4X8(ish) Benroy Build

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

Re: 4X8(ish) Benroy Build

Postby Wobbly Wheels » Fri Feb 26, 2016 1:10 am

Vedette wrote:We need you guys in our "Camping Circle" ;)
Let's make 2016 the Camping Year it should be.


Thanks for the boost, Brian !
I'm looking forward to camping with you guys too and am all about putting some miles under the trailer this year.

Didn't get anything done tonight - there was a fender bender snarling up traffic on the way home so I decided to wait it out at a buddy's place and one thing led to another. :beer:
Tomorrow night I'll get the tongue box re-installed so I can get the freshly gelcoated battery tray put back in and get the batteries in for good.
Probably...
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Re: 4X8(ish) Benroy Build

Postby Vedette » Fri Feb 26, 2016 1:40 am

Funny, I would have been finishing my Battery Box today too.........but, got distracted by a customers project.
We actually rockguarded and painted outside today. 8)
Brian
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Re: 4X8(ish) Benroy Build

Postby Wobbly Wheels » Fri Feb 26, 2016 8:41 am

Painting already ?
Wow, you have been a busy beaver...ER...welder.
Good job !
Did you go with that green on green you were looking at ?
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Re: 4X8(ish) Benroy Build

Postby Vedette » Fri Feb 26, 2016 11:53 am

Sorry to get your hopes up Brian :NC
The Rockguard and paint that was applied yesterday was on a Customer's 53 Merc PU. I worked all day yesterday on it instead of Kermit. :cry:
Now, we still have one more day of sunshine 8) so I will be painting on the Merc today too!
And it is also Friday :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer:
So won't get back to Kermit until tomorrow.
And it is far from the paint stage. :oops: Have not picked the greens yet!
I like the color Doug Hodder has painted his new trailer!
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Brian & Sandi
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viewtopic.php?f=50&t=50912
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Re: 4X8(ish) Benroy Build

Postby Wobbly Wheels » Sat Feb 27, 2016 11:17 am

a Customer's 53 Merc PU


Nice !
Care to share a pic ?

I'll check out Doug's latest :thumbsup:
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Re: 4X8(ish) Benroy Build

Postby Vedette » Sat Feb 27, 2016 11:38 am

Had planned to download pictures last night (get ready for another Build Journal update.) as mine always come in batches. :oops:
Brian
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I will email you pictures of the Merc. when I get them off of the camera.
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Re: 4X8(ish) Benroy Build

Postby Wobbly Wheels » Sun Feb 28, 2016 4:39 pm

You're talking about Doug's MobilGlide...
I think we should all band together and petition to boot him off the forum: his work makes everyone else's pale in comparison :lol:
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Re: 4X8(ish) Benroy Build

Postby Wobbly Wheels » Sun Apr 24, 2016 8:38 pm

Been a while since the last update so I'll stick a pin into where I am now:

I wanted to sides of the galley hatch to be solid glass rather than the sealed edges of the luan I used as core under the glass sheathing. I started by laying some tape-covered strips of doorskin along the edge of the wall where the hatch edge would land. Then I ground away the glass and the outer of two levels of coring, leaving a single 1/8" thickness to maintain the new edge's shape.
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I feathered the cut edge back to make it easier to fair in and to provide plenty of surface for the glass to bond to.
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The layup I used was to start with a 6" wide strip of 3/4 oz mat to wrap up and over the feathered edge, then a 2" strip of 18oz roving and another mat, then a 4" strip of roving and the final mat. A handy trick when cutting roving is to pull out a single yarn to give you a straight edge to follow. That way, you don't have to make sure your warp and weft are square to each other before you cut...just follow the line.
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It's pretty tough to take pics while glassing so here is what that glass looks like after it's cured.
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I have since rough-trimmed the edges and will make it totally flush to the sidewall when I am getting ready for paint. For painting, I'm leaning toward a deck paint I saw recently in Benjamin Moore. It's a high build latex deck paint intended specifically for fiberglass decks, which is essentially what I have. I will do the walls first to make sure it'll stick on the vertical without sagging (despite what the guy at the store said!)

