a matching connector so I ended up cutting these off and soldering the wires into the hitch/harness wiring

142804
"great stuff" to fill in gaps in the roof. I bought the little red knife for $3 at dollar general since the lovely and gracious Mrs. Nobes said "Stop taking stuff out of my kitchen!" My left hand will testify that this knife is seriously sharp.

142805
It did a good job of trimming the great stuff

142806
The roof sandwich ended up a bit smaller than expected, so I had to trim the insulation some. Rather than sanding, I scraped it with the red knife and anything else I thought might work. I eventually made a big mess and got it to the right thickness.

143081
My redneck workshop, an 18x20 canopy in the back yard. The neighbors love me. Really.

143082

143084
Trying to put the roof on. We taped the 3 pieces together to try to get it on all at once, as the previous effort of doing it one piece at a time didn't work. This didn't work either.

143083
Dropped the ceiling pieces on the driveway to tape them together. Never saw this little guy. Poor thing.
Last edited by Nobes on Thu Jun 30, 2016 4:18 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Nobes
Teardrop Master
 
Posts: 214
Images: 508
Joined: Sun Dec 20, 2015 5:01 am
Top

Re: Bear's Lair West Texas

Postby Nobes » Thu Jun 30, 2016 2:44 pm

143086
...the other half of the lizard...hey relax! don't worry! That sanded right off and the board was saved.

143087
When roof installation failed, we ended up having to scrape all the PL glue off the boards

143085143088
Batt & batt box

143089
Roof installation take 3. First, wet down the spot that needs to curve.

143090
Then screw it down, and hope to fill in the screw holes. Large washers prevent the screws from ripping through the plywood. I, uh, sort of 'rented' the washers from Lowes. Bought 2 boxes, used them, took them back in perfectly good condition and got my money back. Yes, I am ashamed.

143091143092143093
Screws, weights, straps, and a buddy helped me get it all done.

143094143095143096
This was WAY harder than expected.
Last edited by Nobes on Thu Jun 30, 2016 4:19 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Nobes
Teardrop Master
 
Posts: 214
Images: 508
Joined: Sun Dec 20, 2015 5:01 am
Top

Re: Bear's Lair West Texas

Postby Nobes » Thu Jun 30, 2016 2:50 pm

143097143098
I left the screws and straps in/on for 48 hours

143099143100
After removing the screws, straps, and weight I filled in the screw holes, hoping to match the color of the wood. Missed it by THAT much. Fortunately, after glassing this looked less bad.

143101
Prep for glassing the roof. I didn't want to drip all over the sides. I don't have any shots of the glassing process, as it was incredibly hot and no one would come take pictures and I didn't want resin all over my phone and I needed 4-5 hands not just 2 anyway...but later I have shots of the finished product. It turns out this draping was not a good idea, or I didn't do it right, because I got a resin line at the tape line.

143102143103
Batt box interior frame and placement of stuff in the box. I have since added a battery charger and the pigtail so I can plug into regular house current.

143104143105143109
Routing a curve over the wheels involved making a pattern, clamping it to the wall, routing, and a little sanding. Later I applied black goo to the edge facing the ground and the back side of the wall.

143106143107143111143112
Trim in the cabin

143108
Roof is glassed, tongue board in place, batt box in place
Nobes
Teardrop Master
 
Posts: 214
Images: 508
Joined: Sun Dec 20, 2015 5:01 am
Top

Re: Bear's Lair West Texas

Postby Nobes » Thu Jun 30, 2016 3:03 pm

143110
Rookie glasser. I thought the line where the glass cloth 5" trim overlapped on the roof and where it stopped on the side would 'disappear' like the rest of the glass. Nope. I might can disappear this with extreme sanding and reapplication of several layers of resin, or by adding trim to cover it. We will sit in the pondering chair and think about that for a while.

143113143114
Routing out the spot for the roof vent. Note the tape on the router base. I came up with this little trick after scratching up my glass while routing out the door openings.

143115
Trimming the roof vent inner trim 'ring.'

143116143117
Roof vent in place, wired, and it works!

143118
Galley is in place. This will be re-done at some point late summer/early fall. The 1/2" countertop just doesn't work, the drawers left too much space between them and 1/4" facing doesn't work, the vertical supports are ugly/done wrong/leave too much space at the bottom, the top shelf supports are ugly, the top shelf was just a scrap of 3/4. Overall I like the general look (drawers, wine rack, cooler spot, upper shelf) but it just needs to be done better.

143119143123143122
Some of the goodies purchased and made by the lovely and gracious Mrs. Nobes. More pix on this later.

143124143125143126
Door install. Inner trim ring first (should have waited to put the mattress in until AFTER this step), putty tape on door, insert door. Easy and looks great.

143127143128
Hatch installation. First go-round, I had the hatch portion of the hurricane hinge backwards. Which meant lots of excess putty.

143132143130143131
Hurricane hinge/hatch installation was explained in probably too much detail elsewhere. In the end it looked good, after this I just had to figure out weather stripping.
Last edited by Nobes on Thu Jun 30, 2016 3:26 pm, edited 2 times in total.
Nobes
Teardrop Master
 
Posts: 214
Images: 508
Joined: Sun Dec 20, 2015 5:01 am
Top

Re: Bear's Lair West Texas

Postby Nobes » Thu Jun 30, 2016 3:07 pm

143133
More hatch installation

143134143135
The cool tail lights finally work.

143120143136143141
143142143143143144
"closet rod" hatch support works pretty good. I was glad my bevels came out right on the first cut. I am curious to see the total costs--2 dowels, 2 sets of closet rod holders, 4 pins--I wonder how this will compare to the springs/gas struts? Just a guess, but I bet this rig cost at least $50. Note the left hand dowel mounted on the cabinet because putting it on the floor would not allow the drawers to open. One consideration for the galley re-design is to put the wine rack on the left and the drawers center to allow the rods to match. But, I think it would look funny to have the little wine rack not in the center. More stuff for the pondering chair.

That was one of the frustrations. Every time I turned around I was spending $50 on something.

143138
With thicker weather stripping, the planned hatch latches wouldn't work, so I found these cool chrome things. Unfortunately they didn't work either.

143137143140143139
I had already cut holes for the hatch latches, and had to figure out a way to cover up the holes. Cool drawer handles and a piece of wood taken from the roof vent cutout did the job.
Last edited by Nobes on Thu Jun 30, 2016 4:34 pm, edited 2 times in total.
Nobes
Teardrop Master
 
Posts: 214
Images: 508
Joined: Sun Dec 20, 2015 5:01 am
Top

PreviousNext

Return to Build Journals

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 20 guests