I finally picked up the 12" wheels so that I can do the fenders. I was concerned about the clearance between the front of the fender and the edge of the door but it was just me worrying needlessly: there's plenty of room with the bigger wheels. I also intend to flip the axle under the springs so that's me fretting a problem that doesn't exist. I also have the clearance I need between the inside of the tire and the sidewall.
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I got the starboard door flange in and faired as well, though not glassed yet.
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There is a 1" lip along the top and sides and 2" along the bottom to keep the mattress dry from any errant water that may try to get in without being high enough to pinch the back of your leg when you're sitting on the mattress (I picked up a 4" queen size memory foam to cut down)
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A gov't trailer came into work recently that needed a new tongue jack because the mounting plate was distorted from being overloaded. I had the thing kicking around my bench before tossing it into the scrap bin and had a eureka(!) moment while pondering what I was going to do for a tongue jack. I don't really have enough room to use an off-the-shelf jack, so I was going to use an automotive scissor jack for the time being. Then it occurred to me: take of the mounting plat and mount this to the tongue box as a jack ! I will have to add some reinforcement to carry the load and space it out from the box to be able to open the lid, but I sized it up and it ought to work.
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I also picked up the tail lights and a roll of 4-wire. For now I have a couple of 4" stop/turn/tail lights, which is all that's required for this size trailer under local laws. I will however be pre-wiring for marker and clearance lights and for a third brake light. All of the wiring will run into a junction box so I can hook up the circuits as I add the lights.
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The license plate light is just in front of the left light. In hindsight, I wish I had used them for the under-cabinet lighting. I am still wiring for courtesy lights under the doors and I will definitely use these given how bright they are.

That's about it - the galley is painted and the gas springs are in, though I might tweak them a bit more before locking them down for good. The cabin is mostly insulated and I am about to start glassing up the fenders. I got the profile for them mapped out on cardboard today.
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Re: 4X8(ish) Benroy Build

Postby KCStudly » Sun Apr 24, 2016 9:03 pm

Good to see you're making progress. :thumbsup:

Do you plan on fairing the mat texture before paint, or are you going to leave it?

I'm not sure how to decide what products to use on mine. Seems I get plenty of suggestions but no clear single answer. Could be epoxy fairing filler, high build primer, gel coat, etc.
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Re: 4X8(ish) Benroy Build

Postby Wobbly Wheels » Sun Apr 24, 2016 10:14 pm

Thx for checking in KC, always glad to have you aboard.

I will have to do some test pieces when I pick up the deck paint I'm going to use. I will definitely have to do some fairing, no question...but I'm not looking for a showroom finish either. It will be smoother than what the pics show but the branches won't care as they scrape across it. What I have done already is with autobody filler and it's working pretty well for me. It has a short pot life compared to resin and you need to rough it out with a rasp while it's green so it limits how much you can do at once, but for cost and ease of use it's pretty good. I will probably drag a skim coat of filler over most of the body and let the deck paint fill the rest.

For fairing your epoxy layup, personally I would probably just use resin and microballoons as filler: you know it's compatible, you already have it on hand, and you've already paid for the learning curve. I mentioned in another thread, but West just did some testing applying poly gelcoat over epoxy resin - it's in the latest Epoxyworks. One of the nice things about gelcoat is that it's thick enough that you can maintain it over time. It can be repeatedly cut polished, is easily touched up and is generally a pretty tough coating once it's fully cured. I'm always impressed with what our detailer can do with the pitted, oxidized gelcoat on an old hull.

But paint is pretty easy to live with too...

Agonizing over those decisions is all part of the process though - that's why we have a 'pondering chair'...
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Re: 4X8(ish) Benroy Build

Postby vigilant1 » Tue May 10, 2016 8:02 pm

W2,
I'm enjoying plowing through your write-ups on both of your builds--not don yet, tough. A quick aside: I'm considering a foam standy and what type of exterior skin might be 1) economical, 2) rot-resistant 3) easy to construct 4) tough enough to take the abuse that trailers sometimes get (branches, errant baseballs, etc). I'd have thought fiberglass/epoxy alone might require something like 18 oz biax for local impact toughness, but it looks like you used an exterior significantly thinner than that for your standee. Did it seem to be enough? I've been thinking if I use only 6oz FG (biax stitched)/epoxy laminate I'd need to back it up with thin plywood (and probably soak the ply in "the mix" or thinned epoxy to give it a fighting chance against water/rot). Thoughts/recommendations? Plywood does have the advantage of providing a nice surface for laying everything out, holding the occasional screw, etc. But "no wood" would have undeniable attractions, too. Thanks.

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Re: 4X8(ish) Benroy Build

Postby Wobbly Wheels » Wed May 11, 2016 12:45 am

Hey vigilant, thanks for following along and welcome to the party !
I'm flattered you're wasting your time on my rambling :lol: .

The foam project definitely showed me a few things....
I went with 6oz cloth on the exterior with the thought of another layer of 6oz afterward if I figured it was warranted. I was also thinking of a hard shell paint like bedliner or deck paint that would absorb some of the abuse. It certainly wouldn't hurt to use thin ply to give it some puncture resistance. One of my design considerations was to keep the weight to a bare minimum to be able to tow with my 4 cyl Ranger, so I compromised some puncture resistance in the name of weight. That being said, for dragging around on logging roads (its intended use), I was happy with the thickness of the shell. If one were to do any significant bushwacking with it though, the ply would probably be a better way to go. My current build will likely see that, hence the more robust build. I did use some 12oz uni where I needed it, most notably on the two roof stringers with good results.

My panels got knocked around a bit in storage and during the move, but I don't remember seeing any punctures.

If you do go the plywood route I wouldn't soak it with the mix, personally - I would rather encapsulate it with epoxy to be sure of compatibility. If you use a slow hardener, you can warm up batches and substrate to penetrate the wood better, though it will shorten the pot life. Check with your resin manufacturer, but you can generally thin mixed resins to about 10% with acetone (maybe xylene too?) for better penetration. I wouldn't mess with the chemistry during layup though. I don't have a problem with wood...so long as it's encapsulated (including screw penetrations and hole edges)
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Re: 4X8(ish) Benroy Build

Postby vigilant1 » Thu May 12, 2016 2:18 pm

Wobbly Wheels wrote:I went with 6oz cloth on the exterior with the thought of another layer of 6oz afterward if I figured it was warranted. I was also thinking of a hard shell paint like bedliner or deck paint that would absorb some of the abuse.


And, of course, thicker FG=more epoxy=more cost (as well as weight). Whether I use plywood as a "backer" or not, I'm considering vacuum-bagging the walls against a very smooth surface (?laminate?) to get the FG "squished down" so the epoxy fills the weave, reducing sanding/filling. If I do that, it means the wall/roof edges/corners will be tapes done as open layups. Right now I'm planning to do that without regard to neatness/fairing, smoothness/etc and just use some sort of pebbly/rubberized coating on those corners to cover the layup, provide "acccent stripes. and also a bit of rub-resistance (as you mentioned).

Wobbly Wheels wrote:If you do go the plywood route I wouldn't soak it with the mix, personally - I would rather encapsulate it with epoxy to be sure of compatibility. If you use a slow hardener, you can warm up batches and substrate to penetrate the wood better, though it will shorten the pot life. Check with your resin manufacturer, but you can generally thin mixed resins to about 10% with acetone (maybe xylene too?) for better penetration. I wouldn't mess with the chemistry during layup though. I don't have a problem with wood...so long as it's encapsulated (including screw penetrations and hole edges)
Thanks, that makes sense. I'll probably do some tests to assure the plywood glue isn't adversely affected by any solvent I add to the epoxy, and also to see just how much water the plywood will absorb after being treated with thinned epoxy like this. I'm sure somebody here has probably already been down that road, I'll keep looking.

I'd love to end up with a small-ish, well-insulated "standee" with a few of the frills (small shower, porta-pot, kitchen essentials) with an empty weight under 1700 lbs. But even if it ends up heavier, it would still be a fun project.

Sorry for the detour from your thread, thanks for the information (and inspiration).

Mark
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Re: 4X8(ish) Benroy Build

Postby Wobbly Wheels » Thu May 12, 2016 2:34 pm

No sweat Mark.

BTW, laminate makes a great layup table - it's commonly used in production building. Polish it with some beeswax before you start and you'll get the smooth finish you're looking for, especially if you're bagging it.

I'll keep an eye open for your build thread :thumbsup:
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